Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1986
Running Time	99:06
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Paul Mazursky
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Nick Nolte Bette Midler Richard Dreyfuss
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired Spanish Swedish Norwegian Danish Finnish Spanish Titling	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, end titles over last scene

    This is the sort of film you expect to see in a noir cinema, with subtitles, because the characters are speaking in French, or Danish. It's also the sort of film you don't expect to be made in the materialistic and consumptive eighties, by Hollywood and starring a big name cast.

    Well, not only was this film made by Hollywood, it's even set in Hollywood's Mecca: Beverly Hills. It is subtle and whimsical and yet so ... well ... Beverly Hills. It is based on a French play entitled Boudu Sauvé Des Eaux by René Fauchois.

    A homeless bum called Jerry Baskin (Nick Nolte) loses his faithful companion - a dog - and tries to commit suicide by drowning himself in a swimming pool at the home of the wealthy Whitemans. He is rescued by the head of the family - Dave (Richard Dreyfuss) - who then proceeds to take him under his wing.

    It is a strange household that Jerry finds himself in, but the film implies that the Whitemans are somehow "typical" of the average upper-middle-class American family living in Beverly Hills. Dave makes and sells coat hangers for a living, his wife Barbara (Bette Midler) fills out her days by consulting with shrinks, gurus and even dog psychiatrists. Dave fears his pretty daughter Jenny (Tracy Nelson) is anorexic ("she never eats ...") and he doesn't know what to make of his son Max (Evan Richards) - who sees life through a video camera. The dog Matisse (Mike) is amusingly neurotic.

    The rest of the film chronicles how Jerry gradually changes the lives of the Whitemans, their neighbours and friends. Dave is fascinated with Jerry - since Jerry does not fit his preconceived stereotype of a street bum. Jerry appears to be highly educated, has done many things and been to many places, and obviously has many hidden talents - including quoting Shakespeare, playing Debussy on the piano, good massage skills and even practices Tai-Chi. So why did he "choose" to become a bum? And how come a Hollywood agent recognises him as a writer?

    However, Dave is not so happy when he finds out Jerry has seduced his wife, his Mexican maid Carmen (Elizabeth Peña), and his daughter. Will he be forced to kick Jerry out of his house? Or, even worse, will Jerry choose to leave of his own accord?

    The film is a light-hearted poke at our values, sensibilities and even prejudices. And it does so in a very non-preaching, non-judgemental way. By the way - watch out for Matisse - I think he is the real star of the show!

Video

    The transfer is in widescreen,16x9 enhanced, in the intended aspect ratio of 1.85:1 based on a 35mm film source.

    I was surprised by how good the transfer looked. The film source is very clean, with grain only present in dark scenes. Fortunately, most of the film is shot in bright light which means grain is not very noticeable.

    There are various black film marks here and there, which look like dirt.

    Detail levels are high, and colour saturation is very good - pretty close to perfect I would say.

    I did not detect any compression artefacts.

    There are a number of subtitle tracks present: English, English for the Hearing Impaired, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, and Spanish Titling. I turned on both English and English for the Hearing Impaired subtitle tracks. Both tracks transcribe lyrics to background music and the latter includes transcription of non dialogue vocal utterances.

    This is a single sided single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are two audio tracks on the disc: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s), and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s).

    This is a reasonably decent audio track. It's nothing outlandish or spectacular, but there are no major problems either.

    It's a very dialogue focused film, as you would expect, and all channels other than the front centre are relatively underutilized except for the background music.

    Dialogue is relatively clear throughout, and I did not notice any issues with audio synchronization.

    The opening and closing titles feature Once In A Lifetime by David Byrne of the Talking Heads. Little Richard plays a cameo role and even gets to sing a song. The original music score is by Andy Summers and is mainly light instrumental pop.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are no extras on this disc. The menus are 16x9 enhanced and static.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

• English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded audio track

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:

• English and Spanish 5.1 audio tracks
• Additional foreign language subtitle tracks

    R4 wins by a narrow margin due to the remastered 5.1 audio tracks.

    Down And Out In Beverly Hills is about how a homeless bum who has lost his dog takes refuge in a Beverly Hills household and changes the lives of the family living in the house.

    The video transfer quality is excellent considering the age of the film and the fact that this is a single sided single layered disc.

    The audio transfer quality is acceptable.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall