2 x DVDs bought, Middleton, 24.01.2020, total price £1.00:
2761.D: Fort Apache, dir. John Ford, 1948, f/s, 123' - supersedes 414.V
2762.D: Cabin in the Sky, dir. Vincente Minelli, 1943. f/s, 93' + Comm. + Studio Tour, short. P. - supersedes 1325.V
6 x DVDs bought, Prestwich, 31.01.2020, total price £3.00:
2763.D: Genevieve, dir. Henry Cornelius, 1952, f/s, 82'50" + short, 23'43" + locations, 2'49" etc. supersedes 590.V
2764.D: Boys in Brown, dir. Montgomery Tully, 1949, f/s, 79'37" P.
2765.D: Hunted, dir. Charles Crighton, 1952, f/s. 81'08" P.
2766.D: Penny Princess, dir. Val Guest, 1952, f/s, Technicolor, 90'04" P.
2767.D: Spanish Gardner, dir. Philip Leacock, 1956, 91'38" open-matte? from VistaVision, P.
2768.D: Singer Not The Song, dir. Roy Baker, 1961, 127'15" full-frame, cf scope version on 9121.D
January, 2020 ends with four upgrades and four new titles. Fort Apache isn't much of a step up from the video, looking soft and green, as these Universal discs often do. The all-black Minelli musical looks quite good and comes with a Commentary and short.
Nice to get the box of rare Bogarde titles for £2. I am hoping The Singer Not the Song is in its proper Cinemascope ratio, not full-frame, as the box states. It's a very camp curio, featuring Dirk as a black-leather bandit. My downloaded version is wide but dismal.
Radcliffe produced no interesting DVDs but a browse of the clothing turned up two brand-new pairs of M & S trousers at £1 each. Over the road, a set of twelve glasses, curiously packaged in a piano-shaped box, set me back a fiver but they are fine glassware and my stocks were getting low!
Edit 08.30 pm. Previews confirm that Genevieve is a tad grainy but the Technicolor is vivid. It includes a nice little making-of featurette with Dinah Sheridan and other participants, also a montage of stills and a set of clips identifying the locations.
The Bogarde set is a curate's egg. Boys in Brown and Hunted are quite pleasing transfers of these b & w stabs at social realism. Love the location photography! Penny Princess is echt-Ruritanian fluff but the Technicolor has survived quite well. The Spanish Gardner was made in VistaVision but this disc is open-matte, I think. It needs refurbishing. The stinker in the pack is The Singer, which is full-frame, after the Cinemascope titles.