[Request] For A Few Dollars More original English mono, properly synced

[Dek Rollins]

Everywhere I've seen this film's home video releases discussed, it's always mentioned that the correct audio sync for the original English mono audio is non-existent on modern digital releases. In addition to that, the only "uncut" modern release is the German BD. But I can't find any online topics where someone has captured the old LD and made a proper audio sync to the uncut BD.

I used the search function here and elsewhere, and it seems like there are hardly any topics relating to this film specifically at all. If I've missed something, I would appreciate being pointed in the right direction. But if my assumption is accurate that no project for this has been attempted yet, why is that? People have talked about this issue for years from what I've seen, but seemingly nobody has bothered syncing an LD capture yet.

Again, if there in fact is an LD capture floating around somewhere that I have just passed over by accident, please point me to where I can look for that. And if one has not been shared online yet, this thread is obviously a request for that. I would greatly appreciate it if anybody could help me out.

[PDB]

I don't have a LD capture of the PCM but in a similar vein there was that "Grym" Project which took a mono English soundtrack (in DTS 2.0 Mono) and synced it to the Uncut German BD. The German BD is unrestored (dirt, hairs, etc)



It has titles and end credits in English like the German BD





all except for the bounty hunter card, which looks to be digitally recreated



and has that crazy Tobias logo at the beginning

[captainsolo]

It's a bit complicated.
The German Blu is the best overall version now despite being the source MGM master with EE, haloing and DNR. The German team went back to a prior version and so some DNR is removed thus you get dirt and specks throughout. Somethings are unfortunately baked in but it is better than the US disc. The mono seems to be the same source element as MGM's mono on the SEDVD/Blu and is pretty good though off sync.

The Kino Blu is a newer transfer and "restoration" and doesn't have the level of AFOD/GBU color madness but has issues of its own. I never bought it because I felt burned by Kino's 2017 GBU and now it seems they will tackle it again after the 4k GBU massive turnaround. Their Blu was the cut version matching MGM's cut from the 1998 DVD onwards.

The US LD does have the best sounding mono with a lack of filtering and EQ applied to all later releases-just as AFOD and GBU does. But....it is not fully uncut and is a weird edit of its own that seems to replicate the 1967 USA United Artists IB tech print version I saw at a Leone festival. The transfer is 2.0:1 and has the Manco naming removed but has the extended Indio laugh at the prison along with a few other differences. So it would be great to get this synced to the uncut version but the edit will have to be conformed and the missing bits would have to be patched in with the later MGM mono. Then of course the whole thing would have to be resynced again. The LD audio is in perfect sync already but the insertion to cover the missing footage would likely cause new sync problems. When MGM first mixed print sources for the DVD to add back some footage they didn't pay close enough attention and the sync problems began. The 1998 DVD is noticeably offsync for the first half of the film.

[Dek Rollins]

According to the comparison videos, the original US LD from 1982 is uncut:

https://vimeo.com/322543630
https://vimeo.com/327409583

If captures of the original US LD and the later US LD that is missing footage were used together, the missing audio could be restored with the correct sync. The issue is that it seems like nobody else has captured either of these LD releases. If someone were able share those with me, I would love to make a sync to the uncut Blu-ray.

On the topic of transfers, the Kino transfer is superior to every other version, ignoring missing footage. It needs to be vertically cropped in more than it is, but the visual quality of the transfer itself is the best HD copy of the film available that I've seen. What I'd really want to do is match the Kino transfer to the uncut edit, with the uncut German version filling in where the Kino is missing footage. Of course, if Kino does better with a UHD of this film like they did with GBU it would be great (I'd think GBU made enough sales to justify it), but I'm not expecting anything until they make an announcement.

[captainsolo]

Yes as it stand ou'd use the Kino master as a base, insert the missing bits of footage and check all the shot lengths to ensure accuracy. Then take the 1991 LD mono and integrate it with that first uncut video release to make a complete mono from non overtweaked and EQ'd sources and then begin the odyssey of trying to sync that to your new uncut video master.
I only have the letterbox LDs and the initial pan n scan Fistful.

Kino should be doing AFOD and FAFDM. They just put their existing Leone box on their going out of print sale list and said if GBU did well they'd do the other Dollars films in similar 4K fixes applied editions. And GBU did sell out multiple print runs.

[Dek Rollins]

Kino said that they will be working with the fans again to prepare both of the first two Dollars films for UHD, and that they plan on including the uncut footage in FAFDM. So hopefully this topic will be made obsolete in the near future. I really hope they include Italian audio tracks on these ones.