|
By
NICK ZEGARAC
After soaking the paying
customer with exorbitant prices for their
lackluster and bare bones DVD transfers of classic
releases it appears as though Columbia/Tristar
Home Video (newly christened as Sony Home
Entertainment) has had a change of heart -- or, at
the very least, a change of marketing strategy is
more accurate -- with the release of The Cary
Grant Box Set; a five disc compendium that
exemplifies the very best work done by the actor
under the old Columbia Pictures banner. The set
includes the screwball classics The Awful Truth
(1937), His Girl Friday (1940), The Talk of the
Town (1942), the more serious Only Angels Have
Wings (1939) and the never before released to DVD,
Holiday (1938) -- a trifle that is quaint and
charming, if not up to the level of artistic
standards set by the rest of the films included
herein.
Director, George Cukor's 'Holiday' is the tale of
free-thinker Johnny Case (Grant) who finds himself
almost accidentally betrothed to a millionaire's
daughter, Julia Seton (Doris Nolan). Despite
Johnny's lack of wealth (he hasn't the proverbial
'pot' to his name) Julia's family embraces the
marriage -- that is, until the family's desire to
have Johnny assume some responsibility in their
family business forces him to rebel and take a
'holiday' with the black sheep of the family,
Linda (Katharine Hepburn). Linda's accomplice in
the matter is her drunken brother Ned (Lew Ayres,
marvelously cast against the perennial goody-two
shoes type) With the not so subtle aid of friends,
Nick (Edward Everett Horton) and Susan Potter
(Jean Dixon), Johnny eventually makes up his mind
in favor of the better career path and more
suitable mate. If you haven't already seen this
film -- it behooves this reviewer to reiterate
that in screwballs like this it's generally sure
fire to draw one's own conclusions.
'Only Angels Have Wings' is director Howard Hawks'
dark and brooding, though lightly peppered with
romantic comedy, tale of the short shelf life of
South American mail plane pilots. While waiting
for her embarkation to parts unknown, an American
ingénue Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur) is detained at a
small South American landing strip. The pilots
there have almost sworn themselves into a suicide
pact by delivering their mail across dangerous
foggy mountains. Geoff Carter (Grant) is the lead
flyer -- a rough and tumble
fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants man's man who is at
once cold and aloof toward Bonnie's more cockeyed
optimism. After one of their own meets with a
fiery end, the rest of the crew's perceived lack
of understanding forces Bonnie into a direct
conflict with Geoff; a conflict heightened when
Geoff's old flame, Judy MacPherson (Rita Hayworth,
in her breakout performance) shows up to pitch a
little woo on the side -- even though she has her
own husband in tow. Hawks gets to the grit and
adventure of the piece without getting mired in
it. His direction alone saves the film from
becoming just another flimsy character piece in a
Tiffany setting of action/adventure.
George Steven's The Talk of the Town (1942) is a
film of various genre shadings. It begins in
earnest as a prison break adventure; mutates into
a romantic screwball comedy; is transformed into a
mystery/suspense thriller, before miraculously
ending on a high note of distinct melodrama. All
these elements are kept in check in a film that is
quite compelling and remarkably fresh in both its
deportment and accoutrements. Grant is cast as
Leopold Dilg, a presumed arsonist who escapes his
prison term and takes up refuge at the country
estate of one Nora Shelly (Jean Arthur). The
trouble is that Nora has rented the property for
the summer to Michael Lightcap (Ronald Colman) a
professor recently appointed to the Supreme Court.
Unaware that he is housing a fugitive, Michael and
Leopold (pretending to be the estate's gardener,
Joseph) become the best of friends until
realization and propriety demand of the former
that he do the right thing. Unwilling to see his
friend go to prison, Michael and Nora ultimately
set out to hunt down the real culprits and clear
Leopold's good name.
Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday (1940) is a remake
of The Front Page -- the story of two newspaper
hounds going at it tooth and nail for the scoop on
a great story. In updating the property, Hawks
became inspired to recast the part of Hildy
Johnson as a woman, thereby creating one of the
most sublime 'battles of the sexes' romantic
comedy ever conceived for the movies. Hildy
(Rosalind Russell in her best role) is the ex-wife
of Walter Burns (Grant), a ravenously enthusiastic
newspaper editor who still thinks he can win back
Hildy's heart. One problem: Hildy's become engaged
to Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy, in a variation on
the sort of 'long suffering' foppish roles that
made him a solid second string actor). Not that
Walter will let a little thing like love with a
tax attorney stand between him, Hildy and the
greatest scoop of either one of their careers.
After all, when Walter aims high, he does tend to
hit low…at least below the belt. Peppered in great
vignettes and rapid fire overlapping dialogue that
is so incendiary it's a wonder how many of the
gags got past the censors, His Girl Friday is an
untouchable among screwball classics -- a
genuinely inspired bit that never ceases to
entertain.
Leo McCarey's The Awful Truth (1937) is the other
truly great screwball comedy featured in this set.
Seemingly happy couple, Jerry (Grant) and Lucy
Warriner (Irene Dunne) divorce on a whim, then
spend the rest of their time trying to get back
together. The reason for the split: Jerry suspects
that Lucy was having an affair with her music
teacher, Armand Duvall (Alexander D'Arcy), even
though the film hints that it is he, Jerry who was
the one being unfaithful from the start.
Regardless of who shagged who, neither it seems
wants to be with anybody else but the other. Lucy
attempts a static romance with foppish mama's boy,
Dan Leeson (Ralph Bellamy again). But Dan's
mother, (Esther Dale) isn't convinced that Lucy
and Armand are 'not' an item. Meanwhile, Jerry
tries his hand at seducing a nightclub singer
Dixie Belle Lee (Joyce Compton), a move that leads
to one of the all time great burlesque comedy
numbers 'My Dreams are All Gone With The Wind.'
Failing in that attempt, Jerry next becomes
entangled with the stuffy socialite, Barbara Vance
(Molly Lamont). However, that grand amour is laid
to rest when Lucy appears incognito as Jerry's
hapless and marvelously tacky sister -- performing
an even more riotous rendition of the
aforementioned 'Dreams' number. Ultimately, Jerry
and Lucy find true love where they ought to have
been looking for it all along -- in each other's
arms; a forgone but nevertheless fitting end to
one of the all time great comedy classics.
Columbia's commitment to DVD continues to be a
mixed blessing and these transfers are no
exception. Although 'Only Angels Have Wings' and
'His Girl Friday' were sourced from prints given a
thorough restoration effort before the studio
reversed its policies on providing stellar
transfers on all their classic titles, the rest of
the films in this box range in quality from
passable to below average. The worst looking of
the lot is 'Holiday' -- odd, since it is blatantly
advertised on a sticker on the front jacket as
"first time ever on DVD!" One would think that
that moniker alone would have forced the studio to
revisit the title with a better looking transfer.
On 'Holiday' then, contrast levels in the B&W
image are quite weak. There are no deep blacks or
clean whites but variations of tonal gray. Film
grain is intense. Often the image appears slightly
blurry or out of focus. Fine details are generally
lost under the haze of age-related artifacts.
Since only 'Holiday' was new to the home video
market, one might expect that transfers on 'The
Talk of the Town' and 'The Awful Truth' would have
been made spiffy for this box. At least, on 'The
Awful Truth' some much needed attention seems to
have been paid between this transfer and its
original release. The original was plagued by
quite a few age-related artifacts (scratches, dirt
and chips) that have been greatly reduced on this
newer minting. Contrast levels too appear to be a
tad more refined on this version with deeper
blacks. The image remains softly focused in spots
-- but again, compared to the first release --
looks just a shade better than it did before.
However, 'The Talk of the Town' has been given NO
further consideration this time around. The edge
enhancement and digital shimmering that plagued
the original release has been directly imported
here, along with the softly focused image and
considerable film grain in spots.
Extras are skimpy at best. Each disc is given a
featurette on the film that boils down to a few
choice comments made by various film critics and
interspersed with scenes from the film. There's
also a short featurette on Rosalind Russell (which
is a direct import from the original 'His Girl
Friday' disc), as well as an all too short bio on
Cary Grant. Word to the wise -- the best video
biography on Cary Grant is 'A Class Apart'
featured on Warner's 2-disc special edition of
'Bringing Up Baby.' It remains the definitive look
at Grant -- the actor, the man, and the legend. |
