A Few Words About A few words about...™ Meet Me in St. Louis -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[JoHud]

I've wondered why Fox Technicolor features (particularly the 40s) tended to have a lackluster video quality about them compared to other studio releases. Now I know.

 

[moviepas]

It has been said to me that when a film wraps there is always someone who rushes around & collects up stuff and takes it home and when DVD etc special features are being planned stuff comes out of the woodwork. I got 16mm dubs of Judy Garland aborted Annie Get Your Gun in color this way, more material than was on the DVD issues. Of course a lot was repetitive so it need editing for the DVD, Miraculously this footage was saved when so much picture negative outtakes was lost in a 1950s fire at MGM, the audio being elsewhere.


I was told when films were sold to TV in Australia in the earlier days the prints, if a color film in the first place, were sent out in color even though we could not screen color until about 1973-74, after UK & Germany(could afford it, the Government said for the prior years). In earlier film days, b&w titles were often sent as lavenders for local printing but color films in 35mm came as prints ready to screen as we had no proper color processing labs then. Lavenders were said to have existed in recent times for films made in my city in the early 30s by the company run by the father of Frank Thring Jr(Pontius Pilate in two epics of note) who died of cancer about 1935 afte a trip to Hollywood & new plans for filming in Sydney.


In early 1971, I went to Saturday screenings etc at or with an old man who worked at one time, before a stroke at the BFI in London, and met your average citizen who liked old films and collecting. One guy was a projectionist at a local theater. He told me of a film of the time(Paramount, I think) that had a damaged reel and a replacement was requested. A courier arrived and left a complete new copy and not just the errant reel. He did not ask for or take back the other print. This guy took it home and repaired the damaged reel. The moral, he said, is how so many films are saved for posterity. I always wonder how the average working class British citizen stores much unless they get a lock-up somewhere because, generally, their living space is minute compared with my country.

Also in the 70s back home, a guy I got to know thru my film sales catalogues was working for Fox which incorporated the exchange of some British films in Melbourne. he lived near my home and had Saturday night film screenings he invited me to. he lived with his Mom and he had a house with a floor plan similar to my parents home. He had his projector in a closet in his bedroom. He cut a doored window in the back that opened in the passage and another in the opposite wall that opened into the living room. Thus he was able to screen the films above his fireplace and all the noise of the 16mm projector kept in the bedroom. I saw the Mary Costa The Great Waltz there and never seen it since. His guest fellow collectors came with wives & kids and the ladies made the supper. One collector told me that he was a 35mm collector because no one wanted the gauge because it was bulky to store. Thus the reels were cheap and he could get cheap 35mm projectors from defunct theaters. Many theater owners just left the stuff and walked away. The old drive-in that was near my home was like that. A friend took all the speakers off the carpark poles and sold them. I got a few glass advertising glass slides and some 70mm footage. I also found a wages book in a desk drawer and the rats got all the food and drinks left in the cafe but I got the plastic cups and plates. This was the mid-80s and we had a Sunday market in the grounds for a few years until it just stopped. The odd midnight show had been opened during that time before abandonment. Just the past few weeks I found the wages book again in a clean up at home. Factories adorn the site today. The local cemetery & a city dump are still across the road. Another local drive-in became a factory estate many years before but that one was part of a chain(the operators of Warner Movie World in Queensland).


In reference the the fate of Fox archives, Paramount prints & whatever they sent to MCA were also roughly worked on before this happened. Supposedly the work was done by some lab 'down the road'.


I have been involved in a large collection of 35mm and 16mm films in early 2003 after an old collector I knew died in the previous December. He is buried outside Melbourne a few yards from my Dad. Little did I know I would bury my Dad 11 months later. My Dad has a proper lawn plaque with a film reel and football emblem of his team on it. The other man has nothing at all just an unmarked piece of grass. Any way this eccentric collector had scores of reels stored in his theaterette sort of under his house and had been taking films up to a pair of old shops at the end of a historic town in the North-West of our state, four hours away. His little old Japanese car had the back seat taken out to store more films and the radiator was broken so he stopped at farms along the way for more water!!! I went to the town and there was rooms and rooms full of old films, much nitrate and many poor state of repair projectors for 16mm. The films were not in good order, in general, but these were to be a former friend's with those remaining in Melbourne going to a woman, much younger than the deceased who got the house(a trick actually, not for this discussion). But there were gems, just the same in the country town. There was a 16mm color print of Song of the South, but I had a copy and have the DVD. But there was a relatively rare 1933 35mm nitrate of an Australian film on our bushranger Ned Kelly(whose remains were recently dug up on the site of the former prison/hanging site). This print was in good order and it differed from the archived copy at the NFSA in Canberra having different title graphics and some alternate scenes. But I also found some 16mm mag-striped early government TV shows the archive did not have. These were in good order and I gave these to the archive who did not have these episodes. They sent VHS copies back of these reels being they did not do DVD then.


One 30mins program was presented by a singer/actress named Evie Hayes from Seattle who came here pre-war with her husband(mostly in name only) Will Mahoney who had a speciality of dancing on xylophones. Mahoney had toured England in the thirties but was the lead/opening performer of the stage show that preceeded MGM's Grand Hotel in 1932 in LA. The 60secs clip of the ad is on the Grand Hotel DVD. He was also noted for the song, She's My Lily, and he made a 2-reeler(Educational?) undet that title about 1935 which was on 16mm in the 1970s from Thunderbird Films. He appeared with Evie in the Australian carnival musical about 1938 called Come up Smiling(its theme song) or, alternatively, Ants in His Pants. He was the father of a girl soprano named Jean Hatton, who still does not like being called Australia's Deana Durbin. Evie went on to play the Ethel Merman role in Annie Get Your Gun here and a guy I worked with played the piano for her audition rehearsals and Mahoney was doing the coaching. Before the rehearsals were over they were calling her Annie and she got the part. My mother says Evie always walked around the theater with apoodle under her arm and was a littl bit of a "I am". Mahoney went into his act on kids' TV shows and Evie sung and did ads on the same station. later she was a talent judge on a kids' TV variety show before contracting MS.

 

[Ethan Riley]

As for the Blu-ray disc, absolutely, positively perfect in every regard. Very Highly Recommended. RAH

This news is a huge relief after the My Fair Lady debacle. Good to know someone knows what they're doing. Now I have to somehow get through the next 2 weeks until it's in my hands--

 

[moovtune]

Maybe I'll spend the money I saved by not buying "West Side Story" or "My Fair Lady" to buy two copies of this instead ... in support of a quality release.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Can't wait for 'Meet Me in St Louis' to wing its way down here to rural Woodend -- near Melbourne, Australia. My copy of MFL should arrive today or tomorrow via Amazon ... I'm hoping the big-screen experience won't be quite as bitter-sweet as Mr Harris warns...... And I second all the suggestions for that wonderful movie 'National Velvet' to make it to Blu ray ... it has never had a decent transfer to DVD. And for a great double-bill with the young Elizabeth Taylor, why not add to it another classic, 'Lassie Come Home'. And ps to Kenneth Henderson .. what footie team is commemorated on your father's plaque? Not Collingwood, I hope ...... Meantime, last night my family (visiting son and friend joining the home-team) watched the Walmart special release of 'The Big Country' on our big projector-screen. It was a very decent showing but I did spot the strange frame elongation which I think it was the esteemed Mr Harris first pointed out.

 

[jaaguir]

I wasn't a bit worried. Warner's Ultra-resolution process has a perfect batting record on Blu-ray. I'm looking forward to the rest of the Ultra-rez DVD titles to make their way to Blu-ray: Easter Parade, The Band Wagon and Singin' in the Rain.

I want "Anchors aweigh" already! come on Warner. Sometimes I think they hate that movie.

 

[FoxyMulder]

I got my copy at the weekend, haven't watched yet, saving it for nearer Xmas, i really like digibooks and this ones as thick as How The West Was Won.

 

[benbess]

Just bought this one from amzn. I'm looking forward to it!

 

[Violet Eyez]

got my copy on the day of release and I must say the quality is superb ... the best I have seen it. I'm so happy to own this wonderful Garland film on blu.

 

[benbess]

Wonderful film. Great blu-ray. Highly recommended.

 

[Rick Thompson]

I really like digibooks and this ones as thick as How The West Was Won.

The difference is that, unlike HTWWW, it has no content. What's in this digibook would fit on an inset card with room to spare. The Blu is beautiful and the soundtrack sampler is OK (though unnecessary), but the digibook is a waste of trees and gives less protection to the disk.

 

[benbess]

Although it wasn't the strongest booklet found on a digibook by far, I still liked it. Part of the "filler" for some probably involved the lists of other recommended movies done by various cast members. I have to confess there were quite a few of those I haven't seen or even heard of, and so I appreciated the little cheat sheets of films to look out for. But overall I agree that the booklet for HTWWW is much better.

 

I love digibooks, and I consider even the worst of the booklets to be a little informative and much like a souvenir program. I think the digibooks look classy.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Yes, the quality is sensational. Shame the content of the digi-book is so pathetic -- no info, few great pics. Still the movie is what we're after and this, on my big projector screen, looks ravishing. Next up are the new Hitchcock blurays .. Spellbound, Notorious and Rebecca ... my wife can watch those happily with me. She's not a huge Garland fan except for 'A Star is Born'. Anthony

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by eric scott richard

I love digibooks, and I consider even the worst of the booklets to be a little informative and much like a souvenir program. I think the digibooks look classy.

They are classy, i have to be extra careful with them though in case i damage them.


The other thing is that normal cases have become worse, they now cut bits out and they are so flimsy.

 

[Charles Smith]

I love the digibook format -- for its potential, since it automatically provides a format for the inclusion of what one hopes will be great material, and because they can look like a million dollars on the shelf.


I do hate the ones that are nothing but fluff. I wish, when it came to digibooks and other books included in big (and even small) box sets, there were previews of what's actually in the damned things. This could be done the way Amazon puts up previews for regular books, but even if a good verbal description of the contents was provided, that would be of value.


Case in point, the "West Side Story" box. If the included book was chock full of really great info about the film, not just a bunch of pretty pictures, that's something I'd go for. My gut feeling was that it would disappointment, but I can't base that on anything except the general feelings surrounding that otherwise problematic release. The special edition DVD book was beyond excellent, with the complete script, a reproduction of the program book, and more...but it often seems as though these things become more dumbed down with every subsequent release.

 

[Charles Smith]

Sticking to topic, I was very disappointed to hear that the Meet Me in St. Louis book is fluff. Here I am, coming to this film NEW. Never saw it. The book should be used to not only entertain, but to educate -- with history, context, documentation. Teach me about this film.


We are so spoiled by the likes of Criterion it isn't even funny.

 

[jaaguir]

The book should be used to not only entertain, but to educate -- with history, context, documentation.  Teach me about this film.

You have the making-of on the disc for that. Also a documentary on MGM. Quite educative for those with little knowledge about the studio system.

 

[benbess]

Yes, and the music CD is a nice plus! Overall I'd say it's a very nice pkg on this classic film, and well worth the money.

 

[Rick Thompson]

They are classy, i have to be extra careful with them though in case i damage them. The other thing is that normal cases have become worse, they now cut bits out and they are so flimsy.

Don't agree that the digibooks are classy. If they have some content, they're OK. As for the "soundtrack sampler," I really don't care one way or the other. The problem for me is that the book provides almost no protection to the disk (some, like Rio Lobo are invitations to damage). I totally agree that the standard cases have become worse. The PR, of course, is that less plastic helps save the planet. The reality is that it's probably a half-cent cheaper, and every half-cent counts. That's why I buy cases from Sleevetown and throw the "green" cases into the trash for their journey to the landfill. If their idea is really "save the planet," it's not working.