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Reviews
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964)
This brings back very happy memories of my late teens.
The complete season one of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." that was released on Monday (3rd of August 2015), and delivered by the GPO today was a pleasant surprise when I opened up the 'box'. In my view most boxed sets are very badly designed and totally unacceptable. Without exception when I come across them I always put the disc's into spare storage cases and throw the unacceptable packaging away. However in this instance the spare triple and quad storage cases I had put to one side in advance of delivery of this set, in order to cater for no less than 7 discs, were not actually required.
The reason being that this box set is supplied in a proper DVD storage case (or box if you prefer), very much like the 6 disc DVD storage cases, despite this one being slightly narrower. Yet it caters for the 7 discs containing all 29 episodes of season one. There are 5 episodes on disc 2 and 4 episodes on all of the others, which of course gives us the complete first season.
Season one was, for the most part in B&W, however two episodes were filmed in colour as there were plans to turn them into feature films. They were the pilot episode "The Vulcan Affair", along with "The Double Affair". Both were actually broadcast on TV in B&W anyway. All subsequent seasons were in colour.
I sat through "The Vulcan Affair", this afternoon switching from 4:3 to full 16:9 modes. Eventually going back to 4:3. The entire collection has been digitally remastered, but the picture quality does show it's age a little. Still one has to make allowances for the time when the filming took place. Season one being transmitted in the USA, at least, in 1964/65. Sound is in Dolby Digital Mono in English with subtitles in English, French and German (along with English and German for the hearing impaired).
This all brings back very happy and fond memories of going out of my way to ensure that I never missed an episode of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.", on the BBC on a Thursday evening as it was one of my all time favourite TV shows when I was in my late teens. About the time that I started working for a living. It should be noted that I have not rated this collection yet as I've only watched the one episode thus far. I'll need to watch a few more before I decide on a rating, but there is already a plus 1 to be added just for the packaging of this collection.
Anyway if you will excuse me... the time has come to resume my catch up with a few more of Napoleon and Illya's attempts to bring the dastardly THRUSH rabble to account for their crimes.
Harvey (1950)
A unique role for James Stewart. A role he made all his own.
So here we are in 2015 looking back at an Oscar winning little gem from 1950. A film I remember watching on TV in the early 60's. A re-mastered version on Blu-ray no less. Released to mark the 100th anniversary of Universal Pictures. Do not be put off by any of the trailers you might have seen on YouTube, or anywhere else for that matter, where the picture is very blurred. Whoever is responsible for the re-mastering of this up-to-date version has done a very good job, especially when you take into consideration that it is now 65 years since it was first released on old film stock.
If you happen to have a multi-media Blu-ray drive in your PC, you will be pleasantly surprised, as I was, at the sharpness of the picture. Watching it on a HD TV the picture quality does drop slightly, but that is to be expected, especially when you are further away from the screen. There is no hint of any scratches or anything else untoward throughout the entire film. So all in all, a well deserved bonus to the rating is provided just for that. The sound has also been given the treatment and has been upgraded to DTS master audio/mono, but frankly that is personally not as important to me as the picture quality.
As to the film itself. We have James 'Jimmy' Stewart in the role of Elwood P. Dowd, that he stated he enjoyed playing on stage (from all accounts there was a 6 month run in London), before taking it to the silver screen. He also stated that it was his personal all time favourite film that he was involved with. It was certainly a unique role for Jimmy. A role that he made all his own and I for one cannot see anyone else filling his shoes in any kind of unjustified remake. A light hearted comedy of errors with a romantic twist to sit back and enjoy on a rainy Saturday or Sunday afternoon.
The Hunting Party (1971)
A New DVD Release Of The Hunting Party
I've just finished watching the most recent UK release on DVD. Released on the 20th April 2015. There are no bells and or whistles here. Thankfully from my perspective there are no time wasting extras. No pretentious and or condescending special features in other words, not even a trailer. Other than the feature itself all you have access to is the chapters, but then there is nothing special about doing that is there? This is actually a replacement for a copy that Amazon provided some while back. An import from Belgium or the Netherlands (I forget which off hand), where you could not toggle off the subtitles. You either watched it in French with English subtitles, or in English where one had to put up with the French subtitles. In this case there are no subtitles at all. The inclusion of English subtitles for the hard of hearing might have been a good idea, if nothing else, but even that is not an option here.
This particular version has something of a better quality picture than the imported version, which pleases this picture perfectionist no end, though it does show it's age a bit. One is making allowances for when it was made. As to the film itself. It's not the best western ever made, that's for sure; but it's not the worst that I've seen either. The worst western ever is The Gatling Gun, but that's another story for another time. The Hunting Party is not on a par with The Wild Bunch and a few others I could mention but will refrain from naming. Nevertheless I like the simplicity of it. The fact that Gene Hackman is present has resulted in my giving it a plus 1 bonus to my original rating of 6.
As a final footnote. Frank Calder and his men are described by some reviewers as a bunch of outlaws. This is not the case. They happen to be a group of gun-hands on their way to join a range war, as is clearly stated in the early stages of the film.
Red Snow (2009)
This is a French Feature Length Film - Not a Short.
This is a French feature length film with French actors playing the role of US soldiers. In short it provides automatic subtitles in English. It's running time is 106 minutes (1hr & 46mins). This is a story about a platoon of GI's stranded behind enemy lines in Europe in 1944, thanks to orders given to them by an incompetent Commanding Officer. It is claimed to be based on actual events. Frankly I would not like to say, one way, or the other, as to that. The film is all put together by one individual, David Aboucaya, who not only directed the film, he seemingly produced it, wrote it, composed the music and even dealt with the cinematography. It's original title was Red Snow, but the English subtitled version is known as "The Cross Roads". Why it was not simply called "The Crossroads", is a mystery.