7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A musical comedy centered on a star-studded Hollywood musical benefit show in support of the war effort.
Starring: Eddie Cantor, Joan Leslie, Edward Everett Horton, S.Z. Sakall, Hattie McDanielMusical | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Thank Your Lucky Stars (or "TYLS") isn't quite a musical. It's more like a variety show on film that Warner Brothers released in 1943 to support the American military battling the Japanese forces in the Pacific. The studio devoted the profits, and the stars their salaries, to the Hollywood Canteen, a club founded by Bette Davis and John Garfield where military personnel en route to their assignments danced with celebrities, were served by movie stars and enjoyed first-rate live performances, all for free. (The institution was itself the subject of another WB film the following year entitled, appropriately, Hollywood Canteen.) In a time-honored tradition, Hollywood put on a show to raise money for the troops by telling a story about the trials and tribulations of putting on a show to raise money for the troops. Self-reflexive cinema has been a Tinseltown tradition since the silent era, when Buster Keaton's projectionist walked into the screen and joined the action in Sherlock, Jr. In TYLS, self-mockery is the order of the day, as beloved stars satirize their own screen images and risk embarrassment by appearing in song-and-dance numbers. Some have to be dubbed, but others acquit themselves so capably that it's a shame they didn't try again. With former newspaper columnist Mark Hellinger (The Killers) producing and director David Butler (Calamity Jane) wrangling the parade of stars, TYLS is overstuffed, overlong and exhausting, but it has scenes unlike any other film. It's a unique artifact of both cinematic and American history, which makes it an ideal entry for the Warner Archive Collection.
Director David Butler, producer Mark Hellinger and star Eddie Cantor (as Joe Simpson).
The lustrous black-and-white photography for Thank Your Lucky Stars was the work of Arthur Edeson, who career began with the early silents of Hollywood and whose resume is studded with classics, including Frankenstein, The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca. The Warner Archive Collection adds another to its list of superb B&W classics with this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray that features deep blacks, finely delineated shades of gray, excellent contrast and a naturally rendered grain pattern that reproduces fine detail for all the elaborate sets and costumes of the various musical numbers, as well as the peculiarities of "Gower Gulch". The superiority of both the original photography and the Blu-ray rendition is repeatedly demonstrated in the large production numbers, where the lighting and camera angles keep attention focused on the star, but everything else is sharp and detailed. The occasional process shots and opticals (e.g., when Joe Simpson is giving a bus tour of stars' home) do not fare as well, but that is a limitation of the original material. WAC seems to have set 35 Mbps as their target average bitrate, and TYLS comes in just slightly under at 34.99 Mbps. This is ample bandwidth for the reproduction of a film-like image, and WAC has used it well.
The film's original mono soundtrack has been encoded as lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0, with identical left and right channels. The source is clean and free from distortion, and, within the limits of the era's technology, the sound is impressive. Both dialogue and lyrics are clear, and the various orchestras sound good enough to make the musical numbers a pleasant listening experience.
Warner previously released TYLS on DVD as part of the Homefront Collection in 2008. The extras have been ported over from that disc, with the addition of another cartoon.
TYLS is a one-of-a-kind experience, and I imagine that anyone who already knows the film has parts they love and others they'd just as soon skip. WAC never provides chapter listings, but the minimalist menu does have a song list, which aids in skipping to one's favorite parts of the film. More than most movie musicals, TYLS is suited to programming your own medley of your favorite performances, but if you're new to the experience, watch it all the way through at least once. It really is like stepping back in time. Highly recommended.
1946
Fox Studio Classics
1954
Limited Edition to 3000
1943
1949
Warner Archive Collection
1943
Limited Edition
1944
1945
Warner Archive Collection
1933
1942
1939
1948
Universal 100th Anniversary Collector's Series
1941
Warner Archive Collection
1933
Warner Archive Collection
1935
1944
1970
1936
Fox Studio Classics
1951
Limited Edition
1943
75th Anniversary Edition
1944