In a post on Vera Cruz (1954) last June, I wrote: “I’d love to see Vera Cruz given a pie-in-the-sky Blu-Ray release, with proper attention given to its framing and night scenes. It’s certainly a film that deserves it.”
Doesn’t sound like it’s gonna be quite the end-all I was hoping for, but it is indeed coming on Blu-Ray — this June. The trailer will be included, and that’s it. I’m really dying to find out more about the new transfer on this one — the first picture released in SuperScope. (This may be the picture that prompts a good friend to make the switch to Blu-Ray.)
Also on its way on Blu-Ray (in May): John Ford’s The Horse Soldiers (1959). Starring John Wayne and William Holden, it’s a better picture than it gets credit for being. After a stuntman was killed on location, Ford lost his enthusiasm for the picture — but even watered-down Ford is better than about anything else. And William H. Clothier’s 1.66 Technicolor cinematography is, as always, top-notch.
This raises the total 50s Westerns Blu-Ray roster to four — The Searchers (1956) and Rio Bravo (1959) are also available.
Moving beyond the boundaries of this blog, The Comancheros (1961) will add another Wayne picture to the Blu-Ray format. Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In The West (1968) will hit Blu-Ray with restored and theatrical versions in one set. It’ll boast a 5.1 mix and (thankfully) the original mono track. Look for both of these in May.
Oddly enough I’ve been putting the finishing touches to a post on Vera Cruz – probably won’t be posted before the end of the week though – and I didn’t notice the framing being seriously compromised, but there is grain in evidence.
The R2 disc is 2:1, is the US disc framed that way or zommed in to 1.85?
The US DVD is a pretty straight 16:9 transfer, maybe closer to 1.78 than 1.85 or 2:1. It has no SuperScope logo on it, which makes me wonder if they “re-cropped” a full-frame source.
Really looking forward to your write-up on this one, Colin. It’s a fascinating film with an interesting history — it’s been a lot of fun to research — and everyone seems to take away something a little different from it.