Twentieth Century Fox has announced the release of the 1953 classic Biblical epic The Robe on DVD and BluRay on March 17. The film was the first motion picture to be released in the new, wide screen process CinemaScope, which the disc will replicate. Fox has put the film through a year-long restoration with input from the Academy Film Archive and the Film Foundation.
Additional special features on the standard DVD edition include:
- An introduction to the film by Martin Scorsese
- Audio commentary with film composer David Newman and film historians Jon Burlingame, Julie Kirgo and Nick Redman
- The Making of The Robe featurette,
- The Music of The Robe
- Alfred Newman’s score presented as an isolated music track
- Still galleries
- Interactive pressbook
Additionally, the BluRay disc will have the following additional extras-
- Vintage celebrity introductions by Richard Widmark, Susan Hayward, Robert Wagner, Clifton Webb and Dan Dailey
- The CinemaScope Story featurette
- From Scripture to Script: The Bible and Hollywood featurette
- A 1969 audio interview with screenwriter Philip Dunne
- 5 Movietone News shorts
- Trailers and TV spots
- A poster and lobby card art gallery
- BonusView picture-in-picture viewing mode featuring The Robe Times Two (a comparison of the full frame and widescreen versions)
- 10 A Seamless Faith: The Real-Life Search for The Robe featurettes
Great Googily-Moogily!!!
The family still has not made the committment to Blu-Ray, but Holy Moses, this is definitely a monumental example as to why we need to do it.