TONIGHT: 4 DECADES OF THE TONIGHT SHOW (Carson 1969-1992) R2 Entertainment

In 1962, brought on by contractual disputes and several ill timed emotional outbursts from its then host Jack Paar, NBC made the auspicious decision to recast its live New York late night variety hour with failed talk show, but moderately successful game show, host Johnny Carson. Late night TV would never be the same. Assuming the reigns in October of that year, the revamped Tonight Show hit the ground running - with a new theme supplied by Paul Anka and buoyantly orchestrated by Doc Severinsen, as well as Ed McMahon's trademark "Heeeeeeer's Johnny!"

The Tonight Show's format, though simple, proved effective with Carson often making weak, and even bad, jokes seem like the height of chic good taste during his opening monologues before swinging a phantom golf club to kick off a round of interviews and performing acts.

To say that Carson elevated camp to high art would be an understatement. Over the next two decades he introduced television audiences to such beloved chestnuts as cantankerous busybody Aunt Blabby, turban wearing clairvoyant Carnac the Magnificent, and, loveable ham Art Fern. And, of course, there was Carson's superb multiple cameos as President Ronald Reagan throughout the 1980s.

However, there was also a streak of meanness about the Carson mystique, particularly during the 1970s when on camera barbs swapped with Ed McMahon frequently turned sullen about their mutual drinking, carousing and multiple lady friends and wives. During Sept. 26th, 1974's broadcast featuring Dom DeLuise, Burt Reynolds and Art Carney, Carson used DeLuise's simple magic act involving real eggs to start a raucous food fight, rubbing whipped cream on Reynolds leather pants. It all seems to have been in great good fun, but in hindsight some genuine bitterness shines through.

Carson had his share of legitimate feuds; some played for spectacle on The Tonight Show, others leaked in private. Frequent jokes made by Carson about Wayne Newton's alleged homosexuality resulted in a near physical altercation between the two backstage. An ongoing love/hate relationship between Carson and comedian Don Rickles resulted in Carson unexpectedly dunking a fully clothed Rickles in a tub of water during one of his skits; a bit of improv that did not amuse the bedraggled Rickles.

Finally, there was the instance when Carson embarrassed comedian David Letterman by having his beat up pickup truck towed from his Malibu property. The incident was later ironed out in a follow up episode where Judge Wopner mediated the return of the vehicle to Letterman.

In hindsight The Tonight Show's ultimate strength and staying power lay in its ever-evolving roster of guests; a blisteringly eclectic myriad of Hollywood legends, up and comers, sports stars, politicians and beloved animal acts whose interactions, both with Carson and other featured guests on the same episode, made for compelling conversations around the water cooler the next day.

Originally, The Tonight Show began at 11:15pm and ran for 90 minutes. But by 1972, that had been pared down to the more manageable hour format with Carson offering Monday to 'guest' hosts. Among these, comedian Joan Rivers became the most 'permanent' fixture until she was offered her own show in 1986, causing a permanent rift between Rivers and the king of late night.

On May 22, 1992 Johnny Carson retired from The Tonight Show after a week's worth of farewell episodes culminating with long time friends Robin Williams and Bette Midler providing a stellar close to his guest roster, and a solitary 'goodbye' episode that simply featured Carson with Ed and Doc schmoozing about their collective tenure.

"And so it has come to this," an emotional Carson concluded, "...I have enjoyed every single minute of it...I can only tell you that it has been an honour and a privilege to come into your homes all these years and entertain you, and I hope when I find something that I want to do, and I think you would like, and come back, that you'll be as gracious in inviting me into your home as you have been. I bid you a very heartfelt goodnight."

Johnny Carson may be the undisputed 'king of late night' but you would never guess it judging by the utterly miserable slap dash treatment he has received from R2 Entertainment - the company that currently controls the rights to The Tonight Show. Tonight: 4 Decades of The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson is the company's latest venture in a series of misfires.

This latest instalment to the Carson legacy is, frankly, an embarrassment! Fans continue to get spliced together episodes rather than complete broadcasts - heavy-handedly Ginsu-ed by someone who clearly does not understand the basic concepts of editing.

These reconstituted snippets vaguely resemble something of the complete episodes as they originally aired. However, many of the clips included in this box set simply fade to black, often in the middle of an interview. Consider December 17th, 1985's episode featuring Bette Midler that also promises a Christmas medley from Doc and the orchestra, who have been ostensibly preparing it over the last 20 years. After Midler offers a sumptuous musical rendering of the Johnny Mercer classic, Skylark the rest of her interview simply fades to black before we move on to the next episode featuring Billy Crystal and Buddy Rich.

As an ardent fan of Carson and his guests, this critic also cannot say that I'm a fan of the omission of such Tonight Show main staples as comedian Buddy Hackett, Bette Davis, Richard Pryor and James Stewart from this box set, particularly since their absence has been filled by some truly forgettable interviews from Bob Uecker, Doris Day, Burt Mustin and Maude Tull.

Worse than the omissions is the fact that these current discs have been mastered with a severely distracting digitized moire and strobe pattern. This imperfection in the video quality is not a part of the original broadcast quality, and brief clips on line from this box set do not contain such distractions which suggests that in the stamping of these discs a compression/authoring error has occurred.

Little, if any, attempt has been made on the part of R2 Entertainment to stabilize colour and contrast to acceptable levels. Color bleeding is prevalent throughout - occasionally excessive and distracting. The results of all this disregard for the Carson legacy is an image so heavily digitized and visually unstable that it makes many of the episodes unwatchable.

The audio is predictably strident during the earlier episodes and more 'refined' - if that word can be used - during the later 1980s and 90s episodes. This set also comes with over an hour of footage 'rescued' from the Tonight Show's 1960s tenure - slapped together in haphazard succession and with even less attention paid to preserving the integrity of the image quality than on the rest of the episodes featured in this box set.

We also get brief recollections from Loni Anderson, Baxter Black, David Brenner and Jim Fowler - gushing over their respect for Johnny Carson. Despite being advertised as containing all new content, there is some overlap in this box from the previously released 'Here's Johnny' box set.

What a shame and sham! The advice from this long time Carson fan is regrettably, "DO NOT BUY THIS SET! IT IS A WASTE OF MONEY! FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

3.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

1

EXTRAS

1

CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (WB 1945) Warner Home Video

Director Peter Godfrey’s Christmas In Connecticut (1945) is a sunny little misguided ball of fluff, ably aided by that absent-minded and jovial holiday spirit permeating its delightful mood throughout.

The story concerns all-American able-bodied seaman Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan) who, through a gracious whim of fate, and a genuinely nimble-minded nurse, Mary Lee (Joyce Compton), is invited to the idyllic country estate of syndicated homemaker/columnist Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck) for the Christmas break.

Lane is the Martha Stewart of her generation – a highly successful, hugely popular contributor to Alexander Yardley’s (Sidney Greenstreet) monthly magazine. Yardley is a loveable curmudgeon, virtually ignored by his own family and destined to spend the holidays alone. Under the pretext of being a lonely widower, Yardley finagles an invitation to Elizabeth’s home in the country. What a story! What publicity! What good will!

One problem: Liz is a fake!

She has no husband, no child, no picturesque farm nestled in the sweet wood of New England’s winter playground. Fortunately, what Elizabeth does have is John Sloan (Reginald Gardiner), a stuffed shirt architect who would love to make Liz his wife. She reluctantly agrees to his proposal so that she can have use of his idyllic country home for her rouse, but she doesn’t love him. At every turn Liz delays their wedding and, through a series of rather contrived complications, easily falls in love with Jefferson instead.

The film loosely flirts with a series of “what if” scenarios: what if Elizabeth was single (which, of course, she is): what if Yardley finds out that his most popular featured writer is a fraud (which, of course, he does); what if it could all turn out in the end (no kidding – it will).

The cast also includes stoic spook/character actress, Una O’Connor as feisty housekeeper, Norah, Dick Elliot as the bumbling Judge Crothers and the marvellous S.Z. Sakall- a cinematic treasure, as restaurateur Felix Bassenak, the real man behind those fabulous recipes Liz has been claiming for her own to her readership.

It must be said that the screenplay by Lionel Houser and Adele Comandini (hacked together from a story by Aileen Hamilton), lags - particularly during the first third that opens with a lengthy prologue of Jones' harrowing near death experience at sea and rather soppy recuperation at an army hospital. Worse, the characters lack conviction. Save the screwball comedy - at times quite humorous - these are cardboard stick figures with little believable involvement. Yet, the story is so vivaciously told and with such economy of wit that it really doesn’t matter. Christmas in Connecticut is a fluffy, mind-numbing charmer.

Warner Brothers DVD exhibits some mild damage and age related artefacts. The gray scale has been impeccably rendered with deep solid blacks, very clean whites and barely a hint of film grain presented throughout. But the image is frequently softly focused with a loss of fine detail. The audio is mono and adequately represented. Extras include a vintage featurette and the film’s original theatrical trailer.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

3

VIDEO/AUDIO

3

EXTRAS

1

THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (MGM 1940) Warner Home Video

Ernest Lubitsch’s effervescent romantic comedy, The Shop Around the Corner (1940) is an enduring masterwork of subtle surface politeness under which lusty home fires rage. Based on Miklos Laszlo's 1937 Hungarian play, Parfumerie, the tale as re-scripted by Samson Raphaelson begins in turn of the century Budapest and Matuschek's Gift Shop; the center of the universe – at least for its select group of loyal employees.

These include the owner Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan), his devoted right hand, Alfred Kralik (James Stewart), slippery sales and lady’s man, Ferencz Vadas (Joseph Schildkraut) and wistful Pirovitch (Felix Bressart).

Hugo is a benevolent boss, though not above his own fits of impatience and flustered blustering. Alfred’s advancement at the shop is hindered with the arrival of Klara Novak (Margaret Sullivan) – a headstrong creature who bullies her way into a position at the store. Before long she and Alfred are bumping heads on practically every modest issue that concerns the shop's daily operations.

A further crimp to Alfred’s ambitions surfaces when Hugo suspects him of having an affair with his wife – a subplot that proves erroneous but temporarily gets Al’ fired. Yet, the greatest bit of irony springs forth from Al and Klara’s tempestuous relationship. You see, the two have been corresponding through letters on a blind date that seems kismet for marriage – that is, until Al discovers the truth and thereafter does everything he can to goad Klara into liking him.

Director Lubtisch’s uncanny knack for transforming such contrite drivel into the epitome of chic good taste is working overtime here – performing a clever cakewalk between all these nimble narrative threads that seamlessly draw the whole story to its ‘lighter than air’ satisfactory conclusion. What is most remarkable about the film today is how much of its elusive charm remains intact and palpable to contemporary tastes.

Stewart and Sullivan share genuine on screen chemistry of the highest order; selling their artistic wares alongside the shop's holiday gifts and making the entire enterprise one of sweetness and light, though never dribbling saccharine. Frank Morgan is a befuddled delight - just the sort of nonsensical boss with a heart of gold that one might wish for.

Hollywood never lets a good idea go, however, and in 1949 this film was remade to disastrous effect as an utterly charm free musical starring Judy Garland and Van Johnson; In the Good Old Summertime. In 1998 director Nora Ephron tried to duplicate the escapist magic of the original with You’ve Got Mail - pitting a rivalry between Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks as two competitive book sellers in New York City. Again, it didn’t work.

Which brings this reviewer to a long overdue assumption about classic movies: that their inimitable brand of style, romance and beauty are elegant trappings from some forgotten past in American cinema best resurrected by perennial viewings of the original films rather than abysmally second rate remakes that have neither the grace nor the guts to leave well enough alone!

Warner Home Video’s DVD is, in a word, marvellous. The benefactor of a meticulous digital restoration, the film looks years younger than it ought, with a refined B&W image, exemplary contrasted gray scale and very smooth image quality throughout. Occasionally, edge enhancement creeps into this otherwise reference quality disc that shows zero signs of age related artefacts. The audio is mono but very nicely restored and presented at an adequate listening level. Extras are limited to a theatrical trailer. Note – the DVD jacket advertises trailers for the two subsequent remakes but these are not included on the disc.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

5

VIDEO/AUDIO

4

EXTRAS

0

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING (Hollywood Pictures 1995) Buena Vista Home Video

John Turteltoub’s While You Were Sleeping (1995) is a charmingly original holiday offering; a whimsical romantic fairytale that casts Sandra Bullock in the Cinderella role as Lucy Eleanor Moderatz – a toll booth operator for Chicago’s subway transit. Certain that she will never fall in love, Lucy’s heart is drawn to one particular subway patron who frequents her terminal; hunky businessman, Peter Callaghan (Peter Gallagher).


Socially, Lucy and Peter are complete opposites and worlds apart. He’s the Harry Rosen set and she buys her jeans at Wal-Mart. Then, the unthinkable happens. Peter is the target of a botched robbery while waiting for the next train. He falls unconscious onto the tracks and Lucy rescues him before the next tram arrives. Lucy is a hero…well…sort of.

But then comes a colossal flub; one of the nurses mistakes Lucy for Peter’s fiancée, a rouse Lucy is forced to perpetuate when Peter awakens with amnesia to his loving, but dotty family; mom Midge (Micole Mercurio); dad, Ox (Peter Boyle); grandma, Elsie (Glynis Johns) and brother, Jack (Bill Pullman).

Peter’s godfather, Saul (Jack Warden) learns the truth about Lucy first, but he keeps it under wraps, realizing that through Lucy, the family has come together in an extraordinary way to celebrate the holidays. Jack, however, suspects something is terribly wrong. His suspicions grow even more critical after the randy son of Lucy’s landlord, Joe Fusco Jr. (the comically inspired, Michael Rispoli) suggests to Jack that he and Lucy are an item.

Armed with this latest revelation, Jack attempts to discredit Lucy in front of the family with twenty questions about her relationship with his brother. Instead, he slowly finds himself warming up to Lucy’s sad-eyed charm.

This is a delightful romantic comedy – one with genuine heart - just the sort of feel good vibe essential to sustain its feather-weight and improbable narrative. There is genuine chemistry between Bullock and Pullman who, I must confess I never thought much of as leading man material before. But together in this film they make an engaging romantic pair.

Jack Warden delivers a poignant and sustained performance as the one man who has both the family and Lucy’s best interests at heart. Turteltoub's direction is swift and solid. He affords each scene just enough time to warm our hearts without dragging the narrative under a flurry of gushy introspection or over the top schmaltz.

Buena Vista Home Video’s DVD is about what one would expect from a company that seems all too readily dismissive of its catalogue titles: widescreen with average balanced colors and more than a slight hint of edge enhancement throughout. The image is often gritty and unrefined - easily looking ten years older than it actually is. Fine details are generally lost during darker scenes. Compression artefacts are often noticeable in background information. The audio is stereo surround and just adequate for this primarily dialogue driven movie. Predictably, there are NO extras.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO

2.5

EXTRAS

0

Deserves to be on Blu-Ray?

YES!

THE BISHOP'S WIFE (Samuel Goldwyn 1947) MGM Home Entertainment

How does a frustrated Episcopal bishop thwart divine intervention and win back the affections of his wife? This was just one question answered in Henry Koster’s triumphant romantic fantasy, The Bishop’s Wife (1947). Not particularly well received upon its’ initial release, today the film is widely regarded as a superb holiday classic and rightfully so.

Casting is inspired, with the theme of ‘good will toward mankind’ made all the more rich with the passage of time, since it is a quality sorely lacking in our contemporary festive film fodder. Adapted by Leonardo Bercovici and Robert E. Sherwood from a novel by Robert Nathan the film tells the story of a man challenged in his faith. In desperation and prayer he asks for divine intervention and is granted that request, though not without its own set of consequences.

The bishop, Henry Brougham (David Niven) has been working for months on plans for the new George B. Hamilton cathedral. However, funding for the project has reached an impasse when stoic widow, Mrs. Hamilton (Gladys Cooper) demands that its religious iconography take on the continence of a shrine to her late husband. Losing sight of his commitments to his family, wife Julia (Loretta Young) and young daughter, Debbie (Karolyn Grimes), as well as his flock of parishioners, Henry seeks guidance from God. He also needs to be taught a lesson.

Enter the charming and somewhat devilishly playful angel, Dudley (Cary Grant). Revealing his true identity only to Henry, Dudley rekindles a spark of romance in Julia – but more for him than for Henry. After the bishop is detained with another round of committee meetings, Dudley meets Julia at the park where Debbie is engaged in a rousing snowball fight. Sending the child off with the bishop's housekeeper, Matilda (Elsa Lanchester) Dudley takes Julia to lunch at Chez Michel, the restaurant where Henry proposed, and the place of so many happy memories for her from days gone by. He reads her palm explaining, "I see a woman who's adored...you were born young and that's how you'll always remain."

Dudley also becomes instrumental in inspiring a very old friend of the Broughhams, Professor Wutheridge (Monty Woolley) to write his Roman history text book - a project effectively killed when Mrs. Hamilton had Wutheridge fired from the university for his 'progressive' teachings.

Later, Dudley arrives at the widow Hamilton's stately manor, playing a composition by the late Allen Cartwright - the only man Mrs. Hamilton ever loved but ultimately the lover she shunned for the security of her late husband's money. Hearing the composition played on a harp in her living room, the widow is stirred to kindness; the experience ultimately softening her heart toward the bishop.

This was Samuel Goldwyn’s personal production; a holiday film that ultimately developed into so much more than initially planned. In the embodiment of Cary Grant, there is a genuine sense of otherworldly presence. Veering between his usual naughtiness, but on this occasion infused with a saintly veneer, Grant is utterly believable as the angel with an agenda.

Two of the film’s most poignant scenes illustrate Dudley’s supernaturally manipulative presence. The first occurs when Dudley modestly recants the Biblical story of David and the lion to a young and wide-eyed Debbie. The tale is told with such sincerity that it draws Matilda, Henry, Julia and the bishop's secretary, Mildred Cassaway (Sara Haden) from their daily chores - effectively pausing time for a brief moment out of their otherwise complicated and busy lives. The second scene takes place inside Henry’s forgotten church, St. Timothy's where Dudley literally wills a pack of wayward boys into a masterful choir that exalt the hymn ‘O Sing To God' with ethereal sincerity.

The cast is rounded out by James Gleason as the bubbly cab driver, Sylvester whom Dudley and Julia are endeared to after leaving St. Timothy's. Spotting skaters in New York's Central Park, Dudley has Sylvester pull over to the curb and the three take to the ice in a delightful sequence that is both light-hearted and utterly charming.

By now, however, Henry has had enough. He demands that Dudley leave his household for good - a prayer answered only after Dudley's attempt to woo Julia as a man is thwarted by her. "Kiss her for me you lucky Henry," Dudley tells the bishop before leaving for good. And although the rules of his visitation ensure that neither the Bishop nor Julia will have any recollection that he ever even existed, Dudley's final act of kindness endures as a complete rewrite of the Bishop's Christmas service.

"Tonight I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking. Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child's cry, a blazing star hung over a stable, and wise men came with birthday gifts. We haven't forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, with the sound of bells, and with gifts.

But especially with gifts. You give me a book, I give you a tie. Aunt Martha has always wanted an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry can do with a new pipe. For we forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled, all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger. It's his birthday we're celebrating. Don't let us ever forget that.

Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most. And then, let each put in his share, loving kindness, warm hearts, and a stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shinning gifts that make peace on earth."

With an inspired score by Hugo Friedhofer, The Bishop's Wife is engaging in every way. The story was remade in 1996 by Penny Marshall as the all black The Preacher’s Wife but without any of the magical spark that continues to linger in this original.

MGM DVD has re-released this title as part of their Holiday Classics box set with different cover art but the same middle of the road transfer. Although the B&W image is quite sharp and detailed, there is an extensive amount of edge enhancement and shimmering of fine details that generally tends to distract throughout the film.

For the most part, the gray scale has been impeccably rendered although several sequences look as though contrast levels have been artificially boosted. Age related artefacts are present, though not pronounced. The audio is a Chace Stereo rechanneling of the original mono with limitations in fidelity. Regrettably, there are NO extras.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

5

VIDEO/AUDIO

3

EXTRAS

0

Deserves to be on Blu-Ray?

YES!

HOLIDAY INN (Paramount 1942) Universal Home Video

A perennial favourite that grows more endearing with age, Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn (1942) is the film that introduced the world to the immortal carol, 'White Christmas', was loosely remade as a glossy Technicolor musical in the mid-1950s and has had a hotel franchise named in its honour: all fascinating footnotes to an otherwise remarkable pedigree that began with a story scripted by Claude Binyon and directed by Mark Sandrich.

Reportedly, it was Berlin who thought up the idea of an out of the way lodge open holidays only. To this scant concept Berlin also contributed the film's memorable score, drawing on his own song catalogue that stretched all the way back to hits written in the teens as well as several new songs penned especially for the film.

Of this latter ilk, Berlin had pinned his hopes on having a new hit single with 'Be Careful It's My Heart' - the melodious ballad used for the Valentine's Day sequence in the film to establish a romantic rivalry between the three principle players. But it was another, less dramatic ditty that captured the public's fascination instead and almost instantly.

Today, one forgets that Berlin wrote a curious verse preceding the chorus we have come to know and love as 'White Christmas'; one that firmly establishes the locale of the number as Los Angeles - not Connecticut - and speaks to the anomaly of celebrating the winter holidays without the luxury of snow. However, with this intro removed - a suggestion reportedly made to Berlin by Fred Astaire - the song took on more prescient meaning in the film, particularly since many who first saw the movie instantly thought of their loved ones fighting in Europe.

Holiday Inn stars Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire as a couple of fair weather song and dance men, Jim Hardy and Ted Hanover. Seems Jim was all set to retire to the country with dancing partner, Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale) when she decided she would rather stay on the circuit with Ted, as she says to Jim “…the two of us, dedicating our lives to making people happy with our feet.”

Resigned to a more simple, albeit lonely life, Jim moves to the country inn he bought for Lila but discovers that farming is relentless and gruelling hard work. Suffering a temporary mental breakdown, Jim rebounds quickly with an idea that simply can’t miss. He turns his rustic home into a swanky nightclub open only on holidays. The idea appeals to Ted whose relationship with Lila is not going smoothly.

Enter Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds); a girl working nights at a flower shop but who really wants an opportunity to sing and dance. After being given the polite brush off by Ted’s agent, Danny Reed (Walter Abel) Linda becomes ‘queen of Holiday Inn’ and Jim’s romantic love interest. Unfortunately, Lila has left Ted for a Texas millionaire and he, having consumed a bottle of scotch, arrives at the inn decidedly snookered to perform a drunken dance routine with Linda at the end of which Ted passes out.

Unable to recall what Linda looked like, Ted and Danny resign themselves to return to the inn for each subsequent holiday - convinced that Linda will turn up there as a creature of habit. They have no way of knowing that Linda is actually working at the inn. Jim, however, is determined not to let Ted have his way with Linda. For Lincoln's birthday, Jim disguises Linda in blackface for their number. The rouse is successful, but when Ted and Danny arrive early for the Valentine's Day celebration they discover Jim serenading Linda with 'Be Careful It's My Heart'. Ted hijacks the orchestral portion of Jim's song to do a graceful pas deux with Linda, declaring at the end of the number that he has decided to work each subsequent show at the inn to remain closer to his 'old' friend.

All does not run smoothly, however. For Washington's Birthday, Jim sabotages Ted and Linda's dance routine and for the 4th of July Jim plots to reunited Ted with Lila while having Linda suffer an accident to prevent her from dancing in front of some Hollywood agents who have come to the inn via Danny's invitation. Linda learns too late of Jim's plan but manages to sabotage Lila's arrival at the inn anyway. Ted performs an electrifying firecracker solo dance, and, although the Hollywood agents are mildly interested in Ted and his new partner, they are head over heels crazy for doing a movie based on the concept of 'Holiday Inn'.

Jim reluctantly sells the idea to the studio, with Ted and Linda promptly whisked to Hollywood to begin shooting the film. During this brief interlude Ted and Linda become engaged and Jim - having completed the final song in his score for the project - sulks at the real inn as the Thanksgiving holiday fast approaches. Jim is tended to by his devoted housekeeper, Mamie (Louise Beavers) who encourages him to stand up for himself once and for all and reclaim his stake on Linda's true love.

Arriving in Hollywood on the eve that Ted and Linda are bound for Yuma, Jim sneaks onto the set - an exact replica of his inn - and watches as an unhappy Linda shoots the final takes for the movie. As Linda sings 'White Christmas' her feelings for Jim are rekindled. Jim takes over singing the song and Linda realizes what a mistake it would be to marry Ted. In the final moments, Ted returns to the real Holiday Inn with Lila who has left her Texas millionaire to return as his partner.

Part of the enduring appeal of Holiday Inn has to do with Paramount’s design of the inn itself – so cozy, rustic, yet charming that it at once introduces itself as a major character in the narrative; as Jim puts it "A simple little layout where we could do the best with the work we know without having any delusions of grandeur." From the moment we arrive at the inn it immediately becomes the ultimate fantasy destination that most anyone would want to either own or at least visit.

As a matter of record, Holiday Inn contains two interesting anomalies. The first is that it inadvertently showcases the then time honoured tradition of blackface that today is widely and justly regarded as racist. Meant as an homage to President Lincoln’s freeing of the slaves, the song features Crosby and Reynolds in campy blackface delivering decidedly overblown caricatures of the black race.

It is important, however, to place the concept of 'blackface' into proper context. Considered an art form from roughly 1830 to 1940 in the U.S., blackface perpetuated the stereotype of the simple-minded, happy-go-lucky 'darky' and was a main staple of both travelling minstrel shows and the Vaudeville circuit.

As a natural extension of its popularity on stage, many movies from the early to mid-1930s had blackface routines as part of their repertoire, with Holiday Inn's being one of the last. At the time of the film's premiere no one thought any better or worse of having blackface as part of the film's narrative. If Holiday Inn does have a flaw when viewed from our more contemporary vantage, it is this Abraham sequence - if not acceptable - then at least, illustrative of just how far race relations have evolved since its time.

The second anomaly in the film has to do with then President Franklin Roosevelt's desire to expand the Christmas shopping season by declaring that the holiday of Thanksgiving be pushed back by a week. As each segment of Holiday Inn begins with a stylized calendar with the holiday from that month clearly marked, the Thanksgiving calendar features a confused turkey that aimlessly wanders back and forth between the two dates proposed for the 'new' Thanksgiving. In the end, Roosevelt lost his bid and Thanksgiving's permanent date was established by law as Nov. 26th.

Holiday Inn was an enormous critical and financial success when it premiered. Today, it remains a cherished and celebrated Christmas memory perennially resurrected over a hot cup of cocoa or open fire during the holiday season.

Universal Home Video has previously made Holiday Inn available as part of a single-sided double feature disc with Leo McCarey’s Going My Way (1944). The transfer of both films on that disc was severely flawed with edge enhancement and excessive shimmering of fine details.

Universal’s reissue of Holiday Inn: The Special Edition as a stand alone with extras is a marked improvement on its first incarnation. For the most part, the aforementioned shortcomings have disappeared, although the window panes at the inn occasionally show slight indications of being visually unstable. Film grain is perhaps a bit more evident than one might expect, but age related artefacts are kept to a bare minimum. Contrast levels are fairly accurate with an overall smoothly balanced gray scale. Whites are generally clean. Blacks are, for the most part, black. The audio is mono and well represented.

As for the extras, they include an audio commentary by Ken Burnes with pre-recorded excerpts of Crosby and Astaire reminiscing about their participation on the film and two fairly dull featurettes: ‘A Couple of Song and Dance Men’ and ‘All Singing, All Dancing Before and After’. The first is a poorly edited and contrived bit of scripted nonsense in which Ava Astaire (Fred’s daughter) and Burnes wax about information readily expressed in the audio commentary.

The second makes short shrift of the history of the Hollywood musical with still images and bootlegged clips from several films that Universal does not own the rights to (most noticeably ‘Top Hat’). It would have meant so much more if Universal had actually taken the time to give us a ‘making of’ documentary with archival footage.

As a matter of record, there is also a 'three disc' incarnation of Holiday Inn currently available from Universal Home Video. The first disc in that offering is identical to the materials reviewed herein. The second disc in that set contains the notoriously colourized version of the film - painful to watch under any circumstance. The third disc is a CD advertised as 'original soundtrack recordings'. However, none of the tracks on that CD are those originally recorded for the film, rather re-recordings and extended cuts made at the studio with alternative orchestrations.

Even so, this reviewer cannot deny that Berlin’s infectious score and Astaire and Crosby’s professionalism worked their magic on this reviewer once more. Holiday Inn: The Special Edition comes recommended. It captured my heart…singing.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

4.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

4

EXTRAS

2

Deserves to be on Blu-Ray?

YES!

MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET: Blu-ray (2oth Century-Fox 1947) Fox Home Video

A perennial Christmas classic that needs no introduction, George Seaton’s Miracle on 34th Street (1947) remains a delightful and effervescent holiday classic that grows in stature with each passing year. Not that anyone at 20th Century-Fox had the slightest idea that what they were about to create was an enduring masterwork – except perhaps those intimately involved with the project.

These included scenarist Valentine Davies, who conceived the idea (a hired Santa Claus who actually believes he’s the real deal) while milling about a crowded department store during 1944's Christmas rush.

Studio chief, Darryl F. Zanuck thought the project a low budget B-movie – an initial assessment gradually upgraded as the enthusiastic dailies arrived from New York. However, nothing could dissuade Zanuck from staving off the urge to release the film in mid-June 1947 – a misfire that would have killed many lesser projects and relegated the film's success to the bottom shelf of cinema history: but not ‘Miracle’ – a film that truly lived up to its title.

At a time when most movies played for one or two weeks, Miracle on 34th Street sold out the house for half a year: all the way to Christmas, earning three Oscar nominations along the way – the most poignant and satisfying of these, the Best Supporting Actor statuette going to Edmund Gwenn for his idyllic performance as Kris Kringle.

For those not yet acquainted with the magic of the story; the plot concerns a kindly old man, Kris (Gwenn) who believes himself to be the one and only jolly fat man in the red suit. Kris is accidentally discovered by Doris Walker (Maureen O’Hara) after the man she hired to play Santa in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade becomes intoxicated. Replacing drunken Santa, Kris confounds the sensibilities of Doris’ precocious and intelligent daughter, Susan (the utterly charming and sophisticated Natalie Wood).

Raised to be a hard bitten realist, Susan gradually begins to believe in Kris. Her idealism and Kris’ optimism however are shattered when mean-spirited staff psychologist, Granville Sawyer (Porter Hall), attempts to have Kris committed to a state home for lunacy.

In the meantime, Doris’ beau, the elegant Fred Gailey (John Payne) plots Kris’ defence in the New York Supreme Court – a classic battle of legal ethics that results in one of the most miraculous and thoroughly satisfying resolutions in cinema history.

In the face of such lighter-than-air optimism, there’s no denying that Miracle on 34th Street has its detractors – most notably director John Hughes who publicly went on record as saying that he could not understand why the film had become such a cherished classic – then went one step further by remaking it as a totally charm-free clunker starring Richard Attenborough as Santa and Mara Wilson as Susan in 1994.

But now, finally, 20th Century-Fox Home gives us a Blu-Ray of this much beloved Christmas classic that is almost perfect. Previous DVD editions have been marred by contrast boosting and some very curious digital aliasing, as well as image instability. Most of these annoying distractions have vanished on Blu-Ray. Image quality is, on the whole, superb.

The gray scale is darker, but that overall darkening of the image also reveals more fine detail and restores the mid-tone register of the film elements. Grain still exists - as it should, as do age artefacts, the latter not nearly as obvious or distracting as before. Fox has wisely chosen to discard the colorized version of this film on Blu-Ray. The audio is mono as originally intended and quite acceptable.

Extras are direct imports from the previously issued DVD and include an episode of Hollywood Back Story on the making of the film – which is rather short on detail but does contain some good interview snippets with surviving cast members, and, a featurette on Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Maureen O'Hara's recollections on making the movie have been preserved in an audio commentary.

Bottom line: Miracle on 34th Street (1947) is a masterpiece of originality, a film of immense charm, subtle poignancies and immeasurable holiday delights. It will surely endure as long as the spirit of Christmas does.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

5+

VIDEO/AUDIO

4

EXTRAS

2

WHITE CHRISTMAS: Blu-ray (Paramount 1954) Paramount Home Video

In 1954 Paramount Studios inaugurated a revolutionary widescreen film process they christened VistaVision; utilizing standard 35mm film stock that ran horizontally rather than vertically during both principle photography and projection. The visual results, as studio publicity of the day heralded, were true 'motion picture high fidelity'; an image so crisp, vivid and dimensional in its overall clarity that it easily put to shame 20th Century-Fox's more popularized Cinemascope.

So it is perhaps a fitting tribute that 56 years later the first Paramount produced classic to emerge on Home Video Blu-Ray from the studio is the film that launched 'hi-fidelity' on celluloid; Michael Curtiz's White Christmas (1954). Justly deserved of its status as a perennial holiday favourite, White Christmas also happens to be one of the best musicals of the 1950s; a glowing and tuneful cornucopia of Irving Berlin songs melodically blended onto a lush and lovely Technicolor palette.

Initially intended as a reunion for Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, who had co-starred in the wildly popular 1942 classic Holiday Inn, the plot eventually fleshed out in the Norman Krasna, Norman Panama, Melvin Frank screenplay was slightly revamped after Astaire declined the offer to co-star. Incidentally, the song 'White Christmas' was first introduced in the movie, Holiday Inn - winning an Oscar for Best Song; one of Hollywood's ironies since composer Irving Berlin thought it a minor effort and hoped that another song from that same film, 'Be Careful It's My Heart' would become a standard on the hit parade. In retrospect, however, there is no denying the emotional impact of the song, White Christmas; it's lilting melody coupled to the then immediacy of G.I.'s overseas dreaming of their own return to normalcy after the war.

Inspired by those sentiments, the film White Christmas opens on Christmas Eve 1944 where Capt. Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby) and Private Phil Davis (Danny Kaye) are entertaining troops before they begin to move up to the front line. Their commanding officer, Maj. Gen. Thomas F. Waverly (Dean Jagger)has been reassigned. It is a bitter pill to swallow.

However, just as the concert is ending an air raid occurs on the camp. Phil pushes Bob out of harm's way and sustains a minor injury to his arm as a result. While he convalesces in the Army Hospital, Phil pitches an idea to Bob that, when the war is over they team up as a specialty act on Broadway. At first, Bob declines. However, feeling a sense of duty to the man who saved his life, Bob reluctantly agrees to Phil's offer.

The war ends and Wallace and Davis become a Broadway sensation with Bob increasingly becoming more driven by work at the expense of his and Phil's recreational time. When Bob receives a letter from an old army buddy, Benny, asking if he wouldn't mind looking up his sisters' act, he reluctantly agrees with an even more reluctant Phil in tow. The surprise of it all is that Benny didn't write the letter; his sister Judy (Vera-Ellen) did.

At the Florida Room, Bob and Phil are introduced to the Haynes sisters; Judy and Betty (Rosemary Clooney). Sensing that Bob has taken a romantic interest in Betty, Phil plots their love affair with obvious effects as a way of securing his own freedom away from their overloaded work schedule. And, while Phil is quite successful at scheming Bob and Betty into an awkward entendre, he is rather obtusely oblivious to the fact that Judy has begun to fall in love with him.

Conniving Bob to cover for the Haynes Sister act at the Florida Room while they escape a landlord who is trying to stiff them for the price of a burnt rug in their rental, Phil gives away his and Bob's train tickets to Betty and Judy. He lies to Bob about losing the tickets before suggesting that they go to Vermont - the destination of the Haynes sisters - rather than New York where they are supposed to open their holiday show. Eventually figuring out the rouse, Bob hasn't the heart to disappoint the girls or Phil. Together this foursome make haste to the Pine Tree Inn; a rustic Tyrolean hotel run by none other than Gen. Waverly.

What Bob and Phil quickly learn from the inn's housekeeper, Emma Allen (Mary Wickes) is that due to the unseasonably warm weather and lack of guests staying at the inn the General is in dire financial straits. Bob and Phil opt to bring their show to the inn as a means of generating revenue. But when the General learns that his request for active duty in the army has been denied his heart is broken.

Bob decides to go to New York on a nationally syndicated TV show to pitch an open invite to the men in the General's former battalion. However, through a mix up of communication, Betty misperceives that Bob is doing this merely to get in a plug for his own show. She leaves the inn, her faith in Bob shattered. But when Betty catches the show's broadcast she realizes what a mistake she's made and returns to Bob's side.

The General is visibly touched by the arrival of his faithful soldiers on Christmas Eve. The inn debuts Wallace and Davis show as the long awaited arrival of snow makes its appearance, ensuring that the General's inn will remain profitable for many years to come.

As a film, White Christmas endures mostly on the strength of its stellar Irving Berlin score that includes the title track, 'Mandy', 'The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing', 'Sisters', 'Snow' and the Oscar-nominated 'Count Your Blessings'. Formidable star power is also at the crux of the film's overwhelming critical and financial success; the melding of Crosby and Kaye with Clooney and Ellen quite engaging on all levels.

As an entertainment, however, it still falls behind Holiday Inn - that film's quaint pastoral elegance in juxtaposition with White Christmas' flashier fare and ultra-high glossy treatment. To be sure, each film has its merits and this critic is certainly not suggesting that White Christmas is a dud. On the contrary, when it debuted, White Christmas became the highest grossing movie of the year - its $12 million dollar box office tally an extraordinary achievement when one considers the relatively short period of release available to a film with a holiday theme.

Paramount's Blu-Ray offering is simply gorgeous, applying a renewed visual and aural vigour that the movie has not enjoyed since its original release. For years, White Christmas on home video has looked careworn, faded, sharply contrasted and grainy - none of the aforementioned shortcomings inherent in the original VistaVision film elements. But now we get a superb 1080p scan of this timeless classic with colours so vibrant and robust that they simply glow from the screen. Fine detail and image sharpness take a quantum leap forward. This truly is 'motion picture hi-fidelity' at its best.

The audio continues to fall short of expectations, perhaps because no original stem elements exist to provide a tru-HD stereo remix. Hence, what we get is a Dolby Stereo recording that has been cleaned up and restored to the maximum that modern technologies will allow. It's an adequate mix to be sure and one that will certainly not disappoint the average listener. The audio-file however will be left wanting more that, tragically, is not available.

Extras are all direct imports from Paramount's previously issued 2-disc DVD from last year; including bios on Crosby, Kay and Clooney, but curiously nothing on Ellen. There's also a vintage recollection featurette with Rosemary Clooney and an audio commentary with Clooney that covers a lot of the same ground. Bottom line: highly recommended!

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO/AUDIO

4.5

EXTRAS

3

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: Blu-ray (Liberty Films 1946) Paramount Home Video

In his first post war production, director Frank Capra alienated audiences with this sombre tale of simple man, George Bailey (James Stewart) who, after being driven to the brink of suicide, is provided with the very great gift of being able to see what life would have been like if he had never been born. Capra’s rare gift for looking into the human condition and finding its’ raw humanity is the director's most celebrated strength and in this masterwork his skills as a true entrepreneur of the human spirit are working overtime.

By now, It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) is a perennial holiday favourite and a televised tradition for families all over the world. But, at the time of its theatrical release, the story skilfully scripted by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Jo Swerling and Capra himself found utter indifference at the box office and complete short-sightedness from critics; a genuine shame. Despite five Oscar nominations, the film was a colossal financial flop that effectively ended Capra's dreams of establishing his own production company.

George Bailey is the everyman in our society – yet he has led a remarkable life. In his youth, he saved his younger brother, Harry (Todd Karns) from drowning on a frozen lake and prevented the distraught and drunken chemist, Emil Gower (H.B. Warner) from accidentally poisoning one of his patients with a flawed prescription. Assuming the burden of sustaining his home town of Bedford Falls with the only independent institution to rival tyrannical millionaire, Henry F. Potter (Lionel Barrymore) after the death of his own father, George has also married the prettiest girl in town; Mary Hatch (Donna Reed).These are no small feats, and all of them are responsible for building George's character. Yet, George considers the arch of his life's work a complete and utter disaster because he never achieved the basic dreams he had aspired to for himself during youth – adventure, travel and financial success.

However, George’s modest reality is threatened when his Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) misplaces the Savings and Loan deposit slated for the bank. Without this payment, the organization his father founded will be thrown into bankruptcy and scandal. Seizing upon the opportunity to ruin George once and for all, Potter threatens foreclosure and imprisonment, leading George to believe that his family would be better off if he were dead.

If postwar America was anticipating another 'feel good' extravaganza from Frank Capra, they were more than slightly disillusioned when It’s A Wonderful Life premiered. To be sure, the film treads familiar Capra-esque ground during its first third. George and Mary's courtship is flawed but lovingly represented through several light-hearted vignettes.

They meet at Harry's high school prom where Mary is a senior. The more worldly Violet Bick (Gloria Grahame) openly flirts with George but Harry makes George promise to dance with Mary instead. Freddie, a jealous romantic rival (Alfalfa Switzer) looms large over George and Mary's immediate happiness despite the fact that Mary has already set her cap for George.

The floor beneath the dancers opens to reveal the high school's swimming pool and George and Mary - along with half the attending guests - are hurled into the waters. Strolling home afterward in oversized robes and football attire with their wet clothes slung over their shoulders, Mary confides to George her future aspirations of quaint domesticity. But these dreams are interrupted when Harry arrives in a borrowed jalopy to inform his brother that their father Peter (Samuel S. Hinds) has suffered a fatal heart attack.

From here, the story grows ever more unsettling; culminating in the dark nightmare that is the film's third act. It begins when the angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers) arrives to fulfill George's request that he had never been born. The fate of Bedford Falls and George's family are painfully revealed to George: Harry's childhood death by drowning, Uncle Billy's incarceration for fraud, Violet Bick's sordid sexual debauchery, Emil Gower's self destruction and Mary's reclusive descend into spinsterhood.

What George has utterly failed to realize until this point is how meaningful his life has been to his friends; how the kindnesses he has shown others along the way have helped to shape their lives in all sorts of positive ways.

James Stewart’s performance as the every-man at the end of his rope is both heartbreaking and genuine. In the moments following his initial confrontation with Clarence we see George’s mind eagerly at work, believing the hoax, however elaborately conceived. Yet, it is the more stark and bitter realization of his void destroying so many once enriched by his presence, that eventually leads an audience to coincide with the film’s satisfying conclusion: no man is a failure who has friends.

After releasing a restored B&W print on DVD two Christmases ago, and a B&W and colorized collector's set last Christmas, Paramount Home Video has seen fit to debut It's A Wonderful Life on Blu-Ray and the results are most welcome. We get an immaculate image with startling amounts of clarity in fine detail - much more than anticipated, in fact. Yes, the colorized version also benefits from this 1080p upgrade, but if anything, the sharper image illustrates even more glaringly the limitations of the colorization process.

The gray scale has been impeccably mastered with stunning tonality. Blacks are deep and solid. Whites are pristine. All age related blemishes have been removed for an incredibly smooth visual presentation. Rare hints of edge enhancement are present but do not distract. The audio is mono as originally recorded, but restored to its original brilliance.

Extras are the anomaly here: we get the much regurgitated ‘making of’ featurette but lose the personal reflection from Frank Capra Jr.. The original theatrical trailer has also been remastered in HD. Highly recommended.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

4.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

4.5

EXTRAS

2.5

GOING MY WAY (Paramount 1944) Universal Home Video

Going My Way (1944) is director Leo McCarey’s overly sentimental melodrama with music a la Bing Crosby (who won an Oscar) as Father O’Malley; a remarkably worldly Catholic priest whose fields of knowledge extend into the worlds of pop entertainment, baseball and high opera. O'Malley has been assigned by the Dioceses as an assistant to Father Timothy O'Dowd (the irrepressible Frank McHugh) to slowly easy an aged Father Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitzgerald) from his parochial duties. However, owing to Fitzgibbon’s feisty refusal to retire, he has been kept unaware that his days as a practicing man of the cloth are numbered.

The narrative meanders through a series of vignettes that are quaint and unassuming. There is the awkward circumstance by which Father Fitzgibbon comes in possession of a stolen turkey; Father O’Malley’s reunion with old time college buddy, Father Timothy; O’Malley’s involvement in moulding the singing career of a young teen, Carol James (Jean Heather); and his coaching of the boys choir to help raise money for St. Dominic's ailing repair fund.

In this latter endeavour, Father O’Malley is greatly aided by another old friend, Genevieve Linden (operatic sensation, Rise Stevens) who suggests a benefit concert at New York's Metropolitan Opera to raise money for St. Dominic's badly needed repairs. But it all seems for not when Fathers O’Malley and Fitzgibbons return from the concert to discover that their beloved cathedral has been destroyed by a terrible fire. In the final moments of the story, Father O'Malley manages to reunite Fitzgibbon's with his ancient mother whom he has brought over from Ireland.

The screenplay by Frank Butler and Frank Cavett is frequently interrupted by Crosby running through a standard swath of pop songs – the best still the deservedly Oscar-winning ‘Swingin’ on a Star’ that O'Malley performs with the aid of a boy's choir. Going My Way was released at the height of WWII and it is perhaps saying much of the general public sentiment at that time that it was the highest grossing film of the year. Unfortunately, in retrospect the story has no real staying power; wallowing in its own sentiment often to excess rather than allowing the audience to find meaning within the vignettes and thereafter bask in the afterglow of a good – if maudlin and restrained – tear jerker.

The curmudgeonly camaraderie between Crosby and Fitzgerald is quite palpable and engaging. But the rest of the cast overplay their hands. McHugh, in particular, is gregarious to distraction. Stevens is mere – if stunning – window-dressing for several operatic sequences that bring the already methodical pacing of the film to a screeching halt. In the final analysis, Going My Way is not nearly as poignant or effective as its sequel – The Bells of St. Mary's.

Universal Home Video's reissued DVD has rectified the absolute horrid transfer offered on its previous two movie/one disc offering from 1999 (the other film included then was Holiday Inn 1942).Where the aforementioned was riddled in edge enhancement, excessive shimmering of fine detail and a ton of pixelization, this new single layered disc is virtually free of all these distractions. However, the B&W image is far from smooth.

Persistent film grain that registers as more harsh digital grit is quite heavy at times. Age related artefacts are present throughout. The gray scale has been nicely balance with deep solid blacks and, on the whole, generally clean whites. The audio is mono and also adequately represented.

The only extra is a brief introduction to the film by TCM host, Robert Osbourne and the film's theatrical trailer. In keeping with previously issued classic titles – Universal does not provide a separate menu for chapter stops, though advancing at ten minute intervals through the disc by simply pressing the arrow key on one's remote allows for invisible chapter access.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

3

VIDEO/AUDIO

3.5

EXTRAS

1

THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S (Rainbow Productions 1945) Maple Home Video

Rarely do sequels live up to audience expectations established by their predecessor. But in the case of Leo McCarey's The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945) a follow up to his Oscar-winning Going My Way (1944), the story’s charm has proven not only more enduring and timeless, but ultimately more popular with audiences throughout the years. This was RKO's big holiday offering of that year and the results could not have been more perfectly timed with co-stars Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman at the pinnacle of their respective careers. In fact, Crosby's Father O'Malley was so beloved by Academy voters that the actor was nominated a second time for playing the same role; the only time in Oscar history that such an honour has been bestowed.

Director Leo McCarey, primarily known for his unabashed sentimentality, has ideal fodder to ignite the spirit and warm the heart herein. The script by McCarey and Dudley Nichols begins in earnest with the arrival of Father O'Malley (Crosby) to St. Mary's rectory. He is auspiciously greeted by the housekeeper, Mrs. Breen (Una O'Connor) and told in cryptic fashion how his predecessor, Father Fogerty, was driven into early retirement by the sisters in charge of the school.

The next day, Father O'Malley meets Sister Benedict (Ingrid Bergman); and although their initial encounter is a cordial one, the two very quickly begin to differ on just about every point of interest that involves St. Mary's. In truth, the building is in a delicate state of disrepair. Father O'Malley briefly entertains an offer from real estate developer Horace P. Bogartus (Henry Travers) to buy St. Mary's and demolish it to make way for a parking lot that will benefit Bogartus' new corporate offices built adjacent the school property.

Sister Benedict confides to O'Malley that she has been praying daily for Bogartus to wake up one morning and find it in his heart to bequeath his building to the church - thereby making it the new St. Mary's. This central plot is fleshed out by several intimate human interest stories; the first involving new student Patricia 'Patsy' Gallagher (Joan Caroll) who has been placed in O'Malley's trust by her wayward mother, Mary (Martha Sleeper). Learning from Mary that Patsy's estranged father is a musician, O'Malley sets about to locate the man and reunite him with his daughter.

In the meantime, Mrs. Breen's son, Eddie (Dickie Tyler) loses a schoolyard fight to bully Tommy Smith (Bobby Frasco). In Sister Benedict's eyes, Tommy has needlessly pummelled a fellow student, but O'Malley takes Tommy's side, declaring his admiration for any boy who can 'take care' of himself.

O'Malley tells Sister Benedict, “After all, on the outside it’s a man’s world.”

“How are they doing, Father?” she glibly replies.

Shortly thereafter, Sister Benedict coaches Eddie in the finer points of pugilism and, after some time, Eddie and Tommy have a rematch that Eddie decisively wins. O'Malley, who realizes what Sister Benedict has done, remains silent on the matter.

From here on, the film's narrative becomes slightly more episodic with Patsy's failing marks of much concern to both Father O'Malley and Sister Benedict. O'Malley reunites Patsy's mother with her now middle aged lover, Joe (William Gargan), and although it is obvious that the two will continue their relationship into a future as husband and wife, Patsy arrives at the most inopportune of moments, just in time to see Joe leaving her mother's apartment.

Assuming that her mother has simply taken a boyfriend in her absence while she has been away at school, Patsy rushes into the elevator to escape being seen, only to have Joe join her on the flight down to ground level. This scene is heartrending as Joe attempts awkward conversation with his own child who is merely a stranger to him at this point.

Patsy returns to St. Mary's forlorn. Her grades plummet and she deliberately fails her final exam in order to remain behind with Sister Benedict whom she now regards as her only true friend. However, unbeknownst to Patsy, Sister Benedict has fallen ill with tuberculosis.

Dr. McKay (Rhys Williams) encourages Father O'Malley to lie to Sister Benedict about her condition to keep her spirits up. O'Malley reluctantly agrees and writes Mother General for Sister Benedict's reassignment to an infirmary in Arizona where her condition may improve. After learning the truth about Patsy's failure, Sister Benedict decides to pass her anyway and Patsy is tearfully reunited with Joe at her graduation.

However, assuming that Father O'Malley has merely been spiteful in his plotting to rid St. Mary's of her constant interventions, Sister Benedict harbours a strong resentment toward him as she reluctantly packs her bags on the eve that Horace bequeaths his building over to the church for the new St. Mary's.

At the last possible moment, Father O'Malley has a change of heart. He confides in Sister Benedict the real reason for her reassignment. The truth revealed and her burdens, doubts and resentments lifted, Sister Benedict lovingly bids Father O'Malley and St. Mary's a fond goodbye, her faith in humanity restored.

In retrospect, The Bells of St. Mary's falls into a unique category of discussion as an obvious pro-Catholicism propaganda piece that exudes an almost saintly air of false piety. The film's illusion of human perfection attained through stringent religious order is - thankfully - deftly handled by director Leo McCarey's light touch and inspired intervention for 'divine' humour. Father O'Malley is a priest of the highest order to be sure, but he is not above telling white lies that are in service of a more insidious human enterprise.

Take, as example, the scene where Horace is on the verge of suffering a complete mental breakdown, having gradually been worn by the nun's prayers and unrelenting exultation of hymns. O'Malley arrives under the guise that he has heard a window pane break, but quickly engages Horace's attending physician, Dr. McKay, in a discussion on O Santissima - the current hymn grating on Horace's nerves. The conversation leads to an inquiry from McKay for the lyrics at which point Crosby's O'Malley breaks into proud, reverent song, thus making Horace's attempt to escape from the church's immediate influence on his battered psyche utterly futile.

This scene often elicits laughs from the audience, for there is something genuinely comical in O'Malley's disregard for Horace's sanity - his interests realigned with Sister Benedict's nagging quest to relieve Horace of his hard work by convincing him that his building would best be served by the church's occupancy.

Ingrid Bergman is playfully luminous as the wilful nun of many hidden talents. The rest of the cast all do their part in service of the occasionally maudlin script with Joan Carroll's Patsy a finely wrought bit of acting. Leo McCarey's gentle touch is never too far behind the ultra-sugary sweetness that skilfully avoids becoming heavy treacle. But in the final analysis it is the tender barbs and congenial sparing between Crosby and Bergman that one recalls best from the film – a pitting of two saintly paragons who use earthly sentiment to manipulate the gloriously spiritual hereafter.

Maple Home Video has decided on a direct import of the very flawed DVD presentation first made available through Republic/Artisan Home Entertainment some year’s earlier. Though the film's gray scale is rather nicely rendered, with only some minor contrast boosting, the image is severely marred by an excess of edge enhancement, pixelization and shimmering of fine details.

Certain scenes are relatively free of these digital anomalies, but most exhibit their distractions in one form or another. This is hardly the way to preserve a wonderful classic for future generations. The audio is mono as originally recorded but nicely represented and modestly cleaned up for this presentation. Shamefully, there are no extra features.

One final curiosity to note: the opening title bears a personal credit of thanks to producer David O. Selznick for his loan out of Ingrid Bergman to co-star in this film. Moments into this sequence, an ill-fitting gray bar appears over this credit and then remains steadfast across the screen, temporarily blocking the names of other cast members as the credits progress. With so many other holiday classics making the leap to Blu-Ray disc (It's A Wonderful Life, White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street), one can perhaps wait in prayer and hope that Maple Home Video will reissue this poignant film in a new 1080p transfer in the coming year.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

4.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

2.5

EXTRAS

0

NEEDS TO BE ON BLU-RAY?

YES!