My initial belief that the fast-moving freckles had to be an artefact is now being undermined somewhat by having got hold of a friend’s 30th anniv DVD. The transfer for this was done before 2002 (obviously) and at much lower resolution yet it still shows some evidence of small-scale flicker in the same places that are worst in my Blu-Ray. That would indicate that it’s on the original film. I don’t know if the 2002 transfer was taken from a print or from the interpositive that Warner Brothers own. The Blu-Ray transfer was definitely taken from the interpositive. This has had a great deal of manual clean-up done, mostly to fix the 1000ft scratch which ran all way down one reel of it but also to remove just about all the other damage. The DVD doesn’t have the scratch but it does have a fair bit of small-scale damage, so it seems plausible that it was transferred from a print.
The earlier Blu-Ray that I’ve got coming might be revealing.
VB
