razorbackfan

The Thing From Another World 1951 special 50th anniversary edition is due to be released in August.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...roduct-details

Ok...released in 1951, it's 2003...wouldn't that make it the 52nd anniversary edition?

eXcentris

Maybe days on The Thing's world are longer.

dvd-4-life

Todays Sci Fi classics has The Thing from Another World and Day the Earth Stood Still too thank as trailblazers of that genre.

mikenyc

I haven't even see this title on Tv for a long time. It used to be on AMC, occasionally

whaaat

I think that it was pretty cynical of Warners to release this as a 50th anniversary VHS, but no DVD a couple of years back. Double dip, anyone?

Tigger

Does anyone else think this movie has some of the truest dialogue ever in a film?.. What I mean is, Hawks, Hecht, Lederer and Campbell wrote this script and did a masterful job of writing true discussion and situational dialogue. For it's time and even today, so few films write dialogue with numerous actors, timing their cues perfectly, overlapping dialogue as action is taking place. I marvel at this team of writers, coupled with Hawks & Nyby directing. All I can say is Thank God Turner didn't get his hands in to colorize this one.

razorbackfan

Trigger, that's one of the things I love about this film. The dialogue. Overlapping, the quips, the guys jabs at the Captain, it just seems how people in that situation would react and talk. I wish the DVD had more to offer than a trailer. I would love to see outtakes and behind the scene stuff, but since it was released in 1951, I guess all that was lost.

marty888

The dialogue is handled in the same manner in Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday which is actually a remake of The Front Page (believe it or not, with the sex changed for one of the two main characters!) that improved on the original. In fact, I would suspect that this was the biggest clue that Hawks had a firm hand in making The Thing.

buckee1

"The mind boggles...should'nt".

Tigger

Good point Marty! ... His Girl Friday has amazing dialogue as well. I can never get over the reporters and the roill-top desk scene. LOL

Tigger

RazorBackFan - Me too. One of the biggest letdowns in all of DVD is older movies not getting the same treatment as todays films. Meaning, the extras, the behind the scenes, Movietone News clips.. screen tests, premiere footage and so on. One of my favorite films, The Cincinnati Kid with Steve McQueen, isn't out on DVD. But on afternoon a year ago on TCM, they showed the film and after it had played, they showed a 10 minute short on preperation the actors took to learn how to handle cards. They showed Joan Blondell learning how to shuffle and perform various card tricks... it was awesome. But I guarantee it won't show up on the DVD. The footage is out there, have some assistant go in the back room and dig some stuff up.

shill66

Hasn't that old joke long-since outworn its welcome? Besides, I'm pretty sure he DID colorize it...

Ky-Fi

Can't wait for this one. That scene where the troops are all spreading out over the ice to get an idea of the shape and size of the craft underneath is one of the greatest moments in sci-fi cinema, IMO.

mwj

Is there going to be a commentary or any other bonus features?

gutwrencher

very pumped about this.

danol

I have a legal colorized VHS of the movie in subject with my HDTV I get the same size Industry standard but I don't have to look at black and white. I had to endre B & W televison until I was 17 in 1964 when color TV was starting.



Most of you were born into color not forced to watch crummy B & W like I was.
Stereo in TV came about in 1985 I had the first set top box decoder to hear Stereo TV, to you it's commonplace. I am 56 and I will not buy the black and white industry standard 1.33:1 DVD! I have 2 back up that I have never opened.



BTW The Thing played by James Arness costume is Navy Blue in color. When Turner colorized their more modern movies, they had colored pictures of what they wore. I have seen real color photos of The Day The Earth Stood Still, I have the sound track in Dolby Stereo Pro-Logic yet they have a bleak stereo version for the movie. Re-Recorded by City Of Prague
Orchestra for Silva Screen Records of NY

IMHO Hollywood takes the cheapest way to film and add sound, but charges a fortune to see movies over 50 years old.

El-Kabong

Not big on Black and White? Dude - it's all about atmosphere. Citizen Kane would look like ass if it was shot in color. The mystique of Casablanca would be shot if it was that flat monotone color that they threw onto the movie a decade back. And Hitch went out of his way to do Psycho in B&W because he wanted a certain look - the color process had been around a long time before Psycho.

Hmmm, guess you're offended by the opening and closing of Wizard of Oz, too huh?

marty888

Colors selected for the costuming and production design was an art form in iself, carefully planned so that the final palate of black and white would be visually interesting and compatible with the mood and subject matter of that particular film. Just because it was navy blue in reality DOES NOT mean that it was ever intended to be seen as navy blue.

mike45

That's right and it wasn't just costuming and art direction. The make-up used in the early days of movie making was always done not with what looked pleasing to the naked eye, but with what it would look like on celluloid. There was a documentary about make-up on, I believe A&E, and it showed some of the make-up used in early productions. If you were to see these actors in person with the movie make-up, they would look like outrageous clowns. But, when filmed in B&W, they looked quite pleasing and normal.

Movies should been seen as the original filmakers intended. If they shot in B&W, then that's how it should be seen. It's just like OAR.