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And this from Nick Ray, out in April: Johnny Guitar

Not sure who's putting them out, but at the moment, I don't care - having them available on DVD is great in itself.

Johnny Guitar is to be released by Universal, according to amazon.uk

Johnny Guitar is so good that it hurts. I'm glad I'll finally have an alternative to the Brazilian disc I own, which is of pretty shoddy quality. The Godard titles sound great as well, although I unfortunately haven't seen either of them yet.

Anybody got Johnny Guitar yet and can please comment on the quality of the disc?

Use one of these appropriate links and it's only £5.99/$11.00: http://www.dvdbargain.net/ShowDisc.asp

I was sceptical about this release, but a friend informed me that the transfer is excellent and that it also has a Scorsese introduction. A no-brainer, for fans.

I can also vouch for the quality of this release, not stacked but heh! the image is excellent and at prices like that what are you waiting for...

Wonderful! I can't wait to revisit this favourite.

I ordered this a few days ago and am looking forward to its arrival. My first non-R1 DVD... figured this was a good one to break me in.

The transfer for "Johnny Guitar" is breathtaking...an overused word for me lately especially just fresh from viewing the "East of Eden" and "Rebel Without A Cause" sets which are just as incredible.

This is a fitting way to treat this classic...FINALLY !

filmfan wrote:The transfer for "Johnny Guitar" is breathtaking

Sorry, but did anyone else think of Elaine and Dr. Feffa in the Hamptons episode of Seinfeld when they read this?

So what's the real AR of this film? The disc is 1.37:1 (little black bar up the left) -- but various write-ups (at MoMA, etc) refer to the 'Scope photography?

Republic didn't make any Scope pictures until 1956. And besides, Johnny Guitar looks way too good at 1.37:1 to have been cropped so drastically.

The British "Johnny Guitar" disc is far from being great. In my opinion, it is a very bad DVD as you can see from my comparison with the German Kinowelt RC2.


Johnny Guitar
USA 1954, Nicholas Ray
Kinowelt Germany, RC2 PAL vs. Universal UK, RC2 PAL

4LOM wrote:The British "Johnny Guitar" disc is far from being great. In my opinion, it is a very bad DVD as you can see from my comparison with the German Kinowelt RC2.


Johnny Guitar
USA 1954, Nicholas Ray
Kinowelt Germany, RC2 PAL vs. Universal UK, RC2 PAL

Thank you for that information, 4LOM. That's the first time that i've even heard of the Kinowelt DVD. (German releases are very poorly promoted, they always pass me by) That's why i also bought the R2 GB version two weeks ago and have also been very delighted when watching it, the image didn't appear that soft on my TV.
After visiting your site i guess i also have to buy the Arthaus edition to be overwhelmed anew (and maybe even more) by this truly amazing movie.

http://www.efilmcritic.com/feature.php?feature=281

July 25
(*) Ask the Dust (Paramount)
Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story (Shout! Factory)
Bound (Paramount)
(*) Double Life, A (Paramount)
Final Destination 3 (New Line) (Director/Writer/Cinematographer Commentary/Deleted Scene/MUCH MORE)
(*) Force of Evil (Paramount)
Gods Sandbox (Indican)
(*) Hype! (Paramount)
(*) Johnny Guitar (Paramount)
Ladybugs (Paramount)
(*) Pursued (Paramount)
Somersault (Magnolia)

I just bought Force of Evil. Great news on Johnny Guitar, though. What do the asterisks mean?

I bet those Republic reissues will include the Martin Scorsese introductions like they did on VHS. Force of Evil, A Double Life, Pursued, and Johnny Guitar each had one.

Obviously I'm pleased.

It's about time this hit DVD. Now let's hope that the transfer and image is good.

Paramount have an excellent track record when it comes to superior transfers, but they're usually skimpy on bonus features. In this case things may prove different, their SE edition of Mommie Dearest is jam-packed with extra material, so maybe JG will have some to follow suit. Too bad they didn't secure a commentary track from Mercedes M. (~Emma Small) before she dropped dead...

A remastered edition of Pursued will be most appreciated. The previous transfer was awful. James Wong Howe deserves better, so hopefully Paramount will deliver a high-quality image.

Great to fianlly see a region 1 DVD of Johnny Guitar. The UK edition from Universal had the Scorsese intro, but the transfer was inferior to the German edition from Kinowelt, judging by Beaver's comparison. I'll definitely be checking the Beaver again before buying the Paramount.

Thanks, Alain.

Paramount is releasing a new edition in Spain on Nov. 14. It's listed 1.78 and if I'm not mistaken I remember seeing it close to 1.66. Who own this on R1?

davidhare wrote:I own a German R2 which is entirely serviceable. But the ratio is 1.33, and I have to say I've never seen JG in other other format. 1.78 would crop heads and is wildly out of line. So is 1.66 to my mind.

Thanks David. I now remember that Paramount announced a release over a year ago along other Republic titles. I believe we can expect a release soon in the R1 camp.

I don't know about the Spanish release, but I second David's recommendation of the German Paramount release. I own it too, and it is fine.

If you do end up losing patience with R1, then whatever you do, don't buy the UK release. I purchased that edition too a long time ago, when there were no other options (that I knew of), and it really has rather poor colors.

Gigi M. wrote:Paramount is releasing a new edition in Spain on Nov. 14. It's listed 1.78 and if I'm not mistaken I remember seeing it close to 1.66. Who own this on R1?

I opened the link and it says 1:33 aspect ratio. Maybe they corrected it. I've about given up on a R1 release. If I remember correctly dvdbeaver wasn't really wild about either the UK or German transfers. The German won by default. Apparently as a TruColor film, the colors should jump off the screen. But in both editions the colors look flat as a pancake. The UK edition tried to compensate by artificial means but they just made it look like everybody in the film had a sunburn. I guess many of the old Republic pictures are in rough shape.

Edit: Did some quick research on Johnny Guitar's TruColor and it was a two-strip process, not three-strip like Technicolor. Republic would only spring for Technicolor for big budget projects like The Quiet Man. Wikipedia says that TruColor is known for fading over time and that the last TruColor movie was the Richard Wagner biopic Magic Fire from 1956. But IMDB says it was the lumberjack yarn Spoilers of the Forest in 1957. I hope there is some kind of economically viable restorative process for the Republic films using TruColor. Perusing the list of TruColor films, very few have been released on dvd which doesn't bode well.

Scharphedin2 wrote:... but I second David's recommendation of the German Paramount release. I own it too, and it is fine.

The German release is from Kinowelt, not Paramount.