Updated on April 11 to include source material
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By RAY KELLY
Britain’s Mr. Bongo Films has announced Blu-ray and DVD releases of four Orson Welles-directed efforts this summer.
A “brand new restored 50th anniversary edition” of Chimes at Midnight, the silent footage intended for the 1938 stage production of Too Much Johnson with narration and The Stranger will be released on three individual DVD and Blu-ray discs on June 29, according to an April 8 press release. The issuing of Immortal Story on the same date did not include a Blu-ray catalog number, leaving open the possibility it may be a DVD-only release.
Chimes at Midnight will have a run in UK cinemas beginning May 1.
From the theatrical press kit:
For the 50th anniversary edition of ‘Chimes At Midnight’, Mr Bongo presents the Filmoteca, Luciano Berriatúa restoration. This restoration has been undertaken with upmost respect for Welle’s original vision for the movie. The work of the historian is not based on providing a qualityof picture and sound according to the standard of current technologies (attempting to better what Welles filmed in the sixties), but to recover the film so that the viewer can watch the movie the same way they could watch it at the time. Berriatua said of his restoration; “For me the most important aspect of this restoration is to make a copy as accurate as possible to the original, with original photography. The most important thing is to play the grading, shadows and contrast selected by Welles. It is not a digital restoration in which the image is absolutely clean and no grains or problems. There is a stereo 5.1, is a mono sound, as of the time.“
(Note: It is unclear how the Mr. Bongo Blu-ray of Chimes at Midnight is related to an impending American release, which was referenced by Beatrice Welles at the Sedona International Film Festival in February).
Mr. Bongo’s extras for The Stranger disc will include the original theatrical trailer, an image gallery and four wartime radio shows: Alameda (Nazi eyes on Canada 1942), War workers: (Ceiling Unlimited 1942), Brazil (Hello Americans 1942), Bikini Atomic test (Orson Welles Commentaries 1946).
Extras for the remaining three home videos have not yet been revealed.
Special thanks to Ian Schultz for passing this along.
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