Life
Of Emile Zola
(1937*)/Little
Women
(1933/RKO*)/Unman,
Wittering and Zigo
(1971/MVD/Arrow Blu-ray)/Westward
The Women
(1951/MGM/*all Warner Archive Blu-ray)/White
Building
(2013/KimStim DVD)
Picture:
B-/B-/B/B-/C Sound: B-/B-/C+/B-/C+ Extras: C/C+/B/B-/C-
Films: B-/B-/C+/C+/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Life Of Emile Zola,
Little
Women
(1933) and Westward
The Women
Blu-rays are now only available from Warner Bros. through their
Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Now
for upgrades to four notable dramas and a recent one to know
about....
William
Dieterle's The
Life Of Emile Zola
(1937) delivered
Warner Bros. their first best Picture Oscar and was a biopic of the
title Frenchman (the amazing Paul Muni) and his role in enlightening
his country as a provocative writer, especially in the face of
persecution and anti-Semitism in regards to the infamous 'Dreyfus
Affair' that haunts the country's history to this day. Like the
trouble with most Hollywood biopics, it tends to make the man a bit
too much saintly, but there is more than enough drama here that it
does not skip the important points of the events.
Of
course, the Hollywood Code had kicked in by this point, so they had
to dance around a few things, but I remain impressed at what they
pulled off here in what is still an early sound film. The supporting
cast includes Joseph Schildkraut as Captain Alfred Dreyfus, which won
him a Supporting actor Oscar, joined by Gale Sondergaard, Donald
Crisp, Gloria Holden, Erin O'Brien-Moore, Henry O'Neill, Morris
Carnovsky, Ralph Morgan, Montagu Love, Dickie Moore, Florence
Roberts, Frank Sheridan, Grant Mitchell, Robert Warwick, Gilbert
Emery, Walter Kingsford, and Louis Calhern, in a nice change of pace
from the Westerns he made then. Richard Dreyfus did a film on this
recently and they make a solid double feature. Thanks to warner
Archive, another gem saved!
Extras
include an Original Theatrical Trailer, a Lux Radio Theater radio
version of the film from 5/9/39 and two classic Warner Bros. live
action shorts: Mal
Hallett and His Orchestra
and Taking
The Count.
George
Cukor's
Little
Women
(1933) was
an early triumph of literary adaptation, no matter what the
screenplay did or did not retain from the novel, led by Katharine
Hepburn in early great form, joined by Joan Bennett, Jean Parker,
Frances Dee, Paul Lukas, Henry Stephens, Douglass Montgomery and Edna
Mae Oliver. If you are not familiar with the storyline, you can
check out my coverage of a more recent version in the link a little
down the page, but it was always a respected, effective film of the
book and seeing it for the first time in eons, it remains so. Cukor
knew what he was doing and with such a solid cast, it can hold its
own against any adaption of the book or any similar literary
storyline.
Of
course, it helped establish Hepburn further as one of the greatest
actresses of all time, though she would temporarily be dubbed 'box
office poison' in a few years (a separate essay, but some of that was
political) and after her comeback, she was back to stay and become
the legend she still is today. Nice to see it get restored so well.
Extras
include an audio-only Scoring Stage Suite of Recordings, Original
Theatrical Trailer, two live action warner shorts with Jack Haley
(Salt
Water Daffy
and In
The Dough)
and two classic black and white warner animated shorts (I
Like Mountain Music
and The
Organ Grinder;
all four with lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono sound,) though sadly no
teaser or trailer of any kind.
For
one of the other, better feature film adaptions of the classic novel,
try the underrated 2019 Greta Gerwig version in our Blu-ray review of
it at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15691/Intrigo:+Death+Of+An+Author+(2018/Lionsgate
John
Mackenzie's Unman,
Wittering and Zigo
(1971) is
a dark British film about a school where the students are a little
more than out of control and in sinister ways, though on the surface,
maybe not as bad at first. A new optimistic teacher (David Hemmings,
who was on a roll at the time) gets his new class, but the students
are acting a little more than just disobedient show-offs. Something
bad has happened there at the school recently, but he has arrived
after this happens. From here, he finds complacency and worse.
I
will not get too much into the film, though it operates in parts like
a horror film, but it is more of a drama with some sad, ugly things
to say. It was also the peak of the British cinema 'Angry Young Man'
cycle along with Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, issued the same
year, and plays like an interesting (if non Science Fiction) flipside
of the film. Douglas Wilmer, Carolyn Seymour, future star Michael
Kitchen (as one of the students) and a solid cast of new young
unknowns are very convincing. Though it might be hard for some to
handle, it is definitely worth a look for grown-up, mature viewers
and is at least a minor classic in the U.K..
Extras
are many and include a solid, brand new feature length audio
commentary by Sean Hogan and Kim Newman
Unman,
Terhew, Lipstrob and Mrs Ebony,
featurette with cast members Michael Howe, Michael Cashman, James
Wardroper and Carolyn Seymour looking back at the production
William
A. Wellman's Westward
The Women
(1951) is based on a story originally written by Frank Capra, though
it landed up with a more dramatic filmmaker, who was more a
journeyman than Capra's feel-good semi-autuer status. Thus, the
incompatibility (despite any alterations on the set or rewrites) the
film received and the fact it has more women in it than almost any
western you can name form then or now to date makes this an odd film
in the genre and beyond.
A
guide is escorting a group of women to a settlement where they can
forge a future, but with plenty of most-male competition. No Salt
Of The Earth or Heaven's Gate will this be, with more
humor than it needed, but it is made by the top Hollywood movie
studio of the time (MGM) and that was as male-dominated as any of
them.
Now
they have a solid cast with the likes of Denise Darcel in a lead role
that did not launch her career as it might have, joined by Robert
Taylor, Hope Emerson, Beverly Dennis, Julie Bishop, Lenore Lonergan,
Marilyn Erskine, Renata Vanni, Henry Nakamura (though his use as
comic relief is an issue here) and John McIntyre. Yes, we did not
hear from most of them in later films, but they are good here. Too
bad the film cannot decide if it wants to be a comedy, drama, both or
a not-so-funny comedy where the humor is at the wrong kind of expense
of the characters.
The
result is an oddball film you should see if you are curious and it
has its fans, but only those and hardcore Western fans should bother.
The humor now comes across as a bad TV sitcom and other aspects have
not aged well, despite Wellman's talents. He co-wrote the original A
Star Is Born and has a decent track record with women, but even he
could not totally salvage what we get here. Still, it gas been
saved, restored and this is (outside of a rare mint-condition or good
35mm or 16mm film print) the best way to see the film.
Extras
include a feature length audio commentary track by film scholar Scott
Eyman very much worth your time, Original Theatrical Trailer,
live-action featurette Challenge
Of The Wilderness
about how heard it is to shoot films like this one, two classic MGM
Technicolor Tom & Jerry cartoons (Texas
Tom
and The
Duck Doctor,
albeit with lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono sound, they look great) and
a Lux Radio Theater radio version of the film from 12/29/52 with
Robert Taylor.
Finally,
the one relatively new film here, Kavich Neang's
White
Building
(2021) has a young man with dreams of being a successful
singer/dancer, but a crisis in the apartment building he lives in has
surfaced and an odd one indeed. Developers want to offer each
resident a decent per-square-foot money amount for their places, but
even at that price, many are not sure they want to go at all. They
could use the money, but even if they could go somewhere else, maybe
some like it the way it is and just want peace. In the background,
the genocide that followed the Vietnam conflict in the 1970s does
haunt this a bit, though this is not a situation exclusive to any
single democratic country. Guess eminent domain is not happening in
Cambodia at this time, apparently.
I
won't say more, expect to say we have see some of the things here
before, but it also has some good moments and those interested should
definitely take a look at it.
An
Original Theatrical Trailer is the only extra.
Now
for playback performance. The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white
digital High Definition image transfers on all three Warner Archive
Blu-rays can show the age of the materials used, but this is far
superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film even when we
get some unexpected softness in sections. This is as good as I have
ever seen them, but never saw any of them on 35mm or even 16mm film,
but there has been some serious restoration work here without
compromises. Some shots look better than others and some softness is
actually from style choices. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes on all three films
from their original theatrical monophonic presentations actually
sound better than you might expect and I cannot imagine them sounding
any better than this going forward, so that makes up for some image
limits. Glad these got the attention they all deserved.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Zigo
can also show the age of the materials used, but is the best-looking
of all the films we are covering, with solid color, though a little
on the darker side being it is a drama, was shot in the U.K. and is a
rare film to have its lab work done by the Humphries
laboratory in the U.K. Known for developing all kinds of still film
and home movie film
(Ilford and Ferrania included,) they delivered a professional job
that has held up nicely. Director of Photography Geoffrey Unsworth,
B.S.C., of 300
Spartans,
World
Of Suzie Wong,
Becket,
Cabaret,
Cromwell,
Murder
On The Orient Express
(1974), Superman:
The Movie,
Superman
II
and 2001:
A Space Odyssey
fame delivers some of his most important and darkest work here.
However, the PCM 1.0 Mono on the disc is a little limiting and I wish
this was 2.0 Mono instead. It would also help the dialogue and for
some clarify the accents, though I am more used to them than most.
Finally,
the anamorphically enhanced 1.66 X 1 image on Building
is a little softer than I would have liked, even though we get some
nice shots with nice color, all could have worked out better if
clearer. The lossy Cambodian Dolby Digital 5.1 is not too bad,
though a few moments are slightly off. Wonder if a Blu-ray would
have made this work better.
To
order The
Life Of Emile Zola,
Little
Women
(1933) and/or Westward
The Women Warner
Archive Blu-rays, go to this link for them and many more great
web-exclusive
releases at:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20
-
Nicholas Sheffo
