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The Woman In Red
Studio: MGM
Year: 1984
Rated: PG-13
Film Length: 87 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 16X9 Enhanced Widescreen (1.85:1)
Subtitles: English, French, Portugese and Spanish
Businessman Teddy Pierce (Gene Wilder) has always
been the perfect husband and father. He's been married
to a wonderful woman (Judith Ivey) for 10 years, and
although he has watched some of his obnoxious friends
(Charles Grodin, Joseph Bologna) cheat within their
relationships, Teddy has always played by the rules,
that is, until he meets Charlotte (Kelly Le Brock).
Longing for adventure, Teddy woos the woman of his
dreams through several comedic mishaps including an
unfortunate brush with his secretary (Gilda Radner).
Will Teddy turn his marriage upside down in order
to obtain the unobtainable?
This Americanization of the French comedy Pardon
Mon Affaire is written for the screen and directed
by Gene Wilder and is a fairly average comedy that
manages to be more charming than funny. While the
visual gags don't always seem to work, viewers can
always fall back on watching the beautiful Le Brock
in a memorable semi-nude scene.
The film features a lively soundtrack by the legendary
Stevie Wonder, featuring the mega-80s hit, I just
called to say I love you.
How is the transfer?
To be honest, I was expecting one of those lackluster
80s transfers, and was surprised to find that MGM has
done a really fine job of cleaning up this film. The
picture is very clean without any noticeable blemish.
Because the transfer tends to be soft, there is just
a little loss of detail. Colors are a little faded,
though flesh tones are very accurate. I was pleased
that the film doesn't look as dated as I thought it
would be.
The Dolby surround mix is about average. Sound is
clean and detailed, with bass-heavy audio across the
two front speakers. Dialogue rests mostly in the
center channel, with small bleeds to the front. The
rears don't have much activity here, only carrying
some ambient sounds of the city. The film's pop
music track does manage to distribute itself to the
rear channels, but it is more of an echo effect than
anything else. One thing I should note here is how
great the songs by Stevie Wonder and Dionne Warwick
sound -- especially with the abundant amount of LFE
bass that accompanies the music. It's almost as if
this music was specially re-recorded for this DVD
presentation.
Special Features
There's not much here other than the film's
original theatrical trailer as well as
trailers for other MGM DVDs, The Princess Bride
and When Harry Met Sally.
I should also note that this film is presented
on a 2-sided DVD that sports both a WIDESCREEN and
FULL FRAME transfer.
Final Thoughts
This film seems a little worn after nearly twenty
years, but somehow still stands out as one of the
unsung heroes of the 80s era. Those that grew up
with this film will have more of a reason to revisit
it than anyone else. Those of you that do will not
be disappointed by the transfer.
Release Date: January 7, 2003
All screen captures have been further compressed.
They are for illustrative purposes only and do not
represent actual picture quality[/size][/font]
