Update Megaweek, Day 7: Daisy Miller

Here's a new release I'm super excited for that hardly anybody seems to be covering.  I guess that's why I started this site.  1973's Daisy Miller is making its blu-ray debut this July in a fancy "Édition Prestige limitée."  Yes, this is a French release, via Carlotta Films, and for now at least, it's a worldwide exclusive.

Update 7/17/22 - 4/28/26: Exclusive no more!  In fact, not only has it now been released on blu-ray in the US, but it's an upgraded 4k special edition!  Also, for Update Megaweek, I've gone and covered Scream Factory's 2021 blu-ray of that weird sci fi/ horror hybrid Come True.

I guess this is a movie still waiting to be fully rediscovered.  It's always had some critical recognition, but it was famously a flop, seriously hurting the careers of its director Peter Bogdanovich and star Cybil Shepherd, and even their whole production company.  It's been argued that it was too artsy and non-commercial, ahead of its time (i.e. before Merchant/ Ivory popularized putting this sort of period novel on the big screen), or the result of bad press Peter and Cybil were getting as a celebrity couple.  How much those are actual reasons or just excuses I don't know, but it's clear the general public didn't like this film, because it's pretty great.  It's an extremely faithful adaptation of Henry James' touching novella with a lot of talent on hand and gorgeous locations, with the crew sparing no expense in filming at all the real, lavishly historical locations described by the author across Rome and Sweden.  As far as I'm concerned, it's Bogdanovich's masterpiece.

Shepherd got a lot of flack for playing an unsophisticated American who doesn't fit in with the rest of the cast, but that's just how James wrote her.  Admittedly, you could argue that Shepherd is overplaying it, and I could certainly see audiences being rubbed the wrong way - in fact, she's supposed to rub us the wrong way at first.  And the precocious schtick they have Daisy's little brother play always made me feel like Bogdanovich hadn't fully divested himself from Paper Moon yet.  But, come on, who doesn't like Paper Moon?  And Shepherd lets so much humanity slip out by the end that you're really missing something if you can't appreciate any of her performance, especially when paired with the delightful Cloris Leachman and the stone-cold perfect Barry Brown, who surely would've gone on to a far greater career had he survived into the next decade.  It's photographed beautifully (with some crazily long takes if you're in the market for them), with Bogdanvich expertly slipping just enough touches of humor and character to add to the story without tipping its delicate balance of tone.  But, yes, I can see how for some people, the Millers' performances could simply be too much to bear, and even I might have preferred them a little more subtle.

Paramount released Daisy Miller on DVD in 2003 as part of their rather generic "Widescreen Collection," but it was actually a rather fit special edition.  Still, twenty years later, it's been well past time for it to enter the HD era, and Carlotta Films has finally brought it across the finish line this summer.  I've got their fancy, 2022 limited (spine #20) collector's edition BD/ combo pack that comes in a hard box with a lot of swag, but they've also released separate DVD and BD releases for the more budget conscious viewers who perhaps didn't feel quite as compelled to celebrate over this blu-ray debut as I did.  Or you could've waited until 2024, when Kino released it on BD in the US with an all new 4k scan and new special features.

1) 2003 Paramount DVD; 2) 2022 Carlotta DVD; 3) 2022 Carlotta BD.

So we seem to be looking at the same root master for the first two releases; it's got identical framing and color-timing, etc.  Although, while the framing is identical, the aspect ratio is not - shifting from 1.77:1 to 1.85:1, with Carlotta matting just a tiny bit because it's also slightly adjusting the film's geometry in a way which I assume is correct, though it's hard to really judge since the distinction is so subtle.  Anyway, the old disc was anamorphic and properly progressive, so not too shabby, but there appears to be some slight edge enhancement on the old DVD that Carlotta corrects; you can even see the difference between the two DVDs.  Grain is now super finely rendered, almost suspiciously so, thanks to a fine encode on a dual-layered 1080p disc (the Carlotta DVD is naturally PAL, however).  You'll notice fine detail, particularly in the first set of shots, is only now discernible, like the pattern on the table legs, even when comparing the blu to the newer DVD, so it is a genuine HD boost.

And now we've got the 4k, scanned from the original 35mm negative.  It's still 1.85, revealing very slight slivers of extra information.  Grain is actually softer, substantially so at times (look at Cybil's face), compared to the French blu, and I'm not sure we're getting much additional detail for the double-dip.  But, before you get too disappointed, I have to say the colors are an improvement.  The first thing you probably noticed is that it's brighter, but it also feels more natural and separated, plus a bit cooler.  I do prefer this color-timing and I think I'd give Kino the edge overall (it's the first time the sky looks blue instead of purple in that first set of shots), but it's a very close and subjective call.  It's a shame Kino didn't give us a UHD option to reap the benefits of their new scan.

Audio-wise, the original mono track has been boosted to DTS-HD on both blus.  Carlotta's also included a French dub, in DTS-HD as well, and unforced (yay!) French subtitles.  The menu does try to pressure you, only showing options for English with French subs or French with no subs, but you can easily swap between audio and subtitle options as the film plays with no interference.  If you needed English subtitles, though, the US DVD and Kino blu do have them, so that definitely gives Kino more of an edge here.  And there's still more to come.

Extras are interesting because the Paramount release already did a pretty fine job.  It includes an "introduction" by Peter Bogdanovich, which is a solid thirteen minutes long and thoroughly spoils the ending, so I'd consider it a proper interview rather than an intro.  Then he also provides an audio commentary, and man, Bogdanovich is great at commentaries.  He has a lot of memories and insights, treads the line between technical and anecdotal, and provides a strong defense for his work while still being rather candid about its troubles.  It's even a bit emotional.

Carlotta preserves the "introduction" but sadly loses the commentary.  The intro does cover some of the same ground and gives you most of the fundamentals, but there's a lot of great stuff in the commentary that's a shame to lose.  I suppose they figured French audiences wouldn't be keen on a commentary they'd have to play in full subtitles, but if that's true, I daresay they've underestimated their audience.  They did cook up a brand new featurette, which is a 23-minute interview with a French critic, but it isn't English-friendly.  They also added the original theatrical trailer that the original DVD had overlooked.  And, if you bought the combo-pack, there's all this swag [left].  It's a digibook in a nice, thick box with a fold-out poster, a reproduction of the pressbook (yes, in English), eight lobby cards and six press photos.

Kino's disc doesn't have all that swag - though it comes in an attractive slipcover - but it has more and better special features.  Well first, crucially, yes it brings back Bogdanovich's commentary and still has his introduction, plus the trailer.  Then Kino has come up with a new, expert commentary by critic Peter Tonguette, which is quite informative and enjoyable.  The real jewel in the crown, though, is that Kino got Cybil Shepherd to come in for a proper interview.  This is the kind of get the major studios usually only got during DVD's heyday.  They also threw on a couple bonus trailers.

So I'm happy.  This is a film I'd been eagerly awaiting a long time for, and now we finally have quality options.  Kino's is the champion for now, though their crown could be easily snatched in another region wanted to give this film a real UHD.

Flying The Wings Of the Dove Home

Wasn't The Wings Of the Dove a rather successful and highly critically regarded feature with, like, four Oscar noms and a bunch of BAFTAs?  How is it still only available as an ancient non-anamorphic Miramax DVD and a Lions Gate DV-R here in its home country?  ::flips the DVD over and looks at the Miramax logo::  Oh, yeah.  I guess it wouldn't really work as part of a 4-pack with Prophecy 4-5 and Hellraiser 8.  I suppose we'll have to import.  It's available in a couple regions; I went with Japan.

The Wings Of a Dove is a surprisingly potent Henry James adaptation from the late 90s.  I say surprising only because of the period and, well, look at the director's filmography.  On the one hand, it's beautifully shot, with elegant locations and costuming.  But it's also so much more deeper and more humane than just a frilly costume drama.  The cast is spot on, with stars Helena Bonham Carter, Charlotte Rampling, Ordinary People's Elizabeth McGovern and the great Michael Gambon.  They took a big chance casting the relatively unknown Linus Roache as the male lead, but he completely lives up to his role.  Every element succeeds, from the music to the editing, to putting James up on the screen the way he should be.

1998 US Miramax DVD top; 2012 JP Warner Bros BD bottom.

So, sure, this isn't some fancy 4k restoration, but Warner's disc is a strong boost to HD for an older BD.  Of course, it helps that it's being compared to a lower res, non-anamorphic DVD, but still.  Just look at that close-up; what a difference.  This is a fully respectable image from a major studio, and one a film this lavish deserves.  The aspect ratio has been corrected from 2.29:1 to 2.35:1 (although the DVD actually retains a bit more image around the edges), and the colors/ contrast have been corrected to be less stark.  So this isn't just the same old master given the proper BD treatment.  It's a not a brand new transfer, given this BD is a decade old now, but it's newer than the DVD's, making this a very satisfying upgrade.

Both discs present the film in 5.1, which is lossless on the BD's DTS-HD.  Only the US DVD includes optional English subtitles, though, if you need those.  Warner Bros' naturally includes a Japanese dub (2.0 DTS-HD) and completely optional Japanese subtitles.

At least Miramax's DVD isn't completely barebones.  It has a decent but clip-heavy 17-minute featurette, which starts off as your typical EPK piece including a bit of B-roll and interviews with the director, producer David Parfitt and stars Carter, Roache, Rampling & Alison Elliot.  But then it opens things up, bringing in Mark Rance from Criterion (even though, no, even on laserdisc, this film was never in the Criterion Collection) and English Professors from Princeton, Colorado and UCLA to address the James stuff.  Even Peter Bogdanovich pops up at the end ...I guess because he did Daisy Miller.  So you can see it gets deeper than your standard promo piece, but it's no full-on documentary or anything.  Anyway, there's that and the theatrical trailer.  And no, the blu-ray hasn't come up with any new special features, it has at least hung onto the featurette and the trailer.  Though, as you can see, they've burnt Japanese subtitles onto both.

We shouldn't have to update this title, but we really do.  The blu-ray really transforms this film from its old DVD transfer.  Thankfully, it's a major studio handling it, so they've done it right (dual-layered, properly lossless audio, retaining the extras).  The Wings Of the Dove really should look beautiful, and it does if you're willing to put in the effort for it.

Two Children. Two Adults. No Ghosts? The Nightcomers

Here's a premise I never would've thought the world needed to see realized: a prequel to Henry James' The Turn Of the Screw.  If you're familiar with the story, sure, it makes some sense.  The Turn Of the Screw is one of those stories where two children are haunted... whether by literal ghosts or just the lasting effects of their trauma is for both the protagonist and the readers to determine.  But it means we enter the story after a major piece of drama has occurred, which, if you think about it, is typical of ghost stories.  You know, like a young couple buys a house and someone tells them, hey, the previous owner killed his whole family, and some say they still walk the halls at night.  The plot follows the young couple, with the murderer and his family just serving as the back story.  So here, somebody said, let's make that backstory the story.  But that's actually kind of weird, since you're adding another chapter to a ghost story, but one with no ghosts in it, because these events predate all that.  Imagine screening a prequel to Friday the 13th and watching the audience as they slowly realize there's going to be no murderer because the story ends with Jason in the lake, so the whole movie is just about Mrs. Vorhees getting to know, and being perfectly friendly with, the camp counselors.  Tough sell, right?

Tougher still, you're not writing an add-on to an independent little horror film but a world-renowned classic English novel.  I know it's been done plenty of times before, since those characters are generally safely in the public domain.  So instead of trying to sell audiences on your own characters, you can try to hook existing fans of Jane Austen or whoever by writing Mansfield Park 2, where Mr. Darcy arrives to seduce Fanny away from Edward.  Actually, that's a great idea.  I'm claiming that copyright now if no one's done it already!  But seriously, I've seen stuff like that in bookstores before and it's usually a big red flag that the author is hack.  Nobody takes them seriously, and nowadays they're more properly relegated to online fanfic forums.  But 1971's Nightcomers shows you can make real, worthwhile artistic pieces in this manner as well.

Marlon Brando stars (which is either a promising hallmark or another big red flag; I'm not sure) as Quint, the infamous groundskeeper who had already passed at the start of Turn Of the Screw.  In Turn, a new governess is hired to take care of a wealthy businessman's two wards, who turn out to be deeply troubled by their former governess and Quint, who'd had some kind of dark, mysterious relationship.  So this film explores that relationship.  Yeah, nothing supernatural here.  It's dark, but I really don't think you could call this a horror story, except in the loosest possible definitions.  It's a drama, but a smart and honest one.  You could definitely watch this never having heard of Turn and get everything out of it, though of course you'll find more little nods and connections to appreciate if you are familiar.  This film does have a bit have a lurid reputation, which is not entirely undeserved.  But now that it's so old and plays downright quaint, with most of the racy notions left to subtext and discussed ideas rather than on-display exploitation, I think we can more easily take the content for what it is without being distracted by the adult elements.  The cast is uniformly excellent, including Thora Hird as Mrs. Grose and the two child actors, who can often be the weak link in films with minors in leading roles.

The Nightcomers is a British film, so it's not too surprising they got it on DVD first.  But when Lions Gate finally put it out here in 2007, it blew all the overseas editions out of the water by way of being a special edition.  Then the UK beat us to the punch again in 2015, with Network being the first to release this film on blu.  But they pulled a bit of a Christine, releasing it without the DVD extras, making us choose between an HD transfer or special features, or else buy multiple editions.  Of course, it's a bit of an unfair analogy, as Christine was a new film egregiously released on DVD-only by Sony, while here we're talking about a catalog title.  Totally different situation, but it's still a bummer for fans when it happens.  But thankfully this week Kino has stepped in to, like Lions Gate in the DVD age, bring The Nightcomers back to the US with a new special edition.  It's got all the original extras and more new stuff, plus of course the updated HD transfer.  ((Rocky theme))

2007 Lions Gate DVD top; 2019 Kino BD bottom.

So, okay, we're clearly looking at the same root master, with the exact same 1.85:1 framing and color timing.  But up close, it's a huge boost in clarity, with the DVD displaying an unfortunate amount of smudginess, even for SD compression.  That's thankfully completely cleared up on the blu.  Still, it's not exactly a cutting edge master on Kino's disc.  Grain is there but light and inconsistent.  If you look at the wall in the second set, for instance, the grain is there in patches, with other patches smoothing it away.  This is definitely not a 4k capture.  I guess they're using the same scan.  But still, getting this film in HD is a substantial step forward from the DVD, with no signs of DNR, edge enhancement or other unwelcome tinkering.

The audio is a clean DTS-HD presentation of the original mono soundtrack, and optional English subtitles are included.  The DVD only had Spanish subs.

So, like I said, all foreign editions were barebones, apart from a teaser and the trailer, until Lions Gate got their hands on it.  Now, Lions Gate didn't add a ton of stuff, but they added something pretty major: an audio commentary by director Michael Winner.  This is a delightful commentary; he's full of charming stories of working with Brando and the rest of the cast (fun fact: Vanessa Redgrave was originally hired to play the female lead), but Brando most of all.  Lions Gate also filmed a brief on-camera introduction by Winner.  Though if we want to wag our finger a little bit, it could be pointed out that they lost the trailer and teaser.  Well, Kino brought them back, and more importantly, carries over Winner's commentary and introduction.  That plus the HD was enough to sell me on this release already, but they've also produced a new audio commentary by film historian Kat Ellinger.  Here, she's without her Daughters of Darkness partner Samm Deighan, which nixes the conversational quality of their Who Can Kill a Child commentary.  But she's more than capable on her own, thoroughly prepared, having listened to Winner's commentary not to use it as a source of anecdotes to repeat to us like some other commentaries I could name, but to note what not to say to avoid redundancy.  Refreshing, enthusiastic and highly informative!

Alright, so I said you don't need to be a Turn Of the Screw scholar to enjoy The Nightcomers, but still, it is a richer viewing when you know where it's all headed.  So I thought I'd share with you guys my favorite, fairly un-recognized adaptation from 1999, and I do include versions that don't share the title like The Innocents (which I'd rank a strong second place, but falls a little short due to an emphasis on style losing sight of the substance) in that.  I once made an effort to see every version of The Turn Of the Screw I could lay my eyes on, including the latest BBC version with all the Downton Abbey alumni, the Dan Curtis version with Lynn Redgrave, the Valerie Bertinelli version and of course that goofy 90s one with Patsy Kensit and Julian Sands as the master of a rather bizarrely art deco house.  And yet I've settled on this one as the ideal, definitive version to date.

This version is the Masterpiece Theater version, starring Jodhi May, who's never stopped working but seemed on the verge of taking a real star turn around this time.  And Colin Firth has the small but showy role of the master.  It expertly captures the period and the cast finds layers to their characters other versions miss.  Admittedly, this aims more towards the human drama than spooky ghost story atmosphere, so I can understand why a lot of fans might still prefer The Innocents.  If you're looking for something like The Haunting to make you cower under the covers on Halloween night, this ain't it.  But as that's also the tact that The Nightcomers takes, it makes 1999's Turn an all the more ideal companion piece.  The only thing I haven't been able to decide is if it's better to watch the original, and then go watch the backstory of Nightcomers and let it inform what you'd just watched as they were written, or to watch them in chronological order and watch the expanded story unfold.  I guess it's a pretty equally rewarding experience either way.

2004 WGBH DVD.

Unfortunately, this Turn Of the Screw's WGBH DVD is sorely lacking.  The back of the case describes this film as 4x3, but that's only because the opening Masterpiece Theater titles are fullscreen.  That leaves the film itself stuck in a non-anamorphic widescreen, floating in a sea of dead space.  And framed at the very unusual ratio of 1.59:1, I strongly suspect this is not the correct framing.  Being non-anamorphic means it's extra compressed into a smaller space as well, so the resolution is unattractively low even for a DVD.  Oh, and before I forget, it's heavily interlaced as well, adding up to a decidedly overall low quality video feel.  I would have loved, loved, loved for WGBH to go back and restore it for blu-ray like they did with Northanger Abbey, but now in 2019, I fear that ship has sailed and this, and a fairly identical import disc, is all we'll ever get.

For slight silver linings, this disc does include optional English subtitles.  And it features minor extras by virtue of including the TV spot and Alistair Cooke's Masterpiece introduction, which gives you a minimal briefing on James' novel for the uninitiated.  But boy, does this film need restorative rescuing.

So, as you've probably gathered by now, I'm pretty chuffed about this new Nightcomers.  Solid presentation and all the extras.  It helps that the price is always nice with these Kino discs; if we were being asked to pay limited edition Arrow prices, I'd say, come on, give us a fresh 4k scan.  But as it is, I'm quite pleased.  Except about The Turn Of the Screw.  That's such a bummer, it almost qualifies as an M.I.A.