This Week's Aisle Seat - 4K UHD Premieres From 1776 to THE UNTOUCHABLES

[AndyDursin]

1776, THE UNTOUCHABLES on 4K UHD, plus EXTREME PREJUDICE and Imprint's new THE WARRIORS limited edition in this week's column:

https://andyfilm.com/2022/05/26/5-31-22 ... ouchables/

[Eric Paddon]

Andy I'm going through the "1776" release now. Naturally I checked out the LD cut bonus. If you can check your copy, I'd like you to confirm what I saw which is deterioration in the source element (betraying the fact they were using an old video master element) where the picture and sound distorts from 2:13:47 to 2:15:04. It's like watching an old videotape recording from the 70s suddenly distorting. It then clears up but its clear that this shows how the thirty year old LD source element has deteriorated in this one spot. Nonetheless if this is what we see on all copies, there should have been a warning.

[AndyDursin]

Yes it's there, that's pretty bad. Obviously the source master or whatever they used was damaged because even the commentary sound is a mess. Someone probably didn't check it but you're right they could have just put something like "this is the best source we could locate" or mentioned the fact there was damage. Even though a clean laserdisc copy would not have these issues!

[Eric Paddon]

Exactly. Most people with boot transfers of the LD in effect have "better" versions, though I noticed later that the commentary on this release has 30 seconds of additional comments by Joe Caps toward the end that were muted in the original LD release (he's just thanking by name other people who helped in the project so I don't know why that was the case then). The audio of the isolated score sans vocals sounds very good in that part of the commentary track too and thank goodness the bad spot doesn't happen during a musical number at least.

One thing though that came up on the FSM board. Joe Caps asked if his name was credited on the cover and he says that his contract with Columbia required them to put his name on the cover if the commentary were ever reissued. But I had to tell him his name is not on the cover or even the menu screen. I suspect he is now contacting his attorneys regarding this!