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In 1990, the
National Film Preservation Board added Dodsworth to
the National Film Registry. The Library of Congress
considers this film to be one of Hollywood's
treasures. Dodsworth is the story of an automobile
tycoon who retires from his work to spend time with
his wife and travel throughout Europe to learn to
enjoy life. His wife is a younger woman that works
her way into a ritzier social life and distances
herself from her husband. He must learn to cope
without his wife and eventually he finds the
happiness and love of life he was searching
for.
Story
Walter Huston
(father of John Huston, grandfather of Angelica
Huston) plays Sam Dodworth, the president and
genius behind Dodsworth Motors. He is on the of the
business world, but decides to one sell his company
to United Auto Motors and retire. Upon retirement,
Sam and his wife Fran (Ruth Chatterton) plan to
spend six months and live in Europe. Sam wants to
learn to enjoy life, which is something that he has
had little time to do. Fran wants to have one very
long fling and hope that this European trek will
keep her young, as she loathes aging.
The couple
seems very happy as they embark on their voyage for
England. But before they reach their destination,
the waters start to become a little choppy for Sam
and Fran. Sam becomes excited at seeing a light
from an English Lighthouse and rushes to show his
wife what he sees. She has befriended a man on the
ship and would much rather enjoy his company and be
sociable than take part in her husband's glee and
excitement over the light. Sam remains above deck
to watch the light and Fran goes to her room,
accompanied by the man. After being led on by Fran,
the man attempts to make a romantic move towards
Fran. Fran is insulted by this and feuds with the
man, and eventually, upon discussing this encounter
with Sam, gets in an argument with her husband as
well.
This encounter
causes Fran to want to go immediately to Paris. Sam
wants to spend a few days in England to see some of
the automakers and other sights, but Fran objects
and Sam weakens at the knees and gives in to his
wife. After spending time in France, Fran adopts
the French way of life and objects to her American
ways and to her husband's continuation of living as
an American. This only causes more grief between
the couple and Sam leaves her in France and heads
home, hoping she will follow his in a few
months.
After an amount
of time at home, Sam sends a telegram to his wife
for her to come home. She responds to him that she
is staying. He believes that there is an affair
going on between Fran and a man named Arnold
Iselin. Sam decides to travel to France and
confront Fran and Mr. Iselin. He hires an
investigator to keep track of the location of Mr.
Iselin and upon arriving in France, Sam learns they
have been spending their time together. Sam
confronts them and appears to have won his wife
back. They decide to stay in Europe until December,
when their grandchild is to be born.
December rolls
around, and Fran has a new male interest. She
refuses to even allow Sam to speak of his
grandchild when this man, Clyde is around. One
night, Sam decides to stay home and allow Fran and
Clyde to go out on the town. Later that night, Sam
and his wife decide to part ways and Sam begins to
travel Europe all alone, until he finds a new love,
who shows Sam how to enjoy life and enjoy
himself.
Packaging
The film is
packaged in Warner Bros. Snapper case. The disc is
detailed with different Logos that show it is part
of HBO's Samuel Goldwyn collection. The cover
photograph is a colorized scene from the movie. The
movie, thankfully, is presented in its original
black and white presentation. There is nothing
spectacular about the packaging and its information
is accurate. Inside the front cover is the standard
Chapter Index. The rear facing of the case has the
pre-mentioned information about the film's
content.
The disc
itself, has some artwork sketched on it. However,
this artwork is done by creating an non-shiny
surface of the disc and removing this surface to
present the mirror like quality of the disc and the
picture it wants to show. My personal preference
would have been to use some colored artwork, which
is becoming increasingly popular and doesn't create
an eye-strain to admire the handywork. Even black
lettering would be nice. The packaging has a classy
feel to it, but the silver disc with silver artwork
is distracting.
Video
This movie is
over sixty years old. It is hard to imagine that
this picture would be out of this world crystal
clear and look like Schindler's List. I have
recently watched It's A Wonderful Life and was
amazed at the look of the film for being over fifty
years old. I was correct in not expecting to much
from Dodsworth. The film suffered horribly from
scratches and other errors in the master print. The
film was grainy and looked more like Sunday Morning
cable television than a Digital Versatile Disc. To
give credit, all the problems appeared to be a
result of bad source material and not from the
transfer. The transfer seemed to hold up well and
there were a few artifacts early, but most of the
film appeared to be from a decent transfer. This
old film just suffers too much from age and would
require an extremely expensive restoration to
regain its original glory. For the limited audience
this video will attract, I easily understand why
this restoration did not take place.
Sound
HBO has
included four foreign language tracks on this disc,
and two english tracks. The original mono (done in
Western Electric Sound System) is presented as
audio channel 1 and a newer Dolby Digital Surround
2.0 (done in Chase Surround Sound) track is on
audio track 2. The Mono track is very good for a
film that is over sixty years old. The volume is
good and the vocals are better than many modern
movies. There is not a point in the movie when the
vocals seemed washed or were hard to comprehend.
There are not many sound effects in the movie, and
those present are very passable. There is a scene
with an outboard boat motor that sounds remarkably
good. The music throughout the film is handicapped
by the mono sound, but is not bad. The definite
strength of this film is the dialogue.
The new
surround sound mix is not bad at all. It gives a
little more pleasant sound to the soundtrack and
the music is represented better. However, the
levels seem slightly lower and the dialogue is not
as impressive as the mono mix. It pretty much comes
down to taste as to which sound should be listened
to. The surround requires a little more power from
the amps, but has better music. The mono needs less
power and presents superior dialogue. The stereo
downmix is a nice midway point. The dialogue is not
centralized and suffers from stereo's inherent
problem with echoing dialogue, but the music is
better than the mono and the dialogue is clear. My
suggestion is to keep with the mono if you are into
the story, if you want to listen to the vintage
soundtrack, use the surround track.
Supplements
There are not
many supplements included with this film. The
standard menus are present, as are the good ole'
Production Notes and Cast & Crew Bios. They are
standard fare, but interesting to once-over. The
big plus for supplements is the six audio tracks.
The film includes mono tracks for English, Spanish,
French, Italian and German. This shows the movie
has been around the world a few times. HBO also
remastered the sound and include an English 2.0
surround track from the original mono master. I
cannot imagine this being a terribly easy task and
HBO has put some heart into this production. Many
studios do not do this for movies that would sound
terrific with a 2.0 surround track
(Terminator).
Summary
Dodsworth is a
good story. It lacks the pizazz of modern Hollywood
films, but it is a very mature story. It has a more
Indie feel to it than today's romance movies. If
you enjoy a good story, then this movie may appeal
to you. At one point in the movie, I pictured
Harrison Ford in the movie, with a little more
humor and realized the story could hold up today
with a little bit of work. Unless you are a
definite film buff or a fan of one of the cast or
crew, I would suggest renting this movie and not
purchasing it. It is a good story, but for the
casual video purchaser, it is more than likely a
once-and-done view.
The video
suffers greatly from bad source material and the
film looks like it is definitely sixty plus years
old. If you are looking for a great looking black
and white movie to show off or to see how black and
white holds up on DVD, check out Capra's It's A
Wonderful Life. The audio is very impressive for
single channel mono, and my hat goes off to those
that restored the sound for this DVD. My final
recommendation is that this film is only for fan's
or huge film buffs, not for the casual
buyer.
We should
celebrate the fact that HBO has taken the time to
release these old classics on DVD, where they can
live for a long time and be cherished by newer
generations to come. If it wasn't for these such
efforts, these old classics would perish forever.
For this very reason, thanks HBO!
Ratings
(out of five stars and in relationship to original
age of the picture/sound elements):
Picture:
***1/5
Sound: ****1/5
Supplements: **1/5
Price/Value: **1/5
*
= not worthy of a DIVX disc; ** = below par; *** =
good; **** = excellent; ***** = kill your mother to
get a copy
Equipment
List: Pioneer VSX-D3S Dolby Digital Reciever / Sony
DVP-3000 Digital Versatile Disc Player / Sony 32" V
Chassis Trinitron TV w/ Digital Comb Filter and
S-Video / Pioneer CLD-704 LaserDisc Player /
Pioneer DVL-700 LD / DVD Player
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