For A Few Dollars More (1965) Kino Lorber Blu-ray 4K UHD review

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

Blah-ray’s audio analysis with clip sample: blah-ray.blogspot.com/2022/06/for-few-dollars-more-1965.html?m=1

[@kzmaven7478]

FAFDM is my favorite of the Leone films too - it just has some compelling "magic" to it that grabs you and doesn't let go.

[@pkkingcrimsonrequiem1332]

Unfortunately a stigma seems have to developed about old mono sound as most of the original fidelity has been misrepresented in the decades since. A good mono can sound amazing. I was actually first alerted to this considering that this is a big problem with older anime series as original brodcasts had mono that sounded crystal clear, yet later releases would use the faded optical tracks since most studios would...throw away the audio tape masters, leaving the faded mono be the only sound out there, and with added Noise reduction. Then I extended into looking into other areas of film and I found this widespread epidemic of bad mono out there. Old mono doesn't sound bad because the "technology wasn't there yet", it's because no one treats it properly.

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

This, this, a thousand times this!!!

[@jst6502]

Wow, awesome reviews and commentary on these films. Its a bit amusing that its longer than the film itself. Well done.

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

Thank you!! I always worry about length but let the review dictate it. Sometimes it winds up being longer than the film itself and I'm like "oh crap, I've done it again!"

[@SadieFelix]

The comparison on the Bad Audio Blu-Ray to the VHS made me laugh out loud! I always thought they must have used crappy recording equipment when dubbing the movie in the 60's.

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

The sad part is all of this gives mono tracks a bad name and people come away thinking all films before a certain point will never sound very good.

[@emilyvilleneuve9315]

@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader That saddens me immensly :( I always love to watch a movie with its original audio mix or best original version in case of multiple mixes on release (released both 2.0 and 4.0). Granted my audio setup is a minimal stereo setup with really nice speakers and receiver, so it's more accurate than a down mix. I'm happy to finally see a couple of the big studios putting original mixes on their 4k discs, i.e. The Godfather, but wish more of them would hop on this trend.

[@jackgreen05]

There is a project in Latin America about restoring all of the broadcast audio recordings from the 90s of Dragon Ball series by the group ANICOM and finally we have all of the Dragon Ball Z and GT chapters in their broadcast audio, the quality is SO MUCH BETTER than the legal distribution by Toei Animation in Crunchyroll. Is like the project made in Japan with their original japan broadcast audio of Fuji TV Even this ANICOM project have the sound of the ORIGINAL DUB MASTER of the TV Special 2, you can find in youtube by the name "Dragon Ball Z - Especial de TV 2 (4K AI) (Latam Spanish Master Audio)" by the channel Cristobal Toledo and the quality is really majestic, it shows that the sound quality in the 80's (and even further back) can be as good as it is today, the difficult thing is to preserve it.

[@slave_to_cinema]

😂 you crack me up. Best intro ever!

[@renansamuel2802]

Great content about an awesome movie!!! greeting from Brazil

[@rjculliford]

You're a saint for doing these in so much detail. Also I guess I now have to order that 1984 vhs, else Ennio will be rolling in his grave.

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

I hadn’t thought of that.😂 He would be and certainly Leone is because they can’t ever get his films right.

[@superjetze]

That audio VHS situation reminds me of Dragon Ball and that whole mess. If I have learned anything is that the rights holders a lot of the time don't seem to care about producing an archival release of the movies they own. It's a sad state of film preservation that even good products like this one still have problems like that.

[@jackgreen05]

There is a project in Latin America about restoring all of the broadcast audio recordings from the 90s of Dragon Ball series by the group ANICOM and finally we have all of the Dragon Ball Z and GT chapters in their broadcast audio, the quality is SO MUCH BETTER than the legal distribution by Toei Animation in Crunchyroll. Is like the project made in Japan with their original japan broadcast audio of Fuji TV Even this ANICOM project have the sound of the ORIGINAL DUB MASTER of the TV Special 2, you can find in youtube by the name "Dragon Ball Z - Especial de TV 2 (4K AI) (Latam Spanish Master Audio)" by the channel Cristobal Toledo and the quality is really majestic, it shows that the sound quality in the 80's (and even further back) can be as good as it is today, the difficult thing is to preserve it.

[@philmitchell8887]

I just found my blu ray copy wow what a difference..

[@pieterbalk-ht7kq]

The Italian 4Kult 4K release is the one to own @Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader with correct and complete running order and excellent soundtrack in Mono 1.0 and a 5.1 mix.

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

I haven't heard much about it yet but I am curious if it is different to the Kino UHD. I had assumed it would use the same Ritrovata scan but have a color regrade like most Leone Italian disc releases do nowadays.

[@Eidechsenhund22]

is the mono track the same as kino?

[@pieterbalk-ht7kq]

@@Eidechsenhund22 sorry I can’t tell as I do not own the KL version anymore. Hopefully @DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader can tell you.

[@christbianchi]

Love your intro! 😃

[@eddylex4921]

I have the Italian Blu Ray (the gold colored one) and it has the two scenes missing from the Kino 4k but is still missing one tiny snippet of footage. When Monko & Mortimer are getting the beat down one of the shots of Eastwood getting punched is missing. And is present in the Kino. It's so frustrating the way there's not one version that has all the footage.

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

The German BD has everything as do the original pan n scan LD and VHS releases. As far as I know those are the only ones to have 100% of footage included.

[@eddylex4921]

@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Yeah I've heard about that German Blu Ray wanna get that version, to bad it doesn't have the Italian track also. Hopefully it has the two shots missing from the Kino plus the punch missing from the Italian version. Now I kinda want to check out one of the old VHS/Laserdisc copies to bad the movies scope though if it was flat it wouldn't suffer as much from a pan&scan but scope really does. I have the Italian Blu Ray and I noticed when listening to the track a lot of extra sound effects and I thought in general it sounded a lot better.

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

@@eddylex4921 the German team used scraps from the old Mondo Italian Blu-ray and other sources and combined them with the MGM master but a version with less DNR. You get some dirt but it does look slightly better than the US MGM master releases and is complete. The old pan and scan releases are amazing for the soundtrack and uncut status but are time compressed. The letterbox LD is 2.01:1 but also the 1967 US release edit which cuts some things but has some extra footage.

[@garyrobinson8665]

Ive just ordered the german double pack because i dont own a fistful of dollars and it was a good price. I own the kino blu ray of few dollars more. Is the German release much better than the kino? I don't really care about a pristine print. I'm more interested in having better sound.

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

The German disc will get you all of the footage and a fully complete version. Otherwise in spite of getting that extra bit of footage the Kino UHD doesn’t include the German disc was forced to used the old MGM master. It looks better than the US MGM disc because they rolled back the DNR usage, but that means you’ll see some dirt and specks plus the baked in edge enhancement. On the audio side there isn’t really a good release unfortunately. They all use some form of MGM overcleaned and overscrubbed English mono with sync problems. To get a track without these issues you have to go all the way back to the widescreen Laserdisc, which used the cut US 1967 release version. That’s why I had to go back to the 1984 VHS and get some others help me undo the time compression. I think the first cleaned up MGM audio for the initial DVD is better than the one for later releases and the Kino but that’s not saying much. The German Fistful BD gets you the original Italian restoration master with more visible picture area and none of the Ritrovata color problems for a fraction of the cost of the original OOP Italian BD. The color isn’t perfect but at least it doesn’t have Ritrovata color problems and is miles ahead of the old MGM usa master.

[@garyrobinson8665]

@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader cool so it was worth picking up just for a fistful of dollars. A few dollars more is just a bonus. Thanks for the reply i did watch the whole video. It was very interesting and informative.

[@wapphigh5250]

Are these three Kino Lorber Dollars trilogy region free? Can that be played in RegionB? thanks

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

The UHD discs are region free, the BDs are locked to Region A.

[@MauldtheMan]

So, when Kino Lorber says they use the original mono track, does this mean it's *completely* original? As in, there's none of those pesky "updated" and "modern" gun SFX and explosion SFX? I've been looking and hoping for a release that isn't ruined like this (godspeed for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly to ever get the same treatment).

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

The mono here is the same MGM mono audio. The only difference is that Kino did make an adjustment to try and fix the sync issue and incorporate most of the missing footage. It’s not perfect but better. However the extreme noise reduction applied by MGM is still baked in and extremely limits the track’s fidelity. The 5.1 mixes on the other Leone films all have a degree of additional effects but none are as bad as the GBU monstrosity. Thankfully not all were folddowns labeled mono but some are still stuck that way such as the multitude of problems on Duck You Sucker.

[@MauldtheMan]

@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Thanks for the information, but I'm new to the intricacies concerning all of the releases and remasters of these movies, so then does the MGM mono also include those updated SFX?

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

@@MauldtheMan not on this film. That’s why I think this will be a solid upgrade for most everyone but keep in mind the Kino is still missing a second of footage and the audio is not as good as it could be. Fistful of Dollars got a brand new restoration mono remix that doesn’t have new effects but has messed up music, dialogue and effects levels throughout. The Kino GBU release used a fan sync of the Laserdisc mono which is the best quality original English mono known to exist.

[@jhberg17]

I’m 58, I’ve seen the dollar trilogy at least 100 times. I heard that GBU wasn’t great on 4k, so I waited a year, then got it, not much of a difference from the blu ray. Maybe I’m used to the colour timing of the earlier releases. I’m sticking with the blu ray on the first two. For me, if a disc bugs me, I adjust the colour on my tv. Now, if you want to see a great 4K get Alligator.

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

It’s hard to describe these discs overall. Fistful is better than Kino’s awful first Blu-ray but the color isn’t perfect and the restoration audio is flawed. FAFDM is a step forward and includes most of the cut footage and makes an attempt to fix the audio sync-but Kino didn’t make sure the edit had all the missing footage and the audio fixes aren’t perfect. Then you have the issue of the audio still being based on mgm’s heavily compressed mono.

[@Manco654]

I just listened to the VHS/UHD audio comparison and my god has the audio been butchered by MGM! 😭

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

They’ve fubared it for years from the sync issues to the missing footage to the increasing insane levels of noise reduction.