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Category:    Home > Reviews > Backstage Musical > Country Rock > Canada > Folk > Sweethearts (1938/MGM/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/The Tragically Hip: Up To Here (1989/Blu-ray/3-CD Set/*both Universal Music)

Elvis Costello: King Of America & Other Realms (1986/6-CD Set*)/Fabulous Thunderbirds Live In Houston (2006/MVD/Cleopatra Blu-ray)/Joker: Folie A Deux 4K (2024/DC Comics/Warner 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)/Sweethearts (1938/MGM/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/The Tragically Hip: Up To Here (1989/Blu-ray/3-CD Set/*both Universal Music)



4K Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: X/B-/X/B/C+ Sound: B/C+/A-/B-/B+ & B (CDs) Extras: B/D/C+/B-/B- Main Programs: B-/C+/C+/B-/C+



PLEASE NOTE: The Sweethearts Blu-ray is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.



Now for a very, very diverse set of new music releases...



Elvis Costello: King Of America & Other Realms (1986) is the tenth studio album by the New Wave star who expanded into every music genre around and one of the most musically literate musicians around, he can play it as well as he can go deep into its history. A tribute to Allen Toussaint and the music of New Orleans, et al, it is one of his most acoustic releases ever and an artistic comeback after his 1984 album Goodbye Cruel World was highly disliked by fans and non-fans alike. Still not a huge commercial hit, it is one of his most ambitious works and this ambitious 6-CD set offers the following:


DISC 1 - KING OF AMERICA (2024 REMASTER)

1. Brilliant Mistake

2. Lovable

3. Our Little Angel

4. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

5. Glitter Gulch

6. Indoor Fireworks

7. Little Palaces

8. I'll Wear It Proudly

9. American Without Tears

10. Eisenhower Blues

11. Poisoned Rose

12. The Big Light

13. Jack Of All Parades

14. Suit Of Lights

15. Sleep Of The Just


DISC 2 - LE ROI SANS SABOTS

Demos, Outtakes & Other Realms

1. The People's Limousine - The Coward Brothers

2. Next Time Round *

3. Deportee *

4. Brilliant Mistake (First Draft) *

5. Suffering Face

6. Poisoned Rose

7. Jack Of All Parades

8. Sleep Of The Just *

9. Blue Chair *

10. I Hope You're Happy Now

11. I'll Wear It Proudly

12. Indoor Fireworks

13. Having It All

14. Shoes Without Heels *

15. King Of Confidence

16. They'll Never Take Her Love From Me - The Coward Brothers

17. American Without Tears No. 2 (Twilight Version)


DISC 3 - KINGS OF AMERICA LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL

Royal Albert Hall 27th January 1987

1. The Big Light *

2. Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line *

3. Our Little Angel *

4. It Tears Me Up *

5. I'll Wear It Proudly *

6. Lovable *

7. Riverboat *

8. Sally Sue Brown/36-22-36 *

9. American Without Tears *

10. Brilliant Mistake *

11. What Would I Do Without You *

12. Your Mind Is On Vacation /Your Funeral, My Trial *

13. Pouring Water On A Drowning Man *

14. Payday *

15. That's How You Got Killed Before *

16. Sleep Of The Just *

17. True Love Ways *


DISC 4 - IL PRINCIPE DI NEW ORLEANS E LE MARCHESE DEL MISSISSIPPI

1. There's A Story In Your Voice with Lucinda Williams

2. Country Darkness

3. The Delivery Man

4. Nothing Clings Like Ivy

5. Heart Shaped Bruise with Emmylou Harris (Live At The Hi-Tone, Memphis) **

6. Bedlam (Live At Montreal Jazz) **

7. Either Side Of The Same Town

8. Wonder Woman

9. In Another Room

10. The Monkey * - Rehearsal with Dave Bartholomew & The Dirty Dozen Brass Band

11. Monkey To Man

12. Deep Dark Truthful Mirror

13. Clown Strike (Live At Montreal Jazz) **

14. Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?

15. The River In Reverse

16. ''The Greatest Love'' from the HBO TV series Treme *

17. Ascension Day


DISC 5 - EL PRINCIPE DEL PURGATORIO

1. Stations Of The Cross

2. Quick Like A Flash (Previously Unreleased) *

3. Sulphur To Sugarcane

4. Red Cotton

5. Lost On The River #12

6. A Slow Drag With Josephine

7. I Felt The Chill

8. Complicated Shadows (Cashbox Version)

9. She's Pulling Out The Pin

10. Condemned Man (Demo) *

11. Hidden Shame

12. Red Wicked Wine with Dr. Ralph Stanley

13. The Scarlet Tide with Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings (Live at the Grand Ole Opry) *

14. One Bell Ringing

15. Bullets For The New Born King

16. All These Strangers

17. For More Tears (Demo) *

18. You Hung The Moon


DISC 6 - DER HERZOG DES RAMPENLICHT

1. Stella Hurt

2. Mr. Feathers

3. Under Lime

4. Jimmie Standing In The Rain

5. Down Among The Wines And Spirits

6. Dr. Watson, I Presume

7. Church Underground (Demo) *

8. A Voice In The Dark

9. April 5th with Rosanne Cash & Kris Kristofferson

10. Indoor Fireworks (Memphis Magnetic Version) *

11. That's Not The Part Of Him You're Leaving with Larkin Poe *

12. Brilliant Mistake/Boulevard Of Broken Dreams (Cape Fear Version) *

13. That Day Is Done with The Fairfield Four


* previously unreleased

** first-ever audio release


Besides some interesting, even unexpected duets and variations, this was his last major hit album of any kind with former label Columbia Records and last hit album of any kind for a good while. Of course, hr has survived and endured while the reputation of this album has only increased over the years, thus this big deluxe expansion of it. Its not the album I would start with if I were recommending his work to a newcomer, but King Of America is a one-tome kind of album that shows a special side of the artists we'll never see again and that is more than enough to celebrate its release.


We are counting the many bonus tracks and 57-page booklet as the extras and there are plenty. Even if this is not always your kind of music, it is remarkable work and an expansion worthy of the artist and his music. For more on Costello, go to these links for his TV series Spectacle:


Season One DVD (with links to his Music Videos DVD, Live Blu-ray and Deluxe Edition CD Set of My Aim Is True)

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9239/Spectacle+-+Elvis+Costello+with%E2%80%A6+-+S


Season Two Blu-ray/DVD Set

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16528/Spectacle:+Elvis+Costello+with%E2%80%A6+%E2



The Fabulous Thunderbirds Live In Houston (2006) is actually the first time we have ever covered any release from the Country Rock band whose title song to their big hit album Tuff Enuff (1986) was a huge worldwide hit going Top Ten in the U.S., we have this new concert release taped twenty years after that peak and they are in fine form. The show is sadly only an hour long, but the tracks include...


1. Slow Down
2. Postman
3. Rock With Me
4. Got To Get Out
5. Painted On
6. Two Time Fool
7. Wait On Time
8. Wrap It Up
9. Pretty Baby
10. Tuff Enuff
11. Marked Deck


Of course, Wrap It Up was also a big hit, more so on Rock radio, et al, but they were good at what they did, what they played and its nice to have a little more of them to show that they were far from a mere one-hit wonder. We'll be curious if more releases turn up with the band.


There are no extras.



Todd Phillips' Joker: Folie A Deux 4K (2024) is the big budget, unexpected sequel to the first hit Joker film from 2019 which was a surprise critical success as well. The first film juggled the DC character's history (this Arthur Fleck variation is played by Joaquin Phoenix) with some of Martin Scorsese's most urban films. This sequel continues that, but this time, they retain only some of that Scorsese flavor and go for, unexpectedly, The Hollywood Movie Musical.


Opening with a tribute and dark satire (the most R-rated ever) of a Warner Bros' Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies animated short, the title character's split personality is immediately addressed and then we show up in the real world where he is in prison and all is not so colorful and happy. Too ill to stand trial for multiple murders, he is in prison as some officials would like to get him well enough to stand trial. As we watch, we realize his split personality has him existing in the real world and a fantasy world that is a hybrid of said cartoons (Warner cartoons play on the analog color TVs here as much as they do in Kubrick's The Shining, a partial influence on the film as well) with musicals, especially ones in Technicolor or very distinct, vibrant color.


That means we get three looks in the film, Technicolor, decolored and somewhere in between (with slight variants) and to top things off, Harley Quinn shows up as 'Lee' and is played by the most dangerous, cutting edge female vocalist in all of music today, Lady Gaga who is great here singing, acting and dancing. A perfect match for any Joker, she makes for a nice counterpoint to him and a bright light in the film, but she is not here enough and the screenplay has issues.


The music shows up (as operetta or musical) as either big production numbers that impress, small ones or simple, deconstructive vocal performances, along with a few actual hit songs in the digesis of the film's real world. All are covers and remakes, covering several decades, some showing up more than once, select posters from classic movie musicals show up at the beginning of the film, the prisoners take a break from the analog cartoon fest to see a film print of The Bandwagon with Fred Astaire and an early walk on the prison grounds in the rain has Fleck reliving the French cinema classic The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg.


The music and musical literacy of the film is not in doubt. The Bandwagon as not only the peak of the original classical Hollywood Musical (celebrating, while deconstructing and mocking even then as it peaked) and is the original source of the hit That's Entertainment, which became a hit trilogy of documentaries MGM issued, with the first one actually getting a Best Picture nomination. We even get a sly, dark, violent send-up of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour as part of the film's critique of media violence. So what does it all mean?


Well, the film is trying to bash the media for encouraging and normalizing violence, but we've seen that many times before. It is also dealing with musical numbers as psychotic outbursts as Scorsese' partly did in his brilliant 1977 epic New York, New York, which was also the point of the two British TV musicals by Dennis Potter that were hit TV mini-series that also became feature films: Pennies From Heaven (1978, later a 1981 MGM film directed by Herbert Ross with Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters and Christoper Walken that remains amazing) and The Singing Detective (1986, later a 2003 film by director Keith Gordon with mixed results) so this film has that going for it.


The results? Well, that's where the film got into big commercial trouble and more than a little critical trouble as the screenplay starts up so many interesting things, it is impossible for the film to have time to finish any of them. There is even irony (Harry Lawtey's solid performance as the District Attorney prosecuting Fleck is the man who himself will later become the mixed-up split personality villain, Two Face: Harvey Dent) as the film moves along. Its great for huge fans of the DC characters or Musicals, a dead genre where only one in ever few dozen or so films have worked since the 1960s (!!!) but otherwise, the film, lands up saying only things it knows it is saying, though any audiences will get some of it and it becomes lie a bunch of sentences that have subjects and few predicates.


Another plus for the film, however, is its supporting cast that includes Catherine Keener, Brendan Gleeson, Zazie Beetz, Steve Coogan (another sly casting touch) and many new faces we will very likely be seeing more of in the near future. At least the film is a sincere attempt to say, show and do something different, also a counterpoint to all the mostly bad super villain films (especially the horrid, horrific Black Adam, also from DC) saying it is not good to make villains heroes, but that message is too late in the game for the genre, et al, and has also been said plenty of times before.


The result is an interesting failure that is certain to have some kind of cult status eventually, though what kind remains to be seen and for all the big budget money spent, does not seem like the absolute, total, bizarre waste that several epic films in the genre (both DC/Warner and Marvel/Disney have produced too many of them recently) that we have suddenly seen in the last few years.


The only other issue is the lame repetition of people smoking non-stop throughout the film like nothing we've seen in any Hollywood film since the early 1970s or 1960s or 1950s. Since this was not hit, I doubt we'll see a third film, but one would be hard to imagine because the smoking is so highly toxic here, any character who survived this film at the end would be dead of lung cancer by any proposed next one!


Extras include Digital Movie Code, while the disc adds:

  • Everything Must Go (4-Part Longform Documentary)

    • Can I Have A Cigarette?

    • Finding Lee

    • A Hundred Films In One

    • King of Nothing

  • The Character Of Music

  • Live! With The Joker

  • Colors Of Madness

  • and Crafted With Class.


For more on the first Joker film, check out our 4K coverage at this link:


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15640/Acceleration+(2019/Cinedigm+Blu-ray)/Battle+Of



Now for a much more successful musical. W.S. Van Dyke's Sweethearts (1938) reunites the highly successful journeyman director with one of the most successful singing duos in cinema history: Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. They were so big and big stars at the #1 movie studio of the time, MGM, that the studio made this film their first major film shot in the now-legendary three-strip Technicolor process. The result is a very good film that holds up better than you would think, looks great, has the duo's semi-operatic singing in great form and a great supporting cast that includes Ray Bolger, Frank Morgan, Mischa Auer, Florence Rice, Herman Bing, Reginald Gardner, Fay Holden, Lucille Watson, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart and uncredited turns by Jim Farley, James Flavin, Bess Flowers and Philip Loeb.


An elaborate backstage musical based on Victor Herbert's operetta, the duo plays a Broadway couple (married for six years) accepting an offer to go Hollywood and go to Hollywood, which should be easy and just build on their already amazing success. However, their stage bosses try to ruin things and all kinds of mayhem ensues. Most of what is here works well, this is smartly done, the great novelist Dorothy Parker co-wrote the screenplay with severals others and the result was an award-winning hit for MGM. Warner Archive's new Blu-ray restoration runs form impressive to stunning, leaning towards the latter. It will make you want to see all the duos films!

Extras include an Original Theatrical Trailer, audio-only original prerecording session material, excerpt from the Technicolor short subject Pirate Party On Catalina Island, 3/25/46 radio version of the film on the Screen Actors Theater series and two classic animated shorts: Count On Me and Love And Curses.



Last but not least is the first full-length LP from a major Canadian band that did not have the huge success they could and should have had in the states. The Tragically Hip: Up To Here (1989) followed five years of hard work and a self-titled EP that did reasonably well, well enough for them to get to this release. Led by the late singer/songwriter Gord Downie, the four singles that did very well in their homeland and got some Alternate Rock Radio airplay in the U.S., et al, were Blow At High Dough, New Orleans Is Sinking, 38 Years Old and Boots Or Hearts.


They would continue for 13 more albums until 2007 and with a slight Country Rock sound, though it is not like the U.S. Version of said (sub)genre, it is strange they did not become at least a one-hot wonder in the States and or simply have a crossover hit (major MCA was their label) on the outright Country chart at a time when that genre sounded too much like older, dated Pop/Rock. Still, a significant band with significant enough success and a serious following, you can see why they would finally be getting the deluxe treatment here, including an ultra high resolution Blu-ray Audio that shows how good they were.


The discs and their content that we get include:


Disc 1: Up To Here (2024 remaster of the original album)


Blow At High Dough

I'll Believe In You (Or I'll Be Leaving You Tonight)

New Orleans Is Sinking

38 Years Old

She Didn't Know

Boots Or Hearts

Everytime You Go

When The Weight Comes Down

Trickle Down

Another Midnight

and Opiated


Disc 2: Live At The Misty Moon + Previously Unreleased Studio Tracks


Crack My Spine Like A Whip (Live At The Misty Moon)

She Didn't Know (Live At The Misty Moon)

Highway Girl (Live At The Misty Moon)

Just As Well (Live At The Misty Moon)

Boots Or Hearts (Live At The Misty Moon)

Trickle Down (Live At The Misty Moon)

Get Back Again (Live At The Misty Moon)

Three Pistols (Live At The Misty Moon)

Fight (Live At The Misty Moon)

38 Years Old (Live At The Misty Moon)

Blow At High Dough (Live At The Misty Moon)

I'll Believe In You (Or I'll Be Leaving You Tonight) (Live At The Misty Moon)

New Orleans Is Sinking (Live At The Misty Moon)

On The Verge (Live At The Misty Moon)

She's Got What It Takes

Get Back Again

Rain, Hearts And Fire

and Wait So Long


Disc 3: How We Got Here - The 1988 Demos


Hailstone Hands Of God (1988 Demo)

When The Weight Comes Down (1988 Demo)

I'll Believe In You (Or I'll Be Leaving You Tonight) (1988 Demo)

New Orleans Is Sinking (1988 Demo)

Rain, Hearts And Fire (1988 Demo)

She Didn't Know (1988 Demo)

Blow At High Dough (1988 Demo)

Boots Or Hearts (1988 Demo)

Everytime You Go (1988 Demo)

and Just Another Midnight (1988 Demo)


Disc 4: Dolby Atmos Blu-ray Audio with four sound choices...


Blow At High Dough

I'll Believe In You (Or I'll Be Leaving You Tonight)

New Orleans Is Sinking

38 Years Old

She Didn't Know

Boots Or Hearts

Everytime You Go

When The Weight Comes Down

Trickle Down

Another Midnight

Opiated

She's Got What It Takes

Get Back Again

Rain, Hearts And Fire

and Wait So Long


*The Blu-ray also includes the full 1-hour concert film of the Misty Moon show. The tracklisting of the show on the video is:


Crack My Spine Like A Whip (Live At The Misty Moon)

She Didn't Know (Live At The Misty Moon)

Highway Girl (Live At The Misty Moon)

Just As Well (Live At The Misty Moon)

Boots Or Hearts (Live At The Misty Moon)

Trickle Down (Live At The Misty Moon)

Get Back Again (Live At The Misty Moon)

Three Pistols (Live At The Misty Moon)

Fight (Live At The Misty Moon)

38 Years Old (Live At The Misty Moon)

Blow At High Dough (Live At The Misty Moon)

I'll Believe In You (Or I'll Be Leaving You Tonight) (Live At The Misty Moon)

New Orleans Is Sinking (Live At The Misty Moon)

and On The Verge (Live At The Misty Moon)


Extras in a solid clamshell case include a nicely illustrated 12-page booklet (with song lyrics on each track) on the band and album with all those extra tracks and the video clips. Its a great intro to the band in their early years and fans will be very, very happy too. Also, Canadian music talent deserves much more deluxe treatment all around and this is a step forward in that.



Now for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, various ratioed, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Joker is wide ranging from degraded analog video images to near-Technicolor live action sequences and the animated cartoon at the beginning of the film. Nice to see the Ultra HD shoot push the color. The lossless Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) ranges form purposely degraded mono and stereo to using all of its tracks very well for musical numbers and action sequences.


The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Thunderbirds can show the age of the materials used, but looks like later, regular HD at best and has some good color, while we get two soundtracks. The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is a little better than the poorer, lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, but once again, we get another cleopatra title that should have at least had fuller PCM digital sound. Still, it is well recorded enough, but a little bit of a sonic disappointment unnecessarily so. A 2001 DVD-Audio with DTS on the band live also had some complaints about its sonics, but along with the very best CDs and vinyl out there, remains the best sonic representation of the band to date.


The 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Sweethearts can show the age of the materials used a bit as expected, but this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film on home video, does a great job of reproducing the dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor look of the film and the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix has been restored very well and thoroughly for its age. The film will never sound better and only a real Technicolor print in really fine shape could ever compete with the restoration on this disc.


The 1080p digital High Definition images on Tragically Hip are older and upscaled for the most part, but are just fine for what they are, looking as good as can be expected. The Blu-ray comes with four soundtracks. The lossless Dolby Atmos 11.1 (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) and PCM 2.0 Stereo are fine, but I was disappointed by the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 and 7.1 lossless mixes that do not exactly work as well as they could have. I do not know why they are off, but they are.


The PCM 2.0 Stereo on that set's CDs and the Elvis Costello CDs are fine and sound as good as they could possibly hope to in the older format.



To order the Warner Archive Sweethearts Blu-ray, go to this link for it 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


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