6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A simply delightful romp, and easily one of the best-loved and most inventive British comedies of the post war ear, which follows the exploits and misfortunes of two highly competitive friends, as they race against each other in the famous London to Brighton car rally. John Gregson stars as a stiff-shirted lawyer, who gets baited by his boisterous friend (Kenneth More) to wager a bet on who will win the race. For support, the two car enthusiasts enlist the aid of their wives, Dinah Sheridan and Kay Kendall, who provide the glamour and much of the comic sparkle. Gorgeous color photography makes the beauty of the town and country scenes really come to life and a wonderfully inventive harmonica soundtrack by Larry Adler, keeps the movie s pace and everyone s spirits in high gear!
Starring: Dinah Sheridan, John Gregson, Kay Kendall (I), Kenneth More, Geoffrey KeenComedy | 100% |
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: LPCM Mono
English: LPCM 5.1
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
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 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.
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.
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.
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