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Category:    Home > Reviews > Music Compilation > Jazz > Standards > Lena Horne, The Incomparable

The Incomparable Lena Horne

 

Picture: C-     Sound: C     Extras: C-     Episode and Film: B

 

 

In another good DVD with archival materials, no matter their age, The Incomparable Lena Horne is a fine set of items on the legendary, groundbreaking singer.  The main program is actually around a half-hour, from British TV that serves as a fine biography on her life and history professionally and personally.  It packs all kinds of footage and facts into its short space, but is the best crash course anyone will likely ever come up with to tell her story.  The fact that it is British makes it more informative due to the “intelligent outsider” factor.

 

The Duke Is Tops is an independently produced feature film, made in 1938 for the Million Dollar Productions group and was later reissued as The Bronze Venus in 1943.  William L. Nolte directed the Harry M./Leo C. Popkin-produced film.  Oddly, the film has two A.S.C. cinematographers: Robert Cline and Henry Kruse.  This is an example of the segregated “Negro Cinema” that existed until certain powers did what it could to crush it, but is not a bad film at all and one of the more interesting entries in that production era.  Besides its historical importance, it is more or less a Backstage Musical.  Though some would complain that it relegates African Americans to entertainment performers, it is not as simple as that.  This is a good film where the characters are portrayed with dignity and intelligence, something most films I have seen this year lack.  That is a great combination of key programs on Horne fans will especially want.  The film is about 75 minutes long.

 

The full frame 1.33 X 1 image quality is not great, with the color bleeding a bit on the documentary and the monochrome footage there and in the feature film being on the weak side in its gray scale.  In the case of the film, that it survives at all is amazing, but there has to be a better copy and this one is not a digital High Definition version, so a restoration should be done later.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is varied, with the British documentary having the best moments, as expected.  Extras beside the feature film include a brief filmography that mistakenly omits The Wiz (1978, though the documentary does not) and a stills gallery set to music that goes just over 2.5 minutes.  That is a nice extra touch for such a good disc.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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