Ealing - with subs
- Erikht
- Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 5:31 am
Ealing - with subs
Apart from Criterions edition of Kind hearts and Coronets, I have had trouble finding Ealing DVDs with subtitles. As the Library has a rule aboout subtitles, this means that I can not buy loads and loads of Ealing films. Does anybody know about more Ealings (especially the comedies) with subtitles?
- tojoed
- Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 11:47 am
- Location: Cambridge, England
Re: Ealing - with subs
The Ealing comedies in the UK are distributed by Optimum and they, notoriously, don't put subs on any English language films. It's a great pain to the Mutt 'n' Jeff community, as we are known, but also for people like yourself.
I honestly don't know of any Ealing films with subs, apart from KH and C which you mentioned.
If I can find any I'll snap them up and let you know.
I honestly don't know of any Ealing films with subs, apart from KH and C which you mentioned.
If I can find any I'll snap them up and let you know.
- Sloper
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 10:06 pm
Re: Ealing - with subs
Yes, it's a particular problem (I imagine) for non-native speakers since Ealing actors talk with such idiosyncratic accents (thinking especially of Guinness in Lavender Hill Mob, my favourite by far). It's absolutely amazing that Optimum released Mandy, a wonderful Ealing film about a deaf girl, with no subtitles! Although the actors do all speak very clear Received Pronunciation in that one.
I can also confirm that the Region 1 Anchor Bay release of Dead of Night (the double bill with Queen of Spades) has no subtitles. And although the picture quality is apparently much better than the Optimum release, even I find the soundtrack a bit indistinct...
I can also confirm that the Region 1 Anchor Bay release of Dead of Night (the double bill with Queen of Spades) has no subtitles. And although the picture quality is apparently much better than the Optimum release, even I find the soundtrack a bit indistinct...
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: Ealing - with subs
...though that doesn't matter if you can't hear them.Sloper wrote:It's absolutely amazing that Optimum released Mandy, a wonderful Ealing film about a deaf girl, with no subtitles! Although the actors do all speak very clear Received Pronunciation in that one.
That has to be the stupidest decision since the film The Waterdance played in its first and only week in London in a cinema without wheelchair access. You have only to read a plot summary to see why this might have been somewhat short-sighted.
- Sloper
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 10:06 pm
Re: Ealing - with subs
Quite. I just meant that Mandy might be somewhat less of a challenge to non-native speakers than the comedies, which tend to be a bit more, er, colloquial. I also wanted to recommend the film, because it needs a boost given its cavalier treatment on home video.MichaelB wrote:...though that doesn't matter if you can't hear them.
- L.A.
- Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 7:33 am
- Location: Helsinki, Finland
Re: Ealing - with subs
Sandrew Metronome has released some Ealing classics on DVD with different set of subtitles:
Dead of Night (1945)
Hue and Cry (1947)
Nicholas Nickleby (1947)
Scott of the Antarctic (1948)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
The Man in the White Suit (1951)
Dead of Night (1945)
Hue and Cry (1947)
Nicholas Nickleby (1947)
Scott of the Antarctic (1948)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
The Man in the White Suit (1951)
-
- Joined: Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:31 am
- Location: Somerset, England
Re: Ealing - with subs
I found the Anchor Bay Dead of Night totally unwatchable - or, more precisely, unlistenable - for that reason. Excessive noise reduction makes it sound as though everyone is speaking through heavy colds. The original soundtrack is perfectly clear, as my old off-air recording attests (I haven't seen the Optimum, being put off by reviews). As with many other DVDs (though this is the worst I've heard), I'd much rather Anchor Bay had done no sound restoration at all than this abomination.Sloper wrote:I can also confirm that the Region 1 Anchor Bay release of Dead of Night (the double bill with Queen of Spades) has no subtitles. And although the picture quality is apparently much better than the Optimum release, even I find the soundtrack a bit indistinct...
I continue to be amazed that so few reviewers comment on the aural equivalents of grain removal, edge enhancement, etc. often perpetrated on films by so-called sound restorers. It has of course long been a major concern to collectors of '78' reissues, especially when we can compare them with the originals. To those with the good fortune of normal hearing, most old film soundtracks - like sound recordings from more than 80 years ago - can sound both clear and wonderfully full-bodied but the insistence on removing any background hiss often compromises both of these attributes. An ideally reproduced soundtrack, to my ears, of a film contemporary with Ealing is the UK Odeon release of The Man on the Eiffel Tower - even though UCLA had to work with battered old prints!
- Erikht
- Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 5:31 am
Re: Ealing - with subs
Thank you, that was very helpful. I will have to continue looking, as you have proven that there are indeed some Ealings with subs. But God Damn Optimun to Hell for not taking the outlay of putting subtitles on these discs. My dear old mother, who has been working for 4 years in South Africa in a 100% English speaking work place can't understand a word of the Ealings, as the discant in her ears ain't what it used to be. I concider myself more that fluent in English, but I too have some problems, and prefer them with subtitles. Which is why I made the rule for the library on subtitles.L.A. wrote:Sandrew Metronome has released some Ealing classics on DVD with different set of subtitles:
Dead of Night (1945)
Hue and Cry (1947)
Nicholas Nickleby (1947)
Scott of the Antarctic (1948)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
The Man in the White Suit (1951)
A company from Finland, no less.
- Yojimbo
- Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:06 am
- Location: Ireland
Re: Ealing - with subs
Its funny the question of subtitling Ealing movies although I am willing to grant that having less exposure to such accents than even we here in Ireland are used to can make them sometimes difficult to decipher, - btw, is it true that 'The Commitments' was subtitled for the US market?, - but I remember that, even though subtitles were provided at certain judicious points in the classic Jimmy Cliff movie, 'The Harder They Come', I had no difficulty in understanding it, without subtitles
-
- Joined: Tue Mar 03, 2009 11:19 pm
Re: Ealing - with subs
I seem to recall subtitles on all the films in the Alec Guinness collection and Amazon claims it is closed-captioned. The only EL film I ever thought needed subtitling on screen was Trainspotting.
-
- Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2009 2:49 am
- Location: Ukraine
Re: Ealing - with subs
Amazon.com' comments on Guinness collection from LionsGate shows that disks are the same as were issued by Anchor Bay, and Anchor usually goes without subs. But Anchor adds closed caption, so it helps for customers who live in USA. For others of us it's useful only if we play DVD on PC... So here is the hard way - verify that this or that DVD has CC, get it, rip CC from it, rip DVD, add subtitles to DVD-copy, burn it on DVD-R, watch it...
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- Joined: Tue Mar 03, 2009 10:10 pm
Re: Mandy - with subs?
Amazon UK is selling an edition of Mandy WITH subtitles (or so the page says) that came out in 2009. So did Optimum rerelease it? Optimum's product page still shows the old 2008 release date with no indication of a rerelease.Sloper wrote:It's absolutely amazing that Optimum released Mandy, a wonderful Ealing film about a deaf girl, with no subtitles!
- Sloper
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 10:06 pm
Re: Ealing - with subs
Interesting; the box now says 'with hard of hearing subtitles'. Good for Optimum!
- tojoed
- Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 11:47 am
- Location: Cambridge, England
Re: Ealing - with subs
It's nice that they have been shamed into putting subtitles on "Mandy". It's a pity they don't do it for all their English language films, it's not much to ask.
- manicsounds
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
Re: Ealing - with subs
and of course for some reason, even the recently released BD of "Ladykillers" have no subtitles for English....
- Erikht
- Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 5:31 am
Re: Ealing - with subs
Will, ya kno' 'ow it is, guv', wudd take awa' som' o' the exper'nce o' the watcin', understandin' all that the nippers a' sayin' to ea' other.
- Duncan Hopper
- Joined: Mon Dec 21, 2009 5:16 am
- Location: http://www.eldiabolik.com
- Contact:
Re: Ealing - with subs
Nippers? I didn't know there were any children in 'the ladykillers'.Erikht wrote:Will, ya kno' 'ow it is, guv', wudd take awa' som' o' the exper'nce o' the watcin', understandin' all that the nippers a' sayin' to ea' other.
- Erikht
- Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 5:31 am
Re: Ealing - with subs
Mandy, at the other hand....Duncan Hopper wrote:Nippers? I didn't know there were any children in 'the ladykillers'.Erikht wrote:Will, ya kno' 'ow it is, guv', wudd take awa' som' o' the exper'nce o' the watcin', understandin' all that the nippers a' sayin' to ea' other.
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: Ealing - with subs
Come on, own up - were you Dick Van Dyke's voice coach on Mary Poppins?Erikht wrote:Will, ya kno' 'ow it is, guv', wudd take awa' som' o' the exper'nce o' the watcin', understandin' all that the nippers a' sayin' to ea' other.
- Erikht
- Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 5:31 am
Re: Ealing - with subs
Whell!, Sir, I b'liv' that wudd 'ave moRe pRon'nc'd "R"'s, if ya' see whatt I mean.MichaelB wrote:Come on, own up - were you Dick Van Dyke's voice coach on Mary Poppins?Erikht wrote:Will, ya kno' 'ow it is, guv', wudd take awa' som' o' the exper'nce o' the watcin', understandin' all that the nippers a' sayin' to ea' other.
But for those of us who thought we knew English and was shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, to find on our first charter trip to Greece in the mid' eighties that this was not so, when meeting our first drunk Liverpudlian, these Ealing films bring back sad memories. And for my poor, old mother, whose descant went the way of American Lending Banks several years ago, the un-texted films can be a problem. As for the deaf, these editions are worthless, are they not?