Daytripper

I recently purchased "Gone With The Wind" and was amazed how great the quality of the film was. It didn't look like a movie that was 60 years old at all. In fact, it looked like a movie that was made recently. I've seen a few threads talking about older titles where the transfers were pretty bad. Like "Giant". Can you suggest any older films with equally great transfers like "Gone With The Wind". Pre 70's that is. I picked up "To Kill A Mockingbird" too. And while it's mostly clear, every now and then the picture got blurry for a few seconds. I believe this happened three times. No big deal. Still an above average transfer. And a great film.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

CCGoldRush

North by Northwest.

bmello

Singing In The Rain SE

Narshty

Written on the Wind
Now, Voyager
The Blob - Criterion

TomOpus

Wizard of Oz
Them!

Brain Stew

It's a hackneyed suggestion, but:

Citizen Kane

dude_dan

2001 A space Odyssey, the release from the Stanley Kubrick Colleection.

Great sound too.



Yankees suck.

G. Noel Gross

Starts out great ... but watch the rest of the flick. Yikes.

Thinking back, Criterion's Charade is one of the first transfers that left me awestruck. But it's been awhile since I've looked at it.

Der Zorn Gottes

Criterion's Grand Illusion (1937, looks incredible considering its age, nationality and treatment throughout the years. Beter than most transfers of films from the 30s)

Criterion's 8 1/2 (1963, best transfer ever)

Kino's Metropolis (1927, miraculous)

Criterion's The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, even with all its scratches, its gorgeous)

Criterion's The Hidden Fortess (1958, best Kurosawa transfer)

Criterion's Tokyo Olympiad (1965, greatest Olympics documentary, only Kon Ichikawa film on DVD)

Criterion's The 400 Blows (1959, part of the Antoine Doinel box)

Criterion's Wild Strawberries (1957...most other Bergman films look super, too)

Lawrence of Arabia SE (I'd wait for the Superbit, though)

Disney's Snow White (1937)

Fox's The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Criterion's Band of Outsiders (1964)

Everyone else is right, too (especially with Citizen Kane, which shares with 8 1/2 my vote for best black and white transfer Ever). But I wouldn't mark Giant off my get-list just because its non-anamorphic. Its one of the great understated classics, IMO, and we won't be getting a better disc.

gutwrencher

this comment is about Them!? I must be going blind...looks great to me. I thing Sunset Blvd. looks great as well....but if my eyes are shot....it must look like crap.

Laser Movies

Here are a few that I can think of not mentioned.

20.000 Leagues Under the Sea
Cleopatra
The Harvey Girls
The Ten Commandments
Reap the Wild Wind

Johnny Zhivago

It's been said 1,000 times, but Citizen Kane looks like it was shot yesterday... Amazing...

North By Northwest
Singin' In The Rain

Also agree with a lot of the above suggestions...

shill66

Pick up just about ANY older movie released lately by Warner Bros. and it's likely to have a fantastic picture.

I rented Scaramouche and bought The Master of Ballantrae (they both came out last week) and they both look - yes - like they were shot yesterday. And those are in color... but even the black and white Warner titles look terrific!

RichDB10

Agree with most that have already been mentioned....i would also add:

The Viy (Ruscico)

marty888

BLACK NARCSSUS - simply one of the most ravishing color films you will ever see, and Criterion's transfer is stunning.

folgersnyourcup

I've got a question about Charade. I know the Criterion disc is non-anamorphic, but how does its' transfer compare to the anamorphic one included with The Truth About Charlie dvd? I heard that some were buying that dvd solely for the Charade disc, throwing away the Charlie cover, and getting a special Charade cover off of dvdcoverart.com I'm wondering if this is worth doing. I've got no interest in Charlie but want Charade and don't want to go through the trouble of paying high OOP Criterion prices....

DGibFen

Hitchcock's Vertigo is simply amazing to me. The restoration demonstration on the documentary shows how the original negative was almost lost, and how the resulting masters would have been detremental for this film. It is not 16X9, but the picture is simply amazing for the condition this film was in.

The re-issue of Dr. Strangelove looks pretty good, although I can't remember if it was the same transfer as the first release.

mikewendt

Wizard of OZ
GIANT
Citizen Kane

Warner Bros. seems to be doing a hell of a job on restoring the old classics.

Now if they could only do something about those pesky snapper cases.

funstan

Criterion has a very good transfer on Children of Paradise. The Hidden Fortress, 8 1/2, and Grand Illusion also look great. Citizen Kane, The Godfather, and Bridge on the River Kwai also look great.

Johnny Zhivago

We're going to have to agree to disgree on this one... Most everyone that I've read a post from here (other than Savant, what's new) and at HTF agree that (other than being non-anamorphic which is an entirely 'nother issue) Giant has edge enhancement out the wazoo.

folgersnyourcup - I've heard that the transfer of Charade on The Truth About Charlie DVD is better than the Criterion (plus it's anamorphic). I don't own it yet, so I can't confirm, but it's available for enrollment from CH if you want to/can go that route... That's what I intend to do the next time that I enroll. Like you, I could care less about Charlie...

GMLSKIS

Wizard of Oz
Snow White

Robert George

RE: Charade

I have both the Criterion and the disc Universal included with The Truth About Charlie and I have to give the edge to the Criterion disc, especially if one is using a 4:3 TV, or if one uses the Panasonic RP91 DVD player.

The Universal disc is a bit smoother, and the 16:9 enhancement will help matters if one is using a 16:9 display, but this disc is also rather softer than the Criterion with a bit less fine detail and slightly weaker color.

FilmFanSea

DVD Beaver agrees that the non-anamorphic Criterion is better than the Universal.

DVDs I would highly recommend of pre-70s movies (i.e., excellent films with excellent DVD transfers):

Children of Paradise (Carné/1945/Criterion): known as the French Gone with the Wind, this is a tremendous film & an excellent 2-disc edition from Criterion.

Beauty and the Beast/La Belle et la Bête (Cocteau/1946/Criterion) The 2003 re-release is breathtaking.

Mildred Pierce (Curtiz/1945/Warner) Great film noir melodrama with Joan Crawford in one of her best roles.

Any of the five Criterion Hitchcocks, but especially Rebecca (1940) and Notorious (1946).

On the Waterfront (Kazan/1954/Columbia Tristar)

My Man Godfrey (La Cava/1936/Criterion): a great screwball comedy with William Powell and Carole Lombard.

The Shop Around the Corner (Lubitsch/1940/Warner) and Trouble in Paradise (Lubitsch/1932/Criterion): two nearly perfect romantic comedies from Ernst Lubitsch. The first was remade as the horribly inferior You've Got Mail.

All About Eve (Mankiewicz/1950/Fox)

Sunrise (Murnau/1927/Fox) One of the greatest of all silent films--unfortunately only available as a special mail-in offer from Fox.

Nicholas Ray's Rebel without a Cause (1955/Warner) and In a Lonely Place (1950/Columbia Tristar)

The Third Man (Reed/1949/Criterion)

Grand Illusion (Renoir/1938/Criterion)

Shane (Stevens/1953/Paramount)

There are only two of Preston Sturges' films available on DVD, but they're both fantastic, both from 1941, & both on Criterion: The Lady Eve and Sullivan's Travels.

A wonderful introduction to François Truffaut is available in Criterion's The Adventures of Antoine Doinel box set: The 400 Blows (1959), Antoine and Collette (1962), Stolen Kisses (1968), Bed and Board (1970), and Love on the Run (1979)

L'Atalante (Vigo/1934/New Yorker) is a classic, beautiful film.

Two Billy Wilder gems: Sunset Blvd. (1950/Paramount) and Some Like it Hot (1959/MGM/UA)

Roman Holiday (Wyler/1953/Paramount)

shill66

It certainly reads as if you're making suggestions on the movies, not necessarily the picture quality/quality of the transfer, as the thread asks. (Although I'm pretty certain your list DOES only include movies which look great, but at least you should make that more clear...)

And an excellent movie too.

Here are some of my most recent purchases of pre-1970 films that I've given a "10" rating to picture quality:

Winchester '73 (Universal)
Bob le flambeur (CC)
The Shop Around the Corner (WB)
8½ (CC)
Rebecca (CC)
Arsenic and Old Lace (WB)
Them! (WB)
The Women (WB)
I Want to Live! (MGM)

RichDB10

As a bit of a side-note.....i'm hoping we can add Image Entertainments new edition of 'Phantom Of The Opera' (1929) to the list come September.