Books on the shelves, bric-a-brac and accoutrements and clutter on desks, the pattern on coats and hats, the flickering of flames, the bark on trees all seem defined more sharply. In fact, it now looks so clear and crisp that it may even lose some of the mystique that it originally had.ĭetail is very good and certainly greater than on the DVDs. The glowing of the “monster” in The Scarlet Claw looks fantastically dazzling without being too bright or smudgy. Here, blacks are easily infiltrated and diluted by greys, and contrast a little fuzzier on the whole. Interiors have fine distributions of shadows which, in turn, help to deliver a greater sense of visual depth. Blacks, with only a few very forgiveable exceptions, are strong and deep, reliably enforcing the visual drama with good, nicely defined shadow-play which, of course, leads to an increased sense of atmospherics. Contrast can vary, but this is more an issue with the source and the possibly very limited remedies that can be afforded it. They are clean, crisp, detailed and sharp, and they are brighter than their SD counterparts. Barring The Hound, which does suffer from wobbles, staining and smudges, the prints really hold up well. Pursuit To Algiers, as well as elements from other entries, had to be culled from 16mm prints and blown up. Vertical lines, scratches, pops and flecks are par for the course, and you really cannot expect otherwise. Damage is obviously still in evidence right across the board but, in the majority of cases, it has been kept to a minimum. The films are kept in their original 1.33:1 ratio, although due to the restorative work that necessitated the Universal titles having to be replaced, as well as few other, tiny, assorted clean-ups, some very slight re-jigging of the frame occurs, such as the window-boxing of the opening titles for Dressed To Kill. The last of the series, Dressed To Kill, which had actually come from a problematic source, looks outstanding, though, with its original grain beautifully resolved. ![]() You'll find that all the films have some element that betrays their vintage, but there is nothing that is unacceptable. ![]() And in The Spider Woman we even have a faint yellow taint to a portion of the image. ![]() Having said that, The Scarlet Claw has some pretty rough looking scenes too. Now, this isn’t to say that these first, and possibly best two instalments, look horribly inferior to their companions – the prints do look in worse condition, especially Hound – but simply that there is more evidence on display of the digital tinkering they have received. The first two films in the series, the 20 th Century Fox films, The Hound Of The Baskervilles and The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes, have not been restored by the UCLA, whilst all the rest of them, the Universals, have. Having already been restored over a ten-year period, the films now get their full 1080p upgrade, and the results are certainly clear to see.
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