I just received my copy of the new Schroeder Media Region 2 PAL DVD
release of Rita's 1966 film, "The Trap", released in Germany under
its German title, "Wie ein Schrei im Wind". A friend in Holland sent
me a copy.

The Positives:

(1) The entire frame is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect
ratio. Thus you can see all of the scenic background that was
present in the original film.

The Negatives:

(1) The picture is of poor quality. It is fuzzy, lacks detail, the
color is under-saturated, and scenes are alternately too bright or
too dark (the film's dynamic range wasn't corrected for home video).

(2) There are two versions of the film on this disc:
(a) the widescreen version with German audio, and
(b) a standard TV fullscreen version with English audio.

This is a huge drawback, because it means that each film occupies 2
GB of space on the disc instead of the full 4 GB. This means that a
great deal of sharpness and detail has been discarded in order to
squeeze the movie into such a small amount of disc space.

(3) The DVD transfer is not anamorphic. It's just a 2.35:1 film laid
on top of a standard 4:3 TV rectangle. If they had made it 16:9
anamorphic widescreen, they could have still given us the original
2.35:1 aspect ratio, but the letterboxing would have been less
significant when displayed on a widescreen TV set.

My opinion:

Sxhroeder Media really should have done a better job. They should
have used a better print to begin with, then they should have made a
*single* video track in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen format.

Then, instead of including two different versions based on language,
they should have simply added two (selectable) audio tracks to their
master video -- one audio track in German, the other in English. A
CHILD could add an audio track to an existing film! The fact that
they chose not to perform this simple operation indicates that they
cut a lot of corners with this DVD release.

I would only recommend this DVD if you wish to see the original
2.35:1 picture, showing all of the original scenic backgrounds. It
is definitely inferior to my existing PAL version in terms of color,
sharpness, and overall quality. Its only virtue is that is gives us
the original frame.

This DVD is a huge disappointment. I hope that this is not the end
for "The Trap". It deserves to be restored and remastered by a DVD
company that cares about quality.

If anyone is interested in seeing this DVD in NTSC format (playable
in USA/Canada/Japan) send me an email, and I'll get a copy to you.

Cheers,
Robert