NitrateVille.com

My DVD of 'The Man on the Eiffel Tower' comes from a horrible print. Having been filmed in Ansco Color this isn't a great surprise.
Is there a DVD of this movie made from a good print?

David

The 2004 Fall Cinesation in Massillion, Ohio screened an excellent color print and it changed my opinion of this movie. Like NYC in Naked City, Paris is like a character in the story, and in this case, the most sympathetique. Find a dvd of this print at http://www.cinephiles.org

Ansco Color was actually quite pleasing when properly shot. It does tend to turn brown over the years, though.

Thanks for the information, Eric. I sent my check to the society this morning.

-30-

Can you tell me if the Cinephiles DVD is better or worse than the Odeon one that used the UCLA restoration? (Kino was supposed to release it as well but has postponed or canceled it.) The Odeon one is very good but in PAL so I can only watch it on my computer. Also, what is the running time of Cinephile's, and is the nightclub scene (with the gypsy band) intact?

Thanks!

I've never seen the Odeon DVD, so I can't make a comparison.

The Cinephiles' DVD runs 97 minutes...I timed it. The nightclub scene with the frenetic violin playing is included.

The DVD has, by far, the best colour print of this movie I have ever seen. Unfortunately, the DVD itself has some flaws...a complete freeze about 57 minutes into the picture.

Hope this answers your question.

David

-30-

Thanks so much David! The Odeon/UCLA print is only 92 minutes, so I'm looking very forward to seeing the additional missing footage! (I believe 97 minutes was the original running time, and the PD DVDs are usually about 87 minutes.)

Thanks again!

HerryGrail wrote:Thanks so much David! The Odeon/UCLA print is only 92 minutes, so I'm looking very forward to seeing the additional missing footage! (I believe 97 minutes was the original running time, and the PD DVDs are usually about 87 minutes.)

Thanks again!

I haven't seen the versions in question, but PAL has a 4% speedup; this likely accounts for the time difference, rather than a difference in actual contents.

Danny, thanks for pointing out the PAL difference which I deal with all the time. Now the current TVs & DVD players I use are supposed 24fps and not PAL 25fps. Many American reviewers complain about PAL masters jigged for NTSC and of note was the MK2 masters for Charlie Chaplin.

When The Gladiator came out on DVD the local distributor(Australia) if the disc was inundated with letters about a missing scene from the film. They had deduced this from the DVD running time vis-vis the film length. The distributor assured them that it was all in the mind due to the PAL speed up. It was an ongoing theme for a longtime before it stopped.

What is a bugbear of mine is that producers of some local DVDs have running times that are several minutes longer printed on the covers than the actual disc speed. A check on IMDB confirms that they are using the original running time in the moviehouse and not the actual time on their in-house mastered disc. You would think that as they are mastering in a faster speed they would have the time appear in their work and make sure the covers matched. Or is this too easy for them. If they are mastering they surely know about the time differences. Australia uses 220-240 volt power not 110-120v. TV film(usually 16mm) runs at 25fps along with VTR here.

I now have the three DVD versions of this film: a public domain print (Image), the UCLA print (Odeon), and the Cinephile Society print.

I've taken multiple screen captures of all of them, which I will post soon. By far, the UCLA print is the sharpest, and, color issues aside, this makes it to my eye the preferred version. It runs more reddish, almost sepia, while the Cinephile version is bluer. Some of the outdoor Cinephile scenes are particularly nice color-wise—it comes from an original Technicolor transfer rather than the Ansco source—mostly because the skies are bluer. But the sharper sepia is more pleasing overall, and once you've seen it with a sharp, detailed picture, there's nothing else that will satisfy.

There is more image on the UCLA print as well, with an odd exception or two, and it's the only one with (to my eye, and comparing things like wheels) the correct aspect ratio, the others being stretched a bit wide. The Cinephile and UCLA prints are the only two with the first nightclub sequence, with the gypsy band, but the Cinephile print has a line running through almost the entire scene, which is my favorite in the film. Both versions, of course, are far superior to the PD print, and the Cinephile is the only one offered in NTSC format, the UCLA print still available only in PAL on England's Odeon DVD.

UCLA's restoration head has said he'd like more time and money to do an even better restoration, and maybe this is why Kino halted their American DVD release. Whether they would do color correction or just digital clean-up, I don't know, but their print, even in the current form, is a must-see.