Turner Classic Movies: Greatest Classic Films (Romantic Comedies, Romantic Dramas, Best Picture Winners/Warner DVD Sets)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: B-     Films:

 

 

Romantic Comedies Set:

 

Adam’s Rib B

Woman of the Year B

The Philadelphia Story B+

Bringing Up Baby A-

 

Romantic Dramas Set:

 

East of Eden B

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof B

A Streetcar Named Desire B

Rebel Without a Cause A-

 

Best Picture Winners Set:

 

Casablanca B+

Gigi B

An American in Paris B

Mrs. Miniver B

 

 

With the recent downturn of the economy and the growing boom of the Blu-ray market, it’s obvious that in the past year that studios are doing everything in their power to get one last buck or two from the DVD format, the recent trend is repackaging them together in sets of some sort to get more titles together to draw greater appeal.  Warner has now issued a series of their Turner Classic Movies in which they take four titles and group them together into what first appears to be a single-disc package, but underneath we find out that each package contains 2 discs with a film on each side of the disc.  This is certainly a great example of maximizing the amount of space for each set and also helps keep the cost low enough to offer four classic titles to consumers, who at this point are looking to save money wherever they can. 

 

These sets will quickly appeal to fans and movie collectors as you get four relatively important films or at least worthwhile films for a bargain price, even if the DVD’s are sub par to their stand alone editions, which often offered supplemental material beyond what we get here. 

 

The Romanic Comedies Set could have just been renamed the Katherine Hepburn collection as it features four of her films, two of which are insanely funny films (Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story), while the other two are typical Spencer Tracy and Hepburn vehicles that make great inclusions with the other two films. 

 

The Romantic Dramas Set turns out to be one Marlon Brando film, one Paul Newman picture and two from James Dean, all four in this set are definite classics that are worth seeing and certainly owning.  Even after all these years these films hold up incredibly well and are important parts of pop culture, even to this very day, especially Rebel Without a Cause, which only grows stronger with time and it’s memorable to even people who have never seen a single frame.  East of Eden is a lesser-talked about film with James Dean that should be rediscovered as it remains one of only three films with Dean, the other two are often cited more often, Rebel of course and the masterwork Giant. 

 

The Best Picture Winners Set is the real highlight as we get four powerhouse films with a bit of diversity here including Gigi, An American in Paris, Casablanca, and Mrs. Miniver.  It’s great that this set is not limited to any particular drama and we are treated to a variety of films here, all of which are proven gems.  The most underrated film here is Mrs. Miniver, which is starting to make a stronger comeback as it’s been aired more regularly on TCM. 

 

All of the films are presented in their original 1.33 X 1 aspect ratios with the exception of a few: Rebel Without a Cause was shot in the CinemaScope aspect ratio of 2.55 X 1 and Gigi was shot in scope 2.35 X 1.  The restoration on these films varies quite a bit, while all of them are fairly clean it’s very evident that the prints are muddy with poor contrast levels and debris at times too, only Blu-ray would really warrant a full restoration though.  DVD is far too limited with it’s disc space size and ability to only do standard definition, regardless of how restored the prints are.  The B&W films suffer a bit more with prints that are too dark and washed out, in particular A Streetcar Named Desire is far too dark with poor contrast.  The color films, such as Rebel look decent, but again could use a restoration to bring them up to date a bit. 

 

The Dolby 2.0 Mono soundtracks are adequate, but incredibly dated and are also in need of some restoration, it’ll be interesting to see if Blu-ray can offer lossless 2.0 configurations that will bring these beloved films back to their sonic beauty. 

 

Classic movies always sell and this is a great way to add a good selections of films to your library on the cheap, that being said just don’t expect the most amazing transfers just yet, the supplements are included that were on the stand-alone DVD’s for each film, minus the second disc that was often included in the 2-disc editions.

 

 

-   Nate Goss