ronald54321 said:
In the 1970's, there were a few theaters that specialized in showing classic films. Eventually all classic Hayes Office films wound up with PG and even worse ratings on them. As a result of this, all classic films available from WB, Universal, Fox, Turner, etc, use out of copyright replacements that were used by their TV divisions. These copies are greatly inferior to the master copies. If it were not for the ratings, all classic films would look as crisp and spot free as any film made today. All the ratings have ever done is to wipe out anything that's basically decent.
A handful but not all classic films were resumbited to the MPAA for raitings for the revial circut - yes, films that had WIDE re-releases like the 1970's re-issue of SCARFACE which got a "PG"
To have the ability of a larger number of classic films for the revival circut they would supliment with 16mm print - made from the same QUALITY negatives prepared for TV from the 35mm Negative elements - they just didn't take the same prints from the TV Syndication division and use them for theatrical revival-non theatrical (Colleges,etc).
There's no such thing as a "out of copyright" print for a film not in copyright, nor as I said they'd take old prints from the tv divisions. They'd strike up additional prints in 16mm to suppliment the handful of 35mm prints. BOTH made the master elements.
At no time did the MPAA force the studios to have their classic titles re-rated for the revival circut, only when a film was re-issued "wide". Additional examples was when MGM did wide kiddie-Matines of "Wizard of Oz".
But the studios did keep 35mm prints in circulation in the 1970's - so wherever you got your information is incorrect.
The condition of classic films TODAY is not becuase of what the studios "supposedly" did in the 1970's. Don't confuse "Master Copies" / "Master Elements" with a film that has been restored.
If you like classic films, you have been royally screwed. I think the master copies were stored in England, but I don't know where they are now.
The studios still hold the bulk of their master negatives and elements - what do you think they've been using since the 1980's and now in the DVD era? While there may be a handful of odd missing films pre-WW2, Warners-MGM,Universal,20th Century Fox (Although there are large gaps pre-merger,1935),and Columbia-Sony still have their output. (Although Columbia is missing a handful of 35mm elements on Serials,Shorts and Cartoons)
The pre-1948 Paramount Library is at Universal and there's a handful of films they didn't have rights to when MCA bought the libary, but they hold the safty negatives made in the late 1940's (OK, not the original negatives but just as good)
Paramount owns the Republic Libary,where there is a mix of 35mm and 16mm Elements.
Warners owns RKO,and that's one library, although the bulk exists, it's mostly as 16mm elements (negatives/fine-grains) due to the formentioned issues. However, these are elements made from the original,are low generation.
Also there are many films for which there is no TV copy, and they have become phantom films. One is the original film where Shirley Temple sang on "On the Good Ship Lollypop." This is not the reprise she did of it in a plane in a later film.
But some of these films do still exists at the studios, they were just not put in any tv package for whatever reason. Just look that the Warners Archive DVD releases - there are films from the 1930's that HAVE NEVER PLAYED ON TCM.
[/quote] So when you look at "It's a Wonderful Life" or anything else on TMC, you're looking at an inferior copy. [/quote]
Unlike the old TV prints from 16mm used in the 1950's-1980's. TCM has the cleanest transfers available from the best prints - mind you, some of these transfers, particularly the RKO films, were done in the 1980's when the studios switched from 16mm prints to Broadcast Masters. Sony has been supplying new transfers of the Columbia Titles,and 20th Century Fox's prints are either new transfers or the older masters used on FXM. Universal's titles were either recent or the transfers they did in the 1980's. But except for the RKO titles, these ARE from the 35mm master elements. Even with clean wet-gate and/or digital transfer, an old film - even from the most pristine elements is still an old film.
