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Glenn Erickson reports in his Tuesday, April 7 column that Kino Lorber will be releasing a Blu-Ray of John Sturges' THE SATAN BUG--
"Kino has its own end-of-the-world favorite coming out this summer (no date), a Blu-ray of John Sturges' 1965 bacteriological warfare spy chase film The Satan Bug. Disc-wise, this particular title was notorious for kicking the chair out from under the MGM Limited Edition Collection; fans spending a double sawbuck didn't like getting a flat-letterboxed DVD-R that looked worse than what could be seen compressed on TCM cable. TSB looked great in 35mm, with its clean, clear desert scenes, so my hopes are immediately UP. And there's the Jerry Goldsmith music, too."
--Glenn Erickson
Let's hope Kino Lorber have gone to the trouble and expense of remastering this under-rated gem for maximum effect in Blu-Ray. It's gotta be an improvement over the blah MGM Limited Edition DVD-R.
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I will definitely be looking into this!!! One of John Sturges' most underrated films! I'm glad I didn't get the M.G.M. Limited Edition D.V.D. (I still have my home made dual sided D.V.D.-R.).
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Doesn't it just kill you that utter crap is released on Blu-Ray looking as though it was shot yesterday while well done secondary efforts get less-than-perfect releases.
It's probably a given that Kino most likely won't give THE SATAN BUG the restoration it deserves, but it's got to be some improvement over the undernourished look and semi-distorted optical audio track that the MGM/UA DVD-R exhibits. (I'm more than a little surprised that the terrific 1956 Richard Widmark thriller RUN FOR THE SUN looks superb on it's MGM on-demand disk.)
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Posted: |
Apr 12, 2015 - 11:30 AM
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By: |
RoryR
(Member)
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Doesn't it just kill you that utter crap is released on Blu-Ray looking as though it was shot yesterday while well done secondary efforts get less-than-perfect releases.
It's probably a given that Kino most likely won't give THE SATAN BUG the restoration it deserves, but it's got to be some improvement over the undernourished look and semi-distorted optical audio track that the MGM/UA DVD-R exhibits. (I'm more than a little surprised that the terrific 1956 Richard Widmark thriller RUN FOR THE SUN looks superb on it's MGM on-demand disk.)
Well, what do you mean by "utter crap"? I ask rhetorically though because I've just thought of my own example: 1967's CAMELOT. As far as I'm concern this is one of the worst American musical films ever made, a true mediocrity backed up by the general consensus of most reviewers in its day and since, yet it has been lovingly restored by Warner Home Video and offered in two versions on Blu-ray, one an elaborate digibook that includes a CD of its songs. Why? Because despite what Leonard Maltin thinks of it (one and a half stars) it still has a lot of passionate fans, many of which are probably right here and about to ream me out for what I've just written, but enough fans so that Warner Home Video is confident that the money they spend to make the Blu-ray of CAMELOT look and sound excellent will be returned with profit. Why do others films not get this same treatment? Simple -- not enough fans.
By the way, film buff me, who remembers going to CAMELOT in 1967 and suffering through it then, bought the disc-only Blu-ray of it -- but I have yet to sit through the entire thing.
And one more thing.... I'm pretty sure THE SATAN BUG will look very nice on Blu-ray. The print may not look perfect, but it's going to look and sound better than it ever has before on home video, and I bought it way back on laserdisc, and that MOD DVD is nothing more than an anamorphic upscaling of that same laserdisc transfer.
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Posted: |
Apr 13, 2015 - 12:41 AM
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By: |
riotengine
(Member)
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I thought Duel At Diablo looked awful. If you're paying $25 bucks for a blu-ray, (almost a Twilight Time or Criterion price point) I think you should have an expectation that the movie's image quality not be on the level of a cheap public domain DVD.
Greg Espinoza
A cheap public domain DVD?!!!! Have you checked to see if maybe your TV screen is dirty? I haven't watched the entire movie yet -- because I consider it a summer drive-in type movie and am waiting to watch it on a hot evening -- but I just checked out a couple scenes and you're just being too picky. I doubt this movie could have looked much better than it does on Blu-ray now than when it actually played at drive-ins in 1966. Of course, a 4K scan of the original camera negatives and a full digital restoration would most probably yield a better transfer -- but for DUEL AT DIABLO? I doubt there's more than a couple thousand people in the country who even remember the movie! And the price drop probably means it's not selling. For me, I'm just grateful they used the original ad art for the cover. Anyway, here's a link to a review of the BD at Blu-ray.com -- a realistic assessment of the transfer.
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Duel-at-Diablo-Blu-ray/104005/
I should qualify that statement. Some scenes are so soft, they look like they came from a PD print. Some scenes are okay and watchable. STILL substandard for a freakin' blu-ray.
I have a 50-inch Vizio HDTV. The screen is clean, and it's calibrated properly. Did you not read what I said about subsequent K-L BDs I looked at? 
I read a lot of the reviews, and I can't believe a number of reviewers gave this disc a pass. I'm not the only person who's complained about how the disc looks, either.
That said, I hope we get a decent blu-ray of Satan Bug.
Greg Espinoza
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Greg,
I warned you about about BR reviews.
The people who review these things almost
always say the "transfer is pristine"
Remember< they get these discs free and review them (in most cases) without compensation.
In other words, dummy, they are not going to bite the hand that feeds them by complaining about lousy transfers>
And, that's assuming they even have the expertise to tell good from bad.
Just wait awhile and see what fellow purchasers have to say.
And stop whining, dammitt!
b
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I just saw Maharis on that awful 70's tv version of SHAFT.
my, oh my
He looked like Liberace in a business suit
brm
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Giving this one a bump on the occasion of DVD Beaver's review of the forthcoming Blu-Ray.
Based on the screen caps in the review, it looks as though justice has finally been done to this overlooked Sturges thriller. The comparison with the ghastly MGM/UA mod DVD is striking, with the added sharpness and accuracy of color just mouthwatering.
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-ray_reviews_68/the_satan_bug_blu-ray.htm
Gonna have to see whether there is a noticeable improvement in the borderline terrible audio track that "graced' the SD MOD version.
I'll be looking forward to this in the mail in a couple of weeks.
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In fact, some of the first wave of K-L blu-rays are on sale at $12.49.
