This is something of a golden age for classic films on Blu-ray, with smaller distributors like Criterion, Olive, Shout! Factory and Twilight Time offering a steady stream of upgrades (and sometimes digital premieres) for catalog tiles that the major studios (Warner being the major exception) often can’t be bothered to handle themselves.
The latest distributor to join this very welcome bandwagon is longtime specialty distributor Kino Lorber, whose new acquisition exec Frank Tarzi (formerly of Olive) has brokered a large deal for out-of-print catalog titles owned by MGM that nicely compliments that studio’s holdings put out by Criterion, Shout! and Twilight, not to mention those issued by MGM’s video distributor of record, Fox.
The new Kino Lorber Classics line is releasing everything in both DVD and Blu-ray, but I’m focusing here on the latter. The five high-def titles I looked at from the just-issued first wave are a marked improvement over the often mediocre DVD transfers offered under the MGM label.
The highest-profile title of the bunch is Delbert Mann’s “Marty,” a scrappy and big-hearted little adaptation of Paddy Chayefsky’s TV play that swept the 1955 Oscars, winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay. Ernest Borgnine, a busy character actor who replaced Rod Steiger from the TV version, is simply heart-wrenching as a homely Italian-American Bronx butcher who faces daily humiliation because, at 34, all of his siblings are married and he doesn’t even have a girlfriend.
Reluctantly goaded into visiting a dance ballroom, Marty shows kindness to a teacher (Betsy Blair, then Mrs. Gene Kelly) who has been dumped by her blind date and, much to his surprise, the two of them hit it off despite some initial awkwardness. Marty is less overjoyed when his overprotective mother (Esther Minciotti) throws cold water on his enthusiasm (because the woman is over 30, not Italian, and she fears abandonment) and his jealous bachelor pal (Joe Mantell, like Blair Oscar-nominated) dismisses her as a “dog.” It ends happily enough that “Marty” was an enormous hit, returning $3 million in rentals on a tiny $365,000 budget for Burt Lancaster’s production company.
This is a sharp black-and-white transfer that showcases Joseph LaShelle’s Oscar-nominated black-and-white photography, most notably night on the streets of a bygone Bronx from 60 years ago. KLC has gotten some grief online for releasing this film online in the classic Academy ratio of 1:33 — the way it’s always been seen since its 1962 TV debut on 1962 — rather than the 1:85 ratio in which it was originally presented theatrically.
Like many non-anamorphic films from this early widescreen era, “Marty” was “protected” for 1:33 — in other words, it was specifically composed so it could be shown in multiple aspect ratios for the benefit of theaters that hadn’t yet made the switch-over.
KLC’s Tarzi said they considered cropping the 1:33 image, but decided the film looks much better full frame, Mann and the Motion Picture Academy’s preference for theatrical showings. Having carefully watched the film twice, I have to agree — you’d lose too much visual information in too many shots with even a less severe 1:66 crop. While it might be nice to have “Marty” offered in multiple aspect ratios (like Criterion did for the previous year’s Oscar winner, “On the Waterfront”), I think that’s economically unrealistic for this particular bare-bones release, which isn’t really aimed at hard-core cinephiles anyway.
The other four titles I looked at, 1950s and 1960s United Artists releases, are all widescreen. The only one that hasn’t appeared previously on DVD, surprisingly, is Martin Ritt’s atypically lighthearted (for him) “Paris Blues” (1962) from Marlon Brando’s Pennebaker production. Brando isn’t in this romantic drama starring Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier as expatriate American jazz musicians in the City of Light. Along come vacationing tourists Joanne Woodward and Dihann Caroll, who are soon trying to lure the guys back home to America. But will Newman abandon his composing dreams, and Poitier return to the Civil Rights struggle that’s avoiding in the more race-blind Paris?
There’s a score by Duke Ellington, a performing cameo by Louis Armstrong and the black-and-white location shooting looks just great in the high-def transfer. The chemistry between lifemates and frequent co-stars Newman and Woodward is a given, but there’s also palpable heat between Poitier and Carroll, who had fallen in love during the shooting of “Porgy and Bess” and struggled with their affection during this subsequent shoot, because both were married with children.
I probably wouldn’t have looked at “Duel at Diablo” (1966), a western I’d barely heard of, if its star James Garner hadn’t died over the weekend. Glad I did, because there are lots of interesting elements in this racially-themed oater that co-stars Poitier. For starters, the racial issues don’t directly involve Poitier’s dandyish horse trader, a former cavalry sergeant who gets dragooned into the titular showdown with Apaches in order to secure payment for his work (he wants to open a gambling hall). Garner (grizzled in his first post-“Maverick” western) is another cavalry veteran, a scout who joins the dangerous trip through Apache territory as part of a plan to avenge the brutal murder of his Indian wife.
The same year she made “Persona” for Ingmar Bergman, Bibi Andersson plays a woman who’s shunned by settlers (especially husband Dennis Weaver) after she was abducted by the Apaches — and they don’t know the half of it. English star Bill Travers (“Born Free”) agreeably chews scenery as a Scotsman who (with much help from Garner and Poitier) leads the cavalry stand against the Indians in a canyon that’s excitingly staged by unfairly forgotten director Ralph Nelson, whose credits include “Requiem For a Heavyweight” and the film that won Poitier a Best Actor Oscar, “Lillies of the Field.” Neal Hefti’s score is also a delight, and fans of the period will especially appreciate those groovy credits. The transfer shows off extensive location work, handsomely photographed in color in Utah.
I also checked out a couple of new-to-Blu Billy Wilder films from Billy Wilder. Let’s start with his famously compromised “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes,” which legend says was whittled down at the producers’ behest from his three-hour cut to the 125-minute version presented here. Which is still a lot of fun thanks to Wilder and co-producer I.A.L. Diamond’s revisonist script that promises shocking Sherlockian revelations the final product doesn’t quite deliver on. Only two of maybe five planned episodes remain, the first and more famous revolves around Sherlock (a droll Robert Stephens) escaping the clutches of a ballerina who wants him as a sperm donor by strongly implying he’s gay. This scandalizes his longtime roomie Watson (Colin Blakely), who is already annoyed at his enabling Sherlock’s drug habit.
Most of the film is given off to a spoofy mystery involving the Loch Ness Monster, Queen Victoria, German agents, and Sherlock’s supercilious older brother Mycroft. The latter is delightfully played by erstwhile screen Sherlock Christopher Lee, who provides background on the film in a delightful archival interview ported over from the previous DVD. This is the only one of the films I looked at with significant extras, including some of the deleted scenes and a lengthy interview with the film’s editor who explains what was cut.
The other Wilder is a black and white classic from 1957, his terrifically entertaining adaptation of Agatha’s Christie’s “Witness for the Prosecution.” (Wilder says in a brief German-language interview that while Christie could plot like nobody’s business, her dialogue needed a lot of sharpening). Wilder and co-writer Harry Kurnitz provided ace defense attorney Charles Laughton (in a hugely enjoyable piece of hamming) with a heart ailment and a bossy nurse (Elsa Lanchester) with whom he tangles to great comic effect. 
Tyrone Power is top-billed as a British war veteran on trial for murdering an older woman for her money, and Marlene Dietrich delivers a tour-de-force as his German wife in a film with a rightly famous triple-twist ending. If you’ve only seen this on TV, watching it in this Blu-ray transfer is a totally new experience — and gives lie to the accusation that Wilder isn’t a particularly visual director.
The Warner Archive Collection has debuted a quartet of Monogram/Allied Artists noirs on DVD: William Beaudine’s “Below the Deadline” (1946) with Warren Douglas; “The Hunted” (1946) starring Preston Foster and Belita; William Nigh’s “Stage Struck” (1946) with Wanda McKay and Kane Richmond; and another Warren Douglas vehicle, “Incident” (1948).
Warner Archive has given Amazon an exclusive on the Blu-ray debut of one of the noir greats, Jacques Tourneur’s “Out of the Past” (1947) starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer. Pre-orders are being taken there for an unspecified release date.
Sony Pictures Choice Collection, as its manufacture-on-demand program is called, will give a belated DVD debut to Arthur “The Tiger Makes Out” (1967), starring Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson in August. Also coming next month from the program are Al Rogell’s “East of Fifth Avenue” (1933) with Wallace Ford; Sidney Salkow’s “Cafe Hostess” (1940) with Preston Foster and Ann Dvorak; and Charles Barton’s “The Big Boss” (1941) starring Otto Kruger and Gloria Dickson.
Mark Sandrich’s classic Bing Crosby-Fred Astaire musical “Holiday Inn” (1943) will make its Blu-ray debut on Oct. 7. Features, including a colorized version, are ported over from the 2006 special edition.