Battle Of Britain 4K (1969/UA/ViaVision/Imprint Region Free 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray Set)/Ben-Hur 4K (1959/Warner 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)/Focus On Louise Brooks (1925 - 1927/Flicker Alley Blu-ray)/Red Dust (1932/MGM/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/The Time It Takes (2024/Icarus DVD)

4K Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B-/X/B-/B/C Sound: C+/B/B/C+/C+ Extras: B+/B-/B/C/C- Films: B/C+/B/B-/C+

PLEASE NOTE: The Battle Of Britain Import 4K/Blu-ray set is now only available from our friends at Via Vision Imprint Entertainment in Australia and can play on all 4K/Blu-ray players, while Red Dust is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series. All can be ordered from the links below.

Next up are films that involve serious filmmaking and involve filmmaking, even if not explicitly so, are taken more seriously with fans and scholars understanding so...

Guy Hamilton's The Battle Of Britain 4K (1969) is a most welcome upgrade for the great British war film, thanks to a nicely expanded special edition 4K set from ViaVision/Imprint that marks one of the smartest back catalog reissued in Ultra HD so far this year. You can read my thoughts on it at this link among several war films reviewed:

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7039/Fox/MGM+War+Film+Blu-ray+Wave+One:+Patton/Battle

I still stick by that this is my favorite Guy Hamilton film after his three James Bond films, all then followed by his underrated Agatha Christie/Hercule Poirot film Evil Under The Sun (1982,) Hamilton also made plenty of duds, but not with these films. As important as ever, it really is also one of the key epic films of British Cinema and a special film that deserves this deluxe treatment which is also a limited edition set. Fans and those in the know already know it lives up to its reputation, so definitely check it out. And there's more, including playback coverage below.

Extras in this solid, hard packaging expand well beyond the only extra from the old U.S. Blu-ray being Sir William Walton's score isolated, but even that has been upgraded from lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 to lossless DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1. You also get a 100-page hardcover mini-booklet, three feature length audio commentary tracks and so many featurettes, they needed a bonus Blu-ray to fit it on here. You can see the great artwork and all the extras at the order link below.

I am no fan of Biblical epics and they are always as corny as they can be boring and even condescending, but William Wyler's Ben-Hur 4K (1959) is one of the better ones. MGM was out to outdo the 1925 hit classic and they would introduce a new film format in the process: MGM Camera 65, which used a huge anamorphic lens on 65mm negative to create an image as wide as the three-camera/three projector Cinerama format that was such a smash upon its arrival in 1952 and continued to rake in the money with more films made in the format.

It was very expensive and had the issue of audiences having to deal with the lines between the three projected images always showing (Cinemiracle solved this issue later, but Cinerama bought them out and never added this innovation!) so despite not being exactly as sharp or clear, MGM Camera 65 (later known as Ultra Panavision 70) was Cinerama with one lens and it helped this film become a huge megahit.

Charlton Heston is the title character, fighting against slavery, hate, prejudice and more, rising from being a slave and being abused to challenging it all and returning for unexpected revenge against the odds. At 222 (!!!) minutes, it s a long one and a big epic, but it drags, no matter how good it can look, which is often. From the massive sets, to the detailed production design to the costumes and advanced use of color that the new format allowed, its no wonder it was another huge megahit for Heston only a few years after The Ten Commandments and permanently established him as one of the biggest leading men in world cinema.

Cheers also to the editing, music score and supporting cast including Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd, Martha Scott, Hugh Griffith, Sam Jaffe, Cathy O'Donnell, Haya Harareet and the cast of thousands and thousands, none of whom are digital!

Yes, the Chariot Sequence is the big highlight, holding up better than ever, but the film is not bad, just very, very, very, very long and the melodrama and formula drags that out more. Now further restored by Warner Bros., its more of a pleasure to see and this is the only version anyone should bother with at this point outside of a great film print.

Extras are many and include Digital Movie Code, while the discs add Ben-Hur: Anatomy of an Epic (NEW)

• The Cinematography of Scale (NEW)

• Charlton Heston & Ben-Hur: A Personal Journey

• Ben-Hur: The Making of an Epic

• Ben-Hur: A Journey Through Pictures

• Screen Tests: George Baker and William Russell

• Screen Tests: Leslie Nielsen and Cesare Danova

• Screen Tests: Leslie Nielsen and Yale Wexler

• Screen Tests: Haya Harareet and Make-Up Test

• Commentary by Film Historian T. Gene Hatcher with Charlton Heston (2 Parts)

• and a Music Only Track Showcasing Mikos Rozsa's Award-Winning Score (2 Parts)

Of course, other extras can be found in the steelbook and past releases of the film, being a classic. However, this is impressive enough and fans will be happy.

In the tales of actors who did not make the transition to sound from silent films, the story of one big star is like no other. Focus On Louise Brooks (1925 - 1927) features the legendary actress who was a huge silent star, only to have her career killed by a studio executive who lied about her, though she would travel overseas and make more cinema classics before it was sadly and unnecessarily all over.

This set offers, as restored as possible, her work before all that happened, mostly at Paramount, but also at the company soon to be a bought by Warner Bros., First National. These too little seen films include:

The Street Of Forgotten Men /1925 / Directed by Herbert Brenon / 75 minutes / U.S. / Famous Players-Lasky Corporation
American Venus (Extant Materials) / 1926 / Directed by Frank Tuttle / 8 minutes / Famous Players–Lasky
Just Another Blonde (Fragment) / 1926 / Directed by Alfred Santell / 32 minutes / First National
Now We're In The Air (Fragment) / 1927 / Directed by Frank R. Strayer / 23 minutes / Paramount Pictures

In all cases, no doubt the camera loved her, she is amazing to watch, every single frame. Her appeal and star power in inarguable and as you watch, you can see what was lost to the detriment of all. Cheers to Flicker Alley for getting behind this project and adding priceless extras to these priceless films. I always liked Brooks and seeing that I am not alone, am pleased and even thrilled something so special has been issued on her and of her work.

The films are not bad either, but even when they have not aged well, Brooks is there and she is whom counts the most. All series film fans should catch this set ASAP!

Extras in this great slipcase packaging include a Restoration Demo: A look at the painstaking process that went into preserving the films included in this set

• Audio Commentaries: Informative audio tracks are included with film scholars Pamela Hutchinson on The Street of Forgotten Men, with author and film historians Thomas Gladysz and Kathy Rose O'Regan on Just Another Blonde, and with Gladysz and Robert Byrne on American Venus and Now We're in the Air.

• Looking at Lulu - Explore the fascinating behind the scenes life of Louise Brooks with an extended featurette hosted by historian Pamela Hutchinson

• Image Galleries featuring production stills and promotional material

• and Booklet Insert with an essay by film historian Thomas Gladysz and restoration notes by Rob Byrne.

Victor Fleming's Red Dust (1932) is a melodrama that takes place on a rubber plantation in Indochina, but you can tell its just sets and when the pre-Code chemistry starts to kick in between Jean Harlow and Clark Gable, you too will care less about anything else. Then just when you think it will be about her trying to find help and solace with him, another couple (Mary Astor and Gene Raymond) shows up and Carson (Gable) starts to become very interested in Barbara (Astor).

So you can imagine the kind of conflict that follows, but its the actors who manage to deliver even above a decent screenplay and that is why the film is still discussed and respected all this time, showing and communicating things that only mature viewers would catch. That makes it a remarkable film, despite some small aspects that are aged or just plain don't work.

Warner Archive has yet again delivered another remarkable restoration, especially considering how old the film is and some of the style used, all of which works. Fleming worked with Cable later on Gone With The Wind, of course, but nothing in that film can match the raw moments here.

Extras include an Original Theatrical Trailer (Spanish) and two live action MGM Technicolor shorts: Over The Counter and Wild People.

Francesca Comencini's The Time It Takes (2024) is a drama about the director's real life relationship with her father, Luigi Comencini (Fabrizio Gifuni) who himself was a major filmmaker in the Italian industry. She is portrayed from childhood to young adult, the screenplay shows their distant, problematic relationship and the problems she had as a result.

So semi-autobiographical, this has its moments, but also some repetition, some predictability and an ending that is more surreal than expected and does not totally work for me. Gifuni's performance is good, but not written as completely as it could have been, so we do not get much of a character study. In all this, I was glad I saw it, but I wish it had worked better and used its time more effectively.

Trailers for three other Icarus releases are the only extras.

Now for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on The Battle Of Britain 4K definitely and eventually outdoes its 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition regular Blu-ray counterpart also included, which also looks like the same transfer on the old U.S. Blu-ray. Though the film is a little darker than you might expect, that's its look with some shots are just on the flat side since that's the genre, but you can see how even the British labs of Technicolor would render their dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor 35mm film prints. But you have the brilliant Director of Photography Freddie Young, B.S.C. shooting this all in real anamorphic Panavision and it has impact, especially now in 4K and in the flying scenes and other scenes with airplanes, where the image can rightly join and challenge anything from the time all the way up to The Right Stuff, both Top Gun films and more. Using no digital visuals, it is more impressive than ever, especially now that you can see far more fully how exceptionally well this was shot. Think demo moments for the best 4K screens around.

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on both versions of the film are the same as the mix from the older U.S. Blu-ray and that's fine, but I just wish it had aged a little better. Otherwise, any serious film fan and home theater fan will be most impressed.

The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.59 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Ben-Hur 4K comes from a new 8K scan of the original MGM Camera 65 color negative materials and this is a new 8K scan, succeeding the older one done of the older Blu-ray release years ago. The biggest beneficiary here is the color, originally issued in dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor reduction prints and just amazing on its own. Of course, especially with more dark scenes than you might remember, the Chariot Race Sequence is the real beneficiary and more stunning than ever, a viewing experience it would now take a mint, non-faded film print to compete with. The only setback is unlike The Ten Commandments (shot in VistaVision) and Spartacus (shot in Technirama) this was shot with anamorphic lenses, so you still get some distortion, no matter how great those lenses were and still are. They have recently found a new audience with filmmakers and are being used the most they have been in decades.

The soundtracks include a repeat of the solid DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix from the older Blu-ray release, but Warner decided to try and create a lossless Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) upgrade and in this case, I think it gets more out of the original soundmaster, music materials, sound stems and just has more impact, warmth and realism. The DTS may be closer to the original analog 6-track magnetic sound with traveling dialogue and sound effects the film was first issued with, but the Atmos kept surprising me, delivering surprisingly sharp, clean and clear audio without sounding phony or fake. MGM put the money into every aspect of this film and it is still paying off.

The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfers on the Louise Brooks films can show the age of the materials used, but this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of these films where they even existed at all. As is the case for all of these great compilations where all involved work VERY hard to fix, save and preserve the original materials (where they have survived,) you get your rough spots and then you often get some pristine moments that shine and surprise, especially great when it is Brooks herself.

PCM 2.0 Stereo music is here for all the films, but as clear as they are, none of them stuck out for me, but they are fine.

The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfer on Red Dust also surprises as it rarely shows the age of the materials used, is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film and we can all be glad this survived as extraordinarily as well as it has. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix of the original optical theatrical mono sound has been restored as much as possible, but it is old and shows its age. I wish it sounded better, but it is the best it will likely ever sound and is not bad otherwise.

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on The Time It Takes is softer throughout than I would have liked, but some nice shots still come through, while the lossy Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo had more solid Pro Logic moments than I expected, but a 5.1 mix would have been better and highly likely exists somewhere.

To order The Battle Of Britain 4K limited edition 4K/Blu-ray box set, buy it while supplies last at this link:

https://viavision.com.au/shop/battle-of-britain-1969-4k-uhd-blu-ray-limited-edition-hardbox-hardback-booklet-imprint-collection-500/

...and to order the Red Dust Warner Archive Blu-ray, go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive releases at:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20

- Nicholas Sheffo