The Extras
The Extras
Warner Archive's Second 4K Triumph: George Feltenstein on "High Society"
Warner Archive's George Feltenstein discusses the stunning new 4K UHD and Blu-ray restoration of MGM's 1956 musical "High Society" starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra with Louis Armstrong.
Purchase links:
HIGH SOCIETY (1956) 4K&Blu-ray Combo Pack
EPISODE DETAILS:
• VistaVision's horizontal filming process presented unique challenges for scanning and restoration
• Original film negatives were scanned using specialized Director scanners adapted specifically for horizontal use
• Audio restoration utilized original six-track pre-recordings to create authentic multi-channel sound
• Finding and preserving the original stereophonic music recordings was crucial to the restoration process
• "High Society" was MGM's highest-grossing film of 1956 despite strong competition
• Louis Armstrong functions as a Greek chorus throughout the film, with Bing Crosby having roots in jazz
• Grace Kelly's final Hollywood film before becoming Princess of Monaco shows her comedic talents
• Director Charles Walters moved from Broadway dancer to MGM choreographer to successful director
• Special features include behind-the-scenes material, audio promos, and the appropriate "Millionaire Droopy" cartoon
• Warner Archive's commitment to high-quality 4K releases continues with more titles planned
Check out Warner Archive's Facebook page for more information and updates on upcoming releases.
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Hello Sam.
Film Clip:I would like to talk to you privately.
Film Clip:Well, now I consider that right, neighbor. You lost a little weight, haven't you Sam? Oh no, you're slipping. That used to scare me, the withering glance of the goddess.
Film Clip:I just want to know what you are doing here the day before my wedding.
Film Clip:Business, I've become a distinguished composer since we broke up yeah they need a little help here, so I heeded the call of duty.
Film Clip:Don't pretend with me, dexter. You deliberately planned this festival to conflict with my wedding. It's a shabby vindictive gesture.
Film Clip:Ooh, harsh words. Well, let's be honest, I'll admit it I'm still in love with you. Oh, I don't want you to get married again, because I still think you can become a wonderful woman.
Film Clip:Thank you, I haven't the same high hopes for you.
Film Clip:Well, I don't want to become a wonderful woman.
Film Clip:Oh, isn't it enough? You almost spoiled my life without spoiling my wedding.
Film Clip:I didn't try to spoil your life, sam. Oh, and stop calling me Sam, sure, you didn't try to spoil mine, but you were calling on the shots. You were dictating the sort of a fellow you wanted me to be.
Film Clip:With your background and taste and intelligence, you could have become a serious composer or a diplomat or anything you wanted to be. And what have you become? A jukebox hero.
Film Clip:Well, is that bad?
Film Clip:Oh, dexter be satisfied, and let me alone Go away, go away and stay away.
Film Clip:I tried to. I even wanted to, but I guess I'm just a weak character. I'm still in love with you.
Tim Millard:Hello and welcome to the Extras. I'm Tim Millard, your host, and joining me is George Feltenstein to discuss the recent High Society 4K and Blu-ray release from the Warner Archive. Hi, George.
George Feltenstein:Hi, Tim, great to be back with you.
Tim Millard:I'm very excited to talk about this stunning restoration of High Society and I have to say I was absolutely blown away by how wonderful it looks, how wonderful it sounds and we'll get into, you know, that restoration story because it's so interesting. But before we did that, I did want to ask you about the fact that this is your second 4K release from the Warner Archive, and how did you kind of go about selecting this as the second one?
George Feltenstein:did you kind of go about selecting this as the second one. Well, this has been something people have wanted on blu-ray for, I would say, pretty much as long as the format's been around. So I we had a DVD release in 2003. And as films of this prominence from the catalog started making their appearances, everybody was starting to go where's High Society. We knew that the master that had been done in 2003 was not very good. That HD master was made for DVD and is what has been churning around between television and streaming and transactional digital for 15 years, whatever it's got color breathing and grain issues and just a lot of flaws that are inherent in a film that was made at that time 1956, where film stock would have to go back and create a new master and that was going to be expensive. What we also did not have the ability to do at that time, company policy was pretty much you can't touch the original negative. Policy was pretty much you can't touch the original negative. Now, that wasn't necessarily a bad policy to have at that time, because the negative could get damaged.
George Feltenstein:What happens now is we have scanners that the sprockets never touch through the scanning process the film is. Thankfully, we also have people that do our scanning in-house at Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging, who are artisans as much as our colorists are, so they really know how to take care of film. They're masterful in their talent and, just like so many people who contribute to these releases, I wish all of them could take a bow, because what they contribute you can't oversell, how much they contribute and how much it means. But we finally got to the point where we adapted a scanner, a director scanner the best scanner made, in my opinion, specifically for horizontal use, and VistaVision being a horizontal process, this scanner can handle both horizontal vis-a-vision and technorama. So with that in hand, the first we did was the Searchers. The second we did was High Society, and I have a long history with this film in terms of going back to the Laserdisc days.
George Feltenstein:It was a big deal when we put out a left-right stereo Laserdisc in the early 90s, because this is one of those strange films, because VistaVision films were not released with a stereophonic soundtrack. Everybody experienced high society in mono and we knew the music had been recorded in stereo. And someone a veteran from the MGM sound department. His name was Scott Perry. We lost him many, many years years ago, but I had the good fortune to meet him and knowing when I was starting out in the industry, and Scott brought out the tracks and made it possible for us to do a Laserdisc and that track then got adapted, with some mistakes put in it, for a 5-1.
George Feltenstein:That was on the DVD, but this meant a total going back to original for everything and the benefit we have here with this film where music is so important. Where music is so important is that when production or I should say maybe pre-production, but early production the first thing when they're making a musical they would do was pre-record all the musical numbers. That would be the very, very first thing, and for this film they pre-recorded all the musical numbers in left center, right orchestra, left center, right vocals basically six tracks. Those magnetic tracks were also protected and copied before they could succumb to vinegar syndrome. So we did have good audio to go back to, and so it was possible to create a robust, beautiful, authentic multi-track audio to go along with the beautiful images that one can get from VistaVision because of its depth of field and clarity. The combination of all that allowed for us to create something that I think is pretty remarkable.
Film Clip:Suntan, windblown Honeymooners at last alone, feeling far above par. Oh how lucky we are. While I give to you and you give to me True love, true love. So on and on, it'll always be True love, true love.
George Feltenstein:True love. The colorist on this film, sherry Eisenberg, is one of our senior colorists at Warner Bros Motion Picture Imaging. Sherry is incredibly gifted and talented and she worked very hard with this film. Because, again, the film stock used in 19, really from mid-54 up through 1960, was the 5248 Eastman stock that the yellow layer succumbs to collapse and failure. So we did have to use the blue separation to bring back and rebuild the color and make sure that the image was as colorful as intended.
George Feltenstein:There are three really awful shots in the movie. There's an overhead stock footage shot as they're flying over Newport. That has always looked awful. There's nothing we can do about that. And then there's two like quick second unit shots on the street that also look awful. That I assume were blown up from traditional 35 millimeter sources. The overhead shot I can kind of figure. Okay, they had to get stock footage or be up in a helicopter, what have you. But I'm baffled by why they. They obviously went to a location. Was it too much problem to bring vista vision cameras? Maybe I don't know. But overall it's just gorgeous.
George Feltenstein:I had worked on what was supposed to be a 5.1 DVD audio soundtrack album for our joint venture with Rhino Records which lasted from 1995 to 2011. And that never got released due to some legal issues that I'm not able to go into here. But I was pretty crestfallen that we had created this wonderful album and that no one would get to hear it. And it's still in paralysis, uh. But the music in this film is so integral, it's so important, it was so beautifully done. Research on the production I found a memo from Douglas Shearer, who had been the head of the MGM sound department since the Broadway melodies, since 1929. He was Norma Shearer's brother and he was questioning to senior MGM management if you choose to use VistaVision, do you realize you will not be able to release this film with a magnetic stereophonic soundtrack? And you've got Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra and you're not going to have a stereophonic soundtrack. This is insanity and everybody was kind of not really paying attention to that fact. But now we have the technology to make the image look fantastic and I think the Blu-ray looks wonderful.
George Feltenstein:The 4K is actually a knock-your-socks-off presentation that takes advantage of the HDR and the Dolby Vision, and we wanted this release to be as the Searchers was.
George Feltenstein:We wanted it to be where there is a Blu-ray and a DVD in the combo pack, that there would be Dolby Vision, that there would be a robust bit rate, that there would be encoding of the compression and authoring by the great David McKenzie at Fidelity in Motion All those ingredients put together to make sure that this would be a release worthy of such an entertaining film, and I always liked this film a great deal.
George Feltenstein:But something about the way the new disc has turned out really it warrants revisiting a lot project. I've seen the film so many times that I'm kind of like, after the first final watch and checking off the approval, that that's it for a while. When I got my 4K High Society disc from you know, all packaged and ready to go, and I watched it and listened to it, you know, four times over a weekend because I was just so blown away by it. We're very proud of it, uh and uh, those who have reviewed it so far seem to be in accord with my perception of it. Uh, and I'm hoping it paves the way for another very special release.
Tim Millard:Yeah, and I'll go back to a couple of the things you mentioned just to kind of highlight them. One is the audio, and I know you personally spent an awful lot of time overseeing that and maybe you can tell us a little bit more about that. But I also wanted to mention this authoring and discompression by Fidelity in Motion. You did that with the searchers. Seems like you have a formula here that's helping you make sure that these are outstanding releases.
George Feltenstein:Well, if it's a Warner Archive 4K release, it will be done by David McKenzie at Fidelity in Motion. I think he's the best in the industry at what he does. He is a great talent, just as we have talented people here at Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging. That needs to be carried through to the final product and if I have anything to say about it, I want to make sure that that happens well, I love that fact, george, that you're putting a stamp on.
Tim Millard:This is how we're doing it. That makes it, I think, easier for the consumer to know, as soon as they see one archive 4k, that you know. This is what george has said. This is the quality we're looking at, and that's a wonderful thing. From just like when you're going to purchase something.
George Feltenstein:And, as I've said many times, economics and various other factors necessitate that we will have maybe three or four 4K releases per year. But those that do get that treatment will get the full best treatment that we can give it. And I'm very proud of the release and I really am heartened by how many people have told me how much they've enjoyed it and been impressed by it. And a great deal of work from many, many people went into it. A great deal of work from many, many people went into it, and so it was the biggest grossing film of its year for MGM and that was a very impressive year for high grossing movies King and I and Giant and the Ten Commandments you know these huge movies. 56 was a really good year. But not only was it number one for MGM, but it was also, I think, one of the top overall for the industry, like among the top 10 or 15 releases from that year or 15 releases from that year, and it was very, very financially successful and always continued to be that.
Film Clip:Cold, and what little mission of mischief brings you out of the bushes. Petting presents Wouldn't it have been simpler to have it sent over?
Film Clip:No no, whoever brought it could never say what I want to say.
Film Clip:Well.
Film Clip:Lovely, Unrelenting huh.
Film Clip:You said you had something to say.
Film Clip:Yes, I'd hoped you'd changed. Little Tracy may be softened, son. Well, not for my sake entirely, but for yours. You stand a better chance for happiness.
Film Clip:Thank you, I'll manage oh yeah, yes, you will.
Film Clip:You'll manage. All right, You'll manage George too, but heaven help him if he shows any signs of weakness or rebellion.
Film Clip:I see where you haven't changed any either, Dexter.
Film Clip:You know, I tried hard to figure it out. I finally decided that your father hurt you deeply when he hurt your mother.
Film Clip:Please.
Film Clip:So you started demanding perfection. Nobody was going to hurt you. You felt I tricked you. Gee, I didn't know that you wanted a husband who would be kind of a high priest to a virgin goddess. Oh, stop using those foul words, it's a real pity too, tracy, because you know you'd be a wonderful woman if you'd just just let your tiara slip a little. You'll never be a wonderful woman, or even a wonderful human being, until you learn to have some regard for human frailty. There's a lot more you goddesses around than people realize.
Film Clip:Is that all you have to say?
Film Clip:No, I wanted to say that those first weeks we spent together were the most wonderful I've ever known. I want to thank you for them. Good luck, sam, good sailing.
George Feltenstein:You know, a lot of people kind of turn their nose down to this film because it's a remake of the Philadelphia story with music and we got a very nice review in the Wall Street Journal last week that really didn't speak as much about the disc itself except to say what high quality it was in a presentation which we appreciated, but it really focused on the movie, not looking at it as a remake of the Philadelphia story, but a reinterpretation of a lot of the same basic story structure.
George Feltenstein:The films are very, very different in that sense and I'm someone who loves both films very much, but I think of them in different ways and, like I think I just said, I always liked this film a great deal, but now I feel just like so much more passionate about it, yeah, and to to that point, every time the blu-rays come out with the new scans, they make the films more accessible.
Tim Millard:With this 4k, you, you go up another notch. But I think that the the thing about the searchers and this one that I've really, really enjoyed and I'll be interested to see how that compares to a non-VistaVision in the future is just how good the VistaVision makes these films look and that depth of field that you mentioned. I'm, like many people, becoming a huge VistaVision fan seeing them like this with these restorations.
George Feltenstein:I always have been, and that was something that we didn't really get the ability to appreciate in full the way we can now. The way we can now it's kind of like 4K, uhd, hdr, dolby Vision, vista Vision put them all together fantastic. And now we've seen new films actually being made using the process. And the process didn't really go away because, from a pre-production standpoint, a lot of you know, special effects movies and so forth and so on, they were always using this division because of its clarity and depth of field, and I know that the folks at Paramount, because it was their process.
George Feltenstein:Paramount has done a lot of this division restoration work, which is great for everybody who likes the format. But you know I will say that I never saw the Ten Commandments look so amazing until their new 4K came out, you know, and that's a movie that I saw on re-release when I was five years old with my mom and led to just you know even the way that the logo comes out, the big V, everything's it's tremendous. The logo comes out, the big v and everything is it's tremendous. So it just happens to be that we have only two vista vision movies, uh, in the searchers. Well, actually, a new one is being made in this division at warner brothers right now, but with north by northwest and high society, and then, of course, for Warner brothers itself, we have the searchers. That's three. So now, within the space of a year, all three have been done. So can Tecna Rama be next?
Film Clip:That's the big question, okay, I want to play for my former pal. He runs the local jazz festival, his name is Dexter and he's good news. Something kind of tells me that boy's nice in the blues and high, highs, high society, high society. High society, high highs, high society, high society, high society, high high society, high society.
Tim Millard:Well, one thing we haven't really talked about is the film itself, george, and I'm thinking back to when I put the disc in and you see the shot of Louis Armstrong and his group there in the bus, and they're on their way, and from the very beginning. Of course it's great to see Louis, and he's not even the big, biggest star of the film, but he is the big musical, one of the big musical stars.
George Feltenstein:He functions sort of as the Greek chorus. You know, I mean, he's charming in every movie that he ever did. He and Bing had worked together in the 30s. They were really good friends. Bing's roots as a vocalist. A lot of people don't know this, but when he was part of a singing group called the Rhythm Boys 1929, 1928, 29, 30, around that period the Rhythm Boys sang with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra and there were two other guys that sang with Bing and the Rhythm Boys in the Rhythm Boys and Bing was really, I would say, one of the first crooners, if you will. That adapted a jazz style and a jazz feel as he became more popular and more broadly known, which happened primarily through radio. At one point his radio show was listened to by 50 million people every week. If you can imagine that, bing's musical style kind of got a little bit more middle of the road as opposed to jazz. But if you listen to the early recordings you can hear that influence. Putting him together with Satchmo in this movie was a wonderful reunion and then they went on to make at least one, if not two, popular albums together. They were just a great combination and they even did the number that they do. Together. They would do a few numbers sort of together in the movie, but the one big one Now you has Jazz.
George Feltenstein:There was a big television spectacular a year after High Society came out. It was the first, I believe the first black and white videotape network broadcast when videotape was very much formative, and it was the Edsel show. The Edsel was a Ford Motor Company line of cars that didn't last very long, I think maybe two years. Right, somebody said it looked like an Oldsmobile sucking a lemon. Well, the Edsel show was Frank Sinatra, bing Crosby, louis Armstrong and Rosemary Clooney and on the show Bing and Satchmo did Now you has Jazz because it was so popular. But what's interesting is if you look at that thankfully it survives and I think it's all around very easily to see uh, they had nailed down that performance so perfectly that it was a symbiosis. That was just as wonderful. But, as jazz is always supposed to be, never should be the same thing twice. It was a great jazz musician. I don't know who it was, but his quote was jazz is the sound of surprise. I know you're a big jazz fan.
George Feltenstein:I'm a big jazz fan. Yes, absolutely. And jazz on film has not always been a great thing. It hasn't been treated. Know, our great, our great jazz artists were not captured on film the way one would wish. But there are these little snippets. It's like Ella Fitzgerald's two songs and Pete Kelly's blues. Um, to me that and Peggy Lee make it worth the price of admission. And the gorgeous sound and it's a Warner Archive Blu-ray if anybody's interested.
George Feltenstein:But there needs to be more. I would love to see more jazz film unearthed. There are specific people here, not just in this country but also overseas, who collect and try to gather people around rare jazz performances. But the beautiful thing here is that you not only had jazz performances captured, but with sonic quality. It's a lot different than 35 millimeter optical, you know, I mean, it's just, it's heavenly to listen to the music in this film. And you know, no one really considered Frank Sinatra a jazz artist, but he was influenced by Crosby. He was influenced by Crosby and Crosby was influenced, as was Billie Holiday, by Satchmo. So it all kind of fits together. And to see, of course that was the big, big, big news of this film was Sinatra and Crosby together, because there was this faked rivalry between the two of them. They actually were great friends and Sinatra idolized Crosby as he was growing up, you know.
George Feltenstein:So to talk about the film itself, it is representative of an era at MGM where people were considering what properties they owned that could be updated. Some were done musically, some were done non-musically, but the idea of a remake of the Philadelphia story with music was popping around the studio for a while. According to the files, they were considering Elizabeth Taylor For the leading lady role. Bing Crosby wasn't even in the picture Until like the last minute. He had been under contract at Paramount since 1932 and cut himself loose, and he ended up at MGM and had a very integral role in the creation of the film.
George Feltenstein:If you've got really good eyesight, if you look at the copyright, you'll see that it's Lowe's Incorporated and Bing Crosby Productions, and that's because Bing had basically a non-credited producer role in this film. He was very invested in it, not just emotionally but financially. So it was really a coming together of all the right parts. I think we discussed this when we announced it, so I don't want to be repetitive for extras listeners who have already heard me talk about the production, but it represents all of the MGM departments at the top of their craft, and the film continues to entertain 70 years later.
Film Clip:How do you do? I'm Tracy, lord, you must be. Oh, of course you are. I adore strangers. Oh, do sit, you are, I adore strangers. Oh, do sit down, please.
Film Clip:That sister of yours Isn't?
Film Clip:she a dear and so talented, oh, but we're afraid she has a homicidal streak. Did you get lost? Finding her?
Film Clip:No, no, not at all. We had good directions.
Film Clip:Good. I do hope you don't mind our being here for your wedding, oh, but I'm delighted we have so much cake. What is your name, dear? No, thank you, I'm so sensitive to names. Oh, my name is Elizabeth Embry. Elizabeth Embry, oh, it sounds like a medieval saint who was burned to death and you?
Film Clip:I'm Mike Connor.
Film Clip:Oh Michael, what a lovely musical name. Now, you mustn't be ashamed of it.
Film Clip:No, but I'm not. Mike is for Macaulay.
Film Clip:And what's the Macaulay for?
Film Clip:Uh, my father taught English history in high school. My friends call me Mike.
Film Clip:Oh, of whom you have many, I'm sure. Oh, English history has always fascinated me Cromwell and Robin Hood and Jack the Ripper. Where did he teach your father, I mean?
Film Clip:Uh, south Bend Indiana.
Film Clip:Oh, South Bend. It sounds like dancing, doesn't it? Oh, you must have had a most happy childhood there.
Film Clip:Oh, it was Screams.
Film Clip:Oh, I'm so glad.
Film Clip:I didn't mean it that way.
Film Clip:Oh, I'm so sorry.
Film Clip:It's all right, it's a. That's a mistake.
Film Clip:Are you the photographer or the? Um, I take pictures. Oh, it's a great art. Did you bring your brownie? Ah then, you must be the one who's sort of a writer, Mr Connor. Yeah, sort of yeah, have I read any of your novels?
Film Clip:I doubt it. Oh, I haven't written any.
Film Clip:Oh, but you must, mozart. My moats are composed at 13. You must be at least 30. Time is flying. Where were you born, miss Embry Duluth? Ah, duluth, that's west of here, isn't it? Sort of, but we occasionally get the eastern breezes. Are you two going together?
Film Clip:I love Miss Lord.
Film Clip:That's an odd question, I must say. Oh, I don't see why. I think it's fascinating, why birds and spring, but it's sort of the intimate little detail that you like to write about, isn't it, mr Conner? Oh, but if you'd rather not have your privacy invaded, I will certainly respect your wishes. Oh, please, if you'll excuse me, I'll see what's keeping Mama. Mama is so eager to see you.
Tim Millard:Mama. Well, we've got all this time and we haven't said one very important person's name and I think she is so charming Grace Kelly. I can't imagine many other actresses in that role being so charming and witty and wonderful and lovely, but she is just perfect, I think. And the chemistry, I think, between the banter, the chemistry between her and Bing Crosby, who plays her ex-husband in this, and Frank Sinatra plays her ex-husband in this, and, uh, frank sinatra, I mean it's uh, it's very good and she is very good and this is like this is her final film, right?
George Feltenstein:yes, so, uh, it was by the time the film was released and you can see this in the premiere footage that we have on the disc. By the time the film was released, she was the princess of monaco and, uh, mgm was not happy to see her go. Believe me, she was supposed to do designing woman, which ended up being gregory peck and lauren bacall, but they had her set for that to play opposite jimmy stewart and given that they had been together in rear window, that would have been a nice reunion. Not to take anything away from gregory peck and lauren bacall, designing woman is a delightful movie but, uh, during her very brief film career I think it was 1951 to 56 she made it quite an amazing amount of movies in such a short period of time. And, of course, the fact that she worked with Hitchcock, you know, in Dial M and Rear Window. She was in the Country Girl with Bing Crosby and William Holden. She was always under contract to MGM and was lent out more than she was making films at MGM. So MGM finally got in a little bit more with her toward the end, with Green Fire and the Swan and High Society. And then of course she was in Mogambo, the remake of Red Dust with Clark Gable and Ava Gardner. I mean she was terrific in all the films that she made. She did a lot of loan network at Paramount and she's legendary.
George Feltenstein:Her early death was a tragedy on multiple levels. Her early death was a tragedy on multiple levels, but all the things that I've heard about her is that she was a great person and had a great sense of humor, and one of the things I know for a fact was this was a very happy production. Everybody got along really well. There were no overruns on budget, there were no conflicts on the screen, there were no production snags. Everything went smooth as could be. They started doing the pre-ordings, I believe, in November or December of 1955, and the picture was in theaters by end of July, beginning of August 1956. So hard to imagine everything coming together on that quick a basis when you look at how long it takes to get films made today.
George Feltenstein:But, um, I'm glad that we finally have this, just thinking about the poor blu-ray people who are waiting and waiting. When is there going to be a high society blu-ray? You know some people out there like to really complain that their favorite movie is not available and they occasionally will be vocal about it. You may not know this, but it's true. Oh, really, I just am not.
George Feltenstein:But, in all seriousness, that's why we have the standalone Blu-ray, which stands on its own as a very fine release and takes full advantage of the atmos audio. I do want to mention that, you know, for the purist, we have the original mono audio on the disc, which, because that's how the film was seen originally and, uh, I think giving people that option is the right thing to do, and we will see more of that. Uh, both from warner archive and from what I call the mothership. Um, there seems to be a general acceptance here at the studio to retain original soundtracks, as well as what we've been able to do with new technologies, and when they're authentic, I'm very supportive of them, very supportive of them, and here it was authentic in the sense that we were working only from original production sources.
Film Clip:Elegant junk. It's shiny.
Film Clip:Would I trade places with Miss Tracy Lord for all her wealth and beauty? Just ask me.
Film Clip:All right, I will. Can you trade places with Miss Tracy Lord for all of her wealth and her beauty? Well, you know.
Film Clip:I can't help thinking about it.
Film Clip:Who wants to be a millionaire?
Film Clip:I don't.
Film Clip:Have flashy flunkies everywhere.
Film Clip:I don't.
Film Clip:Who wants the bother of a country estate? I?
Film Clip:don't.
Film Clip:A country estate is something I'd hate. I don't, I don't.
Tim Millard:Wait, I don't, and I don't cause all private landing field too wait, I don't and I don't, because all I want is you you know who we haven't mentioned, and I I don't want to move on without mentioning a, celeste holm, who, along with frank sinatra, played the. They've got a great pairing there. I guess there's the two pairings really, and then there's the mix of those pairings, but they're terrific as the scandal sheet. Reporter and photographer.
George Feltenstein:Well, and they had just worked together under the same director the year before in a really delightful comedy that is available on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive the Tender Trap with Debbie Reynolds. The Tender Trap with Debbie Reynolds and Celeste Holm is one of the several young ladies who are in Frank Sinatra Bachelor's life in that movie and they had a really terrific chemistry. So in casting the role of Elizabeth Embry, the photographer for Spy Magazine, she seemed a really obvious choice. When we were getting the DVD ready for production, she was the only major cast member still alive, and a production company that we were engaged with went to new york and interviewed her and that little it's under 10 minutes that little featurette we have on there, true love, which we put through our samurai process to upgrade it from standard definition to high definition, and it came out quite well.
George Feltenstein:I usually don't like anything to be tampered with in that fashion, but this looked organic and it was developed by one of our staff people here at Motion Picture Imaging, and so her little mini documentary, if you will, summarizes the whole production and the process in a very, very efficient use of time, and we had some really nice behind-the-scenes photographs that we were able to put in there, and I'm so grateful that we have these pieces, especially when the people involved in them are no longer with us. It it carries a great deal of weight and means more. And Celeste Holm first became famous by being the original 8-0 Annie in Oklahoma on Broadway in 1943, and she won a Supporting Actress Oscar for Gentleman's Agreement at Fox in 1947. But she's also amazing in All About Eve. As Karen Richards, the playwright's wife. She just had a really terrific career, a long career, and she was very, very appreciated both in Hollywood and on Broadway.
Tim Millard:Well, this makes it really easy to talk about a few of the other extras, because you just mentioned True Love, the cool quarter in Hollywood featurette, and then previously you mentioned, george, that there was this newsreel, I think also next on here, and then you added on a MGM CinemaScope cartoon.
George Feltenstein:Millionaire Droopy. Who wants to be a millionaire droopy? Very appropriate, I mean. It fit very well those eat.
George Feltenstein:I had put that on the dvd back in 2003, uh. So the difference is it's now in high definition and it is one of those. It's a remake of the droopy cartoon wags to riches. That was done after tech savory had left the mgm cartoon cartoon department, but it's basically an avery cartoon with his uh minions carrying on what he had done in the four by three frame. Uh.
George Feltenstein:And then what's really cool is what we also put on these radio promos that existed in all, but one of them existed in really good audio quality, a lot of them being recorded. I think this is where his function of having a piece of the pie came in through Bing Crosby Productions. But he did all these different audio promos. And then we have one that has Frank Sinatra and then one that I don't know if she was Grace Kelly or Princess Grace of Monaco when it was recorded, given that it was after production, but having those on there I just thought was kind of cool, you know, and we had used some of them on the DVD as well, but they're a little more here. So it's a nice package all the way around.
Tim Millard:And we want to give credit to the director here, charles Walters. In watching it multiple times, like you have, you do pick up on just how good the direction is, the movement across the screen left to right, keeping the kind of energy up high, and then, of course, just the work with the actors.
George Feltenstein:Well, charles Walters is not a name that flows off the tongue among people talking about great directors, and yet if you look at his filmography it's very, very impressive. And it wasn't just musicals that he did. He also did comedies. I mentioned the Tender Trap he later did Please Don't Eat the Daisies. He was under contract to MGM for quite a great deal of time. I think his last film was done at Columbia with Cary Grant, cary Grant's last film, walk Don't Run.
George Feltenstein:But he started his career as an actor on Broadway and the irony of it is the one song in high society that wasn't written for the film was Well Did you Ever? Cole Porter was trying to come up with a number for Sinatra and Crosby and no one was really happy with what he was coming up with, and I believe it was saul chaplin, the musical supervisor, that came up with the idea of using this song. Well did you ever? Uh, ever, I have to say it properly. Uh, that was written for the 1939 broadway musical do barry was a lady, the film of which we put out through warner archive.
George Feltenstein:But that song was only in the underscoring of that movie. On stage it was sung by Charles Walters and Betty Grable right before Betty Grable became a big movie star at 20th Century Fox, she had gone to Broadway, so they thought that song would be a perfect duet for the two of them, which it was. But Charles Walters felt this, you know unique journey of a song he introduced as a stage performer on Broadway. And then you know, 17 years later he's directing a multimillion dollar movie with big stars and that song is in it nah, that ain't the way I get it.
Film Clip:What's that I have heard among this clan, you are called a forgotten man. Is that what they're saying? Well, did you ever what a swell party this is. And have you heard the story of a boy, a girl, unrequited?
George Feltenstein:love.
Film Clip:Sounds like pure soap opera. I may cry Tune in tomorrow. What a swell party this is.
George Feltenstein:He also did what we would call, I guess, musical staging. There are no real dances in this movie, but how Grace Kelly when she's drunk, you know is gliding across the floor. That came from Walters. Walters came to MGM as a choreographer initially and, as they did with various other people, like Jacques Tourneur, the famous auteur, they let people take a stab at making a short subject or two before they got to do the feature. So he did a little musical short called I think it's called Spreading the Jam if my memory is serving me correctly called Spreading the Jam, if my memory is serving me correctly and that was impressive enough for Arthur Freed to give him an opportunity to direct a feature which was Good News another beautiful Technicolor Blu-ray we're proud to have released. And Good News was one of the most efficiently made MGM musicals of its time and that kind of cemented him in for an opportunity that came right after Easter parade, which he directed was a last minute assignment.
George Feltenstein:Easter parade was supposed to start Gene Kelly and Judy Garland and I think a week before they were starting shooting, gene Kelly was having a fit over a volleyball game and slammed his foot down on the doorstep outside his house. He's very competitive about volleyball. This is in the documentary that we had on Gene and I knew Gene so I knew that this was very tenable. And in stamping his foot down he broke his ankle. So he called Fred Astaire and said I'm in trouble, they need to start this picture in a week and I can't do it. Fred Astaire came out of retirement Right before that happened. The film was supposed to be directed by Vincent Minelli. It was supposed to be Vincent Minelli directing Gene Kelly and Judy Garland. Things weren't going well in the marriage between Judy and Vincent and it was decided at the studio this is before Gene pulled out that they needed somebody else to direct the movie. That wasn't a good idea for Judy and Vincent to be working together all the time. So Charles Walters got that job and with Charles Walters Fred Astaire came out of retirement to do Easter Parade and thankfully never retired after that.
George Feltenstein:We have the towering inferno to prove it. And you know he was a very, very well-liked, well-respected gentleman. He died of mesothelioma in his mid-60s, which was a terrible sadness because he did not live long enough to see the enormous. He lived to see the release of the first two that's Entertainment movies really just snowballed over ensuing years with all the things that we did on home video. And then what happened with the popularity of Turner Classic movies. That has spread kind of the gospel of the MJ musical. He didn't live to experience any of that, but there's a wonderful biography out on Charles Walters and I highly recommend it. Go to Amazon, order a copy. People need to learn more about him. He was a very, very well-respected, very popular person and member of the MGM family.
Tim Millard:Yeah, what a filmography he has and it's a great lesson in there. You don't always have to be the first choice to have a fabulous career in life. No, it's very, very true. Well, one of the tenets of success, you know, is availability. And he was available and he had proven that he could be counted on. So that's fantastic.
George Feltenstein:And he was available and he had proven that he could be counted on, so that's fantastic and the fact that he made that transition. As the musicals were winding down, he slid right into comedy and turned out box office hits for the studio, and that's really what it was all about.
Tim Millard:Yeah Well, that's fantastic. No-transcript from the Warner Archive. So, george, with that, are there more coming soon? You said there's more, but coming soon, there's more Okay.
George Feltenstein:That's all I'm going to say for now, but again, I wanted temper expectations. Uh, there will only be a few each year. Well, we had a huge budget, it'd be different. But uh, I'm making my pitch for a couple and, and I think there'll be some surprises along the way. But I also stand behind our Blu-rays, because those are mostly older films and there are not 4,000 pixels in the negative, sorry. When there is an opportunity, when a film is just right, we're going to look for that opportunity and meanwhile, between all of our efforts and all of our partners, there's going to be a lot of 4K coming from the Warner Library to your shelves for physical media, for physical media. That's the important part, because we do have the mothership, as I've referred to, the main Warner Brothers Home Entertainment catalog team, and I have a voice at that table, and we have partnerships with certain other companies, all of whom are helping us get more of our library out into the world of physical media, and that's what we're excited about.
Tim Millard:And I appreciate for the consumer the fact that you have that 4K plus Blu-ray combo pack so that those folks who are still in the Blu-ray world but see that 4K is becoming more and more and more prominent can kind of future-proof. You know they can buy the combo but if they're just in that Blu-ray world I watch the Blu-ray and I have to say it looks fantastic. So if you're just in that Blu-ray world they can also just get that, as you just mentioned, for their collection of Blu-rays. But you give people both options, which I really like.
George Feltenstein:The combo is really very important because I know for myself as a consumer. I remember buying the first Deadpool. It was a 4K Blu-ray combo. I didn't have a 4K setup at home yet, but I knew to think about god. That's like nine years ago, um. But I knew that I would eventually have it and I did. But it was nice to know that it was there and, uh, it's great to give people the chance choice. You may not have 4K in every room. In another room you have a Blu-ray player and this way you can take full advantage of that. So the combos are the only way that we're going to go. We're never going to deprive people of the Blu-ray and in the case of the searchers, you know, uh, it was terribly important that we have the blu-ray option because there already had been a blu-ray of the searchers where the blue sky was yellow and people's faces were wrong colors and we had to make up for other people's sins of the past.
Tim Millard:And I guess in this instance, george, it was also important because there was not a Blu-ray. Be sure you have a Blu-ray, right.
George Feltenstein:And there are many people, and rightfully so, if that's where their mind of is. They're like. You know, I had VHS, I had Laserdisc, I had DVD I'm not buying a film for a fifth time so or another piece of machinery. I personally recommend that everybody should have everything, but some people may not have the means to do so, and if they only have a Blu-ray player, I don't want to dismiss the fact that the Blu-ray is of enormous quality, and I am still holding up a quality standard for all of our Blu-rays. They have to be pristine. You're not going to find any stray speckles on our discs. We're very committed to that, and it does look amazing as a Blu-ray only release.
Tim Millard:So that's a great example of what you just said and the quality that the Warner Archive is doing across all of your releases on Blu-ray and now 4K. So always fun, george, to hear the story about the restoration, what went into it, the care, all of the things for the picture and audio and now authoring and just everything that went into this release and what it provides for the fans. So fantastic, as always, to hear from you, george. Thanks for coming on the Extras.
George Feltenstein:It's my pleasure, tim, and thanks to everybody who's supporting our efforts. We deeply appreciate it.
Tim Millard:For those who would like more information about the High Society 4K and Blu-ray release, be sure to check out our Facebook page and at Warner Archive Facebook group, you can find the links to those and all of our social media sites in the podcast show notes, as well as links for purchasing of this beautiful 4K and Blu-ray release. If you aren't yet subscribed or following the show at your favorite podcast provider, you may want to do that so that you don't miss anything that we have coming up with, george and the Warner Archive. Until next time. You've been listening to Tim Millard, stay slightly obsessed.