George Feltenstein joins the podcast to review three new July Blu-ray releases from the Warner Archive.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer made every effort to impress with its first talking motion picture, setting a new standard for big-budget films and establishing an archetype for decades of movie musicals to follow in "The Broadway Melody." The Great White Way truly becomes the Street of Broken Dreams when sisters Queenie and Hank Mahoney (Anita Page and Bessie Love) follow Hank's boyfriend, Eddie Kearns (Charles King), to Manhattan with visions of stardom. In New York, Eddie and Queenie are attracted to each other, but unwilling to betray her sister, Queenie dates a feckless cad. Now, Hank must sort out the tangle of aspirations and emotions that form this tragic love triangle. Filled with a memorable score of unforgettable songs by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed, this was the first sound film to win the Academy Award® for Best Picture (1929-30).
Purchase THE BROADWAY MELODY
"CIMARRON" the (1931) Academy Award®-winning adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel traces the lives of two people who are in love with each other--but in love with life even more--as they struggle to bring civilization to the Western frontier in Cimarron! 1898. The Oklahoma Land Rush. As thousands of would-be settlers race across a barren desert to be the first to stake their claim to a plot of land, Yancey Cravat (Richard Dix) is cheated out of his property by Dixie Lee (Estelle Taylor). Without the farm they had hoped to start, Yancey and his wife, Sabra (Irene Dunne), take over the local newspaper after the editor is assassinated. But as the newspaper helps bring order to a lawless land, Yancey feels the wanderlust to find new frontiers and new adventures, and Sabra stays to build a publishing empire. Always in love, frequently apart and destined for greatness, Yancey and Sabra lead lives as tempestuous as the land they have chosen for their home in this epic Western classic.
Purchase CIMARRON
DuBARRY WAS A LADY (1943)
Hapless nightclub hatcheck boy Red Skelton loves glamorous chanteuse Lucille Ball. Handsome hoofer Gene Kelly loves her too. And Lucy? Lucy loves money. Then Red mistakenly gulps down a Mickey Finn and dreams he’s in 18th-century France. Before you can powder your wig, a throng of suitors – Red, Gene, King Louis XV, a dashing rebel, a sinister duke and just about everybody – loves Lucy! This glittery, tune-filled bonbon features a supporting cast of wags and wits (including the inimitable Zero Mostel) and three Cole Porter songs from the original Broadway smash: “Friendship,” “Katie Went to Haiti” and “Do I Love You?” Cherchez la Lucy for comedy, music and star power from Hollywood’s golden era.
Purchase
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello and welcome to the extras, where we take you
behind the scenes of yourfavorite TV shows, movies and
animation and their release ondigital DVD, blu-ray and 4K or
your favorite streaming site.
I'm Tim Lager host, and joiningme today is George Felmstein of
Warner Brothers, to review theJuly Blu-ray releases from the
Warner Archive.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hi George, hey Tim, happy day to you.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Thank you.
I'm sweltering here at home,like everybody else around the
country and around the world is,but I don't mind, because then
I coop myself up and I watch allthese great Blu-rays that have
come out here for July.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Absolutely.
It's been a very exciting monthand the excitement will
continue next month and monthafter and month after we're on a
roll.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, and I sat down and I know there's seven we're
going to talk about here forJuly because of the one that got
bumped from June Land of thePharaohs but they range from the
late 20s all the way throughthe 50s.
So it's quite a range anddifferent genres, and so it was
really enjoyable, because when Iwatch these I often watch them,
(01:14):
you know, fairly close together.
So it's nice when I kind of canpick the next film up and it's
a total different genre to watchand everything.
So it's a lot of fun.
Well, why don't we start withthe oldest one and I just
thought it was delightful, andthat's the Broadway melody from
1929.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Now, had you ever seen?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
it before?
No, I had not, and you know, wedid the Dancing Daughters,
right.
Right, we released that inJanuary, february, in January,
yeah, and I found that terrific.
And then, when I put this in,there's of course a connection
there with Anita Page, but Ijust really enjoyed the story of
these two sisters coming to NewYork and everything around that
(01:57):
.
I just thought it had morestory than I expected.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Well, and it was the second film to win the Best
Picture Oscar and the firstsound film to win the Best
Picture Oscar.
And you know, people need toview it through a lens of
recognizing the extraordinaryachievement from a technical
standpoint, because MGM wasprobably the last of the big
(02:24):
studios to give in to sound.
They held off the Allberg andMayer were dubious about it when
everybody else was jumping inthe pool pretty fast.
So when they did make thecommitment they created, you
know, kind of the granddaddy ofthe backstage film musical and
(02:48):
the film has been difficult towatch in the past because the
quality was so awful.
And once again, warner BrothersMotion Picture Imaging and my
incredibly talented colleaguesthere.
They spent months on this andthe original negative is only
(03:17):
partially extant Now.
The last time we brought it in,several reels had already
decomposed and we worked from amultitude of different elements
and there's about 25 to 30seconds in the opening shots of
Manhattan that were missing fromall the 35 millimeter elements
(03:41):
and were in 16 millimeter dupenegative.
So our preservation team did anamazing job being able to put
that back together and the audioactually came from a mint set
of unplayed Vitaphone discs andsince we now have a brand new
(04:02):
Vitaphone transferring.
Set up at Warner Brothers PostProduction Sound.
The archival division reallyhad their work cut out for them
and the track is so much betterthan what we've heard before.
So the technical ability to seethe film more clearly, hear the
(04:26):
audio more clearly, realizingthat the movie is 94 years old
and it was basically filmed 95years ago.
It was shot in the middle of1928.
I enjoyed it a lot more than Iever have as we were preparing
this disc and, for a littlehistorical background, at the
(04:51):
time Bessie Lovin and Anita Pageplayed the Mahoney sisters.
They're really the centerpieceof the action.
I don't have any empiricalevidence to say this is a
hundred percent true, but whatI've been led to believe and
(05:11):
there may be documentation tosupport this I just haven't come
across yet was that MGM'soriginal intention was to try
and cast the Duncan sisters, whowere very popular on Broadway,
and cast them in this film, andthey were not able to come to an
(05:35):
agreement.
Again, this is the legend.
It may be true.
It seems like it really couldbe.
The characters are very similarto the real-life Duncan sisters
an older sister, a youngersister, you know and the irony
of it is a couple of monthsafter the Broadway melody came
(05:56):
out, the Duncan sisters startedin a musical for MGM called it's
a Great Life, something wereleased on DVD several years
ago and has technicolorsequences in it that survived.
There was a technicolor sequencewith the wedding of the painted
doll in the Broadway melody,but only a few frames are known
(06:20):
to survive, and we did testcolorization to see if that
could possibly work, becausecolorization kind of looks like
two-color technicolor.
Even at its best it never looksreal.
But two-color technicolordidn't look real either.
So the test proved to be notworth.
(06:43):
You know, everything we did wasjust not pleasing to the eye
and there's no reference.
You know there are frames outthere, we've heard, but we don't
have them.
So we thought it was best tojust proceed as it always has
been.
We're recording this on the daythe disc comes out, so probably
(07:06):
tomorrow I'll get a call andsay, hey, someone found though
colors, you know, because that'shappened to us so many times,
but I'm very, very happy withoutit turned out.
And did you get a chance tolook at the copious extras on
this disc?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Oh, my goodness, yes, I did, and they're pretty
delightful because they just fitso well with the film itself.
Right, they're of that era andthere's so much great singing
and everything and dancing inthose pieces, and was it one of
them that actually has a balletsequence where the music was
scored by D'Amkin?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
That's right.
Dmitri D'Amkin was undercontract to MGM in his very
young, early days, before he wasa famous.
You know, as we'll talk aboutlater because we'll be talking
about films he wrote wonderfulscores for.
But MGM had a choreographer,albertina Rash, and she did a
(08:11):
lot of ballets in that veryearly time and D'Amkin wrote the
music for it and that stillcomes up in discussion,
especially among scholars whostudy D'Amkin's work.
But the Metro movie tone shortswe have one short on there from
(08:35):
the Metro movie tone series,that's with the Vaudeville team
of Ann and Skink.
But the other Metro movie tonereviews and what they are
basically is, you know, a hostof sorts kind of introducing the
same kind of thing that wasshot for or were shot for being
(08:58):
released individually is thoseMetro movie tone acts, just like
we have Vaudeville shorts.
So it felt very important wereplicated all the content that
we put on the DVD and of coursethe difference between the way
the feature looks now and theway it looked on DVD is a
quantum leap.
(09:18):
They did want to mention one oftheir extra.
We have released the completeDVD set of the dogville comedies
that spoofed the movies of theera, but the dogway melody is
included on this Broadway melodyrelease because it was a direct
spoof and a lot of people don'tknow about the dogville shorts
(09:41):
and they're very popular andwe've been selling them on DVD
now for 13, 14 years.
But it's just, it's a wonderfulpackage and a great way to
start off a really winninglineup, I think.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I agree.
Speaking of the Dogway melody,I mean it's the total take off
of it because even though thegirl dog, her name is Queenie
and the character names and thestoryline, it's really quite fun
after you've seen the movie towatch that and I wasn't really
that familiar with those Dogwaypieces but I'm like, wow, that's
(10:19):
pretty amazing.
Looking back at that, I didn'tsee too many strings or
different things.
You know of how they used tocreate it, but really, really
creative and really well done.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Well, as a dog lover, I wouldn't want to watch
anything where there was anysense of animal abuse and the
reason why they stopped makingthose.
Apparently, from what Iunderstand, the dogs were
trained and well taken care ofand there was nothing
(10:53):
inappropriate going on there.
They would put peanut butter intheir mouths to make their
mouths move and little thingslike that, but they were so
expensive to make and they weremaking use of the early sound
gimmick.
And one of the people behindthem I was a team of Zion Meyers
(11:14):
and Jules White.
Jules White was the director ofmost of the great three Stooges
shorts and the three Stoogeswere at MGM with Ted Healy a few
years later and then, after notreally achieving much success
there, they went to Columbia andstarted to make shorts which
(11:37):
went on for another 20 some oddyears.
So Jules White and Zion Meyersreally were the brains behind
the doggo shorts.
So I'd like to hope thatsomeday we could do a whole
Blu-ray of those, but mygoodness, we have a lot of other
things to get to.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Well, just before we move on from this one, I know
you had said about, there's that30 seconds you found of the New
York City shots are at thebeginning and I really did enjoy
the beginning.
I didn't really think aboutthat, you know, when I was
watching I just thought, wow,this is some terrific archival
footage of New York City in thatera of the 20s and I love, I
(12:18):
love that footage there and howit just introduces you to the
story.
And then, of course, the restof the transfer I just thought
was terrific.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Yeah, they did a phenomenal job.
And again I need to clarify Ididn't find anything.
That was my good friend andcolleague of many years, craig
Johnson, who is our director ofpreservation, having lived with
the MGM library since his daysat Turner, when Turner owned the
(12:47):
MGM library before we boughtTurner.
When we bought Turner, craigmoved from Turner to Warner
Brothers.
Craig has this amazing abilityto look everywhere and look
under every stone and findwhatever he can, and it was many
years ago that he made thisdiscovery of what was hiding in
(13:10):
the 16 millimeter, but it wasn'tuntil now that we could put it
to use in creating a new master.
So there was some establishingphotography of New York City at
the beginning of the film,always, but there's more of it
now, and that is it's a littlevictory that Craig's very proud
(13:31):
of, and we're delighted to havesuch talented people working
here at Warner Brothers.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Well, this is an amazing, very impressive release
because of the fact that youknow it has the pedigree with
winning of the Oscar and didthey get nominated for other
things?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
I actually am not.
Usually I'm really good at myOscar trivia, but it gets a
little dusty at the beginningbecause they were changing
categories and things weren'treally clarified for a couple of
years because the Academy wasso new.
But speaking of Oscars, it's aperfect segue to our next film,
(14:12):
which was a best picture Oscarwinner for the then nascent
company known as RKO RadioPictures, and this is 1931's
Simeron, based on the novel theepic, sweeping, epic novel by
Edna Ferber, and this starsRichard Dix and Irene Dunn.
(14:37):
And it is pretty remarkable tosee how much further
technological developments hadcome between the Broadway melody
and then Simeron, becausethere's outdoor photography and
outdoor sound recording.
The Landrush sequence at thebeginning of this movie is worth
(15:00):
the price of admission.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's so impressive and I have
to ask you the restoration ofthe images.
They just look so good.
I was so impressed.
Especially, you've got a lot ofI don't know a lot of the shots
of the cast were just so sogood.
The Landrush was really good,considering they had cameras
(15:22):
shooting from like ground levelas the horses rushed by.
I mean, we're talking abouttechniques that this film
probably broke ground on in manyways.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Absolutely.
And the thing is that Broadwaymelody didn't look good until
this new restoration that's onBlu-ray.
But Simeron looked so terriblethat going back to my childhood
days at MGM UA home video whenwe were putting out Oscar
(15:54):
winners on videocassette, wesaid there's no way we can put
this out.
It was just wines and dirt andscratches and all over the place
terrible.
And my theory is that RKOprobably made a lot of release
prints off the original negative, which was MGM bought the RKO
(16:21):
film to remake it and had theelements and they did safety
preservation before the negativewas completely gone on
somewhere in the late 60s.
The preservation was done inthe early 60s but I'm sure all
the wear and damage was in thoseelements and what our folks did
(16:46):
on Broadway melody wasincredible.
What they did with Simeron isastounding considering how
horrible everything they had towork with was.
So they worked with a finegrain that had been made by
MGM's preservation team in the60s and there were certain shots
(17:06):
where they had to go to a Dukenegative.
But it is really an astounding,impressive job and it's being
presented for the first time andit's proper.
We call the movie tone aspectratio, which is 1.19, or we
easily round it up to 1.2, butit's more square in nature in
(17:28):
that left room for thesoundtrack on the side.
And then, of course, theAcademy standardized the aspect
ratio at 1.37, around 1932 Ibelieve.
So this is the firstpresentation in the proper
aspect ratio for this film andit is really impressive.
(17:51):
Epic storytelling and again ithas to be taken into
consideration of when it wasmade and what they were
achieving.
The greater quality gave me theability to be more impressed
with the technical achievementsof what they were able to do
with outdoor photography andoutdoor sound recording really,
(18:15):
really amazing.
And the film holds up well and,like many films that ended up
being remade, this earlierversion was out of sight and
suppressed for many, many yearsand it really wasn't until, I
think, the early 1970s that MGMfinally made the earlier version
(18:39):
available for theatricalshowings and non theatrical 16
millimeter.
But this is the first time itreally looks good and we're very
proud of that.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Yeah, it was.
It was really delight to watchbecause of how good it looks,
and then you really get absorbedin that epic storytelling.
I mean the, the character thatRichard Dix plays.
I mean that that.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Nancy Cravat, yeah Cravat.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
And he is a real Presence.
I mean, you're like, well,that's a star when he's on the
screen he just is quite apresence and he fits that you
know, that manly archetype ofthat era.
And yet he's also a personwho's educated and Trying to be
very progressive.
And yes, you know, as you said,it's a, it's a film of its time
(19:28):
and based on the book, but thatcharacter is trying to be
progressive in an era that wenow look back and maybe we make
judgments.
But I thought it was quitefascinating and he's a
fascinating character.
And then, mrs Cravat, shebecomes an amazing, amazing
character as the story unfoldsas well in her own right, and so
(19:48):
it's very deserving, I think,for all of the wins that it had
and nominations that had.
What one, two, three, four,five, six, seven nominations and
Three wins is what I see.
That's just an amazing amountwell.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Both of these films really represent not only
achievements technologicallyfrom when they were made, they
also represent hugetechnological advancement in
film restoration and have togive the credit again to it.
(20:23):
It sounds like a broken record,but it's true.
Folks at MPI are just killingit.
Everything they do is justmagnificent and it's hard work
and we're all in there togetherand it's so rewarding when the
end result is so satisfying andwe know that the consumer wants
(20:47):
the very best possiblepresentation and we stand by the
product and it is enjoyable.
One of the things that I wasunable to do with this release
is we don't have any rights toany of the shorts that RKO made,
so I had to put Warner Brothersmaterial on here.
(21:09):
But the very first Merry Melodycartoon is on this disc and it
is kind of rewarding to be ableto add a little flavor to that
and it's in HD, which really isnice.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yeah, they looked terrific and I love the fact
that they're from the same year.
I understand it well, like yousaid, that they're Warner
Brothers, but, wow, what a treatto have those in HD on there
for the extras.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Exactly, and we also do have the 1960 remake and it's
interesting to look at that inperspective for storytelling.
But there's a reason why thisfilm won the Oscar against some
pretty heady competition, and Ihardly endorse it.
Going chronologically, the nextfilm is a Complete 180.
(22:02):
It is a testament toTechnicolor and it is a very
frothy, enjoyable musical comedyfrom MGM in 1943, dupère was a
lady.
What did you think of that, tim?
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Well, I really enjoyed the sequences with
Lucille Ball and then the JeanKelly, and I liked the storyline
and I thought it was really funthe fact that some of it takes
place in current times and thenprobably even more so takes
place in the French era.
It's fun, it makes it for alively comic element to it.
(22:42):
And then the Technicolor reallythose scenes, the historical
scenes, the Technicolor reallyworks well there.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Well again, this is one of the films where the
Technicolor negatives weren'tharmed in the tragic fire and we
were able to recombine themwith our proprietary technology.
And when I saw this I reallycouldn't believe how gorgeous it
(23:11):
looked.
It looks and sounds terrific.
And you have not only LucilleBall with her.
You know the henna rinse thatSydney Gilleroff gave to her
when she came to MGM from beingat RKO.
But you also have Jean Kelly,still kind of defining his
(23:32):
screen presence, having come offfor me and my god, with Judy
Garland, and he's reallyterrific in this movie and he
gets to give us a little previewof what things will be like
when he does the threemusketeers years later.
But this wasn't that adaptationof a Broadway musical.
That was done the late 30s withEthel Merman and a score by
(23:56):
Cole Porter, and there was anunfortunate trend in Hollywood
at that time where they wouldbuy Broadway musicals and use
very little.
Sometimes they wouldn't use itat all of the original Broadway
score and they would substitutenew songs written by studio
(24:19):
employee composers.
So you've got three Cole Portersurvivors from the Broadway
production in this film, and Alot of the other Cole Porter
songs are pretty much consignedto being background underscoring
(24:39):
, which is somewhat upsetting ifyou love Cole Porter, as a lot
of people must and should do.
But if you take this for whatit is, it is a confection that
shows off how wonderful MGM wasat making their musicals sound
(25:02):
great.
The music is fun.
You've got Tommy Dorsey in hisorchestra in there.
All the movies during the warput a big, heavy emphasis on the
big bands and Tommy Dorsey wascertainly at the top of that
list and I think he's reallyquite charming in it because,
(25:24):
especially the finale where theyall sing friendship, I just
look at him and he's like tryingto dance and do all the things
the other people are doing and Iwas thinking, gosh, the man was
a brilliant musician.
You know how did he feel aboutthat?
I think he was being a goodsport and it just seemed like
everybody was having a good time.
(25:45):
And it also is reflective ofthe blooming of Red Skelton's
screen career as a top comic.
You know his stardom once itwas established was kind of
meteoric and he became a veryimportant cog in the wheel of
(26:06):
MGM, being able to make money,and the film has a lot of really
enjoyable sequences.
But most impressively, it is atestament to three strip
Technicolor and what it can looklike, and it's the closest
you're going to get to what adye transfer print would have
(26:28):
looked like back in 1943.
Except we're able to, with ourtechnology, make the image
registration sharper than theycould ever do in a film
laboratory, so you're actuallyseeing the film look better than
it did when it opened Becauseof the technology.
We now have to work withTechnicolor, so it is one of the
(26:54):
more impressive things aboutthe film and it's just
delightful entertainment.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
And you also have a good MGM cartoon on there and
the trailer for X-Riss.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Yes, yes, and that's a cartoon with Barney Bear, and
a lot of people have been askingfor Barney Bear in a Barney
Bear collection and we'relooking into that.
There's a lot more work thatneeds to be done because almost
all the MGM cartoons, with theexception of a handful, all the
(27:29):
nitrate ones, went up in thattragic fire that I often refer
to.
So, making sure we have goodelements and can do it right,
and will there be enough peopleto support Barney Bear?
I think so.
So we're thinking about it, butmeanwhile you've got Bob
Wilderness on this disc and thetrailer, and I think it's a very
(27:51):
fine package.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
This is part one of our July reviews from the Warner
Archive.
In our next podcast we'llreview four films from the 1950s
, including the Last Time I SawParis, land of the Pharaohs,
hullin of Troy and the FastestGun Alive.
So look for that podcast comingsoon.
For those of you interested inordering the films we discussed
(28:18):
today, there are links in thepodcast show notes and on our
website at wwwtheextrastv.
So be sure and check those out.
And, just as a reminder, you cango back and listen to the June
and previous Warner Archivereviews at any time.
Just look for those in ourpodcast archives.
If you're on social media, besure and follow the show to stay
up to date on our upcomingguests and to be a part of our
(28:40):
community.
And you're invited to ourFacebook group for fans of
Warner Archive films, called theWarner Archive and Warner
Brothers Cadlock Group.
So look for that link on theFacebook page or in the podcast
show notes.
And for our long-term listeners, don't forget to follow and
leave us a review at iTunes,spotify or your favorite podcast
provider.
Until next time you've beenlistening to Tim Mellard, stay
(29:03):
slightly obsessed.
Hello and welcome to the extras, where we take you
behind the scenes of yourfavorite TV shows, movies and
animation and their release ondigital DVD, blu-ray and 4K or
your favorite streaming site.
I'm Tim Lager host, and joiningme today is George Felmstein of
Warner Brothers, to review theJuly Blu-ray releases from the
Warner Archive.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hi George, hey Tim, happy day to you.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Thank you.
I'm sweltering here at home,like everybody else around the
country and around the world is,but I don't mind, because then
I coop myself up and I watch allthese great Blu-rays that have
come out here for July.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Absolutely.
It's been a very exciting monthand the excitement will
continue next month and monthafter and month after we're on a
roll.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, and I sat down and I know there's seven we're
going to talk about here forJuly because of the one that got
bumped from June Land of thePharaohs but they range from the
late 20s all the way throughthe 50s.
So it's quite a range anddifferent genres, and so it was
really enjoyable, because when Iwatch these I often watch them,
(01:14):
you know, fairly close together.
So it's nice when I kind of canpick the next film up and it's
a total different genre to watchand everything.
So it's a lot of fun.
Well, why don't we start withthe oldest one and I just
thought it was delightful, andthat's the Broadway melody from
1929.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Now, had you ever seen?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
it before?
No, I had not, and you know, wedid the Dancing Daughters,
right.
Right, we released that inJanuary, february, in January,
yeah, and I found that terrific.
And then, when I put this in,there's of course a connection
there with Anita Page, but Ijust really enjoyed the story of
these two sisters coming to NewYork and everything around that
(01:57):
.
I just thought it had morestory than I expected.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Well, and it was the second film to win the Best
Picture Oscar and the firstsound film to win the Best
Picture Oscar.
And you know, people need toview it through a lens of
recognizing the extraordinaryachievement from a technical
standpoint, because MGM wasprobably the last of the big
(02:24):
studios to give in to sound.
They held off the Allberg andMayer were dubious about it when
everybody else was jumping inthe pool pretty fast.
So when they did make thecommitment they created, you
know, kind of the granddaddy ofthe backstage film musical and
(02:48):
the film has been difficult towatch in the past because the
quality was so awful.
And once again, warner BrothersMotion Picture Imaging and my
incredibly talented colleaguesthere.
They spent months on this andthe original negative is only
(03:17):
partially extant Now.
The last time we brought it in,several reels had already
decomposed and we worked from amultitude of different elements
and there's about 25 to 30seconds in the opening shots of
Manhattan that were missing fromall the 35 millimeter elements
(03:41):
and were in 16 millimeter dupenegative.
So our preservation team did anamazing job being able to put
that back together and the audioactually came from a mint set
of unplayed Vitaphone discs andsince we now have a brand new
(04:02):
Vitaphone transferring.
Set up at Warner Brothers PostProduction Sound.
The archival division reallyhad their work cut out for them
and the track is so much betterthan what we've heard before.
So the technical ability to seethe film more clearly, hear the
(04:26):
audio more clearly, realizingthat the movie is 94 years old
and it was basically filmed 95years ago.
It was shot in the middle of1928.
I enjoyed it a lot more than Iever have as we were preparing
this disc and, for a littlehistorical background, at the
(04:51):
time Bessie Lovin and Anita Pageplayed the Mahoney sisters.
They're really the centerpieceof the action.
I don't have any empiricalevidence to say this is a
hundred percent true, but whatI've been led to believe and
(05:11):
there may be documentation tosupport this I just haven't come
across yet was that MGM'soriginal intention was to try
and cast the Duncan sisters, whowere very popular on Broadway,
and cast them in this film, andthey were not able to come to an
(05:35):
agreement.
Again, this is the legend.
It may be true.
It seems like it really couldbe.
The characters are very similarto the real-life Duncan sisters
an older sister, a youngersister, you know and the irony
of it is a couple of monthsafter the Broadway melody came
(05:56):
out, the Duncan sisters startedin a musical for MGM called it's
a Great Life, something wereleased on DVD several years
ago and has technicolorsequences in it that survived.
There was a technicolor sequencewith the wedding of the painted
doll in the Broadway melody,but only a few frames are known
(06:20):
to survive, and we did testcolorization to see if that
could possibly work, becausecolorization kind of looks like
two-color technicolor.
Even at its best it never looksreal.
But two-color technicolordidn't look real either.
So the test proved to be notworth.
(06:43):
You know, everything we did wasjust not pleasing to the eye
and there's no reference.
You know there are frames outthere, we've heard, but we don't
have them.
So we thought it was best tojust proceed as it always has
been.
We're recording this on the daythe disc comes out, so probably
(07:06):
tomorrow I'll get a call andsay, hey, someone found though
colors, you know, because that'shappened to us so many times,
but I'm very, very happy withoutit turned out.
And did you get a chance tolook at the copious extras on
this disc?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Oh, my goodness, yes, I did, and they're pretty
delightful because they just fitso well with the film itself.
Right, they're of that era andthere's so much great singing
and everything and dancing inthose pieces, and was it one of
them that actually has a balletsequence where the music was
scored by D'Amkin?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
That's right.
Dmitri D'Amkin was undercontract to MGM in his very
young, early days, before he wasa famous.
You know, as we'll talk aboutlater because we'll be talking
about films he wrote wonderfulscores for.
But MGM had a choreographer,albertina Rash, and she did a
(08:11):
lot of ballets in that veryearly time and D'Amkin wrote the
music for it and that stillcomes up in discussion,
especially among scholars whostudy D'Amkin's work.
But the Metro movie tone shortswe have one short on there from
(08:35):
the Metro movie tone series,that's with the Vaudeville team
of Ann and Skink.
But the other Metro movie tonereviews and what they are
basically is, you know, a hostof sorts kind of introducing the
same kind of thing that wasshot for or were shot for being
(08:58):
released individually is thoseMetro movie tone acts, just like
we have Vaudeville shorts.
So it felt very important wereplicated all the content that
we put on the DVD and of coursethe difference between the way
the feature looks now and theway it looked on DVD is a
quantum leap.
(09:18):
They did want to mention one oftheir extra.
We have released the completeDVD set of the dogville comedies
that spoofed the movies of theera, but the dogway melody is
included on this Broadway melodyrelease because it was a direct
spoof and a lot of people don'tknow about the dogville shorts
(09:41):
and they're very popular andwe've been selling them on DVD
now for 13, 14 years.
But it's just, it's a wonderfulpackage and a great way to
start off a really winninglineup, I think.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I agree.
Speaking of the Dogway melody,I mean it's the total take off
of it because even though thegirl dog, her name is Queenie
and the character names and thestoryline, it's really quite fun
after you've seen the movie towatch that and I wasn't really
that familiar with those Dogwaypieces but I'm like, wow, that's
(10:19):
pretty amazing.
Looking back at that, I didn'tsee too many strings or
different things.
You know of how they used tocreate it, but really, really
creative and really well done.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Well, as a dog lover, I wouldn't want to watch
anything where there was anysense of animal abuse and the
reason why they stopped makingthose.
Apparently, from what Iunderstand, the dogs were
trained and well taken care ofand there was nothing
(10:53):
inappropriate going on there.
They would put peanut butter intheir mouths to make their
mouths move and little thingslike that, but they were so
expensive to make and they weremaking use of the early sound
gimmick.
And one of the people behindthem I was a team of Zion Meyers
(11:14):
and Jules White.
Jules White was the director ofmost of the great three Stooges
shorts and the three Stoogeswere at MGM with Ted Healy a few
years later and then, after notreally achieving much success
there, they went to Columbia andstarted to make shorts which
(11:37):
went on for another 20 some oddyears.
So Jules White and Zion Meyersreally were the brains behind
the doggo shorts.
So I'd like to hope thatsomeday we could do a whole
Blu-ray of those, but mygoodness, we have a lot of other
things to get to.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Well, just before we move on from this one, I know
you had said about, there's that30 seconds you found of the New
York City shots are at thebeginning and I really did enjoy
the beginning.
I didn't really think aboutthat, you know, when I was
watching I just thought, wow,this is some terrific archival
footage of New York City in thatera of the 20s and I love, I
(12:18):
love that footage there and howit just introduces you to the
story.
And then, of course, the restof the transfer I just thought
was terrific.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Yeah, they did a phenomenal job.
And again I need to clarify Ididn't find anything.
That was my good friend andcolleague of many years, craig
Johnson, who is our director ofpreservation, having lived with
the MGM library since his daysat Turner, when Turner owned the
(12:47):
MGM library before we boughtTurner.
When we bought Turner, craigmoved from Turner to Warner
Brothers.
Craig has this amazing abilityto look everywhere and look
under every stone and findwhatever he can, and it was many
years ago that he made thisdiscovery of what was hiding in
(13:10):
the 16 millimeter, but it wasn'tuntil now that we could put it
to use in creating a new master.
So there was some establishingphotography of New York City at
the beginning of the film,always, but there's more of it
now, and that is it's a littlevictory that Craig's very proud
(13:31):
of, and we're delighted to havesuch talented people working
here at Warner Brothers.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Well, this is an amazing, very impressive release
because of the fact that youknow it has the pedigree with
winning of the Oscar and didthey get nominated for other
things?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
I actually am not.
Usually I'm really good at myOscar trivia, but it gets a
little dusty at the beginningbecause they were changing
categories and things weren'treally clarified for a couple of
years because the Academy wasso new.
But speaking of Oscars, it's aperfect segue to our next film,
(14:12):
which was a best picture Oscarwinner for the then nascent
company known as RKO RadioPictures, and this is 1931's
Simeron, based on the novel theepic, sweeping, epic novel by
Edna Ferber, and this starsRichard Dix and Irene Dunn.
(14:37):
And it is pretty remarkable tosee how much further
technological developments hadcome between the Broadway melody
and then Simeron, becausethere's outdoor photography and
outdoor sound recording.
The Landrush sequence at thebeginning of this movie is worth
(15:00):
the price of admission.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's so impressive and I have
to ask you the restoration ofthe images.
They just look so good.
I was so impressed.
Especially, you've got a lot ofI don't know a lot of the shots
of the cast were just so sogood.
The Landrush was really good,considering they had cameras
(15:22):
shooting from like ground levelas the horses rushed by.
I mean, we're talking abouttechniques that this film
probably broke ground on in manyways.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Absolutely.
And the thing is that Broadwaymelody didn't look good until
this new restoration that's onBlu-ray.
But Simeron looked so terriblethat going back to my childhood
days at MGM UA home video whenwe were putting out Oscar
(15:54):
winners on videocassette, wesaid there's no way we can put
this out.
It was just wines and dirt andscratches and all over the place
terrible.
And my theory is that RKOprobably made a lot of release
prints off the original negative, which was MGM bought the RKO
(16:21):
film to remake it and had theelements and they did safety
preservation before the negativewas completely gone on
somewhere in the late 60s.
The preservation was done inthe early 60s but I'm sure all
the wear and damage was in thoseelements and what our folks did
(16:46):
on Broadway melody wasincredible.
What they did with Simeron isastounding considering how
horrible everything they had towork with was.
So they worked with a finegrain that had been made by
MGM's preservation team in the60s and there were certain shots
(17:06):
where they had to go to a Dukenegative.
But it is really an astounding,impressive job and it's being
presented for the first time andit's proper.
We call the movie tone aspectratio, which is 1.19, or we
easily round it up to 1.2, butit's more square in nature in
(17:28):
that left room for thesoundtrack on the side.
And then, of course, theAcademy standardized the aspect
ratio at 1.37, around 1932 Ibelieve.
So this is the firstpresentation in the proper
aspect ratio for this film andit is really impressive.
(17:51):
Epic storytelling and again ithas to be taken into
consideration of when it wasmade and what they were
achieving.
The greater quality gave me theability to be more impressed
with the technical achievementsof what they were able to do
with outdoor photography andoutdoor sound recording really,
(18:15):
really amazing.
And the film holds up well and,like many films that ended up
being remade, this earlierversion was out of sight and
suppressed for many, many yearsand it really wasn't until, I
think, the early 1970s that MGMfinally made the earlier version
(18:39):
available for theatricalshowings and non theatrical 16
millimeter.
But this is the first time itreally looks good and we're very
proud of that.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Yeah, it was.
It was really delight to watchbecause of how good it looks,
and then you really get absorbedin that epic storytelling.
I mean the, the character thatRichard Dix plays.
I mean that that.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Nancy Cravat, yeah Cravat.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
And he is a real Presence.
I mean, you're like, well,that's a star when he's on the
screen he just is quite apresence and he fits that you
know, that manly archetype ofthat era.
And yet he's also a personwho's educated and Trying to be
very progressive.
And yes, you know, as you said,it's a, it's a film of its time
(19:28):
and based on the book, but thatcharacter is trying to be
progressive in an era that wenow look back and maybe we make
judgments.
But I thought it was quitefascinating and he's a
fascinating character.
And then, mrs Cravat, shebecomes an amazing, amazing
character as the story unfoldsas well in her own right, and so
(19:48):
it's very deserving, I think,for all of the wins that it had
and nominations that had.
What one, two, three, four,five, six, seven nominations and
Three wins is what I see.
That's just an amazing amountwell.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Both of these films really represent not only
achievements technologicallyfrom when they were made, they
also represent hugetechnological advancement in
film restoration and have togive the credit again to it.
(20:23):
It sounds like a broken record,but it's true.
Folks at MPI are just killingit.
Everything they do is justmagnificent and it's hard work
and we're all in there togetherand it's so rewarding when the
end result is so satisfying andwe know that the consumer wants
(20:47):
the very best possiblepresentation and we stand by the
product and it is enjoyable.
One of the things that I wasunable to do with this release
is we don't have any rights toany of the shorts that RKO made,
so I had to put Warner Brothersmaterial on here.
(21:09):
But the very first Merry Melodycartoon is on this disc and it
is kind of rewarding to be ableto add a little flavor to that
and it's in HD, which really isnice.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yeah, they looked terrific and I love the fact
that they're from the same year.
I understand it well, like yousaid, that they're Warner
Brothers, but, wow, what a treatto have those in HD on there
for the extras.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Exactly, and we also do have the 1960 remake and it's
interesting to look at that inperspective for storytelling.
But there's a reason why thisfilm won the Oscar against some
pretty heady competition, and Ihardly endorse it.
Going chronologically, the nextfilm is a Complete 180.
(22:02):
It is a testament toTechnicolor and it is a very
frothy, enjoyable musical comedyfrom MGM in 1943, dupère was a
lady.
What did you think of that, tim?
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Well, I really enjoyed the sequences with
Lucille Ball and then the JeanKelly, and I liked the storyline
and I thought it was really funthe fact that some of it takes
place in current times and thenprobably even more so takes
place in the French era.
It's fun, it makes it for alively comic element to it.
(22:42):
And then the Technicolor reallythose scenes, the historical
scenes, the Technicolor reallyworks well there.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Well again, this is one of the films where the
Technicolor negatives weren'tharmed in the tragic fire and we
were able to recombine themwith our proprietary technology.
And when I saw this I reallycouldn't believe how gorgeous it
(23:11):
looked.
It looks and sounds terrific.
And you have not only LucilleBall with her.
You know the henna rinse thatSydney Gilleroff gave to her
when she came to MGM from beingat RKO.
But you also have Jean Kelly,still kind of defining his
(23:32):
screen presence, having come offfor me and my god, with Judy
Garland, and he's reallyterrific in this movie and he
gets to give us a little previewof what things will be like
when he does the threemusketeers years later.
But this wasn't that adaptationof a Broadway musical.
That was done the late 30s withEthel Merman and a score by
(23:56):
Cole Porter, and there was anunfortunate trend in Hollywood
at that time where they wouldbuy Broadway musicals and use
very little.
Sometimes they wouldn't use itat all of the original Broadway
score and they would substitutenew songs written by studio
(24:19):
employee composers.
So you've got three Cole Portersurvivors from the Broadway
production in this film, and Alot of the other Cole Porter
songs are pretty much consignedto being background underscoring
(24:39):
, which is somewhat upsetting ifyou love Cole Porter, as a lot
of people must and should do.
But if you take this for whatit is, it is a confection that
shows off how wonderful MGM wasat making their musicals sound
(25:02):
great.
The music is fun.
You've got Tommy Dorsey in hisorchestra in there.
All the movies during the warput a big, heavy emphasis on the
big bands and Tommy Dorsey wascertainly at the top of that
list and I think he's reallyquite charming in it because,
(25:24):
especially the finale where theyall sing friendship, I just
look at him and he's like tryingto dance and do all the things
the other people are doing and Iwas thinking, gosh, the man was
a brilliant musician.
You know how did he feel aboutthat?
I think he was being a goodsport and it just seemed like
everybody was having a good time.
(25:45):
And it also is reflective ofthe blooming of Red Skelton's
screen career as a top comic.
You know his stardom once itwas established was kind of
meteoric and he became a veryimportant cog in the wheel of
(26:06):
MGM, being able to make money,and the film has a lot of really
enjoyable sequences.
But most impressively, it is atestament to three strip
Technicolor and what it can looklike, and it's the closest
you're going to get to what adye transfer print would have
(26:28):
looked like back in 1943.
Except we're able to, with ourtechnology, make the image
registration sharper than theycould ever do in a film
laboratory, so you're actuallyseeing the film look better than
it did when it opened Becauseof the technology.
We now have to work withTechnicolor, so it is one of the
(26:54):
more impressive things aboutthe film and it's just
delightful entertainment.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
And you also have a good MGM cartoon on there and
the trailer for X-Riss.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Yes, yes, and that's a cartoon with Barney Bear, and
a lot of people have been askingfor Barney Bear in a Barney
Bear collection and we'relooking into that.
There's a lot more work thatneeds to be done because almost
all the MGM cartoons, with theexception of a handful, all the
(27:29):
nitrate ones, went up in thattragic fire that I often refer
to.
So, making sure we have goodelements and can do it right,
and will there be enough peopleto support Barney Bear?
I think so.
So we're thinking about it, butmeanwhile you've got Bob
Wilderness on this disc and thetrailer, and I think it's a very
(27:51):
fine package.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
This is part one of our July reviews from the Warner
Archive.
In our next podcast we'llreview four films from the 1950s
, including the Last Time I SawParis, land of the Pharaohs,
hullin of Troy and the FastestGun Alive.
So look for that podcast comingsoon.
For those of you interested inordering the films we discussed
(28:18):
today, there are links in thepodcast show notes and on our
website at wwwtheextrastv.
So be sure and check those out.
And, just as a reminder, you cango back and listen to the June
and previous Warner Archivereviews at any time.
Just look for those in ourpodcast archives.
If you're on social media, besure and follow the show to stay
up to date on our upcomingguests and to be a part of our
(28:40):
community.
And you're invited to ourFacebook group for fans of
Warner Archive films, called theWarner Archive and Warner
Brothers Cadlock Group.
So look for that link on theFacebook page or in the podcast
show notes.
And for our long-term listeners, don't forget to follow and
leave us a review at iTunes,spotify or your favorite podcast
provider.
Until next time you've beenlistening to Tim Mellard, stay
(29:03):
slightly obsessed.
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