April 7, 2025 • 49 mins
Warner Archive's May releases feature two significant musical films: a restored pre-release version of "Rhapsody in Blue" with 13 additional minutes only shown to WWII soldiers, and the long-awaited 4K release of "High Society" featuring Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Grace Kelly.
• "Rhapsody in Blue" restoration includes footage cut before 1945 theatrical release
• Film features people who knew Gershwin playing themselves including Oscar Levant and Al Jolson
• Restored Porgy and Bess sequence with original Broadway actress Anne Brown expanded from 90 seconds to 4-5 minutes
• Includes 10+ minute overture created for original theatrical screenings
• "High Society" arrives in 4K from VistaVision negative with Dolby Atmos and original mono audio options
• Cole Porter wrote original songs for the film including "True Love," which became a platinum record for Grace Kelly
• This was Grace Kelly's final Hollywood film before becoming Princess of Monaco
• VistaVision horizontal format provides exceptional clarity without distortion
• Warner Archive offers both 4K/Blu-ray combo pack and standalone Blu-ray options for consumers
We appreciate your support of Warner Archive Collection as we continue to preserve and restore classic films with the highest technical standards possible.
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If you missed it, listen to Part 1 of the May Release Announcement - episode 177
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tim Millard (00:06):
Hi, Tim Millard here, host of the Extras podcast
, and this is part two of mydiscussion with George
Feltenstein of the May Blu-rayreleases coming from the Warner
Archive.
We have two films we'll betalking about.
We'll be talking about Rhapsodyin Blue, and following that is
our discussion about the second4K release from the Warner
(00:27):
Archive, and that's High Society.
Well, george, the next filmwe're going to talk about is one
that you did mention in aprevious podcast, and that is
Rhapsody in Blue from 1945.
What can you tell us about thisrelease, George?
George Feltenstein (00:49):
A lot of work has gone into it and it was
almost something that I neverthought would happen, because
what we're releasing iseffectively the pre-release
version, is effectively thepre-release version and as we
record this podcast, it's just afew weeks prior to when I'll
(01:13):
have the honor of introducing.
It's being shown at the TCMFilm Festival on April 26th and
this is a version of Rhapsody inBlue that contains about 13
additional minutes which werecut out of the film before it
was theatrically released byWarner Brothers in 1945.
(01:36):
This film went into productionin 1943 and was completed, I
believe, by the end of 1943.
It was a very expensive film tomake and Jack Warner selected
this and a few other films tohold back from general release
(02:01):
so that there'd be a betterchance of recouping high
production costs by releasingafter World War II ended, which
was not guaranteed when thatwould happen, but there was a
sensibility that the Allies werecloser to victory, first in
(02:24):
Europe and then again in Asia,and I believe the film in its
theatrical version opened beforethe complete end of the war.
I think it opened in New Yorkand Los Angeles in June of 1945.
And the war ended a few monthsafter.
No-transcript and shown to thesoldiers.
(03:17):
The studio decided to cut thefilm down because the length of
the film, which was around 150,151 minutes before they did the
editing that, was frightening toWarner Brothers.
They didn't like films thatwere too long because the
shorter the film you can getmore shows in the day.
(03:39):
And of course the most tragicexample of that kind of cutting
happened with the 1954 Star isBorn and that's very legendary
what happened there.
And it basically ruined whatGeorge Cugar intended with that
movie, with Rhapsody in Blue.
(04:00):
I had known and read that therewas this pre-release version
but there was no trace of it andI never thought we would be
able to find the missing footage.
But I didn't give up wasproducing a Gershwin in
(04:22):
Hollywood, two CD set ofsoundtrack recordings for our
joint venture that we had withRhino Records.
It was George and I wereGershwin in Hollywood and for
that release I was able tolocate playback discs that had
been, you know, representingwhat was pre-recorded here and I
(04:46):
knew that there were longerversions of certain numbers and
I had read about these, you know, earlier versions of the film.
So we weren't really luckingout in our search and I'm
talking about over many, manyyears.
We released a DVD of this filmin 2012, which was a new master
(05:10):
at the time and it wasn'tBlu-ray quality, but it was
pretty good.
We were coming off a new filmelement, a fine grain that was
made from the camera negativeand we spent a lot of time on
the audio and making it perfect.
And we added to the beginningof the film an overture that
(05:33):
runs over 10 minutes.
That was created especially forthe New York and Hollywood
engagements of the film and a10-minute overture.
I can't think of any film thathas an overture that's over 10
minutes and this clocks in justa little over 10 minutes and it
(05:54):
really is a tribute to RayHindorff, who was the arranger
and really the musical geniusbehind the musicality of this
film.
That created this overture andthe Warner Brothers Orchestra
was just amazing.
So this overture we added tothe movie.
(06:16):
We put out the DVD.
The DVD did really well, but Istill wanted to be able to get
to Blu-ray, to come off theoriginal camera negative and to
find that missing footage.
So our preservation departmentbrought in elements from all
(06:36):
over the country, all thesedifferent versions, because
everything was marked, the samenumber of reels, but we didn't
know footage count andthankfully we found a nitrate
lavender fine grain in theWarner Brothers collection
that's on deposit at UCLA, whoare the stewards of some of our
(07:01):
nitrate.
And sure enough we did have acomposite fine grain.
That means the audio is with itand we were able to put
everything together for the bestpossible quality and put the
whole film back together as itwas originally shown to the
soldiers before it was cut up,and we've added the overture at
(07:24):
the beginning, so that brings usin at a whopping somewhere
between 161, 162 minutes.
So the reason that there'snothing extra on this disc aside
from the trailer is that Iwanted to make sure we had
enough space for absolute,impeccable bit rate.
(07:45):
So it's going to look and soundmagnificent.
I'm not even really talkingabout the movie Now.
I'll talk about the movie, themusical biographies of which
we've talked about on theseextras podcasts.
When we were releasing thingslike Words in Music and Three
Little Words.
Generally, the Hollywoodcomposer biography movie would
(08:10):
be highly fictionalized but havewonderful musical moments.
And that's really the case here.
Because the story of GeorgeGershwin, because the story of
George Gershwin, aside from thetragic fact of his death at age
38 from a brain tumor.
(08:31):
His actual life story was notfull of that much conflict.
He didn't have tragic romances.
He had plenty of very devotedgirlfriends.
He was quite a ladies' man andI say that as a compliment, not
(08:52):
in any kind of derogatory way.
There were many women in hislife who loved him very much and
he loved them back, but hispassion was music.
But his passion was music andthe film captures that essence
of his passion for music.
(09:29):
And the studio consideredcasting a more famous person in
the role of George Gershwin andthey came up with a New York
stage discovery.
Robert Alda signed him to astudio contract and this was to
be his breakout film.
And if the name Alda you'reasking, yes, it is Alan Alda's
father and he was here at WarnerBrothers for several years and
then went back to the New Yorkstage.
He opened the originalproduction of Guys and Dolls,
sky Masterson.
He was in other big plays andshows as well, but this was his
(09:53):
big break in Hollywood andplaying.
The two romantic interests inthis film are Alexis Smith, who
is always gorgeous and alwayswonderful, and Joan Leslie,
who's always adorable and whodoesn't do her own singing.
She was dubbed by a vocalteacher.
(10:14):
Actually, the woman was ateacher in her later life I
don't know about earlier life,but a woman named Sally
Sweetland and she soundedexactly like Joan Leslie's
speaking voice, which is veryinteresting.
And Oscar Levent, the amazingwit and raconteur and sometimes
actor, brilliant pianist,composer, oscar Levent, was
(10:37):
George Gershwin's best friend inreal life and he plays himself
in the movie and he's terrific.
And probably the mostexceptional parts of this movie
are when we get to see peoplewho actually were involved in
(10:58):
playing themselves in performingGershwin music in performing
Gershwin music.
And Gershwin's first big hitsong was Swanee, which he didn't
write with his brother Ira, hewrote it with Irving Caesar in
1919.
And Al Jolson recreates hisstage performance of Swanee in
(11:21):
this movie.
And what Gershwin was about washe was fascinated with jazz and
he wanted to kind of mergewhere American popular music was
going in the late teens andearly 20s and infuse into it
(11:43):
jazz rhythms and different sonicformulations of chords and
sounds.
And he always wanted to strivefor something different, as well
as writing some of the greatestAmerican popular songs of all
time with his brother Ira, andin 1924, he was commissioned to
(12:05):
write basically an orchestralpiece that would be artistic and
yet groundbreaking 1924, andwas performed by Paul Whiteman,
(12:27):
who was a very, very famousorchestra slash band leader at
the time, and Paul Whitemanplays himself in the movie.
So they recreate the you knowfirst performance of Rhapsody in
Blue in the movie and it'squite thrilling to see all these
(12:49):
people who in real life had aplace in George Gershwin's life
story and performances.
And my favorite person being inthis movie is Anne Brown, who
was the original lead actress inPorgy and Bess.
(13:11):
She played Bess when Porgy andBess opened on Broadway in 1935.
And she is in a sequence thatis an homage to Porgy and Bess
and she sings Summertime.
The character of Bess didn'tsing Summertime at the beginning
of Porgy and Bess, she sang areprise, but for this movie they
(13:35):
fudged it a little and itworked beautifully.
This is the one thing in themovie that got hit with the
butcher knife, and the Porgy andBess excerpt in the released
film was like a minute and ahalf and here I believe it's
between four and five minutesand does the greatness of Porgy
(13:57):
and Bess, which I think is oneof the greatest pieces of
American music ever created.
It gets its proper place inthis newly restored,
reconstructed version of thefilm because it's not just a
blip on the radar.
They really pay more attentionto it.
(14:20):
And Pour you Best was not acommercial success.
When it opened People didn'tknow if it was opera success.
When it opened People didn'tknow if it was opera and they
didn't think it was highbrowenough for opera and it was too
highbrow for Broadway.
And it was really only afterGershwin's death that there were
several revivals that made itmore popular.
(14:41):
But really it wasn't until the1970s that the whole thing was
reconstructed and performed.
Porgy and Bess eventually madeit to Broadway in 1976 as
originally completely writtenwithout edits, and was an
absolute critical success.
And that was almost 40 yearsafter Gershwin's death.
(15:05):
Since then it's been performedat the Metropolitan Opera and
operas all over the world, andso that is my personal favorite
thing about the restored longercut is getting to see Porte de
Veste get its due in the storyof Gershwin, but the film also
covers all the great popularsongs he wrote.
(15:29):
There are fictitious charactersthroughout.
Gershwin had more than onebrother.
He had a second brother, arthur, not mentioned enough truth to
it to be a cohesive work, and itis an entertaining movie.
Of the movie is the music ofGeorge Gershwin as arranged and
performed by the Warner BrothersOrchestra and the Warner
(16:12):
Brothers Music Department.
Because not only did you haveRay Heindorf conducting the
orchestra and doing thearrangements, but Max Steiner,
the great Max Steiner, probablythe most beloved of the Warner
Brothers composers and, ofcourse, the writer of the score
for Gone with the Wind.
(16:33):
Max Steiner did theunderscoring for this movie,
weaving in Gershwin melodies inbetween his own, you know
original pieces.
Just as Steiner did with InGone With the Wind.
He mixed together Civil Warsongs like Dixie and so forth
(16:57):
and so on, within the score ofhis original pieces.
Steiner took the Gershwinmelodies and interwove them with
his own compositions.
Took the Gershwin melodies andinterwove them with his own
compositions.
So it was a work of tremendouscommitment by the studio to try
to pay tribute to the amazing,albeit brief, life of George
(17:22):
Gershwin.
And while it may not befactually accurate to the nth
degree, it has enough truth init.
And so much great music and,best of all, this new master is
gorgeous.
It's a quantum leap from ournot so bad looking DVD.
(17:43):
It is sensational and I'll bevery excited to see how a live
audience responds to it at theTCM Festival.
But to know that people will beable to buy this Blu-ray, which
comes from a 4K scan of thecamera negative and the found
footage, and be able to have iton their shelf instead of it
(18:05):
languishing in a vault thatnobody knew it was there.
This is what the work we dohere is so rewarding, and to be
able to share that with the fansand with cinephiles and musical
people of all different agesand musical people of all
(18:30):
different ages.
This is a celebration of theGreat American Songbook, just
from one composer, and I do hopepeople enjoy the release.
Tim Millard (18:37):
I love the fact, george, that this is really this
version.
This extended pre-releaseversion is first time on
physical media.
George Feltenstein (18:47):
It's first time.
Really, really, no one has seenthis, except for aside,
obviously, the people who'vebeen working on it here have
seen it, but, um, the publicnever got to see this version.
The only people who did wereour fighting men and women
overseas in 1944.
(19:08):
Yeah, and people who worked onthe movie in 1943.
It's exceptional.
Tim Millard (19:13):
I mean, it's so great that the Warner Archive is
releasing this, that you knewabout it so you could go look
for it, because otherwise, likeyou said, it would be
languishing in storage.
George Feltenstein (19:25):
People were looking at me cross-eyed like no
, it doesn't exist.
You know, I had a feeling thatit might, and there are other
films where we have foundadditional footage and there
will be one of those coming out,hopefully later on this year,
(19:45):
which we'll be talking about ina couple of months.
That's exciting.
It's not as substantial a find,but it's a little bit of extra,
which is never a bad thing,yeah, and you, especially when
you're talking about a greatpiece of entertainment.
Tim Millard (19:57):
You've had more than a minute to.
You've had some with five, six,you know, some fairly extensive
extended versions recently.
So they're always exciting,always exciting when you find
these in the vaults, so to speak.
It's great when there'sdiscoveries like that.
George Feltenstein (20:16):
And I do have to say that this would not
be possible without thewonderful people at UCLA Film
and Television Archive.
It would not be possiblewithout our magical artists at
Warner Brothers Motion PictureImaging and the Warner Brothers
(20:37):
Preservation Department.
Everybody collaborated on thisand that we get to bring it to
the public.
There are so many jewels in ourlibrary and nobody thinks of
Rhapsody in Blue as a cinematicmasterpiece, and I'll be the
first person to acknowledge it'snot.
It's not a great piece ofcinema per se.
(21:00):
What it is is really goodentertainment, highlighted by
amazing, great musicalperformances and in this
extended state, with theOverture, it has much more
substance and we're very proudto be bringing it to the home
(21:22):
viewer.
Tim Millard (21:23):
Well, George, last on our list to talk about here
today is your second 4K releasefrom the Warner Archive.
I'm excited to hear about thisand what you can tell us about
this one.
George Feltenstein (21:39):
Well, people have been asking for this movie
just on Blu-ray alone since theformat began and it was, I
would say, probably the mostquizzical omission to the
(22:03):
musicals that we made availableon Blu 2003,.
And a very archaic HD masterwas created for that DVD, but it
was grainy.
(22:23):
It had all sorts of colorbreathing issues.
Grainy, it had all sorts ofcolor breathing issues.
We could not have put that onBlu-ray.
We just could not unless wedidn't care about our consumers.
This needed to look great and,frankly, the technology was not
(22:43):
available to make it look great.
We could have made it lookbetter than the DVD master, and
that DVD master in its highdefinition form has been what
people have seen on televisionand have been able to.
There's been no work done onthe film since 2003.
(23:04):
Until now.
I see people writing about oh, Isaw a different, better high
society.
No, it's always been thisversion.
If there's been any HDbroadcast or download or stream,
it's always come from this samemaster that was created in 2003
.
And the very nature of it beingVistaVision really called out
(23:39):
for us to be able to step up tothe plate the ability to scan
VistaVision and Technorama filmelements which go through
horizontally as opposed tovertically and with that
(24:01):
enlarged frame you getunprecedented, as they used to
say, motion picture.
High fidelity, but the depth offield, the sharpness, without
the distortion that earlycinemascope lenses brought to
cinemascope movies.
This is why the Searcherslooked so wonderful.
We went back to the negative onthat film and it was handled
frame by frame, to be the bestthat it could be, and the same
(24:23):
thing goes for High society.
There are some really uglyblown up optical shots of
Newport, Rhode Island, at thebeginning of the movie don't
look good.
There's no way we could evermake them look good because they
were blown up from traditional35 millimeter film and people
(24:44):
weren't as picky back then asthey are now and people forgave,
you know, things that weredoopy looking opticals.
But that and two long secondunit shots in the movie are the
only detriments that can't befixed.
(25:04):
That's the way the movie wasmade.
But the rest the color is vividand beautiful.
You see how much work went intothis and of course you've got
this combination of Bing Crosby,frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly,
(25:28):
along with Louis Armstrong andCole Porter having written the
original score in the originalscore.
And this is one of those rareMGM musicals that didn't come
from Arthur Freed and it didn'tcome from Joe Pasternak and it
didn't come from Jack CummingsSaul Siegel, who had been
producing films at Fox, likeGentlemen Prefer Blondes and
(25:50):
there's no Business Like ShowBusiness.
He intended to send up anindependent production unit at
MGM but he eventually became thehead of the studio, but it was
a combination of MGM'smanagement.
At the time the studio was runby Dori Sherry.
When the project began, theywanted to revisit properties
(26:15):
that they owned that they couldremake as musicals, and the idea
of making the Philadelphiastory into a musical and having
Cole Porter write the music wasSiegel's and he went to Dori
Shari at MGM and the whole thinggot greenlit.
What is interesting is thatthey were originally talking
(26:38):
about casting people like HowardKeel, possibly Elizabeth Taylor
, possibly Ann Miller.
I've gone through all theproduction documents to see how
it came to be.
And it just so happened thatBing Crosby ended his almost
(27:00):
24-year relationship withParamount, where he had been on
exclusive contract from 1932until 55.
And he was a free man and hegot signed to play the role of
(27:21):
CK Dexter Haven and it was a bigdeal for him.
He was not happy at Paramount inthe later years.
He didn't like even his hugehit White Christmas, which made
a ton of money and is beloved byeveryone these days and was
beloved by audiences when itcame out.
(27:42):
But Bing himself thought thepicture was not as well written
as it could have been.
He was disappointed and hereally wanted better scripts and
(28:05):
the opportunity of being inhigh society was one that he
found irresistible.
But to use VistaVision becausehe loved VistaVision, with White
Christmas having been the firstVistaVision feature.
And then he also did a filmright before he left Paramount,
(28:26):
a remake of Anything Goes thathe was not particularly thrilled
with but he loved VistaVision.
So MGM literally had to switchcourse, as they were planning to
make the film in CinemaScopeand I found a memo in the files
from the head of the technicaldepartment who was warning them
(28:46):
If you make this film inVistaVision, you realize you
won't be able to have four trackmagnetic stereophonic
soundtrack, which is reallyessential for a great musical.
Vistavision did not allow formagnetic stereo.
It used at times somethingcalled perspective sound, which
(29:09):
was optical audio mono that wasmoved around the theater with
inaudible tones, bass tones thatwould move the dialogue or the
music in three places around thetheater.
It was very gimmicky but it wasmuch cheaper for theater owners
(29:32):
to install than having toinstall magnetic reproduction
equipment in their projection.
So High Society was recordedfor the intention of stereo and
it was released, basically monoor the Prospecta optical sound
(29:55):
which moved the mono around thetheater.
But what we're doing here iswe're including the original
mono optical track without anygimmicks around it, so people
can see the movie and hear themovie as it was originally.
They have a choice, as it wasoriginally.
(30:18):
They have a choice.
And then what we've also doneis made a very large investment
in doing a Dolby Atmos trackcoming from the multi-channel
magnetic stereo recordings thatwere done for all the music in
the film.
It was interesting that theypre-recorded the numbers early
(30:42):
before a film gets intoproduction.
Underscoring happens usuallyafter the film is mostly
completed and MGM was smart,they recorded all the
underscoring stereo as well.
Someone probably had theforesight to realize that when
you have a film with FrankSinatra and Bing Crosby and
(31:02):
Louis Armstrong, you're going towant to have stereo recordings.
Years later, in 1991, I oversawa release of the film on
(31:24):
Laserdisc and there was aveteran member of the MGM sound
department who was working atTurner Entertainment Company at
the time and we collaborated tobuild a stereophonic soundtrack
for High Society for itsLaserdisc release in 1991.
The man's name was Scott Perry.
He was a wonderful guy and Ilearned so much from him about
(31:48):
how MGM recorded their music andhow they cataloged it and what
the code numbers mean for scenesand so forth and so on.
It was invaluable in helping mebe able to do all the
soundtrack CD compilations Iproduced in our joint venture
with Rhino and the stereophonictracks we were able to mix for
(32:13):
films that didn't get a stereorelease, like Athena and Deep in
my Heart.
When you have the stereo musicyou can do wonderful things that
enhance the experience.
But as is now a policy here atthe studio, we wants to see it
(32:35):
as it was seen in 1956, can havethat mono experience, and it
hasn't been available as a monotrack since the days of VHS beta
and the first Laserdisc fromthe 80s.
So we like people to have theirchoice and to get back to the
(33:01):
film itself.
They use the essence of thePhiladelphia story plot, moved
it to Newport, rhode Island, sothey could infuse the then new
Newport Jazz Festival into thestory and bring Louis Armstrong
and his band as a kind of Greekchorus.
(33:25):
That kind of comments from thefilm Louis opens the film, louis
ends the film and LouisArmstrong and Bing Crosby became
very good friends in the 1930sand had worked together in the
1930s and to see them performNow you has Jazz in this movie
is one of the highlights.
(33:46):
And of course the otherhighlight is or one of many is
the supposed rivalry betweenSinatra and Crosby is the
supposed rivalry between Sinatraand Crosby.
They actually were very, verygood friends and always had
gotten along, and to put the twoof them together in the movie
was like it's never happenedbefore.
(34:07):
You know, mgm really went crazyin the promotion of it.
And then, last but not least,this was the last film to be
made in Hollywood by Grace Kellybefore she became Princess
Grace of Monaco, and literallyas soon as they finished the
last shot of this movie, she wason the plane getting ready to
(34:29):
be married in Monaco and neverreturned to Hollywood after that
as an actress, to Hollywoodafter that as an actress.
There is supposedly and it mayeven be true that Hitchcock
desperately tried to lure herback to play Marnie in 1964, but
(34:50):
was not successful.
I don't think Prince Rainierwas hip to the idea of his
princess being back in the moviebusiness, this princess being
back in the movie business.
But her screen career was short.
Grace Kelly's performances areradiant and she was terrific in
this movie.
She's really not only sobeautiful, but she had hard
(35:12):
shoes to fill playing the leadrole of Tracy Lord, given that
Katharine Hepburn had starred inthe role on Broadway and then
in the film version in 1940 ofthe Philadelphia Story, but I
love her take on the character.
I think she's terrific in itand her chemistry with Crosby is
terrific.
(35:32):
Her chemistry with Sinatra isterrific.
She had worked with Bing Crosbyprior in the Country Girl,
which she made at Paramount in1954.
And that was a very dark,serious drama and there was just
a good chemistry between thetwo of them.
So everything I've been able todiscern about the making of
(35:58):
this movie is that everybody hada great deal of fun, that there
were no problems making thismovie, there were no conflicts
making this movie, everybodyloved Louis Armstrong and being
on the set and the wholecollegial nature of it was
wonderful.
And I would be remiss if Ididn't also mention Celeste Holm
(36:22):
, who plays the photographergirlfriend of Frank Sinatra,
elizabeth Embry.
She's terrific in it too.
And the score by Cole Porterwith one exception by Cole
Porter with one exception is alloriginal songs that were
written for the movie and thesong True Love, which Bing
(36:43):
Crosby sings with an assistvocally from Miss Grace Kelly,
went on to be a million-sellingsingle record and Grace Kelly
was probably the only royalprincess to have a platinum
record on her wall.
But it was a hit song,beautiful ballad and the one
(37:04):
song that was not original forthe movie was the duet sung by
Frank Sinatra and Bing CrosbyWell, did you ever?
That song was written for the1939 Broadway musical Do Barry
Was a Lady?
Cole Porter had composed a songfor Crosby and Sinatra.
(37:25):
We're supposed to singsomething else that Cole Porter
wrote that no one wasparticularly thrilled with, and
I think it was Saul Chaplin whowas one of the musical
supervisors on the movie, alongwith the great Johnny Green, who
was the head of the MJ musicaldepartment and a great composer
(37:47):
in his own right.
Saul Chaplin came up with theidea of hey, what about this
song?
Well, did you Ever?
And of course it created one ofthe classic moments of the
screen and according to his,there's a wonderful documentary
about Bing Crosby called BingCrosby Rediscovered I believe
(38:10):
that's the title.
It was made by my good friendRobert Trachtenberg.
According to his documentary,bing thought that was like his
best musical moment on thescreen ever, singing with
(38:31):
Sinatra, his favorite musicalnumber of all the ones that he
did behind the camera asdirector.
Charles Wolters came to MGM as astage choreographer, staged a
lot of musical numbers in otherfilms, graduated to being a
(38:53):
director, his first film, goodNews 1947, and became a stalwart
director at MGM for not justmusicals but also comedies MGM
for not just musicals but alsocomedies.
He directed the Tender Trapwith Frank Sinatra, debbie
(39:18):
Reynolds and Celeste Holm rightbefore he made High Society a
year later.
So there was already arelationship with Celeste Holm
and Frank Sinatra and I love themovie and the fact that now
people have been screamingwhere's the Blu-ray?
Where's the Blu-ray?
Well, guess what?
You're getting a Blu-ray and a4K, and the fact that we could
(39:38):
do the 4K Blu-ray combo, as wedid with the searchers.
And I must underscore theimportance of the fact that the
encoding is being done, thecompression and authoring by the
great David McKenzie atFidelity in Motion.
That ensures the highestquality, because I think he's
(40:01):
the best in the business at whathe does in creating a disc
image.
And we have not a lot ofsupplementary material.
As of right now, it looks likewe're going to have three
trailers, three differenttrailers.
This is all being solidified aswe speak.
(40:22):
Uh, we have a featurette that wecreated for the dvd 10.
We have a featurette that wecreated for the DVD 10, no more
than 20 years ago with CelesteHolm, and she was aging at that
point.
You know she was advanced inage and her voice was a little
thin, but her manner was verycharming, very charming.
(40:51):
The featurette is less than 10minutes long and it actually
perfectly encapsulates all thedifferent aspects of how this
film came to be, how it was made, all the little details and
things that I've just mentioned,in the space of less than 10
minutes.
It's a very good featurette ofless than 10 minutes.
It's a very good featurette andit's being up-converted to, I
(41:11):
believe, high definition andthis will be on both the Blu-ray
and the 4K.
All these things, and just likethe DVD, I'm putting in the
Droopy cartoon in CinemaScope,millionaire Droopy, in high
definition, so that everythingthat was on the DVD, including
the gala premiere footage,everything that was on the DVD,
(41:35):
plus more in terms of themultiple trailers, will be on
the 4K and the a BD100 at a veryhigh bitrate and the Blu-ray
will be a BD50.
For those of you who are notyet to 4K, that will be at a
(41:56):
very high bitrate.
It will look great.
And we're offering the comboand a standalone Blu-ray so that
people aren't forced intohaving to buy a more expensive
combo pack if they just want ifthey're content with Blu-ray,
and Blu-ray is still prettymagnificent and the Dolby Atmos
(42:19):
and MonoTracks will be on bothdiscs.
We of course have a nice slipsleeve and the inside wrap of
the 4K will be the key art withyellow, as will be on the
Blu-ray, and then the outer slipsleeve will be the key art in
blue, mgm used both becausethey're both authentic key arts.
(42:42):
But I thought it would be funto have a little differentiation
arts.
But I thought it would be funto have a little differentiation
With the Dolby Vision on the 4K, along with HDR10, of course
that ensures even greatersolidification of an excellent
presentation.
And I do want to mention youknow everybody's starting to
(43:04):
theorize what's Warner Archivegoing to do in 4K, and I did
mention that we would be leaningtowards wide format films.
But we're still a Blu-raybusiness and Blu-ray is
magnificent and we intend ourBlu-rays to be gorgeous and when
you watch them on your 4Kplayer and a 4K TV especially in
(43:29):
the case of older films thatdon't have 4,000 pixels on their
film elements then you're goingto be just fine.
But there still will beoccasional 4Ks from us, but it
is not our primary business andit will not be primary to only
wide format films.
The mothership is still goingto pull the heavy load when it
(43:53):
comes to bringing more 4Kcatalog titles and I'm here to
support them in any way I can.
I am involved in discussionsand recommendations, but what
Warner Archive will do is try topull out all the stops so that
every 4K we release just like wetry to do with every Blu-ray is
(44:14):
the best that it can be andhave lots of chapters, right.
Tim Millard (44:22):
Well, this is an amazing-sounding release, just
like you did with the very firstone in the searchers.
I love all of the audio thatyou're putting together as the
options.
Of course, this scan of themaster is fantastic, and just
having the old extras heremaking sure that they're
(44:47):
up-res'd and on these as well,it's fantastic.
And I love these combos whereyou get the 4K and Blu-ray and
then you also can just have thestandalone Blu-ray.
That, to me, is really sayinghey, we're looking out for you,
the fan, the consumer, so thatyou have the option based on
what you have at home.
George Feltenstein (45:09):
And we I mean in all the different
formats that I've been involvedwith as the video business has
changed, we're always trying todo the best we can and the more
the technology evolves, the morewe can increase the quality of
what we can deliver.
(45:30):
And, you know, not everythingis going to be a home run, but
if I have to, I'll settle for atriple if that's the best that
we could do.
You know when you're dealingwith the best element on
something being four generationsaway, the best element on
something being four generationsaway.
But generally, we've been veryfortunate in finding wonderful
(45:51):
sources and the fact that wedon't use any automated
techniques to do anything.
Everything is done meticulouslyby hand and the artisans at
Warner Brothers Motion PictureImaging make an invaluable
contribution to every releasethat we put out.
(46:11):
And in the case when we do 4Ks,I intend to continue our
harmonious relationship with themagnificent David McKenzie at
Fidelity in Motion.
People who don't understand howimportant the quality of
authoring and compression andencoding are really need to
(46:33):
understand.
This man is a wizard and I knowthat he has a huge fan base.
He's a superstar to videophileswho really want their
presentations to be the bestthat they can be.
So we can do a great master andhave it fudged up by misses in
(46:54):
authoring and encoding.
We haven't been affected bythat too terribly, but there
have been a couple of timeswhere we had to go back and fix
things.
Working with David, we knowthat what he delivers is nothing
that needs to be fixed.
It's a great honor and I'm veryexcited about this month's
(47:15):
releases and we've got so muchin the oven right now that we're
working on.
I think a lot of people aregoing to be really happy with
what's to come.
That doesn't mean that therewon't be consistent complaints
from all corners of the globe,but we're really trying to do
our best for you, the consumerthat supports the Warner Archive
(47:36):
.
Tim Millard (47:37):
Well, George, as I always say after we do these
podcasts, especially theseannouncement podcasts, it's such
a thrill to have you on and tohave you explain and give all
this background.
I love it.
I learned so much and I knowthat the listeners do as well.
So thank you for carving outtime to do that and to speak
(47:57):
directly to the people who buythe Warner Archive product.
George Feltenstein (48:03):
Well, thank you, tim, and thank you to our
customers of the Warner ArchiveCollection.
We appreciate your support.
Tim Millard (48:14):
Well, I hope you enjoyed that discussion with
George.
Now, this was part two of ourdiscussion of the May releases,
so if you haven't yet listenedto part one, which was released
just a few days ago, until nexttime you've been listening to
Tim Millard, stay slightlyobsessed.
Hi, Tim Millard here, host of the Extras podcast
, and this is part two of mydiscussion with George
Feltenstein of the May Blu-rayreleases coming from the Warner
Archive.
We have two films we'll betalking about.
We'll be talking about Rhapsodyin Blue, and following that is
our discussion about the second4K release from the Warner
(00:27):
Archive, and that's High Society.
Well, george, the next filmwe're going to talk about is one
that you did mention in aprevious podcast, and that is
Rhapsody in Blue from 1945.
What can you tell us about thisrelease, George?
George Feltenstein (00:49):
A lot of work has gone into it and it was
almost something that I neverthought would happen, because
what we're releasing iseffectively the pre-release
version, is effectively thepre-release version and as we
record this podcast, it's just afew weeks prior to when I'll
(01:13):
have the honor of introducing.
It's being shown at the TCMFilm Festival on April 26th and
this is a version of Rhapsody inBlue that contains about 13
additional minutes which werecut out of the film before it
was theatrically released byWarner Brothers in 1945.
(01:36):
This film went into productionin 1943 and was completed, I
believe, by the end of 1943.
It was a very expensive film tomake and Jack Warner selected
this and a few other films tohold back from general release
(02:01):
so that there'd be a betterchance of recouping high
production costs by releasingafter World War II ended, which
was not guaranteed when thatwould happen, but there was a
sensibility that the Allies werecloser to victory, first in
(02:24):
Europe and then again in Asia,and I believe the film in its
theatrical version opened beforethe complete end of the war.
I think it opened in New Yorkand Los Angeles in June of 1945.
And the war ended a few monthsafter.
No-transcript and shown to thesoldiers.
(03:17):
The studio decided to cut thefilm down because the length of
the film, which was around 150,151 minutes before they did the
editing that, was frightening toWarner Brothers.
They didn't like films thatwere too long because the
shorter the film you can getmore shows in the day.
(03:39):
And of course the most tragicexample of that kind of cutting
happened with the 1954 Star isBorn and that's very legendary
what happened there.
And it basically ruined whatGeorge Cugar intended with that
movie, with Rhapsody in Blue.
(04:00):
I had known and read that therewas this pre-release version
but there was no trace of it andI never thought we would be
able to find the missing footage.
But I didn't give up wasproducing a Gershwin in
(04:22):
Hollywood, two CD set ofsoundtrack recordings for our
joint venture that we had withRhino Records.
It was George and I wereGershwin in Hollywood and for
that release I was able tolocate playback discs that had
been, you know, representingwhat was pre-recorded here and I
(04:46):
knew that there were longerversions of certain numbers and
I had read about these, you know, earlier versions of the film.
So we weren't really luckingout in our search and I'm
talking about over many, manyyears.
We released a DVD of this filmin 2012, which was a new master
(05:10):
at the time and it wasn'tBlu-ray quality, but it was
pretty good.
We were coming off a new filmelement, a fine grain that was
made from the camera negativeand we spent a lot of time on
the audio and making it perfect.
And we added to the beginningof the film an overture that
(05:33):
runs over 10 minutes.
That was created especially forthe New York and Hollywood
engagements of the film and a10-minute overture.
I can't think of any film thathas an overture that's over 10
minutes and this clocks in justa little over 10 minutes and it
(05:54):
really is a tribute to RayHindorff, who was the arranger
and really the musical geniusbehind the musicality of this
film.
That created this overture andthe Warner Brothers Orchestra
was just amazing.
So this overture we added tothe movie.
(06:16):
We put out the DVD.
The DVD did really well, but Istill wanted to be able to get
to Blu-ray, to come off theoriginal camera negative and to
find that missing footage.
So our preservation departmentbrought in elements from all
(06:36):
over the country, all thesedifferent versions, because
everything was marked, the samenumber of reels, but we didn't
know footage count andthankfully we found a nitrate
lavender fine grain in theWarner Brothers collection
that's on deposit at UCLA, whoare the stewards of some of our
(07:01):
nitrate.
And sure enough we did have acomposite fine grain.
That means the audio is with itand we were able to put
everything together for the bestpossible quality and put the
whole film back together as itwas originally shown to the
soldiers before it was cut up,and we've added the overture at
(07:24):
the beginning, so that brings usin at a whopping somewhere
between 161, 162 minutes.
So the reason that there'snothing extra on this disc aside
from the trailer is that Iwanted to make sure we had
enough space for absolute,impeccable bit rate.
(07:45):
So it's going to look and soundmagnificent.
I'm not even really talkingabout the movie Now.
I'll talk about the movie, themusical biographies of which
we've talked about on theseextras podcasts.
When we were releasing thingslike Words in Music and Three
Little Words.
Generally, the Hollywoodcomposer biography movie would
(08:10):
be highly fictionalized but havewonderful musical moments.
And that's really the case here.
Because the story of GeorgeGershwin, because the story of
George Gershwin, aside from thetragic fact of his death at age
38 from a brain tumor.
(08:31):
His actual life story was notfull of that much conflict.
He didn't have tragic romances.
He had plenty of very devotedgirlfriends.
He was quite a ladies' man andI say that as a compliment, not
(08:52):
in any kind of derogatory way.
There were many women in hislife who loved him very much and
he loved them back, but hispassion was music.
But his passion was music andthe film captures that essence
of his passion for music.
(09:29):
And the studio consideredcasting a more famous person in
the role of George Gershwin andthey came up with a New York
stage discovery.
Robert Alda signed him to astudio contract and this was to
be his breakout film.
And if the name Alda you'reasking, yes, it is Alan Alda's
father and he was here at WarnerBrothers for several years and
then went back to the New Yorkstage.
He opened the originalproduction of Guys and Dolls,
sky Masterson.
He was in other big plays andshows as well, but this was his
(09:53):
big break in Hollywood andplaying.
The two romantic interests inthis film are Alexis Smith, who
is always gorgeous and alwayswonderful, and Joan Leslie,
who's always adorable and whodoesn't do her own singing.
She was dubbed by a vocalteacher.
(10:14):
Actually, the woman was ateacher in her later life I
don't know about earlier life,but a woman named Sally
Sweetland and she soundedexactly like Joan Leslie's
speaking voice, which is veryinteresting.
And Oscar Levent, the amazingwit and raconteur and sometimes
actor, brilliant pianist,composer, oscar Levent, was
(10:37):
George Gershwin's best friend inreal life and he plays himself
in the movie and he's terrific.
And probably the mostexceptional parts of this movie
are when we get to see peoplewho actually were involved in
(10:58):
playing themselves in performingGershwin music in performing
Gershwin music.
And Gershwin's first big hitsong was Swanee, which he didn't
write with his brother Ira, hewrote it with Irving Caesar in
1919.
And Al Jolson recreates hisstage performance of Swanee in
(11:21):
this movie.
And what Gershwin was about washe was fascinated with jazz and
he wanted to kind of mergewhere American popular music was
going in the late teens andearly 20s and infuse into it
(11:43):
jazz rhythms and different sonicformulations of chords and
sounds.
And he always wanted to strivefor something different, as well
as writing some of the greatestAmerican popular songs of all
time with his brother Ira, andin 1924, he was commissioned to
(12:05):
write basically an orchestralpiece that would be artistic and
yet groundbreaking 1924, andwas performed by Paul Whiteman,
(12:27):
who was a very, very famousorchestra slash band leader at
the time, and Paul Whitemanplays himself in the movie.
So they recreate the you knowfirst performance of Rhapsody in
Blue in the movie and it'squite thrilling to see all these
(12:49):
people who in real life had aplace in George Gershwin's life
story and performances.
And my favorite person being inthis movie is Anne Brown, who
was the original lead actress inPorgy and Bess.
(13:11):
She played Bess when Porgy andBess opened on Broadway in 1935.
And she is in a sequence thatis an homage to Porgy and Bess
and she sings Summertime.
The character of Bess didn'tsing Summertime at the beginning
of Porgy and Bess, she sang areprise, but for this movie they
(13:35):
fudged it a little and itworked beautifully.
This is the one thing in themovie that got hit with the
butcher knife, and the Porgy andBess excerpt in the released
film was like a minute and ahalf and here I believe it's
between four and five minutesand does the greatness of Porgy
(13:57):
and Bess, which I think is oneof the greatest pieces of
American music ever created.
It gets its proper place inthis newly restored,
reconstructed version of thefilm because it's not just a
blip on the radar.
They really pay more attentionto it.
(14:20):
And Pour you Best was not acommercial success.
When it opened People didn'tknow if it was opera success.
When it opened People didn'tknow if it was opera and they
didn't think it was highbrowenough for opera and it was too
highbrow for Broadway.
And it was really only afterGershwin's death that there were
several revivals that made itmore popular.
(14:41):
But really it wasn't until the1970s that the whole thing was
reconstructed and performed.
Porgy and Bess eventually madeit to Broadway in 1976 as
originally completely writtenwithout edits, and was an
absolute critical success.
And that was almost 40 yearsafter Gershwin's death.
(15:05):
Since then it's been performedat the Metropolitan Opera and
operas all over the world, andso that is my personal favorite
thing about the restored longercut is getting to see Porte de
Veste get its due in the storyof Gershwin, but the film also
covers all the great popularsongs he wrote.
(15:29):
There are fictitious charactersthroughout.
Gershwin had more than onebrother.
He had a second brother, arthur, not mentioned enough truth to
it to be a cohesive work, and itis an entertaining movie.
Of the movie is the music ofGeorge Gershwin as arranged and
performed by the Warner BrothersOrchestra and the Warner
(16:12):
Brothers Music Department.
Because not only did you haveRay Heindorf conducting the
orchestra and doing thearrangements, but Max Steiner,
the great Max Steiner, probablythe most beloved of the Warner
Brothers composers and, ofcourse, the writer of the score
for Gone with the Wind.
(16:33):
Max Steiner did theunderscoring for this movie,
weaving in Gershwin melodies inbetween his own, you know
original pieces.
Just as Steiner did with InGone With the Wind.
He mixed together Civil Warsongs like Dixie and so forth
(16:57):
and so on, within the score ofhis original pieces.
Steiner took the Gershwinmelodies and interwove them with
his own compositions.
Took the Gershwin melodies andinterwove them with his own
compositions.
So it was a work of tremendouscommitment by the studio to try
to pay tribute to the amazing,albeit brief, life of George
(17:22):
Gershwin.
And while it may not befactually accurate to the nth
degree, it has enough truth init.
And so much great music and,best of all, this new master is
gorgeous.
It's a quantum leap from ournot so bad looking DVD.
(17:43):
It is sensational and I'll bevery excited to see how a live
audience responds to it at theTCM Festival.
But to know that people will beable to buy this Blu-ray, which
comes from a 4K scan of thecamera negative and the found
footage, and be able to have iton their shelf instead of it
(18:05):
languishing in a vault thatnobody knew it was there.
This is what the work we dohere is so rewarding, and to be
able to share that with the fansand with cinephiles and musical
people of all different agesand musical people of all
(18:30):
different ages.
This is a celebration of theGreat American Songbook, just
from one composer, and I do hopepeople enjoy the release.
Tim Millard (18:37):
I love the fact, george, that this is really this
version.
This extended pre-releaseversion is first time on
physical media.
George Feltenstein (18:47):
It's first time.
Really, really, no one has seenthis, except for aside,
obviously, the people who'vebeen working on it here have
seen it, but, um, the publicnever got to see this version.
The only people who did wereour fighting men and women
overseas in 1944.
(19:08):
Yeah, and people who worked onthe movie in 1943.
It's exceptional.
Tim Millard (19:13):
I mean, it's so great that the Warner Archive is
releasing this, that you knewabout it so you could go look
for it, because otherwise, likeyou said, it would be
languishing in storage.
George Feltenstein (19:25):
People were looking at me cross-eyed like no
, it doesn't exist.
You know, I had a feeling thatit might, and there are other
films where we have foundadditional footage and there
will be one of those coming out,hopefully later on this year,
(19:45):
which we'll be talking about ina couple of months.
That's exciting.
It's not as substantial a find,but it's a little bit of extra,
which is never a bad thing,yeah, and you, especially when
you're talking about a greatpiece of entertainment.
Tim Millard (19:57):
You've had more than a minute to.
You've had some with five, six,you know, some fairly extensive
extended versions recently.
So they're always exciting,always exciting when you find
these in the vaults, so to speak.
It's great when there'sdiscoveries like that.
George Feltenstein (20:16):
And I do have to say that this would not
be possible without thewonderful people at UCLA Film
and Television Archive.
It would not be possiblewithout our magical artists at
Warner Brothers Motion PictureImaging and the Warner Brothers
(20:37):
Preservation Department.
Everybody collaborated on thisand that we get to bring it to
the public.
There are so many jewels in ourlibrary and nobody thinks of
Rhapsody in Blue as a cinematicmasterpiece, and I'll be the
first person to acknowledge it'snot.
It's not a great piece ofcinema per se.
(21:00):
What it is is really goodentertainment, highlighted by
amazing, great musicalperformances and in this
extended state, with theOverture, it has much more
substance and we're very proudto be bringing it to the home
(21:22):
viewer.
Tim Millard (21:23):
Well, George, last on our list to talk about here
today is your second 4K releasefrom the Warner Archive.
I'm excited to hear about thisand what you can tell us about
this one.
George Feltenstein (21:39):
Well, people have been asking for this movie
just on Blu-ray alone since theformat began and it was, I
would say, probably the mostquizzical omission to the
(22:03):
musicals that we made availableon Blu 2003,.
And a very archaic HD masterwas created for that DVD, but it
was grainy.
(22:23):
It had all sorts of colorbreathing issues.
Grainy, it had all sorts ofcolor breathing issues.
We could not have put that onBlu-ray.
We just could not unless wedidn't care about our consumers.
This needed to look great and,frankly, the technology was not
(22:43):
available to make it look great.
We could have made it lookbetter than the DVD master, and
that DVD master in its highdefinition form has been what
people have seen on televisionand have been able to.
There's been no work done onthe film since 2003.
(23:04):
Until now.
I see people writing about oh, Isaw a different, better high
society.
No, it's always been thisversion.
If there's been any HDbroadcast or download or stream,
it's always come from this samemaster that was created in 2003
.
And the very nature of it beingVistaVision really called out
(23:39):
for us to be able to step up tothe plate the ability to scan
VistaVision and Technorama filmelements which go through
horizontally as opposed tovertically and with that
(24:01):
enlarged frame you getunprecedented, as they used to
say, motion picture.
High fidelity, but the depth offield, the sharpness, without
the distortion that earlycinemascope lenses brought to
cinemascope movies.
This is why the Searcherslooked so wonderful.
We went back to the negative onthat film and it was handled
frame by frame, to be the bestthat it could be, and the same
(24:23):
thing goes for High society.
There are some really uglyblown up optical shots of
Newport, Rhode Island, at thebeginning of the movie don't
look good.
There's no way we could evermake them look good because they
were blown up from traditional35 millimeter film and people
(24:44):
weren't as picky back then asthey are now and people forgave,
you know, things that weredoopy looking opticals.
But that and two long secondunit shots in the movie are the
only detriments that can't befixed.
(25:04):
That's the way the movie wasmade.
But the rest the color is vividand beautiful.
You see how much work went intothis and of course you've got
this combination of Bing Crosby,frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly,
(25:28):
along with Louis Armstrong andCole Porter having written the
original score in the originalscore.
And this is one of those rareMGM musicals that didn't come
from Arthur Freed and it didn'tcome from Joe Pasternak and it
didn't come from Jack CummingsSaul Siegel, who had been
producing films at Fox, likeGentlemen Prefer Blondes and
(25:50):
there's no Business Like ShowBusiness.
He intended to send up anindependent production unit at
MGM but he eventually became thehead of the studio, but it was
a combination of MGM'smanagement.
At the time the studio was runby Dori Sherry.
When the project began, theywanted to revisit properties
(26:15):
that they owned that they couldremake as musicals, and the idea
of making the Philadelphiastory into a musical and having
Cole Porter write the music wasSiegel's and he went to Dori
Shari at MGM and the whole thinggot greenlit.
What is interesting is thatthey were originally talking
(26:38):
about casting people like HowardKeel, possibly Elizabeth Taylor
, possibly Ann Miller.
I've gone through all theproduction documents to see how
it came to be.
And it just so happened thatBing Crosby ended his almost
(27:00):
24-year relationship withParamount, where he had been on
exclusive contract from 1932until 55.
And he was a free man and hegot signed to play the role of
(27:21):
CK Dexter Haven and it was a bigdeal for him.
He was not happy at Paramount inthe later years.
He didn't like even his hugehit White Christmas, which made
a ton of money and is beloved byeveryone these days and was
beloved by audiences when itcame out.
(27:42):
But Bing himself thought thepicture was not as well written
as it could have been.
He was disappointed and hereally wanted better scripts and
(28:05):
the opportunity of being inhigh society was one that he
found irresistible.
But to use VistaVision becausehe loved VistaVision, with White
Christmas having been the firstVistaVision feature.
And then he also did a filmright before he left Paramount,
(28:26):
a remake of Anything Goes thathe was not particularly thrilled
with but he loved VistaVision.
So MGM literally had to switchcourse, as they were planning to
make the film in CinemaScopeand I found a memo in the files
from the head of the technicaldepartment who was warning them
(28:46):
If you make this film inVistaVision, you realize you
won't be able to have four trackmagnetic stereophonic
soundtrack, which is reallyessential for a great musical.
Vistavision did not allow formagnetic stereo.
It used at times somethingcalled perspective sound, which
(29:09):
was optical audio mono that wasmoved around the theater with
inaudible tones, bass tones thatwould move the dialogue or the
music in three places around thetheater.
It was very gimmicky but it wasmuch cheaper for theater owners
(29:32):
to install than having toinstall magnetic reproduction
equipment in their projection.
So High Society was recordedfor the intention of stereo and
it was released, basically monoor the Prospecta optical sound
(29:55):
which moved the mono around thetheater.
But what we're doing here iswe're including the original
mono optical track without anygimmicks around it, so people
can see the movie and hear themovie as it was originally.
They have a choice, as it wasoriginally.
(30:18):
They have a choice.
And then what we've also doneis made a very large investment
in doing a Dolby Atmos trackcoming from the multi-channel
magnetic stereo recordings thatwere done for all the music in
the film.
It was interesting that theypre-recorded the numbers early
(30:42):
before a film gets intoproduction.
Underscoring happens usuallyafter the film is mostly
completed and MGM was smart,they recorded all the
underscoring stereo as well.
Someone probably had theforesight to realize that when
you have a film with FrankSinatra and Bing Crosby and
(31:02):
Louis Armstrong, you're going towant to have stereo recordings.
Years later, in 1991, I oversawa release of the film on
(31:24):
Laserdisc and there was aveteran member of the MGM sound
department who was working atTurner Entertainment Company at
the time and we collaborated tobuild a stereophonic soundtrack
for High Society for itsLaserdisc release in 1991.
The man's name was Scott Perry.
He was a wonderful guy and Ilearned so much from him about
(31:48):
how MGM recorded their music andhow they cataloged it and what
the code numbers mean for scenesand so forth and so on.
It was invaluable in helping mebe able to do all the
soundtrack CD compilations Iproduced in our joint venture
with Rhino and the stereophonictracks we were able to mix for
(32:13):
films that didn't get a stereorelease, like Athena and Deep in
my Heart.
When you have the stereo musicyou can do wonderful things that
enhance the experience.
But as is now a policy here atthe studio, we wants to see it
(32:35):
as it was seen in 1956, can havethat mono experience, and it
hasn't been available as a monotrack since the days of VHS beta
and the first Laserdisc fromthe 80s.
So we like people to have theirchoice and to get back to the
(33:01):
film itself.
They use the essence of thePhiladelphia story plot, moved
it to Newport, rhode Island, sothey could infuse the then new
Newport Jazz Festival into thestory and bring Louis Armstrong
and his band as a kind of Greekchorus.
(33:25):
That kind of comments from thefilm Louis opens the film, louis
ends the film and LouisArmstrong and Bing Crosby became
very good friends in the 1930sand had worked together in the
1930s and to see them performNow you has Jazz in this movie
is one of the highlights.
(33:46):
And of course the otherhighlight is or one of many is
the supposed rivalry betweenSinatra and Crosby is the
supposed rivalry between Sinatraand Crosby.
They actually were very, verygood friends and always had
gotten along, and to put the twoof them together in the movie
was like it's never happenedbefore.
(34:07):
You know, mgm really went crazyin the promotion of it.
And then, last but not least,this was the last film to be
made in Hollywood by Grace Kellybefore she became Princess
Grace of Monaco, and literallyas soon as they finished the
last shot of this movie, she wason the plane getting ready to
(34:29):
be married in Monaco and neverreturned to Hollywood after that
as an actress, to Hollywoodafter that as an actress.
There is supposedly and it mayeven be true that Hitchcock
desperately tried to lure herback to play Marnie in 1964, but
(34:50):
was not successful.
I don't think Prince Rainierwas hip to the idea of his
princess being back in the moviebusiness, this princess being
back in the movie business.
But her screen career was short.
Grace Kelly's performances areradiant and she was terrific in
this movie.
She's really not only sobeautiful, but she had hard
(35:12):
shoes to fill playing the leadrole of Tracy Lord, given that
Katharine Hepburn had starred inthe role on Broadway and then
in the film version in 1940 ofthe Philadelphia Story, but I
love her take on the character.
I think she's terrific in itand her chemistry with Crosby is
terrific.
(35:32):
Her chemistry with Sinatra isterrific.
She had worked with Bing Crosbyprior in the Country Girl,
which she made at Paramount in1954.
And that was a very dark,serious drama and there was just
a good chemistry between thetwo of them.
So everything I've been able todiscern about the making of
(35:58):
this movie is that everybody hada great deal of fun, that there
were no problems making thismovie, there were no conflicts
making this movie, everybodyloved Louis Armstrong and being
on the set and the wholecollegial nature of it was
wonderful.
And I would be remiss if Ididn't also mention Celeste Holm
(36:22):
, who plays the photographergirlfriend of Frank Sinatra,
elizabeth Embry.
She's terrific in it too.
And the score by Cole Porterwith one exception by Cole
Porter with one exception is alloriginal songs that were
written for the movie and thesong True Love, which Bing
(36:43):
Crosby sings with an assistvocally from Miss Grace Kelly,
went on to be a million-sellingsingle record and Grace Kelly
was probably the only royalprincess to have a platinum
record on her wall.
But it was a hit song,beautiful ballad and the one
(37:04):
song that was not original forthe movie was the duet sung by
Frank Sinatra and Bing CrosbyWell, did you ever?
That song was written for the1939 Broadway musical Do Barry
Was a Lady?
Cole Porter had composed a songfor Crosby and Sinatra.
(37:25):
We're supposed to singsomething else that Cole Porter
wrote that no one wasparticularly thrilled with, and
I think it was Saul Chaplin whowas one of the musical
supervisors on the movie, alongwith the great Johnny Green, who
was the head of the MJ musicaldepartment and a great composer
(37:47):
in his own right.
Saul Chaplin came up with theidea of hey, what about this
song?
Well, did you Ever?
And of course it created one ofthe classic moments of the
screen and according to his,there's a wonderful documentary
about Bing Crosby called BingCrosby Rediscovered I believe
(38:10):
that's the title.
It was made by my good friendRobert Trachtenberg.
According to his documentary,bing thought that was like his
best musical moment on thescreen ever, singing with
(38:31):
Sinatra, his favorite musicalnumber of all the ones that he
did behind the camera asdirector.
Charles Wolters came to MGM as astage choreographer, staged a
lot of musical numbers in otherfilms, graduated to being a
(38:53):
director, his first film, goodNews 1947, and became a stalwart
director at MGM for not justmusicals but also comedies MGM
for not just musicals but alsocomedies.
He directed the Tender Trapwith Frank Sinatra, debbie
(39:18):
Reynolds and Celeste Holm rightbefore he made High Society a
year later.
So there was already arelationship with Celeste Holm
and Frank Sinatra and I love themovie and the fact that now
people have been screamingwhere's the Blu-ray?
Where's the Blu-ray?
Well, guess what?
You're getting a Blu-ray and a4K, and the fact that we could
(39:38):
do the 4K Blu-ray combo, as wedid with the searchers.
And I must underscore theimportance of the fact that the
encoding is being done, thecompression and authoring by the
great David McKenzie atFidelity in Motion.
That ensures the highestquality, because I think he's
(40:01):
the best in the business at whathe does in creating a disc
image.
And we have not a lot ofsupplementary material.
As of right now, it looks likewe're going to have three
trailers, three differenttrailers.
This is all being solidified aswe speak.
(40:22):
Uh, we have a featurette that wecreated for the dvd 10.
We have a featurette that wecreated for the DVD 10, no more
than 20 years ago with CelesteHolm, and she was aging at that
point.
You know she was advanced inage and her voice was a little
thin, but her manner was verycharming, very charming.
(40:51):
The featurette is less than 10minutes long and it actually
perfectly encapsulates all thedifferent aspects of how this
film came to be, how it was made, all the little details and
things that I've just mentioned,in the space of less than 10
minutes.
It's a very good featurette ofless than 10 minutes.
It's a very good featurette andit's being up-converted to, I
(41:11):
believe, high definition andthis will be on both the Blu-ray
and the 4K.
All these things, and just likethe DVD, I'm putting in the
Droopy cartoon in CinemaScope,millionaire Droopy, in high
definition, so that everythingthat was on the DVD, including
the gala premiere footage,everything that was on the DVD,
(41:35):
plus more in terms of themultiple trailers, will be on
the 4K and the a BD100 at a veryhigh bitrate and the Blu-ray
will be a BD50.
For those of you who are notyet to 4K, that will be at a
(41:56):
very high bitrate.
It will look great.
And we're offering the comboand a standalone Blu-ray so that
people aren't forced intohaving to buy a more expensive
combo pack if they just want ifthey're content with Blu-ray,
and Blu-ray is still prettymagnificent and the Dolby Atmos
(42:19):
and MonoTracks will be on bothdiscs.
We of course have a nice slipsleeve and the inside wrap of
the 4K will be the key art withyellow, as will be on the
Blu-ray, and then the outer slipsleeve will be the key art in
blue, mgm used both becausethey're both authentic key arts.
(42:42):
But I thought it would be funto have a little differentiation
arts.
But I thought it would be funto have a little differentiation
With the Dolby Vision on the 4K, along with HDR10, of course
that ensures even greatersolidification of an excellent
presentation.
And I do want to mention youknow everybody's starting to
(43:04):
theorize what's Warner Archivegoing to do in 4K, and I did
mention that we would be leaningtowards wide format films.
But we're still a Blu-raybusiness and Blu-ray is
magnificent and we intend ourBlu-rays to be gorgeous and when
you watch them on your 4Kplayer and a 4K TV especially in
(43:29):
the case of older films thatdon't have 4,000 pixels on their
film elements then you're goingto be just fine.
But there still will beoccasional 4Ks from us, but it
is not our primary business andit will not be primary to only
wide format films.
The mothership is still goingto pull the heavy load when it
(43:53):
comes to bringing more 4Kcatalog titles and I'm here to
support them in any way I can.
I am involved in discussionsand recommendations, but what
Warner Archive will do is try topull out all the stops so that
every 4K we release just like wetry to do with every Blu-ray is
(44:14):
the best that it can be andhave lots of chapters, right.
Tim Millard (44:22):
Well, this is an amazing-sounding release, just
like you did with the very firstone in the searchers.
I love all of the audio thatyou're putting together as the
options.
Of course, this scan of themaster is fantastic, and just
having the old extras heremaking sure that they're
(44:47):
up-res'd and on these as well,it's fantastic.
And I love these combos whereyou get the 4K and Blu-ray and
then you also can just have thestandalone Blu-ray.
That, to me, is really sayinghey, we're looking out for you,
the fan, the consumer, so thatyou have the option based on
what you have at home.
George Feltenstein (45:09):
And we I mean in all the different
formats that I've been involvedwith as the video business has
changed, we're always trying todo the best we can and the more
the technology evolves, the morewe can increase the quality of
what we can deliver.
(45:30):
And, you know, not everythingis going to be a home run, but
if I have to, I'll settle for atriple if that's the best that
we could do.
You know when you're dealingwith the best element on
something being four generationsaway, the best element on
something being four generationsaway.
But generally, we've been veryfortunate in finding wonderful
(45:51):
sources and the fact that wedon't use any automated
techniques to do anything.
Everything is done meticulouslyby hand and the artisans at
Warner Brothers Motion PictureImaging make an invaluable
contribution to every releasethat we put out.
(46:11):
And in the case when we do 4Ks,I intend to continue our
harmonious relationship with themagnificent David McKenzie at
Fidelity in Motion.
People who don't understand howimportant the quality of
authoring and compression andencoding are really need to
(46:33):
understand.
This man is a wizard and I knowthat he has a huge fan base.
He's a superstar to videophileswho really want their
presentations to be the bestthat they can be.
So we can do a great master andhave it fudged up by misses in
(46:54):
authoring and encoding.
We haven't been affected bythat too terribly, but there
have been a couple of timeswhere we had to go back and fix
things.
Working with David, we knowthat what he delivers is nothing
that needs to be fixed.
It's a great honor and I'm veryexcited about this month's
(47:15):
releases and we've got so muchin the oven right now that we're
working on.
I think a lot of people aregoing to be really happy with
what's to come.
That doesn't mean that therewon't be consistent complaints
from all corners of the globe,but we're really trying to do
our best for you, the consumerthat supports the Warner Archive
(47:36):
.
Tim Millard (47:37):
Well, George, as I always say after we do these
podcasts, especially theseannouncement podcasts, it's such
a thrill to have you on and tohave you explain and give all
this background.
I love it.
I learned so much and I knowthat the listeners do as well.
So thank you for carving outtime to do that and to speak
(47:57):
directly to the people who buythe Warner Archive product.
George Feltenstein (48:03):
Well, thank you, tim, and thank you to our
customers of the Warner ArchiveCollection.
We appreciate your support.
Tim Millard (48:14):
Well, I hope you enjoyed that discussion with
George.
Now, this was part two of ourdiscussion of the May releases,
so if you haven't yet listenedto part one, which was released
just a few days ago, until nexttime you've been listening to
Tim Millard, stay slightlyobsessed.
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