Thunderball (1965)

This is the Bond film with the messiest audio history on home video. My previous post from 2016 was naive and contained some inaccuracies, so I'm replacing it entirely with this.

Two versions of the film's soundtrack have appeared on home video. I say versions rather than mixes because the second of these two versions, which I'll call version B, has had stereo and 5.1 presentations. This is all educated conjecture (greatly helped by the kind person who shared these captures with me!), so if anyone knows of any evidence detailing the film's sound history, please do share.

Version A
This version was used for every release up to and including the 1993 LaserDiscs. The spectrals for each release suggest they come from a single analogue source (possessing no obvious splices or generational degradation), so it's reasonable to assume that this mono mix was produced in the analogue domain, probably at the time of the film's release.

The timecodes provided correspond to the blu-ray.

• 0:17:00: The gun barrel sequence's gunshot is about 1.5 seconds long (natural reverb)
• 1:21:11 to 1:21:21: Bond says "now you can tell about the one that got away" to the shark as he climbs out of the pool.
• 1:33:01 to 1:33:05: Aboard the helicopter with Bond, Earl Cameron's voice says, "Manta ray! Unusual to see them as far out as this" despite his character Pinder not being on board with Bond and Felix at this moment.
  
• 1:47:01 to 1:48:04: No music during the underwater cave fight
• 1:50:27 to 1:50:51: ~23 seconds of a different take of dialogue beginning when Largo says "You have given me much pleasure, Domino". I think this could be Adolfo Celi's real voice.
• 1:59:25 to 2:00:53: The music sync differs by several seconds
• 2:03:12 to 2:03:19: The preceding music cue fades out before the line "Weigh anchor"
• 2:05:05 to 2:05:10: Largo says, "Come on, I'll take over. We've got away from them. We've still got one bomb aboard." This might be Adolfo Celi undubbed, again.
• 2:09:13 to end: The music in the preceding scene progresses seamlessly into the Thunderball instrumental, which closes the movie.

1982 Japanese Warner LaserDisc [10JL-99208]: Natural, no noise reduction, and very much what you'd expect a clean low-generation optical track to sound like. It lacks some some detail in loud scenes compared to later editions. The final notes of the Thunderball instrumental theme at the end of the film fade out early compared to the 1989 and 1993 LDs. The mink glove scene is missing (00:18:13 to 00:18:27), just as it was theatrically in the UK due to censorship.

1983 CBS/Fox LaserDisc [4611-80]: Probably the same original transfer as the 1982 Japanese LaserDisc but uniformly rolled off. Very muffled. The mink glove scene is missing.

1984 CBS/Fox Betamax: Quite good. No noise reduction and largely similar to the 1982 LD, but less dynamic range and a bit less detail overall - although this could very well just be due to the capture of it I have (I haven't listened to many Betamax tapes, so I really don't know). The mink glove scene is missing.

1984 CBS/Fox Hi-Fi VHS: Now my preferred version of the film's soundtrack. Extremely clear and detailed. Apart from the opening song (which still sounds very good) and various music cues later, the underlying fidelity here is always as good or better than in the blu-ray mix. I'd assumed that the reason version B superseded version A for all new releases is because no decent elements for version A exist, but the sound quality of this tape disproves that. The mink glove scene is missing.

1989 MGM LaserDisc [ML101564]: Like the 1982 Japanese LaserDisc but with noise reduction, albeit less than the 1983 LD. One or two loud scenes possibly sound better than the 1982 LD, but the vast majority of the film, especially ~all quiet moments with just dialogue, sound worse. There's a short error at 51:54 ("Beluga caviar, Dom Perignon '55") where a syllable of dialogue repeats itself.

1992 MGM Hi-Fi VHS: Like the 1989 and 1992/1993 LaserDiscs but with additional filtering. No Dom Perignon error.

1993 MGM LaserDisc [ML104539] - Connery Collection: Like the 1989 MGM LaserDisc, without the Dom Perignon error.

1993 Japanese MGM LaserDisc [NJEL-52729]: Like the 1989 MGM LaserDisc, with the Dom Perignon error.

Version B
The version of the soundtrack used for every release since 1996. Its crossfades suggest it's an edit of Version A, possibly produced in 1965. (An early 16 mm US print I've seen follows these variations, so it could be a mix that was produced for the US/international market. At the very least, it's not just a revisionist remix made in 1995-96 for home video.)

• 0:17:00: The gun barrel sequence's gunshot is about 0.8 seconds long. It sounds like the same effect in version A but truncated. Not something anyone would notice without A/Bing. 
• 1:21:11 to 1:21:21: Bond says "Sorry old chap. Better luck next time." to the shark.
• 1:33:01 to 1:33:05: No manta ray line
• 1:47:01 to 1:48:04: Loud music during the underwater cave fight
• 1:50:27 to 1:50:51: Different dialogue as Largo begins saying, "You have given me much pleasure, Domino." I think this is Adolfo Celi dubbed.
• 1:59:25 to 2:00:53: The music sync differs by several seconds
• 2:03:12 to 2:03:19: The preceding music cue continues beneath the line "Weigh anchor"
• 2:05:05 to 2:05:10: Largo's line is "[Wait a moment?] We've still got one bomb aboard." This might be Adolfo Celi dubbed. I think the score loops subtly for a brief second before this line.
• 2:09:13 to end: The music notes of the preceding scene crossfade into the James Bond theme from Dr. No, which closes the film.

1996 MGM LaserDisc [ML105199] - Deluxe Collector's Edition: Stereo remix. Some noise reduction on the dialogue that mostly affects quiet scenes, but plenty of new detail throughout much of the movie. The opening music, the mink scene, the underwater cave fight, and the end Bond theme all have dramatically better fidelity than in the later UE DVD mono.

1998 MGM LaserDisc [ML105655]: Identical to the 1996 LaserDisc. 

2006 MGM DVD - Ultimate Edition: A strange one. Based on its spectrals and improved fidelity, I believe this is a new mono mixdown from the original dialogue and music/effects stems. A good portion of the film sounds more detailed than the 1982 Japanese LD, but noise reduction makes the quiet moments murky and there appears to be a slight treble boost atop everything. This is the only track among every edition here that can't be cleanly categorised as either version A or B; it's mostly version A, but it has the music in the underwater cave fight and the James Bond theme at the end. The opening music, the mink scene, the music during the underwater cave fight, and the closing James Bond cue have clearly been spliced in from other elements that are much dupier than the rest of the film. The effects are all correct.

2008 MGM Blu-ray: The 5.1 is very much like the 1996/1998 LaserDiscs but spread across more channels (and with a discrete albeit rarely active LFE). Of the Connery remixes I've heard, this is the only one with solid fidelity, aside from the hiss reduction veiling most quiet (dialogue-centric) scenes. The US blu-ray's mono track is a downmix of the 5.1. 

4/7/2022: Added the 1984 CBS/Fox Hi-Fi VHS and replaced the comparison video

6/3/2022: Added the 1992 MGM Hi-Fi VHS