Okay, while watching STAR! tonight, I got to thinking:
Once upon a time, in Korea, in the early 1950s, my uncle, the colonel was Marilyn Monroe's assigned escort on her USO tour. From that tour, I have two still-to-be-published photographs: one is of my uncle at dinner with MM, the other MM performing for the troops.
As a present to my mother and to her brother the colonel (who at the time was suffering from Alzheimer's and in a nursing home in South Carolina) I went to a photographic reproductions business - one that I knew well from their contact sheets, head shots and such - and had both original 3 x 5 photographs blown up to 8 x 10s.
Well, when the photographs were reproduced in that format - from a new negative created from the 3 x 5s, the larger formatted prints had a strong sepia tone NOT visible on the original 3 x 5s! ! !
So, now seeing STAR! with this subtle sepia wash - - and, I'm not talking about the newsreels - they were sepia tinted when I saw a 70mm print at a rep house following the 25th anniversary - - I'm talking the whole movie looks like my photographs of Marilyn. To me, it seems that it was always there, just not as noticeable as it is in the digital domain.
And, FOX has a lot of answering to do about this title!
WHY was the release pushed back from August '03?
WAS Robert Wise in charge of this transfer?
WHERE is the INTERMISSION card, Entr'Acte and Exit Music?
WHY does this print of STAR! show much more print damage (scratches, nicks and holes) than the print used for the laserdisc?
Too many questions, too little time.
