1099 High Sierra

[yoloswegmaster]

High Svet

[FrauBlucher]

CineSavant

[cdnchris]

So, holy shit, I thought Colorado Territory looked incredible on this. It has had no restoration work done but the good news is that the source elements, the 35mm original negative (though there are a handful of inserts that look to come from elsewhere), are in excellent shape, most of the heavier damage seeming to be limited around what are probably reel changes. For those curious I've included screen grabs here in the gallery, but to save a click I'll post some here:







As to the film I thought it was quite fun and I think I enjoyed it more than High Sierra. I wasn't even aware of it before this release admittedly, so it was a great little surprise.

[Maltic]

It's by far the best transfer of an "unrestored" film I have seen... from that era, anyway. Quite a peculiar experience, actually, but a good one.

Btw, nice to see two lovers-on-the-run (albeit a short run) who've both been around the block

[swo17]

I'm mildly annoyed the disc is labeled "High Sierra Disc 2" instead of "Colorado Territory"

[pistolwink]

Honestly given how often a "restoration" feels like a wholesale revision of a film's look, and also how often the release of a classic film is indefinitely delayed pending such work, I'd rather more stuff just get released in sharp transfers of unrestored elements, as with Colorado Territory. One could argue the presence of scratches, dust, etc. is actually truer to the typical "theatrical experience" than something burnished and pristine. (Doesn't hurt that it's a great, great movie to begin with.)

[tenia]

"Unrestored" seems to be take a bit too litterally here. It still is restored, or at least remastered. It just hasn't been thoroughly cleaned up, but it still got manually checked and probably conformed (especially since, as Chris writes, the OCN has been completed by other sources), scanned and graded. It probably has been stabilised and I'd suppose any big issue has also been cleaned up too.

[hearthesilence]

As to the film I thought it was quite fun and I think I enjoyed it more than High Sierra. I wasn't even aware of it before this release admittedly, so it was a great little surprise.

Yeah, I think it's actually a better and more compelling film than High Sierra. It just feels like there's more invested in it personally by Raoul Walsh. FWIW, I haven't read the original source material for High Sierra, but IIRC Huston's script was more or less a straight translation rather than an adaptation, similar to what he would do with The Maltese Falcon.

[Drucker]

Count me in as an additional admirer of Colorado Territory. As good as High Sierra was, I don't think the flow worked as well as in the latter film.

SpoilerShow

Bogart losing his cool by having his proposal rejected, and the manner in which he gets angry, just doesn't fit that well with the rest of the film, and feels a bit forced. Making that father/daughter relationship less prominent, and go in a different direction in the latter film worked way better as far as I was concerned, and the relationship between McCrea's character and Colorado worked better than Bogart/Lupino. And of course, that final shootout really had a great twist in the latter film.

Anyone else notice that in the final shootout in Colorado Territory, when Colorado approaches the group of sheriffs/police, she introduces herself as Wes' "woman" but if you read her lips she definitely says 'wife'. Funny little error on her part.