The Man in the
Gray Flannel Suit
Picture: B+
Sound: B Extras: B Film: B+
No matter what Gregory Peck will always remain most
memorable for his Oscar winning performance in To Kill a Mockingbird, a performance that even robbed the
incredible debut performance from Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, what a fine year for cinema! However, his performances in other roles,
such as 1956’s The Man in the Gray
Flannel Suit, which at that time would become a common phrase given to the
working man, is just as impressive.
What I particular love about this film, especially from today’s
perspective, is how we wrap our lives around material things and we realize
this when things are stripped away.
Peck’s character is an ex-soldier returning home to face
the world he left behind, but supporting his wife and children might not be as
easy as it seemed, and this world he left seems distant to his new
perspective. One can only imagine the
life of a soldier returning from any war, in this case WWII, and facing a world
that we once knew so well, only to feel so different towards it now. Somehow everything seems so different, cold,
calculated, meticulous, and nearly impossible to live in after seeing the
horrors of war.
The film is lengthy and almost epic in proportion and
strength. It might seem dated with some
of it’s content, but just think of it in terms to our current situations with
war in the Middle East and/or the past few combat situations such as Desert Storm
or even Vietnam. Relevance here is simply
a state of mind, but the film is strong and Fox’s DVD presentation helps make
that point.
As far as the picture quality is concerned this is yet
another excellent transfer from Fox as part of their Classic series. The 2.55 X 1 CinemaScope transfer has been
anamorphically enhanced and restored with great results and beauty. One thing I did notice is that the Internet
Movie Database credits the movie as being 2.35 X 1, but this transfer clearly
looks more like 2.55 X 1, which makes more sense for an early CinemaScope
film. The real stellar moments with
this print is the color fidelity and contrast, which still allows the film to
look grainy and have sharpness and good color balance. Notice Gregory Peck’s green uniform or even
his famous gray suit and the level of detail that shows up. Also blacks are appropriately deep and dark,
while whites are controlled and bright.
There is little to complain about here in fact.
The sound is 2.0 Dolby Stereo/Surround, which derives from
the films original 4-track magnetic stereo master and this certainly gives the
film a nice warm touch. This is without
a doubt one of the better re-mixed audio tracks from this era that does not
attempt to over compensate or make the film sound bizarre and playful. Rather it spreads out the music and some
ambience and lets the dialogue and sound design shine through the front of the
soundstage. I typically prefer to set
my receive to just playback in stereo, rather than have the Pro Logic attempt
to split the sound with 3 front speakers and one surround channel, but doing
both in this case seems ok. Usually
what happens in Pro Logic cases is that the dialogue becomes too centralized in
the center channel and gets lost in the mix with the left and right channels
overpowering, but not really an issue here.
The extras are fairly interesting including a commentary
from author and publisher James Monaco along with your typical Fox Movietone
footage, which are becoming more common on the classic series. A still gallery, trailer, and restoration demonstration
square this release off quite sharply as one of the best from Fox thus far and
let’s hope the goods don’t stop yet.
- Nate Goss
