- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
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- 18,311
- Real Name
- Robert Harris
Lloyd Bacon's extraordinary Broadway-based, 42nd Street, is one of the most important musicals in Hollywood history.
It would be followed by a myriad of others throughout the depression era and thereafter.
Mr. Bacon's Footlight Parade just followed six months later in September of 1933, and between them in May of that year, the incredible Gold Diggers of 1933, with many of the same cast members, including Ginger Rogers (before she made the move to RKO and her partnership with Fred Astaire), Ruby Keeler (Mrs. Al Jolson), Dick Powell, and Guy Kibbee.
The cinematographer was Sol Polito, one of the best at Warner Bros during the era.
And then, there was a gentleman named Busby Berkeley, who probably created what we think of today as the choreography of the quintessential Warner Bros musical, before moving on to M-G-M in 1939.
The Warner Bros. musicals of this era are films to be studied and enjoyed. The problems however, over the past decades have been that prints, even 35mm prints haven't looked great.
Thanks to a new restoration by Warners, this WB Archive Release will be one of those special Blu-rays for 2015.
A stable, gorgeous black & white image, with virtually zero defects holds up beautifully in projection. Shadow detail, gray scale and overall resolution are superb.
The new Blu arrives next week, and is currently $18 at Amazon. There will be some who immediately request a boxed set, but these are going to come one at a time, as each needs full restoration.
As added extras, two Warner cartoons -- Young and Healthy, released in March of 1933 (in what appears to be SD), and Shuffle of to Buffalo (HD), which was released three months later. Take Shuffle with a large grain of salt, for it's a film of the era -- and going against everything today that is considered proper, seems equally racially improper against every race, creed and color.
I'm pleased that it has been included, as these films need to be experienced, rather than hidden away.
As a Blu-ray, 42nd Street is superb. I've never seen the film look this good. And I don't mean "on video." I'm referring to 35mm prints.
42nd Street is everything that you'd expect from a newly minted Warner Archive Blu-ray.
Image - 5
Audio - 5
Pass / Fail - Pass
Very Highly Recommended
RAH