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Category:    Home > Reviews > Animation > Politics > Comedy > TV > Wait Till Your Father Gets Home: The Complete Series (1972 - 74/Hanna Barbera/Blu-ray Set/**both Warner Archive)

Charlie Chase At Hal Roach: The Late Silents 1927 (Kit Parker/MVD/Sprocket Vault Blu-ray Set)/Mr. Lucky (1943/RKO/Blu-ray**)/Talk Of The Town 4K (1942/Columbia/Sony 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)/Wait Till Your Father Gets Home: The Complete Series (1972 - 74/Hanna Barbera/Blu-ray Set/**both Warner Archive)



4K Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B-/B/X/B Sound: B/B-/B-/B- Extras: B/C+/B-/C Main Programs: B-



PLEASE NOTE: The Mr. Lucky and Wait Till Your Father Gets Home Blu-rays are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.



Now for a group of restored classic comedies...



Charlie Chase At Hal Roach: The Late Silents 1927 is the latest set of the comedians' comedy short films that are being slowly-but-extensively saved, preserved and restored as thoroughly as possible. For your reference, here are the previous sets issued of his work if you need to look back or get more of an idea of just how extensive his work is:


Becoming Charlie Chase 1915 - 1925 DVD Set

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8819/Becoming+Charley+Chase+(Comedy+Compilation/1


Cut To The Chase: The Charlie Chase Collection 1924 - 1926 DVD Set

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11995/Cut+To+The+Chase:+The+Charley+Chase+Collect


Charlie Chase At Hal Roach: The Talkies 1930 - 1931 DVD Set

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15132/The+Apartment+(1960/United+Artists/MGM/MVD


Charlie Chase At Hal Roach: The Talkies Volume Two 1932 - 1933 DVD Set

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15496/Breakthrough+4K+(2019/Fox+4K+Ultra+HD+Blu-r


So now we have our first Blu-ray high definition set of his works and I can see nuances in his performances that even the best DVD copies did not reveal, subtle, but there. For me, some sets are better than others, but this one is a little more off and I think as the silent era was winding down by coincidence, some of the shorts have him repeating himself a bit. It is hard to keep a high watermark of quality when doing a series of shorts, comedy or otherwise. Like the weekly TV grind from season to season of a series is a hit, it is hard to keep up the quality.


That is not to say some of the shorts are not funny or have funny moments is not the intent, but just a few less and still, the actors are going out of their way to be funny, especially when we see them getting physical to get a laugh. It is something most comedy actors are too lazy to do today. Eugene Pallette holds his own in both Many Scrappy Returns and Assistant Wives, Jean Arthur is solid in Bigger And Better Blondes, Fluttering Hearts has Oliver Hardy in early fine form, the legendary Lupe Velez makes her big screen debut in What Women Did For Me, only a single reel survives of Now I'll Tell You and both Laurel & Hardy show up and when Charlie and his regulars hit it they really hit it!


If you have never seen a Chase short or are interested in starting to watch his work, now you have five releases to choose from and counting. More are on the way and we'll see what they can save next!


Extras include (per the press release) a wonderful score by composer Dr. Andrew Earle Simpson and a fun & highly informative commentary track by noted film historian, author, and Hal Roach raconteur Richard M. Roberts. Richard recounts the years of painstaking research to track down prints of these films, plus three bonus shorts in The Merry Widower, excerpts from Call Of The Cookoo and Smile, Buttercup, Smile. One is a remake of another in the main set and further shows the love and hard work it takes to save these orphan films.



H.C. Potter's Mr. Lucky (1943) is the first of the two Cary Grant gems here, two of his better films, if not his all-time classics, yet still on the upper half of his best works. Grant was on a roll for a long time as a lead actor and could get away with being bad because he was so beloved. Here, he is a conman, gambling ship owner ready to rob money from a charity and dodge the draft until he falls for Lorraine Day as a rich, upper class gal who does fundraising for it.


A simple drama/comedy, they have some nice chemistry, Day is underrated and it flows nicely like the The Talk Of The Town (next, below) where he starts as a bad person until the story starts to slowly unfold. Not an imitator of the other film, it has some more romance and a very slightly Noir style in a few small parts. Again, the Hollywood Studio System pulls through at RKO, an even then-larger studio that Columbia and the supporting cast is great including Gladys Cooper, Charles Bickford, Alan Carney, Henry Stephenson, Paul Stewart, Florence Bates, Kay Johnson, Walter Kingsford and more than a few uncredited character actors you would've seen before if you watch classic films. Mr. Lucky gets top rate treatment and I hope it means another step towards a Cary Grant revival.


Extras include an Original Theatrical Trailer and two radio drama versions of the film with Grant: Lux Radio Theater (10/18/1943) with Lorraine Day and Screen Director's Playhouse (1/20/1950) with H.C. Potter.



George Stevens' The Talk Of The Town 4K (1942) is not a screwball comedy, comedy of manners or a comedy that fits the prototype of what we now think of as a TV situation comedy, but a pure outright comedy that is leisurely in its approach, more clever than it would first seem and allows the comedy and the actors doing it to really deliver. Grant plays a criminal named Leopold Dilg who escapes prison, with the film first looking like a crime, gangster or melodrama film, but after the first reel, it becomes apparent it is going to be a comedy when he goes to a house that he thinks is abandoned. It will turn out to be anything but.


Unfortunately, a law professor (the underrated Ronald Coleman) is heading up there and the owner and friend of Dilg's (Jean Arthur) happens to go up there for a visit. Needless to say, especially with the professor a U.S. Supreme Court nominee and a lynch mob out for Dilg, you know some madness will ensue. I would add we also get character development and has some smart side things to say, though never preachy or going into polemics.


Its been a long time since I have seen it and forgot how good it really was, even with some minor parts that stop it from being more memorable, but the smooth maturity and wit of this is something you hardly see anywhere in any form anymore. The chemistry is good and comic timing consistent. Cheers to to the supporting cast including Edgar Buchanan, Glenda Farrell, Charles Dingle, Rex Ingram, Tom Tyler, Emma Dunn, Don Beddoe and yet more than a few uncredited character actors you would've seen before if you watch classic films. The result is just a really good film that is long overdue for mass rediscovery and this new 4K release can only help that out.


Extras include Digital Movie, while the disc adds a feature length audio commentary track by author Marilyn Ann Moss and Making Of featurette entitled Talking Of Talk Of The Town.



Wait Till Your Father Gets Home: The Complete Series (1972 - 1974) brings the one-of-a-kind animated comedy from Hanna Barbera to high definition Blu-ray after the first of the three seasons was issued years ago on DVD from Warner. You can read more about it and the show at this link:


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5510/Wait+Till+Your+Father+Gets+Home+%E2%80%93


The show was produced between 1972 to 1973, switching studios and even film formats, but the 48 half-hours made up three season in all. Unlike the other animated shows of the time, it was not being shown in the child-friendly hours of children's syndication or on Saturday Morning TV, but more so on various channels in the afternoon or near dinner time. Hanna Barbera was trying to break more ground on TV, what could work and sell in various time slots. Though The Flintstones was the first prime time U.S. network TV animated cartoon, it was for the whole family. For the Second Season, they tried to imitate the 'guest star' success of The New Scooby Doo Movies, also the first hour-long hit animated TV show and second-ever for that franchise.


Those shows have their moments and included Johnathan Winters as his Maude Fickert character, Monty Hall as himself, Rich Little as himself, Don Adams, Phyllis Diller and Don Knotts as variants of their famous personas and Joe E. Ross playing an amusing variant as his Car 54, Where Are You? character and already imitated by other characters in the Hanna Barbera universe, like the police boss of and on Hong Kong Phooey. That took the show away from some of its social commentary, but not in bad ways, since this is still a comedy. However, cutting the animation budget and switching from 35mm film to smaller, cheaper 16mm ultimately ended the show. I think it could have lasted a bit longer and most Hanna Barbera shows never made it past a single season because they would move on and try new shows with their limited budgets.


Yet, it remained fun and ambitious, the voice work is fine and jokes and humor smart. Willie Aames took over from Jackie Earle Haley as youngest son Jamie, Lennie Weinrib eventually took over from David Hayward as older son Chet, Hazel Shermet was back as Lucille Grundy, Pat Harrington, Jr. continued doing various voices, while other familiar actors and voice actors who filled in the rest of the episodes include Allan Melvin back as a new character, Alan Oppenheimer, Ronnie Schell, Ross Martin, Arnold Stang, Richard Dawson, Ed Begley, Jr., Dick Van Patten, Alan Rafkin, Herb Vigran and Casey Kasem.


Also helping out were the behind the scenes writers and producers, including R.S Allen and Harvey Bullock, whose teamwork together included this show, Alice with Linda Lavin, Love, American Style where the characters on this show apparently debuted, The Love Boat and three smaller TV shows aimed at children and Saturday Morning Television: Bullock doing Red Hand Gang on his own with others, McDuff The Talking Dog, Big John, Little John and The Monster Squad (1976,) not to be confused with the 1987 feature film and reviewed elsewhere on this site. There work here reaches their best.


But then there is the legacy of this series. Despite being a hit, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home remained a one-of-a-kind series until the likes of The Simpsons, South Park and Family Guy arrived, though (of all things) Beavis & Butt-head spin-off Daria was the show that came the closest to this show. It is a landmark, underrated and highly recommended.


Extras includes the featurette Animation For The Nation - Illustrating The Times from the DVD set, but early copies have an error excluding it despite it being listed. This is supposed to be corrected as this review posts.



Now for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.33 X 1, black & white, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Talk Of The Town looks really good and even a little better than expected, which I keep running onto with older Columbia Pictures, so it is always a pleasure and surprise because it is amazing when films from the last thirty to forty years look good, let alone over 80 and is the best-looking entry here!


Director of Photography Ted Tatzlaff, A.S.C., lensed other well known hits and classics like My Man Godfrey, Hands Across The Table, Murder With Pictures, Road To Zanzibar, Those Endearing Young Charms and Hitchcock's Notorious. He did great work throughout his career and this is one of his best films too.


The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix is also in solid shape and the best this film will ever sound.


The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfers on the Chase shorts can show the age of the materials used, but once again a ton of love and hard work went into saving each surviving short and seeing Chase more clearly here has more impact than the fine DVD sets. The supporting cast, visual gags and locales (or sets) also benefit. The PCM 2.0 Stereo for music on each short is all pretty newly recorded, so it is by default, going to have the best sound on this list, plus the best sound on any Charlie Chase release to date. Not that I need music for most of them, but its there.


The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfer on Mr. Lucky only slightly shows the age of the film, looking better than I have ever seen it and it has been a while. Director of Photography George S. Barnes, A.S.C., lensed the likes of Son Of The Sheik, the Ronald Coleman Raffles, Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers Of 1935, Stars Over Broadway, Meet John Doe, Force Of Evil, File On Thelma Jordan, Greatest Show On Earth, Road To Bali, the 1953 War Of The Worlds and two of Hitchcock's biggest classics: Rebecca and Spellbound. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix here as well has been well restored and the best this film will ever sound. The combination is a pleasure.


The 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on Father can show the age of the materials used, which range form 35mm negatives to 16mm episodes later in the series, but I love color for the most part and it really impresses along with its semi-minimalist art style. Looking better than the already decent DVD transfers for Season One, which this far succeeds those older discs, there are still a few shows that look a little off (Bringing Up Jamie) but its a real treat otherwise. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes are mostly fine, but a few episodes can sound a little boxy depending on the show, usually in later seasons. It is still all an improvement for the Season One DVD's lossy Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono sound that was restrictive and sometimes problematic. All in all, only a really good, mint print of any of these shows could compete. Of any animated TV shows that have been too forgotten, it deserved Blu-ray treatment.



To order either the Mr. Lucky and/or Wait Till Your Father Gets Home 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


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