I won't review the film as there are plenty already, I wanted to write about the transfer. I fired this one up on my computer, first, and watched about half an hour when I realized that the brightness level was way too hot. There was almost no shadow detail. I brought it to the living room and played it on the 36" Hitachi, thinking that my monitor was at fault, but no, MGM has cranked the brightness to a ridiculous height. I pulled out the Criterion and did many comparisons. The Criterion is quite dark, which perfectly renders the moody atmosphere of this film, nice shadow detail as well. The MGM is so frickin hot that at times Starling looks like she is wearing whiteface with nary a shadow to be found. The MGM transfer smooths out the grain but the atmosphere and moody lighting are completely lost. Once again MGM has completely butchered a wonderful film. I looked around at the reviews on many sites and only one mentions the overbright MGM transfer. MGM did not put any effort into cleaning the debris, scratches, etc. What a pitiful effort for such an esteemed title. I've totally had it with MGM. I don't know why anyone would like this effort. I sure would like to hear from someone involved with this transfer. Anyone else seeing what I am?

Thanks for the nice comments about my review. MGM has a copy of my review, but I haven't contacted them in addition to that. Honestly, my contacts there are with PR people who would have little to do with this. I've tried to pursue similar issues in the past but have gotten absolutely nowhere. I think this issue would be even more difficult to go after because so few people see the problem. Most viewers think it looks and sounds great, but I definitely disagree.

It really was a disappointment, though. I thought I'd be able to retire my Criterion LD from service other than for the extras, but I'll be forced to watch it in the future. Too bad the folks on the forums won't go after this issue like they did the "Willy Wonka" fiasco. Personally, I think it's more important. The fullscreen "Wonka" was just as enjoyable as the letterboxed one, but the bright - and bass-free - "Lambs" is much less useful than the old DVD...