What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 16, 2020

Note: This film is available as part of Scorsese Shorts.

There was a rather funny throwaway line in the recently reviewed mockumentary Brutal Massacre: A Comedy, where a hapless horror film director was discussing film shoots fraught with peril and disappointment. This director, the sort of guy who really wants to impress his interviewer even if he's manifestly short on any actually impressive achievements, mentions Apocalypse Now as a prime example of this phenomenon and then adds "just go ask Scorsese" to make his point. Those who aren't confused about Scorsese's filmography may think of his feature film career starting with at least Mean Streets, though diehard Scorsese fans will of course know about Boxcar Bertha and perhaps even Who's That Knocking at My Door? . But even before Who's That Knocking at My Door? came out in 1967, Scorsese had started making a name for himself with both documentaries and some more whimsically minded shorts, and this Criterion release aggregates several of them, giving fans an opportunity to see one of the titans of contemporary cinema beginning to define his style.

What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? is chronologically the first of the shorts and documentaries included in Scorsese Shorts, having been filmed in 1963 when Scorsese was still a student at New York University. This is a rather brisk and weirdly funny piece about a writer named Algernon, who goes by the name of Harry (Zeph Michaelis), who has become unhealthily obsessed with a photograph of a man in a boat. (Some Scorsese fans may think of this particular element as presaging a certain painting seen in GoodFellas, a painting which is discussed in this interesting article which also includes some sweet information about Scorsese's mother Catherine.)

Harry's life is in a downward spiral due to his obsession until he meets a woman (Mimi Stark) who eventually becomes his wife. The wife's penchant for painting leads to the story's denouement, which may remind some true trivia fans of one of the three stories in the original pilot television movie of Rod Serling's Night Gallery. What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? offers a lot of style, especially for a filmmaker then so early in his career, with characters delivering first person confessionals directly to the camera, as well as cross cutting between characters, one of whom (Fred Sica) simply repeats what others have said as a kind of mantra.

What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

All of the films included in Scorsese Shorts are presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.33:1. Criterion's insert booklet lumps information about the transfers together as follows:

All five films are presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right of the imae to maintain the proper screen format. The new digital transfers of Italianamerican and American Boy were created in 4K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director film scanner from the 16 mm negative A/B rolls. The Big Shave, It's Not Just You, Murray!, and What's a Nice Girl Like Your Doing in a Place Like This? were created in 4K resolution from the original 16 mm reversal A/B rolls.

The original monaural soundtracks for Italianamerican and American Boy were remastered from 35 mm magnetic tracks. The original monaural soundtrack for The Big Shave was remastered from 16 mm magnetic tracks. The original monaural soundtracks for It's Not Just You, Murray! and What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? were remastered from 16 mm optical soundtrack positives. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD and iZotope RX.

American Boy; The Big Shave; It's Not Just You, Murray!; and What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? film elements courtesy of the George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York. Italianamerican film element courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? is one of the more visually inventive of the shorts in this piece, with sections "assembled" out of a series of still photographs that morph, kind of like old style flip books, and one nascent special effect at the film's close. The black and white cinematography is generally very well rendered, but perhaps due to the variety of techniques, clarity and detail levels can be somewhat variant. Grain can similarly ebb and flow a bit, but resolves naturally throughout.

What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? features an LPCM Mono track that supports the film's dialogue (including quite a bit of voiceover by Harry), as well as more whimsical musical elements, including one outright sung number. Fidelity is fine throughout, and all spoken material is delivered cleanly and clearly. Optional English subtitles are available.

What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements tied to this specific film on the disc. For the more generalist supplements that the disc does offer, please refer to the Scorsese Shorts Blu-ray review.

What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? is just a wonderfully wacky piece that includes a surprising amount of "meta" material for those prone to look for such things. Technical merits are generally solid, and What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? comes Recommended.