Blu-ray Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - Let's Dance -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Fearnside]

Everything seems to indicate this isn't top-tier Astaire, but for me, even middling Astaire is better than most of what else is out there. The guy made everything look so effortless. His dancing was like how Colonel Potter in M*A*S*H once described a whiskey he was drinking: "There aren't enough O's in 'smooth' to describe that."

 

[Paul Thrussell]

Filmed in 3-strip Technicolor, Kino's new Blu-ray, via Paramount is a faded-looking, very un-Technicolorish affair. The basics are there. The general tonalities are in place, but it lacks any vibrancy. First clue is the main title sequence. No clean-up, but little is probably necessary. I'm presuming this is base upon an older IP re-combine that's serviceable, but nothing special.

Is this a question of junked nitrate elements, or is Paramount's post-1948 nitrate library mostly intact and they likely pulled bottom-shelf material for this release because of the expense in going back to three strip?

 

[MartinP.]

We showed the wonderful Fred Astaire piano scene to our dinner guests on Saturday night. It put big grins on our faces. The movie isn't great, but parts of it are, and I'm very glad to have such a nice Blu-Ray of it in my collection.

Yes, this is what I think, too, and why I got it. Parts of it make me very happy. I also remember seeing a conversation with Fred Astaire, maybe on Cavett or something, in the early '70s, where he talked about filming the piano scene.

Spoiler

He talked about the cats exploding from the piano during his dance and saying what trouble it was trying to wrangle them back together. He jokingly said there's probably still some of them roaming somewhere around the bowels of that soundstage.

 

[Matt Hough]

Yes, this is what I think, too, and why I got it. Parts of it make me very happy. I also remember seeing a conversation with Fred Astaire, maybe on Cavett or something, in the early '70s, where he talked about filming the piano scene.

Spoiler

He talked about the cats exploding from the piano during his dance and saying what trouble it was trying to wrangle them back together. He jokingly said there's probably still some of them roaming somewhere around the bowels of that soundstage.

I remember Fred's interview with Cavett on his show. The clips Cavett showed were all from his post Ginger/non-MGM films: "Say It with Firecrackers" from Holiday Inn, the piano number from Let's Dance, "Puttin' on the Ritz" from Blue Skies. (I remember especially there were no MGM ones because those were the ones I hadn't seen. The local stations in my area were too cheap to license MGM movie packages.) Fred was very gallant and praised Cavett for choosing numbers that he especially liked, but he had to have been disappointed that some of his brilliant MGM output wasn't part of deal.

 

[Jeff Fearnside]

I remember Fred's interview with Cavett on his show. The clips Cavett showed were all from his post Ginger/non-MGM films: "Say It with Firecrackers" from Holiday Inn, the piano number from Let's Dance, "Puttin' on the Ritz" from Blue Skies. (I remember especially there were no MGM ones because those were the ones I hadn't seen. The local stations in my area were too cheap to license MGM movie packages.) Fred was very gallant and praised Cavett for choosing numbers that he especially liked, but he had to have been disappointed that some of his brilliant MGM output wasn't part of deal.

Do you think there could have been some rights issues involved in why the MGM clips weren't shown?