The Corner Penthouse

When I "upgrade" to a later DVD or Blu-ray release, I'll usually check to make sure that everything from the old disc is on the new DVD/Blu-ray. Most of the time it is, but what usually falls victim to the "porting over" process are still image extras. This is especially true if the old DVD was released in the late 1990s/early 2000s, when studios would include Production Notes and Cast & Crew Biographies/Filmographies as extras. This text is, almost always, sourced from the movie's original press kit materials, and I feel it's worth preserving. So, before I get rid of that old disc, I'll screencap all of the stills.

Today, I will be looking at the still gallery from the Mad Max "Collector's Edition" Blu-ray released by Shout Factory on May 5, 2015. Although this disc only came out a mere five years ago, the new 4K + Blu-ray and Blu-ray releases by Kino Lorber (set for release on November 24, 2020) don't include this image gallery (based on what the specs say), but include everything else and a few new things. So, let's look at my preservation efforts for the 101-image gallery from Shout's Blu-ray...

As of this writing, there have been four significant U.S. DVD and Blu-ray releases for Mad Max (1979): MGM's 2002 "Special Edition" DVD, MGM's 2010 Blu-ray (with SE DVD), Shout Factory's 2015 Blu-ray, and Kino Lorber's 2020 Blu-ray (this disc is also in Kino's 4K+Blu release). The dual-sided SE DVD has an exclusive Trivia Track and an International Poster Gallery consisting of 16 images, but all of the other special features can be found on Shout's and Kino's discs (though Shout's disc stutters on film clips in the featurettes). MGM's Blu-ray loses out on so much, that it is best to be avoided. Sadly, it's the Blu-ray included in the Mad Max Franchise "High Octane Collection" set. With the release of Kino's disc, the only thing exclusive to Shout's disc is the image gallery.

Of the 16 images on the MGM DVD, all but 2 can be found in Shout's gallery, and in 1920x1080! That may make it seem like Shout's gallery is perfect, but it's far from it. As I looked through the 101 images (with title and credit cards, the gallery has 103 images/chapters), it became quite obvious to me that Shout made no effort at all on the presentation. There were many images that were not cropped, thus revealing the scanner bad, or which needed the contrast to be darkened significantly. Here is one such example.



I spent several hours cleaning up Shout Factory's mess. I cropped, cleaned, sharpened, and fixed the contrast on many of the images. These fixed images are what I present here, along with the two images taken from the MGM Special Edition DVD that were not in Shout's gallery.

You can view the 105 images on The Corner Penthouse Facebook page, or you can download the fixed set as Lossless JPGs (76 MB). If you'd like to see how much more work and effort I put into this than Shout did, you can also download the original set as Lossless JPGs (73 MB)

If you'd like to support MGM and thank them for allowing me to present this image set to you, go place an order for Kino Lorber's new 4K + Blu-ray or Blu-ray releases.