I saw and replied to your post on the thread about the Spanish DVD.
The Fox Cinema Archives disc of One Foot in Hell is indeed widescreen, which most FCA releases of the studio's CinemaScope films so far are not. Picture, sound and color are fine.
I agree with you about the relative merits of the covers of the two releases, but you don't buy (or judge!) a DVD for its cover.
As to its price, I've amended my OP because while the retail price varies from site to site (and a couple do have it as high as $24.99), most list it as $19.99, and in any case it's in fact available for as little as $13 and change, depending on the site, and never more than around $18, from what I've seen. So the price actually is quite good and reasonable.
By contrast, the cost of the Spanish disc on Amazon is $26 (plus $3 shipping), which is far higher than the US disc.
I take it from your posts that you're in Britain (spelling the word "licence" instead of the American "license", saying "Fox are" instead of "Fox is"), so you're fortunate in that any Spanish or French disc you buy is, like British DVDs, Region 2, and you don't require a Region-free DVD player. In the US, Region 1, you would of course need such a player. I have one (a very worthwhile buy!) but most people don't, so a non-US DVD is usually out of the question for most people here.
My wife is English and we go there often, and one of the great things is to be able to buy lots of classic British films (like the Ealing library) unavailable here in the States, and be able to play them in the US on a Region 0 player. Similarly I know of Brits who get American discs of films not available in the UK and play them on their R0 players.
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DavidW1947
11 years ago
Yes, I'm on the other side of the pond in England. I didn't know that the Fox Cinema Archives release of "One Foot in Hell" was 2.35:1, as someone told me it was pan and scan. Indeed, according to the Screen Archives Entertainment website, all the Fox CinemaScope pictures on there released by FCA are pan and scan.
For some reason, Fox have released a lot of their back catalogue on DVD in Spain, but not in the UK or US, including the splendid "Down To The Sea In Ships" (filmed 1948, released 1949) starring Richard Widmark, Lionel Barrymore and Dean Stockwell. It's an excellent transfer, too.
People in the US who only have players set to Region 1 can alter them to play all regions by entering a certain number into the DVD player using their remote control. I haven't done it myself, but I had it done for me by someone more technically savvy than myself and because of that, I have had a player that was originally set to Region 2 able to play Region 1 for ten years now.
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hobnob53
11 years ago
SAE, with whom I do a lot of business, isn't always accurate. There is a lot of differing information on DVDs in general on different sites. But most sites do in fact list One Foot in Hell as 2.35, the DVD cover itself says this, and so it is with the film. By contrast, those widescreen films released in pan & scan by FCA are generally listed as "fullscreen" on most sites and their covers.
FCA just came out with Down to the Sea in Ships, about which the widescreen question isn't an issue, of course. Check out the SAE site for the very latest releases -- 15 new ones as of Friday. (Oddly, they no longer list One Foot among their FCA films!)
Were it not for FCA's outrageous, pointless and inexplicable practice of refusing to release most CinemaScope films in w/s, this series would be terrific. They're really pouring out the titles now, and the fullscreen ones are certainly great. Terrible covers, though -- really ugly. I just don't get why they're so haphazard in this endeavor. Warner Archives and other MOD lines are all excellent, with no picture or other issues.
I know about "re-coding" one's DVD player so that it plays all regions, though I couldn't do it myself to save my life. I've heard that some people have problems with re-coded players, though I have no experience with them. But an R0 player is so cheap (under $60 in the US) and has no issues, that it's much easier and more sure-fire than altering a region-coded machine. I'd like to get a Region-free Blu-ray player to cover all bases, though I'm not into Blu except where there's no choice, or it's an exceptional film.
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