Hello!

I have good news for fans of science fiction. The announcement last week of a UK Blu-ray release of Steve Sekely’s 1963  The Day of the Triffids  got me off and running. As we reported on  November 7,  Amazon UK quietly posted the disc, and nobody knew what to make of it. We expected more fanfare for this frequently requested title. What was going on?

We contacted Ignite Films asking what was up, and telling them that U.S. buyers were concerned, not knowing if the disc would be coded like many UK releases, for Region B only. Amazon UK has since added a line proclaiming the disc to be Region Free.

CineSavant was then given permission to see a high-res file of the feature as presented on the Ignite Films disc. I am happy to report that the new encoding does appear to be derived from the film restoration we’ve been waiting to see for almost 20 years. It looks great. It is exceptionally clean, and it plays as if the movie were brand-new. The full CinemaScope width is present. Color and contrast are very attractive and the sound is better than ever. A typically wordy CineSavant review will follow when a final disc arrives.

I’ll save more comment for that review, except to say that the only digital cleanup I see is in the main titles, removing a lot of optical schmutz that always marred the picture. the revised main title also has another thing I noted when we closely followed the film restoration — Philip Yordan’s screenplay credit has been replaced with that of the actual screenwriter, Bernard Gordon.

I’m happy to promote Ignite Films’ disc of  The Day of the Triffids because the restoration has taken so many years to reach us. The show wasn’t available for repertory theaters and it has never seen a decent home video presentation.  Many of the film’s fans are by this time no longer with us. A ten year-old who saw Triffids new would now be 73 years old.

I’m also a booster of Ignite Films in general. The firm undertook the costly and difficult restoration of  Invaders from Mars because they liked the film and felt it was important to save it. Spared from oblivion, it is finally enjoying new popularity.

I’ll put something about the restored Triffids up on Facebook as well. Please spread the word. Here’s that UK link.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson