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A Few Words About A few words about...™ Stormy Weather -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Robert Harris

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Over the years, films have sometimes been produced for specific audiences.


The 1960s AIP horror series for teens, as a reason to get away from their parents, cover their eyes and holds hands in a theater;


The Yiddish films, primarily of the 1930s for the Yiddish speaking Jewish audience;


and films starring African-Americans, primarily for black audiences.


Sometimes, the starts aligned and the audience grew wider or smarter.


One in which it grew much wider was Andrew Stone's 1943 Stormy Weather, for Fox. A film so entertaining, and with talent on such a high level (Lena Horne, Cab Callaway, Bill Robinson, Katherine Dunham, the Nicholas Brothers, Fats Waller, and our memorable old friend from Casablanca, Dooley Wilson, that it crossed the color line.


Reviews of the time made note of its being an "all-colored" cast.


Variety: "Stormy Weather is chockful of the cream-of-the-crop colored talent, with a deft story skein to hold it together. Bill Robinson and Lena Horne top the cast. It's a tribute to the affection in which Bojangles is held that the story plot is glossed over in favor of all the other components."


The New York Times: "Twentieth Century-Fox gave its new all-Negro musical revue, "Stormy Weather," co-starring the inimitable Bill Robinson and the sultry song-bird Lena Horne, a dual New York première yesterday at the Roxy Theatre, Seventh Avenue and Fiftieth Street, and at the Alhambra Theatre in Harlem, Seventh Avenue and 126th Street.

"Stormy Weather" is a first-rate show... There is so much to choose from, Fox having wisely decided to bury a very thin and trite story line with an abundance of the show world's leading colored talent that "Stormy Weather" has more the appearance of a super-vaudeville bill than a motion picture. Musically, too, it is a joy to the ear, especially when Miss Horne digs deep into the depths of romantic despair to put across the classic blues number, after which the picture is titled, in a manner that is distinctive and refreshing even at this late day. She does very well also by "I Can't Give You Anything but Love Baby," "There's No Two Ways About Love," and "Diga Diga Do" among others."

While Stormy Weather fits in nicely with Fox's other backstage dramas, in many respects it tops many of them, as it offers some of the best talent in Hollywood -- of any color.


The Blu-ray, from Twilight Time and Fox is gorgeous, with a full range of black & white tonalities, good grain and sharp textures. It's a treat.


Image - 5


Audio - 5


Pass / Fail - Pass


Highly Recommended (Ms Horne's rendition of the title tune is alone, worth the price of admission.)


RAH
 

Chuck Pennington

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John Polito presented a before/after demonstration on the restoration of the soundtrack for this film at The Reel Thing last August. He talked of how Fox had the original push-pull optical track stems for the musical numbers, and those raw sources were used to restore fidelity to those sequences. The composite sound master exhibited limited fidelity and distortion during the musical sequences, but his "after" segments sounded quite crisp and full, even if still in mono. He mentioned having to go through many takes of isolated tap dancing sounds and such, confirming the raw sounds to the finished track without a guide as to what takes were used or where to place things.

I'd bet this restored soundtrack is probably the one on the Twilight Time Blu-Ray.
 

RMajidi

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I've been eagerly awaiting this release ever since reading Mr Harris comment on its stellar restoration in a theatrical screening together with Oklahoma last year. Wonderful to learn that the Blu-Ray transfer maintains that quality. I recall Fred Astaire considered the Nicholas Brothers' routine here to be the greatest dance performance on film!
 

AnthonyClarke

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Chuck must be right about the source for the audio restoration. RH's star rating for audio is confirmation enough that we're in for a treat!

I'm particularly looking forward to seeing and hearing Fats in action . my old copy of the movie was pretty muffled and distorted. I'm a big Fats fan and have every available recording plus approx 50 78s which I play ... with a new needle every time!
 

warnerbro

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This print is breathtaking! Beautiful! A real joy to have the music only track. Like many others, I treasure this film. It is a true miracle. We get to see a Bill Robinson, Lena Horne, Fats Domino, Cab Calloway, the Nicholas Brothers, and many others. How lucky we are to have this film to see them at their best. And this blu-ray is something to cherish. However, the commentary is very disappointing. Was this guy playing a drinking game to see how many times he can add the phrase "you know" to a sentence? And how many times must we be told this is a negative stereotypical image in every scene. We all know at the beginning, this film is a product of its time and we accept that going in. To keep saying how demeaningly stereotypical every depiction is sells these amazing performers short. How about telling us a little about each performer? There are long periods of silence where most commentaries would be telling us about the background of the production -- not here. Just stretches of silence. This important film deserved much better.
 

aPhil

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Could someone talk about the isolated score — Is this a higher resolution track or a recording closer to the original music score elements?
 

Neil S. Bulk

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It's from 1/4" transfers of the original recordings. I haven't heard the final track yet on the disc, but I know it was cut to the picture, and therefore presents shorter versions of some of the songs. The newly issued Kritzerland CD presents the songs complete, as recorded.


Neil
 

David Weicker

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The Isolated Score is not the songs. It is a music only track.

In the portions where there is normally singing or taps, that is absent. I don't know if (in some cases) the voices were filtered out or what. You can faintly hear some singing on a few parts.
 

Neil S. Bulk

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The voices were not filtered out. They were recorded live with the orchestra and what you are hearing is a pick up from the orchestra microphone. The vocals were on a separate track which was left out of the isolated track.


Neil
 

haineshisway

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The CD went up for pre-order today. Mr. Bulk and Mr. Matessino have labored mightily and the result is breathtaking and, as he's mentioned, the CD has all the music - the full versions of all the songs, the underscore and an entire second disc of extras, including all the bonus songs that were cut from the film that appeared on the previous Arista CD release (long OOP) - BUT, in addition to THAT, we found four more cut songs and they are amazing - two sung by Cab Calloway and one by Bill Robinson. It's selling well and is a limited edition.


http://kritzerland.com/stormy_weather.htm
 

AnthonyClarke

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That does sound fantastic .. I've contacted kritzerland to explore different postage options to reduce the international rate which amounts to abou6t 70 per cent of the CD cost! A flat cardboard mailer for instance of just two discs plus liner notes would cut postage by more than half!
 

haineshisway

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I looked in vain for one minute particle of debris or white specks nitpicked in a review elsewhere - there are none. This is about as perfect a transfer as can be and there is no excuse or reason to nitpick things which are simply not in existence. What a show! This one should be being talked about everywhere, but alas, it isn't.
 

warnerbro

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The picture quality is a miracle on this release. I can't see one spec of dirt or a blemish anywhere. The detail and sharpness is jaw dropping. And the music only track is very clean and comprehensive. They even have the conductor's directions to the orchestra. This is a release to treasure! It is disappointing the commentary is so lacking.
 

EddieLarkin

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I've been looking forward to this one since it was announced, and will pick it up with my First Men in the Moon/Journey to the Center of the Earth order later this evening. With this and the new WB Musicals set, I'm spoilt for choice. Hopefully it will sell well, as I would really prefer to see more 30s/40s/50s films of this sort from TT in the future, rather than the 60s onwards stuff.
 

ROclockCK

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Chuck Pennington said:
John Polito presented a before/after demonstration on the restoration of the soundtrack for this film at The Reel Thing last August. He talked of how Fox had the original push-pull optical track stems for the musical numbers, and those raw sources were used to restore fidelity to those sequences. The composite sound master exhibited limited fidelity and distortion during the musical sequences, but his "after" segments sounded quite crisp and full, even if still in mono. He mentioned having to go through many takes of isolated tap dancing sounds and such, confirming the raw sounds to the finished track without a guide as to what takes were used or where to place things.

I'd bet this restored soundtrack is probably the one on the Twilight Time Blu-Ray.

Oh, it must be Chuck...Stormy Weather has never looked nor sounded remotely this sweet before. Admittedly, my last encounters with it were via film revival in the mid-70s, then on Laserdisc in the late 80s, but this Blu-ray delivered more punch than anything previously experienced. For 78 wonderful minutes my screen morphed into a window...my ears were pampered by vastly more signal than noise...Lena was as radiant as she was persuasive...and the Nicholas Brothers' dance moves simply made my thighs ache. I *felt* every single one of those commando-style stair splits. Yikes. :blink:


So I urge any fence-sitters to listen to Mr. Harris and the chorus here...Stormy Weather is simply one of the best video restorations of this still young year...a showstopper on every level. Yowzer!
 

Mark-W

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Ordered today with three other TT Blu-rays!
ROclockCK said:
Oh, it must be Chuck...Stormy Weather has never looked nor sounded remotely this sweet before. Admittedly, my last encounters with it were via film revival in the mid-70s, then on Laserdisc in the late 80s, but this Blu-ray delivered more punch than anything previously experienced. For 78 wonderful minutes my screen morphed into a window...my ears were pampered by vastly more signal than noise...Lena was as radiant as she was persuasive...and the Nicholas Brothers' dance moves simply made my thighs ache. I *felt* every single one of those commando-style stair splits. Yikes. :blink:


So I urge any fence-sitters to listen to Mr. Harris and the chorus here...Stormy Weather is simply one of the best video restorations of this still young year...a showstopper on every level. Yowzer!
 

haineshisway

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I issue this challenge to the reviewer at Blu-ray.com: In minutes and seconds, point out any instance of the element being in less than pristine condition as you've said it is. At the same time, point out in minutes and seconds every instance of dirt, debris and white specks. I watched this transfer very carefully based on that review, and I saw none, zero. And please don't be silly enough to point to the stock footage of the parade in the beginning of the film because, well, you know, it's stock footage and has nothing to do with either the element or the transfer. I can't speak for others, but I am very excited to be able to see these specific instances of a non-pristine element and dirt, debris and white specks.
 

Tama

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haineshisway said:
I issue this challenge to the reviewer at Blu-ray.com: In minutes and seconds, point out any instance of the element being in less than pristine condition as you've said it is. At the same time, point out in minutes and seconds every instance of dirt, debris and white specks. I watched this transfer very carefully based on that review, and I saw none, zero. And please don't be silly enough to point to the stock footage of the parade in the beginning of the film because, well, you know, it's stock footage and has nothing to do with either the element or the transfer. I can't speak for others, but I am very excited to be able to see these specific instances of a non-pristine element and dirt, debris and white specks.

Maybe you should PM or email that reviewer from that website. ;)
 

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