It's a Wonderful Life - but which one?

[MarkusThatch]

Planning on buying this for Mrs MarkusThatch for xmas but puzzling over which version to go for?

It's a Wonderful Life: 65th Anniversary Edition includes free poster and artcards Blu-ray 1946: Amazon.co.uk: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers, Thomas Mitchell, Ward Bond, Beulah Bondi, Frank Faylen, Gloria Grahame, Frank Albertson, H.B. Warner, Frank Capra: DVD & Blu-ray

It's A Wonderful Life [Blu-ray]: Amazon.co.uk: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers, Thomas Mitchell, Ward Bond, Beulah Bondi, Frank Faylen, Gloria Grahame, Frank Albertson, H.B. Warner, Frank Capra: DVD & Blu-ray

It's a Wonderful Life Black & White and Colourised Versions Blu-ray 1946: Amazon.co.uk: James Stewart, Charles Lane, Charles Williams, Bob Scott, H.B. Warner, Frank Capra: DVD & Blu-ray

It's a Wonderful Life [Blu-ray] [1946] [US Import]: Amazon.co.uk: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers, Beulah Bondi, Frank Faylen, Ward Bond, Gloria Grahame, H.B. Warner, Todd Karns, Samuel S. Hinds, Frank Capra, Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, Jo Swerling, Michael Wilson, Philip Van Doren Stern: DVD & Blu-ray

Advice gratefully received!

 

[Philly112]

Aren't they all the same, apart from some cards and poster in the first one? The box in '3' appears different, but to my knowledge the film quality is the same in all of them. I have the standard UK bluray, and the transfer is great. The colourised version is also very good. But let's face it, you aren't going to watch this in anything other than the original black and white. Preferably on Christmas Eve, so give it to her a day early.

Phil

 

[MarkusThatch]

That's what I was wondering - whether the transfer differs in any of them?

 

[mentasm]

No.

 

[MarkusThatch]

No.

Thanks.

 

[johnsonmoog]

But - I believe if you get the US version the colour and black and white versions are on separate discs, so the picture quality should/could be better on that version due to not sharing disc space. Might be worth checking dvdbeaver for a comparison?

 

[mentasm]

You're not going to see any significant difference.

 

[orac1971]

As johnsonmoog said - US is 2 discs.. but UK would be cheaper to get. I have UK version and its very good - even the colour version is well done I think.

 

[pRot3us]

Can anyone who owns this comment on the picture quality?

I seem to remember seeing caps that had a lick of DNR which put me off when this was first released.

 

[MarkusThatch]

Like pRot3us says, be very interested to know people's opinions of the pq.

 

[mentasm]

There's nowt much wrong with it. This isn't the Universal release, but it'll give you a general idea:

It's a Wonderful Life | Blu-ray: DE vs. Blu-ray: US Collector's Set

 

[pRot3us]

I think I may have seen those caps before, it does look like it's had a slight lick of filtering but doesn't look too bad. Cape Fear had more than that and apart from a few scenes it was still perfectly watchable.

 

[MarkusThatch]

Thanks again Mentasm, bought it from Amazon with the MasterCard £5 off.

 

[Garrett]

I sent for this via Amazon UK from one of there 3rd party suppliers. At the beginning of the month and wasn't till 7 days later I got a dispatch notification and it still not arrived.
Yet I ordered some ink from one Amazons 3rd parties Sunday and it came Wednesday and from the postage label Gibraltar.
Do Amazon UK deal with American 3rd party's with out stating so? I just have a horrible feeling this may come from there and have to pay import and collection fee, when I could have ordered it from the states at half the price.

 

[MarkusThatch]

Mine was from amazon uk themselves - supposedly delivered 3 days ago. It wasn't so "where's my stuff" clicking ahoy.