Douglas Sirk: King of Hollywood Melodrama (1952)

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     There are three Box Set releases of Douglas Sirk's works available worldwide: the Region 4 9-disc Douglas Sirk King of Hollywood Melodrama Box Set from Madman's Directors Suite label, the Region 2 7-disc Directed By Douglas Sirk Box Set from Universal and the Region 2 French 8-disc Douglas Sirk Collection, Vol. 1 and the 8-disc Douglas Sirk Collection, Vol. 2 from Carlotta. (A third volume has been released in this series, but this includes Sirk's films prior to his Universal-International period in the 1950s)

     The 9-disc Region 4 Box Set includes the films No Room for the Groom, All I Desire, Magnificent Obsession, Taza, Son of Cochise, All That Heaven Allows, There's Always Tomorrow, A Time to Love and a Time to Die, The Tarnished Angels and Imitation of Life. This set includes as extras an interview with Tony Curtis on No Room for the Groom, a 60-minute documentary featuring interviews with Douglas Sirk from 1982 entitled Days of Sirk, an interview with actors Pat Crowley and Gigi Perreau and an interview with director Allison Anders on There's Always Tomorrow, a discussion with Wesley Strick on A Time to Love and a Time to Die and audio commentaries by Therese Davies on All I Desire, Mark Nicholls on Magnificent Obsession and All That Heaven Allows, John Flaus and Adrian Martin on There's Always Tomorrow, Ross Gibson on A Time to Love and a Time to Die, Adrian Martin on Tarnished Angels and Angela Ndalianis on Imitation of Life. A 28-page essay entitled Through a Glass Darkly - The Cinema of Douglas Sirk by Dr Geoff Mayer is also included which discusses Sirk's film career, his life and the films included in the Box Set.

     In comparison to the standalone releases of these films by Madman, which include all the films except No Room for the Groom and Taza, Son of Cochise, the extras left out of the box set include the 1935 version of Magnificent Obsession by John Stahl, two interviews with William Reynolds and Todd Haynes on Sirk, a profile documentary on Rock Hudson and an essay by author Justin Vicari on All That Heaven Allows, an essay by Dr Adrian Danks entitled The Far Side of Paradise on There's Always Tomorrow, an essay on A Time to Love and a Time to Die by Dr Geoff Mayer and a profile documentary on Lana Turner, an interview with Sam Staggs on Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life, an insert essay by Dr Wendy Haslem and the original 1934 version of Imitation of Life by John Stahl.

     The Region 2 United Kingdom release is available from Universal as a 7-disc Directed By Douglas Sirk Box Set which includes Has Anyone Seen My Gal?, All I Desire, Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, Written On The Wind, The Tarnished Angels and Imitation Of Life. This release has no extras.

     The Region 2 French Carlotta releases come in separate volumes. The 8-disc Douglas Sirk Collection, Vol. 1 Box Set includes the four films Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, A Time to Love and a Time to Die and Imitation of Life. This Box Set also includes the original John Stahl versions of Magnificent Obsession and Imitation of Life, interviews with Jean-Loup Bourget and Philippe le Guay on Magnificent Obsession, reflections on Imitation of Life by Christophe Honore and Sam Staggs, an analytical discussion on the melodrama of Sirk and Stahl by Jean-Loup Bourget, discussions on All That Heaven Allows by Todd Haynes, William Reynolds and Rainer Werner Fassbinder (in textual form) plus an audio commentary by François Ozon, a documentary on Imitation of Life, an interview with Wesley Strick and voiceover analysis of Imitation of Life from Douglas Sirk and Jean-Luc Godard.

     The 8-disc Douglas Sirk Collection, Vol. 2 Box Set includes the four films All I Desire, There's Always Tomorrow, Interlude and The Tarnished Angels plus as extras an interview with Billy Gray on Sirk's All I Desire (in English), an interview with Sirk (Days With Sirk) (in English) on All I Desire, the original 1939 version of Interlude, 'When Tomorrow Comes', an interview with Marianne Koch (one of the stars) – (in French with German subtitles only) and an interview with director Kathryn Bigelow on Douglas Sirk on Interlude. There's Always Tomorrow has two featurettes entitled So Many Years - reminisces of actresses from the film, Pat Crowley and Gigi Perreau and Perspectives on the American family, an analysis of the film by Allison Anders. The Tarnished Angels has four extras; Marguerite Chabrol on the transition from the book Pylon by William Falukener to screen (in French), a discussion with Bill Krohn, recollections from star William Schallert on this film and his career and a featurette - Acting for Douglas Sirk which includes vintage interviews about the film with Douglas Sirk, Rock Hudson, Dorothy Malone and Robert Stack. All four films on the Douglas Sirk Collection, Vol. 2 Box Set have a 20-minute discussion with film historian Jean-Loup Bourget & Hollywood writer Pierre Berthomieu (in French only).

     The Region 2 Carlotta Box Sets have an incredible range of extras; unfortunately these can only be best appreciated in French. The Region 4 Madman Directors Suite Box Set has more audio commentaries and is the best collection of Douglas Sirk's works available for English-speaking audiences.

     I wish to extend a special thanks to fellow Sirk enthusiast and MichaelDVD reviewer Garry Armstrong for his reviews of the films in this Box Set All I Desire, All That Heaven Allows, There's Always Tomorrow and The Tarnished Angels.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

No Room for the Groom (Directors Suite) (1952)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Interviews-Cast-Interview with star Tony Curtis Trailer-Four Directors Suite trailers
Rating
Year Of Production	1952
Running Time	78:56 (Case: 869)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Douglas Sirk
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Tony Curtis Piper Laurie Don DeFore Spring Byington Lillian Bronson Paul McVey Alden 'Stephen' Chase Lee Aaker Jack Kelly Frank Sully
Case	Custom Packaging
RPI	Box	Music	Frank Skinner

    We know him today as the King of melodrama, the one auteur who was able to fashion social dramas into an art form in the 1950s. Douglas Sirk was born in Germany to Danish parents in 1900. He started his film career in Germany in 1922 but was forced to leave by 1937 due to his political views and his Jewish wife. It wasn't until the 1950s, in association with Universal Pictures, that he would come to make films for which he is greatly renowned for today.

    The melodramatic style that Sirk developed focused on plots where characters had social constraints to their desires and actions. They challenged social conventions of the time and often women were at the centre of his films. It wasn't just in his plots that Sirk developed a recognisable reputation, his collaboration with cinematographer Russell Metty, with his distinct use of Technicolor, helped to define Sirk's pictures. Together Metty and Sirk worked on seven films. (Although quite ironically Metty won his only Oscar for cinematography on a film where the director, Stanley Kubrick, sharply disagreed with his cinematography, yet was credited for his work on Spartacus due to contractual reasons.)

    At the time that Sirk made his films he was largely dismissed by critics as a woman's director, making films that dealt with women's issues that were largely domestic and unimportant. It was in the late 1960s, with the support of the Cahiers du Cinema French critics and others like Andrew Sarris who began to re-define the value of Douglas Sirk to the development of cinema. Sirk has greatly influenced the career of German New Wave director Rainer Werner Fassbinder and contemporary directors such as John Waters, Todd Haynes, Wong Kar-wai and Quentin Tarantino.

    No Room for the Groom was an early attempt at a screwball comedy for Sirk. At the time (1952) it was just another picture, with Tony Curtis in his first lead role and Piper Laurie in her first starring role at the age of 20. The plot had characteristic Sirkian elements which he developed in his films later on. Curtis plays Alvah Morrell, a young man in the army who elopes to Las Vegas to marry his housekeeper's daughter, Lee (Piper Laurie). He is unable spend his honeymoon with his wife due to illness and soon after he is sent on army service for 10 months. When he returns home he finds that his mother-in-law has let all her relatives stay in his house and he still can't manage to find any time to spend alone with his wife. This is basically the main plot of the film, except for the addition of the character of Herman Strouple (Don DeFore), a wealthy business man who wants to use Alvah's land for his business affairs. What will Alvah do, especially since his wife works for Mr Strouple?

    At 78 minutes in length, the film is short, not allowing enough time to develop the characters and add more tension to the plot, as mentioned by Tony Curtis in his interview in the extra on the DVD. However, it is an interesting introduction to Sirk's melodramatic style which he would develop soon after in films like Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, There's Always Tomorrow and Imitation of Life.

    No Room for the Groom is the first film in a 9-disc Box Set released by Madman's Directors Suite label in April 2010 to honour Douglas Sirk as a filmmaker. This is a significant release on DVD of Sirk's works, and Michael D will provide our readers with a full review of the contents of this Box Set in the coming month.

Video

    No Room for the Groom has been ported in Region 4 from the Carlotta Region 2 French 2008 release of the film onto DVD. These are the only two releases of the film onto DVD so far.

    The Aspect ratio is 1:33:1 full-frame, not 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions.

    The transfer is adequate. The main presentation takes up 3.67 gb of a 4.75 gb DVD with an average bitrate of 6.36 m/b per sec. This PAL transfer shows some interlacing at times (which appears as a slight 'combing' effect), as well as some minimal film grain.

    The Black-and White photography is relatively consistent in tone, neither bright, dull or distinctive the cinematography is evidence of the standard budget for the film.

    Film artefacts are rare, with lines across the screen and white, negative artefacts and some reel change markings showing occasionally.

    Unfortunately there are no subtitles with this release.

    There is no RSDL change as the film is presented on the first layer of the DVD disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The score by Frank Skinner is consistent with standard Hollywood scores for comedy films of the early 1950s.

    There is one audio track on the DVD. This is an English soundtrack encoded in Dolby Digital 2.0 at 224 kbps.

    Dialogue is usually clear, there may have been once or twice when I struggled to decipher dialogue, maybe due to the mix of the soundtrack with background noise. There are occasional clicks and pops in the soundtrack also.

    Music by Frank Skinner is comedic in tone, in line with the theme of the movie. Skinner would develop more melodramatic scores on Sirk's films in the 1950s, although his reputation as a film composer grew at this time as he was previously known for his horror scores in the late 1930s on films such as Son of Frankenstein.

    There is no surround channel usage as the main soundtrack is in mono.

    The subwoofer is not utilised either.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Interview with star Tony Curtis (10:20)

Directors Suite Trailers

    As mentioned, No Room for the Groom was previously released by Carlotta in Region 2 in France in 2008 on DVD. This release also included the 1952 Douglas Sirk feature Has Anybody Seen My Gal? as a double-disc release. It includes two interviews with the main cast, Tony Curtis and Piper Laurie. The interview with Tony Curtis is available on the Region 4 release by Madman Directors Suite label as an extra.

    The inclusion of No Room for the Groom on the Douglas Sirk: King of Hollywood Melodrama Box Set represents the first release of the film onto DVD in an English-speaking Region.

    No Room for the Groom is a light-hearted screwball comedy which introduces the audience to some Douglas Sirk motifs (such as character desire in conflict with social convention) with which the great director would become famous for in later films in the 1950s. Sirk would retire from filmmaking in America by 1959, returning to live in Europe in Switzerland, but not before making a significant contribution to cinema. It is this contribution that will be reviewed in Sirk's other eight films on the Douglas Sirk: King of Hollywood Melodrama Box Set in the coming month.

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Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

All I Desire (Directors Suite) (1953)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Audio Commentary-Full length by Senior Lecturer in Film, Monash University
Rating
Year Of Production	1953
Running Time	76:18 (Case: 79)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (76:18)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Douglas Sirk
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Barbara Stanwyck Richard Carlson Lyle Bettger Marcia Henderson Lori Nelson Maureen O'Sullivan Richard Long Billy Gray Dayton Lummis Lotte Stein Fred Nurney
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	$34.95	Music	Henry Mancini Milton Rosen Hans J. Salter

"We're a big disappointment to each other, aren't we?
You've got a mother with no principles; I've got a daughter with no guts."
Naomi Murdoch

Madman are continuing with the release of selected Douglas Sirk films made at Universal during the 1950s. Here for review is All I Desire, made in 1953 starring a true Hollywood great, Barbara Stanwyck. Sirk's previous four films had included two nostalgic musicals, Has Anybody Seen My Gal? and Meet Me at the Fair, a newlyweds comedy, No Room for the Groom and Take Me to Town, a gentle piece of rural Americana that thematically foreshadows All I Desire. In that film Ann Sheridan had played a saloon singer who finds redemption and love with the family of widower backwoodsman Sterling Hayden, encountering local yokel opposition and exclusion in the process, quite akin to the tut-tutting disapproval of the good residents of Riverdale endured by Naomi Murdoch in All I Desire.

The film opens in 1910 with the exterior of the Bijou Theatre in an anonymous town, with a woman's voice providing a narration. The camera moves in to a close-up of the sandwich board advertising the current vaudeville program, playing for two weeks and closing May 16th.The narrator identifies her billing on the board, "Direct from Broadway" Naomi Murdoch (Barbara Stanwyck), "not quite at the bottom of the bill yet". We move into the tawdry, cramped backstage of the Bijou and see Naomi as she repairs herself between appearances. Her dressing room mate hands her some mail, amongst the letters an invitation from daughter Lily for Naomi to return to her old town of Riverdale, Wisconsin, to attend Lily's performance in the high school play, conveniently on May 20th. Naomi had never told her fellow performer about any "family", and explains that in 1900 she walked out on a husband and three children before a scandal involving another man could .... Naomi doesn't complete the thought. At first dismissive of the idea - "I'm supposed to be in Europe doing Shakespeare" - Naomi decides to spend her savings put aside for the summer break "to get a wardrobe and go back". This is going to be a special command performance by Naomi, commanded by the daughter who signs herself, "Your adoring Lily".

Naomi's arrival at the Riverdale train station is instantly telegraphed through the town. Reactions at the Murdoch household run the gamut from the bitter disapproval of the elder daughter, Joyce (Marcia Henderson) to the gushing adoration of the younger Lily (Lori Nelson), who has aspirations to become a "star" like her mother. The youngest child ,Ted (Billy Gray) is rather passive about this unexpected return, having never known his mother. The boy works after school in the store of Dutch Heinemann (Lyle Bettger), whom we learn was the object of the desire that led to Naomi's desertion of her family. Wronged husband, school principal Henry (Richard Carlson), is confused and initially reluctant to welcome the return of his unfaithful wife. The Murdoch household help, Lena (Lotte Stein) and Peterson (Fred Nurney) are perhaps the most welcoming of the good folk of Riverdale.

That evening there are two performances in the school hall - the one on stage starring Lily and the one in the audience, starring a glitteringly overdressed Naomi. (Watch out for a young Guy Williams on the door of the school hall and Stuart Whitman and Brett Halsey as Lily's student co-stars - also attending the later celebrations at the Murdoch home.) Naomi also meets Henry's lady friend, Sarah Harper (Maureen O'Sullivan), the teacher responsible for the student production. All are in attendance at the after show party, with Naomi wowing the younger set with her energetic bunny-hug. Lily sets the clock back and as a result Naomi misses her train and has to stay overnight - the "stopover" of the novel's title. What follows is dramatic turmoil as Naomi attempts to bridge the gulf she created between herself and her family. Will she be taken back into the fold? Will she once again answer the three gunshot call to arms of Dutch? What desire will Naomi seek to satisfy?

These questions are certainly the stuff of melodrama, but Sirk reigns in the emotions, rarely allowing excess to overwhelm the drama of the action. Perhaps the most indulgent moments come with the appearances of Dutch (Lyle Bettger, fresh from The Greatest Show on Earth), accompanied by extremely fruity music cues. These lapses aside, there are many moments when we expect to be appealed to emotionally by the situation of the estranged mother, but in the middle of that moment there will be a violent interruption to the mood. This interruption frequently comes from Naomi herself, with Barbara Stanwyck thrillingly switching from appealing warmth to hard as nails mid sentence. This is a beautifully judged performance by this great star, looking magnificent - and making five films in 1953, two of the others being Fox's Titanic and MGM's gripping thriller, Jeopardy.

Undoubtedly constrained within the strict confines of a Universal budget, Sirk brings in the film at under eighty minutes, and utilises mainly contract players at that time on the Universal payroll. Richard Carlson made this film sandwiched between Universal's big 3D hits, It Came from Outer Space (1953) and The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). A reliable but colourless actor, he is well cast as the rather dreary small town principal. Richard Long had played the son of just about everyone at Universal, from Claudette Colbert (Tomorrow is Forever) to Ma and Pa Kettle's eldest, before moving into directing. All I Desire gives Long one of his better roles as Marcia Henderson's beau, with some very nice simpatico moments on screen with Stanwyck. Miss Henderson was a rather bland actress, her apparent inability to change from one expression to another cloaked by some adroit editing, although facial continuity suffers at times. The extremely lovely Lori Nelson was the first to play Long's wife in the Kettle series, and was teamed at one time or another with most of the Universal beefcake brigade. Not from the Universal stable is young Billy Gray, who worked all over Hollywood, memorably at Warners as Doris Day's young brother in On Moonlight Bay and By the Light of the Silvery Moon, as well as in Fox's excellent The Girl Next Door with Dan Dailey and June Haver. Also working at Universal mid-career was Maureen O'Sullivan, here fine and sympathetic, but unforgettable as Tarzan's Jane in Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) and fifty-four year later singing Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered in Woody Allen's Hannah and her Sisters (1986).

Visually the film is outstanding. Sirk was undoubtedly a great film artist, with his artistic choices always in evidence. Where to place the camera, what should be the camera angle, the composition of the image, what lighting to use, the movement of the actors within the frame - all are choices made by Sirk and to analyse the results of these choices is an eduation in film making. Credit must also go to the director of photography Carl Guthrie, behind the camera for many of Universal-s series films, includng the two Bonzo films and entries from Francis the Talking Mule and the Kettles. The year after All I Desire Guthrie was to found in Sydney's Botany Bay filming Long John Silver, with Robert Newton.

All I Desire was then very much a product of the studio system, and came from a studio more renowned for its mass appeal series, westerns and Arabian adventures than for serious, even artistic, endeavours. When Sirk's film was released it was held in little regard, and was denigrated for decades afterwards. Certainly considered a "B" movie, undoubtedly in its initial release part of a double bill, which was customary practice with Universal product. (In its initial release even All That Heaven Allows had a supporting attraction at the State Theatre in Sydney - Ain't Misbehavin', a technicolor musical starring Rory Calhoun, Piper Laurie, Jack Carson and Mamie Van Doren. Unbelievable!) Clive Hirschorn in The Universal Story published in 1983, has praise for Barbara Stanwyck but condemns the film as a "quagmire of sentimental mediocrity". How opinion has changed!

With his greatest films yet to come, All I Desire is a lesson in economic film-making. Here we have a great director creating absorbing, cinematically literate drama, and at its centre an enduringly majestic performance by the great Barbara Stanwyck. This is truly a neglected gem from the 50s.

I am sad to say that I have to end this review with a gripe about price. The Madman website lists the RRP for All I Desire as $34.95, for a single disc with the only "extra" a fairly worthless commentary - not even a trailer. Amazon UK lists the single disc at UK5.97 and the Douglas Sirk Collection, which includes All I Desire plus six other Sirk films, for UK17.97. Can anyone explain this to me?

Video

The video transfer of this movie is excellent.

The 4x3 transfer of the image is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, the original theatrical presentation being 1.37:1.

The transfer is extremely sharp and clear throughout. Detail is excellent, with the costumes and interiors quite remarkable. It is possible to count the pearls in the string around Barbara Stanwyck's neck.
Shadow detail is most admirable, with Sirk's dramatic use of lighting beautifully reproduced on the screen.
There is no low level noise.
This is a very pleasing black and white image, with extensive grey scale. The blacks are deep and solid, and there is no trace of flaring on the whites.
There was a small degree of telecine wobble, most noticeable in the credits, but the only other film to video artefact was some slight aliasing on costumes, such as Marcia Henderson's dress (05:06) and some curtains (16:19).
There is quite substantial grain, but the overall effect is that of a very cinema-like experience.
There was a complete absence of any film artefacts, the print looking wonderfully clean and clear.

There are no subtitles.
This is a dual layer disc, with the change occurring at the end of the feature.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

The original mono soundtrack is unremarkable, but is in excellent shape.
There are two audio tracks, English and the commentary track. Both are in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono encoded at 224 Kbps.
The dialogue was clear and beautifully reproduced.
There was a total absence of hiss, or any background noise.
There was no crackle, pop or instance of dropout.
There was no problem with audio sync with the transfer on the main English track. The secondary commentary track has a problem with synch late in the film, in Chapter 10.

The musical score, credited to a number of composers and under the Musical Direction of Joseph Gershenson, is dramatically effective, as well as providing some enjoyable period interludes, such as the bunny-hug dance sequence. All is very nicely reproduced, without any outstanding sonic dynamics.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

This is a major disappointment. At a premium price for an "old" movie, there is nothing visual, not even a trailer. Perhaps this is due to these Universal titles being leased out to distributors, such as Madman, those lessees not having access to studio archives. The release of all That Heaven Allows, to be reviewed shortly, does have a second disc with a number of worthwhile bonuses. Billy Gray, young "Ted" in All I Desire, contributed a very enjoyable piece to the Fox Region 1 release of The Girl Next Door. What a pity something similar could not have been done for All I Desire!

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Taza, Son of Cochise (Directors Suite) (1954)

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General		Extras
Category	Western	Featurette-Days with Sirk documentary Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Four Directors Suite trailers
Rating
Year Of Production	1954
Running Time	75:55 (Case: 869)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Douglas Sirk
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Rock Hudson Barbara Rush Gregg Palmer Rex Reason Morris Ankrum Eugene Iglesias Richard H. Cutting Ian MacDonald Robert Burton Joe Sawyer Lance Fuller Bradford Jackson
Case	Custom Packaging
RPI	Box	Music	Frank Skinner

    In the early 1950s Universal International produced a series of westerns that were both cheap to make and popular with American audiences. Most of these westerns do not stand out today, having been long forgotten. Their popularity attracted A-list stars though such as James Stewart, Charlton Heston and Burt Lancaster. Jeff Chandler was the first actor nominated for an Academy Award for portraying an Indian in 1950 in the film Broken Arrow. He played the part of the famous Apache chief, Cochise. He reprised the role in the 1952 film, The Battle of Apache Pass which proved to be a big hit at the box office that year. Taza, Son of Cochise is the follow-up film to The Battle of Apache Pass. Jeff Chandler did not want to play the part of Cochise again, he relented when he learnt that his character was to die early in the film and his son, Taza was to take over his legacy.

    Rock Hudson plays the role of Taza, son of Cochise who agrees on Cochise's deathbed to continue the treaty of peace with the white man. His brother Naiche (played by Rex Reason) is opposed to peaceful relations with the white man, instead he wishes to fight for their land in Arizona. He is joined by the most famous Apache chief of them all, Geronimo (played by Ian MacDonald) who together conspire to revolt against United States Army who have moved the Apache people from their Chiricahua Reservation at the Apache Pass in Arizona to the San Carlos Reservation. Barbara Rush plays Taza's love interest, Oona and the 1950s contracted Universal actor, Gregg Palmer plays Captain Burnett, Taza's friend amongst the US cavalry.

    The events of the film have been fictionalised for the sake of the drama. In real life Taza did try to negotiate a peace treaty for his people, but he died on his travels from Washington D.C of pneumonia. Taza was not able to unite his people as his father had done. As a result Geronimo was able to lead a faction of rebels, based in Mexico, which we don't get to see in the film. Naiche, Taza's brother did not die as depicted at the end of the film, rather he took over as chief after Taza's death.

    Taza, Son of Cochise was shot in 3-D. 3-D and widescreen films were seen by the film studios in the early 1950s as a method of making cinematic films distinctive from television. Despite this, the film was released in cinemas in 1954 in 2-D. Douglas Sirk has been quoted as saying that this was his favourite film because he always wanted to do a western. Perhaps Sirk said this while he was still in the Hollywood system, when asked in 1982 what his favourite film of his was to make he stated that it was Tarnished Angels. You can view this quote for yourself on the extra on this DVD entitled Days with Sirk. The film has been presented here on DVD in a full-frame 1:33:1 transfer. Interestingly, the IMDb reference for the film states that it was originally shot in a 3-D 2:1 widescreen transfer.

Video

    The video transfer is a port of the 2008 Region 2 French Sidonis release.

    The aspect ratio is 1:33:1 full-frame, not 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions. I believe that like Magnificent Obsession, this film was framed for academy ratio (1:33:1) and widescreen (2:1), although I firmly believe the film would have been shown in cinemas in a full-frame transfer as presented on this DVD.

    The average bitrate is 7.2 m/b per sec. The video transfer is adequate for its age, with a little film grain present. It 's a shame that the film has not really been seen in 3-D as intended as Sirk and Russell Metty, the cinematographer framed each scene for the 3-D format. Film critic Leonard Maltin has stated, "originally filmed in 3-D; Universal's Taza, Son of Cochise played quite well in 3-D, as director Sirk and cinematographer Metty composed every shot with a foreground set-piece - from a dead tree to a wagon wheel - to lend perspective and depth to their compositions. Since the film was shot entirely on location at Arches National Park, they had spectacular scenery at their command, and made excellent use of it. Even the gimmicky shots are unusually well done. Other films have Indians throwing burning torches, but in this film the torch fills the screen, with considerable impact. Other in-your-face shots of a bullwhip and a gunshot are equally potent."

    The Technicolor print highlights the outdoor on-location shooting at Arches National Park, Utah so red and brown is a dominant colour in the video transfer.

    White (negative) film artefacts and lines across the screen are periodically present in the film.

    There are no subtitles provided.

    There is no RSDL change as the main presentation is 3.9 gb in size, taking up the first layer of a dual-layered DVD.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Taza, Son of Cochise was shot entirely on location in Utah in 1953, so I believe dialogue was dubbed in post-production. It certainly seems that way in my viewing of the film. This does not distract from the viewers enjoyment of the film however.

    The main soundtrack is an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 224 kbps.

    Dialogue, despite being dubbed is clear and synchronised.

    The music by Frank Skinner is more typical of the Western genre. Skinner makes much more use of brass orchestration in the score, rather than dominating the score with strings, as he usually did on Sirk's films.

    There is no surround channel usage as the main soundtrack is in mono.

    The subwoofer is not utilised either.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Featurette - Days with Sirk (60:38)

This extra is director and screenwriter Pasqual Thomas and film critic Dominque Rabourdin's documentary for French film series Cinéma Cinémas. It provides retrospective comment on the interviews done with Sirk in 1982, together with the actual interviews themselves. Dispersed in-between areis restored footage from the films quoted by the interviewers and Sirk himself. Some of the interviews with Sirk contain sub-standard video work, as it was not shot with a professional cameraman and lighting crew, so please be mindful of this. As Thomas and Rabourdin state in the documentary, the main thing was get Sirk's views on his films.

I was genuinely surprised at Sirk's free expression in English, especially as he had been living in Switzerland for 23 years at the time of the interviews. He speaks openly and freely about his films. This is a wonderful film-appreciation piece on Sirk's films, a real quality extra in the Douglas Sirk King of Hollywood Melodrama Box Set. This extra has also been included on the Region 2 United Kingdom Masters of Cinema release of There's Always Tomorrow and in the Region 2 French Carlotta Douglas Sirk Collection: Vol.2 Box Set, on the second disc of All I Desire.

Theatrical Trailer (2:11)

Directors Suite Trailers

    Taza, Son of Cochise has been released in Region 2 in barebones format, without extras, in Italy and Germany. The film has also been released in Region 2 France by Sidonis individually and as part of the Cochise: Chief of Legends Collection Box Set which also includes the Universal films Broken Arrow and The Battle of Apache Pass. The French release has an average bitrate of 8.65 m/b per sec and includes quality extras with an 8-minute interview with Patrick Brion who discusses the film in the career of Douglas Sirk and cites the book on the filmmaker, Jon Halliday and a 19-minute interview with director Bertrand Tavernier who refers to Jeff Chandler and analyses the 3-D cinematographic process. Unfortunately, these releases by Sidonis are now out of print.

    The Region 4 Madman Directors Suite version of Taza, Son of Cochise is the first release of the film onto DVD in an English-speaking Region.

    This may not be Douglas Sirk's most well-known work, and as a western, Taza, Son of Cochise really stands out among the melodramatic films included on the 9-disc Douglas Sirk King of Hollywood Melodrama Box Set. I suppose Madman could have easily included Has Anyone Seen My Gal? or Interlude on the Box Set as these films would fit in more with Sirk's overall film career in the 1950s, but credit must be given for bringing this unique film in Sirk's canon to DVD for the benefit of Region 4 fans.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Magnificent Obsession (Directors Suite) (1954)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Audio Commentary-by Dr Mark Nicholls, Senior Lecturer in Cinema, Uni. of Melb Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1954
Running Time	103:23 (Case: 869)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (53:52)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Douglas Sirk
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Jane Wyman Rock Hudson Barbara Rush Agnes Moorehead Otto Kruger Gregg Palmer Sara Shane Paul Cavanagh
Case	Custom Packaging
RPI	$149.95	Music	Frank Skinner

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.00:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.00:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Lloyd C. Douglas, a Congregationalist Pastor and the son of a minister wrote his first novel, Magnificent Obsession at the age of 50. The book, written at the cusp of the Great depression era, was critically popular, with its message derived from Jesus' sermon on the mount, specifically Matthew 6:1-4: "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.....That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly". The novel was made into a film in 1935. Directed by John Stahl, it made actor Robert Taylor a star. John Stahl made films for Universal and MGM in the 1930s, three of those were re-made by Douglas Sirk in the 1950s, Magnificent Obsession, When Tomorrow Comes (which Sirk re-made as Interlude) and Imitation of Life, Sirk's last Hollywood feature.

    At the time of its release in 1954, Magnificent Obsession was a big hit for Universal International and Sirk's biggest hit to date. Critically, the over-the-top plot elements were both respectfully and crudely scorned. Despite this Jane Wyman received an Academy Award nomination for her role as Helen Phillips. Rock Hudson, who had only just started to make films as a lead actor, became a star from his role as Bob Merrick, just like Robert Taylor in 1935.

    The story revolves around Bob Merrick, a young playboy with lots of money accustomed to thrill-seeking adventures and Helen Phillips, the wife of a respected surgeon at the local hospital. They meet soon after Merrick's high-speed boat accident causes him to need Dr. Wayne Phillips' resuscitator. Ironically, at the same time Dr. Phillips dies of a heart attack as the result of his resuscitator being used by Bob Merrick. Merrick recovers at the local hospital, but his stay sees nurses and doctors at the hospital show him resentment for the sparing of his life in place of the generous Dr. Phillips. Helen Phillips is perplexed why so many people offer to repay loans on hearing of her husband's death. Apparently he refused, encouraging those he helped to practise generosity to others in need also. Edward Randolph (played by Otto Kruger), a famous artist and close friend of Dr. Phillips, explains to Helen why Dr. Phillips had so little money left in his will, despite his successful medical practice.

    In the meantime, Bob Merrick realises why he is so unpopular in town and gets drunk, he winds up at Randolph's house who explains to him the secret of the power to a successful life: to be generous to others, in secret, without demanding repayment. He states to Merrick that this will "consume him to the point of obsession, but it will be a magnificent obsession". Merrick tries to reconcile his feelings of guilt by making amends with Dr. Phillips widow, Helen, but she doesn't want to see him. In an attempt to talk, Bob causes Helen to fall out of a taxi and get hit by a car, causing blindness. At this point Bob puts his new-found philosophy into place by secretly arranging and paying for Helen to see the best doctors in Europe, but to no avail. Bob forms a relationship with Helen under an assumed alias but she finds out who he really is, despite this they fall in love. Bob proposes marriage but Helen runs away, fearing that Bob will only love her due to pity. Bob decides to return to his unfinished medical degree and become a doctor, in time he becomes a brain surgeon, At the end of the film, he is needed to save Helen, who is dying as a result of the injuries from her accident, in a small New Mexico hospital. Bob doesn't believe he can do it, but with encouragement from Edward Randolph, he performs the surgery and restores her sight.

    There are many clever uses of irony in the plot which Sirk uses. Bob becomes a selfless surgeon helping others after being a selfish playboy at the beginning of the film. Helen begins to understand and see Bob for who he really is while she is blind. The first half of the film is set in a lakeside community in America, the second half is in Europe. Specifically, Helen goes to Switzerland, the centre of medical excellence in Europe at the time, yet she receives her sight in a humble community hospital in a remote town in New Mexico. At the beginning Bob attempts to run away from his guilt, at the end Helen runs away out of guilt.

    The character of Edward Randolph is intriguing. Just who is he? He only seems to have a connection in the film very briefly with Helen, but most specifically he encourages Bob in the same gentle, non-judgmental manner, despite his actions. Sirk stated that the final scenes with Bob performing surgery on Helen and Randolph looking down on the surgical theatre room is an allusion to God. Perhaps Randolph is Sirk himself, who was an avid painter in his spare time. With this film so full of ironic metaphors it may be possible.

    Finally, as Dr. Nicholls states in his commentary, the character of Dr. Phillips plays a large, yet invisible, role in the film. We never see his face, or an image of him, yet his presence and his philosophy is seemingly written into every scene.

    Magnificent Obsession was made in the era when Hollywood was attempting to compete with falling attendances at movies due to the advent of television. Widescreen films, brought in by 20th Century Fox's use of the CinemaScope process, made films bigger and wider. Universal International, the smallest of the major studios, started to release films in widescreen using the Superscope process. Magnificent Obsession is listed on IMDb as having an aspect ratio of 2:1. Criterion has released the film in this aspect ratio for their Region 1 release, as has Universal UK for the Region 2 release. The Region 4 Madman Directors Suite release in May 2008 and on this Douglas Sirk: King of Hollywood Melodrama Box Set also utilises the 2:1 widescreen aspect ratio. The Carlotta Region 2 French release uses a 1:33:1 full-frame transfer. Personally, I feel that Douglas Sirk and Russell Metty, the cinematographer on Magnificent Obsession, shot and framed the film for 1:33:1 full-frame because the technology was new and not all cinemas were able to adapt to showing widescreen films in 1953/54. Having said this, the film in 2:1 widescreen does not have obvious cropping issues such as heads been chopped off, but Dr. Gibson does mention in his commentary a portrait of Christ in the top left-hand corner of the screen, which is significantly cropped in 2:1. Also, Rock Hudson's character is not as diminished as what I believe was Sirk's intention in 2:1. In this framing Bob is more stately then what he should be, and Helen's blindness does not make her look as frail as what she should be in scenes lighted for 1:33:1 academy ratio. In the digital era of home widescreen televisions this may seem a moot point, as any option for widescreen is favoured when films are transferred to DVD. The same issue has occurred for Stanley Kubrick's films on DVD. However, one must take into consideration the cinematographic intention of the director when transferring films in the modern age, and this wasn't an issue previously when films where released onto analogue video tape in the recent past, to be viewed on Cathode ray tube televisions with 4:3 full-frame screens.

Video

    As stated, the Madman transfer is widescreen, not 1:33:1 full-frame.

    The aspect ratio is 2:1, 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions.

    The video transfer uses 6.57 gb of a dual-layered DVD with an average bitrate of 8.68 m/b per sec. There are no compression issues or noise on the video transfer, however the image still has slight film grain throughout.

    The Technicolor print looks magnificent (pardon the unintentional pun!). Colours are stunningly bold, especially scenic greens and blues. The Madman transfer does not have an overall red hue as is present on the Region 1 Criterion and Region 2 Universal UK DVD transfers. Rather, the Region 4 is similar in hue to the Region 2 French Carlotta DVD release. One can see the differences in the image at DVDBeaver's comparison of Magnificent Obsession here.

    The video transfer does suffer from instances of colour bleeding, noticeably blue spots at the 50, 56, 59, 66-71 and 74-79 minute marks of the film. The indoor dark scenes from 66-71 and 74-79 minutes show chroma noise in the dark backgrounds as random white spots. These spots do not appear on the Region 1 Criterion release, no doubt as all their releases undergo additional noise reduction for their master transfers, but the colour bleeding is evident on the Criterion image also. All versions of Magnificent Obsession have a blurry, out-of-focus short scene at an airport. On the Madman Region 4 version it occurs at the 84-minute mark of the film. The transfer also has white lines across the screen, but these are random and rare.

    Subtitles are presented in English in yellow.

    The RSDL change occurs at 53:52, during a scene transition where the screen fades-to-black.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Frank Skinner's score defines the melodramatic elements of the film. His score, with rich orchestration carries the emotional spectrum of the plot.

    The main soundtrack and the audio commentary are both Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks encoded at 224 kbps.

    Dialogue is clear and synchronised.

    Frank Skinner makes use of powerful string orchestration to heighten the many tragic elements of the plot. The use of a heavenly choir to contrive strong moods from the audience is also used regularly. Overall, the main soundtrack is clear and relatively free of background hiss and hum.

    There is no surround channel usage because the main soundtrack is mono.

    The subwoofer is not utilised either.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Audio Commentary by Dr Mark Nicholls, Senior Lecturer in Cinema at The University of Melbourne

Theatrical Trailer

    Magnificent Obsession has been released on DVD in various transfers and with various extras, both as single releases and in DVD Collection Box Sets.

    The Region 1 Criterion Collection release uses a 2:1 widescreen transfer. The main feature uses 6.12 gb of space with an average bitrate of 7.75 m/b per sec. It includes an audio commentary by Thomas Doherty, video interviews with filmmakers Allison Anders and Kathryn Bigelow and the original theatrical trailer. The second disc of this release includes the 1935 version of the film and a 82-minute documentary: From UFA to Hollywood: Douglas Sirk Remembers by German filmmaker Eckhart Schmidt.

    The Region 2 United Kingdom version also uses the 2:1 widescreen transfer on a 4.1 gb single-layered DVD. It is also available on the 7-disc Directed By Douglas Sirk Box Set which includes Has Anyone Seen My Gal?, All I Desire, Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, Written On The Wind, The Tarnished Angels and Imitation Of Life. This release has no extras.

    The Region 2 French Carlotta release uses the 1:33:1 full-frame transfer, not 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions. The transfer is 6.6 gb in size with an average bitrate of 8.15 m/b per sec. This release comes as part of an excellent 8-disc Douglas Sirk Collection, Vol. 1 Box Set including the four films Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, A Time to Love and a Time to Die and Imitation of Life. This Box Set includes the original John Stahl versions of Magnificent Obsession and Imitation of Life, interviews with Jean-Loup Bourget and Philippe le Guay on Magnificent Obsession, reflections on Imitation of Life by Christophe Honore and Sam Staggs, an analytical discussion on the melodrama of Sirk and Stahl by Jean-Loup Bourget, discussions on All That Heaven Allows by Todd Haynes, William Reynolds and Rainer Werner Fassbinder (in textual form) and an audio commentary by François Ozon, a documentary on Imitation of Life, an interview with Wesley Strick and voiceover analysis of Imitation of Life from Douglas Sirk and Jean-Luc Godard.

    The Region 4 Madman Directors Suite release is available as a 2-disc standalone version or in the 9-disc Douglas Sirk King of Hollywood Melodrama Box Set. Both releases use the 2:1 widescreen transfer with an average bitrate of 8.68 m/b per sec. The 2-disc release includes the 1935 version of the film on the second disc. The 9-disc Box Set includes the films No Room for the Groom, All I Desire, Magnificent Obsession, Taza, Son of Cochise, All That Heaven Allows, There's Always Tomorrow, A Time to Love and a Time to Die, The Tarnished Angels and Imitation of Life. This includes an interview with Tony Curtis on No Room for the Groom, a 60-minute documentary featuring interviews with Douglas Sirk from 1982 entitled Days of Sirk, an interview with actors Pat Crowley and Gigi Perreau and an interview with director Allison Anders on There's Always Tomorrow, a discussion with Wesley Strick on A Time to Love and a Time to Die and audio commentaries by Therese Davies on All I Desire, Mark Nicholls on Magnificent Obsession and All That Heaven Allows, John Flaus and Adrian Martin on There's Always Tomorrow, Ross Gibson on A Time to Love and a Time to Die, Adrian Martin on Tarnished Angels and Angela Ndalianis on Imitation of Life.

    The Region 2 Carlotta and Region 4 Madman Box Sets are wonderful releases, with the Region 4 the pick for English-speaking fans of Sirk's work. The Region 1 Criterion Collection release of Magnificent Obsession is the best standalone DVD release currently available, despite the 2:1 widescreen transfer.

    Most critics write off Magnificent Obsession as a lesser Douglas Sirk work. I, like critic Laura Mulvey, esteem the film as one of Sirk's best works besides All That Heaven Allows and Written on the Wind.

    It is a shame about the widescreen transfer on all DVD releases in all Regions apart from the Region 2 French Carlotta Box Set release Douglas Sirk Collection, Vol. 1 which utilises a full-frame 1:33:1 transfer. Despite this, the Region 4 Madman 9-disc Box Set version of Magnificent Obsession uses the same transfer as the quality 2-disc version of the film on DVD, released in May 2008, without the 1935 version of the film by John Stahl.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

All That Heaven Allows (Directors Suite) (1955)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Featurette-(23:02) Contract Kid : William Reynolds : V.good and unusual Featurette-(15:13) Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven) talks on Sirk. Featurette-(25:23) Hudson Profile : Mainly using poor quality trailers. Theatrical Trailer-(02:39) Fair quality but LHS of image cropped at 1.33:1. Audio Commentary-Full Movie : Melbourne lecturer with OK comments on film.
Rating
Year Of Production	1955
Running Time	85:02 (Case: 89)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (55:49) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Douglas Sirk
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Jane Wyman Rock Hudson Agnes Moorehead Conrad Nagel Virginia Grey Gloria Talbott William Reynolds Charles Drake Hayden Rorke Jacqueline deWit
Case	Amaray-Opaque-Dual
RPI	$39.95	Music	Frank Skinner

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/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	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

 "The camera is the main thing here, because there is emotion in the moving pictures.
Motion is emotion, in a way it can never be in the theatre." 
                                                                                                Douglas Sirk 

    Madman continue with the release of titles in their series Douglas Sirk : Directors Suite with the arrival of possibly the most loved of all the films made by that director. After the massive success of Magnificent Obsession in 1954, producer Ross Hunter reteamed the two stars Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson, again under the directorial leadership of Douglas Sirk, and in October 1955 All That Heaven Allows opened at Sydney's State Theatre where it played four sessions a day for six weeks.

    The plot is very simple. Based on a story by Edna L. Lee and Harry Lee, The screenplay by Peg Fenwick has attractive youngish widow, Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) filling her well-heeled single existence with charity work and Country Club society in picturesque autumnal New England, her best friend being Sara Warren (Agnes Moorehead). Cary has two children, Kay (Gloria Talbot) and Ned (William Reynolds) who are both off at college, returning to their mother for weekends and holidays. Cary's gardens are cared for by gardener Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson), a handsome, hunky outdoors Thoreau reading and living child of nature. Ron's lifestyle is totally alien to Cary, whose garden he tends, with Cary not even knowing what is is growing in her garden - imagery from Candide? Cary and Ron become friendly, Cary meeting Ron's best friends Mick (Charles Drake) and Alida (Virginia Grey), whose lifestyle is in sharp contrast to that of the Country Club set. Cary and Ron are in love and plan to marry, and after Cary spends a night in Ron's rustic cabin, complete with old mill and bubbling stream, the gossip tongues begin to wag, primarily that in the hard face of Mona Plash (Jacqueline de Wit). When Ned and Kay return for the holidays Cary breaks the news about her impending marriage to Ron. The kids are shocked - they expected Mum to marry safe old Harvey (Conrad Nagel), who presents no Oedipal threat to the offspring. The protests of the children in her ears, Cary and Ron attend a cocktail party being thrown by Sara. The social set bare their claws at Ron, who ends up clashing with the lecherous Howard (Donald Curtis), who had previously had his amorous advances rebuffed by Cary. Everyone is against Cary, friend, foes and family! Cary has to choose between her family, the mores of her old life, and Ron, with his "to thine own self be true" ethic. Cary chooses the former, and breaks off with Ron. It is not long before events show that Cary has been selfless, or was it weak, and that her children will reveal their selfishness at the first opportunity. Will Cary decide to return to the strong, manly arms of Ron, or will she sit alone, approved by her former social set,  watching herself reflected in the vacant, soullessly dead TV set, a Christmas present from her soon to be absent children. Cary's garden is shrouded in winter's snow, but what rebirth will spring bring? This will all be resolved by Sirk in just over eighty-five minutes.

    This is the stuff of melodrama, and Douglas Sirk, aided by his director of photography Russell Metty, plunges us into the fantastically emotional and artificial melodramatic world of his characters. Sirk's use of camera angles, composition, lush colour, costume, decor, music all are working towards our total immersion in this world. This is an artificial world appealing to our senses and our emotions, not to our minds. His very choice of actors is an appeal to the senses. Sweet, soft lovely Jane Wyman, with the dark, limpid doe like brown eyes. Remember that deer in the snow? Rock Hudson, rock by name and by nature - on screen, at least! Was there ever such a frame, such a profile, such a pompadour! Their hushed voices soothe and seduce. Sirk's criticism of the society is embodied in our immersion in their world and our sympathy for them. We deplore the actions of the petty minded in their opposition to Cary and Ron. In truth, we might behave exactly the same way in real life, but here we take the elevated stand embodied in the advice of Polonius to Laertes : "To thine own self be true." 

    The cast is perfection. Jane Wyman, earlier in her career a blonde wise-cracking secretary cum song and dance girl, had become type-cast as a Warner Brothers contract player, and married her occasional co-star, Pres to be, Ronald Reagan. On loan-out she did her better work, to Paramount for Lost Weekend (1945) and then to MGM for The Yearling (1946), which gained the actress her first Academy Award nomination. Miss Wyman was finally rewarded by her home studio when she was cast as the deaf-mute lead in Johnny Belinda (1948). Giving the performance of her career, the actress collected the 1948 Oscar as Best Actress of the Year. With two more nominations in next next few years, The Blue Veil (1952) and Magnificent Obsession, Jane Wyman's career was in full gear when she made this, her second Sirk film. She was a favourite of female audiences, who were largely responsible for the success of these films, the original newspaper ads featuring three photos of Miss Wyman, and only one of her male co-star. Despite the gloss of the Ross Hunter production, the actress conveys so much depth and warmth. Watch her in the early scene with Ron where she is obviously attracted to this rugged and serenely secure man (16:40). She is disappointed to learn that he won't be back in Spring. He reassures her, "Don't worry. I'll find you someone". It wasn't the garden she was worried about, and, slightly hurt, she turns to leave. Then comes the invitation to see his "silver tipped spruce", and she delicately opens to him once more. The action in this scene is all in Jane Wyman's wonderfully expressive eyes. Those eyes were used to incredible effect playing her Oscar winning "Belinda", and also in the climactic scene of  Hitchcock's Stage Fright (1950).

    Well documented in Robert Hofler's The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson, Rock Hudson's screen image was a fabricated one. Roy Fitzgerald had supplied the frame, but makers and shakers had supplied the teeth, name and personality. Rejected in 1948 by MGM,  "Roy" was advised by his agent to lower his high pitched, nasal voice. The method was to wait for a throat infection, then scream for hours at the Malibu surf, thus damaging the vocal chords. Once the chords healed the voice would be miraculously deeper and more seductive. There are a number of scenes in this film that have a detached, ethereal feel to them, part of that coming from the unnatural sound of the dialogue. When the actor's delivery of lines was not deemed sufficiently masculine, they were post-dubbed, or looped, until the director was satisfied. Regardless, Hudson's character here is a symbol of a natural, back to the earth lifestyle alien to the female central character, and as such there could be no simpler and less ambivalent symbol than the Ron created by Rock Hudson. The script may have Hudson's character voice his doubts as to whether or not he can maintain his single minded credo, not compromising in his desire to be united with Cary, but we have no such doubts.

    Also from the Magnificent Obsession team is Agnes Moorehead. Coming to attention initially as a member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre, appearing in his films Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, Agnes Moorehead is sometimes considered a "character actress", suggesting she had one character which was duplicated in each film. She was much more than that. There was no limit to what she could play, from Welles' classics through Show Boat and on to  TV's Bewitched. As  Sara, Miss Moorehead looks magnificent, glamorously statuesque in crystal clear photography, lips slashed with glistening scarlet. She plays the devil's disciple in her advice to Cary, but it is difficult to dislike this character. Trivia worthy is the fact that Misses Moorehead and Wyman appeared in five films together : Johnny Belinda (for Moorehead an Oscar nomination, for Wyman a win), The Blue Veil (a nomination for Wyman), Magnificent Obsession (again a nod for Wyman), All That Heaven Allows and Polyanna. The remainder of the cast are basically type-cast but as a consequence perfect for their roles. Virginia Grey was  a welcome face in movies from the 30s, and here has one of her most sympathetic roles, while William Reynolds has better material than was often the case, rising handsomely to the occasion, especially in his dramatic confrontations with Miss Wyman. (Note that the cover slick incorrectly third bills Barbara Rush, who does not appear in this film. Miss Rush did however co-star in Magnificent Obsession.)

    Technically this film is sumptuous. I doubt if any cast member was required to venture from the Universal backlot, but every scene has meticulous attention to detail, from rustic mill to swanky homes, from manicured gardens to natural outdoors, from sophisticated cocktail party to unselfconscious kicking up of heels, from tailored suits, male and female, to checked shirts and corduroys,  all are working towards the overall impact of the film. Complementing the visuals is the sensitive, emotional score by Frank Skinner, with melodies of Liszt and Brahms interwoven under Joseph Gershenson's musical supervision.

    Perhaps the greatest success of All That Heaven Allows is that in its original 1955 release the audiences flocked, wept and adored it, leaving theatres totally convinced that Ron and Cary should "end up" together, defying the mores and narrow-minded hypocrisy of their society. There was then no intellectual appraisal of the "Sirkian method" and the director's cinematic style. Sirk's art was everywhere in evidence on the screen, but his art, or atifice if you prefer, was the medium for the message, not the message itself. Speaking personally, in the 50s Sirk's art worked totally on me, without my knowing why it had that effect. As a teenager I escaped more than once into this beautifully troubled world of beautiful romantic people. Years later I could return and "take it apart", but I'm grateful I had those earlier, totally emotional hours in the darkened movie theatres where I simply experienced and responded. I fear that sometimes today we tend to see the individual brush strokes, and not the complete painting.
 

Video

    The video transfer of this movie is almost perfect.
   
    The transfer  is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. There are no problems with framing.
    I would suggest that this is not a "restored" print of the film, but the best obtainable print - or composite print.
    The transfer is extremely sharp and clear throughout. Detail is excellent, both in the interior and exterior scenes.
    There is a modest amount of grain, giving a totally cinema like experience to the viewing.
    There is a the most subtle softness on closeups of Jane Wyman in some scenes, but this was standard for the 50s.
    Blacks are deep and dark and the colour is brilliant. The opening scene in particular absolutely dazzles with the vibrancy of a rainbow of colours, highlighted by Agnes Moorehead's startlingly red lipstick. There is a slight inconsistency with colour, the leads hair being more red-tinged in some scenes, but this is only made apparent because of the other sections which are totally eye-popping.
    Overall, Douglas Sirk's now legendary expressionistic use of colour is wonderfully reproduced.
    There is no low level noise.
    
    The only film to video artefact was some slight aliasing on weatherboards (01:39) in the opening scene. Apart from this I was not aware of any.
    Reel cues have been removed.
    There is a small amount of white flecking, most noticeable around 45:19, which I expect was at a reel change. For the rest of the film you have to really concentrate intently to pick up any mark at all.

    There are English subtitles.
    The layer change occurs at 55:49 and is barely noticeable.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio is unremarkable, but it is in quite good shape.
    There are two audio streams, English and the commentary track. Both are in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono encoded at 224  Kbps.
    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand. Much of the dialogue is very quietly spoken - these are "nice" people - but there was absolutely no trouble with total comprehension.
    There is a minute amount of background crackle or pop, and there are no dropouts.
    There was no problem with audio sync with the transfer, despite the fact that a great deal of the dialogue was looped or post-recorded. Post-recording can create a certain distancing from the actors on screen, which in a realistic film could be damaging. In the artificially ideal world of All That Heaven Allows, that distancing almost adds to the romance
  Frank Skinner's romantic musical score adds more emotional depth to the film, enhanced by the contributions of Liszt and Brahms. All music is very nicely reproduced, though limited by its original mono source.
    
    

Audio Ratings Summary

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

This is a very pleasing set of extras, including an OK commentary, a trailer, and three featurettes, ranging in quality of content from poor, to very good, to excellent.

Disc One:

Menu

Disc Two:

Menu

On the second disc the menu is even more basic - no audio. The still is a very attractive shot of Rock Hudson patting a deer, in the snow, in front of the old mill.

Featurette : Contract Kid (23:02)
This one is a breath of fresh air. I have never seen interview footage of William Reynolds before, and this is twenty-three minutes of interesting first-hand comments on the Hollywood of the 50s. Shortly after his 1951 debut in William Wyler's Carrie, at Paramount, Reynolds became a "contract kid" at Universal, joining the throng of attractive young "stars of the future". Reynolds never became a star, but was a familiar regular in many films of the period. Here the charming, dapper seventy-six year old actor compares working with Sirk, Wyler and Henry Hathaway, the contribution of photographer Russell Metty, his impressions of Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson and the "A" picture as distinct from the "B". This is totally engrossing, and it can only be hoped that recollections such as these are being preserved before it is too late. Presentation is excellent, with a ratio of1.85:1 and 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.


Featurette : A Powerful Political Potential (15:13)
Todd Haynes, the director of Far from Heaven (2002), a homage to Douglas Sirk, discusses that director's influence on Raimer Werner Fassbinder as well as on his own work. Haynes is engrossing and intelligent without ever being highbrow. His discussion of the criticism of radical political cinema versus the criticism contained within the cinema of popular culture, such as All That Heaven Allows, is a great starting point for an appreciation of Sirk's movies. Very nice quality presented 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.


Featurette : Hollywood Remembers Rock Hudson : A Profile (25:23)
You've probably seen this one before. It's one of those cheap pieces cobbled together from old trailers, generally of appalling quality, and, if you're lucky,  a few seconds of interviews. Here we get almost all of the trailer for The Golden Blade - a pleasure though to see the lovely, vivacious and talented Piper Laurie, who is still going strong and still beautiful, Written on the Wind looking dreadful in black and white, bits of Giant, Pillow Talk and Come September amongst others. This would be better if the trailer list was complete, but it is far from that. On the plus side there are about thirty seconds of an interview discussing his age advantage in beating other name stars for the Bick Benedict role in Giant, premiere and Golden Globe footage for Pillow Talk and brief references to his TV career and homosexuality.  Presented 1.33:1 in a 4x3 transfer.




Theatrical Trailer : (02:39) 
    
    This is the original theatrical trailer, and very interesting to see how the film was marketed - straight to the emotions. The quality is not as good as the film, but quite satisfactory, despite considerable telecine wobble. Unfortunately it is a 1.33:1 transfer of the widescreen image which has the full height, but slices off the left-hand side of the picture, resulting in, amongst other losses, Miss Wyman's first name being reduced to "ane".


Booklet : 
     
    This sixteen page booklet is an informed and insightful discussion of Sirk's films. The writer is Justin Vicari described as "both an academic and a creative writer who has won several poetry and prose awards". It's a pity that someone didn't pick up his error in repeatedly referring to Rock Hudson's character as "Rod" instead of "Ron". Could this have been a Freudian slip induced by Ron's "silver tipped spruce"? Worth a read, and includes eight shots from the film featuring the two leads.

Inside of Slick :
    Madman once again reproduce this valuable information found on previous Sirk releases, with approximately  five hundred words on Sirk, plus a Hollywood Filmography listing Sirk's twenty-nine Hollywood films, from Hitler's Madman (1942) through to Imitation of Life (1958).

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

There's Always Tomorrow (Directors Suite) (1955)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Audio Commentary-Feature length by John Flaus and Adrian Martin. Booklet-16 page with pics and essay by Dr Adrian Danks. Interviews-Cast-So Many Years (22:36) : Prod. 2008 w P.Crowley & G. Perreau. Featurette-Perspectives of An American Family (25:18): Allison Anders. Theatrical Trailer-(2:36) Original without graphics. 1.33:1 and some damage. Notes-Slick contains 500 words on life and films of Douglas Sirk. Filmographies-Slick contans complete Hollywood Filmography for Sirk.
Rating
Year Of Production	1955
Running Time	81:01 (Case: 84)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (64:51)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Douglas Sirk
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Barbara Stanwyck Fred MacMurray Joan Bennett William Reynolds Pat Crowley Gigi Perreau Jane Darwell Race Gentry Myrna Hansen Judy Nugent Paul Smith
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$34.95	Music	Heinz Roemheld Herman Stein Ricard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes, Frequently used to indicate tension and unrest.
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

 "I like this change you made in his head."
                                                                                                      Clifford Groves (Fred MacMurray) ironically inspects Rex the Robot  

    The latest welcome addition to Madman's string of director Douglas Sirk's 1950s films made at Universal is the 1955 drama There's Always Tomorrow. Almost totally misunderstood or dismissed back then as a soap opera, this modest film, running barely eighty-one minutes, is much more than "a woman's picture" - a deplorable term - aimed to round out a day's shopping "in town". There is in this film one of the truly tragic depictions of contemporary man trapped in a life which is slowly eroding every hope for joy and fulfilment. This is yet another classic from one of cinema's genuinely distinctive artists.

    After the romantically scored, glossy but bland credits - nicely giving the three leads large lettered separate title cards - we read the legend "Once upon a time, in sunny California ..." and then dissolve into a rain drenched street outside Groves Toy Manufacturing Company. On the soundtrack is a childish jingling segment of the original score, which, upon dissolving into the factory itself, becomes a sombre "London Bridge is Falling Down". In the first few seconds we have been give two ironic statements, one visual and one aural. This is Sirk's warning. Don't expect this to be a romantic fairy tale with a happy ending.

    The head of the toy company is Clifford Groves (Fred MacMurray), and from our first glimpse of him we can see that he is a decent, modest man, liked and respected by his employees. Today is Cliff's wife's birthday, and he is surprising her with dining out and two "scarce as hen's teeth" tickets for a show. Arriving home, a bunch of flowers in his hand to surprise wife Marion (Joan Bennett), Cliff is virtually dismissed by his family. Oldest child Vinnie (William Reynolds) is on the phone and shushes his father when Cliff calls Marion's name. The daughters Ellen (Gigi Perreau), a phone addicted teenager, and the youngest Frankie (Judy Nugent), a budding prima-ballerina, are too self absorbed to give more than passing attention to their father. When Cliff breaks the news of the surprise "date" he has planned, Marion tells him she cannot go because it is the night of Frankie's ballet school recital. A deflated Clifford asks Ellen to go with him to the theatre, but she is discussing "emotional problems" with her girlfriends, and Vinnie has a date. Cliff offers his son both tickets, but handsome and assured Vinnie has better plans. Finally Cliff asks the family cook, Mrs Rogers (Jane Darwell), but he is again rebuffed. The rejected and dejected Cliff is left home alone, in an apron, eating his solitary meal when the doorbell rings. Still in his apron, Cliff opens the door, and a woman is standing there in the dark, turned away from the door. She turns to face him and walks into the light. Cliff doesn't recognize her at first, but this is a face from twenty years ago, Norma Vale (Barbara Stanwyck). Clifford and Norma were platonic friends in the past, at least as far as he was concerned. Norma has returned from New York, where she is a successful designer, on a brief business trip and the old friendship is soon rekindled. Cliff finally has found someone he can share his theatre tickets with.

    At this point most audiences members would see where they are sure this tale is taking them. Cliff is resparked by the presence of Norma, although their relationship begins innocently and with Marion's apparent complicity. Refreshingly there is no stereotypical response from the wife. It is, however, the son, Vinnie, who becomes suspicious, actually spying repeatedly on his father in the family home. Vinnie's girlfriend, Ann (Pat Crowley), condemns him for his childish suspicions, and finds some affinity with the mature and poised Norma when they are both invited to the Groves' home for dinner. What ensues is a strong melodrama avoiding anticipated clichés and delivering sharp and bitter criticism of the "family values" of America fifty or so years ago. With an economical and neatly structured screenplay by Bernard C. Shoenfeld (Macao), based on a story by Ursula Parrott (Love Affair), we become totally absorbed in the late-flowering relationship between Clifford and Norma. Clifford is made crystal clear as a character, a perfect combination of writing , direction and acting, while Norma remains a person whose motivations are ambiguous, in a movie containing many ambiguities, not the least of which is the title itself.

    Previously filmed in 1934 with Frank Morgan, Binnie Barnes and Lois Wilson, this new version reunited Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray eleven years after their sensational teaming in Double Indemnity, and once again both  are excellent. Stanwyck is the external force, returning to the town and exposing the mundane existence for what it is - if not to the characters involved, then to the film's audience. She never becomes a symbol, but is always a vibrant involved character, even when all is erupting around her, as in that dinner scene, where she remains the calm, contained catalyst impacting upon  these people's lives. Beginning her film career in 1927 Stanwyck was an enduring star and here she is mesmerising in every scene.Fred MacMurray is even better, the sensitivity of his performance truly astonishing. In films since 1934, MacMurray's basically affable screen persona was very strong, yet he could accommodate it to such a wide range of roles and emotions, from  screwball comedies, to film noir anti-heroes, westerns, The Caine Mutiny, Disney comedies and even a couple of musicals also for Disney. This is a subtle, moving performance with no histrionics but huge emotional force. The third billed star, Joan Bennett, is lovely and effective in a role limited by the depth of the character itself. ( Does anyone else agree that Miss Bennett at times looks astonishingly like Vivien Leigh? )

    Extremely strong support comes from Universal contract player William Reynolds, Sirk obviously pleased by his work in All That Heaven Allows, and Pat Crowley, the vivacious young actress from Paramount's Forever Female and Red Garters. Miss Crowley still pops up in the occasional TV series, and in the extras featurette So Many Years, fifty-three years later, looks just the same, just older. Gigi Perreau and Judy Nugent score well as the two Groves daughters, while dear old Jane Darwell (The Grapes of Wrath)  has some quite telling moments, smiling benignly and approvingly as she unwittingly watches a man's life crumble. She and the three young actors playing the Groves children make the final moments of the film horrifyingly chilling.

    Anyone who has read my earlier review of releases in this series, such as All I Desire, Stanwyck's prior Sirk film, All That Heaven Allows and The Tarnished Angels, won't want to read any more of my raving about the artistry of Douglas Sirk. Nevertheless, in the years that formed my love for and appreciation of movies, two directors stood out. These two were George Stevens and Douglas Sirk. After seeing a Sirk film I would have emotions and responses that I could not shake. When I would think back about the film what came to mind was not primarily plot, character or incident, but actual framed images from the film. The very look of the film was what made the biggest impact. Back then I did not know why, I just knew that Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman looked like human beings I had never seen before. Gradually I came to realise that this was the combined effect of the various contributions of colour, or black and white, lighting, camera angles, camera movement, editing and music. (The attractive original score here is by Herman Stein and Heinz Roenheld, but it is the music supervision of Joseph Gershenson that stands out, particularly his extensive use of the Rodgers and Hart classic Blue Moon.)

     Here again Sirk delivers a subliminal lesson in film making, only once or twice being perhaps a little too obvious. Magnificently served by his Director of Photography, Russell Metty, this is eighty-one minutes of superlative film making. Give the added bonus of three outstanding extras - remember that dreadful commentary on All I Desire - and this is a DVD to proudly take its place in your Sirk library.

    One final minor disappointment. I guess one must admire Madman for creating new artwork for these releases, but when the original poster was so great - on view in the extra featurette with director and fan Allison Anders - why bother? I know what I would prefer.

Video

    The video transfer of this movie is excellent.
    The 16x9 enhanced transfer of the image is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, which was the original theatrical ratio.
    
    The transfer is extremely sharp and clear throughout, with the only exceptions being the occasional soft-focussed close-ups of the forty-eight year old Barbara Stanwyck.
    Detail across the widescreen image is excellent, with admirable shadow detail in the many "dark" scenes. It is a joy to see the lighting design reproduced so beautifully.
    There is no low level noise.
    This is a very pleasing black and white image, with extensive grey scale. The blacks are deep and solid, and there is no trace of flaring on the whites.
    Maybe I was too engrossed in the film - both times - but I did not detect any video artefacts.
    There is quite substantial grain, but the overall effect is that of a very cinema-like experience.
    There was a complete absence of any film artefacts, the print looking wonderfully clean and clear.

    There are no subtitles.
    This is a dual layer disc, with the change occurring at 64:51, in the lengthy blackout between chapters nine and ten.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The original mono soundtrack is in excellent condition.
    There are two audio tracks, English and the commentary track. Both are in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono encoded at 224  Kbps.
    The dialogue was clear and beautifully reproduced.
    There was a total absence of hiss, or any background noise.
    There was no crackle, pop or instance of dropout.
    There was no problem with audio sync on either track.

     The rather lush musical score, by Herman Stein and Heinz Roenheld, complements the drama on screen very nicely. It is, however Blue Moon, the standard by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, that will stay with you. This name of this great classic is featured in the dialogue and the melody reappears many times throughout the film, in just as many variations. I assume credit for this must go to the Musical Direction of Joseph Gershenson.  All featured music is beautifully played by Universal's full orchestra and most satisfactorily reproduced.
 

Audio Ratings Summary

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

   Happily Madman have done extremely well by There's Always Tomorrow, with a fine commentary track, a sixteen page illustrated essay booklet, the original theatrical trailer - minus graphics - and two excellent featurettes, both made in 2008.

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Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

The Tarnished Angels (Directors Suite) (1958)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Audio Commentary-Dr Adrian Martin : Informed and informative (87 mins) Booklet-12 pages : 7 pages of text plus 4 photos. Excellent. Notes-Slick reverse has bio notes on Sirk + Hollywood filmography Theatrical Trailer-(02:39) Typical sexsational trailer (2.00:1 - not enhanced)
Rating
Year Of Production	1958
Running Time	87:04 (Case: 91)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (46:01)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Douglas Sirk
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Rock Hudson Robert Stack Dorothy Malone Jack Carson Robert Middleton Alan Reed Alexander Lockwood Christopher Olsen Robert J. Wilke
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$34.95	Music	Frank Skinner

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes, Moderate
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, Characters established within credits.

"The camera is the main thing here, because there is emotion in the moving pictures.
Motion is emotion, in a way it can never be in the theatre."
Douglas Sirk

Perhaps the greatest gift of the DVD has been that movie lovers have been given the opportunity to discover, or revisit, films from the past that are not available to see elsewhere. It is a double gift when a film from the past resurfaces and to discover that personal memories of that film are not just nostalgia.I have loved The Tarnished Angels since first seeing it in my teens, and "loved" is an apt word, as this film provokes an emotional response, not merely to the characters and their story, but to the texture of the images on the screen. Director Douglas Sirk's 1957 melodrama was a much abused film at the time of its release, abused by critics who denigrated its commercially stellar cast and the producing studio, Universal, that normally excelled in popular entertainment for the masses.As late as 1983, in the comprehensive tome The Universal Story, Clive Hirschhorn describes the film as a "tarnished melodrama", with an "appalling screenplay", a "totally defeated cast", and "dim-witted direction" of an "absurdly silly story".Thanks to Madman you can now make up your own mind, as The Tarnished Angels is just one of the works being issued as part of their Douglas Sirk : Directors Suite.

The screenplay, by George Zuckerman, is based on William Faulkner's 1930 novel, Pylon. Set in the Depression of the 1930s the story covers three days in the life of an itinerant flying circus set up in New Orleans at the time of Mardi Gras. Headlining the circus is former World War I fighter pilot, Roger Shumann (Robert Stack), his glory days now long past, who now thrills audiences in races around the three pylons which mark out the flight course. An added attrraction are the figure revealing parachute drops made by Schumann's glamorous blonde wife, LaVerne (Dorothy Malone).The Shumann's travel with their son, Jack (Chris Olsen) and mechanic, Jiggs (Jack Carson), who has been with them since their marriage twelve years earlier.Arriving on the circus lot looking for a story is local reporter Burke Devlin (Rock Hudson), who sees the Schmann's son being taunted by a group of boys. "Who's your old man today, kid?" Burke befriends the boy, acknowledging the father's wartime heroics in shooting down fourteen planes. "Sixteen," the boy corrects him, asserting that the books "didn't get it right". Burke meets the Shumanns and Roger asks if there are any all night movie theatres in town - cheap depression accommodation for the travelling flyers. Burke gives them the key to his apartment, where they all bed down for the night.So we have our major quartet, or quintet including the boy. Added to the mix is businessman Matt Ord (Robert Middleton) who challenges Roger in the air race, the Ord plane flown by Frank Burnham (Troy Donahue).What plays out on screen is an everchanging dynamic of these characters locked in their unchanging fight pattern - like the boy on the fairground ride. They lust, they yearn - but nothing happens. No infidelity occurs, despite all the possibilities and sexual tension. Reminding us of the magnificent They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, these characters are caught in some dreadful dance, with death as the outcome. Jiggs - is he the boy's father? - idolises Roger and loves LaVerne but his love has been unreturned for twelve years. Roger has never declared his love for LaVerne, and she will not be the first to declare her love for him.Ord lusts openly after LaVerne but can only satisfy his passion by challenging Roger in the race, until Roger initiates a possible coupling of LaVerne and Ord. The boy is transfixed watching his father's air race, but ignores his mother's death-defying parachute drop, his attentiuon focussed on an icecream cone. The outsider, Burke, seems incapable of any real involvement, reduced to external assistance - the key or an ice-cream cone - using his knowledge of these gypsy characters as material for a good story.

The outstanding qualities of this film are not in the characters or the plot, but in the manner in which Sirk puts it all on the screen. Despite a personal dislike for the process, Sirk chose CinemaScope to make his move, evidently because he could more easily frame the aerial races in the anamorphic image. This may be so, but it is the interior, intimate scenes that display Sirk's total mastery of the wide frame, aided by superb photography by Irving Glassberg. It is fascinating to turn the sound down and just watch the movement of the characters within the frame, and, in fact, the movement of the frame itself. The deathlike dance of the characters becomes choreography for the actors and the camera. Other directors in the 50s would present the CinemaScope image ratrher like an unmoving theatre proscenium, static with aqctors positioned around the frame, and making moves as if they were on a stage. Sirk's composition is remarkable , with outstanding examples in almost every scene. (Two excellent early instances are at 10:30 and 14:36.) Added to this is the expressionistic lighting, casting marvellous shadows and highlighting profiles against deep, black backgrounds. Don't look for realism here. Sirk creates great beauty with his camera and lighting, a beauty which has to effect the way in which we view these characters. Their lives may have become pointless, empty, futile and tarnished, but Sirk imbues his "angels" with a sad beauty.

Universal producer Albert Zugsmith assembled a stellar cast for the project. The four principals are worth looking at closely, as I feel that Sirk has capiatlsed on the cache of each one, either playing up their previously established on-screen personas, or playing against what audiences would expect of them. In the previous year, 1956, three of the stars had been Academy Award nominees, Rock Hudson for Giant, and both Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone for Written on the Wind, with Miss Malone having actually received the golden Oscar for that film. Hudson had been Universal's resident beefcake six-footer, baring his chest as Indian brave or action hero in film after film, until "maturing" in Douglas Sirk's Magnificent Obsession (1954) and All That Heaven Allows (1955) and then peaking in the 1956 loan-out, to Warners, Giant. Robert Stack had been discovered after a massive search to find a new face to give Deanna Durbin her first screen kiss in First Love (1939). (Interestingly Stack was also to likewise initiate Jane Powell in MGM's A Date with Judy in 1948). By 1957 Stack's career was languishing with a spate of mediocre action pics, distinguised somewhat by his starring in the first 3D feature Bwana Devil (1953). Written on the Wind, and his Oscar nomination for that movie followed by The Tarnished Angels, revitalised his career, and in 1959 he was cast to play TV's Eliot Ness in The Untouchables. The third male star was Jack Carson, ex vaudevillian and former Warners contract player, seeming to be in the cast of half of the Warners movies of the 40s. In 1940 alone he appeared in no less than twelve Warners features. Carson invariably played the large-framed, decent, funny guy who lost the girl before the final fadeout. By 1949 he had graduated to actually winning Doris Day in her first two movies, and then excelled dramatically in Judy Garland's A Star is Born (1954) and was devastating as Paul Newman's brother in Cat On a Hot Tin Roof (1958).

The (I believe) solitary female speaking role went to Dorothy Malone. In films since 1943, when she was eighteen, Miss Malone had been under contract to Warners where she had worked with Jack Carson.The then brunette actress made her first big impression with a small role in Bogart's The Big Sleep (1946), but it was not really until 1955's Battle Cry that she became firmly established as a sultry temptress, thanks to some steamy, and highly publicised, on-screen fore-play with Tab Hunter. In the years after her Oscar win and The Tarnished Angels there were some better roles for the beautiful and glamorous star in some memorable films, Tip on a Dead Jockey (with Robert Taylor), Too Much Too Soon (as Diana Barrymore, opposite Errol Flynn), Warlock ( with Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda), The Last Voyage (third time with Robert Stack) and The Last Sunset (Rock again, plus Kirk Douglas). Nothing wrong with her leading men! The most recent screen appearance by the still beautiful Miss Malone was in 1992's Basic Instinct.

I admit to being perplexed by Sirk's attitude towards costume in this film. Set in the early 30s there is very little attempt at a "period" look, the crowd scenes at the circus looking straight out of the 50s.Of the male principals, Rock Hudson probably has the most authentic 30s look, with Carson and Stack mostly in overalls or, in Stack's case, singlets. Dorothy Malone, however, is totally 50s. She is every inch the seductive blonde bombshell of the Marilyn Monroe era, from the flowing peroxide blonde hair to the black patent leather stilettos. Did Sirk want this aspect of the actress's persona to add further texture to his film, or did he just not care? It was not uncommon in the 50s for films to ignore period fashion, so maybe it is as simple as that.

This is a film that strongly divides people. Initially dismissed as trash, then in the 80s beginning to build a reputation as a classic, many still hold to the initial assessment. But Sirk's film presents characters that the world had decided were "trash" themselves, only good for providing a cheap thrill, a thrill that could possibly result in death? The climactic death is indeed directly caused by "the world" running onto the airfield, forcing a crash dive into the water. Ironic, then, to dismiss as "trash" a movie that presents these trashed, tarnished mortals with a compassionate artist's eye.Whatever, anyone interested can finally see the film in its CinemaScope black and white glory and decide for him or herself.

Bess Flowers watch! The Queen of the Hollywood extras appears as a behatted reporter - no doubt gossip columnist - in two of the scenes set in the newspaper office. She gets a brief close-up in one panning shot (75:50), but no dialogue.

Video

The video transfer of this movie is excellent.

The transfer of the original anamorphic CinemaScope image is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced.
It is a true pleasure to see the full image, instead of the lopped offering seen on subscription TV.
The transfer is extremely sharp and clear throughout. Detail is excellent, with the exterior shots and aerial photography looking fine, but the interior scenes glistening in brilliant black and white.There is no low level noise.
This is a magnificent black and white image, with extensive grey scale. The blacks are deep and soilid, and there is no trace of flaring on the whites. The high contrast, expressionist lighting is superbly reproduced.
The only film to video artefact was some slight aliasing on grandstands (03:05 and 85:17) and venetians (20:25).


There is some negative damage for about twelve frames (53:56) - scratches and emulsion or water damage - but there is no disruption to the flow of the image.

There are no subtitles.
The layer change occurs at 46:01 and is barely noticeable.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

The audio is unremarkable, but it is in quite good shape.
There are two audio tracks, English and the commentary track. Both are in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono encoded at 224 Kbps.
The extensive dialogue was clear and easy to understand.
There is a minute amount of background crackle or pop, and there are no dropouts.
There was no problem with audio sync with the transfer, despite the fact that a great deal of the dialogue was looped or post-recorded. There is one instance where the total absence of any sound at all between the lines of Rock Hudson and Jack Carson is a little distracting.
Frank Skinner's musical score is a dramatic asset to the film and is nicely reproduced, despite the limitations of mono sound.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Theatrical Trailer : (02:39)

This is the rather sensational original theatrical trailer, presented 2.00:1, but unfortunately a 4x3 transfer.


Booklet : (12 page / 4 photographs)

This very nicely produced booklet contains an essay on The Tarnisheds Angels by Dr Geoff Mayer Reader and Research Professor at La Trobe University. Great general information on Sirk - repeating some information already in the commentary - but very specific to The Tarnished Angels. Excellent stuff.

Inside of Slick :
Congratulations again to Madman on not wasting this space. Here we get approximately another five hundred words on Sirk, plus a Hollywood Filmography listing Sirk's twenty-nine Hollywood films, from Hitler's Madman (1942) through to Imitation of Life (1958).

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

A Time to Love and a Time to Die (Directors Suite) (1958)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Audio Commentary-by Ross Gibson, Prof. at University of Technology, Sydney Featurette-Out There in the Dark Theatrical Trailer-Original theatrical trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1958
Running Time	126:41 (Case: 869)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (80:55)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Douglas Sirk
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	John Gavin Liselotte Pulver Jock Mahoney Don DeFore Keenan Wynn Erich Maria Remarque Dieter Borsche Barbara Rütting Thayer David Charles Régnier Dorothea Wieck Kurt Meisel Agnes Windeck
Case	Custom Packaging
RPI	$149.95	Music	Miklós Rózsa

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.55:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Douglas Sirk once said: "The angles are a director's thoughts. The lighting is his philosophy". This quote has been oft-used by critics to describe his rich use of mise-en-scene in his Technicolor melodrama films, but it is in A Time to Love and a Time to Die that we see Sirk's philosophy come to full fruition on-screen. For just as Magnificent Obsession featured Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman in scenes that featured brightly lit backgrounds juxtaposed with different scenes with dark, dim and shadowy backgrounds to highlight the changing nature of their characters' relationship, so in A Time to Love and a Time to Die we see John Gavin and Liselotte Pulver struggling to make their relationship live in the midst of wartime bombing and the threat of death. Unlike Bob and Helen in Magnificent Obsession, Ernst (played by John Gavin) and Elizabeth (Liselotte Pulver) share their most intimate moments in this film in the dark. It's as if Sirk uses the love of these two ill-fated characters, thanks to war, to show his master hand at the use of irony. Speaking of irony, do take note of the dead soldier found in the snow with his right hand reaching out for something at the beginning of the film. Sirk uses this gesture as a master stroke by the end of the film, as he also does with the execution scene of Russian civilians which also has fuller meaning by the end.

    "This, anyhow, is what enchants me about Sirk: this delirious mixture of medieval and modern, sentimentality and subtlety, tame compositions and frenzied CinemaScope." So wrote none other than Jean-Luc Godard in his praiseworthy review of this film in Cahiers du Cinema magazine in 1958. He also adds: "After (Max Ophuls') Le Plaisir it (A Time to Love and a Time to Die) is the most beautiful title in the whole history of cinema, silent and sound." These sentiments meant a lot to Sirk, firstly because he was written off as banal and against American 1950s culture by American film critics during his Universal years, and secondly, as he quotes Godard on more than one occasion in the French documentary Days with Sirk featuring interviews with Sirk from 1982.

    A Time to Love and a Time to Die was adapted from a novel written and published in German in 1952 by Erich Maria Remarque (who has a cameo role in the film as Professor Pohlmann) who was famous for his great novel, All Quiet on the Western Front. Remarque's novel is entitled Time to Live and Time to Die (in German), however, with its main theme of the difficulties of maintaining normal relationships during wartime. Jean-Luc Godard mentions in his essay on the film how pleased he was that Sirk's adaptation of Remarque's book was changed to 'A Time to Love' (perhaps as a gesture to Sirk's penchant for melodrama). Sirk, I believe, chose this novel to adapt to film because it mirrored his real-life circumstances. Apparently when he married his second wife, Hilde Jary, a Jew, his ex-wife, a Nazi sympathiser, banned Sirk from contact with their son, Klaus. Klaus would go on to die at the Russian front in 1944. Sirk forbade any mention of this part of his life until after his death.

    John Gavin was chosen to play Ernst Graeber, after Sirk wanted Paul Newman. Universal wanted to make John Gavin the new Rock Hudson. Ernst is fighting on the Russian-German Front in 1944, gaining a three-week break to go home to Hamburg. Upon arrival, he finds that his home town is nothing like what he had envisaged. He desperately searches for proof of his family's whereabouts and then meets and falls in love with Elizabeth (Liselotte Pulver), the daughter of a doctor who knew the Graeber family. Realising that they have only a short time together, Ernst and Elizabeth make the most of their relationship prior to Ernst returning to the front.

     The reception of the film surprised Sirk. It was banned in Israel as being sympathetic to Nazis, yet it was a failure in his native Germany despite being anti-Nazi in tone. Sirk had tried to make a film that showed the struggles of a soldier fighting war, yet with a conscience. In 1958, American audiences could not sympathise with Gavin's character, despite Sirk's obvious motif of using American accents for his good German soldiers and German accents for his bad ones. Also, Gavin's performance was very limited in his range and this I believe worked against the movie upon its release. This film was very personal to Sirk, an attempt to move beyond his melodramatic style, in my opinion, but its failure to capture audiences forced Sirk's hand. He returned to his usual melodramatic style for his next film, Imitation of Life, which also proved to be his final film in the Hollywood system.

Video

    The film was originally shot in a 2:55:1 Cinemascope aspect ratio. Films such as Nicholas Ray's Rebel without a Cause, Max Ophuls' Lola Montes and David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai also shared this aspect ratio and were filmed during the era this film was made.

    For this DVD, the aspect ratio is 2:40:1, 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions.

    The average bitrate of the film is 6.67 m/b per sec. It is a little soft in places but otherwise the video transfer is good for its age.

    Russell Metty, Sirk's usual cinematographer, shot the film in Eastmancolor. As the period of the film is winter, 1944, colours are somewhat muted and subdued, although there are moments of bright colour to highlight contrast in the plot.

    The video transfer is free of film artefacts such as dirt, dust and specks. There are some instances of low level noise which manifests itself as slight macro-blocking in scenes with dark backgrounds

    Unfortunately, there are no subtitles for this release.

    The RSDL change occurs at 80:55 during a scene change which fades to black.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    2:55:1 Cinemascope films were usually released with 4-track magnetic stereo soundtracks during the 1950s. Unfortunately, A Time to Live and a Time to Die does not retain its stereo soundtrack for this release. The film was also released with a mono soundtrack during its theatrical run.

    There are two audio tracks on this DVD, the main soundtrack in English and Ross Gibson's audio commentary. Both tracks are encoded in Dolby Digital 2.0 at 224 kbps. Dialogue is clear and synchronised. The main soundtrack is free of hiss and crackles and pops.

    Music by Miklós Rózsa is suitably dramatic, especially highlighting tension in the events of the plot.

     There is no surround channel usage as the main soundtrack is in mono. The subwoofer is not utilised either.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Audio commentary by Ross Gibson, Professor of Contemporary Arts, the University of Sydney.

     Ross Gibson's commentary is not as scene-specific as Dr. Mark Nicholls' commentary for Magnificent Obsession for example. Gibson mentions firstly the subdued colour palette of the film, emphasising blues, browns and greys, and the scenes that show strong reds and yellows which signify passions in a sombre setting. He also mentions scenes that are set-up to create tension in the plot but reconcile themselves to being anti-dramatic. When Sirk uses this plot device in a number of sequences, it causes an expectation from the viewer for conflict in an otherwise sombre and bleak film, both visually and metaphorically. Gibson also states how characters ascend and descend in the film, he praises Pulver's performance and makes mention of Sirk's personal situation with his son, Klaus, which influenced his choice to make this film. He also discusses movement in scenes and its significance to Sirk's use of mise-en-scene.

Featurette - Out There in the Dark: Hollywood screenwriter Wesley Strick on Douglas Sirk's secret. (18:49)

     American screenwriter Wesley Strick shares his feelings on Sirk's films and his experiences in leaving Germany in the 1930s. This resulted in his novel, Out There in the Dark, published in 2006 and based on Sirk's experiences in Hollywood.

Theatrical Trailer (2:41)

     The original theatrical trailer is presented unrestored in a 1:85:1 aspect ratio, 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions.

    A Time to Love and a Time to Die has been released in Region 2 in the United Kingdom and in France. Both releases have similar quality video and audio transfers.

     The Region Free UK Masters of Cinema release includes the theatrical trailer, a pdf of the shooting script and three featurettes: Of Tears and Speed: According to Jean-Luc Godard, in French with English subtitles (11:58), Out There in the Dark: Wesley Strick speaks about Douglas Sirk's secret, in English with removable French subtitles (18:40) and Imitation of Life (Mirage of Life): A Portrait of Douglas Sirk, in German with burned-in French subtitles and optional English subtitles (48:50). A 36-page booklet is also included which discusses the film and the life and work of Douglas Sirk.

     The Region 2 French Carlotta release has the trailer, four featurettes: Des Larmes et de la Vitesse (Of Tears and Speed) in French and with French subtitles during English dialogue (11:57), Assis Dans le Noir (Out there in the Dark) in English with removable French subtitles (18:38), Mirage de la Vie (Imitation of Life): A Portrait of Douglas Sirk, in German with burned-in French subtitles (48:48) and A Conversation with Douglas Sirk by Jon Halliday, in French with no subtitles (14:49).This film is also included on the magnificent Carlotta 8-disc Douglas Sirk Collection, Vol. 1 Box Set with Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows and Imitation of Life.

     This Region 4 Madman Directors Suite release, which is part of the 9-disc Douglas Sirk King of Hollywood Melodrama Box Set, was previously released as a single-disc standalone DVD on the 18th of June, 2008 with the exact same specifications as the DVD of the film included on this Box Set.

     The best available version of A Time to Love and a Time to Die on DVD therefore is the Region Free Masters of Cinema version which includes English Subtitles for the main feature and its three featurettes.

    With a compliment of excellent support actors such as Keenan Wynn, Klaus Kinski and Don DeFore and an excellent screenplay from Orin Jannings, adapted from Erich Maria Remarque's 1952 book, A Time to Love and a Time to Die should have been Sirk's breakout film from his melodramatic style of filmmaking. Instead, his reputation preceded him and resulted in the film not making a connection with audiences, unaccustomed to the change in Sirk's filmmaking style for this movie. Despite this, it is still a quality addition to Sirk's film canon, of which he was immensely proud of when interviewed about the movie years later.

     The Region 4 Madman Directors Suite label release is the only version of A Time to Love and a Time to Die on DVD which includes an audio commentary as an extra.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Imitation of Life (Directors Suite) (1959)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Audio Commentary-by Assoc. Prof. Angela Ndalianis, University of Melbourne Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1959
Running Time	119:31 (Case: 869)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (58:12)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Douglas Sirk
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Lana Turner John Gavin Sandra Dee Robert Alda Susan Kohner Dan O'Herlihy Juanita Moore Karin Dicker Terry Burnham John Vivyan Lee Goodman Ann Robinson
Case	Custom Packaging
RPI	$149.95	Music	Frank Skinner Henry Mancini

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, John Ford, Stanley Kubrick, Federico Fellini, Martin Scorsese, Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman; these men are all great directors. Douglas Sirk may not quite have the reputation of these auteurs, but he does have one distinctive feature of his career that is not shared amongst the aforementioned; he finished his career on a high. (Of course, theoretically, Jean-Luc Godard would too, but I can't see his latest films matching his highly influential work from the sixties. Martin Scorsese could share Sirk's distinction if Shutter Island happened to be his last theatrical film released at the time of writing this review.) So how did Sirk manage to top....himself? He went back to the melodramatic formula of most of his Universal-International pictures of the 1950s and made it more socially relevant.

     Audiences were deeply moved by Imitation of Life when it was released in 1959. The unique feature that Imitation of Life has in comparison to Sirk's earlier films for Universal is the fact that the love story at its centre is not between a leading man and lady. Instead, it is centred on the relationships between two mothers and their daughters. Lana Turner plays Lora Meredith, a struggling actress who is raising her child Suzie after her husband died. While on an outing at Coney Island she loses Suzie, who is found by unemployed black widow Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore) and her daughter Sarah Jane, who is light-skinned enough to be mistaken for white. Douglas Sirk plays this element of the plot perfectly throughout this film. These four characters become an atypical family, with Annie offering her housekeeping services to Lora, so they move in together into a small, New York apartment. The film skips the details of how Lora becomes a successful Broadway actress; twelve years fly by and Lora is successful enough to live in comfort, but this comes at a price.

     Both Suzie (played as a 16-year old by Sandra Dee) and Sarah Jane (played as an 18-year old by Susan Kohner) have grown up independent of their mothers. In Suzie's case, Lora's career has caused her to neglect Suzie, whereas Sarah Jane is desperate to break free from the restriction of being labelled as coloured and forge a life for herself as a young white woman (it is presumed in the beginning of the film that her father was 'practically' white, although this is never confirmed because segregation between races was still a hot topic in the United States in the late fifties). These conflicts cause Suzie to fall in love with Lora's suitor and Sarah Jane to reject Annie as her mother so she won't be labelled as 'coloured'.

     The end of the film will really pull at your heart-strings. You will be guaranteed to cry. Tag Gallagher, noted film writer, wrote in his article, White Melodrama: Douglas Sirk for Senses of Cinema: "I first saw Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life in 1959 at The Yeadon, a neighbourhood movie house in a white working-class suburb of Philadelphia. I was 16. Imitation of Life was about four women, two of them black. When we came out afterward, most of us were crying. The theatre owner's wife was standing in the lobby with a box of Kleenex. Many people gratefully took a tissue to dry their eyes. This is what Sirk wanted, I believe. The critics had barfed all over the film, hating it as 'a soap opera' for the same reasons Sirk and we loved it. The movie had played us, communally, as its instrument. It had passed like a ritual sacrifice, with fear and pity climaxing with the immolation of the (black) heroine for us whites. This movie experience had had a quality I would call 'sacramental' but which Douglas Sirk, following his beloved Arthur Schopenhauer, preferred to call 'irony' – in the Aristotelian sense: art's ability to clarify and anneal. Sirk thought movies should function for society, as Socrates' dialogues and Euripides's melodramas did in ancient Athens. Imitation of Life seared us. The melodrama played the audience, as though we were its piano. 'Melodrama' means 'music and drama'. Music with the text accentuates emotions, which in cinema enact battles of love and dread, good and evil, light and darkness, in movements choreographed. Movies that move, which have first of all to be emotional experiences, are quintessentially melodramatic – motion and light and music and text. L'Arrivée d'un train ŕ la gare de Ciotât, The Searchers, Star Wars, The Passion of Joan of Arc, The Birds, Pierrot le fou, Paisŕ, Snow White, Citizen Kane, Diary of a Country Priest … what good movie is not ultimately good melodrama?"

     Douglas Sirk did have a keen sense of irony in all his films and the very title of this film, Imitation of Life, is an overt indication of the juxtaposition between reality and unreality in the lives of Lora, Suzie, Sarah Jane and Annie. Lora believes all along she is a good mother, Suzie craves for attention and when Steve (her mother's fiancé) spends time with her after Lora travels to Italy, she falls in love with him. Sarah Jane imitates Lora's desire for success and Annie seeks to downplay the race issue in her daughter's upbringing until it is too late.

     Imitation of Life was the second remake of a John Stahl 1930s film (of the same name) for Douglas Sirk and it was not a critical hit in 1959; in fact film critics dismissed it as 'soap drama'. Nevertheless, it made $US6.4 million for Universal, that film studio's biggest picture until Airport in 1970. Lana Turner's costume wardrobe cost over $US1 million alone, a record film budget expenditure for costuming at the time. The success of the film, I believe, led Sirk to make up his mind about Hollywood. He had enough of its lifestyle, and Imitation of Life, with it's social and political themes of race equality, was the last thing that Sirk wanted to say. He surely knew about this issue well enough as he had been forced to leave Germany after marrying a Jew in the 1930s. If A Time to Love and a Time to Die was the type of film that Sirk really wanted to make, then Imitation of Life was, in a way, its antithesis. The melodramatic nature of its plot, score and acting was much more emphasised here than in any other Sirk picture before it.

Video

     For Imitation of Life, Sirk and cinematographer Russell Metty abandoned the widescreen CinemaScope used on The Tarnished Angels and A Time to Love and a Time to Die and shot it in a standard 'academy flat' ratio, the same framing used on Sirk's noted melodramas such as All That Heaven Allows and Written on the Wind. The aspect ratio is therefore 1:85:1, and it is16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions.

     The main feature takes up 7.2 gb of space on a dual-layered DVD with an average bitrate of 8.22 m/b per sec. The bitrate therefore is excellent and there are no compression issues with this transfer. Despite this, the video transfer does have I believe intentional blurring to highlight the difference between 'real' and 'unreal' aspects of the plot; notice how, at times, Lana Turner's hair or eyes sparkle or John Gavin's (who plays Steve, Lora's ineffectual love interest) hair sheens.

     The first half of the film, where Lora is struggling to make it as a Broadway actress, sees many instances of grey; later after she finds success in her career we see the image transfer include a wide variety of opulent colours. Despite the superb bitrate on this transfer, there is still film grain evident at times due to the strong contrast used where colours are deliberately exaggerated in line with the theme of the main plot. Film artefacts are few, mainly white (or negative) artefacts that may be dust marks.

     Unfortunately, there are no subtitles provided with this release.

     The RSDL change occurs at 58:12, right in the middle of a scene, so it is quite noticeable!

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Douglas Sirk's films were known for their ornate and lush soundtracks during the 1950s, but this soundtrack, like the cinematography, has been emphasised more for dramatic effect.

     Both the main soundtrack and the audio commentary is in Dolby Digital 2.0, encoded at 224 kbps. Dialogue is clear and the audio is synchronised.

     Frank Skinner returned to score this film after Sirk made A Time to Love and a Time to Die in Germany with Miklós Rózsa contributing the film score. I was genuinely surprised by the variation and consistent use of classical and jazz music to support the dialogue of the film. Sometimes the music conveyed many different moods in one scene, from hope and elation to sadness and despair. The musical soundtrack is therefore always a feature of almost every scene.

     There is no surround channel usage because the main soundtrack is in mono. The subwoofer is not utilised either.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Audio Commentary by Associate Professor Angela Ndalianis, University of Melbourne

     This is neither a scene specific commentary or an academic, intellectual commentary. Rather, what we have is a commentary from Angela Ndalianis which is both informative and personal, as this film has had an impact on her life. This fact comes across to the viewer. It’s very refreshing to get this type of commentary because you feel as if, proverbially speaking, your friend, who happens to be a Douglas Sirk expert, is sitting on the couch talking to you about the film while you are watching it.

     Ndalianis discusses Sirk's use of irony through his framing through objects, his use of mirrors, the use of grey in Lana Turner's costumes indicating a blur in colour relations (between people) and the political and social motive of Sirk to highlight Annie and Sarah Jane's relationship in the film. She also mentions how this film is a true woman's melodramatic film; the plot does not follow the desires of the leading men as was standard for Hollywood films for the time. Overall, I appreciated Ndalianis’ drawn-out explanations of scenes which explain the main ideas and themes that Sirk was trying to convey. Look out for the final scenes where gospel star Mahalia Jackson sings 'Trouble of the World' and the commentary that goes with it, it's superb!

Original Theatrical Trailer (2:22)

     The original theatrical trailer is shown unrestored in a full-frame transfer within a 1:85:1 cinematic window.

    Imitation of Life has been released on DVD in different Regions, both as a single release and in DVD Collection Box Sets.

     Universal Pictures has released the film onto DVD twice in Region 1 in the United States. The first time was with only the theatrical trailer as an extra. The second release was a special edition which included an audio commentary by film historian Avery Clayton, the 1934 version of the film by John Stahl on a separate DVD, and a retrospective documentary with Juanita Moore: Lasting Legacy - An Imitation of Life.

     The Region 2 United Kingdom version contains no extras. It is also available in the 7-disc Directed By Douglas Sirk Box Set which includes Has Anyone Seen My Gal?, All I Desire, Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, Written On The Wind, The Tarnished Angels and Imitation Of Life.

     The Region 2 French Carlotta release comes as a 2-disc standalone version or as part of a Box Set. The transfer is 7.2 gb in size with an average bitrate of 7.68 m/b per sec. The 2-disc standalone release includes the 1934 John Stahl version of Imitation of Life, a 20-minute feature by Jean-Loup Bourget entitled Shards of Melodrama (in French), a 15-minute reflection by Christophe Honore on the film (again in French) and a 45-minute featurette - Born to be Hurt: Sam Staggs on Douglas Sirk's 'Imitation of Life' (in English). The excellent 8-disc Douglas Sirk Collection, Vol. 1 Box Set including the four films Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, A Time to Love and a Time to Die and Imitation of Life. This Box Set includes the original John Stahl versions of Magnificent Obsession and Imitation of Life, interviews with Jean-Loup Bourget and Philippe le Guay on Magnificent Obsession, reflections on Imitation of Life by Christophe Honore and Sam Staggs, an analytical discussion on the melodrama of Sirk and Stahl by Jean-Loup Bourget, discussions on All That Heaven Allows by Todd Haynes, William Reynolds and Rainer Werner Fassbinder (in textual form) and an audio commentary by François Ozon, a documentary on Imitation of Life, an interview with Wesley Strick and voiceover analysis of Imitation of Life from Douglas Sirk and Jean-Luc Godard.

     The Region 4 Madman Directors Suite release is available as a 3-disc standalone version or in the 9-disc Douglas Sirk King of Hollywood Melodrama Box Set. Both releases use the same 1:85:1 transfer with an average bitrate of 8.22 m/b per sec. The 3-disc release includes the 1934 version of the film on the second disc, a featurette on Lana Turner and the same Sam Staggs extra that appears on the French Region 2 Carlotta release, Born to be Hurt: Sam Staggs on Douglas Sirk's 'Imitation of Life' . The 9-disc Box Set includes the films No Room for the Groom, All I Desire, Magnificent Obsession, Taza, Son of Cochise, All That Heaven Allows, There's Always Tomorrow, A Time to Love and a Time to Die, The Tarnished Angels and Imitation of Life. This includes an interview with Tony Curtis on No Room for the Groom, a 60-minute documentary featuring interviews with Douglas Sirk from 1982 entitled Days of Sirk, an interview with actors Pat Crowley and Gigi Perreau and an interview with director Allison Anders on There's Always Tomorrow, a discussion with Wesley Strick on A Time to Love and a Time to Die and audio commentaries by Therese Davies on All I Desire, Mark Nicholls on Magnificent Obsession and All That Heaven Allows, John Flaus and Adrian Martin on There's Always Tomorrow, Ross Gibson on A Time to Love and a Time to Die, Adrian Martin on Tarnished Angels and Angela Ndalianis on Imitation of Life.

     The Region 2 Carlotta and Region 4 Madman Box Sets are wonderful releases, with the Region 4 the pick for English-speaking fans of Sirk's work. The Region 4 Madman Directors Suite release of Imitation of Life is the best standalone DVD release currently available in English.

     This is a fabulous swansong for Douglas Sirk and a wonderful closure to the Douglas Sirk King of Hollywood Melodrama Box Set by Madman's Directors Suite label.

     The version of the film on the Box Set release is the first disc of the previous 3-disc version of Imitation of Life (including the audio commentary), released in April, 2008 which included a profile on Lana Turner, a featurette by Sam Staggs and the 1934 version by John Stahl of Imitation of Life.

     I hope you have enjoyed reading about Douglas Sirk's contribution to Hollywood Cinema and the reviews of the Box Set of nine of Sirk's films for Universal during the 1950s.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall