July 28, 2025 • 61 mins
Warner Archive's George Feltenstein discusses the stunning new 4K UHD and Blu-ray restoration of MGM's 1956 musical "High Society" starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra with Louis Armstrong.
Purchase links:
HIGH SOCIETY (1956) 4K&Blu-ray Combo Pack
EPISODE DETAILS:
• VistaVision's horizontal filming process presented unique challenges for scanning and restoration
• Original film negatives were scanned using specialized Director scanners adapted specifically for horizontal use
• Audio restoration utilized original six-track pre-recordings to create authentic multi-channel sound
• Finding and preserving the original stereophonic music recordings was crucial to the restoration process
• "High Society" was MGM's highest-grossing film of 1956 despite strong competition
• Louis Armstrong functions as a Greek chorus throughout the film, with Bing Crosby having roots in jazz
• Grace Kelly's final Hollywood film before becoming Princess of Monaco shows her comedic talents
• Director Charles Walters moved from Broadway dancer to MGM choreographer to successful director
• Special features include behind-the-scenes material, audio promos, and the appropriate "Millionaire Droopy" cartoon
• Warner Archive's commitment to high-quality 4K releases continues with more titles planned
Check out Warner Archive's Facebook page for more information and updates on upcoming releases.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Film Clip (00:00):
Hello Sam.
I would like to talk to youprivately.
Well, now I consider that right,neighbor.
You lost a little weight,haven't you Sam?
Oh no, you're slipping.
That used to scare me, thewithering glance of the goddess.
I just want to know what you aredoing here the day before my
wedding.
(00:21):
Business, I've become adistinguished composer since we
broke up yeah they need a littlehelp here, so I heeded the call
of duty.
Don't pretend with me, dexter.
You deliberately planned thisfestival to conflict with my
wedding.
It's a shabby vindictivegesture.
Ooh, harsh words.
Well, let's be honest, I'lladmit it I'm still in love with
(00:41):
you.
Oh, I don't want you to getmarried again, because I still
think you can become a wonderfulwoman.
Thank you, I haven't the samehigh hopes for you.
Well, I don't want to become awonderful woman.
Oh, isn't it enough?
You almost spoiled my lifewithout spoiling my wedding.
I didn't try to spoil your life,sam.
Oh, and stop calling me Sam,sure, you didn't try to spoil
mine, but you were calling onthe shots.
You were dictating the sort ofa fellow you wanted me to be.
(01:02):
With your background and tasteand intelligence, you could have
become a serious composer or adiplomat or anything you wanted
to be.
And what have you become?
A jukebox hero.
Well, is that bad?
Oh, dexter be satisfied, and letme alone Go away, go away and
(01:25):
stay away.
I tried to.
I even wanted to, but I guessI'm just a weak character.
I'm still in love with you.
Tim Millard (01:35):
Hello and welcome to the Extras.
I'm Tim Millard, your host, andjoining me is George
Feltenstein to discuss therecent High Society 4K and
Blu-ray release from the WarnerArchive.
Hi, George.
George Feltenstein (01:48):
Hi, Tim, great to be back with you.
Tim Millard (01:51):
I'm very excited to talk about this stunning
restoration of High Society andI have to say I was absolutely
blown away by how wonderful itlooks, how wonderful it sounds
and we'll get into, you know,that restoration story because
it's so interesting.
But before we did that, I didwant to ask you about the fact
(02:15):
that this is your second 4Krelease from the Warner Archive,
and how did you kind of goabout selecting this as the
second one?
George Feltenstein (02:29):
did you kind of go about selecting this as
the second one.
Well, this has been somethingpeople have wanted on blu-ray
for, I would say, pretty much aslong as the format's been
around.
So I we had a DVD release in2003.
And as films of this prominencefrom the catalog started making
(02:52):
their appearances, everybodywas starting to go where's High
Society.
We knew that the master thathad been done in 2003 was not
(03:18):
very good.
That HD master was made for DVDand is what has been churning
around between television andstreaming and transactional
digital for 15 years, whateverit's got color breathing and
(04:00):
grain issues and just a lot offlaws that are inherent in a
film that was made at that time1956, where film stock would
have to go back and create a newmaster and that was going to be
expensive.
What we also did not have theability to do at that time,
company policy was pretty muchyou can't touch the original
(04:23):
negative.
Policy was pretty much youcan't touch the original
negative.
Now, that wasn't necessarily abad policy to have at that time,
because the negative could getdamaged.
What happens now is we havescanners that the sprockets
never touch through the scanningprocess the film is.
(04:47):
Thankfully, we also have peoplethat do our scanning in-house
at Warner Brothers MotionPicture Imaging, who are
artisans as much as ourcolorists are, so they really
know how to take care of film.
They're masterful in theirtalent and, just like so many
people who contribute to thesereleases, I wish all of them
(05:10):
could take a bow, because whatthey contribute you can't
oversell, how much theycontribute and how much it means
.
But we finally got to the pointwhere we adapted a scanner, a
director scanner the bestscanner made, in my opinion,
(05:34):
specifically for horizontal use,and VistaVision being a
horizontal process, this scannercan handle both horizontal
vis-a-vision and technorama.
So with that in hand, the firstwe did was the Searchers.
The second we did was HighSociety, and I have a long
(05:58):
history with this film in termsof going back to the Laserdisc
days.
It was a big deal when we putout a left-right stereo
Laserdisc in the early 90s,because this is one of those
strange films, becauseVistaVision films were not
(06:21):
released with a stereophonicsoundtrack.
Everybody experienced highsociety in mono and we knew the
music had been recorded instereo.
And someone a veteran from theMGM sound department.
His name was Scott Perry.
We lost him many, many yearsyears ago, but I had the good
(06:44):
fortune to meet him and knowingwhen I was starting out in the
industry, and Scott brought outthe tracks and made it possible
for us to do a Laserdisc andthat track then got adapted,
with some mistakes put in it,for a 5-1.
(07:08):
That was on the DVD, but thismeant a total going back to
original for everything and thebenefit we have here with this
film where music is so important.
Where music is so important isthat when production or I should
say maybe pre-production, butearly production the first thing
(07:35):
when they're making a musicalthey would do was pre-record all
the musical numbers.
That would be the very, veryfirst thing, and for this film
they pre-recorded all themusical numbers in left center,
right orchestra, left center,right vocals basically six
(07:55):
tracks.
Those magnetic tracks were alsoprotected and copied before
they could succumb to vinegarsyndrome.
So we did have good audio to goback to, and so it was possible
to create a robust, beautiful,authentic multi-track audio to
(08:22):
go along with the beautifulimages that one can get from
VistaVision because of its depthof field and clarity.
The combination of all thatallowed for us to create
something that I think is prettyremarkable.
Film Clip (08:44):
Suntan, windblown Honeymooners at last alone,
feeling far above par.
Oh how lucky we are.
(09:06):
While I give to you and yougive to me True love, true love.
(09:26):
So on and on, it'll always beTrue love, true love.
George Feltenstein (09:45):
True love.
The colorist on this film,sherry Eisenberg, is one of our
senior colorists at Warner BrosMotion Picture Imaging.
Sherry is incredibly gifted andtalented and she worked very
hard with this film.
Because, again, the film stockused in 19, really from mid-54
(10:09):
up through 1960, was the 5248Eastman stock that the yellow
layer succumbs to collapse andfailure.
So we did have to use the blueseparation to bring back and
rebuild the color and make surethat the image was as colorful
(10:30):
as intended.
There are three really awfulshots in the movie.
There's an overhead stockfootage shot as they're flying
over Newport.
That has always looked awful.
There's nothing we can do aboutthat.
And then there's two like quicksecond unit shots on the street
(10:54):
that also look awful.
That I assume were blown upfrom traditional 35 millimeter
sources.
The overhead shot I can kind offigure.
Okay, they had to get stockfootage or be up in a helicopter
, what have you.
But I'm baffled by why they.
They obviously went to alocation.
(11:15):
Was it too much problem tobring vista vision cameras?
Maybe I don't know.
But overall it's just gorgeous.
I had worked on what wassupposed to be a 5.1 DVD audio
(11:37):
soundtrack album for our jointventure with Rhino Records which
lasted from 1995 to 2011.
And that never got released dueto some legal issues that I'm
(11:57):
not able to go into here.
But I was pretty crestfallenthat we had created this
wonderful album and that no onewould get to hear it.
And it's still in paralysis, uh.
But the music in this film isso integral, it's so important,
it was so beautifully done.
(12:18):
Research on the production Ifound a memo from Douglas
Shearer, who had been the headof the MGM sound department
since the Broadway melodies,since 1929.
He was Norma Shearer's brotherand he was questioning to senior
MGM management if you choose touse VistaVision, do you realize
(12:42):
you will not be able to releasethis film with a magnetic
stereophonic soundtrack?
And you've got Bing Crosby andLouis Armstrong and Frank
Sinatra and you're not going tohave a stereophonic soundtrack.
This is insanity and everybodywas kind of not really paying
attention to that fact.
(13:03):
But now we have the technologyto make the image look fantastic
and I think the Blu-ray lookswonderful.
The 4K is actually aknock-your-socks-off
presentation that takesadvantage of the HDR and the
Dolby Vision, and we wanted thisrelease to be as the Searchers
(13:28):
was.
We wanted it to be where thereis a Blu-ray and a DVD in the
combo pack, that there would beDolby Vision, that there would
be a robust bit rate, that therewould be encoding of the
compression and authoring by thegreat David McKenzie at
(13:51):
Fidelity in Motion All thoseingredients put together to make
sure that this would be arelease worthy of such an
entertaining film, and I alwaysliked this film a great deal.
(14:14):
But something about the way thenew disc has turned out really
it warrants revisiting a lotproject.
I've seen the film so manytimes that I'm kind of like,
after the first final watch andchecking off the approval, that
that's it for a while.
When I got my 4K High Societydisc from you know, all packaged
(14:37):
and ready to go, and I watchedit and listened to it, you know,
four times over a weekendbecause I was just so blown away
by it.
We're very proud of it, uh anduh, those who have reviewed it
so far seem to be in accord withmy perception of it.
(14:58):
Uh, and I'm hoping it paves theway for another very special
release.
Tim Millard (15:07):
Yeah, and I'll go back to a couple of the things
you mentioned just to kind ofhighlight them.
One is the audio, and I knowyou personally spent an awful
lot of time overseeing that andmaybe you can tell us a little
bit more about that.
But I also wanted to mentionthis authoring and
discompression by Fidelity inMotion.
(15:29):
You did that with the searchers.
Seems like you have a formulahere that's helping you make
sure that these are outstandingreleases.
George Feltenstein (15:36):
Well, if it's a Warner Archive 4K release
, it will be done by DavidMcKenzie at Fidelity in Motion.
I think he's the best in theindustry at what he does.
He is a great talent, just aswe have talented people here at
Warner Brothers Motion PictureImaging.
(15:57):
That needs to be carriedthrough to the final product and
if I have anything to say aboutit, I want to make sure that
that happens well, I love thatfact, george, that you're
putting a stamp on.
Tim Millard (16:11):
This is how we're doing it.
That makes it, I think, easierfor the consumer to know, as
soon as they see one archive 4k,that you know.
This is what george has said.
This is the quality we'relooking at, and that's a
wonderful thing.
From just like when you'regoing to purchase something.
George Feltenstein (16:29):
And, as I've said many times, economics and
various other factorsnecessitate that we will have
maybe three or four 4K releasesper year.
But those that do get thattreatment will get the full best
(16:52):
treatment that we can give it.
And I'm very proud of therelease and I really am
heartened by how many peoplehave told me how much they've
enjoyed it and been impressed byit.
And a great deal of work frommany, many people went into it.
(17:12):
A great deal of work from many,many people went into it, and
so it was the biggest grossingfilm of its year for MGM and
that was a very impressive yearfor high grossing movies King
and I and Giant and the TenCommandments you know these huge
(17:35):
movies.
56 was a really good year.
But not only was it number onefor MGM, but it was also, I
think, one of the top overallfor the industry, like among the
top 10 or 15 releases from thatyear or 15 releases from that
(17:59):
year, and it was very, veryfinancially successful and
always continued to be that.
Film Clip (18:03):
Cold, and what little mission of mischief brings you
out of the bushes.
Petting presents Wouldn't ithave been simpler to have it
sent over?
No no, whoever brought it couldnever say what I want to say.
Well.
(18:24):
Lovely, Unrelenting huh.
You said you had something tosay.
Yes, I'd hoped you'd changed.
Little Tracy may be softened,son.
Well, not for my sake entirely,but for yours.
You stand a better chance forhappiness.
Thank you, I'll manage oh yeah,yes, you will.
(18:44):
You'll manage.
All right, You'll manage Georgetoo, but heaven help him if he
shows any signs of weakness orrebellion.
I see where you haven't changedany either, Dexter.
You know, I tried hard to figureit out.
I finally decided that yourfather hurt you deeply when he
hurt your mother.
Please.
So you started demandingperfection.
(19:04):
Nobody was going to hurt you.
You felt I tricked you.
Gee, I didn't know that youwanted a husband who would be
kind of a high priest to avirgin goddess.
Oh, stop using those foul words, it's a real pity too, tracy,
because you know you'd be awonderful woman if you'd just
just let your tiara slip alittle.
You'll never be a wonderfulwoman, or even a wonderful human
(19:26):
being, until you learn to havesome regard for human frailty.
There's a lot more yougoddesses around than people
realize.
Is that all you have to say?
No, I wanted to say that thosefirst weeks we spent together
were the most wonderful I'veever known.
I want to thank you for them.
Good luck, sam, good sailing.
George Feltenstein (19:49):
You know, a lot of people kind of turn their
nose down to this film becauseit's a remake of the
Philadelphia story with musicand we got a very nice review in
the Wall Street Journal lastweek that really didn't speak as
much about the disc itselfexcept to say what high quality
(20:14):
it was in a presentation whichwe appreciated, but it really
focused on the movie, notlooking at it as a remake of the
Philadelphia story, but areinterpretation of a lot of the
same basic story structure.
The films are very, verydifferent in that sense and I'm
(20:38):
someone who loves both filmsvery much, but I think of them
in different ways and, like Ithink I just said, I always
liked this film a great deal,but now I feel just like so much
more passionate about it, yeah,and to to that point, every
time the blu-rays come out withthe new scans, they make the
(21:03):
films more accessible.
Tim Millard (21:06):
With this 4k, you, you go up another notch.
But I think that the the thingabout the searchers and this one
that I've really, reallyenjoyed and I'll be interested
to see how that compares to anon-VistaVision in the future is
just how good the VistaVisionmakes these films look and that
depth of field that youmentioned.
(21:26):
I'm, like many people, becominga huge VistaVision fan seeing
them like this with theserestorations.
George Feltenstein (21:37):
I always have been, and that was
something that we didn't reallyget the ability to appreciate in
full the way we can now.
The way we can now it's kind oflike 4K, uhd, hdr, dolby Vision
(21:58):
, vista Vision put them alltogether fantastic.
And now we've seen new filmsactually being made using the
process.
And the process didn't reallygo away because, from a
pre-production standpoint, a lotof you know, special effects
movies and so forth and so on,they were always using this
(22:20):
division because of its clarityand depth of field, and I know
that the folks at Paramount,because it was their process.
Paramount has done a lot of thisdivision restoration work,
which is great for everybody wholikes the format.
(22:40):
But you know I will say that Inever saw the Ten Commandments
look so amazing until their new4K came out, you know, and
that's a movie that I saw onre-release when I was five years
old with my mom and led to justyou know even the way that the
(23:09):
logo comes out, the big V,everything's it's tremendous.
The logo comes out, the big vand everything is it's
tremendous.
So it just happens to be thatwe have only two vista vision
movies, uh, in the searchers.
Well, actually, a new one isbeing made in this division at
warner brothers right now, butwith north by northwest and high
(23:29):
society, and then, of course,for Warner brothers itself, we
have the searchers.
That's three.
So now, within the space of ayear, all three have been done.
So can Tecna Rama be next?
Film Clip (23:46):
That's the big question, okay, I want to play
for my former pal.
He runs the local jazz festival, his name is Dexter and he's
good news.
Something kind of tells me thatboy's nice in the blues and
high, highs, high society, highsociety.
(24:10):
High society, high highs, highsociety, high society, high
society, high high society, highsociety.
Tim Millard (24:19):
Well, one thing we haven't really talked about is
the film itself, george, and I'mthinking back to when I put the
disc in and you see the shot ofLouis Armstrong and his group
there in the bus, and they're ontheir way, and from the very
beginning.
Of course it's great to seeLouis, and he's not even the big
(24:41):
, biggest star of the film, buthe is the big musical, one of
the big musical stars.
George Feltenstein (24:47):
He functions sort of as the Greek chorus.
You know, I mean, he's charmingin every movie that he ever did
.
He and Bing had worked togetherin the 30s.
They were really good friends.
Bing's roots as a vocalist.
(25:08):
A lot of people don't know this, but when he was part of a
singing group called the RhythmBoys 1929, 1928, 29, 30, around
that period the Rhythm Boys sangwith the Paul Whiteman
Orchestra and there were twoother guys that sang with Bing
(25:29):
and the Rhythm Boys in theRhythm Boys and Bing was really,
I would say, one of the firstcrooners, if you will.
That adapted a jazz style and ajazz feel as he became more
(25:49):
popular and more broadly known,which happened primarily through
radio.
At one point his radio show waslistened to by 50 million
people every week.
If you can imagine that, bing'smusical style kind of got a
(26:12):
little bit more middle of theroad as opposed to jazz.
But if you listen to the earlyrecordings you can hear that
influence.
Putting him together withSatchmo in this movie was a
wonderful reunion and then theywent on to make at least one, if
not two, popular albumstogether.
(26:35):
They were just a greatcombination and they even did
the number that they do.
Together.
They would do a few numberssort of together in the movie,
but the one big one Now you hasJazz.
There was a big televisionspectacular a year after High
(26:57):
Society came out.
It was the first, I believe thefirst black and white videotape
network broadcast whenvideotape was very much
formative, and it was the Edselshow.
The Edsel was a Ford MotorCompany line of cars that didn't
(27:21):
last very long, I think maybetwo years.
Right, somebody said it lookedlike an Oldsmobile sucking a
lemon.
Well, the Edsel show was FrankSinatra, bing Crosby, louis
Armstrong and Rosemary Clooneyand on the show Bing and Satchmo
did Now you has Jazz because itwas so popular.
(27:42):
But what's interesting is ifyou look at that thankfully it
survives and I think it's allaround very easily to see uh,
they had nailed down thatperformance so perfectly that it
was a symbiosis.
That was just as wonderful.
(28:02):
But, as jazz is always supposedto be, never should be the same
thing twice.
It was a great jazz musician.
I don't know who it was, buthis quote was jazz is the sound
of surprise.
I know you're a big jazz fan.
I'm a big jazz fan.
Yes, absolutely.
(28:23):
And jazz on film has not alwaysbeen a great thing.
It hasn't been treated.
Know, our great, our great jazzartists were not captured on
film the way one would wish.
But there are these littlesnippets.
It's like Ella Fitzgerald's twosongs and Pete Kelly's blues.
(28:48):
Um, to me that and Peggy Leemake it worth the price of
admission.
And the gorgeous sound and it'sa Warner Archive Blu-ray if
anybody's interested.
But there needs to be more.
I would love to see more jazzfilm unearthed.
(29:09):
There are specific people here,not just in this country but
also overseas, who collect andtry to gather people around rare
jazz performances.
But the beautiful thing here isthat you not only had jazz
performances captured, but withsonic quality.
(29:32):
It's a lot different than 35millimeter optical, you know, I
mean, it's just, it's heavenlyto listen to the music in this
film.
And you know, no one reallyconsidered Frank Sinatra a jazz
artist, but he was influenced byCrosby.
He was influenced by Crosby andCrosby was influenced, as was
(29:54):
Billie Holiday, by Satchmo.
So it all kind of fits together.
(30:16):
And to see, of course that wasthe big, big, big news of this
film was Sinatra and Crosbytogether, because there was this
faked rivalry between the twoof them.
They actually were greatfriends and Sinatra idolized
Crosby as he was growing up, youknow.
So to talk about the film itself, it is representative of an era
at MGM where people wereconsidering what properties they
owned that could be updated.
Some were done musically, somewere done non-musically, but the
(30:40):
idea of a remake of thePhiladelphia story with music
was popping around the studiofor a while.
According to the files, theywere considering Elizabeth
Taylor For the leading lady role.
Bing Crosby wasn't even in thepicture Until like the last
(31:03):
minute.
He had been under contract atParamount since 1932 and cut
himself loose, and he ended upat MGM and had a very integral
role in the creation of the film.
If you've got really goodeyesight, if you look at the
copyright, you'll see that it'sLowe's Incorporated and Bing
(31:28):
Crosby Productions, and that'sbecause Bing had basically a
non-credited producer role inthis film.
He was very invested in it, notjust emotionally but
financially.
So it was really a comingtogether of all the right parts.
(31:55):
I think we discussed this whenwe announced it, so I don't want
to be repetitive for extraslisteners who have already heard
me talk about the production,but it represents all of the MGM
departments at the top of theircraft, and the film continues
(32:18):
to entertain 70 years later.
Film Clip (32:23):
How do you do?
I'm Tracy, lord, you must be.
Oh, of course you are.
I adore strangers.
Oh, do sit, you are, I adorestrangers.
Oh, do sit down, please.
That sister of yours Isn't?
she a dear and so talented, oh,but we're afraid she has a
(32:43):
homicidal streak.
Did you get lost?
Finding her?
No, no, not at all.
We had good directions.
Good.
I do hope you don't mind ourbeing here for your wedding, oh,
but I'm delighted we have somuch cake.
What is your name, dear?
No, thank you, I'm so sensitiveto names.
Oh, my name is Elizabeth Embry.
Elizabeth Embry, oh, it soundslike a medieval saint who was
(33:07):
burned to death and you?
I'm Mike Connor.
Oh Michael, what a lovelymusical name.
Now, you mustn't be ashamed ofit.
No, but I'm not.
Mike is for Macaulay.
And what's the Macaulay for?
Uh, my father taught Englishhistory in high school.
My friends call me Mike.
Oh, of whom you have many, I'msure.
Oh, English history has alwaysfascinated me Cromwell and Robin
(33:33):
Hood and Jack the Ripper.
Where did he teach your father,I mean?
Uh, south Bend Indiana.
Oh, South Bend.
It sounds like dancing, doesn'tit?
Oh, you must have had a mosthappy childhood there.
Oh, it was Screams.
Oh, I'm so glad.
I didn't mean it that way.
Oh, I'm so sorry.
It's all right, it's a.
That's a mistake.
(33:54):
Are you the photographer or the?
Um, I take pictures.
Oh, it's a great art.
Did you bring your brownie?
Ah then, you must be the onewho's sort of a writer, Mr
Connor.
Yeah, sort of yeah, have I readany of your novels?
I doubt it.
Oh, I haven't written any.
Oh, but you must, mozart.
My moats are composed at 13.
You must be at least 30.
Time is flying.
Where were you born, miss EmbryDuluth?
(34:17):
Ah, duluth, that's west of here, isn't it?
Sort of, but we occasionallyget the eastern breezes.
Are you two going together?
I love Miss Lord.
That's an odd question, I mustsay.
Oh, I don't see why.
I think it's fascinating, whybirds and spring, but it's sort
of the intimate little detailthat you like to write about,
(34:39):
isn't it, mr Conner?
Oh, but if you'd rather nothave your privacy invaded, I
will certainly respect yourwishes.
Oh, please, if you'll excuse me, I'll see what's keeping Mama.
Mama is so eager to see you.
Tim Millard (34:53):
Mama.
Well, we've got all this timeand we haven't said one very
important person's name and Ithink she is so charming Grace
Kelly.
I can't imagine many otheractresses in that role being so
(35:17):
charming and witty and wonderfuland lovely, but she is just
perfect, I think.
And the chemistry, I think,between the banter, the
chemistry between her and BingCrosby, who plays her ex-husband
in this, and Frank Sinatraplays her ex-husband in this,
(35:37):
and, uh, frank sinatra, I meanit's uh, it's very good and she
is very good and this is likethis is her final film, right?
George Feltenstein (35:43):
yes, so, uh, it was by the time the film was
released and you can see thisin the premiere footage that we
have on the disc.
By the time the film wasreleased, she was the princess
of monaco and, uh, mgm was nothappy to see her go.
Believe me, she was supposed todo designing woman, which ended
(36:07):
up being gregory peck andlauren bacall, but they had her
set for that to play oppositejimmy stewart and given that
they had been together in rearwindow, that would have been a
nice reunion.
Not to take anything away fromgregory peck and lauren bacall,
designing woman is a delightfulmovie but, uh, during her very
(36:29):
brief film career I think it was1951 to 56 she made it quite an
amazing amount of movies insuch a short period of time.
And, of course, the fact thatshe worked with Hitchcock, you
know, in Dial M and Rear Window.
(36:50):
She was in the Country Girlwith Bing Crosby and William
Holden.
She was always under contractto MGM and was lent out more
than she was making films at MGM.
So MGM finally got in a littlebit more with her toward the end
(37:13):
, with Green Fire and the Swanand High Society.
And then of course she was inMogambo, the remake of Red Dust
with Clark Gable and Ava Gardner.
I mean she was terrific in allthe films that she made.
She did a lot of loan networkat Paramount and she's legendary
(37:37):
.
Her early death was a tragedy onmultiple levels.
Her early death was a tragedyon multiple levels, but all the
things that I've heard about heris that she was a great person
and had a great sense of humor,and one of the things I know for
(38:01):
a fact was this was a veryhappy production.
Everybody got along really well.
There were no overruns onbudget, there were no conflicts
on the screen, there were noproduction snags.
Everything went smooth as couldbe.
They started doing thepre-ordings, I believe, in
(38:24):
November or December of 1955,and the picture was in theaters
by end of July, beginning ofAugust 1956.
So hard to imagine everythingcoming together on that quick a
basis when you look at how longit takes to get films made today
(38:45):
.
But, um, I'm glad that wefinally have this, just thinking
about the poor blu-ray peoplewho are waiting and waiting.
When is there going to be ahigh society blu-ray?
You know some people out therelike to really complain that
their favorite movie is notavailable and they occasionally
will be vocal about it.
(39:06):
You may not know this, but it'strue.
Oh, really, I just am not.
But, in all seriousness, that'swhy we have the standalone
Blu-ray, which stands on its ownas a very fine release and
(39:26):
takes full advantage of theatmos audio.
I do want to mention that, youknow, for the purist, we have
the original mono audio on thedisc, which, because that's how
the film was seen originally and, uh, I think giving people that
option is the right thing to do, and we will see more of that.
(39:51):
Uh, both from warner archiveand from what I call the
mothership.
Um, there seems to be a generalacceptance here at the studio
to retain original soundtracks,as well as what we've been able
(40:11):
to do with new technologies, andwhen they're authentic, I'm
very supportive of them, verysupportive of them, and here it
was authentic in the sense thatwe were working only from
original production sources.
Film Clip (40:31):
Elegant junk.
It's shiny.
Would I trade places with MissTracy Lord for all her wealth
and beauty?
Just ask me.
All right, I will.
Can you trade places with MissTracy Lord for all of her wealth
and her beauty?
Well, you know.
I can't help thinking about it.
(40:52):
Who wants to be a millionaire?
I don't.
Have flashy flunkies everywhere.
I don't.
Who wants the bother of acountry estate?
I?
don't.
(41:13):
A country estate is somethingI'd hate.
I don't, I don't.
Tim Millard (41:23):
Wait, I don't, and I don't cause all private
landing field too wait, I don'tand I don't, because all I want
is you you know who we haven'tmentioned, and I I don't want to
move on without mentioning a,celeste holm, who, along with
frank sinatra, played the.
They've got a great pairingthere.
I guess there's the twopairings really, and then
there's the mix of thosepairings, but they're terrific
(41:43):
as the scandal sheet.
Reporter and photographer.
George Feltenstein (41:48):
Well, and they had just worked together
under the same director the yearbefore in a really delightful
comedy that is available onBlu-ray from the Warner Archive
the Tender Trap with DebbieReynolds.
The Tender Trap with DebbieReynolds and Celeste Holm is one
(42:28):
of the several young ladies whoare in Frank Sinatra Bachelor's
life in that movie and they hada really terrific chemistry.
So in casting the role ofElizabeth Embry, the
photographer for Spy Magazine,she seemed a really obvious
choice.
When we were getting the DVDready for production, she was
(42:49):
the only major cast member stillalive, and a production company
that we were engaged with wentto new york and interviewed her
and that little it's under 10minutes that little featurette
we have on there, true love,which we put through our samurai
process to upgrade it fromstandard definition to high
definition, and it came outquite well.
(43:11):
I usually don't like anything tobe tampered with in that
fashion, but this looked organicand it was developed by one of
our staff people here at MotionPicture Imaging, and so her
little mini documentary, if youwill, summarizes the whole
(43:33):
production and the process in avery, very efficient use of time
, and we had some really nicebehind-the-scenes photographs
that we were able to put inthere, and I'm so grateful that
we have these pieces, especiallywhen the people involved in
them are no longer with us.
(43:53):
It it carries a great deal ofweight and means more.
And Celeste Holm first becamefamous by being the original 8-0
Annie in Oklahoma on Broadwayin 1943, and she won a
Supporting Actress Oscar forGentleman's Agreement at Fox in
(44:16):
1947.
But she's also amazing in AllAbout Eve.
As Karen Richards, theplaywright's wife.
She just had a really terrificcareer, a long career, and she
was very, very appreciated bothin Hollywood and on Broadway.
Tim Millard (44:38):
Well, this makes it really easy to talk about a few
of the other extras, becauseyou just mentioned True Love,
the cool quarter in Hollywoodfeaturette, and then previously
you mentioned, george, thatthere was this newsreel, I think
also next on here, and then youadded on a MGM CinemaScope
cartoon.
George Feltenstein (45:00):
Millionaire Droopy.
Who wants to be a millionairedroopy?
Very appropriate, I mean.
It fit very well those eat.
I had put that on the dvd backin 2003, uh.
So the difference is it's nowin high definition and it is one
of those.
It's a remake of the droopycartoon wags to riches.
(45:21):
That was done after tech savoryhad left the mgm cartoon
cartoon department, but it'sbasically an avery cartoon with
his uh minions carrying on whathe had done in the four by three
frame.
Uh.
And then what's really cool iswhat we also put on these radio
promos that existed in all, butone of them existed in really
(45:47):
good audio quality, a lot ofthem being recorded.
I think this is where hisfunction of having a piece of
the pie came in through BingCrosby Productions.
But he did all these differentaudio promos.
And then we have one that hasFrank Sinatra and then one that
(46:13):
I don't know if she was GraceKelly or Princess Grace of
Monaco when it was recorded,given that it was after
production, but having those onthere I just thought was kind of
cool, you know, and we had usedsome of them on the DVD as well
, but they're a little more here.
So it's a nice package all theway around.
Tim Millard (46:35):
And we want to give credit to the director here,
charles Walters.
In watching it multiple times,like you have, you do pick up on
just how good the direction is,the movement across the screen
left to right, keeping the kindof energy up high, and then, of
course, just the work with theactors.
George Feltenstein (46:56):
Well, charles Walters is not a name
that flows off the tongue amongpeople talking about great
directors, and yet if you lookat his filmography it's very,
very impressive.
And it wasn't just musicalsthat he did.
He also did comedies.
(47:17):
I mentioned the Tender Trap helater did Please Don't Eat the
Daisies.
He was under contract to MGMfor quite a great deal of time.
I think his last film was doneat Columbia with Cary Grant,
cary Grant's last film, walkDon't Run.
But he started his career as anactor on Broadway and the irony
(47:41):
of it is the one song in highsociety that wasn't written for
the film was Well Did you Ever?
Cole Porter was trying to comeup with a number for Sinatra and
Crosby and no one was reallyhappy with what he was coming up
with, and I believe it was saulchaplin, the musical supervisor
(48:05):
, that came up with the idea ofusing this song.
Well did you ever?
Uh, ever, I have to say itproperly.
Uh, that was written for the1939 broadway musical do barry
was a lady, the film of which weput out through warner archive.
But that song was only in theunderscoring of that movie.
On stage it was sung by CharlesWalters and Betty Grable right
(48:31):
before Betty Grable became a bigmovie star at 20th Century Fox,
she had gone to Broadway, sothey thought that song would be
a perfect duet for the two ofthem, which it was.
But Charles Walters felt this,you know unique journey of a
(48:51):
song he introduced as a stageperformer on Broadway.
And then you know, 17 yearslater he's directing a
multimillion dollar movie withbig stars and that song is in it
nah, that ain't the way I getit.
Film Clip (49:09):
What's that I have heard among this clan, you are
called a forgotten man.
Is that what they're saying?
Well, did you ever what a swellparty this is.
And have you heard the story ofa boy, a girl, unrequited?
George Feltenstein (49:30):
love.
Film Clip (49:30):
Sounds like pure soap opera.
I may cry Tune in tomorrow.
What a swell party this is.
George Feltenstein (49:37):
He also did what we would call, I guess,
musical staging.
There are no real dances inthis movie, but how Grace Kelly
when she's drunk, you know isgliding across the floor.
That came from Walters.
Walters came to MGM as achoreographer initially and, as
(50:02):
they did with various otherpeople, like Jacques Tourneur,
the famous auteur, they letpeople take a stab at making a
short subject or two before theygot to do the feature.
So he did a little musicalshort called I think it's called
Spreading the Jam if my memoryis serving me correctly called
(50:25):
Spreading the Jam, if my memoryis serving me correctly and that
was impressive enough forArthur Freed to give him an
opportunity to direct a featurewhich was Good News another
beautiful Technicolor Blu-raywe're proud to have released.
And Good News was one of themost efficiently made MGM
musicals of its time and thatkind of cemented him in for an
(50:49):
opportunity that came rightafter Easter parade, which he
directed was a last minuteassignment.
Easter parade was supposed tostart Gene Kelly and Judy
Garland and I think a weekbefore they were starting
shooting, gene Kelly was havinga fit over a volleyball game and
(51:13):
slammed his foot down on thedoorstep outside his house.
He's very competitive aboutvolleyball.
This is in the documentary thatwe had on Gene and I knew Gene
so I knew that this was verytenable.
And in stamping his foot downhe broke his ankle.
So he called Fred Astaire andsaid I'm in trouble, they need
(51:38):
to start this picture in a weekand I can't do it.
Fred Astaire came out ofretirement Right before that
happened.
The film was supposed to bedirected by Vincent Minelli.
It was supposed to be VincentMinelli directing Gene Kelly and
Judy Garland.
Things weren't going well inthe marriage between Judy and
Vincent and it was decided atthe studio this is before Gene
(52:03):
pulled out that they neededsomebody else to direct the
movie.
That wasn't a good idea forJudy and Vincent to be working
together all the time.
So Charles Walters got that joband with Charles Walters Fred
Astaire came out of retirementto do Easter Parade and
(52:25):
thankfully never retired afterthat.
We have the towering inferno toprove it.
And you know he was a very,very well-liked, well-respected
gentleman.
He died of mesothelioma in hismid-60s, which was a terrible
sadness because he did not livelong enough to see the enormous.
(52:49):
He lived to see the release ofthe first two that's
Entertainment movies really justsnowballed over ensuing years
with all the things that we didon home video.
And then what happened with thepopularity of Turner Classic
(53:11):
movies.
That has spread kind of thegospel of the MJ musical.
He didn't live to experienceany of that, but there's a
wonderful biography out onCharles Walters and I highly
recommend it.
Go to Amazon, order a copy.
People need to learn more abouthim.
He was a very, verywell-respected, very popular
(53:37):
person and member of the MGMfamily.
Tim Millard (53:41):
Yeah, what a filmography he has and it's a
great lesson in there.
You don't always have to be thefirst choice to have a fabulous
career in life.
No, it's very, very true.
Well, one of the tenets ofsuccess, you know, is
availability.
And he was available and he hadproven that he could be counted
(54:02):
on.
So that's fantastic.
George Feltenstein (54:03):
And he was available and he had proven that
he could be counted on, sothat's fantastic and the fact
that he made that transition.
As the musicals were windingdown, he slid right into comedy
and turned out box office hitsfor the studio, and that's
really what it was all about.
Tim Millard (54:19):
Yeah Well, that's fantastic.
No-transcript from the WarnerArchive.
(54:51):
So, george, with that, arethere more coming soon?
You said there's more, butcoming soon, there's more Okay.
George Feltenstein (55:03):
That's all I'm going to say for now, but
again, I wanted temperexpectations.
Uh, there will only be a feweach year.
Well, we had a huge budget,it'd be different.
But uh, I'm making my pitch fora couple and, and I think
(55:24):
there'll be some surprises alongthe way.
But I also stand behind ourBlu-rays, because those are
mostly older films and there arenot 4,000 pixels in the
negative, sorry.
When there is an opportunity,when a film is just right, we're
going to look for thatopportunity and meanwhile,
(55:48):
between all of our efforts andall of our partners, there's
going to be a lot of 4K comingfrom the Warner Library to your
shelves for physical media, forphysical media.
That's the important part,because we do have the
mothership, as I've referred to,the main Warner Brothers Home
(56:09):
Entertainment catalog team, andI have a voice at that table,
and we have partnerships withcertain other companies, all of
whom are helping us get more ofour library out into the world
of physical media, and that'swhat we're excited about.
Tim Millard (56:30):
And I appreciate for the consumer the fact that
you have that 4K plus Blu-raycombo pack so that those folks
who are still in the Blu-rayworld but see that 4K is
becoming more and more and moreprominent can kind of
future-proof.
You know they can buy the combobut if they're just in that
Blu-ray world I watch theBlu-ray and I have to say it
(56:53):
looks fantastic.
So if you're just in thatBlu-ray world they can also just
get that, as you just mentioned, for their collection of
Blu-rays.
But you give people bothoptions, which I really like.
George Feltenstein (57:05):
The combo is really very important because I
know for myself as a consumer.
I remember buying the firstDeadpool.
It was a 4K Blu-ray combo.
I didn't have a 4K setup athome yet, but I knew to think
about god.
(57:26):
That's like nine years ago, um.
But I knew that I wouldeventually have it and I did.
But it was nice to know that itwas there and, uh, it's great
to give people the chance choice.
You may not have 4K in everyroom.
In another room you have aBlu-ray player and this way you
(57:50):
can take full advantage of that.
So the combos are the only waythat we're going to go.
We're never going to deprivepeople of the Blu-ray and in the
case of the searchers, you know, uh, it was terribly important
that we have the blu-ray optionbecause there already had been a
(58:14):
blu-ray of the searchers wherethe blue sky was yellow and
people's faces were wrong colorsand we had to make up for other
people's sins of the past.
Tim Millard (58:27):
And I guess in this instance, george, it was also
important because there was nota Blu-ray.
Be sure you have a Blu-ray,right.
George Feltenstein (58:33):
And there are many people, and rightfully
so, if that's where their mindof is.
They're like.
You know, I had VHS, I hadLaserdisc, I had DVD I'm not
buying a film for a fifth timeso or another piece of machinery
.
I personally recommend thateverybody should have everything
(59:03):
, but some people may not havethe means to do so, and if they
only have a Blu-ray player, Idon't want to dismiss the fact
that the Blu-ray is of enormousquality, and I am still holding
up a quality standard for all ofour Blu-rays.
They have to be pristine.
You're not going to find anystray speckles on our discs.
(59:25):
We're very committed to that,and it does look amazing as a
Blu-ray only release.
Tim Millard (59:46):
So that's a great example of what you just said
and the quality that the WarnerArchive is doing across all of
your releases on Blu-ray and now4K.
So always fun, george, to hearthe story about the restoration,
what went into it, the care,all of the things for the
picture and audio and nowauthoring and just everything
(01:00:08):
that went into this release andwhat it provides for the fans.
So fantastic, as always, tohear from you, george.
Thanks for coming on the Extras.
George Feltenstein (01:00:18):
It's my pleasure, tim, and thanks to
everybody who's supporting ourefforts.
We deeply appreciate it.
Tim Millard (01:00:27):
For those who would like more information about the
High Society 4K and Blu-rayrelease, be sure to check out
our Facebook page and at WarnerArchive Facebook group, you can
find the links to those and allof our social media sites in the
podcast show notes, as well aslinks for purchasing of this
beautiful 4K and Blu-ray release.
(01:00:48):
If you aren't yet subscribed orfollowing the show at your
favorite podcast provider, youmay want to do that so that you
don't miss anything that we havecoming up with, george and the
Warner Archive.
Until next time.
You've been listening to TimMillard, stay slightly obsessed.
Hello Sam.
I would like to talk to youprivately.
Well, now I consider that right,neighbor.
You lost a little weight,haven't you Sam?
Oh no, you're slipping.
That used to scare me, thewithering glance of the goddess.
I just want to know what you aredoing here the day before my
wedding.
(00:21):
Business, I've become adistinguished composer since we
broke up yeah they need a littlehelp here, so I heeded the call
of duty.
Don't pretend with me, dexter.
You deliberately planned thisfestival to conflict with my
wedding.
It's a shabby vindictivegesture.
Ooh, harsh words.
Well, let's be honest, I'lladmit it I'm still in love with
(00:41):
you.
Oh, I don't want you to getmarried again, because I still
think you can become a wonderfulwoman.
Thank you, I haven't the samehigh hopes for you.
Well, I don't want to become awonderful woman.
Oh, isn't it enough?
You almost spoiled my lifewithout spoiling my wedding.
I didn't try to spoil your life,sam.
Oh, and stop calling me Sam,sure, you didn't try to spoil
mine, but you were calling onthe shots.
You were dictating the sort ofa fellow you wanted me to be.
(01:02):
With your background and tasteand intelligence, you could have
become a serious composer or adiplomat or anything you wanted
to be.
And what have you become?
A jukebox hero.
Well, is that bad?
Oh, dexter be satisfied, and letme alone Go away, go away and
(01:25):
stay away.
I tried to.
I even wanted to, but I guessI'm just a weak character.
I'm still in love with you.
Tim Millard (01:35):
Hello and welcome to the Extras.
I'm Tim Millard, your host, andjoining me is George
Feltenstein to discuss therecent High Society 4K and
Blu-ray release from the WarnerArchive.
Hi, George.
George Feltenstein (01:48):
Hi, Tim, great to be back with you.
Tim Millard (01:51):
I'm very excited to talk about this stunning
restoration of High Society andI have to say I was absolutely
blown away by how wonderful itlooks, how wonderful it sounds
and we'll get into, you know,that restoration story because
it's so interesting.
But before we did that, I didwant to ask you about the fact
(02:15):
that this is your second 4Krelease from the Warner Archive,
and how did you kind of goabout selecting this as the
second one?
George Feltenstein (02:29):
did you kind of go about selecting this as
the second one.
Well, this has been somethingpeople have wanted on blu-ray
for, I would say, pretty much aslong as the format's been
around.
So I we had a DVD release in2003.
And as films of this prominencefrom the catalog started making
(02:52):
their appearances, everybodywas starting to go where's High
Society.
We knew that the master thathad been done in 2003 was not
(03:18):
very good.
That HD master was made for DVDand is what has been churning
around between television andstreaming and transactional
digital for 15 years, whateverit's got color breathing and
(04:00):
grain issues and just a lot offlaws that are inherent in a
film that was made at that time1956, where film stock would
have to go back and create a newmaster and that was going to be
expensive.
What we also did not have theability to do at that time,
company policy was pretty muchyou can't touch the original
(04:23):
negative.
Policy was pretty much youcan't touch the original
negative.
Now, that wasn't necessarily abad policy to have at that time,
because the negative could getdamaged.
What happens now is we havescanners that the sprockets
never touch through the scanningprocess the film is.
(04:47):
Thankfully, we also have peoplethat do our scanning in-house
at Warner Brothers MotionPicture Imaging, who are
artisans as much as ourcolorists are, so they really
know how to take care of film.
They're masterful in theirtalent and, just like so many
people who contribute to thesereleases, I wish all of them
(05:10):
could take a bow, because whatthey contribute you can't
oversell, how much theycontribute and how much it means
.
But we finally got to the pointwhere we adapted a scanner, a
director scanner the bestscanner made, in my opinion,
(05:34):
specifically for horizontal use,and VistaVision being a
horizontal process, this scannercan handle both horizontal
vis-a-vision and technorama.
So with that in hand, the firstwe did was the Searchers.
The second we did was HighSociety, and I have a long
(05:58):
history with this film in termsof going back to the Laserdisc
days.
It was a big deal when we putout a left-right stereo
Laserdisc in the early 90s,because this is one of those
strange films, becauseVistaVision films were not
(06:21):
released with a stereophonicsoundtrack.
Everybody experienced highsociety in mono and we knew the
music had been recorded instereo.
And someone a veteran from theMGM sound department.
His name was Scott Perry.
We lost him many, many yearsyears ago, but I had the good
(06:44):
fortune to meet him and knowingwhen I was starting out in the
industry, and Scott brought outthe tracks and made it possible
for us to do a Laserdisc andthat track then got adapted,
with some mistakes put in it,for a 5-1.
(07:08):
That was on the DVD, but thismeant a total going back to
original for everything and thebenefit we have here with this
film where music is so important.
Where music is so important isthat when production or I should
say maybe pre-production, butearly production the first thing
(07:35):
when they're making a musicalthey would do was pre-record all
the musical numbers.
That would be the very, veryfirst thing, and for this film
they pre-recorded all themusical numbers in left center,
right orchestra, left center,right vocals basically six
(07:55):
tracks.
Those magnetic tracks were alsoprotected and copied before
they could succumb to vinegarsyndrome.
So we did have good audio to goback to, and so it was possible
to create a robust, beautiful,authentic multi-track audio to
(08:22):
go along with the beautifulimages that one can get from
VistaVision because of its depthof field and clarity.
The combination of all thatallowed for us to create
something that I think is prettyremarkable.
Film Clip (08:44):
Suntan, windblown Honeymooners at last alone,
feeling far above par.
Oh how lucky we are.
(09:06):
While I give to you and yougive to me True love, true love.
(09:26):
So on and on, it'll always beTrue love, true love.
George Feltenstein (09:45):
True love.
The colorist on this film,sherry Eisenberg, is one of our
senior colorists at Warner BrosMotion Picture Imaging.
Sherry is incredibly gifted andtalented and she worked very
hard with this film.
Because, again, the film stockused in 19, really from mid-54
(10:09):
up through 1960, was the 5248Eastman stock that the yellow
layer succumbs to collapse andfailure.
So we did have to use the blueseparation to bring back and
rebuild the color and make surethat the image was as colorful
(10:30):
as intended.
There are three really awfulshots in the movie.
There's an overhead stockfootage shot as they're flying
over Newport.
That has always looked awful.
There's nothing we can do aboutthat.
And then there's two like quicksecond unit shots on the street
(10:54):
that also look awful.
That I assume were blown upfrom traditional 35 millimeter
sources.
The overhead shot I can kind offigure.
Okay, they had to get stockfootage or be up in a helicopter
, what have you.
But I'm baffled by why they.
They obviously went to alocation.
(11:15):
Was it too much problem tobring vista vision cameras?
Maybe I don't know.
But overall it's just gorgeous.
I had worked on what wassupposed to be a 5.1 DVD audio
(11:37):
soundtrack album for our jointventure with Rhino Records which
lasted from 1995 to 2011.
And that never got released dueto some legal issues that I'm
(11:57):
not able to go into here.
But I was pretty crestfallenthat we had created this
wonderful album and that no onewould get to hear it.
And it's still in paralysis, uh.
But the music in this film isso integral, it's so important,
it was so beautifully done.
(12:18):
Research on the production Ifound a memo from Douglas
Shearer, who had been the headof the MGM sound department
since the Broadway melodies,since 1929.
He was Norma Shearer's brotherand he was questioning to senior
MGM management if you choose touse VistaVision, do you realize
(12:42):
you will not be able to releasethis film with a magnetic
stereophonic soundtrack?
And you've got Bing Crosby andLouis Armstrong and Frank
Sinatra and you're not going tohave a stereophonic soundtrack.
This is insanity and everybodywas kind of not really paying
attention to that fact.
(13:03):
But now we have the technologyto make the image look fantastic
and I think the Blu-ray lookswonderful.
The 4K is actually aknock-your-socks-off
presentation that takesadvantage of the HDR and the
Dolby Vision, and we wanted thisrelease to be as the Searchers
(13:28):
was.
We wanted it to be where thereis a Blu-ray and a DVD in the
combo pack, that there would beDolby Vision, that there would
be a robust bit rate, that therewould be encoding of the
compression and authoring by thegreat David McKenzie at
(13:51):
Fidelity in Motion All thoseingredients put together to make
sure that this would be arelease worthy of such an
entertaining film, and I alwaysliked this film a great deal.
(14:14):
But something about the way thenew disc has turned out really
it warrants revisiting a lotproject.
I've seen the film so manytimes that I'm kind of like,
after the first final watch andchecking off the approval, that
that's it for a while.
When I got my 4K High Societydisc from you know, all packaged
(14:37):
and ready to go, and I watchedit and listened to it, you know,
four times over a weekendbecause I was just so blown away
by it.
We're very proud of it, uh anduh, those who have reviewed it
so far seem to be in accord withmy perception of it.
(14:58):
Uh, and I'm hoping it paves theway for another very special
release.
Tim Millard (15:07):
Yeah, and I'll go back to a couple of the things
you mentioned just to kind ofhighlight them.
One is the audio, and I knowyou personally spent an awful
lot of time overseeing that andmaybe you can tell us a little
bit more about that.
But I also wanted to mentionthis authoring and
discompression by Fidelity inMotion.
(15:29):
You did that with the searchers.
Seems like you have a formulahere that's helping you make
sure that these are outstandingreleases.
George Feltenstein (15:36):
Well, if it's a Warner Archive 4K release
, it will be done by DavidMcKenzie at Fidelity in Motion.
I think he's the best in theindustry at what he does.
He is a great talent, just aswe have talented people here at
Warner Brothers Motion PictureImaging.
(15:57):
That needs to be carriedthrough to the final product and
if I have anything to say aboutit, I want to make sure that
that happens well, I love thatfact, george, that you're
putting a stamp on.
Tim Millard (16:11):
This is how we're doing it.
That makes it, I think, easierfor the consumer to know, as
soon as they see one archive 4k,that you know.
This is what george has said.
This is the quality we'relooking at, and that's a
wonderful thing.
From just like when you'regoing to purchase something.
George Feltenstein (16:29):
And, as I've said many times, economics and
various other factorsnecessitate that we will have
maybe three or four 4K releasesper year.
But those that do get thattreatment will get the full best
(16:52):
treatment that we can give it.
And I'm very proud of therelease and I really am
heartened by how many peoplehave told me how much they've
enjoyed it and been impressed byit.
And a great deal of work frommany, many people went into it.
(17:12):
A great deal of work from many,many people went into it, and
so it was the biggest grossingfilm of its year for MGM and
that was a very impressive yearfor high grossing movies King
and I and Giant and the TenCommandments you know these huge
(17:35):
movies.
56 was a really good year.
But not only was it number onefor MGM, but it was also, I
think, one of the top overallfor the industry, like among the
top 10 or 15 releases from thatyear or 15 releases from that
(17:59):
year, and it was very, veryfinancially successful and
always continued to be that.
Film Clip (18:03):
Cold, and what little mission of mischief brings you
out of the bushes.
Petting presents Wouldn't ithave been simpler to have it
sent over?
No no, whoever brought it couldnever say what I want to say.
Well.
(18:24):
Lovely, Unrelenting huh.
You said you had something tosay.
Yes, I'd hoped you'd changed.
Little Tracy may be softened,son.
Well, not for my sake entirely,but for yours.
You stand a better chance forhappiness.
Thank you, I'll manage oh yeah,yes, you will.
(18:44):
You'll manage.
All right, You'll manage Georgetoo, but heaven help him if he
shows any signs of weakness orrebellion.
I see where you haven't changedany either, Dexter.
You know, I tried hard to figureit out.
I finally decided that yourfather hurt you deeply when he
hurt your mother.
Please.
So you started demandingperfection.
(19:04):
Nobody was going to hurt you.
You felt I tricked you.
Gee, I didn't know that youwanted a husband who would be
kind of a high priest to avirgin goddess.
Oh, stop using those foul words, it's a real pity too, tracy,
because you know you'd be awonderful woman if you'd just
just let your tiara slip alittle.
You'll never be a wonderfulwoman, or even a wonderful human
(19:26):
being, until you learn to havesome regard for human frailty.
There's a lot more yougoddesses around than people
realize.
Is that all you have to say?
No, I wanted to say that thosefirst weeks we spent together
were the most wonderful I'veever known.
I want to thank you for them.
Good luck, sam, good sailing.
George Feltenstein (19:49):
You know, a lot of people kind of turn their
nose down to this film becauseit's a remake of the
Philadelphia story with musicand we got a very nice review in
the Wall Street Journal lastweek that really didn't speak as
much about the disc itselfexcept to say what high quality
(20:14):
it was in a presentation whichwe appreciated, but it really
focused on the movie, notlooking at it as a remake of the
Philadelphia story, but areinterpretation of a lot of the
same basic story structure.
The films are very, verydifferent in that sense and I'm
(20:38):
someone who loves both filmsvery much, but I think of them
in different ways and, like Ithink I just said, I always
liked this film a great deal,but now I feel just like so much
more passionate about it, yeah,and to to that point, every
time the blu-rays come out withthe new scans, they make the
(21:03):
films more accessible.
Tim Millard (21:06):
With this 4k, you, you go up another notch.
But I think that the the thingabout the searchers and this one
that I've really, reallyenjoyed and I'll be interested
to see how that compares to anon-VistaVision in the future is
just how good the VistaVisionmakes these films look and that
depth of field that youmentioned.
(21:26):
I'm, like many people, becominga huge VistaVision fan seeing
them like this with theserestorations.
George Feltenstein (21:37):
I always have been, and that was
something that we didn't reallyget the ability to appreciate in
full the way we can now.
The way we can now it's kind oflike 4K, uhd, hdr, dolby Vision
(21:58):
, vista Vision put them alltogether fantastic.
And now we've seen new filmsactually being made using the
process.
And the process didn't reallygo away because, from a
pre-production standpoint, a lotof you know, special effects
movies and so forth and so on,they were always using this
(22:20):
division because of its clarityand depth of field, and I know
that the folks at Paramount,because it was their process.
Paramount has done a lot of thisdivision restoration work,
which is great for everybody wholikes the format.
(22:40):
But you know I will say that Inever saw the Ten Commandments
look so amazing until their new4K came out, you know, and
that's a movie that I saw onre-release when I was five years
old with my mom and led to justyou know even the way that the
(23:09):
logo comes out, the big V,everything's it's tremendous.
The logo comes out, the big vand everything is it's
tremendous.
So it just happens to be thatwe have only two vista vision
movies, uh, in the searchers.
Well, actually, a new one isbeing made in this division at
warner brothers right now, butwith north by northwest and high
(23:29):
society, and then, of course,for Warner brothers itself, we
have the searchers.
That's three.
So now, within the space of ayear, all three have been done.
So can Tecna Rama be next?
Film Clip (23:46):
That's the big question, okay, I want to play
for my former pal.
He runs the local jazz festival, his name is Dexter and he's
good news.
Something kind of tells me thatboy's nice in the blues and
high, highs, high society, highsociety.
(24:10):
High society, high highs, highsociety, high society, high
society, high high society, highsociety.
Tim Millard (24:19):
Well, one thing we haven't really talked about is
the film itself, george, and I'mthinking back to when I put the
disc in and you see the shot ofLouis Armstrong and his group
there in the bus, and they're ontheir way, and from the very
beginning.
Of course it's great to seeLouis, and he's not even the big
(24:41):
, biggest star of the film, buthe is the big musical, one of
the big musical stars.
George Feltenstein (24:47):
He functions sort of as the Greek chorus.
You know, I mean, he's charmingin every movie that he ever did
.
He and Bing had worked togetherin the 30s.
They were really good friends.
Bing's roots as a vocalist.
(25:08):
A lot of people don't know this, but when he was part of a
singing group called the RhythmBoys 1929, 1928, 29, 30, around
that period the Rhythm Boys sangwith the Paul Whiteman
Orchestra and there were twoother guys that sang with Bing
(25:29):
and the Rhythm Boys in theRhythm Boys and Bing was really,
I would say, one of the firstcrooners, if you will.
That adapted a jazz style and ajazz feel as he became more
(25:49):
popular and more broadly known,which happened primarily through
radio.
At one point his radio show waslistened to by 50 million
people every week.
If you can imagine that, bing'smusical style kind of got a
(26:12):
little bit more middle of theroad as opposed to jazz.
But if you listen to the earlyrecordings you can hear that
influence.
Putting him together withSatchmo in this movie was a
wonderful reunion and then theywent on to make at least one, if
not two, popular albumstogether.
(26:35):
They were just a greatcombination and they even did
the number that they do.
Together.
They would do a few numberssort of together in the movie,
but the one big one Now you hasJazz.
There was a big televisionspectacular a year after High
(26:57):
Society came out.
It was the first, I believe thefirst black and white videotape
network broadcast whenvideotape was very much
formative, and it was the Edselshow.
The Edsel was a Ford MotorCompany line of cars that didn't
(27:21):
last very long, I think maybetwo years.
Right, somebody said it lookedlike an Oldsmobile sucking a
lemon.
Well, the Edsel show was FrankSinatra, bing Crosby, louis
Armstrong and Rosemary Clooneyand on the show Bing and Satchmo
did Now you has Jazz because itwas so popular.
(27:42):
But what's interesting is ifyou look at that thankfully it
survives and I think it's allaround very easily to see uh,
they had nailed down thatperformance so perfectly that it
was a symbiosis.
That was just as wonderful.
(28:02):
But, as jazz is always supposedto be, never should be the same
thing twice.
It was a great jazz musician.
I don't know who it was, buthis quote was jazz is the sound
of surprise.
I know you're a big jazz fan.
I'm a big jazz fan.
Yes, absolutely.
(28:23):
And jazz on film has not alwaysbeen a great thing.
It hasn't been treated.
Know, our great, our great jazzartists were not captured on
film the way one would wish.
But there are these littlesnippets.
It's like Ella Fitzgerald's twosongs and Pete Kelly's blues.
(28:48):
Um, to me that and Peggy Leemake it worth the price of
admission.
And the gorgeous sound and it'sa Warner Archive Blu-ray if
anybody's interested.
But there needs to be more.
I would love to see more jazzfilm unearthed.
(29:09):
There are specific people here,not just in this country but
also overseas, who collect andtry to gather people around rare
jazz performances.
But the beautiful thing here isthat you not only had jazz
performances captured, but withsonic quality.
(29:32):
It's a lot different than 35millimeter optical, you know, I
mean, it's just, it's heavenlyto listen to the music in this
film.
And you know, no one reallyconsidered Frank Sinatra a jazz
artist, but he was influenced byCrosby.
He was influenced by Crosby andCrosby was influenced, as was
(29:54):
Billie Holiday, by Satchmo.
So it all kind of fits together.
(30:16):
And to see, of course that wasthe big, big, big news of this
film was Sinatra and Crosbytogether, because there was this
faked rivalry between the twoof them.
They actually were greatfriends and Sinatra idolized
Crosby as he was growing up, youknow.
So to talk about the film itself, it is representative of an era
at MGM where people wereconsidering what properties they
owned that could be updated.
Some were done musically, somewere done non-musically, but the
(30:40):
idea of a remake of thePhiladelphia story with music
was popping around the studiofor a while.
According to the files, theywere considering Elizabeth
Taylor For the leading lady role.
Bing Crosby wasn't even in thepicture Until like the last
(31:03):
minute.
He had been under contract atParamount since 1932 and cut
himself loose, and he ended upat MGM and had a very integral
role in the creation of the film.
If you've got really goodeyesight, if you look at the
copyright, you'll see that it'sLowe's Incorporated and Bing
(31:28):
Crosby Productions, and that'sbecause Bing had basically a
non-credited producer role inthis film.
He was very invested in it, notjust emotionally but
financially.
So it was really a comingtogether of all the right parts.
(31:55):
I think we discussed this whenwe announced it, so I don't want
to be repetitive for extraslisteners who have already heard
me talk about the production,but it represents all of the MGM
departments at the top of theircraft, and the film continues
(32:18):
to entertain 70 years later.
Film Clip (32:23):
How do you do?
I'm Tracy, lord, you must be.
Oh, of course you are.
I adore strangers.
Oh, do sit, you are, I adorestrangers.
Oh, do sit down, please.
That sister of yours Isn't?
she a dear and so talented, oh,but we're afraid she has a
(32:43):
homicidal streak.
Did you get lost?
Finding her?
No, no, not at all.
We had good directions.
Good.
I do hope you don't mind ourbeing here for your wedding, oh,
but I'm delighted we have somuch cake.
What is your name, dear?
No, thank you, I'm so sensitiveto names.
Oh, my name is Elizabeth Embry.
Elizabeth Embry, oh, it soundslike a medieval saint who was
(33:07):
burned to death and you?
I'm Mike Connor.
Oh Michael, what a lovelymusical name.
Now, you mustn't be ashamed ofit.
No, but I'm not.
Mike is for Macaulay.
And what's the Macaulay for?
Uh, my father taught Englishhistory in high school.
My friends call me Mike.
Oh, of whom you have many, I'msure.
Oh, English history has alwaysfascinated me Cromwell and Robin
(33:33):
Hood and Jack the Ripper.
Where did he teach your father,I mean?
Uh, south Bend Indiana.
Oh, South Bend.
It sounds like dancing, doesn'tit?
Oh, you must have had a mosthappy childhood there.
Oh, it was Screams.
Oh, I'm so glad.
I didn't mean it that way.
Oh, I'm so sorry.
It's all right, it's a.
That's a mistake.
(33:54):
Are you the photographer or the?
Um, I take pictures.
Oh, it's a great art.
Did you bring your brownie?
Ah then, you must be the onewho's sort of a writer, Mr
Connor.
Yeah, sort of yeah, have I readany of your novels?
I doubt it.
Oh, I haven't written any.
Oh, but you must, mozart.
My moats are composed at 13.
You must be at least 30.
Time is flying.
Where were you born, miss EmbryDuluth?
(34:17):
Ah, duluth, that's west of here, isn't it?
Sort of, but we occasionallyget the eastern breezes.
Are you two going together?
I love Miss Lord.
That's an odd question, I mustsay.
Oh, I don't see why.
I think it's fascinating, whybirds and spring, but it's sort
of the intimate little detailthat you like to write about,
(34:39):
isn't it, mr Conner?
Oh, but if you'd rather nothave your privacy invaded, I
will certainly respect yourwishes.
Oh, please, if you'll excuse me, I'll see what's keeping Mama.
Mama is so eager to see you.
Tim Millard (34:53):
Mama.
Well, we've got all this timeand we haven't said one very
important person's name and Ithink she is so charming Grace
Kelly.
I can't imagine many otheractresses in that role being so
(35:17):
charming and witty and wonderfuland lovely, but she is just
perfect, I think.
And the chemistry, I think,between the banter, the
chemistry between her and BingCrosby, who plays her ex-husband
in this, and Frank Sinatraplays her ex-husband in this,
(35:37):
and, uh, frank sinatra, I meanit's uh, it's very good and she
is very good and this is likethis is her final film, right?
George Feltenstein (35:43):
yes, so, uh, it was by the time the film was
released and you can see thisin the premiere footage that we
have on the disc.
By the time the film wasreleased, she was the princess
of monaco and, uh, mgm was nothappy to see her go.
Believe me, she was supposed todo designing woman, which ended
(36:07):
up being gregory peck andlauren bacall, but they had her
set for that to play oppositejimmy stewart and given that
they had been together in rearwindow, that would have been a
nice reunion.
Not to take anything away fromgregory peck and lauren bacall,
designing woman is a delightfulmovie but, uh, during her very
(36:29):
brief film career I think it was1951 to 56 she made it quite an
amazing amount of movies insuch a short period of time.
And, of course, the fact thatshe worked with Hitchcock, you
know, in Dial M and Rear Window.
(36:50):
She was in the Country Girlwith Bing Crosby and William
Holden.
She was always under contractto MGM and was lent out more
than she was making films at MGM.
So MGM finally got in a littlebit more with her toward the end
(37:13):
, with Green Fire and the Swanand High Society.
And then of course she was inMogambo, the remake of Red Dust
with Clark Gable and Ava Gardner.
I mean she was terrific in allthe films that she made.
She did a lot of loan networkat Paramount and she's legendary
(37:37):
.
Her early death was a tragedy onmultiple levels.
Her early death was a tragedyon multiple levels, but all the
things that I've heard about heris that she was a great person
and had a great sense of humor,and one of the things I know for
(38:01):
a fact was this was a veryhappy production.
Everybody got along really well.
There were no overruns onbudget, there were no conflicts
on the screen, there were noproduction snags.
Everything went smooth as couldbe.
They started doing thepre-ordings, I believe, in
(38:24):
November or December of 1955,and the picture was in theaters
by end of July, beginning ofAugust 1956.
So hard to imagine everythingcoming together on that quick a
basis when you look at how longit takes to get films made today
(38:45):
.
But, um, I'm glad that wefinally have this, just thinking
about the poor blu-ray peoplewho are waiting and waiting.
When is there going to be ahigh society blu-ray?
You know some people out therelike to really complain that
their favorite movie is notavailable and they occasionally
will be vocal about it.
(39:06):
You may not know this, but it'strue.
Oh, really, I just am not.
But, in all seriousness, that'swhy we have the standalone
Blu-ray, which stands on its ownas a very fine release and
(39:26):
takes full advantage of theatmos audio.
I do want to mention that, youknow, for the purist, we have
the original mono audio on thedisc, which, because that's how
the film was seen originally and, uh, I think giving people that
option is the right thing to do, and we will see more of that.
(39:51):
Uh, both from warner archiveand from what I call the
mothership.
Um, there seems to be a generalacceptance here at the studio
to retain original soundtracks,as well as what we've been able
(40:11):
to do with new technologies, andwhen they're authentic, I'm
very supportive of them, verysupportive of them, and here it
was authentic in the sense thatwe were working only from
original production sources.
Film Clip (40:31):
Elegant junk.
It's shiny.
Would I trade places with MissTracy Lord for all her wealth
and beauty?
Just ask me.
All right, I will.
Can you trade places with MissTracy Lord for all of her wealth
and her beauty?
Well, you know.
I can't help thinking about it.
(40:52):
Who wants to be a millionaire?
I don't.
Have flashy flunkies everywhere.
I don't.
Who wants the bother of acountry estate?
I?
don't.
(41:13):
A country estate is somethingI'd hate.
I don't, I don't.
Tim Millard (41:23):
Wait, I don't, and I don't cause all private
landing field too wait, I don'tand I don't, because all I want
is you you know who we haven'tmentioned, and I I don't want to
move on without mentioning a,celeste holm, who, along with
frank sinatra, played the.
They've got a great pairingthere.
I guess there's the twopairings really, and then
there's the mix of thosepairings, but they're terrific
(41:43):
as the scandal sheet.
Reporter and photographer.
George Feltenstein (41:48):
Well, and they had just worked together
under the same director the yearbefore in a really delightful
comedy that is available onBlu-ray from the Warner Archive
the Tender Trap with DebbieReynolds.
The Tender Trap with DebbieReynolds and Celeste Holm is one
(42:28):
of the several young ladies whoare in Frank Sinatra Bachelor's
life in that movie and they hada really terrific chemistry.
So in casting the role ofElizabeth Embry, the
photographer for Spy Magazine,she seemed a really obvious
choice.
When we were getting the DVDready for production, she was
(42:49):
the only major cast member stillalive, and a production company
that we were engaged with wentto new york and interviewed her
and that little it's under 10minutes that little featurette
we have on there, true love,which we put through our samurai
process to upgrade it fromstandard definition to high
definition, and it came outquite well.
(43:11):
I usually don't like anything tobe tampered with in that
fashion, but this looked organicand it was developed by one of
our staff people here at MotionPicture Imaging, and so her
little mini documentary, if youwill, summarizes the whole
(43:33):
production and the process in avery, very efficient use of time
, and we had some really nicebehind-the-scenes photographs
that we were able to put inthere, and I'm so grateful that
we have these pieces, especiallywhen the people involved in
them are no longer with us.
(43:53):
It it carries a great deal ofweight and means more.
And Celeste Holm first becamefamous by being the original 8-0
Annie in Oklahoma on Broadwayin 1943, and she won a
Supporting Actress Oscar forGentleman's Agreement at Fox in
(44:16):
1947.
But she's also amazing in AllAbout Eve.
As Karen Richards, theplaywright's wife.
She just had a really terrificcareer, a long career, and she
was very, very appreciated bothin Hollywood and on Broadway.
Tim Millard (44:38):
Well, this makes it really easy to talk about a few
of the other extras, becauseyou just mentioned True Love,
the cool quarter in Hollywoodfeaturette, and then previously
you mentioned, george, thatthere was this newsreel, I think
also next on here, and then youadded on a MGM CinemaScope
cartoon.
George Feltenstein (45:00):
Millionaire Droopy.
Who wants to be a millionairedroopy?
Very appropriate, I mean.
It fit very well those eat.
I had put that on the dvd backin 2003, uh.
So the difference is it's nowin high definition and it is one
of those.
It's a remake of the droopycartoon wags to riches.
(45:21):
That was done after tech savoryhad left the mgm cartoon
cartoon department, but it'sbasically an avery cartoon with
his uh minions carrying on whathe had done in the four by three
frame.
Uh.
And then what's really cool iswhat we also put on these radio
promos that existed in all, butone of them existed in really
(45:47):
good audio quality, a lot ofthem being recorded.
I think this is where hisfunction of having a piece of
the pie came in through BingCrosby Productions.
But he did all these differentaudio promos.
And then we have one that hasFrank Sinatra and then one that
(46:13):
I don't know if she was GraceKelly or Princess Grace of
Monaco when it was recorded,given that it was after
production, but having those onthere I just thought was kind of
cool, you know, and we had usedsome of them on the DVD as well
, but they're a little more here.
So it's a nice package all theway around.
Tim Millard (46:35):
And we want to give credit to the director here,
charles Walters.
In watching it multiple times,like you have, you do pick up on
just how good the direction is,the movement across the screen
left to right, keeping the kindof energy up high, and then, of
course, just the work with theactors.
George Feltenstein (46:56):
Well, charles Walters is not a name
that flows off the tongue amongpeople talking about great
directors, and yet if you lookat his filmography it's very,
very impressive.
And it wasn't just musicalsthat he did.
He also did comedies.
(47:17):
I mentioned the Tender Trap helater did Please Don't Eat the
Daisies.
He was under contract to MGMfor quite a great deal of time.
I think his last film was doneat Columbia with Cary Grant,
cary Grant's last film, walkDon't Run.
But he started his career as anactor on Broadway and the irony
(47:41):
of it is the one song in highsociety that wasn't written for
the film was Well Did you Ever?
Cole Porter was trying to comeup with a number for Sinatra and
Crosby and no one was reallyhappy with what he was coming up
with, and I believe it was saulchaplin, the musical supervisor
(48:05):
, that came up with the idea ofusing this song.
Well did you ever?
Uh, ever, I have to say itproperly.
Uh, that was written for the1939 broadway musical do barry
was a lady, the film of which weput out through warner archive.
But that song was only in theunderscoring of that movie.
On stage it was sung by CharlesWalters and Betty Grable right
(48:31):
before Betty Grable became a bigmovie star at 20th Century Fox,
she had gone to Broadway, sothey thought that song would be
a perfect duet for the two ofthem, which it was.
But Charles Walters felt this,you know unique journey of a
(48:51):
song he introduced as a stageperformer on Broadway.
And then you know, 17 yearslater he's directing a
multimillion dollar movie withbig stars and that song is in it
nah, that ain't the way I getit.
Film Clip (49:09):
What's that I have heard among this clan, you are
called a forgotten man.
Is that what they're saying?
Well, did you ever what a swellparty this is.
And have you heard the story ofa boy, a girl, unrequited?
George Feltenstein (49:30):
love.
Film Clip (49:30):
Sounds like pure soap opera.
I may cry Tune in tomorrow.
What a swell party this is.
George Feltenstein (49:37):
He also did what we would call, I guess,
musical staging.
There are no real dances inthis movie, but how Grace Kelly
when she's drunk, you know isgliding across the floor.
That came from Walters.
Walters came to MGM as achoreographer initially and, as
(50:02):
they did with various otherpeople, like Jacques Tourneur,
the famous auteur, they letpeople take a stab at making a
short subject or two before theygot to do the feature.
So he did a little musicalshort called I think it's called
Spreading the Jam if my memoryis serving me correctly called
(50:25):
Spreading the Jam, if my memoryis serving me correctly and that
was impressive enough forArthur Freed to give him an
opportunity to direct a featurewhich was Good News another
beautiful Technicolor Blu-raywe're proud to have released.
And Good News was one of themost efficiently made MGM
musicals of its time and thatkind of cemented him in for an
(50:49):
opportunity that came rightafter Easter parade, which he
directed was a last minuteassignment.
Easter parade was supposed tostart Gene Kelly and Judy
Garland and I think a weekbefore they were starting
shooting, gene Kelly was havinga fit over a volleyball game and
(51:13):
slammed his foot down on thedoorstep outside his house.
He's very competitive aboutvolleyball.
This is in the documentary thatwe had on Gene and I knew Gene
so I knew that this was verytenable.
And in stamping his foot downhe broke his ankle.
So he called Fred Astaire andsaid I'm in trouble, they need
(51:38):
to start this picture in a weekand I can't do it.
Fred Astaire came out ofretirement Right before that
happened.
The film was supposed to bedirected by Vincent Minelli.
It was supposed to be VincentMinelli directing Gene Kelly and
Judy Garland.
Things weren't going well inthe marriage between Judy and
Vincent and it was decided atthe studio this is before Gene
(52:03):
pulled out that they neededsomebody else to direct the
movie.
That wasn't a good idea forJudy and Vincent to be working
together all the time.
So Charles Walters got that joband with Charles Walters Fred
Astaire came out of retirementto do Easter Parade and
(52:25):
thankfully never retired afterthat.
We have the towering inferno toprove it.
And you know he was a very,very well-liked, well-respected
gentleman.
He died of mesothelioma in hismid-60s, which was a terrible
sadness because he did not livelong enough to see the enormous.
(52:49):
He lived to see the release ofthe first two that's
Entertainment movies really justsnowballed over ensuing years
with all the things that we didon home video.
And then what happened with thepopularity of Turner Classic
(53:11):
movies.
That has spread kind of thegospel of the MJ musical.
He didn't live to experienceany of that, but there's a
wonderful biography out onCharles Walters and I highly
recommend it.
Go to Amazon, order a copy.
People need to learn more abouthim.
He was a very, verywell-respected, very popular
(53:37):
person and member of the MGMfamily.
Tim Millard (53:41):
Yeah, what a filmography he has and it's a
great lesson in there.
You don't always have to be thefirst choice to have a fabulous
career in life.
No, it's very, very true.
Well, one of the tenets ofsuccess, you know, is
availability.
And he was available and he hadproven that he could be counted
(54:02):
on.
So that's fantastic.
George Feltenstein (54:03):
And he was available and he had proven that
he could be counted on, sothat's fantastic and the fact
that he made that transition.
As the musicals were windingdown, he slid right into comedy
and turned out box office hitsfor the studio, and that's
really what it was all about.
Tim Millard (54:19):
Yeah Well, that's fantastic.
No-transcript from the WarnerArchive.
(54:51):
So, george, with that, arethere more coming soon?
You said there's more, butcoming soon, there's more Okay.
George Feltenstein (55:03):
That's all I'm going to say for now, but
again, I wanted temperexpectations.
Uh, there will only be a feweach year.
Well, we had a huge budget,it'd be different.
But uh, I'm making my pitch fora couple and, and I think
(55:24):
there'll be some surprises alongthe way.
But I also stand behind ourBlu-rays, because those are
mostly older films and there arenot 4,000 pixels in the
negative, sorry.
When there is an opportunity,when a film is just right, we're
going to look for thatopportunity and meanwhile,
(55:48):
between all of our efforts andall of our partners, there's
going to be a lot of 4K comingfrom the Warner Library to your
shelves for physical media, forphysical media.
That's the important part,because we do have the
mothership, as I've referred to,the main Warner Brothers Home
(56:09):
Entertainment catalog team, andI have a voice at that table,
and we have partnerships withcertain other companies, all of
whom are helping us get more ofour library out into the world
of physical media, and that'swhat we're excited about.
Tim Millard (56:30):
And I appreciate for the consumer the fact that
you have that 4K plus Blu-raycombo pack so that those folks
who are still in the Blu-rayworld but see that 4K is
becoming more and more and moreprominent can kind of
future-proof.
You know they can buy the combobut if they're just in that
Blu-ray world I watch theBlu-ray and I have to say it
(56:53):
looks fantastic.
So if you're just in thatBlu-ray world they can also just
get that, as you just mentioned, for their collection of
Blu-rays.
But you give people bothoptions, which I really like.
George Feltenstein (57:05):
The combo is really very important because I
know for myself as a consumer.
I remember buying the firstDeadpool.
It was a 4K Blu-ray combo.
I didn't have a 4K setup athome yet, but I knew to think
about god.
(57:26):
That's like nine years ago, um.
But I knew that I wouldeventually have it and I did.
But it was nice to know that itwas there and, uh, it's great
to give people the chance choice.
You may not have 4K in everyroom.
In another room you have aBlu-ray player and this way you
(57:50):
can take full advantage of that.
So the combos are the only waythat we're going to go.
We're never going to deprivepeople of the Blu-ray and in the
case of the searchers, you know, uh, it was terribly important
that we have the blu-ray optionbecause there already had been a
(58:14):
blu-ray of the searchers wherethe blue sky was yellow and
people's faces were wrong colorsand we had to make up for other
people's sins of the past.
Tim Millard (58:27):
And I guess in this instance, george, it was also
important because there was nota Blu-ray.
Be sure you have a Blu-ray,right.
George Feltenstein (58:33):
And there are many people, and rightfully
so, if that's where their mindof is.
They're like.
You know, I had VHS, I hadLaserdisc, I had DVD I'm not
buying a film for a fifth timeso or another piece of machinery
.
I personally recommend thateverybody should have everything
(59:03):
, but some people may not havethe means to do so, and if they
only have a Blu-ray player, Idon't want to dismiss the fact
that the Blu-ray is of enormousquality, and I am still holding
up a quality standard for all ofour Blu-rays.
They have to be pristine.
You're not going to find anystray speckles on our discs.
(59:25):
We're very committed to that,and it does look amazing as a
Blu-ray only release.
Tim Millard (59:46):
So that's a great example of what you just said
and the quality that the WarnerArchive is doing across all of
your releases on Blu-ray and now4K.
So always fun, george, to hearthe story about the restoration,
what went into it, the care,all of the things for the
picture and audio and nowauthoring and just everything
(01:00:08):
that went into this release andwhat it provides for the fans.
So fantastic, as always, tohear from you, george.
Thanks for coming on the Extras.
George Feltenstein (01:00:18):
It's my pleasure, tim, and thanks to
everybody who's supporting ourefforts.
We deeply appreciate it.
Tim Millard (01:00:27):
For those who would like more information about the
High Society 4K and Blu-rayrelease, be sure to check out
our Facebook page and at WarnerArchive Facebook group, you can
find the links to those and allof our social media sites in the
podcast show notes, as well aslinks for purchasing of this
beautiful 4K and Blu-ray release.
(01:00:48):
If you aren't yet subscribed orfollowing the show at your
favorite podcast provider, youmay want to do that so that you
don't miss anything that we havecoming up with, george and the
Warner Archive.
Until next time.
You've been listening to TimMillard, stay slightly obsessed.
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