Honky Tonk (1941)
Western, Drama, Romance • 1h 45m
Director: Jack Conway
Cast: Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Frank Morgan, Claire Trevor, Marjorie Main, Albert Dekker, Henry O'Neill, Chill Wills, Veda Ann Borg, Douglas Wood, Lew Harvey, Betty Blythe, Harry Worth, Erville Alderson, Hooper Atchley, Dorothy Ates, King Baggot, Don Barclay, Barbara Bedford, Ed Brady, Cliff Clark, Al Bridge, Francis X. Bushman Jr., Tom Chatterton, Ed Cassidy, Heinie Conklin, Tommy Conlon, Dick Curtis, Gordon De Main, Dorothy Granger, Bess Flowers, William Haade, Eddie Hall, Edward Hearn, Al Hill, Fay Holderness, Robert Homans, Lew Kelly, Cy Kendall, Milton Kibbee, Esther Muir, Mitchell Lewis, Louis Mason, John Maxwell, Frank Mills, Demetrius Alexis, Jack Baxley, Jack Carr, Sheila Darcy, Harry Fleischmann, Joe Devlin, John Farrell, Earl Gunn, Payne B. Johnson, Jane Keckley, George Lehrer, Charles McAvoy, Art Miles, Howard M. Mitchell, Monte Montague, Philip Morris, Horace Murphy, Paul Newlan, Pat O'Malley, Frank O'Connor, Anne O'Neal, Ted Oliver, William Pagan, Lee Phelps, Alonzo Price, Henry Roquemore, Dick Rush, John Sheehan, Philip Sleeman, Carl Stockdale, Lee Shumway, Jack C. Smith, Charles Sullivan, Elliott Sullivan, Ray Teal, William Telaak, Malcolm Waite, Morgan Wallace, Eddy Waller, Harry Wilson, Will Wright
Best English-friendly & video release
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Updated 4 months ago
Compare the discs
About the film
Fast-talking con-man and grifter Candy Johnson rises to be the corrupt boss of Yellow Creek, but his wife's alcoholic father tries to set things right.
Director: Jack Conway
4K restoration from safety preservation elements
Director: Jack Conway
4K restoration from safety preservation elements
Directors: Cedric Gibbons & Jack Conway
Warner Archive Blu-ray 4K restoration
4K restoration of the original 3D left eye and right eye camera negatives
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
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
4K restoration from safety preservation elements
Director: William Dieterle
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
More Western on Blu-ray
Director: Anthony Mann
Kino Lorber Blu-ray reissue (4K restoration)
Massive picture upgrade as the 4K restoration addresses the massive color fringing that has plagued all previous dated masters. Oddly the titles are a different color now.
4K restoration is a gigantic and essential picture upgrade but only available on the Kino Blu-ray reissue. No UHD has been made or announced by anyone.
Director: Anthony Mann
The film only exists in MGM letterbox masters and the HD version upgrades the DVD presentation. Sadly the film still needs a modern restoration and a better audio source. The master holds up very well today regardless and has a very natural appearance. The Eureka BD is far superior to the Kino Lorber in encode and extras making it easily the only version to consider.
Director: Anthony Mann
Criterion 4K Blu-ray, Universal 2008 DVD
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
2008 Universal DVD mono
The mono on the Criterion is severely filtered resulting in it sounding incredibly muffled. It is nearly as filtered as the 2003 original Universal DVD which had extreme filtering and sounds horribly thin. The 2008 DVD remaster and original LaserDisc analog mastering are mostly left alone. The original LD master is from a worn element but otherwise sounds very natural. The 2008 DVD is the highest quality version we have without the heavy filtering and the defects of the LD master. It isn't perfect but easily the best of the main four sources by a dramatic margin.
The existing 4K SDR restoration looks excellent, but the Criterion extras are limited and disappointing. The classic Stewart interview commentary from the LD is ported over but given a new mastering. Compared to past releases it has been very slightly noise reduced.
Director: James Neilson
The Universal HD master is appalling. This is a large format early Technirama film that has been hit with a massive amount of DNR resulting in a smeary appearance throughout with little detail. On one hand it is still a better scan than the old DVD with better color and element issues addressed. On the other it is barely above the DVD upscaled in other moments. The mono audio has been horribly processed to sound thin, canned and lacking in overall fidelity. The DVD clearly uses the same source element for picture and sound and here the sound is left alone. It sounds miles better. The Kino Lorber Blu-ray is technically the best US release but this master has been released in Europe where it likely has better encoding. The Kino Lorber Blu-ray adds a basic commentary. This film needs a proper transfer and audio presentation desperately. The HD master is so lackluster that the DVD despite its age is arguably preferable in visuals and certainly far superior in audio.
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Director: George Stevens
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has unusually strong encode but only a minimal upgrade over the excellent Eureka Blu-ray
Director: Samuel Fuller
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Criterion Blu-Ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Edit history
Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.