Classic Award Winning Movies (BFS)
Picture: Sound: C- Extras: D Film:
A Farewell To
Arms (1932) C-
B
The Private Life Of Henry VIII C- B
Blood On
The Sun C C
In
another unusual three-films-on-one-DVD set from BFS, Classic Award Winning Movies offers films that were early Oscar
Winners from the early sound years. It
also once again shows how so much of our film heritage is not being preserved,
saved, and issued on DVD.
A Farewell To Arms is the original 1932 Paramount version with Gary Cooper, Helen
Hayes, and Adolphe Menjou in a World War One drama that mixes battles with
melodrama, but is one of Hollywood’s originals. The films melodrama is not as belabored as
later such films would be, while it is a remarkable production for its time,
showing why the Paramount Studios was second only to M-G-M during the Classical
Hollywood era. Charles Lang’s
cinematography deservedly won the statuette and still endures to this day, even
if this print does not.
The Private Life Of Henry VIII was a great early triumph for
British sound cinema, producer/director Alexander Korda, its cast (including
Else Lanchester, Robert Donat, Merle Oberon, Wendy Barrie) and especially
Charles Laughton. His portrayal of the
title character was an acting breakthrough in its time, which has been much imitated
and referenced in the decades since.
This is well-made and a lavish production that also endures. When watching, the more obscure reference
that occurred was a Warner Bros. cartoon with Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam and a
king’s need for hasenpfeffer.
Blood On The Sun was a special project James
Cagney produced and starred in, and released through United Artists playing an
American who begins to find out what Japan is going to do with WWII
approaching. It came out in 1945, as the
war was soon to end, and even dares to speak the phrase Japanese
Militarism. Ultimately, it is
anti-Japanese propaganda that is more racist than expected, even by non-PC
standards.
All three
films are in black and white and are full frame, but all the prints are poor,
though Blood On The Sun fares better
by having some more detail by comparison.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on all three films are also poor and barely
passable. These will be stop-gap copies
until these films can be restored and reissued.
The only extra is some text about Oscar winners. This gives you some interesting, early
filmmaking at a very cheap price. Not
bad.
- Nicholas Sheffo
