109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

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mfunk9786
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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#126 Post by mfunk9786 » Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:36 am

david hare's post above has some information on that.

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oldsheperd
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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#127 Post by oldsheperd » Tue Apr 17, 2018 2:45 pm

Happy for this release and the price is perfect!

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senseabove
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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#128 Post by senseabove » Tue Apr 17, 2018 5:50 pm

david hare wrote:I can't verify the 4K of Shanghai Express has the missing dialogue reinstated but one assumes it will.

If it isn't this is it:

CHANG. Explain to him if he does not tell the truth I'll have him shot.
LILY to LENARD (in French): He says if you don't tell the truth he will have you shot.
LENARD (In French) when I was in the army I committed a minor offence and I was discharged.
LILY: He has been discharged for a minor offence.
CHANG. THen why does he wear that uniform?
LILY. Why do you wear that uniform then?
LENARD. I'm going to see my sister and I dont wamt her to know I've been discharged. It would cause too much shame and sorrow.
LILY. HE is going to visit his sister and he doesn't want her to know about his disgrace.
I don't know the history of the cut or the vintage of the 35mm print I saw—though IIRC it looked fairly pristine—but when I saw it a few weeks ago it had this dialogue in it...

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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#129 Post by whaleallright » Thu Apr 19, 2018 3:23 pm

ethel wrote:The apparent absence of Jack Smith from the extras is concerning. I hope the overall impression of sober heteronormative academic analysis isn’t actually the whole story. Couldn’t they rope in John Waters, Charles Busch and Lypsinka for balance? Sheesh. The films are delirious, and the extras should ideally reflect this at some point. It’s not John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and Tom Hanks fans who’ve lit candles and kept shrines to these films for lo these 80 years.
I gotta agree with this. The centrality of Dietrich and these films in particular to the development of a camp sensibility—and all the gender fuckery the films include— is so important that it would be a major oversight not to make these things the subject of at least one of the "extras" on this set.

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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#130 Post by Tuco » Fri Apr 20, 2018 12:13 am

I swear that the last time I saw Shanghai Express on TCM (before Comcast bumped TCM to a more expensive tier), the missing dialog was, well, not missing. And that wasn't the first time I've heard/seen it. At any rate, so excited about this set. And not just because my wife won't be crabby about me "buying another fucking blu-ray" because she luuuuuuuuves Marlene.

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Roscoe
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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#131 Post by Roscoe » Fri Apr 20, 2018 8:51 am

The last time I watched it on TCM the dialogue about the French officer was missing. A pity.

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Feego
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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#132 Post by Feego » Fri Apr 20, 2018 9:16 pm

david hare wrote:I can't verify the 4K of Shanghai Express has the missing dialogue reinstated but one assumes it will.

If it isn't this is it:

CHANG. Explain to him if he does not tell the truth I'll have him shot.
LILY to LENARD (in French): He says if you don't tell the truth he will have you shot.
LENARD (In French) when I was in the army I committed a minor offence and I was discharged.
LILY: He has been discharged for a minor offence.
CHANG. THen why does he wear that uniform?
LILY. Why do you wear that uniform then?
LENARD. I'm going to see my sister and I dont wamt her to know I've been discharged. It would cause too much shame and sorrow.
LILY. HE is going to visit his sister and he doesn't want her to know about his disgrace.
Tuco wrote:I swear that the last time I saw Shanghai Express on TCM (before Comcast bumped TCM to a more expensive tier), the missing dialog was, well, not missing.
I just checked my DVD of Shanghai Express that was released by TCM in 2012. The lines I have bolded in David Hare's quote above are there, but the lines before that are missing. We hear Chang say, "Your passport says nothing about your military rank." Dietrich translates and the soldier answers, then there is a visible cut to Chang asking about the uniform. I saw no evidence of visual deterioration prior to the cut however. I'm pretty sure this is the version that has aired on TCM for the last several years.

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Fred Holywell
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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#133 Post by Fred Holywell » Fri Apr 20, 2018 9:43 pm

Here's the shot as seen on TCM last month:

"Shanghai Express" dialogue cut

The cut comes between Lenard's line in French about having resigned from the army, and Chang's line: "Then why does he wear that uniform?"

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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#134 Post by black&huge » Sat Apr 21, 2018 2:08 pm

With this mammoth being announced I hope an upgrade of the 3 silent classics box set isn't too far behind.

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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#135 Post by domino harvey » Fri Jun 01, 2018 12:27 pm


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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#136 Post by hearthesilence » Fri Jun 01, 2018 3:01 pm

Universal released a PAL DVD of Shanghai Express that's pretty good - surprised DVDBeaver didn't use it in their comparisons, and I have to say the new Criterion doesn't look all that different from it. (No surprise - I was under the impression that any radical improvement in PQ is very unlikely given the best available elements,)

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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#137 Post by domino harvey » Fri Jun 01, 2018 3:05 pm

I'm surprised that Shanghai Express only has one extra directly related to it. Those coming into this set blind would not be blamed for not realizing it's one of the most popular of the films

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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#138 Post by swo17 » Fri Jun 01, 2018 3:11 pm

One extra that's apparently just apologizing for its Orientalism no less

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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#139 Post by R0lf » Sat Jun 02, 2018 6:24 am

hearthesilence wrote:
Fri Jun 01, 2018 3:01 pm
Universal released a PAL DVD of Shanghai Express that's pretty good - surprised DVDBeaver didn't use it in their comparisons, and I have to say the new Criterion doesn't look all that different from it. (No surprise - I was under the impression that any radical improvement in PQ is very unlikely given the best available elements,)
I have the Universal PAL DVD releases of all these movies from the UK and the French blu ray release of BLONDE VENUS and the difference between the DVD and blu is night and day. The DVDs by any standard are not good. I can't imagine a scenario where the blu ray in motion won't be a radical improvement in PQ. We all know the difference between Beaver caps and how the final product will actually look on our TV!

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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#140 Post by hearthesilence » Sat Jun 02, 2018 11:50 am

That's good to hear. I'm definitely getting the set anyway - once I do, I'll be able to make a proper comparison.



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Lost Highway
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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#143 Post by Lost Highway » Tue Jun 05, 2018 7:15 pm

My favourite of the bunch and that looks lovely.

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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#144 Post by Marwood » Sat Jun 16, 2018 10:46 am

Has there been any confirmation regarding the cuts to Shanghai Express for this blu-ray? The beaver review does not seem to mention it at all…

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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#145 Post by Ashirg » Tue Jun 19, 2018 3:14 pm

Looks like this dialogue is still missing in the Criterion release -

CHANG. Explain to him if he does not tell the truth I'll have him shot.
LILY to LENARD (in French): He says if you don't tell the truth he will have you shot.
LENARD (In French) when I was in the army I committed a minor offence and I was discharged.
LILY: He has been discharged for a minor offence.

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Ashirg
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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#146 Post by Ashirg » Tue Jun 19, 2018 10:53 pm

Gary checked it and updated review at DVD Beaver.

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domino harvey
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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#147 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jun 21, 2018 2:06 am

Gary puts who wrote/captured the review at the bottom of the Comments box. Here it's credited to "Colin Zavitz and Gary Tooze"

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Roscoe
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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#148 Post by Roscoe » Thu Jun 28, 2018 4:54 pm

Might it also speak to the non-existence of the missing footage?

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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#149 Post by JAP » Fri Jul 06, 2018 6:47 am

Regarding a possible UK release
Jon Mulvaney wrote:To the best of my knowledge, the Dietrich/von Sternberg set isn't yet on the schedule to be released on Region B Blu-ray.
So, maybe?...

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Re: 109, 930-935 Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood

#150 Post by Yaanu » Fri Jul 06, 2018 5:06 pm

RogerEbert.com has published a review of the box set.
The best Criterion box sets like “Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project” and “Dekalog” serve as film classes that people can take at home. These are sets that you can spend days with, not just revisiting classic films but dissecting and learning about them in a way that makes not only these movies more interesting but can impact the way you view all cinema. This is one of the best Blu-ray box sets of the year.
Unfortunately, they don't give starred reviews to box sets of DVDs/BDs.

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