The picture, filmed in black and white, looks fantastically sharp throughout
the entire film, the only slight let-down coming briefly at the beginning
as the original print settles down. Brief moments involving smoke falter
a little but these do not last long and will not affect viewing for the
majority of viewers.
The film appears here in its original widescreen ratio of 1.85:1, not
the slightly-less 16:9 (1.77:1) as indicated on the box and it's an anamorphic
master as well which will benefit owners of widescreen TVs. The average
bitrate is a lower-than-average 3.93Mb/s. Usually films tend to suffer
when they drop below 4Mb/s but there are no artifacts on show here other
than those caused by the small anomolies mentioned above.
The mono sound (presented in Dolby Digital 1.0) comes across clearly,
but won't set any home cinema system on fire.
Extras :
Biographies :
The disc contains biographies for Kenneth More (6 pages of info)
and Honor Blackman (3 pages).
Chapters/Bookmarking :
Although most Carlton DVDs contain one more chapter than there is listed,
this one contains 11 instead of the nine indicated inside. It's not enough
in either case of course, especially since Chapter 10 lasts 32 minutes
!
For some strange reason, although I could make bookmarks on my Encore
Dxr2 DVD-ROM and go back to them while playing the film, if I was to stop
and come back to it later, these bookmarks would disappear - something
which has never happened to me before.
Languages/Subtitles :
English language only and no subtitles.
"The Making Of...A Night To Remember"
On the flip side of the disc is "The Making Of 'A Night To Remember'",
a 61-minute documentary which includes behind-the-scenes footage of the
movie including interviews with producer William MacQuitty, who
saw the original ship launched, as well as the author of the book, Walter
Lord. It also features historical footage of the Titanic, the 1958
London film premiere and the original theatrical trailers.
Menu :
The interactive menu is static. Side one simply offers the film and scene
selection, but side two brings on the aforementioned extras.
On inserting the disc, a copyright logo is shown before the film begins.
Then you can go back to the menu and select specific scenes or the biographies
on the respective sides.
Overall, veterans of the cinema may wonder why I've only given this
film a mere three stars out of five, but the problem comes when one sees
a remake before an original or an earlier version of the same story. Having
been spoiled by the technological splendour of James Cameron's blockbusting
vision, A Night To Remember tells a good story with good acting, but, running
the risk of having to dodge the rotten fruit about to be thrown, this version
didn't quite cut it for me in comparison.
That said, one of the most sought-after films on DVD is Titanic, something
which may take a while since Fox have only announced a few titles in Japan,
most of which are back-catalogue offerings. Hence, for now this DVD is
your best - and only - chance to get the story in the new digital format,
for now. It's only competition is the American DVD which costs a bit more, but
does also feature an audio commentary from Titanic experts Don Lynch &
Ken Marshall.
After the promising first five releases, it'll be interesting to see
what comes by under the Carlton label next, particularly as they have an
extensive back-catalogue of television programmes which are ripe for this
format and I would love to see those series made in 16:9 released in that
format, as they're being shown on analogue terrestrial television in a
zoomed-in 14:9 format.
Finally, after watching this film, one can't help thinking that there's
something ironic when Kenneth More gets upset about the fate of the RMS
Titanic, when two years later he was doing his level best to "Sink The
Bismarck!"
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
