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Category:    Home > Reviews > Musical > Comedy > On The Riviera (1951/Fox Blu-ray)

On The Riviera (1951/Fox Blu-ray)


Picture: A- Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: B+



Jack Martin (Danny Kaye) is an American entertainer on the beautiful Riviera, but he bears a striking resemblance to world famous French aviator Henri Duran (also Danny Kaye). An opportunity of a life time falls into his lap as he is asked to impersonate him, but things get more hilarious as he tries to juggle his two schedules, romance two woman, keep the wives from finding out their secret and avoid the real Henri in Walter Lang's On The Riviera (1951).


Jack's boss is bored with his acts and threatens to fire him unless he comes up with a new act, so Jack comes up with the idea to impersonate the famous, rich and womanizing aviator Henri Duran, which could either save him or land him in a scandal. Things get complicated when their wives (Gene Tierney, Corrine Calvet) find out Henri is really Jack and then decides to 'test' their husband, but then it gets really complicated Henri finds out the wives know and switches with Jack back to trick the wives. In the end Jack learns the secret of romancing woman and Henri learns the value of staying with one woman, but not before mayhem (and music) ensue.


For an 62+ year old old film, 20th Century Fox has restored and cleaned up this film for Blu-ray fairly well, not bad at all with no static but still grainy with the wide shots and vistas. Before CGI, green screen and blue screen, see how actors played two roles on the same screen, Danny Kaye plays a masterful role of two different characters, masquerading as each other. The only slight thing they forgot was to subtitle the songs as Danny was singing on stage.


The 1080p 1.33 X 1 AVC @ 38 MBPS digital High Definition image transfer is amazing and likely comes from at least one dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor version of the film, but you can see in many places how good it must have looked in such copies. Director of Photography Leon Shamroy, A.S.C. (Leave Her To Heaven, The Robe, The King & I, Desk Set, South Pacific, Cleopatra, the original Planet Of The Apes) delivers rich color, fine compositions and a top rate look to the film.


The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 1.0 lossless sound mix can show its age at times and sounds good at times, but there are more than a few times one wishes for at least stereo sound and a few moments sound was not as clear as I would have liked. Extras include The Riviera Story featurette, a portrait of Danny Kaye, Choreographer: Jack Cole featurette and trailer.



- Ricky Chiang


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