Robert Harris may not be a household name, but he is well known to the movie community as a leader in the field of film restoration. It is through his efforts we now have restored versions of Vertigo, Rear Window, Lawrence of Arabia, etc.
Over the past several years he has been a contributor to my favorite DVD site, hometheaterforum.com. Occasionally he will spotlight a DVD release that he feels is worthy of mention and praise.
This morning he had this to say about the advance copy of Chan Volume 1 he received:
"Fox has put quite a bit of time and effort in cleaning up their Chan films, and the results are very positive.
For the uninitiated, many of the original negatives were either destoryed or damaged, along with whatever dupe materials that existed at the time.
What this means is that the films have not looked good in many, many years.
The image quality on the new discs is a major step forward, which will only be obvious to those who have seen the old elements.
One of my early jobs in the industry was creating an archaeology of the entire Chan series, tracking film elements, rights, etc., so finally seeing these wonderfully entertaining films about the life of the brilliant "Swedish" detective is extremely welcome.
The films in Volume One... Egypt, London, Paris and Shanghai, four of sixteen Chan films starring Mr. Oland, represent his work toward the middle of the series, and are essential Chan.
Oddly typecast as Chinese, Mr. Oland also played Dr. Fu Manchu.
Oddly typecast as Jewish, Mr. Oland also played the role of Al Jolson's father, Cantor Rabinowitz in The Jazz Singer (1927).
My two favorite performances in his long list of characters are that of Henry Chang in Shanghai Express, and Dr. Yogami in Werewolf of London.
My one negative comment about the series, is that Fox should have gone with slim cases and at least two films on each disc for the shorter films. Rather than a large four disc boxed set, this initial offering could easily have in a single case holding two discs.
Other than the space issue, the set comes very recommended. The pure entertainment value of these films has not deminished over the decades."
The Scarlet Street website has had similarly positive things to say about this (credit to Dr. Humbug for pointing this out on Kurt's board).
You can imagine - I know you can - how "antsy" I am getting as the 20th approaches. We've know definitively now for about 3 months that Fox was releasing the 1st volume in this fantastic series, but it seems like so much longer. 12 days and counting til I will be keeping my eyes peeled for each mail delivery.
"Thank you so much" for offering us this early review. Yes, the big day is nearly upon us, and, I suspect that we will not be disappointed with the quality of the restored movies.
Yes, Roy is quite correct. For reasons that aren't all that clear, Fox lost the US and Canada rights to CAMEL to Warner Brothers.
The good news is that Warners has publically stated that they intend to release CAMEL and the Monograms that they own in the future. No date was specified, but it will probably be within the next 12 to 24 months. These titles need some restoration to make a DVD release look good.
