Frank Sinatra-Man and His Music, A (N Riddle and G Jenkins Orchestras) (1965)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Notes-DVD Catalogue Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1965
Running Time	51:14 (Case: 50)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Dwight Hemion
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Frank Sinatra
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$34.95	Music	Frank Sinatra

    Sinatra: A Man and His Music is a DVD that should be part of any Sinatra fan's collection.

    As I wrote in an earlier review, "Frank Sinatra needs no introduction. Since the 1940s he has been consistently one of the biggest selling and most critically acclaimed recording and performing stars in popular music; an Academy Award winning actor and movie star; and a 20th Century cultural icon. Sinatra's life and work speak for itself."

    Warner Vision have released a series of ten Sinatra DVDs. Each captures a different Sinatra performance over the many years. This 1965 made-for-television special opens with a black car appearing out of the darkness, and pulling up outside a television studio. It's late and it's dark. The mysterious driver draws a long shadow as he exits the car, and strides confidently into the studio, and up to a waiting microphone. It's Sinatra. He discards his trademark hat, acknowledges the studio crowd, and then begins to sing. What follows is almost an hour of Sinatra at his peak, enthusiastically providing some of the best renditions of some of his greatest tunes.

Video

    The transfer quality is very good considering the age of the source material.   

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, full frame, non-16x9 enhanced.    

    While the image is generally quite soft, it is also very clear. There is not much shadow detail throughout, and there is some low level noise on occasion, for example at 20:13 and 49:07.   

    The colour has faded a little with age, and at times looks a little washed-out, but pleasantly so, as there is no colour bleeding and no cross-colouration to complain of.

    There are a few MPEG artefacts present. At times, the transfer displays very slight pixelization, for example the background at 30:33. Close-ups of Sinatra's face sometimes suffer from very slight posterization, such as at 15:46. If you look hard enough, you might spot some macro-blocking on the background sets, for example at 5:08, 6:09 and 27:02.

    There were no film to video or film artefacts, but a few black and white clips of early attempts at flight are presented during the opening of Come Fly With Me. These display just about every film artefact one can think of, but the clips are included for comic purposes only. Tiny white flecks appear throughout the DVD, seemingly caused by tape dropout. Also, occasionally there were what appeared to be analogue tape tracking errors, such as at 27:59 and 23:20, which caused grey horizontal lines to briefly appear on screen.

    All the subtitles promised on the packaging were present. While the non-English subtitles would only appear during the spoken passages, the English subtitles would also display the song lyrics during Sinatra's performance. The English subtitles were accurate.

    This is a single-layered disc which is acceptable considering the length of the material.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The quality of the audio is also very good considering the age of the source material.

    There is only one audio track on this DVD, an English PCM track adapted from the original mono source. It provides a relatively full and rich sound. There is none of the heavy background hiss often apparent in mono tracks of this vintage, but sadly, there are a few minor audio drop-outs during It Was A Very Good Year.

    The dialogue quality is very good. Sinatra's lyrics, as always, are clear, and his unique phrasing sits well in the audio mix. There is also quite a bit of Sinatra's fun banter with the audience in between tracks, featuring his self-deprecating humour.

    All of the music on this DVD has been arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle and Gordon Jenkins. Along with Quincy Jones, these men are the very best arrangers to have ever worked with Sinatra. Some of Sinatra's greatest tunes are included on this DVD, with great renditions of: I Get A Kick Out Of You,  It Was A Very Good Year, Young At Heart, Come Fly With Me, The Lady Is A Tramp, I've Got The World On A String, Witchcraft and You Make Me Feel So Young. There are also the best renditions that I have ever heard of I've Got You Under My Skin and My Kind Of Town. With the latter, Sinatra's impassioned performance brings down the house. Not only is Sinatra backed by a swinging big band, but during tracks eight to twelve, he is surrounded by a full orchestra, providing sweeping, romantic strings.

    As a PCM track, the surround speakers and subwoofer are not called upon during this DVD.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    This DVD contains few extras.

Menu

    The DVD auto-plays on loading, but there is a menu if you select it. It is static and without audio.

Trailer

    This four minute and nineteen second trailer is presented in as aspect ration of 1.33:1, full frame, non-16x9 enhanced with an English PCM track. It advertises the series of ten Sinatra DVDs that Warner Vision is releasing, as opposed to this DVD in particular. I assume that this trailer appears on all ten DVDs.

Catalogue

    Purely text-based, this extra lists the tracks on Warner Vision's ten Sinatra DVDs. Again I assume that this extra appears on all ten DVDs.

    The Region 1 version of this DVD was released in March 1999. It only differs from the Region 4 version in the design of the slick. Therefore I favour our version for its availability, and most importantly, its superior PAL image.

    If, like me, you are a Sinatra fan, then I suggest that you grab a copy of this DVD. While there are a few minor problems with the transfer due to the age of the source material, they are not distracting or annoying. This DVD features Sinatra at his peak performing many of his greatest hits.

    The video quality is very good considering the age of the source material.

    The audio quality is also very good considering the age of the source material.

    The extras are slim.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall