The Trail of the Lonesome Pine is one of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution. They have been owned and controlled by Universal since that time.

Image: In a word - 'Wow'. Really. This looks... incredible for a film that is 73-years old now! I understand the UK DVD edition is on the 'poor' side (misaligned strips and damage) when it comes to the image, but this looks unbelievably tight. There is even depth here. This is part of the 'Universal Backlot Series' - described as 'an ongoing collection of rare gems, overlooked, ground breaking work and films of historical and cultural importance - many for the first time ever on DVD'. I just watched The Trail of the Lonesome Pine - and even though I was blown away by the image quality I could see this 'Hathaway' classic film value. I'll definitely watch it again soon - but this may be one of the best looking SD transfer I've ever seen of a film over 50-yaers old. The colors looks wonderful - no bleeding. Detail is shockingly strong. I didn't see anything on the box about restoration. It can look a shade glossy but it's also extremely clean with no untoward chroma or disturbing artifacts. I'm both utterly impressed and perplexed at how it can look this good.  

The 2.0 channel mono audio also appears to have had some restoration but it's not always consistent. Certainly good enough for watching and enjoying though. There are no supplements - not even a trailer so the pricing seems somewhat aggressive but where the captures look good - it is at just as high a level while in motion. I was very pleased with this film and transfer as I was expecting something far inferior due to the film's age. Even being bare-bones we do recommend.  

Gary W. Tooze