The Gilded Lily (1935)
Comedy, Romance • 1h 20m
Director: Wesley Ruggles
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Ray Milland, C. Aubrey Smith, Eddie Craven, Luis Alberni, Forrester Harvey, Grace Bradley, Warren Hymer, Donald Meek, Claude King, Charles Irwin, Edward Gargan, Charles C. Wilson, Pat Somerset, Eddie Borden, Leonid Kinskey, Jack Albin, Jimmy Aubrey, Ambrose Barker, Reginald Barlow, William Begg, Jay Belasco, Georgie Billings, William A. Boardway, Ralph Brooks, Michelette Burani, Rudolph Cameron, Cherry Campbell, Rita Carlyle, Sheila Darcy, Jane Darwell, Robert Dudley, Eddie Dunn, Jay Eaton, Jack Egan, Hyman Fink, Neil Fitzgerald, Jerry Fletcher, Captain Francis, Dick French, Chuck Hamilton, Sam Harris, Samuel E. Hines, George Humbert, Perry Ivins, Tiny Jones, Howard Joslin, Rollo Lloyd, Dixie Loftin, Jerry Mandy, Stanley Mann, Frank McLure, Bert Moorhouse, Clive Morgan, Edmund Mortimer, Esther Muir, Ferdinand Munier, Jack Norton, Patsy O'Byrne, Dennis O'Keefe, Albert Pollet, James Quinn, Cyril Ring, Ronald R. Rondell, Gale Ronn, Mel Ruick, Walter Shumway, Cameron Smith, Larry Steers, Hayden Stevenson, Mark Strong, Forrest Taylor, Phil Tead, Bob Thom, David Thursby, Marjorie Timm, Monte Vandergrift, Florence Wix
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 1 year ago
Overview
Secretary Marilyn David falls in love with British aristocrat Charles Gray, to the dismay of her best friend, reporter Peter Dawes, who secretly loves her. When Peter learns that the already-engaged Charles has hurt Marilyn, he fabricates an article casting her as the "No Girl" who refused to marry a callous aristocrat. But when the publicity brings Marilyn unexpected fame, and Charles returns, she is forced to choose between the two men.
Director: Garson Kanin
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Only Streaming has 1080p
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab) · blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)
StudioCanal 4K
Director: Preston Sturges
Director: Jack Conway
Video format: HD Streaming
HBO Max HD Streaming
Warner Archive Blu-ray in Oct
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
> Kino Lorber see DVDBeaver
Indicator is using a different restoration from earlier Kino Lorber Blu-ray and it has much better contrast and slightly better grain resolution
Director: Gregory La Cava
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Although there's a bit of aggressive grain management see https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=15853770&postcount=43
Kino Lorber Blu-ray good scan but has significantly boosted contrast
Director: Wesley Ruggles
Sources: DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
Indicator Blu-ray minimally better than Kino Lorber Blu-ray http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film10/blu-ray_review_158/mae_west_in_hollywood_1932-1943_blu-ray.htm
Director: Wesley Ruggles
Kino Lorber Carole Lombard Collection I Blu-ray
Director: Steve De Jarnatt
2024 Kino Lorber Blu-ray
UK Transmission 4K Blu-ray in January 2027
Either the 2015 Kino Lorber Blu-ray or the Arrow Blu-ray
The 2024 Kino Lorber Blu-ray is botched.
Director: Simon Wincer
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
4K is defective with color space issues and poor encoding, UHD replacement disc is also defective with worse encode. The UHD has visible artifacts from the bad encoding. The HDR is overdone and the Paramount 4K master has grain management.
The new Kino Blu-ray has none of the UHD's problems and is superior to the UHD in every way though it still uses the same Paramount master.
DVD 5.1 or LaserDisc 5.1 AC3, LD PCM 2.0 for the matrix stereo version. The LD and DVD seem to be the theatrical audio mix untouched with plenty of low end. This low end like a number of 90's Paramount titles was mixed out or tamed on subsequent releases.
The Lionsgate BD and Paramount BD share the same lackluster HD master with DNR and image distortion. The Lionsgate is much better encoded but has a 7.1 remix which messed up the original mix design by lessening all the great Foley work in favor of the score. The Paramount BD had a 5.1 lossless version of the original mix but it's a new version where the bass has been tamed so the track has lost its punch. The Kino Lorber UHD and Blu-ray recycle this same lesser 5.1 mastering. The original mix can still be heard on LD and DVD. The 2.0 stereo on the Kino is matrixed but also does not sound as good as the 2.0 matrix audio on DVD or LD.
Kino has a replacement program for the defective UHD to fix the color space issue. The new disc is not marked, has a worse encode AND DOES NOT FIX THE COLOR SPACE! Thus it is a worse defective disc version of the original defective disc.
The Billy Zane interview on the Kino BD has technical issues in the editing and clip quality used.
Director: Preston Sturges
No information on French Elephant Films Blu-ray
Director: Martin Scorsese
Other releases have horrendous DNR
Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)
Sourced from a 4K scan of the 35mm Fine Grain. Even with its unfortunate and noticeable print damage, tears, and other issues, still easily beats any prior disc release, though the Imprint BD (same master as Kino, but inferior encode) included in their Essential Film Noir Collection Vol. 3 set does include more extras. https://youtu.be/-Wrsn6-XJCo
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode
Director: Paul Leni
Theatrical/Original A negative: MoC Blu-ray
European C/D negative but better picture quality: Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
From DVDBeaver: The MoC Blu-ray is scanned from the American A negative, as opposed to the European C or D negatives used by Photoplay and others (Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray), so it is identical with the film US audiences saw in 1927
See caps for comparison
In addition, the Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has sepia tinting throughout while the MoC Blu-ray has yellow for normal scenes, blue for night scenes, and some even green tintings.
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has excellent master in SDR and a good encode. BD caps here.
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has poor audio: The 2.0 is fine but unremarkable, the 5.1 is presumably an upmix with a botched, strongly raised LFE channel which makes the entire track unlistenable on well-tuned equipment. Audio graphs here.
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