Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Genevieve Blu-ray Movie Review

Driving Mrs. Crazy.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 8, 2011

British comedy films of the 1950’s are usually synonymous with Ealing Studios, the movie factory that gave us such well remembered gems as The Lavender Hill Mob, The Ladykillers and Kind Hearts and Coronets. But there are a few other great British comedies which actually didn’t have the Ealing imprimatur, which is not to say some of them didn’t have a definite Ealing influence. One of the most charming of these is the 1953 comedy Genevieve, a gentle comedy which ambles about genially without ever quite reaching the lunatic heights of the best Ealing outings. But a kind of Ealing touch is still evident in the film, courtesy of Ealing alums director Henry Cornelius and especially screenwriter William Rose (funnily enough, an American, though one with a fairly inerrant eye and ear for what struck Brits as being funny). Genevieve is the story of two longtime friends who each have a fascination with vintage cars, and they both engage in an annual road trip from London to Brighton and back. There’s a great deal of history between these two, and though they’re close friends, that doesn’t mean they’re not above competing—sometimes fairly viciously—to prove that their vintage car is the finest. Married man Alan (John Sheridan) must also contend with his wife Wendy (Dinah Sheridan), who is less than pleased to give up valuable party attending time by taking a weekend out to travel along with her spouse on his open air adventure. Alan’s friend Ambrose (Kenneth More) is more of a man about town, a confirmed bachelor who on this particular outing has convinced fashion model Rosalind Peters (Kay Kendall) to come along for the ride, not anticipating that Rosalind will also end up bringing her gigantic St. Bernard along to sit in the rumble seat. Genevieve, in case you haven’t guessed, is the name of the Alan’s car, a beautiful Darracq that has nonetheless seen better days and chooses the most inopportune moments to completely break down. Ambrose, as is perhaps his wont, drives the slightly sportier Spyker which he relishes in zooming past the hapless Alan and Wendy in any of their many “rest stops” for repairs along the way.

Genevieve is not a rip-roaring comedy by any stretch of the imagination, and its very quietness may make it less appealing to those who like their British comedy loud, brash and manic (Benny Hill, anyone?). Instead this is a fairly placid look at four people who are involved in an unusual activity. The bulk of the film is focused rather squarely on Alan and Wendy and it is their sparring relationship that drives (no pun intended) the film and gives it its humorous energy. Sheridan and Gregson have an easy rapport with each other and it’s easy to accept them as a long married couple who have their differences but who manage to still find the humor in their many predicaments. The “other” couple of Ambrose and Rosalind is more sporadically looked at and is there mostly as counterweight to our married “heroes.” Genevieve is notable for being one of the first films which brought the luminous Kay Kendall to worldwide attention. She’s glamorous but accessible in the film, and it’s easy to see why she became such a sensation. Sadly, her light burned only very briefly and she died tragically young within just a few years of Genevieve’s release.

Genevieve perhaps is too gentle for today’s ADHD audiences, but it harkens back to a time, especially in the then still recovering British film industry (which had been devastated first by World War II and then by a post-War depression), when simpler joys were more appreciated. Some may want the film to get more heavily into slapstick or physical comedy, and for the simmering disputes between Alan and Wendy and Alan and Ambrose to erupt into something more outrageous than they ever do here. But if the film is taken on its own kinder, quieter terms, it’s a lovely escape to a much simpler time when watching a few misadventures was enough to satisfy most audiences still weary from the calamities which had only then recently subsided.

The film has manifold pleasures to recommend it, however, despite its small scale approach and less than insistent approach to humor. The performances are all top notch, and include a wonderful cameo by Joyce Grenfell as the proprietress of a dowdy hotel Alan and Wendy end up staying in. Grenfell is best remembered as a stage performer and monologist today, though she did have quite a few film roles to her credit as well. The film is also very scenic, with lots of then rare location shots on the way from London to Brighton. One of the best remembered aspects of Genevieve is its sprightly Oscar nominated score by virtuoso harmonica player Larry Adler. (Rose’s screenplay earned the film its other Academy Award nomination).

This is a film which requires a modern day audience to take a deep breath and cast away a world of worries and “in your face” requirements in order to fully appreciate it. Never loud, never obnoxious, but always charming and quietly humorous, Genevieve, much like its titular car, may be slightly out of date, but for a certain kind of aficionado, that only increases its considerable allure.

Genevieve Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Genevieve is the latest Rank title to arrive on Blu-ray from niche label VCI, presented with a VC-1 encode in 1080p and 1.37:1. I frankly don't know quite what to make of this transfer, so weird looking at times it is. The opening scenes almost look like a colorized black and white film, not a luscious Technicolor movie from the 1950's. The sky is white, the backgrounds are various gray scale tones and there's kind of an "applied" color look to the people moving through the frame. Then when we get to Alan and Wendy's house, things perk up reasonably well, though Wendy's lipstick almost looks three dimensional, again totally weirdly blooming, though reds in the rest of the scene are solid. Finally once the main part of the race starts, we get something approaching a decent high definition image, though skies are still strangely white-gray a lot of the time, even though others blues in the image are very robust and well saturated. Some of this seems to be dependent on different lenses used in the original filming. Close-ups look sharpest and have at least acceptable fine detail, while midrange and far shots are noticeably softer and for some strange reason do not sport the same level of color saturation. My hunch is this title had a fairly aggressive DNR scrub, and while the results are not "smeary" in the typical way of that technique, it may account for some of the strange look of this release, as does some fairly noticeable edge enhancement.

Genevieve Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Never trust cover inserts or for that matter menus on the discs themselves. I was ready to lambaste VCI for only offering lossy Dolby Digital audio options until I utilized my display button on my remote and discovered that though the disc menu claimed DD mixes, what we actually have is the original mono track delivered via a lossless LPCM 2.0 mix, and an okay repurposed surround mix, courtesy of a lossless LPCM 5.1 mix. My preference is to stick with the original mono track, which provides good fidelity and little if any damage or hiss. Others may want to opt for the occasional discrete channelization effect which the 5.1 track does manage to fitfully convey. Adler's score is slightly expanded as well, though it sounds like some of that was accomplished with artificial reverb added to the basic stems. One way or the other, dialogue is well presented in both of these tracks, and the overall mix in both of them is very good as well.

Genevieve Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Profile of Genevieve (SD; 24:04) is a very enjoyable series of interviews with several surviving cast m embers as well as an overview of the film and its impact through the years.
• Photo Gallery (HD; 6:50)

Genevieve Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you're not in the mood for a sweet unassuming film like Genevieve, keep on driving. If you could use a little calm energy in your lives, though, with gentle humor and very human characters, this might just be the film for you. Manifestly different from the Ealing feel, but with that same general dry British wit that informs so many Ealing comedies, Genevieve may be slight, but it's no less enjoyable due to that slightness. This Blu-ray has an extremely odd looking image that nonetheless boasts good to excellent color at least some of the time, and the lossless audio presentation of Adler's wonderful score is a definite plus. The supplemental documentary is also a nice bonus, so overall this release comes Recommended.