7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Nerdy chemistry professor Julius Kelp develops a miracle potion that transforms him into a shocking alter ego.
Starring: Jerry Lewis, Stella Stevens, Kathleen Freeman, Med Flory, Norman AldenSci-Fi | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Romance | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono (Original)
French: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Five-disc set (1 BD, 3 DVDs, 1 CD)
DVD copy
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
When Jerry Lewis released his personal take on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1963, The Nutty Professor had an ad campaign worthy of horror huckster William Castle. The approach is preserved in the film's trailer, which asked: "What does he turn into? What kind of monster?" The trailer then pleaded with audiences not to reveal what happens in the middle of the film. On the occasion of this fiftieth anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition ("UCE"), and especially in light of the successful 1996 remake of The Nutty Professor starring Eddie Murphy, there's not much mystery about the dark side that emerges when Lewis' nerdy chemistry professor creates a potion with transformative powers, but for the sake of those readers who have managed to remain ignorant of the story, I have banished all revealing images to the "extra screenshots" tab. I also recommend that you skip the feature portion of this review, where I openly discuss the professor's alter ego. The Nutty Professor was Lewis' fourth feature film as director, but his ability to anchor a project had already been well-established with the success of such films as The Delicate Delinquent (1957) and Cinderfella (1960), which he did not direct, followed by The Bellboy (1960), which Lewis hurriedly wrote and directed to fill Paramount's summer slate so that it wouldn't yank Cinderfella from its planned Christmas release. By the time Lewis made Professor, his string of successes had made him, as co-star Stella Stevens would later say, the king of the Paramount lot. He got the crew and cast he wanted, and if he had an unconventional idea for a scene or a shot, well, that was Jerry. The Nutty Professor remains a favorite among Lewis' fans (including me), because it exists in its own brightly colored fantasy world of cartoonish characters and slapstick humor. Despite all the clowning, however, Lewis and co-writer Bill Richmond (who would go on to write for The Carol Burnett Show) crafted a well-structured story with a beginning, middle and end and carefully planted plot points that pay off solidly by the film's conclusion. The film also benefits from a restrained and delicately poised performance by Stevens as the object of desire for both of Lewis' characters. Ironically, an actress who first grabbed the public's attention as a Playboy centerfold ends up providing the most recognizably human presence in the film. She also looks great while doing so.
Lewis recruited W. Wallace Kelley to shoot The Nutty Professor. Previously, Kelley specialized in process photography and special effects on such films as Vertigo , but Lewis considered him one of the best cinematographers in Hollywood. Lewis' number one direction to the department heads, including production designer Harry Bumstead, was that the colors should be bright, because he wanted release prints to retain their pop even several generations away from the camera negative. Blu-rays released by Warner under its licensing deal with Paramount have run the gamut from the exceptional (e.g., An Officer and a Gentleman) to the disastrous (such as Hatari!). Praise or blame lies primarily with Paramount, which supplies the transfers. The Nutty Professor falls at the positive end of the scale, with some minor concerns. The image on the 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray certainly captures Lewis' beloved bright colors, beginning immediately with the opening credit sequence depicting Julius Kelp, seen only from the neck down, performing an experiment in class with various potions and preparations featuring rich and saturated hues (at least until something goes wrong). The clothing designed for the students by Paramount's famous costume maven, Edith Head, and the decor created by Bumstead for signature locales like the Purple Pit, are so alive with intense color that they seem to be their own characters. A notable example occurs when Kelp imagines Stella in a succession of alluring outfits, all of them featuring bright shades of red, blue or some other distinctive tone. On my 72" screen, detail was quite good, but I was struck by the lack of any obvious grain pattern. Grain structure is visible in screencaps, but to my eye it isn't entirely natural. It appears to be somewhat reduced, though not completely stripped away. I suspect the transfer was lightly degrained in post-processing, and it is possible (note that I say "possible", because I cannot be certain) that at very large projection sizes, some sort of motion artifacts or other unwanted anomalies may appear. I hesitate to point this out, because some people tend to see things that they otherwise wouldn't see in an image once they've heard that there might be an issue. At screen sizes of 72" and under (which is what most viewers of this disc will use), there should be nothing to report. Artificial sharpening (or so-called "EE"), which is often used interchangeably with "filtering" or "degraining" in online forums, but is in fact a very different process, was not in evidence. Whatever processing was applied appears to be consistent with the typical approach found in digital intermediate suites, where the usual reflex is to remove or reduce all evidence of analog origin. That's a defensible choice with a new film, when the DI output is the final form, but it's a dubious approach with a classic film that was finished photochemically and shown in theaters on release prints. Warner has mastered the film with an average bitrate of 24.92 Mbps, which falls at the high end of Warner's compression range and is sufficient to avoid any artifacts, but the image might have been improved if Warner had used all of the space provided on a BD-50 to provide greater bandwidth and less compression. The entire disc image of The Nutty Professor occupies only 31 GB, which means that a vast amount of available space went to waste.
The Nutty Professor was originally released in mono, which is offered here as an option (labeled "restored mono"), but the default audio track is a 5.1 remix in lossless DTS-HD MA. As is usually the case with such remixes from both Warner and Paramount, a conservative approach has been taken, keeping the sound in the front and effectively spreading it across the three front speakers. Fidelity and dynamic range are remarkably good for a film from this era. The dialogue is clear, and the score by Walter Scharf (Pocketful of Miracles) suits the film's shifting moods beautifully.
Paramount first released The Nutty Professor on DVD in 2000 with just a retrospective featurette on "Paramount in the 50s". In 2004, Paramount released a "Special Edition" with a commentary, documentary, trailer and "archival materials", which have been ported over to Blu-ray, along with a new documentary. The UCE's non-Blu-ray extras are listed separately. Blu-ray extras:
Warner has already announced a separate release of The Nutty Professor Blu-ray in a disc-only edition for September 16, so that anyone who is willing to wait and isn't interested in the assortment of additional extras included with the UCE can mark their calendars. Devoted Jerry Lewis fans, or simply admirers of the film that is considered by many to be his best work—and in any case a classic of American comedy—will want to take a closer look at the UCE's array of supporting materials, many of which are rare or otherwise unavailable. Despite some minor reservations about the video image, the Blu-ray is a dramatic upgrade over any previous version, including the accompanying DVD, which I popped into the player just to get a sense of its quality. There's no comparison. The film itself is a comic masterpiece. Highly recommended.
Authentic Collector's Edition
1963
1986
1981
Warner Archive Collection
1961
70th Anniversary Restored Edition
1947
1947
1943
1949
1959
1945
1952
Limited Edition to 3000
1976
1972
Warner Archive Collection
1985
1961
1971
1963
1953
1962
1985