Tweet LONG AWAITED "KING OF JAZZ" RESTORATION BEGINS IN 2012

Definitely prefer the blue - it's breathtaking in a way that the cyan just can't approach.

Greetings All.

I knew and interviewed someone who worked for Universal Pictures on KING OF JAZZ in 1930, named Roswell A. Hoffman, in 1982. He was a special effects technician, and in 1930 was an assistant to the special optical photographic effects department head Jerome (Jerry) Ash, ASC, whose expertise provided the visual effects work on this picture.
Mr. Hoffman had a 50-year-long career at Universal, from 1924 to 1974 when he retired with honors and a big party during production of the Universal picture EARTHQUAKE, in which I appeared as an extra in crowd scenes.

I have never seen the movie KOJ, only heard about it since the 1970s, and am looking forward to seeing it sometime in the near future if it is made available to the home video market on DVD or Blu-Ray. Hopefully Universal or Criterion will make it available, as they did last year with the excellent restoration of Marlon Brando's ONE EYED JACKS (1961), one of my favorite classic Westerns.

Yes, and the skin looks a bit better too, while in the green version the skin looks too magenta.

Definitely prefer the blue - it's breathtaking in a way that the cyan just can't approach.

Greetings All.

I have never seen the movie KOJ, only heard about it since the 1970s, and am looking forward to seeing it sometime in the near future if it is made available to the home video market on DVD or Blu-Ray. Hopefully Universal or Criterion will make it available, as they did last year with the excellent restoration of Marlon Brando's ONE EYED JACKS (1961), one of my favorite classic Westerns.

I agree, the Criterion ONE-EYED JACKS, my favorite western, does looks spectacular, but permanently removing the Paramount logo, along with the wonderful blooming Vista-Vision logo, is simply unforgivable. It may be owned by Universal now but it was a Paramount release. There's no valid reason to not keep the history intact.

Really? I did not know that. That's a shame. I agree with you. I have a DVD transfer professionally made from the 1991 Paramount VistaVision Laserdisc release privately for me by a friend in the film industry. I will get the Criterion release and compare them.

Every so often Criterion pulls a boner. Universal released a LD boxed set of Lubitsch Paramount's. The print of ONE HOUR WITH YOU sported not only original tints but the films rousing exit music. When Criterion released it on DVD the tints and the exit music were gone. Perhaps that's what Universal handed them but it's too bad someone didn't catch it and raise a red flag.

Every so often Criterion pulls a boner.

Happens to the best of us!

Any more new clips of this restoration, please ?

Getting back to KING OF JAZZ, our topic under discussion, since many on this board have seen this movie before, is there a scene in which an animated character sits on Paul Whiteman's shoulder as he is conducting his band? Mr. Roswell Hoffman seemed to remember a scene in which he worked with animators Walter Lantz and Frank Tipper on that. Anyone?

I don't think anyone here has seen that!

Just to politely remind; why don't you open new threads about Raintree County/Buster Keaton etc etc as they are WAY off topic... This is the KOJ thread.

Anyway, back to KOJ -- here is the cartoon you were talking about. I don't seem to see an animated character sitting on Paul Whiteman's shoulder as he is conducting his band? Although the lion DOES indeed jump, and land on Paul's back at 1:21

Thank you! I have never seen one frame of film from KING OF JAZZ, so this is a new experience for me.

Getting back to KING OF JAZZ, our topic under discussion, since many on this board have seen this movie before, is there a scene in which an animated character sits on Paul Whiteman's shoulder as he is conducting his band? Mr. Roswell Hoffman seemed to remember a scene in which he worked with animators Walter Lantz and Frank Tipper on that. Anyone?

In the recent book, KING OF JAZZ: Paul Whiteman's Technicolor Revue there are storyboard panels from an aborted introduction that included more animation but was never completed. Or was it? Perhaps the clue to what Mr. Hoffman was remembering is buried there.

[Mike Gebert]

Just for the record, I split off some recent posts into individual threads about Buster Keaton's stunt work and the 1950s film Raintree County.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=24144

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=24145

A big thank you to Joe Busam for your comment about Roswell Hoffman's memory about working on some animation for KING OF JAZZ. Perhaps the sequence was shot, but cut from the final edit of the film. Sadly another loss of excised footage on the "cutting room floor".

Is there any news on a DVD release, perhaps in time for Christmas? I understand the owners wouldn't want to spoil theater receipts, but that's a year ago now. I really want to watch this with my 90 year old dad.

Jack Theakston's wonderful clip had me open-mouthed with admiration for the work that's been done.

Nothing to report at this time, and obviously when something definite is set, it will be widely announced. And definitely nothing until next year. Things are in the works, but it will take awhile.

Nothing to report at this time, and obviously when something definite is set, it will be widely announced. And definitely nothing until next year. Things are in the works, but it will take awhile.

Thanks.

Any future screenings?

Hi Harlett!

Any new screenings can easily be set up between theaters and Universal. There were about 30 screenings worldwide that I am aware of. Don't know if any venues have recently schedule it, but they certainly could.

Many thanks, vitaphone. It's a comfort to have someone close to the situation keeping us posted.

Thanks to an interview by Tom Weaver with The Cohen Group's Tim Lanza in the latest issue of Classic Images, I learned that my two favorite film restorations of 2016 share a link beside the home studio that produced them. Namely KING OF JAZZ and THE OLD DARK HOUSE. Turns out that when Universal was working on their restoration of KING OF JAZZ, The Cohen Film Group had an original 35mm nitrate print that the studio needed. In turn, Universal had certain rights to THE OLD DARK HOUSE that Cohen needed to proceed. Eventually, a swap was worked out and we were treated to two of the most amazing film restorations in modern times. Truly a win-win situation.

DVD Beaver screen captures from the blu ray:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film6/dvd_revi ... lu-ray.htm


Impressive. We never saw a two color technicolor production looking this good on video. The Black Pirate was almost ok, but they choosed a too pale color balance instead of the nice csatured colors from mthe DVD edition.

There is camera negative scans, and probably two qualites of 2 color technicolor prints used as source for the restoration, one looking better than the other.
The camera negative portions looks very good, without color bleeding, and sharp, considering optical losses of very early technicolor camera lenses and prisms. The prints look like wasn't realighned for the color channels fit better in each other.
Despite the technicolor prints itself have film strips glued together, the color channel can be realigned digitally for better precision than was possible to get with the early technicolor prints technolog. The camera negatives for two color technicolor have one single strip, but recordsimultaneously two frames, one for each color frame, one above the other.



The screen capture of the two dancers together looks so good that it's like some scene took from the film The Aviator.

Although it's a bit uneven as to musical interest and source quality, much of it is simply brilliant both as a quirky snapshot of the time and as a painstaking restoration. Some sections must look better in a BluRay scanned from the two-strip negatives than they did originally. Ferde Grofe's arrangements probably sound better than they did a through the old Western Electric horns, though it's strange that Criterion did not provide a mono option as they usually do with old films.

This must have cost a lot. Thanks to all.

[Mike Gebert]

Some sections must look better in a BluRay scanned from the two-strip negatives than they did originally.

At Capitolfest two years ago, James Layton showed a clip from a restored print of The Cuckoos, and other than King of Jazz it's certainly the best "two-strip" I've seen... but KOJ is still on another level when it comes to how perfectly the color is handled. My feeling is that it kind of represents a platonic ideal of two-strip, which not only didn't exist then but couldn't, until digital perfection came along.

But I'll ask them when I interview them for the podcast what they think about my theory...

M

Some sections must look better in a BluRay scanned from the two-strip negatives than they did originally.

At Capitolfest two years ago, James Layton showed a clip from a restored print of The Cuckoos, and other than King of Jazz it's certainly the best "two-strip" I've seen... but KOJ is still on another level when it comes to how perfectly the color is handled. My feeling is that it kind of represents a platonic ideal of two-strip, which not only didn't exist then but couldn't, until digital perfection came along.

But I'll ask them when I interview them for the podcast what they think about my theory...

The accuracy and beauty of the 3D restorations of Jack Theakson and company show how the technology in support has advanced. I am convinced that a sense of artistry is still needed, but let us hope that human excellence is never obsolete.

Bob

I guess that KING OF JAZZ was never really a lost film so much as it was unavailable because 2-Color Technicolor printing facilities no longer functioned.

Just to brag, folks: I saw the world premiere of the restoration at MOMA (NYC). This was approx. 1 1/2 years ago (haven't seen my Criterion blu-ray yet, looking forward muchly to the extras.) I can still hear the roar of the audience when the first frames with the title went up on the screen in unexpected beautiful intense colors.

Just to brag, folks: I saw the world premiere of the restoration at MOMA (NYC). This was approx. 1 1/2 years ago (haven't seen my Criterion blu-ray yet, looking forward muchly to the extras.) I can still hear the roar of the audience when the first frames with the title went up on the screen in unexpected beautiful intense colors.

I was there too, all the way from Australia. It was pretty special seeing those opening titles on the big screen in all their Technicolor glory!

Another observation: The "Comedy" bits that were originally cut from the 1930 release of KING but put back in for the 1933 re-issue. Were these bits, referring to casual sex, out of wedlock birth, and a "Horse's Ass" considered too risque for 1930, but not so much for that hard-core pre-code year of 1933, or was there another reason that they were cut in 1930?

Those bits were not cut from the 1930 release. They were never included in the first place. There were a number of cuts and trims filmed but ultimately not used, as this was a very long running film. For the 1933 release, which ran just over an hour due to manycsuts of numbers thought dated, these scene were included. Do not believe any of this had to do with the material being risqué.