VIOLENT SATURDAY - 2nd Twilight Time Title is 4x3 Letterbox
 

Twilight Time's first release, THE KREMLIN LETTER, was a decent, if unspectacular, transfer. The image was on the soft side, but at least it was 16x9 anamorphic.

Now comes the second release, the 1955 film VIOLENT SATURDAY and this time we're getting 4x3 letterbox. The company realizes that this isn't going to go over very well, as you can tell from their website. They claim that something is better than nothing, but since this title is a regular on the Fox Movie Channel in 4x3 letterbox, this DVD is nothing special.

They obviously didn't want to spend the money to go back to film elements and do a new transfer, so they're using an old video master. Personally I'm going to pass on this one.

Maybe Twilight Time should concentrate only on titles that they have good masters of. There's a boat load of pre-1950 titles that have never been released and anamorphic transfers wouldn't be required. Better to put out a great old Fox picture from the 1930's or 40's instead of releasing compromised titles like VIOLENT SATURDAY. My 2 cents anyways.

Re: VIOLENT SATURDAY - 2nd Twilight Time Title is 4x3 Letterbox
 

The more likely scenario is that "go(ing) back to the film elements" wasn't an option (or even attempted) either time and they just happened to be supplied with an anamorphic video transfer last time and weren't this time. I mean, that's probably the reason we're talking about this on the DVD forum and not the HD forum.

Ultimately these cult/genre/niche labels need to realize that people aren't going to accept sub-standard product. Luckily most of them realize that the standards are higher, if anything.

Well, at least it's a "real disc" as far as all the MOD-haters are concerned.

Re: VIOLENT SATURDAY - 2nd Twilight Time Title is 4x3 Letterbox
 

Just pre-ordered Violent Saturday along with ordering the Kremlin Letter as it took a while for Twlight Time to get on my radar (thanks to Dave Kehr's DVD review write-up in today's NY Times).

Both are blind buys for me, but I'm already experiencing buyer's remorse on Violent Saturday.

Re: VIOLENT SATURDAY - 2nd Twilight Time Title is 4x3 Letterbox
 

The thinking that they're even doing transfers is likely off here. It looks like 20th is providing the transfers and Twilight is simply picking from a list of available titles. The other thing about Twilight is that their ultimate focus is on the music score. If they have to release a substandard transfer of a movie with a desired soundtrack, they'll make that trade.

Still, they're pressing 3000 copies of each title and when they're gone, they're gone. Not like there's going to be some sort of re-release down the road.

Re: VIOLENT SATURDAY - 2nd Twilight Time Title is 4x3 Letterbox
 

^ Yeah, the whole 3,000 thing helped hook me at their price point, which is far higher than I like to pay for standard definition material.

But, I cannot see these selling out too quickly. 3,000 seems pretty high for titles like these, but who knows...maybe 2,999 other people were like me and read the times and rushed to buy The Kremlin Letter.

Re: VIOLENT SATURDAY - 2nd Twilight Time Title is 4x3 Letterbox
 

Like most programs of this nature, title availability is going to be hit and miss. Word is they have The Egyptian on tap and that one will certainly go faster.

Re: VIOLENT SATURDAY - 2nd Twilight Time Title is 4x3 Letterbox
 

These should be around at least a few years.