To celebrate the 65th anniversary of Ealing Studios’ flawless classic, THE LADYKILLERS, Studiocanal will be releasing the first ever 4K restoration of the film from the original 3-strip Technicolor negative, showcasing director Alexander Mackendrick’s celebrated film in its full glory.
THE LADYKILLERS will be released in cinemas on 23rd October 2020 and the 5-Disc 4K UHD Collector’s Edition, as well as standard Blu-ray and DVD editions, will be released on 9th November 2020.
THE LADYKILLERS follows the hilarious capers of a group of small-time crooks, taking on more they can handle in the form of their sweet, but slightly dotty, elderly landlady Mrs Wilberforce (a BAFTA winning Katie Johnson).
THE LADYKILLERS features an all-star line-up of the finest comedy actors of the era, including Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, and Danny Green. Jack Warner, Frankie Howerd and Kenneth Connor also appear in supporting roles.
To celebrate the release, we have 1 x 4K UHD Limited Collector’s Edition to give away to one lucky reader! (scroll down to enter!)
Restoration Details:
As THE LADYKILLERS was the last Technicolor three-strip film shot in the UK, it was crucially important that the original camera negative was used for a restoration that will serve as the best version of the film since its original release. The restoration began with the 4K pin-registered scanning of the original 1950s Technicolor three-strip camera negative. The three strips had to have their colour separations combined to produce the final colour image. One of the biggest issues to overcome was aligning the colour separations together, initially an automated process, but also requiring a huge amount of manual tweaking.
Manual and automated digital restoration was carried out over the aligned images. The film suffered from a few extreme issues such as blue marks in the middle to right hand side of frame throughout the film that had to be removed, there was significant density fluctuation (flicker) that has been corrected as best as possible on a shot by shot basis. Many shots suffered from instability and some sections also suffered from scratching, the worst being a four-minute section including scratches throughout the sequence with up to eight onscreen at a time. In total the film benefitted from over a 1000 hours’ worth of 4K digital restoration.
A 35mm Technicolor print was used as a reference for the colour grade to ensure the new HDR Dolby Vision master stayed true to the films original 1950s ‘Colour by Technicolor’ look.
Special Features:
- UHD, Blu-ray and DVD
- The feature in both 1.37:1 and 1.66:1 aspect ratios
- ‘Those Glorious Ealing Films’ CD soundtrack (with music from The Ladykillers, Passport to Pimlico, Kind Hearts & Coronets and more)
- 64-page booklet
- 6 Pop Art art cards by Art & Hue
- NEW documentary ‘Investigating the Ladykillers’ featuring new and archive interviews including Reece Shearsmith, The Guardian’s Catherine Shoard, Stuart Maconie, Ronald Harwood, Allan Scott and Terence Davies
- NEW ‘Colour in The Ladykillers’: new interview with Professor Keith Johnston
- ‘Forever Ealing’ documentary narrated by Michael Balcon’s grandson Daniel Day-Lewis
- Lobby Cards gallery
- Behind-the-scenes gallery
- Audio commentary with author and film scholar Philip Kemp
- King’s Cross locations featurette with Alan Dein
- Excerpt from BBC Omnibus ‘Made in Ealing’ (1986) featuring interviews with Alexander Mackendrick and William Rose.
- Audio interview with Assistant Director Tom Pevsner
- Audio interview with Unit Production Manager David Peers
- Peter Sellers spoof trailer from the set of The Ladykillers
- Trailer
***** To enter, fill out the form with ‘Wilberforce‘ in the subject line, including your full name, email address, Twitter username* and contact number. *****
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*You must be following @TheArtsShelf on Twitter to be eligible to win!
Competition closes at 23:59 on Monday 16th November 2020!
Winners will be notified by email!
Best of luck!
TERMS & CONDITIONS
Please Note: Automated/bulk entries and entries from third parties are not permitted and will be deleted immediately!
– The winner(s) will be drawn at random from all the correct entries, and only they will be contacted personally. Prize must be taken as stated and cannot be deferred. There will be no cash alternatives.
– The Arts Shelf does not accept any responsibility for late or lost entries due to the Internet or email problems. Proof of sending is not proof of receipt. Entrants must supply full details as required on the competition page, and comply with all rules to be eligible for the prizes.
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– UK entries only
