Topper/Topper Returns
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DVD Cover Information Actor: Billie Burke, Carole Landis, Dennis O'Keefe, Joan Blondell, Roland Young Director: Norman Z. McLeod, Roy Del Ruth Brand: LION'S GATE ENTERTAINMENT DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC Picture Format: 1.33:1 Running Time: 184 minutes DVD Release Date: 2003-06-17 Audience Rating: Unrated Studio: Lions Gate |
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Movie Reviews of Topper/Topper Returns
Movie Review: SAME OLD RECYCLED GARBAGE
Summary: 1 Stars
This quickie DVD release shows the contempt its current owners have for the brilliant output of the glory days of Hal Roach Studios. Did you expect a brand-new, sparkling digital transfer from the original nitrate materials?? Then don't bother--these are the old, original one-inch ANALOGUE transfers done in 1984 to be used for the first attempts at Colorization (check your old Nostalgia Merchant VHS tapes. It's the same transfer). Which means they're totally "flat", seriously visually decayed by age, and the soundtracks are as flat as the picture (soundtracks lose their dynamic range as they age in the vaults as the tape is wrapped against itself for years. This is caused by the diminishing "signal-to-noise ratio" as the analogue signal slowly fades away and its level becomes "closer" to the inherant noise of the process, which noise becomes ever more obvious). In fact, TOPPER may well be simply a copy of the original one-inch Colorized version of the film with the Color turned off. It's that bad. (Colorization by design was transferred totally "flat" with no highlights or real density variations--you'll see what I mean if you watch these epics in these black and white versions.) TOPPER RETURNS even has the old "Hal Roach Studios" logo at the top created in 1986 for the "new" Laurel and Hardy TV Show and has been unseen since. These source tapes have likely been beaten to death at VHS duplication labs for two decades and, when Artisan suddenly realized "Gee--we oughta throw this stuff out there at a cheap price. Someone will be stupid enough to buy it", they grabbed the first tape they fell over in the vaults and rushed it to market. And, they were right--I was stupid enough to buy it. ("Get me once, shame on you. Get me twice..." well, you know.) If these people have such nauseating contempt for the material and for the audience to do this to two minor classics which were made AFTER 1937 (on which multiple copies of excellent material still exists), one only cringes at the prospect of their releasing early 1930's Laurel and Hardy material in the near future (probably the same 1986 analogue masters they've been Colorizing and recycling for 17 years). Of course, if the other stuff looks this bad, it won't have to be released--it will escape on its own. What a horrid--if fully expected--disappointment.