Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

The Unsinkable Molly Brown Blu-ray Movie Review

Clown or Buoyant Belle?

Reviewed by Michael Reuben June 24, 2016

There was more backstage drama behind The Unsinkable Molly Brown than ended up in the final product onscreen. Both MGM and director Charles Walters (Easter Parade) wanted Shirley MacLaine for the lead, but she was precluded from taking it by contractual obligations to producer Hal Wallis. Over the private objections of the director and the public—very public—complaints of MacLaine, the part went to Debbie Reynolds, who proceeded to have the last laugh by anchoring the year's third highest-grossing film and scoring an Oscar nomination to boot. MacLaine certainly could have handled the part, but Molly Brown owes much of its success to Reynolds, whose boundless energy brought a semblance of life to a role that was more caricature than character.

Molly Brown was the second musical from songwriter Meredith Willson, who spent much of his career trying to equal the triumph of his first creation, The Music Man. Of Willson's later works, Molly Brown was by far the most successful, but it has not endured. Unlike The Music Man, which has been twice revived on Broadway, Molly Brown hasn't been seen on The Great White Way since it's first production closed in 1962.

The Warner Archive Collection is adding Molly Brown to its ever-expanding roster of musicals on Blu-ray. As usual with WAC, the presentation is first rate. The film itself is an acquired taste.

Molly Brown is loosely based on the life of the real individual played by Kathy Bates in James Cameron's Titanic, where the narration asserts that "history" remembers her as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown". In fact, it's not history that remembers her by that name but musical theater. Mrs. Brown's real name was Margaret, and her friends called her "Maggy". It was songwriter Meredith Willson who changed her name, because he thought Molly sounded better. The new monicker stuck so firmly that, even in Cameron's film, everyone refers to the character by the name Willson gave her fifty years after the fact.

The name change is only the beginning of the liberties taken with Mrs. Brown's life for entertainment's sake. Unlike her fictional counterpart, whose unbreakable bond with her husband, Johnny J. Brown, is central to the story, the real Margaret Brown split with her husband and never reconciled. The episode of the Browns' inadvertently torching a fortune in currency was a popular tale widely reported by the press, but it never actually happened (nor was it a story that Brown told about herself, as Cameron has her doing in Titanic). In life, Brown was a philanthropist and activist who used her fame as a Titanic survivor to publicize causes she supported, including literacy, women's rights and the rebuilding of France after World War I. In Willson's musical, however, all those elements of Brown's life have disappeared, along with her two children. Willson's Brown is a collection of down-home comic tics attached to a beautiful voice, a cross between Doris Day and Tugboat Annie—and her principal interest is upward mobility.

One of the best sequences in Molly Brown is its opening, which finds the infant Molly in a cradle barely afloat on the rushing Colorado River. Rescued and adopted by a salty Irishman named Shamus Tobin (Ed Begley), Molly grows into a combative tomboy, whom no one can imagine will ever find a husband. Determined to marry wealth, Molly sets off for the big city and bluffs her way into a job as a singer in the saloon owned by Christmas Morgan (Jack Kruschen) in the town of Leadville. En route she wins the heart of a mine owner and farmer named "Leadville" Johnny Brown (Harve Presnell, who originated the role on stage and is best known today as the tight-fisted father-in-law in Fargo and the Army general who quotes Abraham Lincoln in Saving Private Ryan).

The first half of Molly Brown recounts the comic love story between Molly and Johnny, but the second half is consumed by the heroine's efforts to establish herself in Denver high society. A gold strike has made the couple fabulously wealthy, but they are shunned as nouveau riche by the city's social elite led by Gladys McGraw (Audrey Christie). At the advice of a local monsignor (George Mitchell), the Browns embark on a European tour to acquire culture and class, but the effort eventually splits them apart, as Johnny refuses to sever his Leadville roots. On her own in Europe, Molly finally realizes that Johnny is her true love, which is what sends her sailing homeward on the ill-fated Titanic. Ironically, it is the notoriety of Molly's survival that finally wins her acceptance all around. (If you find it somewhat off-putting to see history's most famous maritime tragedy used as a rung on the ladder of social climbing, you're not alone.)

Molly Brown is a feast for the eyes, with colorful costumes (one of the film's six Oscar nominations), lush photography (another) and stunning outdoor vistas filmed in Colorado's Black Canyon, but the film is a fundamentally frivolous exercise. Peopled by cartoonish characters and played for broad comedy—including a pie fight—the story lacks the emotional depth of Willson's The Music Man, and the songs that have been carried over from the stage show (over half were cut) are not among the songwriter's best. As one contemporary reviewer put it, they are "more palatable than memorable". The film is kept aloft by Reynolds' hyperkinetic performance, which is balanced by Presnell's warmth, and it's best enjoyed as the musical equivalent of a popcorn movie.

The Unsinkable Molly Brown Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Unsinkable Molly Brown's cinematographer, Daniel L. Fapp, an Oscar winner for West Side Story, was also nominated for this film's rich widescreen imagery. For its 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, the Warner Archive Collection has newly scanned a recent interpositive at 2K, followed by extensive color correction and cleanup to repair damage to the negative caused by its use as a source of release prints. The result is a detailed image that showcases the film's lavish costumes and production design and is sufficiently sharp that one can easily distinguish genuine outdoor shots in Colorado from those photographed on a soundstage with a painted backdrop. Scenes in the countryside are dominated by rich greens and earth tones; in Denver, the intense reds with which Molly decorates her home (her love of red is a running joke); and in Europe by cooler, paler shades that subtly suggest why Johnny tires of a place that doesn't match his emotional temperature. Blacks are deep and solid, and the film's grain pattern is natural and finely rendered. WAC has mastered Molly Brown at its usual high average bitrate of 35 Mbps, with a solid encode.

The Unsinkable Molly Brown Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Molly Brown's soundtrack has been remixed to 5.1 from its original four-track magnetic theatrical printmaster and encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA. The orchestral accompaniment is spread across the front soundstage with distinct stereo separations, and the rear channels provide a subtle expansion of the instrumental presence. Dialogue and song lyrics are clearly rendered. Dynamic range is broad, with a high end that is smooth and pleasing to the ear. Several uncredited composers, including Alexander Courage, supplied incidental underscoring to complement Willson's songs.

Note that WAC's presentation includes the "Overture" and "Exit Music" that extend the film's running time by several minutes.

The Unsinkable Molly Brown Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Warner first released The Unsinkable Molly Brown on DVD in 2000, and WAC reissued the disc in 2011. The extras have been ported over from those discs. (The cover of the 2000 DVD mistakenly also listed screen tests as an extra, but no such feature appeared on the disc.)

• Featurette: The Story of a Dress (480i; 1.37:1; 5:15): This promotional short focuses on MGM's costume department and its work on Molly Brown.



• Trailer (1080p; 2.40:1; 3:01): Remastered in 1080p, the trailer works almost as hard as the movie at selling itself ("Debbie Reynolds gives one of the most fabulous performances in screen history . . . !").

The Unsinkable Molly Brown Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Released in 1964, The Unsinkable Molly Brown feels like something from a previous era. In both style and subject matter, it's a throwback to musicals that were long on spectacle but short on dramatic substance. Nobody did those better than MGM, and this late-blooming flower from the Dream Machine has its devoted fans (of which I am not one, though I appreciate the craftsmanship). WAC has brought the film to Blu-ray with the care and attention that its fans deserve, and for them the disc is highly recommended.