Curse of Frankenstein (1957): Restored UK Master

[The Aluminum Falcon]

Project Info
The Curse of Frankenstein's UK Blu-Ray release looks horrendous. Taken from the same IP created from separation masters as the old DVD, it looks very magenta-shifted and way too bright, particular for a gruesome horror film. Worst of all, the overall BD image is only slightly sharper than its SD counterpart.

This preservation removes the magenta cast and brings back the blues of the original photography, largely missing in the home video transfers. A trailer provided a reference to show the original's more saturated look, in keeping with other subsequent Hammer Horror films. With a very judicious amount of sharpening to top it off, the final result resembles my corrected Dracula '58 disc in terms of color and contrast.

The commercial UK BD is encoded at 24fps, an unusual format which causes issues with some Blu-Ray players; this custom BD has been normalized to 23.976fps, with the audio tracks having been slightly resynced (without any pitch shift) to fit.

Video

• UK BD - color-corrected to remove magenta cast, darkened, and very lightly sharpened.
   
  

Audio

• 2.0 LPCM English Audio
  
• 2.0 LPCM Commentary
   
  

Screenshots
UK BD

Restored UK Master


UK BD

Restored UK Master


UK BD

Restored UK Master


UK BD

Restored UK Master


UK BD

Restored UK Master


Project Status
Twelfth project completed and released!

(Though, hopefully, the rumored US BD release will eventually come to fruition and render this previous version obsolete!)

Final Product
1080p BD25

[PDB]

Looks great Falcon. Probably the best you can squeeze out of that crappy master.

[The Aluminum Falcon]

Looks great Falcon. Probably the best you can squeeze out of that crappy master.

Thanks. Admittedly, I could have probably sharpened it a tad more without adverse effects, but I think it's fine as-is.

The low bitrate on the UK BD apparently hampered detail even more; I was comparing screencaps of the 1.66 and the 1.37 and the latter has better resolved detail in places.

[Stamper]

Jeez the original master is really crap. It's insulting to both the people who did the film and the audience, to release such crappy masters.

[Samourai]

Hopefully soon there will be an announcement of the restoration by Warner, but this looks as good as posible could at this moment, nice work.

[PDB]

I noticed, for Halloween, that HBOMax has an HD master of COF streaming on its service.

[The Aluminum Falcon]

Yeah! I need to actually check that out, saw the other day. Checked out a few seconds of Horror of Dracula and believe it's the old HD Master available on that German BD.

[PDB]

Was that the same master as the iTunes copy?

If I have time and you think it’s worth it, maybe I can cap them both.

[The Aluminum Falcon]

Hmm... thanks for the offer! Let me double check, should be able to compare tonight or tomorrow.

[The Aluminum Falcon]

Was that the same master as the iTunes copy?

If I have time and you think it’s worth it, maybe I can cap them both.

Good news, PDB! Curse of Frankenstein is a brand new transfer. It's advertised as new restoration, 100% recommend you capping.

Hoping for a WB Archive BD release soon...

UK BD


HBO MAX


My (Now-Outdated) Restored UK Master


UK BD
[Image: 446e1c587971503.png]

HBO MAX


UK BD


HBO MAX


UK BD 


HBO MAX


Definitely worth preserving while available for October! The flesh tones aren't broken anymore, which is a big improvement.