NitrateVille.com

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Our-Hospi ... -ray/8285/

I also saw from a Kino catalog in the mail awhile back that The Navigator and the Keaton shorts are to be expected on blu this year as well (quite surprised about the shorts, given the rough condition many of them are in).

Stonesfan wrote:http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Our-Hospi ... -ray/8285/

I also saw from a Kino catalog in the mail awhile back that The Navigator and the Keaton shorts are to be expected on blu this year as well (quite surprised about the shorts, given the rough condition many of them are in).

Oh, wowzers! So many Blu Ray releases of silent comedy classics! This is definitely a good time to be a fan of Keaton and Chaplin (could Langdon or Lloyd be next? Doubtful, but still...).

I'm not surprised the shorts are coming out (considering they withheld them from the blus) but that will be wonderful to have them in HD.

It was nice to have a couple of shorts with each feature, but I'll be glad to see them all gathered together in one release. As a body of work, they are as miraculous as any of his features, or any other features made then or now. They are practically perfect.

Stonesfan wrote:http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Our-Hospi ... -ray/8285/

I also saw from a Kino catalog in the mail awhile back that The Navigator and the Keaton shorts are to be expected on blu this year as well (quite surprised about the shorts, given the rough condition many of them are in).

Do you suppose they'll include the newly discover preview/work print?

Brianruns10 wrote:

Stonesfan wrote:http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Our-Hospi ... -ray/8285/

I also saw from a Kino catalog in the mail awhile back that The Navigator and the Keaton shorts are to be expected on blu this year as well (quite surprised about the shorts, given the rough condition many of them are in).

Do you suppose they'll include the newly discover preview/work print?

Yes, HOSPITALITY is included, along with a short (THE IRON MULE) and a documentary. (More info available at blu-ray.com)

Yes the work print, titled simply Hospitality, is included. Also included is Al St. John's 1925 "The Iron Mule" (hopefully in HD as well).

Here's a more detailed link

http://kino.com/video/item.php?film_id=1188

THE IRON MULE on this new disc is a new HD transfer off MoMA's 35mm material, a preservation off nitrate from the Czech film archive. It has about 5 mins more footage than the version you've seen on Slapstick Encyc. It's the version that was run at Cinefest last year.

Oh, and the theater organ score on it's not too bad either.

Ben

I have just watched my first Blu-Ray purchase, Kino's THE GENERAL. I have to say I was absolutely stunned. I could see the rocks in the roads! My 8 year old cousin came in to ask his dad something and wound up staying for the whole show. He later commented he liked the break from movie talking. The whites in the grey scale were stunning. I'll shut up now, but if you are on the fence about silent comedy Blu-Rays from Kino, buy 'em up now before they go out of print.

Great news, with the Carl Davis score added into the bargain!

And great news about THE NAVIGATOR and the shorts coming too!

I'm hoping that HARD LUCK will be the complete version found on the Keaton Plus DVD, and that DAYDREAMS will have the (comparatively) recently found footage included on Keaton Plus reinstated to the film proper.

Kudos to Kino and Co. for continuing to release Buster's classics in wonderful HD versions. Hopefully SEVEN CHANCES, GO WEST, COLLEGE, BATTLING BUTLER and THE SAPHEAD are also slated for Blu in the coming year or two or three, so I can give unload my old Kino DVDs (except for STEAMBOAT BILL JR. and Keaton Plus, of course).

If there is a Keaton shorts BluRay in the works might it be worthwhile to start a list of commonly missing bits and co-ordinate with Kino to increase the chances of the missing bits becoming un-missing?

First one that comes to mind for me a shot from DayDreams: It's just after Buster has leaped on to the departing boat and escapes the cops who can not make the jump. This was followed by a shot of Buster in profile lighting a cigarette. The point of the shot is that while Buster is pre-occupied with lighting his cigarette you can see that he is unaware that the ship has changed direction and is now coming into dock (in profile behind Buster you see the background slow down and change direction). That's why suddenly the cops are able to leap on to the boat. Without that shot it's pretty confusing. I've only seen this shot in one version: A TV series called Ca C'est Du Cinema, a Rohauer production using Keaton and Chaplin shorts as a teaching tool for film technique. It was in the 1980's and I still have a videotape somewhere of it. I also seem to remember that that print was not cropped so extremely as the one on DVD. In the scene where Keaton drops the fire escape ladder down the loading bay you can actually see the loading bay clearly, if I recall correctly on the DVD the bay is pretty much cropped out.

I know memory can fool you about what you think you have seen. I used to think for years that the excerpts from DayDreams in The Projectionist contained missing footage from the DVD version, when I finally saw The Projectionist again I realized I was wrong.

Robert - the Daydreams shots you mention are included in the Lobster Films restoration on the Eureka Masters Of Cinema set. Also the "trapdoor" sequence is not cropped on this version, but it's missing some footage of Keaton as a stage extra which IS in the earlier Kino version.
As for other missing footage, the Murray Glass print of The Blacksmith contains footage I've not seen in any other version.