Danny
Kaye Legends (1964 -
1967/MVD Visual DVD Set)/Deep
In My Heart
(1954/MGM/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/Sweet
Adeline (1934/Warner
Archive DVD)
Picture:
C/B-/C Sound: C+/B-/C Extras: D/C+/D Main Programs:
B-/B-/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Deep
In My Heart
Blu-ray and Sweet
Adeline
DVD are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Here
are some classic music releases you may not have heard of, but ought
to know about.
Danny
Kaye Legends
(1964 - 1967) is a new DVD set that follows a holiday set and Best
Of
set, the latter which we reviewed at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13082/Alabama+&+Friends+At+The+Ryman+(2014/Eagle
This
time, the 3 episodes a disc include Lucille Ball & John Ball
(11/4/64), Tony Bennett & Imogene Coca (12/9/64) and Shirley
Jones & The Righteous Brothers (9/29/65) on DVD 1, while DVD 2
has Liberace & Vikki Carr (1/11/67), Louis Armstrong (1/4/67) and
George Burns (3/1/67) making this a little stronger than the Best
Of
set. This is a solid companion and with all the great talent present
a set worth sitting through at least once. I'll save any surprises
for those who check the set out.
There
are sadly no extras
Next
up are two lesser-known works by two directors who became legends at
MGM, with both films coming from that studio...
Stanley
Donen's Deep
In My Heart
(1954) is another backstage musical, but this time, a biopic about
the forgotten composer Sigmund
Romberg, played so well here by Jose Ferrer that he saves the film to
some extent as the music does not always stick with you. However, we
get a great cast including Gene Kelly, Rosemary Clooney, Ann Miller
(in great form), Merle Oberon, Walter Pidgeon, Paul Henreid, Jim
Backus, Paul Stewart, Howard Keel and uncredited turns by Jean Vander
Pyl and Russ Tamblyn among others. Though it can drag and is uneven,
it has more than enough moments to enjoy it. Of course, it also gets
stuck on the usual biopic formula, but its not as bad as it could
have been. Glad Warner
Archive has issued this one on Blu-ray.
Extras
include an audio-only outtake of ''One
Kiss/Lover Come Back To Me'',
Outtakes Songs ''Dance
My Darling''
and ''Girlies
Of The Cabaret''
with film, the Oscar-nominated live-action short The
Strauss Fantasy
and amusing classic MGM cartoon Farm
Of Tomorrow
in Technicolor.
Oscar
Hammerstein II worked with Romberg among his many collaborators and
with Jerome Kern, wrote
Sweet
Adeline.
MGM made this backstage musical biopic with Mervyn LeRoy in 1934
about composer Syd Barnett (Donald Woods) and Adeline Schmidt (Irene
Dunne in total star form here) who is a great singer who in 1898
wants her in his operettas to the dismay of his leading lady Elysia
(Winifred
Shaw). He gets jealous when Adeline starts to get to know a Major
(Louis Calhern) better. I recognized ''A
Hot Time in the Old Town''
and ''Don't
Ever Leave Me''
among the many tunes here, yet the music here did not stay with me
any more than Deep
In My Heart.
Yet,
this moves a bit better, yet does not add up quite as much. Still,
it too has its moments, captures a time not remembered enough and
despite being 82+ years old, holds up better than you'd think.
There
are sadly
no extras here either.
The
1.33 X 1 image transfer on the Kaye
episodes can once again show the age of the materials used with
analog
videotape flaws including video noise, video banding, telecine
flicker, tape scratching, NTSC cross color, faded color in some
credits and tape damage. Otherwise, colors are nice, there are good
shots and they have still held up well for their age and that old
format.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Heart
show the age of the materials used with mixed results visually and
some spots where the color is better than others. Work needs to be
done on the film, so the copy used here is not always a good
representation
of a dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor version of the film, so it
could be better but is passable here and better than it looked in
previous video presentations.
The
1.33 X 1 black
& white image on Sweet
is only sweet most of the time, while other shots are a bit rough and
the film shows its age despite the gloss MGM gave their films even
back then. More work also needs to be done on this one, but this is
very watchable.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Kaye
and Sweet
are on the weak side and could use some restoration, offering age and
distortion, so be careful of high volume playback and volume
switching. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.0 lossless mix on Heart
is a big surprise considering the age of the film, but this was
originally a 3-track magnetic sound film with traveling dialogue and
sound effects, so a nice job of remastering the sound has resulted
and one doubts if it could sound better.
You
can order either of the Warner Archive releases by going to this link
for them and many more great web-exclusive releases at:
https://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
