The Merry Widow (1934)
Comedy, Music, Romance • 1h 39m
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Cast: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Edward Everett Horton, Una Merkel, George Barbier, Minna Gombell, Ruth Channing, Sterling Holloway, Donald Meek, Herman Bing, Jacklyn Alexander, Lona Andre, Henry Armetta, Zita Baca, Barbara Barondess, George Baxter, Cosmo Kyrle Bellew, Sheila Bromley, Tyler Brooke, Kathleen Burke, A.S. Byron, Richard Carle, Nora Cecil, Shirley Chambers, Lane Chandler, Claudia Coleman, Gino Corrado, Dorothy Dehn, Jill Dennett, Paul Ellis, Patricia Farley, Christian J. Frank, Otto Fries, Dorothy Granger, Roger Gray, Winter Hall, Mary Halsey, Jeanne Hart, Tom Herbert, Arthur Housman, Eleanor Hunt, Perry Ivins, Leonid Kinskey, Connie La Mont, Barbara Leonard, George J. Lewis, Caryl Lincoln, Bella Loblov, Jacques Lory, George Magrill, Eric Mayne, Wilmuth Merkyl, John 'Skins' Miller, Frank O'Connor, Akim Tamiroff, Lya Lys
Best English-friendly & video release
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Updated yesterday
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About the film
A prince from a small kingdom courts a wealthy widow to keep her money in the country.
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Director: William Dieterle
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Directors: Ernest B. Schoedsack & Merian C. Cooper
Director: Leo McCarey
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
UK MoC Blu-ray > Germany Wicked Vision Blu-ray > US Flicker Alley Blu-ray see DVDBeaver caps
Director: John Ford
Sources: ibb.co (opens in a new tab)
Warner Archive Blu-ray is 4K restoration from nitrate projection elements
Germany Filmjuwelen Blu-ray is AI upscaled https://ibb.co/album/mCJ7RQ
Director: Frank Capra
Director: William Dieterle
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
Criterion 4K Blu-ray scheduled for Dec 2026 release
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
Indicator Blu-ray > 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: Ernst Lubitsch
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Subjective, but the concertina score by Bernard Wrigley on the OOP MoC Blu-ray is generally regarded as very weak. For example, it frequently doesn't match the action. The Meg Morley score on the Kino Lorber Blu-ray is considered superior.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
2021 Kino Lorber Blu-ray
Video comparisons: https://slow.pics/c/ryvPN8Uu
Audio comparisons: https://slow.pics/c/KEs7dwRg
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Kino Lorber 4k resto
The audio on the Kino Lorber Blu-ray comes from a better source than the various DVDs and the previous HD version on streaming. This audio is relatively untampered with, and is likely the best available source as no laserdisc was ever issued.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
MoC OOP Blu-ray is likely to have better encoding than Kino Lorber Blu-ray judging from other movies in the boxset
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
MoC OOP Blu-ray is likely to have better encoding than Kino Lorber Blu-ray judging from other movies in the boxset
4K restoration of the original 3D left eye and right eye camera negatives
Director: Richard Brooks
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Vincent Sherman
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: George Pal
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Compton Bennett
4K restoration from original technicolor negatives
Director: Jack Conway
4K restoration from safety preservation elements
4K restoration from safety preservation elements
Director: Jack Conway
4K restoration from safety preservation elements
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