The Sword and the Dragon (custom blu-ray upgrade)
#1
I'm back with another big release, this time a complete HD re-build of the American edit of Ilya Muromets, known to us as The Sword and the Dragon from MST3K Season 6. Where previous project Humanoid Woman was a nice little trim of scenes here and there, The Sword and the Dragon was a friggin nightmare (especially the US version's narrated intro with footage pulled from all over the place).

Much like Humanoid Woman, the process was quite simple (lol): find some kind of DVD with the American version on it... not the PAL DVD's "English dub" though, that audio track is just NoHo Hank poorly reading all of the english subtitles on the original cut (Hilarious, but not viable for this release). Luckily some turkey on Amazon was selling a bootleg ass DVD that seemed to be an awful cropped VHS rip sourced from a 38th generation film print of the American release. On the downside, the picture quality was simply unwatchable... upside, the audio was serviceable and i could still use use the video as reference for the new edit. So basically it was piece by piece building a frame-perfect recreation of the old DVD using the stunning HD footage from the Russian blu-ray... its a real visual treat, the budget absolutely SHINES and the aspect ratio has room to BREATHE. The English dub audio then matched up to the new video without edits, and then used that to sync up the MST3K episode audio and here we are.

Well... not quite. Ya see, that old DVD footage was Ortega scat and the opening titles of the American version were very different than the Russian titles as you can guess. We didnt have a Humanoid Woman situation where ol billy could just throw some text up on the screen so the riffs make sense and honestly I was about to just say screw it and you all would have to suffer the awful quality DVD opening credits. Instead I reached out to local legend Seacom for assistance, and he was able to cook up a really special intro so we didnt have to leave any riffs on the cutting room floor. Huge thanks to Seacom for his contribution here!

And lets not forget to thank our gracious hoster, tripletap006. Thanks to his generosity, I am able to share both the usual "HDmed" file as well as a special "Hi Quality" file with some extra bitrate since this is a one-of-a-kind release you won't find anywhere else. The Hi Quality file sneaks in just under 10 GB so at worst you will only have to wait out the mega timer once. Trust me, the wait is worth it! Audio track 1 is MST3K, audio track 2 is the English dub. I also threw in some subtitles for the gibberish singing for the hell of it. 

HDmed file (1.65 GB):

https://mega.nz/file/gEFmkTrR#yqf1PYBGtU...Pjgp0r8zAE

Hi Quality file (9.96 GB):

https://mega.nz/file/9VF3QZwA#E7-jN7nKix...jaCiCKHDv8
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#2
(Jan 09, 2024, 21:03 pm)billythefist Wrote: [...]  that audio track is just NoHo Hank poorly reading all of the english subtitles on the original cut [...]

Maybe you should be writing for RiffTrax. That is hilarious. Smile
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#3
(Jan 09, 2024, 21:06 pm)NexusWraith Wrote:
(Jan 09, 2024, 21:03 pm)billythefist Wrote: [...]  that audio track is just NoHo Hank poorly reading all of the english subtitles on the original cut [...]

Maybe you should be writing for RiffTrax. That is hilarious. Smile

I would pay good money for the actual NoHo Hank reading the subtitles and occasionally inserting his own thoughts on the film.

ps - amazing work, billythefist.
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#4
Thanks!
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#5
I'd give you a hug, billy, if it weren't for these damned useless legs
thanks for this, it looks great!
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#6
Ultra-Thanks as always for the superior efforts!!
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#7
(Jan 10, 2024, 01:27 am)I Want To Go Faster Wrote: I would pay good money for the actual NoHo Hank reading the subtitles and occasionally inserting his own thoughts on the film.

ps - amazing work, billythefist.

It really was quite funny. He would even read the SDH portions and everything, not just the dialogue. He would get behind quite often so he would be reading at a hurried pace. I think he was doing it all real-time in one take
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