Bullets 'n' Babes

The Man Who Knew Too Much



Top: R1 original
Bottom: R1 Masterpiece Collection



































The new digital transfer has removed all the dirt and scratches that plagued the original master. The noise
reduction has been reduced and has resulted in a fine look. Colours are cooler and look much more natural.
Cropping isn't too bad but there are a few instances here and there. But the transfer has one big downfall that
can be seen in the above shots, edge enhancement. Some moron at Universal decided to sharpen the movie
giving it that artifical look that transfers like The Spy Who Loved Me ultimate edition and Die hard with a Vengeance
special edition are ruined by. One can only hope that if these titles hit HD, the edge enhancement will be fixed
because other than that this transfer is almost flawless.



Cropping:

There's one capture that shows the new transfer is missing some information during a particular shot.
The new transfer is overlapped onto the previous transfer.

They're both pretty bad, really. Old release is way soft, and the new release has mad EE.

New release is better but my god that's some EE.

The MC looks worse to my eyes.

It's cropped, crazily edge-enchanced (even I noticed this), and contrast-boosted (look at the white shirts of the orchestra).

The only positive is that it's cleaner, but at a helluva cost.

I'd keep the original release.

I've seen the original 1996 remastered print (which the original DVD is taken from) by Robert Harris and that looked like arse.

I would say the remaster is sourced from an HD transfert. But what with the crazy cropping ?

They could have made this one 2.35:1 no sweat.

It was filmed in Vistavision which is usually about 1.75.

And it looks like they've taken an "arse" print and made it worse.

Nice job Universal.

Thankfully it's not one of Hitch's better films.

Personally I curse this film for unleashing that god awful Doris Day song upon the world, Que Sera Sera.

EvaUnit02 wrote:Personally I curse this film for unleashing that god awful Doris Day upon the world, Que Sera Sera.

Eh? She was already famous by the time Hitchcock cast her in this!

Whoops, I missed out a word. I was talking about that song, Que Sera Sera.

Oh I'm with you on that then, any Doris Day song is a crime against god!

Does 1.75 inside an 1.75 frame excluding 30% of the picture count as a respectful transfert in regard to the original director's intent ?

Lol, that's harsh.

But yeah, I don't like that song either.

dvdvision wrote:Does 1.75 inside an 1.75 frame excluding 30% of the picture count as a respectful transfert in regard to the original director's intent ?

Obviously not.