Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, 1942)
02-02-05, 09:18 AM
#1
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Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, 1942)
... came out yesterday on DVD. It's strictly bare bones but the film speaks for itself and its coming out on DVD is a victory for film buffs over the forces of crass commercialism in DVD production. Same goes for the Region 1 editions of "The Life of Émile Zola" (William Dieterle, 1937), "Thieves' Highway" (Criterion, Jules Dassin, 1949), "Night and the City" (Criterion, Jules Dassin, 1950), "The Letter" (William Wyler, 1942) and, of course, "L'Atalante" (Jean Vigo, 1934 - 2000 restoration). 2005 might turn out to be a good year, after all!
Last edited by baracine; 02-02-05 at 12:06 PM.
02-02-05, 10:08 AM
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Transfer quality
I didn't have time to watch it all last night as I bought all the other titles as well. But IMHO, it's a wonderful transfer from a very good, undamaged print and the picture is rock solid. Much better than the "Life of Émile Zola", by the way, which is a bit on the anemic side, even though it's not as miraculously lustrous as "The Letter", which was shot the same year. (This could be due to differences in photographic techniques, however.) . The sound is Dolby 2.0, which fills all three front speakers of my 5.1 system and it's very clear and "musical".
"The Life of Emile Zola" (1937) is on a par with "I Remember Mama" (1950), transfer-wise. They're both excellent films that would have deserved a thorough best-efforts restoration on artistic merit alone but whose lack of popular appeal made this impossible. I'm still glad I have them on DVD.
"The Life of Emile Zola" (1937) is on a par with "I Remember Mama" (1950), transfer-wise. They're both excellent films that would have deserved a thorough best-efforts restoration on artistic merit alone but whose lack of popular appeal made this impossible. I'm still glad I have them on DVD.
Last edited by baracine; 02-02-05 at 12:31 PM.
