Chimes at Midnight & Too Much Johnson on Blu-ray

[atcolomb]

Have below from Blu-ray.com on a blu-ray release of Chimes at Midnight & Too Much Johnson:

"British distributors Mr. Bongo have announced the release of a brand new restored 50th Anniversary Blu-ray Edition of Orson Welles' masterpiece Falsraff Chimes at Midnight. Also included on it will be Too Much Johnson".

"Full announcement: "One of the most radical and groundbreaking of all Shakespeare adaptations, Chimes at Midnight was Orson Welles' favorite of his films and will be in cinemas from 1 May 2015 as part of the 100 years of Orson Welles celebrations. This will be followed by a DVD and Blu-ray release on 29 June 2015 alongside the first UK release of Welles' debut feature Too Much Johnson which was amazingly rediscovered and restored in the last decade, the superb Immortal Story starring Jeanne Moreau and Orson Welles and the gripping thriller The Stranger, the first film after World War II to show footage of concentration camps starring Edward G Robinson, Orson Welles and Loretta Young."

[Wich2]

>Welles' debut feature Too Much Johnson<

"Debut"? Wasn't that HEARTS OF AGE?

"Feature"? Wasn't that CITIZEN KANE?

[atcolomb]

From Blu-ray.com upcoming Mr. Bongo releases:

British distributors Mr. Bongo have dated and detailed their upcoming Blu-ray release of Orson Welles' Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight (1965), Too Much Johnson (1938), and The Stranger (1946).

Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight

For the 50th anniversary edition of Chimes At Midnight, Mr. Bongo worked with Luciano Berriatúa at Filmoteca in Madrid. The restoration has been undertaken with utmost respect for Welles' original vision of the movie, and is not based on providing a quality of picture and sound according to the standard of current technologies (attempting to better what Welles filmed in the sixties), but to recover the film so that the viewer can experience the movie the same way they could watch it at the time.

On the brink of Civil War, King Henry IV (John Gielgud) attempts to consolidate his reign while fretting with unease over his sons seeming neglect of his royal duties. Hal (Keith Baxter), the young Prince, openly consorts with Sir John Falstaff (Orson Welles) and his company of Diana's foresters, Gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon . Hal's friendship with the fat knight substitutes for his estrangement from his father. Both Falstaff and the King are old and tired; both rely on Hal for comfort in their final years, while the young Prince, the future Henry V, nurtures his own ambitions.

Orson Welles considered Chimes at Midnight his personal favorite of all his films. Perhaps the most radical and ground-breaking of all Shakespeare adaptations, the film condenses the Bard's Henriad cycle into a single focused narrative. Its international cast comprises of Jeanne Moreau, Fernando Rey, Margaret Rutherford, and Ralph Richardson as the narrator, in addition to Welles and Gielgud. The film's harrowing war scenes have proven especially influential, cited in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V as well as Mel Gibson's Braveheart.

STREET DATE: JUNE 29.

Too Much Johnson

Shot in 1938 Too Much Johnson was Welles first feature, the film that helped him hone his craft and led him to create to the masterpiece that is Citizen Kane. The footage was presumed destroyed in a fire in Welles home in 1971 but was recently rediscovered in Italy and the restored 66 mins version makes its UK Blu-ray/DVD debut.

Too Much Johnson is an elaborate 1890s farce of mistaken identity. Cuckolded husband Dathis (Edgar Barrier) is on the tale of a man named Billings (Joseph Cotten), who has been having an affair with Dathiss wife (Arlene Francis). Billings flees by ship to Cuba, where now also hiding from his own wife (Ruth Ford) and mother-in-law (Mary), he adopts the identity of a plantation owner named Johnson, who is expecting a mail-order bride. Orson Welles plays a Keystone Kop.

STREET DATE: JUNE 29.

The Stranger

Based on Victor Travias Oscar nominated original story, The Stranger earned Orson Welles a nomination at the Venice Film Festival. The first film after World War II to show footage of concentration camps, this restored classic noir stars Edward G Robinson, Orson Welles and Loretta Young.

Mr Wilson (Edward G Robinson) of the War Crimes Commission is seeking Nazi war criminal and architect of the Holocaust Franz Kindler (Orson Welles). Erasing all evidence of his past, Kindler is now Charles Rankin, a high school teacher married to the headmasters daughter Mary Longstreet (Loretta Young). In order to entrap Kindler, Wilson releases his former comrade Meinike (Konstantin Shayne) from prison and follows him to Connecticut. With the arrival of his ex-Nazi comrade and his wifes growing suspicion, Kindler knows that his past is catching up with him and will go to any lengths to prevent his identity being revealed.

Special Features: •Original Theatrical Trailer
•Image Gallery
•Orson Welles Wartime radio. Four complete programmes exemplify Welles blending of propaganda and entertainment: Alameda (Nazi eyes on Canada 1942), War workers: (Ceiling Unlimited 1942), Brazil (Hello Americans 1942), Bikini Atomic test (Orson Welles Commentaries 1946).
STREET DATE: JUNE 29.

The Immortal Story

Orson Welles' second-to-last feature, The Immortal Story is an adaptation of a book by Danish author Isak Dinesen and stars Jeanne Moreau.

The year is 1860 in the Portuguese colony of Macao, Mr. Clay (Welles) is an aging, rich merchant, who is the subject of town gossip. He likes his clerk Levinsky (Roger Coggio), to read to him to help him relax in the evenings and one night he recounts a tale about a rich man who paid a poor sailor five guineas to father a child with his beautiful young wife. Mr. Clay has no wife and no heir to his fortune and resolves to make the story true... Levinsky approaches Virginie Ducrot (Moreau), another clerk's mistress, and strikes a bargain for 300 guineas. Now to find the sailor... DVD ONLY.

[tonyw]

I first saw THE IMMORTAL STORY at the long demolished Manchester Film Theatre on Oxford Road in a beautiful 35mm print. None of the DVDs' seen so far matched its visual quality so I hope that one day a future release will but not just on Blu-ray.

[atcolomb]

The only way so far i have seen The Immortal Story is when it was broadcast on TCM and the print did look good to me.

[tonyw]

Probably, that was from the original 35mm. I've only seen a hideous VHS copy and not-so-satisfactory DVD but the film cries out for better reproduction.

[mido505]

Here is the trailer for the Mr. Bongo restoration of CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT. Looks tremendous. https://youtu.be/1qRoyUcOi4E

[atcolomb]

Here is another link at Blu-ray.com and it does look very good indeed. http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=16709

[tonyw]

My DVD has Japanese subtitles vertically on the right frame. I hope it is standard DVD as well as Blu-Ray?

[atcolomb]

My first copy of Chimes was a bootleg from a Japanese laserdisc bought from Ebay close to 10 years ago and i did have it for awhile untill the Spanish dvd was released. Do not remember where the Japanese subtitles were but i do remember it was a poor looking copy of the film.

[Wellesnet]

Mr. Bongo talks ‘Chimes at Midnight,’ ‘Immortal Story’ and ‘Too Much Johnson’
http://www.wellesnet.com/mr-bongo-talks-chimes-at-midnight-immortal-story-and-too-much-johnson/

[Sir Bygber Brown]

That is quite a frustrating practice: releasing once with no extras and then loading a box-set up with extras for later this year? Is this a known practice for Mr. Bongo? Seems aimed at getting Welles faithful to shell out twice for the same product. When the box set is released, who will I sell my Chimes blu ray to? My mum won't want it.

[atcolomb]

I noticed that too and i hate buying twice for the same blu-ray movie because of extras or a "better" print was made. For Chimes i know Criterion will release it sometime in the future so i hope they will have some good extras on it.

[Sir Bygber Brown]

I don't know if any of you are members of the DVDBeaver mailing list, but some early adopters of the new Chimes blu ray have posted on there with awful news about the picture quality. Wait till the full DVDBeaver review to make your decision, but I'm waiting for Criterion next year now.

[A Sled in Flames]

I heard the upcoming Chimes disk is overly bright, giving the film a washed-out appearance. This would conform to what was shown on TCM-HD a few weeks ago and might be an issue with the restoration rather than Bongo. The online trailer for said restoration also looks too bright.

That all being said, once I reduced my TV's brightness setting to compensate, the TCM version looked fine. Hopefully, the disk will look all right with on-the-fly correction.