This is probably only going to be interesting to about five other people in the world besides myself, but here goes anyway:
Back in 2010, I purchased a copy of Universal's 1945 mystery THE CRIMSON CANARY from a firm called Timeless Theater. It was a mushy, multi-generational copy that ran just a few seconds short of 60 minutes. It had credit screens that tilted slightly to the right. It was far from ideal, but since any copy of this title was hard to come by, I settled and hoped for some future official release.
Over the years since then, I occasionally encountered other copies of CANARY from various vendors, but they were always taken from the same source with the tilted titles and running about 60 minutes even. I would bet that most collectors who are interested in this title (like I said, all 5 of them!) have a copy taken from this same source.
I am happy (with reservations) to report that I have recently discovered a different print. I know it's different because the titles aren't tilted on this one. It can be found on YouTube, and it was put there by a poster that calls itself Hastings Mystery Theater. This print has a host before the movie starts, and he claims that this is a program produced for a cable TV station somewhere in Michigan. More reservations-- It is also a mushy, multi-generational copy, just like the other copy I mentioned.
The good news about the Hastings copy is that it runs 63 minutes and 38 seconds, roughly 3 and a half minutes longer than the "tilted" print. Did you know that Claudia Drake (Anita) actually sings or lip-synchs a song before she follows Noah Beery Jr. into the back room where she is later murdered? I didn't until I saw this "new" print. This sequence accounts for roughly 2 and a half minutes of the footage missing from the "tilted" print. I haven't had the time yet to see what else might be missing.
Anyway, I just wanted to let anybody who might be interested know that there is a significantly longer copy of THE CRIMSON CANARY available out there for viewing. It really doesn't look or sound any better than copies that have been offfered for sale before, but it is more complete. Again, the best thing to happen for this title would be for it to receive an official release, probably through Kino and one of its deals with Universal.
BTW-- If anybody knows of a good quality copy of THE CRIMSON CANARY that is also complete, PLEASE PM me and thanks!
Back in 2010, I purchased a copy of Universal's 1945 mystery THE CRIMSON CANARY from a firm called Timeless Theater. It was a mushy, multi-generational copy that ran just a few seconds short of 60 minutes. It had credit screens that tilted slightly to the right. It was far from ideal, but since any copy of this title was hard to come by, I settled and hoped for some future official release.
Over the years since then, I occasionally encountered other copies of CANARY from various vendors, but they were always taken from the same source with the tilted titles and running about 60 minutes even. I would bet that most collectors who are interested in this title (like I said, all 5 of them!) have a copy taken from this same source.
I am happy (with reservations) to report that I have recently discovered a different print. I know it's different because the titles aren't tilted on this one. It can be found on YouTube, and it was put there by a poster that calls itself Hastings Mystery Theater. This print has a host before the movie starts, and he claims that this is a program produced for a cable TV station somewhere in Michigan. More reservations-- It is also a mushy, multi-generational copy, just like the other copy I mentioned.
The good news about the Hastings copy is that it runs 63 minutes and 38 seconds, roughly 3 and a half minutes longer than the "tilted" print. Did you know that Claudia Drake (Anita) actually sings or lip-synchs a song before she follows Noah Beery Jr. into the back room where she is later murdered? I didn't until I saw this "new" print. This sequence accounts for roughly 2 and a half minutes of the footage missing from the "tilted" print. I haven't had the time yet to see what else might be missing.
Anyway, I just wanted to let anybody who might be interested know that there is a significantly longer copy of THE CRIMSON CANARY available out there for viewing. It really doesn't look or sound any better than copies that have been offfered for sale before, but it is more complete. Again, the best thing to happen for this title would be for it to receive an official release, probably through Kino and one of its deals with Universal.
BTW-- If anybody knows of a good quality copy of THE CRIMSON CANARY that is also complete, PLEASE PM me and thanks!
statistics: Posted by mbb10429 — 12:21 AM - Today — Replies 1 — Views 372