Exclusive Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Exclusive Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 7, 2025

From late 1936 for the next year and a half or so, Frances Farmer experienced one of the most meteoric rises in the history of show business. Signed to a seven year movie contract by Paramount on her 22nd birthday in September 1935, by summer of the next year her name had already started showing up in various fan magazines, but then suddenly a veritable "one two punch" of co-starring with Bing Crosby in Rhythm on the Range and then stunning critics and audiences alike with her dual performances of a mother and daughter in Come and Get It made her easily the most talked about new discovery in years. In fact in 1937 Farmer appeared on Cecil B. de Mille's radio program where he proclaimed her "the screen's outstanding find of 1936" (deMille announced Jean Harlow's death to a shocked public on the same broadcast). After Come and Get It in particular became such a sensation, Farmer was rather quickly if somewhat belatedly recognized by her home studio as a "hot property", and the studio started announcing her for all sorts of projects, though of course continuing to loan her out, as they did to RKO for the massively budgeted The Toast of New York. Her two other 1937 films were made for her home studio, Paramount, and were this "yellow journalism" outing and Ebb Tide, another melodrama, albeit that one a South Seas epic based on a Robert Louis Stevenson tale and boasting some of the very first Technicolor cinematography offered by Paramount (Ebb Tide also has another featured role for Exclusive's Lloyd Nolan).

If you didn't know what ended up happening to Frances Farmer (which as those familiar with my research may know has little to nothing to do with events portrayed in Frances), you might still nonetheless accept Exclusive as a genial and occasionally acerbic account of bantering lovers who go to work for competing newspapers, in what might arguably be seen as presaging at least some elements of the much better remembered Woman of the Year. In that regard, it's kind of salient that a New York critic attempting to offer some backstage snark once compared Farmer during her run on Broadway in Golden Boy to a "blonde Hepburn" with the "same swagger and inexperience". However, seen within the context of a sadly aborted stage and screen career for Farmer, Exclusive actually becomes one of the better examples in her brief filmography of what she was capable of (it's also worth mentioning this film was initially announced to be yet another pairing of Fred MacMurray and Carole Lombard).

Here, Farmer is Vina Swain, introduced as having lost her job in whatever the thirties version of #metoo might have been, but soon enough scheming to outmaneuver her reporter boyfriend and would be fiancé Ralph Houston (MacMurray) and editor father Tod (Charlie Ruggles), both of whom work for the World newspaper, by going to work for slimy criminal Charles Gillette (Lloyd Nolan), who has purchased the competing Sentinel. Vina's motives may be a bit muddled, but what ensues is at times admittedly goofy (Ralph and Tod have a tendency to imbibe heavily), but with a rather serious undertone about the effects of reckless "reportage" that may give the film a surprising contemporaneity. This is the kind of major studio effort from this era which is a model of technical craft, and it has one of those fantastic supporting casts the likes of which will probably never be seen again, in this case including the wonderful Fay Holden as Vina's mother and Tod's put upon wife, Ralph Morgan as a troubled politician, and Horace MacMahon as one of Gillette's henchmen.

Exclusive Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Exclusive is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber's Studio Classics imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. I'm pretty sure I saw mention of an original negative on Kino Lorber's website at one point, but that seems to be gone now, but whatever source was used is in largely immaculate condition. As I mention in my contribution to this disc's commentary, I first was able to secure a VHS copy (stop laughing) of this film when it was next to impossible to find, and that ended up being a copy of a copy of a copy of a Canadian broadcast version which had then been somewhat hilariously emblazoned with a bright blue "Do Not Copy" subtitle every few minutes, so seeing the film in this condition was a bit of a revelation for me. There are definitely still signs of age related wear and tear that can be spotted, but they're typically rather minor in my estimation, and are generally in the form of very small scratches or nicks. Otherwise, things look great, with solid contrast, nice gray scale and some good support for fine detail. Per the thirties' tradition of gangster suffused newspaper dramas, there are some montages, and grain understandably spikes and clarity falters a bit during those sequences.

Exclusive Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Exclusive features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that can show just a bit of breakup in the most hyperbolic scoring (as in the opening assault of brass), but which has no major problems in terms of effects. A bit of background hiss can be detected in the few quieter moments. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Exclusive Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Note: I was pleased to be asked to contribute to the commentary listed below, and so will not offer any further feedback on it. However, for evident concerns about rights issues, a proposed photo gallery I provided was nixed for the final disc. All of these images came from my personal archive and in one case a candid photo was actually given to me by the Golden Era photographer who took it, but with those aforementioned rights issues in mind, I've erred on the side of caution and watermarked everything, and these are only meant as a bit of hopefully interesting extra content for readers of this site. You can access the images here. The link will become inactive 7 days after this review posts.

• Audio Commentary by Professor / Film Scholar Jason A. Ney

Exclusive Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Those of you with long memories may recall an interview I did well over a decade ago with Frank Tarzi, who was then with Olive Films. In the "off the record" moments of that interview, I was actually encouraging (he might say harassing) Mr. Tarzi to look into releasing some Frances Farmer films, and I've been thrilled that while it's taken a bit of time, under Tarzi's leadership at Kino Lorber we now have Among the Living and this film, in addition to the French Blu-ray (playable on Region A players) of Badlands of Dakota. Of those three, Exclusive probably gives Farmer the most to do (though she's wonderful as Calamity Jane in Badlands of Dakota), and the film has both some enjoyable if occasionally politically incorrect comedy and some excellent performances all around. Technical merits are generally solid, and Exclusive comes Recommended.