7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A father of a young woman deals with the emotional pain of her getting married, and the financial and organizational pain of arranging her wedding.
Starring: Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor, Don Taylor (I), Billie BurkeRomance | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.36:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono (192 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono (192 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono (192 kbps)
Polish: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Spanish=Latin & Castillian
English SDH, French, Spanish, Czech, Polish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
According to theatrical tradition, comedies end with a marriage, and Vincente Minnelli's Father
of the Bride ("FotB") is no exception. The novelty of Minnelli's film, adapted from a bestselling
novel by Edward Streeter, is that it's told from the perspective of a bystander to the main event,
while the happy couple are relegated to supporting roles. That didn't stop MGM from
spotlighting the bride in its publicity campaign, which received a boost from the heavily
publicized marriage of Elizabeth Taylor just a few days before FotB's release presented her fictional nuptials onscreen. Taylor's marriage
to Conrad Hilton, Jr. (her first of eight) lasted less than year, but FotB was more successful. It became one of 1950's top-grossing films,
was nominated for three Oscars and prompted both a sequel, Father's
Little
Dividend, and a 1991
remake (starring Steve Martin and Diane Keaton). In 2000, the film placed
at 83 on the AFI's list of the top one hundred American comedies.
Taylor's glamor may have fueled the ad campaign, but the credit for FotB's endurance goes
to Spencer Tracy and his canny portrayal of the titular father for whom the wedding is as much
an elegy as a celebration. Within Minnelli's unobtrusively elegant staging, Tracy always manages
to convey his character's sad recognition that this wedding marks the passage of time and a
recognition of his own mortality. Audiences may have flocked to FotB because of Taylor's
glamor, but they stayed for Tracy's bittersweet charm.
Father of the Bride was shot by the eccentric (and sometimes controversial) cinematographer
John Alton (An American in Paris), who abruptly
dropped out of the film industry ten years later
(after shooting Elmer Gantry) to relax and travel the
world. (He resurfaced in 1993 to attend the
premiere of the cinematography documentary, Visions of Light.) The film's original nitrate
negative was one of the victims of the 1978 fire at the George Eastman House that claimed some
500 MGM properties. All home video versions have been taken from a "safety" fine-grain master
positive created by MGM in the Sixties. Due to the film's success, the negative had already
deteriorated from being used for release prints when the fine-grain master was made. In the half
century since that time, the fine-grain master has been repeatedly used for prints and transfers,
thereby suffering further deterioration.
Prior HD presentations of Father of the Bride have originated from a 1080i transfer created in
2002. For this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, the Warner Archive Collection has newly scanned
the fine-grain master at 2K, followed by extensive cleanup. Special challenges were presented by
director Minnelli's frequent use of optical dissolves, which cause variations in density, grain and
detail that would have been less evident on release prints, especially after several weeks in use,
but can become a distraction on hi-def video unless careful attention is paid in scanning and
digital restoration.
Given the challenges of the source material, WAC's results are astonishing. The detail is good
enough to reveal fine points of the party refuse strewn throughout the Banks home in the opening
shot, to pick out individual faces in crowded scenes, and to resolve the many tiny lines criss-crossing Buckley Dunstan's Glen plaid overcoat. Blacks are
solid, whites are bright without
blooming, and shades of gray are well-delineated. The grain pattern is finely rendered, and
although one can certainly spot the somewhat lesser quality of the opticals during fade-ins and
fade-outs, you have to be looking for it, because the digital colorists have deftly massaged the
transitions. WAC has authored FotB at its usual high bitrate, 34.92 Mbps, with a first-rate
encode.
The original audio elements for FotB also fell victim to the 1978 vault fire, and the Blu-ray's mono track, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0, has been taken from the optical track of the safety master. Digitally cleaned up and tweaked, the track is free of pops, clicks or hiss, and the dialogue is clear and intelligible, even in scenes where characters overlap each other, such as the multiple speakers ordering drinks from Stanley at the engagement party. Sound effects are kept to the bare minimum necessary to tell the story. The understated score is by Adolph Deutch (The Maltese Falcon).
The extras have been ported over from Warner's 2006 DVD release of Father of the Bride. The
film's trailer has been remastered in 1080p. Note that the two newsreel excerpts come from the
Hearst archives at UCLA and, as with many of the Hearst Newsreels from that area, the audio has
not survived.
According to the TCM Archives, Spencer Tracy almost didn't make FotB. Jack Benny wanted
the role, and MGM production chief Dore Shary made Minnelli give Benny a screen test. It's too
bad the footage didn't survive, because it would make a fascinating study in contrasts. No doubt
Benny could have milked the script for every laugh, but the tale's emotional undertow was
beyond his range. The film needed Tracy. Highly recommended.
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