D-Day the Sixth of June (1956)

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General		Extras
Category	War	Theatrical Trailer-2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced, Dolby Digital 2.0 (2:21)
Rating
Year Of Production	1956
Running Time	101:56
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (72:54)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Henry Koster
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Robert Taylor Richard Todd Dana Wynter Edmond O'Brien
Case	?
RPI	$31.95	Music	Lyn Murray

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Dutch English French German Italian Spanish Italian Titling German Titling Spanish Titling	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    If you want to see a film about the sinking of the Titanic, you have to check out Roy Baker's A Night To Remember, a wonderful film that captures the tragic events so well. If you want to see a film not so much about the sinking of the Titanic but rather some rubbish romance with the tragic sinking as a backdrop, you of course will be heading for James Cameron's generally lamentable Titanic. So what has that to do with the current title? Well, if you want to see a film about possibly the most famous day in history, you have to check out directed-by-committee but terrific The Longest Day, a film that captures the day so well. If you want to see a film not so much about the historic day but rather some romance with the day as a backdrop, you will of course be heading to D-Day The Sixth Of June, which is not to say that this is a bad film at all, it is simply not quite what the title suggests.

    We start with Special Force Six embarking for a little trip across a small piece of water as the vanguard of the biggest invasion force the world has ever seen. Special Force Six is headed by Colonel John Wynter (Richard Todd), whilst one of his section leaders is Captain Brad Parker (Robert Taylor). So what you say? Well, let them tell you the story of one Valerie Russell (the beautiful, gorgeous Dana Wynter), a Red Cross worker who came a long way from Egypt to London. Back earlier in the war, Valerie and John were something of an item but as these things are wont to do during wartime, John volunteered for some serious action in North Africa and went and did the hero bit, getting himself lost in the process. Valerie and her father returned to England and in their little village, overrun by Yanks, she meets one by the name of Brad. Cool at first, she eventually warms to Brad even though he has a wife back in the good old U.S. of A. They become something of an item, at least until what was lost was found again - in the form of John. Oh, the tangled web of romantic attachments! So who does Valerie choose? And exactly what impact does it have upon the working relationship of the two men?

    For many years I really did not have a great deal of time for this film, notably because I very much liked The Longest Day. Maybe it is the result of being inured by rubbish such as that tripe made by James Cameron, but returning to the film after many, many years absence has changed my view of the film somewhat. Sure it is still not in the same league as the great war films, but in its own way it presents a view of war that perhaps has as much validity as a straight out action film. The war had many profound effects on Britain, and one of those was the arrival of brash, young American men who were distinctly different to the reserved British stereotype. How were the English women to cope with that distinct difference? Unfortunately, the story could perhaps have done with some better attention to detail in order to develop the characters more. As it is, we sort of flit around and never really address the core issue, and the ending to be fair is not exactly the most believable. Whilst I have no complaints regarding Dana Wynter's performance as the English rose, it is fair to say that Richard Todd really does not come across that well as her British attachment. But even he is better than Robert Taylor, who really fails to convince at just about any level in this threesome. The only other role of note in the film is Edmond O'Brien as Colonel Alex Timmer and he comes across as something of an idiot.

    Despite the problems and the obvious lack of development in the story, the whole film hangs together reasonably well. It is by no means a war film, but adds something to the other aspect of the American invasion of Britain. Might be worthwhile checking this out but it is definitely one that needs to be previewed, as it certainly will not be to everyone's taste.

Video

    Once again this is a film that I have never seen in widescreen, and once again it is a film that improves considerably in its intended aspect ratio. Part of the reason that I did not like the film in its television-b******ised ratio was that it seemed to be so close and constricting. In the widescreen ratio, the film gets much more space and the presentation really makes a lot more sense.

    The transfer is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.

    This was quite a surprisingly good transfer, for my recollection of the television presentation was not good. However, there are a few problems to contend with. One of these is that, especially earlier on in the film, the contrast is not really that good. This has the effect of robbing the transfer of a little of the detail that it really needs, as the tendency is towards a little darkness in the film. It should be pointed out, though, that this is readily adjusted to and improves after the early stages of the film. Shadow detail as a result is a little poorer than perhaps it would have otherwise been. Other than that, there is nothing much wrong - there is little in the way of grain and clarity is very good in all other respects.

    I found the quality of the colour quite surprising. The overall palette is quite muted, but is very consistent and has a very natural feel to it. Obviously, the colours could have a little more depth to them, and the transfer is anything but vibrant, but the wartime austerity feeling is enhanced as a result. There is the odd minor problem with colour bleed, notably around the faces at times (such as at 16:55), but this is not really that much of a distraction.

    This is another transfer that exhibits nothing significant in the way of MPEG artefacts, although this time it also has little in the way of film-to-video artefacts. There is little obvious in the way of aliasing and the only really noticeable, and distracting, problem is some moiré artefacting in the corrugated huts at the end of the film (101:10). Whilst there are certainly some film artefacts floating around, they were mainly not that much of an issue and much better than I was expecting.

    This is an RSDL formatted DVD with the layer change presumably coming in the black scene fade at 72:54. I am certainly unsure as to whether it is indeed at this point, as there is nothing really evident to confirm this on my system.

    There are a small number of subtitle options on the DVD. The English efforts are very good and did not require any notes to be made during the review session.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The choice of soundtracks on this release is limited to four efforts in Dolby Digital 2.0: English, German, Italian and Spanish.

    Given that the original soundtrack is now rapidly heading for its fiftieth birthday, all things considered this is not a bad effort. However, it does have one major issue - there are a number of scenes throughout the film which have recessed, slightly echoing sound. This seems to be an issue with most of the interior scenes, presumably shot on a sound stage. The boom mike must have been suspended high and right in the middle of the set, as any time a character is off-centre their dialogue starts to fade out and get that slight echo to it. The further away from centre they are, the more of an issue it becomes. When they are wandering around, well heaven help you if your hearing is anything less than decent. As a result, some of the dialogue is not so easy to hear and certainly might in some circumstances be a little difficult to understand. There did not seem to be any issues with audio sync in the transfer, but again some ADR work was not quite as good as perhaps we would have liked.

    The original score comes from Lyn Murray. It is a decent enough effort although a little banal at times. There is certainly nothing about it that really draws your attention to it, so it by definition it must be an unobtrusive score that supports the film reasonably well.

    Aside from the aforementioned recessed sections of the soundtrack, there really is not much to mention here. Not the most dynamic effort you will ever hear but an otherwise reasonable effort considering the age of the source material.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    It is looking like the standard package of extras for these releases in the War Classics series from Fox is going to be a theatrical trailer and some very functional menus that are out of character with the films themselves. I hope I am wrong but this effort is very similar to that afforded Sink The Bismarck!

Menu

    As mentioned, very, very functional and out of character with the era of the film.

Theatrical Trailer (2:21)

    The good news is that this is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, is 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. The bad news is that the contrast is even worse here, the transfer even darker, the sound strident and hissy and it is well blessed with film artefacts. Makes you appreciate the feature more I suppose.

    It would appear that the Region 4 release misses out on:

• English Dolby Digital 4.0 surround soundtrack
• 5 additional trailers

    The Region 1 release misses out on nothing but some variation in soundtracks. In Region 2 (UK) the film is available in a two disc set with the other film being The Young Lions (the next film in this series to be reviewed). From what I can ascertain, the transfers of the Region 1 and 2 releases seem to be very similar overall and there is little to choose between the three releases. With the presence of the Dolby Digital 4.0 soundtrack though, the Region 1 release would have to be the preferred choice.

    Not a great war film, and not a great romance, D-Day The Sixth Of June is something of a misrepresented film. It will not please those who inadvertently buy this as a war film and I doubt romantics at heart will be able to conjure up much sympathy for the characters or the weak ending. Whilst the widescreen presentation certainly helps the film, the problems with the audio transfer in particular ensure that this is one that you really should preview being forking over your hard earned pesos.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall