A Few Words About A few words about…™ Strike Up the Band – in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Strike Up the Band, directed by Busby Berkeley, is a wonderfully entertaining 1940 Paul Whiteman musical, from WB's M-G-M catalog.

As a Warner Archive release, it's also a perfect Blu-ray representation of the film.

It's also a musical oddly stuck in a very strange time period.

It went into production in April of 1940, as war was raging in Europe, but in America "The Yanks Aren't Coming..." was seen on placards in demonstrations around the country. It just wasn't our war.

By the time it was released in September, things were continuing to heat up.

So what we have is a relatively still innocent Garland / Rooney / Freed production, that ends with Judy and Mickey atop a staircase while the American flag waves over them in an optical.

One of the miraculous Warner Archive projects, it's derived from a fine grain derived from the very worn OCN, before that element was lost in the GEH fire.

But you'd never know it.

Before other begin the "why didn't we...,," "when are they..."

I have no idea when the other three films in the Rooney / Garland Collection - Babes in Arms, Girl Crazy and Babes on Broadway are coming, but presuming that each will require work...


Image – 5

Audio – 5

Pass / Fail – Pass

Upgrade from DVD - Absolutely

Highly Recommended

 

[lark144]

What can I say after such a sterling few words?

A few more of my own. Though Mickey Rooney at this stage of his career makes me want to hide under the dining room table, I have this already on pre-order, as Warner Archive posted a few scenes on youtube last week and they are beyond dazzling. I've always adored Ray June's lighting schemes, and here they remind me of the texture of Ratner's cheese cake, which I used to ingest in my innocence (innocent of calories, at any rate) early Sunday mornings after seeing Jimi Hendrix at the Fillmore. (Yes, I'm dating myself, but why not?)

 

[Garysb]

My question is how much of an improvement is this blu ray from what is now available on HBOMAX?

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

This movie title bings to mind an amusing memory from my chicken-on-my knee-days of USMC youth:

Our platoon was a 8th&I concert (Usmc HQ)and the band starte to play th number 'Strike up he Band". one my fello Marines quipped 'string up the band' Becasuse their rendition was putting everyone to sleep.

 

[ArnoldLayne]

Any chance of getting rid of the incompatible characters in the review? Or is it my browser??
” “when are they…”

 

[timk1041]

Judy Garland would have been 98 on Wednesday 6/10. It's hard to believe she died over 50 years ago.

 

[warnerbro]

I love these movies and love the extras they include. Yes, the one on HBO Max looks beautiful. I'm guessing it's the same one on this new blu?

 

[RichMurphy]

Any chance of getting rid of the incompatible characters in the review? Or is it my browser??
” “when are they…”

Not sure why you are seeing Unicode Decimal Codes, instead of the punctuation. The review displays correctly for me on a PC with Firefox or Microsoft Edge.

 

[David Norman]

Any chance of getting rid of the incompatible characters in the review? Or is it my browser??
” “when are they…”

In RAH's review? I'm not seeing anything unusual on Chrome either

 

[Garysb]

I love these movies and love the extras they include. Yes, the one on HBO Max looks beautiful. I'm guessing it's the same one on this new blu?

Agree and it looks so much better than "Girl Crazy" on HBOMAX.

 

[MoonstruckinMaryland]

Any chance of getting rid of the incompatible characters in the review? Or is it my browser??
” “when are they…”

I've been seeing the same thing for a couple weeks now. Happens on both Chrome and Safari on my Mac. Figured it was just me. Makes me pay even more attention to Mr. Harris' reviews.

Seems to start with "The Deer Hunter" review. Everything before that is normal.

 

[OLDTIMER]

I'm getting incompatible characters on a PC with both Firefox and Edge.

 

[RichMurphy]

I'm getting incompatible characters on a PC with both Firefox and Edge.

Yet the Firefox on my PC displays the punctuation, not the unicode decimal code, perfectly. Is a puzzlement.

 

[ArnoldLayne]

Yet the Firefox on my PC displays the punctuation, not the unicode decimal code, perfectly. Is a puzzlement.

Now that I'm back, everything looks OK

 

[Patricia3470]

In RAH's review? I'm not seeing anything unusual on Chrome either

You get this effect on the Safari browser.

 

[cinemel1]

You get this effect on the Safari browser.

It’s happening on my ipad.