Negative Comments about the DVD (not many)

Boo!!! I don't have a DVD player yet (or a cell phone...hehehehe) but I don't understand why they made cuts. The intermission music maybe...no, changed my mind


"Albania's hard to rhyme."

[deleted]

It is undeniable that fox did a terrible job with the DVD, especially after all the care that went into the Laserdisc.

1) Yes they cut the intermission/entr'acte, probably because people who transfer films have no knowledge of these films and had no idea why there is music over a blank screen. They would have taken one look at this stretch of black film and just skipped over it. If they even noticed the black film had an active soundtrack they would still more than likely disregard it. The added visuals on the Entracte were created for the laserdisc and only existed in the laserdisc master, which no one at Fox bothered to look at prior to making the DVD. The prevailing arrogance of those in charge of the DVDs would assume they were going to do it better and see no reason to look at "the old stuff." Except that the LD transfer was painstakingly color checked with other material for accuracy. There was actually original production material in the room while the laserdisc transfer was done, and the costume designer was consulted for color detail. That's why the laserdisc is superior to the DVD in every way.

2) The song and visual background were added over the end credit roll again only in the laserdisc master. The film had no music or visual here because it was originally intended not to have a cast of characters (the plan was to use printed programs to further enhance the live performance feel). This cast rollup was added at the last minute, so it was not scored and had no visual background. The Laserdisc producer knew the film very well and added these enhancements with the producer's and director's permision. The added music exists in the Dolby Surround mix that was used for the Laserdisc and a subsequent 35mm print. (it was left off the print) That soundtrack was created directly from the original magnetic six track soundtrack, accurately mixing down the five screen channels to 3 and keeping the surround channel in the rear. The DVD soundtrack just mixes all the channels together and the only surround material is an echo of the front.

3) There is no deleted dialogue scene mising from the DVD. The short scene you refer to (shot at the Lotos Club in NYC) was cut by the director before the picture was first released.

4) You have a point there about the small amount of material included about Lawrence. However It should be pointed out that this film has no more intention of being a biography of Gertrude Lawrence than SOUND OF MUSIC was of Maria von Trapp. The production had rights to Lawrence's books, but including film or recordings of her would have cost more money, and the Laserdisc and DVD were done on a very low budget.

5) With a couple unfortunate exceptions, the extras on the DVD were all done for the limited capacity of the laserdisc and when that was done it was decided to go with the commentary track rather than to isolate the vintage music used for underscore. The other audio track available on the LD was used for audio promotional material that was left off the DVD.

The laserdisc and VHS were mastered from the original 65mm camera negative, which has been rumored to have been lost by Fox sometime after the Laserdisc was made. One fact that supports this theory is that the good guys at Fox who have been restoring the studio's big format films have pretty much done every 70mm film from that period except STAR! It's safe to assume these people have nothing against the film, so a lack of proper elements would be a good guess as the reason STAR! hasn't yet been restored. Although if they really wanted to, they could go back to the YCM stems made when the picture was new and create a new 70mm negative. (those stems have been living in a much more secure place than the studio's own vaults) If the 65mm neg is found, they would have to go back to the YCMs to replace a couple damaged sections anyway. If they do use the YCMs, I'd like to see Fox's restoration team use the YCMs with something like Warner's Ultraresolution process, which could make the film look stunning.

The DVD was mastered from a 35mm element - VERY BADLY - by someone who had no knowledge of the film. This explains the DVD's inaccurate color, the incorrect soundtrack mix and the idiotic choice to color all the B&W sequences to sepia brown. All one has to do is watch the movie to see that the Documentary within the film is set in the 40s and the screening room scenes indicate that this film has not yet released iat the time we are watching it. Therefore it would be brand new (meaning not Sepia brown) except for the older footage "Jerry Paul" has inserted to tell the story. Someone on this transfer was thinking WIZARD OF OZ for the B&W sequences, when they should have been thinking CITIZEN KANE. Fox was in fact warned about all these mistakes in the new transfer, but chose to ignore them: "They'll buy it anyway."

A note about IMDb: IMDb has also failed to recognize that the opening credits to STAR! are fictitious - fake credits created for the movie Gertie is watching about herself in the screening room with fictional filmmaker character Jerry Paul. All the names in this sequence are fictitious, but despite being warned about this several times, IMDb has listed these nonexistant people anyway. Only one name in the fake opening credits was a real person, and that was an inside joke made by the producer/director team.

One of the misguided choices made by the Fox in 1968 was to try to make the cut-down reissue of STAR! look like their last successful musical (THE SOUND OF MUSIC). Rather than learn from past mistakes, the Fox DVD team made deliberate efforts in packaging, liner notes and menus to make STAR! look like MOULIN ROUGE. Further proof that the Fox DVD staff paid no attention to the content they were handling is the added elements on the disc, consisting of very repetitive screen tests (they apparantly overlooked the better takes of another tested scene that also exist in the vaults) and two embarrassingly awful added still sections which look exactly like someone scooped up a handful of pictures and literally threw them together. Shots are repeated, unflattering shots that should never be seen were thrown in (Mrs. Crenna and Mrs. Edwards should sue) there is no organization whatsoever in these sections, and the titlesthey are listed under have no relevance to the content. A couple shots there aren't even from the film at all.

The laserdisc had impeccable caption/subtitles which accurately included all the cockney dialect and song lyrics, but those existing captions (which were literally a phone call or email away) were ignored by the Fox DVD team, who instead wasted money ordering the lame new subtitles, which go blank at the songs and cockney phrases.

Another indication that the Fox DVD team had no idea what they were doing is the packaging for DOCTOR DOLITTLE and HELLO, DOLLY! DVDs. The Dolittle cover makes a serious billing error that's obvious to anyone who is paying attention (Mr Harrison's estate should send a copy of his contract over to Fox). Dolly's credit block claims the film was produced BY Todd-AO. Duh. Todd-AO was the 70mm format the picture was Produced IN... someone obviously saw the original credit "Produced In TODD-AO" and ignorantly thought they were correcting a mistake. While the Dolittle cover and menu at least used the original ad art and title treatment as a source, the awfully cheap, tacky art direction of the STAR! and DOLLY! covers and menus looks like they hired some high school kids and just gave them a handful of pictures, standard fonts and a primitive version of Photoshop. Hard to believe this comes from a major studio - Dolly and STAR! look like cheap bootlegs.

Recent handling of some Fox catalog titles (VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, TOWERING INFERNO, POSEIDON ADVENTURE) indicates what is possible when the DVD department puts the right people (and enough money) on a project. However their handling of OKLAHOMA! (featuring the 35mm Cinemascope version on Disc 1 while squeezing the vastly superior 70mm Todd-AO version into the second disc as a low resolution supplement) proves that money isn't enough. They must consult with people who know these films. Just the formats alone should have clued them in: 70mm = more detail, therefore it should be the featured version, Cinemascope 35mm has less detail therefore it should be the lower res supplement. But again they weren't really paying attention.

We can only hope that by the time FoxVid gets around to doing a Hi-Def release of their catalog titles, they will bother to consult with people who actually know these films.

...and I haven't even gotten to the movie yet. The "extras" disc in this package has an on screen "book" about the film that appears to go on for hundreds of pages. Why not just print a book we could loook through while watching the film? Or include this informaiton in the documentary?

I look at a screen to see things and hear things. I don't like to read through hundreds of pages. It's supposed to be a film.