Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Gap-Toothed Women Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 7, 2019

Note: This film is available as part of Les Blank: Always for Pleasure.

Chances are that unless you have a specialized interest in some of the indigenous folk music(s) of the United States, your recognition of the name Les Blank, if indeed you recognize it at all, may well come courtesy of Burden of Dreams (note that the link points to a DVD, not a Blu-ray), Blank’s fascinating documentary about the filming of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo. That piece was actually kind of an outlier in Blank’s oeuvre, a large body of work that otherwise tended to focus primarily on musicians (though there are a couple of exceptions in this set). Criterion’s collection of fourteen Blank documentaries may understandably be thought of as a niche product, but for those interested in this subject, it’s a virtual smorgasbord of great performances and at least some biographical data.

This is arguably the weirdest documentary in this set, and may lead some to wonder if Blank was some kind of fetishist. That's said with tongue planted semi-firmly in cheek, but this is a piece with a rather odd focus, as may be gleaned from the documentary's title. Blank does get into some ideas of what "traditional female beauty" means, and there are some really fun interviews here, but this is a curio at best.

Gap-Toothed Women Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Gap Toothed Women is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1.

Criterion's insert booklet has the following information on the transfers in this set:

All fourteen films are presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right side of the image to maintain the proper screen format. These new digital transfers were created in 2K resolution on a Scanity film scanner from internegatives at Technicolor Los Angeles. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI's DRS and Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, and noise management.

Most of this transfer offers a really nice accounting of a naturally resolving grainfield, along with a very natural looking palette, but there are once again a few variances which kind of crop up willy nilly, including a couple of interview segments where the colors don't pop very well and grain is noticeably heavier for some reason. Detail levels are quite appealing due to the ubiquity of close-ups during the interview segments. My score is 3.75 due to the variances on display.

Gap-Toothed Women Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Criterion's insert booklet has the following information on the soundtracks:

The original monaural soundtracks for The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins; A Well Spent Life; Dry Wood; Always for Pleasure; Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers; Sprout Wings and Fly; In Heaven There is No Beer?; Gap-Toothed Women; Yum, Yum, Yum! A Taste of Creole and Cajun Cooking; and The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists were remastered at 24-bit from 35 mm full-coat magnetic tracks. The original monaural soundtrack for Hot Pepper was remastered at 24-bit from the original 16 mm full-coat magnetic track. The original monaural soundtrack for God Respects Us When We Work, but Loves Us When We Dance was remastered at 24-bit from a restored DA-98 tape and the restored 35 mm full-coat magnetic track. The original monaural soundtrack for Spend It All was remastered at 24-bit from a restored WAV file. And the original stereo soundtrack for Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella was remastered at 24-bit from the original 16 mm full-coat magnetic track. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD, AudioCube's integrated workstation, and iZotope RX3.

Gap Toothed Women is another of the "talkier" documentaries in this set, and as such the LPCM Mono track suffices perfectly well for the spoken elements, along with the occasional musical interludes. Fidelity is fine throughout the presentation, with no damage of any kind to report.

Gap-Toothed Women Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Mind the Gap (1080p; 10:51) is a 2014 piece featuring Chris Simon, Harrod Blank, and Susan Kell.

Gap-Toothed Women Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My mom was a "gap toothed woman" and probably would have loved this documentary, and those with a similar appearance may find this appealing for that reason. Technical merits are generally solid for those considering a purchase.