Just a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t have a copy of A STORY OF DAVID (1960) and now I have three versions of it. It’s a rarely shown movie, made for British TV and for ABC, produced in Britain and also filmed in Israel. It stars Jeff Chandler, who also appeared in SIGN OF THE PAGAN (1954).
This is not a review of the movie but the quality of the copies. Since this was made for TV it doesn’t have a widescreen format. I have a German TV broadcast, one US broadcast and one Canadian broadcast (Moviepix). Overall, the German copies is much better than the other two. It looks more cinematic and the frame not as cropped as the other two copies.
Let’s compare:
US copy
Angela Browne and Jeff Chandler
Moviepix copy
German copy
The German copy is much better. The other two are way too dark. There’s virtually no difference between the US and Moviepix copies aside from the resolution. If you clearly, the already small frame in the US and Moviepix copies are more cropped. The German one has more information on the sides.
US copy
Basil Sydney as King Saul
Moviepix copy
German copy
The German one looks less like a TV movie.
The major difference are the opening/ closing credits. Since it’s a TV movie, the credits are different than a regular theatrical release. In the US and Moviepix versions, the full credits occur at the end while those end credits are shown at the beginning in the German version. The US and Moviepix versions’ full title is actually A STORY OF DAVID – “The Hunted”. It definitely looks like a TV movie title. The German one is simply A STORY OF DAVID.
I’ll have a full review of this movie at PEPLUMTV.com soon.