6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Hapless nightclub hat check boy loves glamorous chanteuse. Handsome hoofer loves her too. And the chanteuse? She loves money. Then the hat check boy mistakenly gulps down a Mickey Finn, dreams he's in 18th century France and before you can powder your wig, he joins a throng of suitors.
Starring: Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Gene Kelly (I), Virginia O'Brien, Rags RaglandMusical | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
1790 kbps
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Du Barry Was a Lady (sometime spelled DuBarry Was a Lady) was a successful Broadway play in 1939 starring Ethel Merman in the title role as a New York nightclub singer and Bert Lahr as a washroom attendant smitten with her. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer did not deem either Merman or Lahr viable enough ca. 1943 for big-screen stardom so they replaced them with Lucille Ball and Red Skelton. Scenarist Irving Brecher, who would go on to write Meet Me in St. Louis a year later, penned the screenplay and songwriter Nancy Hamilton handled the adaptation duties for tailoring Herbert Fields and B.G. DeSylva's play to the silver screen. According to author Tony Thomas (The Films of Gene Kelly, Song and Dance Man), Cole Porter composed twenty songs for the original stage production but the film's scribes only retained three: “Do I Love You?,” “Katie Went to Haiti,” and “Friendship.” Two other Porter ballads (“Well, Did You Evah?” and “Taliostro’s Dance”) are given instrumental renditions. Additional songs were written by Burton Lane and producer Ralph Freed as well as by E. Y. Harburg, Lew Brown, and Roger Edens. Those who saw the original play and then watched MGM's production consider the latter a tamer version of the former's spicy themes.
Hat-check boy Louis Blore (Red Skelton) and singer/entertainer Alec Howe (Gene Kelly) are both in love with nightclub performer May Daly (Lucille Ball). May is seeking a rich suitor, which Louis and Alec are not. Alec tries to woo May while singing and playing the piano in her dressing room. May admits that she loves him but prefers a rich man such as Willie (Douglass Dumbrille). This draws the ire of Alec. Telegraph messenger Charlie (Rags Ragland) gives Louis a telegram, which informs him that he's won $150,000 in the Irish Sweepstakes. Louis begins spending rather lavishly and announces to the press that he's marrying Du Barry, May's on-stage persona. May accepts his marriage proposal primarily because she's interested in the money. Charlie, who has assumed Louis's job as a cloakroom attendant, coaxes Louis into slipping a Mickey Finn into Alec's drink (to put him out for a while), but Louis inadvertently imbibes the blended cocktail himself. This sends Louis into the dream world of seventeenth-century France where he becomes king Louis XV. May transforms into Madme Du Barry again and as Louis's lover. Alec is The Black Arrow, the leader of a rebel group.
Tap-dancing trio.
The Warner Archive Collection has delivered a new 4K restoration of Du Barry Was a Lady, which has been restored from the original technicolor camera negatives. The 1943 musical comedy appears in its originally photographed ratio of 1.37:1 on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50. Warners' restoration team has brought back the picture's Technicolor glory. There's a nice sprinkling of grain all throughout the presentation. There are very few, if any, print artifacts or spots. The mise-en-scène features some cotton-candy colors (see Screenshot #s 11-12). The brass shines on Dorsey's trombone (see frame grab #3). Wardrobes glitter and stand out with bright hues. The Vargas calendar models look stunning! Warners has encoded the feature at an average video bitrate of 34903 kbps.
There's a "Song Selection" of thirteen accessible musical numbers on the disc's main menu. Twenty-eight regular scene selections are only accessible via remote.
Warners has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono mix (1790 kbps, 24-bit). The restored monaural track frequently sounds loud and punchy, with brass instruments and drums delivering an extra "thump" along the front channels. Spoken words are easy to make out. Songs and instrumental performances deliver an enlivening presence across the center stage. This is a fully restored sound track with no noticeable hiss. Cracks in dialogue and scratchy noises are each absent.
There are optional English SDH for the central feature.
Du Barry Was a Lady has a farcical story (especially the French section) but the picture remains consistently watchable for the resplendent Technicolor photography, which has been lushly transferred here from a fresh 4K scan. I would have loved to see Gene Kelly dance more and it's lamentable he's only third billed here behind Red Skelton and Lucille Ball. In spite of losing fifteen of Cole Porter's songs from the Broadway play, MGM's music department should be lauded for delivering some pretty engaging tunes. I hope the Warner Archive Collection gets around to scanning The Goldwyn Follies (1938) in 4K so we can see the wondrous Technicolor images lensed by Gregg Toland in all their magic. The narrative for Du Barry Was a Lady is thin, but it's a highly attractive picture to watch, and Warners' disc earns a VERY SOLID RECOMMENDATION.
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