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Author
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Topic: The Right Stuff Special Edition
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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God
![](/ubbmembers/1401a.jpg)
Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 06-12-2003 05:42 PM
Bill,
I got "GIANT", "THE RIGHT STUFF" and "BOBIN HOOD, PRINCE OF THIEVES" last Tuesday. I watched the first half of "GIANT" last night and noticed the color was not as vibrant as I remember it was when I saw it during it's premiere engagement in 1956 when I was still in high school. I am not too sure how Warner Brothers preserved their films but they most likely did not use the seperation film method judging from what I had seen last night. Unlike "BATTLE CRY" I watched several weeks ago, "GIANT" did not look as bad as the war film and I can see some effort was made to restore the film because there were some scenes that looked very nice. The picture contrast however was excellent. There has been a debate for years regarding the soundtrack. Many had stated that there were a limited amount of four track stereo mag prints in circulation during it's premiere engagement but others had insisted that "GIANT" was ony released in mono. Although my home town theatre, the Waipahu was equipped for four track mag, the print I saw was in mono. If there were stereo prints, the tracks must have been lost or discarded years ago because the stereo sound on the DVD is the same as the laserdisc, a pseudo stereo mix from a monaural soundtrack. I do know that by the fifties, sound enements were all seperate and why Warner Brothers could not create a new stereo track from these material is something I cannot understand. A classic example how wonderful a new stereo soundtrack mixed from the original sound elements can sound is the DVD of "THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI".
Getting back to "GIANT", no matter about it shortcomings, I am very happy to finally have it on DVD. I have not had the chance to watch "THE RIGHT STUFF" and "ROBIN HOOD" yet but I will do in in the next few days and post my comments here.
-Claude
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Paul Linfesty
Phenomenal Film Handler
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Posts: 1383
From: Bakersfield, CA, USA
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 06-12-2003 09:47 PM
In the early 60's, Jack Warner (or someone at the studio) made a penny-pinching decision to recycle (i.e., erase over) the magnetic masters of 50's film soundtracks, including stems and composite stereo masters. So, in some cases, the only remaining stereo soundtracks left were from mag-striped theatrical release prints that still survived (sometimes in the hands of private collectors, such as was the case with EAST OF EDEN). Magnetic stems of GIANT (stereo or not) may very well have suffered this fate.
In this particular period of time, Warner usually included the term Stereophonic Sound in the same typeset and size of Technicolor or WarnerColor (or whatever color). None of the ads I saw for GIANT ever included that, not even in NYC.
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