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This is truly wonderful!
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A friend of mine is a major reviewer for an L.A. periodical and received an early copy of this 6-movie, 8 Disc, boxed spot.
It is nothing short of a miracle….
Buy,Download, Or Stream Classic Comedies Collection! Click Here
At last BRINGING UP BABY on DVD. Looking glowing, for the first time ever. Well worth the wait. Grant and Hepburn’s genius never shown more brightly. The bonus features are as curious as the feature.
You glean THE MEN WHO MADE THE MOVIES: Howard Hawks, Richard Schickel’s colossal docu from the ’70s as updated a few years ago.
Even better is filmmaker Robert Trachtenberg’s pretty Cary Grant profile called CARY GRANT: A CLASS APART. It’s so brilliantly done, that it shows how dumbed-down we’ve been by the endless barrage of unpleasant, paint-by-numbers A&E shows.
Last, but not least, is a feature commentary by the genius Peter Bogdanovich, who knew Hawks and Grant, and loves the movie, and has mountainous things to say.
So that’s objective movie #1….
Onward to special movie # 2…a Two-Disc remastering (significantly better than the extinct DVD) of the Cukor masterpiece that re-teamed Grant and Hepburn and joined them with Jimmy Stewart, the classic PHILADELPHIA Tale. It’s a care for, with a fantastic commentary by Jeanine Basinger, another Schickel MEN WHO MADE THE MOVIES about Cukor, and the unforgettable Hepburn cinematic self-portrait KATHARINE HEPBURN: ALL ABOUT ME.
But that’s not all…
There’s Kate and Ginger and EVe Arden and Ann Miller and Lucy and Adolph Menjou in Gregory La Cava’s STAGE DOOR looking truly glowing.
Moving on is master Ernst Lubitsch with Carole Lombard’s final performance with the legendary Jack Benny in TO BE OR NOT TO BE, again looking better than one could hope for.
Then the MGM all star crew steps in. Both John and Lionel Barrymore, Jean Harlow, Marie Dressler, Billie Burke, Marie Dressler, and a cast of dozens of sparkling artists bringing Kaufman & Hart’s fantastic play DINNER AT EIGHT to the veil.
It looks delectable. A Documenary about Harlow narrated by Sharon Stone adds to the fun.
Harlow appears again along with such luminaries as William Powell & Myrna Lot and the amazing Spencer Tracy in LINELED LADY.
It’s wonderful! These 6 tall movies, beautfully presented, for an
unreal effect! It’s a perfect gift for yourself, or your mom or dad, or anyone who loves huge, timeless filmmaking. Without surprise WB keeps raising the bar for how classic filns should be presented on DVD!
Warner Brother’s unleashes a galaxy of stars in its unusual Comedy Collection box location. Six films of impeccible pedigree - two in deluxe special editions, flesh out this collection; “The Philadelphia Tale” and “Bringing Up Baby”. In addition there’s remarkable to fancy from “Stage Door”, “Dinner At Eight” and “Libeled Lady.” Only Lubtisch’s “To Be Or Not To Be” falls somewhat short of expectations - though it too is a welcomed scrutinize on DVD.
Plots in totem:
“Dinner At Eight” (1933) is the narrative of a society matron, Millicent Jordon (Billie Burke) who is so enraptured at the prospect of throwing the society party of the decade that she eschews all other concerns in favor of the frivolities associated with such a swank soiree. Her roster of guests include the boorish social climber, Dan Packard (Wallace Beery) and his remarkable younger wife of hot body but uncouth class, Kitty (Jean Harlow), aging mountainous dame of the theater, Carlotta Vance (Marie Dressler), family physician, Dr. Wayne Talbot (Edmund Lowe) and desperate has-been movie actor, Larry Renault (John Barrymore) . Millicent’s husband, the kind-hearted, generous natured Oliver (Lionel Barrymore) has impartial discovered that he is fatally ill. However, acknowledging his wife’s lack of feeling for anyone but herself, Oliver decides to forego divulging his diagnosis, presumably until after the party.
“Bringing Up Baby”(1938) is the adventageous screwball comedy about a madcap Unusual England heiress, Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) who, after accidentally running into stuffy zoologist, David Huxley (Cary Grant) is positive to land him as her husband. Not that David would perceive. He’s too concerned with acquiring a bone for his museum collection - go figure. But a gregarious small terrier named George (actually Asta from “The Thin Man” series) intervenes in David’s plans, burying the irreplaceable fossilized bone somewhere on Sue’s country estate. Meanwhile Baby, Susan’s leopard, threatens the whole expose by tearing up the scenery, as leopard’s will do, after escaping from her cage. Naturally the whole mess winds up in front of a local magestrate, who lacks the ability to assign two ideas together and approach up with one coherant understanding.
“The Philadelphia Anecdote”(1940) concerns itself with the pending nuptuals of Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) to George Kittredge (John Howard) . Tracy’s previous marriage to C.K Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) ended badly, but shows signs of coming abet from the lifeless when Dex turns up to pitch a puny rice this time around. But the state thickens in an unexpected device when Tracy decides to go after tabloid journalist Mike Connor (James Stewart) on a drunken binge and midnight swim - leaving both groom and ex feeling left out.
“Libeled Lady” (1936) is a heavenly romantic comedy of errors. When committment disquieted newspaper editor, Warren Haggerty (Spencer Tracy) finds that his newspaper is being sued for alleging that a socialite, Connie Allenbury (Myrna Loy) is a home-wrecker he delays plans to marry his fiancee Gladys (Jean Harlow) yet again, by placing her in the midst of lovely playboy, Bill Chandler (William Powell) . The notion is to have Gladys and Bill marry so that Connie will then be fooling around with a married man - hence Warren’s paper will be off the hook for printing the initial sage. But the space goes hopelessly and predictably awry when Gladys starts to have trustworthy feelings for Bill and he for her. So what’s a struggling foursome to do?
Ernst Lubitch’s “To Be Or Not To Be”(1943) has to be the most genuinely bizarre political satire to emerge from Hollywood’s golden age. It stars Jack Benny and Carol Lombard as Joseph and Maria Tura - a married couple and stage performers living in occupied Poland during WWII. Clear to alter the course of the war, the two helm a troupe of ham actors in a dull pan droll assault on the Nazis.
And last, but not least is “Stage Door” (1937), treading familiar backstage heartache and dismissal with weird panache and a killer cast. Wealthy socialite, Terry Randall (Katharine Hepburn) wants desperately to atomize into Broadway theater only she wants to do it on her fill. So Terry decides to go slumming, secretly checking into a theatrical boarding house populated by keen shooter, Judy Canfield (Lucille Ball), wise girl, Jean Maitland (Ginger Rogers), and Eve (Eve Arden) and Annie (Ann Miller), a couple of stage struck kids…almost. What Terry discovers is that life upon the wrong stage might be the nearest thing to heaven, if only she could manage to rep closer to the stage itself.
All of the discs in this box position have had some restoration work performed on them. The two outstanding transfers are “Bringing Up Baby” and “The Philadelphia Memoir.” Both are 2-disc special editions mastered from very spruce film elements and problem packed with lots of extra features. Inequity levels are satisfactory. There’s a hint of edge enhancement and some beautiful detail quick-witted, but nothing that will distract. Sparkling details are fully realized throughout. Film grain is kept to a bare minimum. The salubrious people at Warner Brothers deserve a pat on the wait on for their formidable efforts. As for the rest; they are a mixed bag at best. with inconsistently rendered dark and white images, sometimes passe dissimilarity levels and hints of edge enhancement and some shapely detail vivid. Extras on these latter disc are bare bones to say the least. Even so, this box location comes highly recommended. It contains films we are not likely to look again on DVD and presented in transfers, that while lacking among the very best that DVD is edifying of, are nevertheless head and shoulders above what previous VHS incarnations have offered to the home video market. A mountainous and steady “yes” then for these.
