7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Larry and Kitty are two middle-class suburbanites who find themselves growing bored with their lives and respective marriages. Although each always found the other grating in manner, they find themselves falling in love when thrown together without their spouses on a vacation. After returning home, they try to break things off, but always seem to grow closer. A holiday together will finally settle whether they should end their marriages.
Starring: Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Ruth Hussey, Don DeFore, Louis NyeRomance | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
We often tend to think that modern media are somehow more competent in portraying real life issues than tended to be the case during the over glamorized efforts of yore. This may seem especially true of films, at least when viewed through the prism of fare from the heyday of the Hays Office, when studios had to run a gauntlet of what a bunch of gray beards deemed “acceptable” to the public at large. And yet as most cineastes can detail, filmmakers were rather adept at making end runs around strictures on various content, and while sometimes supposedly “objectional” material was offered in somewhat masked forms, it was there, at least for those who deigned to look for it. To take just one salient case in point: marital infidelity. Modern films are filled to bursting with tales, sometimes sordid, sometimes merely dramatic, often even comedic, of married people finding temporary happiness with other partners. The freedom offered contemporary filmmakers presents a wide open canvas upon which to paint a supposedly realistic portrait of what happens in situations like these. And yet there are actually fascinating films going back to the earliest days of the film industry that, while perhaps not as explicit as current day offerings, still managed to get their point across, albeit at times discursively. Films as iconic as Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans and Brief Encounter (found on Blu-ray in David Lean Directs Noël Coward) dealt with affairs in a perhaps overly discreet but still emotionally devastating way. One would probably not think of a “standard” Bob Hope mid-century film as ever attempting anything along these lines, and yet there’s the curiously forgotten 1960 outing The Facts of Life, a film which paired Hope with his friend and infrequent collaborator Lucille Ball in a surprisingly adept account of two people who happen to fall in love with each other even while they’re currently married to others in their same basic neighborhood social group. The film frankly has little emotional heft, trading on some fairly tired sight gags and occasional ostensible heartfelt confessional material, but seen solely as a vehicle for two of the most iconic comedians of that era, it’s at least a really interesting break from the often formulaic pabulum that tended to be churned out on a more or less yearly basis to satisfy Hope’s fan base.
The Facts of Life is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1. This generally commendable if somewhat modest looking transfer offers good image stability and above average clarity, if sometimes variable sharpness. Elements have the typical age related issues, though they're rather minor in comparison to some other Olive releases culled from this same general era. Contrast is very strong, with good, deep blacks and well modulated gray scale. Grain is natural looking, spiking in a few optical sequences like dissolves. There is some silly stock footage included in the marlin fishing sequence that is pretty ragged looking. The opening title sequence, featuring animation by the redoubtable Saul Bass, is just slightly "dupey" looking in comparison to the bulk of this presentation.
The Facts of Life features a nicely robust sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track, one which capably supports Ball's frequent voiceovers as well as the film's dialogue. One of the film's perhaps unexpected five Academy Award nominations (it won for Edith Head's costumes) came for its ebullient theme song written by the great Johnny Mercer and crooned here by marrieds Eydie Gorme and Steve Lawrence.
Rather refreshingly unsentimental and clear headed in its depiction of the trials and tribulations of an at least attempted extramarital affair, The Facts of Life is a really welcome change of pace from the often pretty stale stuff Hope started to put out in the 1960s. He's extremely well paired here with Ball, who in fact kind of walks away with the picture with her nicely understated take on bored suburban Pasadena housewife Kitty. Technical merits are generally very good and The Facts of Life comes Recommended.
1979
Warner Archive Collection
1960
1963
2012
Warner Archive Collection
1966
2016
1947
1960
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2017
Warner Archive Collection
1936
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Warner Archive Collection
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