7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 4.8 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Many centuries after cursing the male descendants of the Salem puritan who sent her to the stake, a charmingly vengeful sorceress finds herself drawn to one of them—a prospective governor about to marry a spoiled socialite.
Starring: Fredric March, Veronica Lake, Robert Benchley, Susan Hayward, Cecil KellawayRomance | 100% |
Fantasy | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: LPCM Mono
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Rene Clair "I Married A Witch" (1942) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film as well as an archival audio interview with the French director conducted by film historian Gideon Bachmann. The release also arrives with a 28-page illustrated booklet featuring Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin's essay "It's Such an Ancient Pitch", and "Rene Clair in Hollywood", an interview conducted by film scholar R.C. Dale. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
Traveling
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Rene Clair's I Married a Witch arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray release:
"This new digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on a Lasergraphics film scanner from the original nitrate 35mm negative and a nitrate 35mm composite fine-grain master. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, and jitter were manually removed using MTI's DRS, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, noise management, and dirt.
The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from a 35mm optical soundtrack print. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube's integrated workstation.
Transfer supervisor and colorist: Lee Cline/Criterion, New York.
2K film scanning: Metropolis Post, New York."
There are some extremely light vertical lines that occasionally pop up. Tiny flecks can be spotted as well. Detail and image depth, however, are very pleasing. Generally speaking, contrast levels also remain stable throughout the entire film. The blacks and whites are well balanced and there is a good range of healthy grays. There are no traces of problematic degraining corrections. Also, sharpening adjustments have not been performed. There are no serious compression issues, but I did notice some extremely light strobing during the first half of the film. Still, overall image stability is very good and the film has a very pleasing organic look. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.
Clarity and depth are good, but occasionally there is very light background hiss that makes its presence felt. It is not distracting, but more sensitive viewers will obviously notice when the hiss becomes more prominent. The overall dynamic intensity is quite limited, but this should not be surprising considering the fact that I Married a Witch was produced in 1942. For the record, there are no pops, audio dropouts, or distortions to report in this review.
Rene Clair's charming romantic comedy I Married a Witch should appeal primarily to fans of the beautiful Veronica Lake. The film is quite predictable, but Lake looks fantastic in high-definition. Let's hope that the much darker This Gun for Hire and The Blue Dahlia will eventually also transition to Blu-ray. RECOMMENDED.
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