Starring: Broderick Crawford, Judy Holliday, William Holden
Plot: A million dollar Tycoon hires a tutor to teach his lover proper etiquette.
My Review and Thoughts:
Film: (4/5)
This is a wonderful 1950's comedy drama. It’s actually based on a play by the same name. The play was written by Garson Kanin. Now in 2012 this film was by the United States library of Congress, selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. They stated that it was culturally, historically significant. Now the plot is very simple, your main character is tycoon Harry Brock. He goes to Washington DC with his beautiful, stunning, amazing girlfriend Emma, played by the wonderful, one and only, screen cinema goddess, Judy Holliday. He also travels with his crooked lawyer. He wants to influence a politician or maybe many. Now his lawyer takes it upon himself to tell Harry that he should marry his girlfriend, in that girlfriends can testify, but wife’s cannot testify against their husbands. Now Harry does not like his girlfriend’s lack of manners, even though might I add, Harry’s manners are much worse. So he takes it upon himself to hire a journalist named Paul to train her in the ways of manners. There his girlfriend Billie trains in literature, history, politics and law and what many people don’t realize is Billie turns out to be smarter than they could imagine. She starts to think for herself, reads and learns, but most of all she begins to fall in love, not with Harry, but with another. This is a wonderful cast of characters and an awesome ensemble setting of stars.
Flawlessly directed, wonderful cinematography, a beautiful music soundtrack composed wonderfully by Frederick Hollander. The music itself is brilliant. This being released on the special edition Twilight Time Blu-ray, which they are geared toward the music lover, do a fantastic job at refreshing and creating the audio and video to a flawlessly done disc.
This is a wonderful 1950's comedy drama. It’s actually based on a play by the same name. The play was written by Garson Kanin. Now in 2012 this film was by the United States library of Congress, selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. They stated that it was culturally, historically significant. Now the plot is very simple, your main character is tycoon Harry Brock. He goes to Washington DC with his beautiful, stunning, amazing girlfriend Emma, played by the wonderful, one and only, screen cinema goddess, Judy Holliday. He also travels with his crooked lawyer. He wants to influence a politician or maybe many. Now his lawyer takes it upon himself to tell Harry that he should marry his girlfriend, in that girlfriends can testify, but wife’s cannot testify against their husbands. Now Harry does not like his girlfriend’s lack of manners, even though might I add, Harry’s manners are much worse. So he takes it upon himself to hire a journalist named Paul to train her in the ways of manners. There his girlfriend Billie trains in literature, history, politics and law and what many people don’t realize is Billie turns out to be smarter than they could imagine. She starts to think for herself, reads and learns, but most of all she begins to fall in love, not with Harry, but with another. This is a wonderful cast of characters and an awesome ensemble setting of stars.
Flawlessly directed, wonderful cinematography, a beautiful music soundtrack composed wonderfully by Frederick Hollander. The music itself is brilliant. This being released on the special edition Twilight Time Blu-ray, which they are geared toward the music lover, do a fantastic job at refreshing and creating the audio and video to a flawlessly done disc.
Now this is directed by Hollywood legend George Cukor. He was a master talented American film director that created many wonderful comedies and also films adapted from books. His main contribution to film reality was working along David O. Selznick and flourishing through RKO Film Studio. He mastered such great films as, 1933’s Little Women, 1935’s David Copperfield, 1936’s Romeo and Juliet. I think many will remember him from his stunning work at RKO studios but also creating such classic films as 1944’s Gaslight, 1964's musical My Fair Lady. Now something I think that is really interesting, that many people will remember him from is being replaced as the director of the masterpiece, Gone with the Wind. He started the creation of Gone with the Wind but did not finish it. Now he was known throughout his directing career as a woman’s director. Meaning in his reality he was able to create, acting performances that were stunning, through whomever the actress was that he was directing. Many of his directing action of his actors and actresses ended up with Academy award nominations. He seemed to be a master talent at directing individuals in front of the camera. Now one of his talents was helping create films. Often was a director assistant. Studios would hire him to go in and fix things or alter things even though he did not film any as director of those films. He stepped in on the 1935 amazing classic The Wizard of Oz. He did make many crucial changes that made the film what it is today, a classic. Dorothy originally had a blond wig on, he changed that. He also changed Dorothy’s makeup and costume which we have in the final film. He also changed the hairstyle to the wicked witch and told the studio to cast Jack Haley as The Tin Man.
You get the extras of an Isolated Score Track along with the original Theatrical Trailer. This like almost all Twilight Time Blu-rays is limited to 3,000 Units. You also get a booklet insert by Julie Kirgo on the film. This film was nominated for an amazing five Academy Awards. Judy Holliday won for best actress and she deserved it greatly. She gives a stunning performance of perfection for any lover of old school cinema. This is a must see film just because of her acting performance. This also was nominated for best costume design, which it is brilliant to see. Also nominated for Best director, best picture and best writing.
Holliday also won The Golden Globe award for best actress in a Musical or Comedy. The movie also was nominated for a Golden Globe of best picture and best director. It also was nominated at the award ceremonies of The Writers Guild of America, Venice Film Festival Golden Lion. Holliday also won an award called the Jussi Award which is Finland’s version of the Oscars, she won it for best foreign actress. In the year 2000 AFI’s 100 years, nominated it on their chart of 100 Laughs at the number 24. Something interesting to note is there was a remake of this movie by the same name in 1993, starring Melanie Griffith, Don Johnson and John Goodman, but it fails to capture the beauty of the original. This is a great comedy and is truly, hilarious, but also uses a great setting of drama. In reality it is a comedy, drama. At certain times it is more comedy, and then at other times it is more drama. I for one absolutely love this film. I have seen this film one other time, but seeing it here on this special edition, restored with its crisp clean video and listening to its awesome music and audio, is the best I’ve ever seen it at. To me this is one of those landmark films of cinema. It’s a movie that should never be forgotten. It’s a movie that should always be graced by the wonder of its fans. This is an old black and white comedy drama that shines in its extraordinary acting ability to grab the viewer, to hold the viewer and to create in the viewer through its many laughs and also awe-inspiring drama.
Audio/Video: (5/5)
LANGUAGE: English
VIDEO: 1080p High Definition / 1.33:1
AUDIO: English 1.0 DTS-HD MA
SUBTITLES: English SDH
1950 / B & W
103 MINUTES
NOT RATED
REGION FREE
Extras: (3/5)
Isolated Score Track / Original Theatrical
Trailer
Limited Edition of 3,000 Units
Liner notes by Julie Kirgo
Liner notes by Julie Kirgo
Overall Product Rating: (5/5)
Twilight Time Blu-ray did it again with a mastery of perfection for another amazing release for the fans to enjoy and to grace with all the wonderful beauty that is cinema and entertainment. Twilight Time knows how to bring out a perfection for the cinema lover.
INFO:
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