Criterion DVD releases: Known Problems:

I don't think there is a comprehensive list but THIS PAGE gives some of the reasons for subsequent printings.

They've been doing really well lately in the QC dept, haven't they??

Good Morning has a second priting with Region 1 coding (1st printing is all region.)

(Posted this in this forum many reincarnations ago.)

Meanwhile (and slightly OT) there are titles with changes of artworks that aren't branded second printing:

I think Insomnia has 2 versions of cover - same design but one with the old Criterion logo, the other new.

And of course, The Samuari Trilogy has 2 versions of cover, booklet and faceprint design.

The Hidden Fortress has a second printing owing only to a small change in wording on the back of the package.

A Night to Remember has a second printing and no one has ever offered an explanation as to the difference between the two.

The second printing actually plays after a number of viewings, or so I'm told, unlike the first, which tends to give up after a while.

Grand Illusion has also had the Criterion logo updated.

To my knowledge Grand Illusion never had the older style.

We should compile a good here and add it to the reference thread.

Lord of the Flies has the Criterion animated line thingy instead of the CC logo before the film starts.

I'm sure I've come across it somewhere, but I'll be blowed if I can find an image. Considering when it was released, it should have been one of the earliest with the new style. Perhaps I'm just thinking of an alternate pre-production image from the Criterion website that didn't make it to printing?

One that I have definately come across in both old and new style Criterion logos is The Lady Vanishes. The updated version I believe came from a Wrong Men and Notorious Women boxset. Presumably it was done to make it fit in with the others in the box. I don't know if they've done the same with the Kurosawa or Great Adaptations boxes.

Grand Illusion was released with the new style logo, BUT on the old website they originally had cover art (I guess when they originally intended to release it, but delayed it) based on the laserdisc cover art, with Pierre and Jean shaking hands, which had the old Criterion logo up top and a HORRID title font. I'm glad they skipped that cover art altogether. It was pretty bad.

Is there a list of titles that have been corrected by Criterion and replacements offered by "Mulvaney"? The one that used to be on their old website does not seem to have made the transition to the new one.

I'm just getting around to trying to get Jigoku and Mala Noche replaced, and wondering if there have been any others that have been corrected that I may have missed out on.

I believe there was an issue with the original Second Edition of M...if I recall correctly, it had something to do with an incorrect audio/dialogue issue. You can find a discussion about it here.

2nd printings I'm aware of (that weren't blatant re-issues (like Charade's transition to anamorphic, or Seven Samurai's drop of its restoration featurette)):

Dead Ringers
Jigoku
The Last Temptation Of Christ
M (the current edition)
The Magic Flute
Mala Noche
A Night To Remember
Playtime (the original edition)
Rififi
Spellbound

Others?

Does anyone know the reasons for some of these second pressings? This topic should really be stickied somewhere, with brief descriptions of the reasons and/or links to forum discussions that go over this. Here are some that I know of:

Dead Ringers - something to do with the audio I believe, though I've never been clear on what exactly. The soundtrack on the first pressing is pretty harsh sounding--is it possible this was fixed in the second pressing?

Jigoku - roughly 2 minutes of footage missing

M - sound glitch

Mala Noche - brief color sequence shown in B&W

A Night to Remember - instant coaster

If I remember correctly, Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie had subtitle typos on the first pressing.

As well as AR issues. Listed as 1.66:1 but is actually 1.75:1.

I'll see if I can unearth a hardcopy of that old Criterion webpage...

A problem nobody seems to care about:

The Battle of Algiers - Sound glitch

Thanks!

Re: the Discreet Charm AR issue and Algiers sound issue, are these problems that were corrected in subsequent pressings?

As far as I know, Discreet Charm has not been fixed and Criterion have denied there is a problem with the AR.

I'm sure there are plenty of other examples like this, and I'm not suggesting that they should be swept under the rug, but for the sake of this thread I'm more interested in the problems that Criterion has acknowledged and corrected, so that collectors can make an informed decision about whether it's worth the effort to seek out second pressings for certain titles.

Maybe we can keep a thread locked and only accessible by the Mods like the Forthcoming-No Speculation threads. Just have it updated for real issues that arise. Sooner or later this thread will start getting filled with the window boxing stuff, AR disputes, or just plain old "the Criterion label officially corresponds with 'shite.'"

The Last Temptation Of Christ - "The first printing ... was inadvertently authored with a preset feature that causes some out-of-the-box DVD players to zoom in and resize the 1.85:1 image to fill a standard 4:3 television set, creating an automatic pan-scan version of the film. This problem does not occur if users have set the playback mode in the DVD player menu to match the monitor being used..." Also: "Subtitles do not appear on 16x9 televisions". Fixed with all subsequent printings.

Playtime - "... Authoring glitch on the first printing... Two supplements -- an introduction by Terry Jones, and Tati's 1967 short Cours du Soir -- were inadvertently flagged to play back in 16x9 mode, causing the image to appear vertically compressed and letterboxed rather than full-frame." Fixed with all subsequent printings.

Rififi - "On certain player models, the audio on the first printing... has been know to slip out of sync partway through the playback of the film". Fixed with all subsequent printings.

Magic Flute - "Due to an authoring error on the first printing... the left and right audio tracks are reversed." Fixed on all subsequent printings.

Spellbound - "On certain player models, the first printing... has had difficulty loading or fails to load entirely." Fixed on all subsequent printings. (First printing was ok on my player.)

So Discreet Charm was never fixed? Okay I wasn't sure about that one, thought maybe I'd missed its getting fixed...

Only other non-fixed issue I recall is that a scene (or two?) on Jules and Jim were apparently flipped (left is right, right is left), but like Tribe said, a little out of scope, if nothing's been done about it. Hopefully it won't get overlooked if it makes it to Criterion blu-ray...

Then I guess those 10 are the "official" ones, three of them long out of print (one since re-issued in newer edition).