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Lovely to Look At (1952)
Lovely to Look At (1952) poster

Lovely to Look At (1952)

Comedy, Music, Romance • 1h 42m

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Cast: Kathryn Grayson, Red Skelton, Howard Keel, Marge Champion, Gower Champion, Ann Miller, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Kurt Kasznar, Marcel Dalio, Diane Cassidy, Georgia Holt

Best English-friendly & video release

Updated 11 months ago


About the film

Broadway producers Tony Naylor, Al Marsh, and Jerry Ralby are having difficulty securing funds for their latest show. Then Al learns he has inherited half of a salon in Paris from his Aunt Roberta. The three men travel to France, where they attempt to stage an extravagant fashion show to revitalize the struggling business, now run by Roberta's nieces, Stephanie and Clarisse.

Alternative Titles
Lovely to Look At

More from Mervyn LeRoy

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Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Sources: mega.nz (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

Warner Bros 2011 Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

The older track sounds significantly more natural. The WAC BD uses a new mastering which sounds much worse. A lot of the dialogue sounds off, sort of echoey, garbled or even artifacted. Its overzealous click removal also erased some sounds. Its only positive is a new EQ that brings out the bass more making some of the score more effective.

It seems that the new mastering likely uses AI "enhancement" or some other form of aggressive filtering, resulting in extended peaks despite losing real high end detail (most pronounced on sample 3).

Samples (WAC is mislabeled as UHD)

Additional Info:

Commentary is mono on the Blu-rays and panned stereo on NTSC DVD (different channels for each speaker).

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Best English-Friendly & Video:

VCI Blu-ray

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB Blu-ray

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Directors: John Ford & Mervyn LeRoy

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB Blu-ray

More from Warner Archive

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Director: Vincente Minnelli

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive DVD

Director: Roy Del Ruth

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive 3D Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration of the original 3D left eye and right eye camera negatives

Director: Ernst Lubitsch

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative

Director: Richard Brooks

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative

Director: Vincent Sherman

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative

Director: George Pal

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative

Director: Compton Bennett

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from original technicolor negatives

Director: Jack Conway

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from safety preservation elements

Director: George B. Seitz

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from safety preservation elements

More Comedy on Blu-ray

Director: Alan J. Pakula

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Olive Films Blu-ray

Director: Frank Oz

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray

Director: Steve Gordon

Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB Blu-ray

Director: Jack Conway

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from safety preservation elements

Director: William Dieterle

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative

Director: Alicia MacDonald

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Universal Blu-ray

Director: Elaine May

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Cinématographe 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Cinématographe 4K Blu-ray > MoC > Olive Films. From nicolas:

The master is good but it’s not that big an upgrade from the Olive Films disc and Vinegar Syndrome’ encode has some blocky highlights. A shame that they didn’t hire David Mackenzie here.

Audio Notes:

Cinématographe has unnecessary noise gating not present on the previous releases.

Directors: Charles Reisner & Buster Keaton

Best English-Friendly & Video:

MoC/Cohen Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

MoC 4K Blu-ray late 2027

Video Notes:

MoC/Cohen Blu-ray > Kino Lorber

Director: Buster Keaton

Best English-Friendly:

Kino Lorber new Seven Chances / Sherlock Jr. Blu-ray?

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

MoC 4K Blu-ray late 2027

Video Notes:

Lobster Films (Kino Lorber?) > Cohen/Eureka https://slow.pics/c/3KWXoMyR The new Kino Lorber's Seven Chances / Sherlock Jr. might be using the same restoration as Lobster Films

Director: Billy Wilder

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Audio Notes:

(transfer of the 1989 MGM LaserDisc, without problems plaguing Kino Lorber's release)

Additional Info:

Arrow UHD is an update of the original 4K scan done for their BD. It is also visually far superior to the Kino version and adds Dolby Vision HDR. The Arrow UHD uses a new LD mono capture and has none of the issues or processing found in the Kino UHD which also used an LD mono capture and somehow mucked it up. Short of a brand new scan, the Arrow UHD is as good as it possibly can be.

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Researched and maintained by

vanshady

· last reviewed 11 months ago

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