6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A middle-aged woman walks out on her husband and family in a desperate attempt to find her true self.
Starring: John Forsythe, Jean Simmons, Shirley Jones, Teresa Wright, Lloyd BridgesMelodrama | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
Music: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
As a card carrying member of the Film Score Geek Society, I firmly believe the 1969 nominations for the Academy Award for Best Song were
the last time that at least four of the five nominees were undisputed classics, albeit in the pop vernacular that was popular during that era.
The Best Song category has always been something of a crap shoot, and it’s actually fun (at least for members of the Film Score Geek
Society) to pore over the category’s offerings through the years and see what was nominated and what eventually won. I’m sure there are
those who would argue that “It’s Hard Out There for a Pimp” is a masterpiece of inarguable craft and genius, but for curmudgeons of a
certain age, there’s no equal to the songwriting acumen that was so often on display from the Golden Age of Hollywood on through at least
the last year of the sixties. Some indication of the depth of the “bench” in this category comes courtesy of the realization that at various
points legends like George Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II and Irving Berlin had to manage with only a nomination to get them by in certain
years. While it’s certainly possible to find a dud in any given catalog of nominees, the sixties were an especially fertile decade for songs in
film, and the nominees and eventual winners are a virtual smörgåsbord of contemporary classics in the Great American Songbook, with
several Mancini-Mercer evergreens (“Moon River”, “Days of Wine and Roses”, “Charade”, “The Sweetheart Tree”) and Bacharach-David hits
(“Alfie”, “What’s New, Pussycat?”, “The Look of Love”) among the delights to be found.
It was actually pretty much a foregone conclusion
that Bacharach and David would be taking home the Oscar for 1969’s “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”, a tune which had gone to Number
1 for B.J. Thomas, and indeed they were the
winners that year (with Bacharach also taking home a preordained statuette for Best Score for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). But the other
nominees that year were all worthy competitors, and several were major hits, including “Come Saturday Morning” from The Sterile Cuckoo, a wistful quasi-waltz by Fred
Karlin and Dory Previn that became one of The Sandpipers’ highest charting singles. An even bigger hit was Oliver’s rendition of Rod
McKuen’s “Jean” from The Prime of Miss Jean
Brodie, which rose to Number 2 on the pop charts and made it to the top spot on the Adult Contemporary (i.e., Easy Listening) list,
and which was interestingly also in 3/4. Not quite at that same level of popularity (and frankly the one song I wouldn’t include as a
“classic”) was Glen Campbell’s rendition of the theme from True
Grit, a song which barely cracked the Top 40 pop charts, but which did better for Campbell on the country and easy listening sides of
things. (To be fair, Don Black had his work cut out for him in trying to craft a lyric around a phrase like “true grit”.) And so, that’s four of the
five nominees that year. The fifth was the only song that didn’t achieve much popularity during the 1969-70 time frame, though future
Gong Show
mainstay Jaye P. Morgan managed to register at the very bottom of the easy listening chart at number 40 for one week with her rendition of
the lovely ballad "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?”, co-written by the team who had won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Song
(for “The Windmills of Your Mind” from The Thomas
Crown Affair), Michel Legrand (music) and Marilyn and Alan Bergman (lyric). Despite the lack of attention the song received at the
time, I'd argue it's among the most ravishing tunes to appear in a film during this era, easily the equal of the team's previous year winner.
The song has gone on to enjoy a significant life (including several versions which have won Grammy Awards), and it's certainly one of the
highlights of the sometimes otherwise turgid The Happy Ending.
The Happy Ending is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This is another MGM catalog release (by way of United Artists) that provides decent if underwhelming quality. As should be expected, things look best in brightly lit sequences, as in the long swath of the film that takes place in Nassau, but even here colors rarely really rise to spectacular heights and instead tend to tread more of a middling ambience (see screenshot 3). Elements are in very good condition, with only very minor and typical issues like tiny flecks showing up on occasion. Things look a bit rougher in some darker scenes, where the sometimes coarse grain field adds to a kind of "dupey" look at times. As mentioned above in the main body of the review, Brooks, cinematographer Conrad L. Hall, and/or editor George Grenville opt for a lot of optical dissolves throughout the film, and that tendency adds to softness, dirt and grain visibility, as should (also) be expected. The grain field does occasionally have resolution problems, assuming a somewhat mottled quality (see screenshot 10). This is another release where, like Twilight Time's recent Hawaii, I would probably weight my score somewhere between 3.0 and 3.5 if I had the ability to.
The Happy Ending's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track is occasionally a bit thin sounding with regard to Legrand's luscious music (especially when compared to the much more robust isolated score track presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0), but it supports a film that is really made up almost entirely of smaller scale dialogue scenes. There is some minor dynamic range on hand here courtesy of a few emotional blow ups between various "combatants", as well as a few florid touches by Legrand in the music department. Fidelity is fine and there's no damage of any kind to report.
So, here's the deal—if I had been handing out the Oscars that April 7, 1970, Legrand and the Bergmans would have easily been the first "repeat" (i.e., back to back) winners of the Best Song prize since Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer achieved that feat in 1961 for "Moon River" and in 1962 for "The Days of Wine and Roses". Bacharach and David? No "raindrops" for that team, because they would have already been awarded a prize (from me, that is) in 1967 for "The Look of Love", instead of the "real" Oscar recipient, Leslie Bricusse for "Talk to the Animals". The Bergmans have long been my favorite lyricists, to the point that if I perform any of their music with vocalists, I actually insist to the singer that not one jot or tittle of the Bergmans' beautifully crafted words be changed (as singers sometimes tend to want to do), and they provide another gorgeous "laundry list" in this lyric that perfectly suits the film's subtext, while also providing Legrand the opportunity to offer an unbelievably moving (and harmonically sophisticated) melody. Alas, I am not in charge of handing out Oscars, but at least other members of the Film Score Geek Society can now enjoy the fruits of Michel Legrand and the Bergmans' labors on this new Blu-ray. The rest of the film unfortunately doesn't consistently rise to the heights of that achievement, but it offers a good showcase for Simmons and (at times at least) the eclectic supporting cast. Video quality is a bit spotty on this one, but with caveats noted, The Happy Ending comes Recommended.
1963
2017
2016
Limited Edition to 3000
1984
Warner Archive Collection
1960
1989
2013
1987
1952
Warner Archive Collection
1933
1999
Love and Other Impossible Pursuits
2009
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1949
2018
2018
1962
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2005