That's My Man Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

That's My Man Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 1, 2014

Frank Borzage is a name that is hardly remembered these days, even by some discerning and supposedly well informed cineastes, despite the fact that Borzage was not only the first director to ever win the Academy Award, he followed up that win with a second trophy a few years later, not to mention a Lifetime Achievement Award bestowed upon him by the Directors Guild of America shortly before his death in 1962. Olive Films is letting film lovers get reacquainted with at least a few of Borzage’s later films, including That’s My Man, a middling 1947 melodrama, as well as the previous year’s I've Always Loved You. Curiously, both of these little remembered films co-star an equally largely forgotten actress, Catherine McLeod. McLeod was a journeyman actor who plied her trade in several films and countless television episodes, but who hilariously gained her greatest fame as a harried headache sufferer in a famous early sixties Anacin commercial where she iconically shouted, “Mother, please! I’d rather do it myself!”

Borzage was nearing the end of his feature film career with That’s My Man, but Republic Pictures, perhaps in a bid for an always elusive respectability, put the director’s name above the title here. Unfortunately it’s a questionable imprimatur at best. Told largely in flashback from the point of view of a wisened cab driver (Roscoe Karns), That’s My Man tells the tangled romantic story of gambler and horse aficionado Joe Grange (Don Ameche) and the spunky young woman named Ronnie (Catherine McLeod) with whom he initially shares a cab (along with a colt, of all things) and, later, a life. The film plays like a kind of B- or even C-movie version of tearjerkers like Penny Serenade, with a long suffering wife enduring the troubling escapades of her well intentioned but haphazard husband. Ameche does surprisingly well as a character who’s a bit of a heel, but it’s McLeod who acquits herself the best here, with a really energetic and even slightly snarky performance. Unfortunately it’s all largely for naught in an overcooked and underfed drama from a once legendary director on the decline.

That's My Man Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

That's My Man is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. The elements here have quite a bit of damage at times, with some brief emulsion problems and (more typically) scratches and dirt. On the whole, though, things look really quite nice aside from the occasional distractions. Clarity is very good, and contrast is consistent and strong. There's quite a bit of stock footage interspersed in the proceedings here (as well as some rear projection), and those moments look more raggedy and soft.

That's My Man Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

That's My Man features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track that is fairly narrow sounding, but which is surprisingly full bodied in the lower ranges, offering good support for Hans J. Salter's effectively vibrant score. Dialogue is presented completely cleanly and there are no big problems here other than some expected age related boxiness.

That's My Man Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

That's My Man Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

That's My Man doesn't really ever place or show, and instead kind of never really gets out of the starting gate. But McLeod is surprisingly winning as a no nonsense gal who nonetheless has a big heart. This curio is probably going to appeal mostly to those with an interest in the stars or Borzage himself. For them, technical merits here are very good.