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A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Best of Everything -- in BD (1 Viewer)

Robert Harris

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Based upon the sex and the city-ish, soap novel by Rona Jaffe, Jean Negulesco's CinemaScope production, does everything that one might ask, especially with Joan Crawford in the mix.


Mr. Negulesco directed (mostly) musical shorts from the late 1930s into the '40s, and made his feature debut with the 1944 The Mask of Dimitrios. He spent a few years at WB, and then became a fixture at Fox, beginning in 1948, making adventure and romance targeted productions.


His style, as noted by Twilight Time's Julie Kirgo, seems to break into two era, pre, and post CinemaScope (think Daddy Long Legs, Three Coins in a Fountain). The Best of Everything fits perfectly into his CV.


Twilight Times' via Fox Blu-ray represents the film well, although blue does seem a bit heavy at times. I'm presuming this to be an element issue. Flesh tones work, and everything visually within William Mellor's wonderful anamorphic cinematography is first class on Blu, with wonderful resolution.


Those who appreciate the Mad Men era, may find The Best of Everything an interesting place to visit, as it's contemporary in style as well as social perspective.


Image - 3.75


Audio - 5


Pass / Fail - Pass


Recommended


RAH
 

warnerbro

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It looks beautiful -- very sharp and saturated. I am loving all these Twilight Time releases. They do a stellar job! Good commentary from the writer with cool behind-the-scene stories. However, why do so many of these Fox films from the 50s have a teal-and rust-colored look?
 

John Hermes

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Robert Harris said:
"Twilight Times' via Fox Blu-ray represents the film well, although blue does seem a bit heavy at times. I'm presuming this to be an element issue. Flesh tones work, and everything visually within William Mellor's wonderful anamorphic cinematography is first class on Blu, with wonderful resolution."
I thought at times the image had a bit of the look I get when adding blue to the faded-to-red film transfers I do. It is still very nice though, and a first class movie production.
 

haineshisway

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warnerbro said:
It looks beautiful -- very sharp and saturated. I am loving all these Twilight Time releases. They do a stellar job! Good commentary from the writer with cool behind-the-scene stories. However, why do so many of these Fox films from the 50s have a teal-and rust-colored look?
Actually blue is not teal nor is teal blue. I don't find any Fox transfer has teal at all. Blue, yes, and for me the blue is very much part and parcel of the look of Fox films in that era. This one is a bit bluer than the others - but since I see all the other colors in the transfer being accurate, I'm not quite ready to say it's the elements or wrong. :)
 

Tony Bensley

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Considering that 20th Century Fox junked all of their original 3 Strip Technicolor Negatives in 1979, I'd imagine that getting the colors spot on just might not be possible in some cases?


I was/am pretty impressed with the color palette for Shirley Temple's THE LITTLE PRINCESS 2006 DVD release, and would love for Fox to issue a Blu-ray version!


Sorry if I've veered slightly off topic!


CHEERS! :)
 

Robert Harris

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Tony Bensley said:
Considering that 20th Century Fox junked all of their original 3 Strip Technicolor Negatives in 1979, I'd imagine that getting the colors spot on just might not be possible in some cases?


I was/am pretty impressed with the color palette for Shirley Temple's THE LITTLE PRINCESS 2006 DVD release, and would love for Fox to issue a Blu-ray version!


Sorry if I've veered slightly off topic!


CHEERS! :)

What does Fox junking their nitrate have to do with The Best of Everything?
 

Nick*Z

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Too blue for me and definitely not looking like vintage color by DeLuxe. Sky scrapers that ought to have been grey granite are deep navy to muddy blue-grey. Brian Adherne's crisp white shirt when he first attempts to seduce April now has a robin egg hue to it. And Suzy Parker's tresses, referenced in the audio commentary by Rona Jaffe as a gorgeous auburn as she appears for the first time, pulling a scarf from her face, are now a flat muddy brown. Furthermore, there are no true reds in this color palette, almost all of them reverting to a slight to fairly obvious orange caste. Parker's red ball gown, worn in the off Broadway tryouts is dull and unimpressive. Shadow highlights adopt too much blue too! It's not as awful as The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, The King and I or Desk Set - which I would classify as disastrous, but its still not an appealing or ACCURATE look for this movie or the others I mentioned. Respectfully agree with Robert Harris' number rating for the image. Come on, Fox. Tone down the blue - please. You're ruining your vintage catalog with these digital manipulations!
 

david hare

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Compared to Fox's DVD from ca. 2006 this looks much bluer and much less balanced for color - I think the white temp is out. In fact the blue here tends to undercoat whites which I don't like much. It really throws the first office sequence out of whack - this was designed like a Mondrian palette with blocks of color in the decor. (Negulesco was also a painter of some talent, and some of his work is visible in Louis Jourdan's apartment. I love the way this character riffs off Jourdan's superb performance as the concert pianist in Letter from an Unknown Woman.) I do think (relatively of course) the DVD delivers a more successful color image.

Certainly when I first bought the DVD I wondered if the print was an IB, as some Scope fox titles were in first release although the credits as usual say print by DeLuxe, and the disc had been mastered from that. It certainly feels very different to the new BD. This one needed Mr Belston's attention I feel.
 

Thomas T

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Hmm ... I was going to order but now I'm wondering if I should just stick to my DVD which looked fine that last time I watched.
 

Thomas T

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Robert Crawford said:
The DVD isn't even close to this BD in picture quality.

Oh, I'm sure but with all this "it's blue", "it's teal", "it looks good", "colors were richer on the DVD" talk, I'll wait awhile while more opinions pour in.
 

Robert Crawford

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Thomas T said:
Oh, I'm sure but with all this "it's blue", "it's teal", "it looks good", "colors were richer on the DVD" talk, I'll wait awhile while more opinions pour in.
Your money, I'm happy with this BD as I think it has a beautiful picture.
 

haineshisway

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Thomas T said:
Oh, I'm sure but with all this "it's blue", "it's teal", "it looks good", "colors were richer on the DVD" talk, I'll wait awhile while more opinions pour in.
Whatever one thinks of this transfer, the colors most assuredly are NOT richer on the DVD - they were faded on the DVD. That's not color, IMO. As I said earlier, this one is a little heavier on the blue than any other Fox transfer - King and I is always brought up, but all you have to do with THAT one is look at the first scene with the King and there is no blue whatsoever in that scene - there is blue where there's supposed to be blue. This one has blue bleeding occasionally into the whites - and it's probably exactly what Mr. Harris says about trying to restore color from a faded or fading negative.
 

octobercountry

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Honestly, while I would prefer a warmer tone for this release, I have no serious problem with the colouring on this disc. I have no idea just how it looked back when first released, and I'm happy with the wealth of detail the picture displays.


Great commentary track here, too (ported over from the old DVD). It covers all the bases---the writing of the book, the making of the film, comparisons between the two, New York in the late fifties, what professional life was like for women in the office during that time period (not a pretty picture!), etc.


My only disappointment is that none of the deleted footage seems to have survived, which I would have loved to see. This includes a killer scene by Crawford (a fragment of which can be found in the trailer) and an entire subplot featuring another of the women from the office. As the film stands, there are just a few brief scenes left featuring this character, which seem oddly out of place now that she's pretty much been cut from the picture.


I really do like this film, which functions both as a glossy soap and a fairly realistic look at office politics of the time period. And---so many great mid-century modern interiors; how chic! I want one of those desk lamps that Crawford has. Ha!
 

notmicro

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Tony Bensley said:
Considering that 20th Century Fox junked all of their original 3 Strip Technicolor Negatives in 1979, I'd imagine that getting the colors spot on just might not be possible in some cases?

It wasn't filmed in Technicolor, which was last used in 1954.


Fun fact -- just to keep people really confused, Criterion OF ALL LABELS!! currently includes the phrase "lush Technicolor cinematography" in their web-site blurb on Spartacus -- which as we all know was shot in Technirama. I e-mailed some contact to point this out, and got a long, rambling reply to the effect that since SOME prints were made by Technicolor, this was just fine. I guess they've decided to redefine the word "cinematography", so I gave up.
 

classicmovieguy

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octobercountry said:
Honestly, while I would prefer a warmer tone for this release, I have no serious problem with the colouring on this disc. I have no idea just how it looked back when first released, and I'm happy with the wealth of detail the picture displays.


Great commentary track here, too (ported over from the old DVD). It covers all the bases---the writing of the book, the making of the film, comparisons between the two, New York in the late fifties, what professional life was like for women in the office during that time period (not a pretty picture!), etc.


My only disappointment is that none of the deleted footage seems to have survived, which I would have loved to see. This includes a killer scene by Crawford (a fragment of which can be found in the trailer) and an entire subplot featuring another of the women from the office. As the film stands, there are just a few brief scenes left featuring this character, which seem oddly out of place now that she's pretty much been cut from the picture.


I really do like this film, which functions both as a glossy soap and a fairly realistic look at office politics of the time period. And---so many great mid-century modern interiors; how chic! I want one of those desk lamps that Crawford has. Ha!
Sylvia Stoddard always delivers a fun and informative audio commentary, and is a pleasure to listen to.
 

ROclockCK

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classicmovieguy said:
Sylvia Stoddard always delivers a fun and informative audio commentary, and is a pleasure to listen to.

Agree. I just finished watching this disc, and then again with Stoddard's fascinating commentary.


The picture itself was more interesting to me as a time capsule piece. You can really feel the tension from all the baby steps the studio was taking away from the restrictions of the code era. In '59 this flick must have seemed like some pretty racy stuff. But the movie still plays, mostly thanks to the ernestness of the talent. Although Negulesco was never my favourite 'Scope era director, his movies always had a stylish gloss that's still retro fun to watch.


As for the 'too blue' thing, well, yeah, I guess I was kinda/sorta aware of a bias in some scenes, but only up to a point. For most of the running time, it wasn't really an issue at all, because let's face it, the 50s enshrined some pretty bold blue and teal-biased colour palettes anyway, and movie Art Director's routinely embraced that style cinematically. So It wasn't always an easy call where the 50s retro style left off and problems with an older film element began. And I'm not convinced that it matters either...I mean, what are the chances this picture will fare any better in Blu-ray or some future video format? Given the core demographic appeal, I suspect it's found its last best form on home video.


Anyway, I enjoyed seeing it. And especially with that Stoddard commentary active.
 

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