Monday, July 23, 2012

Max Baer 1964 Documentary


Max Baer “The Tender Hearted Tiger” 1964
Television Documentary, 25 minutes.
Restored from video transfer

The Film
The 1964 documentary “The Tender Hearted Tiger” profiled the life of Heavyweight Champion 1934-35 Max Baer.  Fight footage, still photographs and interviews with family and friends are shown.  I previously posted a clip from this production featuring Tony Galento, but this is the complete film.  This is a great time capsule, though inaccurately follows the path of Baer’s boxing career.  For instance, Baer fought Schmeling in 1933, which was three years before Schmeling fought Joe Louis.  Also, Schmeling was not a Nazi, as the film suggests.  Schmeling was used for Nazi propaganda leading up to the Second World War, but was discarded after he lost to Louis.  Otherwise this is a great introduction to Max Baer, with some very rare footage.

Restoration
The video transfer I received was poor.  Most Sections were dark and the audio was low.  Video has much less latitude than film for restoration.  Video can be tweaked only so far before the image begins to fall apart.  Still, I cleaned up and boosted the audio portion, and adjusted the picture levels from scene to scene to make the picture brighter and clearer.  Otherwise, I made no edits to the film, and it appears in its original cut.





Friday, July 20, 2012

Max Baer & Tony Galento Prefight Newsreel 1940


Max Baer & Tony Galento Prefight Newsreel 1940
“The Tender Hearted Tiger” (Excerpt)
Documentary 1964

The Film
The 1964 documentary “The Tender Hearted Tiger” profiled the life of Heavyweight Champion 1934-35 Max Baer.  Fight footage, still photographs and interviews with family and friends are shown.  This excerpt of the film is a rare prefight promotional newsreel of Max Baer trash talking with Tony Galento before their fight in 1940.