A Few Words About A few words about...™ It's Always Fair Weather -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Joel Arndt]

Looking forward to this one. When I read of It's Always Fair Weather's release on Blu-ray the other day I pulled out the excellent Rhino soundtrack to listen to in the car. The Binge is a rousing way to start the day along with the 1950's MGM Studio Orchestra at its peak of perfection. Oh, those French horns.

This film with its Previn-Comden-Green score has grown on me more and more over the years with many delights including Kelly's roller skating tour de force, I Like Myself, Dolores Gray's Music Is Better Than Words (sung by Seth MacFarlane on his first cd of standards) and Thanks A Lot, But No Thanks, Dan Dailey's Situation Wise and, of course, Cyd Charisse's amazing Baby, You Knock Me Out. Some excellent use of CinemaScope in numbers like the aforementioned The Binge aka trash can lid dance. Love the exuberance of this number and in places the music almost has a Copland Americana vibe to it. And CinemaScope is used well in the split screen for Once Upon A Time with Kelly, Dailey and Kidd.

Included on the soundtrack cd as well are numbers that were cut such as Love is a Racket. I've heard Michael Feinstein's version and agree with others here who have commented that a slower tempo works better.

Overall, much to enjoy here and keep them coming WAC. Hopefully, these releases are supported generously, so funds can be allocated for the restoration efforts of more expensive and problematic titles such as Seven Brides For Seven Brothers and High Society.

 

[GlennF]

Okay, techno-idiot (namely me) has a question. Why is there such variance in the quality of a title like this, that Mr. Harris gives a 3.75 and "Love Me or Leave Me" which gets a 5, and "Silk Stockings"? Is it the treatment the negatives got over the years? Is it just luck that "Love Me or Leave Me's" negative aged better? Just wondering.

 

[Mikey1969]

It's also unfortunate that Cyd plays one of her less appealing characters, a stereotypical over-achieving female that was much feared at the time, and who never really connects with anyone else in the cast, let alone her leading man.

 

[Mikey1969]

The WAC business model doesn't really allow for the budget involved in bringing Seven Brides... up to HD standard. I'm still hoping Warner will do the required work themselves and bring it to market, maybe with 2 or three other titles with negatives needing little work (Brigadoon?), or even existing titles like Easter Parade.

Looking forward to this one. When I read of It's Always Fair Weather's release on Blu-ray the other day I pulled out the excellent Rhino soundtrack to listen to in the car. The Binge is a rousing way to start the day along with the 1950's MGM Studio Orchestra at its peak of perfection. Oh, those French horns.

This film with its Previn-Comden-Green score has grown on me more and more over the years with many delights including Kelly's roller skating tour de force, I Like Myself, Dolores Gray's Music Is Better Than Words (sung by Seth MacFarlane on his first cd of standards) and Thanks A Lot, But No Thanks, Dan Dailey's Situation Wise and, of course, Cyd Charisse's amazing Baby, You Knock Me Out. Some excellent use of CinemaScope in numbers like the aforementioned The Binge aka trash can lid dance. Love the exuberance of this number and in places the music almost has a Copland Americana vibe to it. And CinemaScope is used well in the split screen for Once Upon A Time with Kelly, Dailey and Kidd.

Included on the soundtrack cd as well are numbers that were cut such as Love is a Racket. I've heard Michael Feinstein's version and agree with others here who have commented that a slower tempo works better.

Overall, much to enjoy here and keep them coming WAC. Hopefully, these releases are supported generously, so funds can be allocated for the restoration efforts of more expensive and problematic titles such as Seven Brides For Seven Brothers and High Society.

 

[Rob W]

That's what I'm seeing.

I think the final shot is actually the second time this was done in the film. Watched it tonight for the first time and when the trio exit the bar for the first time much earlier in the film, the quality drop is so jarring it looked like they had used sub-par replacement footage for some missing section. It was fuzzy, muddy and impossible not to notice, and it wasn't until the camera pulls back that the image quality returns to normal.

 

[Matt Hough]

This is the first Warner Archive release on Blu-ray that I've seen that I can't absolutely rave about the quality. The blurry shots mentioned above (both optical zoom outs) don't bother me; they've always looked wonky. But the color early on seems on the tepid side with flesh tones lacking pigment (Cyd looks ghost-like in several shots). Later on, color is better and more natural ("Thanks A Lot, But No Thanks" looks even better than it does on the Blu-ray of That's Entertainment III), but earlier musicals from this same era of Eastman Color that WA has released like Love Me or Leave Me, Kismet, and Hit the Deck beat the look of this one six ways from Sunday.

 

[Mikey1969]

That's unfortunate to hear. It's always been a somewhat drab-looking film, somewhat like Silk Stockings, which to my eyes on bluray wasn't much improved from the DVD. I have this bluray on order, as I've been a fan of it since buying the laserdisc decades ago which, even though it was misframed was widescreen.

This is the first Warner Archive release on Blu-ray that I've seen that I can't absolutely rave about the quality. The blurry shots mentioned above (both optical zoom outs) don't bother me; they've always looked wonky. But the color early on seems on the tepid side with flesh tones lacking pigment (Cyd looks ghost-like in several shots). Later on, color is better and more natural ("Thanks A Lot, But No Thanks" looks even better than it does on the Blu-ray of That's Entertainment III), but earlier musicals from this same era of Eastman Color that WA has released like Love Me or Leave Me, Kismet, and Hit the Deck beat the look of this one six ways from Sunday.

 

[benbess]

Bummer. I little bit regret getting it now, but it arrived today. Perhaps I'll like it as a film enough that I can just overlook the pq issues. After all, there were lots of old movies I first fell in love with on broadcast TV in the 1970s that had pretty dreadful pq when I first saw them. But maybe we're all getting a little bit spoiled now with so many releases with perfect or near-perfect pq....

 

[Conrad_SSS]

Bummer. I little bit regret getting it now, but it arrived today. Perhaps I'll like it as a film enough that I can just overlook the pq issues. After all, there were lots of old movies I first fell in love with on broadcast TV in the 1970s that had pretty dreadful pq when I first saw them. But maybe we're all getting a little bit spoiled now with so many releases with perfect or near-perfect pq....

I like this film a great deal, and I have seen 35mm prints over the years, owned it on tape, laser, DVD and now this Blu-ray. Is it 100% perfect? No. Is it the best I have ever seen it? Unquestionably, yes in my opinion. Others may disagree.

I think most of it looks terrific, and all of it sounds amazing. It is also nice that they included the outtakes in HD, and the fading of the problematic Eastman negative of the era is very obvious in those pieces.

Overall, I am extremely grateful they released this Blu-ray, and I hope you feel your purchase was a good one. I certainly do.

 

[Matt Hough]

That's unfortunate to hear. It's always been a somewhat drab-looking film, somewhat like Silk Stockings, which to my eyes on bluray wasn't much improved from the DVD. I have this bluray on order, as I've been a fan of it since buying the laserdisc decades ago which, even though it was misframed was widescreen.

Bummer. I little bit regret getting it now, but it arrived today. Perhaps I'll like it as a film enough that I can just overlook the pq issues. After all, there were lots of old movies I first fell in love with on broadcast TV in the 1970s that had pretty dreadful pq when I first saw them. But maybe we're all getting a little bit spoiled now with so many releases with perfect or near-perfect pq....

Please don't misunderstand. It doesn't look terrible; just to me a bit less distinctive than other musicals of the same era.

In terms of entertainment, it's always been a GREAT favorite, and one of the most sophisticated musicals of its era.

 

[benbess]

Good movie! Enjoyed watching it today. Almost all of the film looks good enough, although for some reason it's not up to the usual PQ you see with almost all other Warner Archive titles. I think there are just two shots that look awful, and as already said it seems like it may be how they shot it originally with a blow-up or something. It's very grainy and quite blurry in those two shots before they pull out to show the cityscape with some kind of process work (or model or matte painting?).

Anyway, I laughed several times (what a funny parody of TV of the day), and was impressed by the creative song and dance numbers. Good theme too, about maintaining friendships in spite of time and differences.

Recommended.

 

[Rob W]

Keep in mind that the two fuzzy shots under discussion would never have been so jarring in the original prints where film grain and the film stocks at the time would have significantly smoothed out the focus differences between the optical zooms and the regular shots. Modern transfers often bring out details that were less noticeable during the original theatrical releases.

Point is that our discussion on a couple of shots should not discourage anyone from picking up this disc as far as I'm concerned.

 

[RichMurphy]

Keep in mind that the two fuzzy shots under discussion would never have been so jarring in the original prints where film grain and the film stocks at the time would have significantly smoothed out the focus differences between the optical zooms and the regular shots. Modern transfers often bring out details that were less noticeable during the original theatrical releases.

Not really. I first saw IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER years ago when the American Film Institute theatre was in DC's Kennedy Center. The three things I remembered the most from that 35mm presentation were the film's melancholy tone, Dolores Grey, and those two ill-advised optical zooms with matte paintings as they leave the bar.

But I agree that two poorly-executed special effect shots from 1955 shouldn't dissuade anyone from picking up this Blu-Ray.

 

[Robin9]

. . . Are the deleted numbers included? Gene Kelly's number with Cyd Charisse is probably the worst number he ever filmed.

The "extras" from the DVD are present and correct on the Blu-ray disc. They look much better. The Love Is A Racket number with Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly seems to be in High Definition. I compared it with the DVD: a big upgrade. Ironical that this lousy routine - what the hell was Kelly thinking? - has been preserved in such high quality when the excellent Cyd Charisse outtake from The Bandwagon - Two Faced Woman - has not been properly preserved and has not been included as an "extra" on the respective Blu-ray disc.

 

[Mikey1969]

I finally got ahold of this and found it pretty weak-looking, with often poor flesh tones and overdone contrast. Better than the DVD, but still disappointing.