Kit Parker Films

Vinegar Syndrome, Deaf Crocodile, Imprint, Cinema Guild, and more.
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HJackson
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2011 7:27 pm

Re: Kit Parker Films

#26 Post by HJackson » Fri Apr 26, 2019 1:43 pm

Just tried them out in my Region B machine and they worked fine.

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domino harvey
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Re: Kit Parker Films

#27 Post by domino harvey » Fri May 03, 2019 12:28 pm

Preorder for Vol 2 is down to $33

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HJackson
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2011 7:27 pm

Re: Kit Parker Films

#28 Post by HJackson » Wed Jul 24, 2019 5:23 pm

Have enjoyed the first disc of Volume 2. Thought the minor works in this one and Vol 3 looked like a step down compared to Vol 1 and they probably are, but I found the Haas picture Bait watchable enough - with a knockout pre-credits intro - and thought Cell 2455, Death Row was pretty thrilling. Breezy pace and one of the more action packed noirs out there with some killer car chases for 1955, including a great one where the protag’s car catches on fire!

Crooked Web I’d seen before and I do admire the plot design, but it doesn’t really do it for me. Was more than happy to revisit in HD and at this price though.

Can confirm this runs on my Region B machine like the first set too.

Noiradelic
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 12:45 am

Re: Kit Parker Films

#29 Post by Noiradelic » Thu Jul 25, 2019 3:25 pm

Grand Wazoo wrote:
Fri Apr 26, 2019 8:32 am
Are any films on these volumes upgrades of the Forgotten Noir discs?
No, these are all Sony films.

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HJackson
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2011 7:27 pm

Re: Kit Parker Films

#30 Post by HJackson » Wed Sep 25, 2019 10:53 am

Contrary to the initial Amazon listing, Volume 3 is indeed spread over three discs just like the others. Can’t wait to dip in!

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captveg
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:28 pm

Re: Kit Parker Films

#31 Post by captveg » Mon Feb 10, 2020 4:33 pm

Hopefully the first of more volumes to come:

6/16/20

Laurel & Hardy: The Definitive Restorations

STAN AND OLLIE LOOK AND SOUND BETTER THAN EVER! New 2K and 4K digital restorations from original 35mm nitrate, Laurel and Hardy's classic comedies are here in the best quality since their first release! Two features and 17 shorts, including the legendary pie-fight silent film "The Battle of the Century," making its video debut and nearly complete for the first time in over 90 years!

Bonus Materials:

Commentaries by Randy Skretvedt and Richard W. Bann
Never before seen video interviews as well as audio interviews with L&H co-workers
Over 2,500 rare photos, posters, scripts and studio files
Alternate Soundtracks
Music Tracks
"Ship's Reporter" Oliver Hardy Interview (restored)
"That's That" (restored/first time on video)
"Tree in a Test Tube" (restored from 16mm Kodachrome)
L&H off-camera pix from Hardy's collection
Restored Trailers

Feature Films:

Sons of the Desert
Way Out West

Short Subjects:

Berth Marks
The Battle of the Century (with new music track by Donald Sosin; virtually complete and restored)
Brats
Busy Bodies
The Chimp
Come Clean
County Hospital
Helpmates
Hog Wild
Me and My Pal
Midnight Patrol
The Music Box
One Good Turn
Scram!
Their First Mistake
Towed in a Hole
Twice Two


Restorations by Jeff Joseph/SabuCat in conjunction with the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Library of Congress. Using careful photochemical and digital techniques, these classic films are restored to pristine condition. In these stunning new transfers, they look and sound as beautiful as they did when they were first released.


Later in that thread Thad Komorowski confirms that Sonar Entertainment has the US rights to all the silent L&H films, too. Nice to have them all under one rights holder in the US for the first time in a long time.

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domino harvey
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Re: Kit Parker Films

#32 Post by domino harvey » Sun Jul 05, 2020 5:31 pm

Kicked off my semi-annual backlog disc viewing fest by watching the seven films from the first volume I hadn't seen before:

Best was obviously the Black Book, which exceeded my already high expectations-- beyond the legendary cinematographic merits of Alton, I was surprised at how wonderfully suspenseful and full of forward momentum the film was. I think it might be the most suspenseful non-Hitchcock Hitchcock film I've seen from the studio era. Plus Richard Basehart surely provides the pinnacle instance of my favorite Mann attribute, the sudden shock of extreme violence. I am legit stunned that the shot in question was allowed, it is up there with, well, all of Bataan as the most violent thing I've ever seen in a studio picture.

Once you get past the overbearing misogyny of the Guilt of Janet Ames, it is invitingly weird-- more so than even Peter Ibbetson, the novel/film (which I also pulled from the unwatched piles to watch after this) this movie invokes by name countless times to justify its psychological party games. What a truly bizarre studio film, completely ridiculous but made with utter sincerity, somehow! Address Unknown is also really wild aesthetically, though the film itself is quite poorly written and the stylistic tricks don't always work. But Paul Lukas is quite good as the tragic protagonist who pays for his Nazi beliefs by being tormented by some of the most strikingly expressionistic visuals ever seen outside of the silent era. Indeed, I'm certain I would have liked this more if I'd watched it without the sound on!

Escape in the Fog and Johnny Allegro are perfectly fine, three star, unexceptional but enjoyable programmer noirs. I did like the wronged husband in Johnny Allegro and his bow hunting fetish, though I sincerely doubt such an evil criminal would have waited so long to hunt humans as the film claims! Escape in the Fog is tethered to a completely unnecessary dream premonition set-up that makes it rather fantastical for no good reason, but it's an entertaining spy lark. This set doles out so much Nina Foch in one sitting!

Completely forgettable and without any special merit, though not awful: Miami Story and Assignment - Paris. Not a thing to say about these. The third disc could have just been left off.

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schellenbergk
Joined: Fri Dec 21, 2018 12:03 pm

Re: Kit Parker Films

#33 Post by schellenbergk » Tue Jul 07, 2020 11:51 am

Glowingwabbit wrote:
Fri Apr 26, 2019 8:18 am
For the price I'm definitely enjoying the presentation of these films so far. I don't know if it's just my copy but the biggest annoyance with this set is that 711 Ocean Drive and The Killer That Stalked New York are labeled wrong on the discs. Hopefully they can do a simple check next time around.
Mis-labled on mine too.

I'm just getting around to watching The Killer That Stalked New York - it certainly takes on an added resonance in the age of Covid-19.

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L.A.
Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 7:33 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: Kit Parker Films

#34 Post by L.A. » Mon Mar 01, 2021 3:31 pm

captveg wrote:
Mon Feb 10, 2020 4:33 pm
Hopefully the first of more volumes to come:

6/16/20

Laurel & Hardy: The Definitive Restorations

STAN AND OLLIE LOOK AND SOUND BETTER THAN EVER! New 2K and 4K digital restorations from original 35mm nitrate, Laurel and Hardy's classic comedies are here in the best quality since their first release! Two features and 17 shorts, including the legendary pie-fight silent film "The Battle of the Century," making its video debut and nearly complete for the first time in over 90 years!

Bonus Materials:

Commentaries by Randy Skretvedt and Richard W. Bann
Never before seen video interviews as well as audio interviews with L&H co-workers
Over 2,500 rare photos, posters, scripts and studio files
Alternate Soundtracks
Music Tracks
"Ship's Reporter" Oliver Hardy Interview (restored)
"That's That" (restored/first time on video)
"Tree in a Test Tube" (restored from 16mm Kodachrome)
L&H off-camera pix from Hardy's collection
Restored Trailers

Feature Films:

Sons of the Desert
Way Out West

Short Subjects:

Berth Marks
The Battle of the Century (with new music track by Donald Sosin; virtually complete and restored)
Brats
Busy Bodies
The Chimp
Come Clean
County Hospital
Helpmates
Hog Wild
Me and My Pal
Midnight Patrol
The Music Box
One Good Turn
Scram!
Their First Mistake
Towed in a Hole
Twice Two


Restorations by Jeff Joseph/SabuCat in conjunction with the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Library of Congress. Using careful photochemical and digital techniques, these classic films are restored to pristine condition. In these stunning new transfers, they look and sound as beautiful as they did when they were first released.


Later in that thread Thad Komorowski confirms that Sonar Entertainment has the US rights to all the silent L&H films, too. Nice to have them all under one rights holder in the US for the first time in a long time.
DVD Compare.

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DeprongMori
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 1:59 am
Location: San Francisco

Re: Kit Parker Films

#35 Post by DeprongMori » Tue May 18, 2021 11:54 am

For those that have access to JSTOR through their libraries or universities, there is an enlightening interview about the (primarily) non-theatrical film distribution and rights negotiation with Kit Parker by Tanya Goldman — ”When I Saw My First DVD, I Knew It Was All Over”: An Interview with Distributor Kit Parker in The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists from Fall 2019.

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L.A.
Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 7:33 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: Kit Parker Films

#36 Post by L.A. » Sat Sep 11, 2021 6:17 pm

Coming to Blu-ray 1/18 from Kit Parker Films

A Walk In The Sun (1945): The Definitive Restoration (2-disc Collector's Set)

Bonus Materials
* 4K Master from the UCLA Film & Television Archive’s 35mm photochemical restoration
* Commentary by Alan K. Rode
* Zanuck Goes to War: The WWII Films of Fox
* Living History: Norman Lloyd on Saboteur and A Walk in the Sun (2014)
* The Battle of San Pietro - Un-cut version from the Academy Film Archive preservation negative
* WWII Fox Movietone Newsreels
* Theatrical Trailer

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domino harvey
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Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Kit Parker Films

#37 Post by domino harvey » Sat Sep 11, 2021 7:06 pm

An interesting film, but not one with much in the way of visual appeal. Here’s my write up from the War List
domino harvey wrote:
Mon Nov 10, 2014 2:17 pm
A Walk in the Sun (Lewis Milestone 1945) Milestone's had a pretty good track record with war films for me so far, but this one's maybe a bit too self-serious. Scripted by Robert Rossen, the film opens a series of seemingly endless Important internal monologues on the nature of war, some of which work, but which mostly end up being exhausting. The first half of the film thus unfolds a bit like a radio drama, and I liked the sequence early on where Dana Andrews is stuck in a trench and the beachfront action of the invading forces is just out of sight over a hill. I also appreciated how the film dealt with a commanding officer who has the role foisted on him by seniority in the midst of fighting and shows himself utterly incapable of leading. The response of most of the men to this situation surprised me and gave the material a bit more bite and interest than the first half allotted. Overall this just barely worked for me, but I could understand its appeal.

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