The Lady Is Willing (1942)
Romance, Comedy • 1h 32m
Director: Mitchell Leisen
Cast: Marlene Dietrich, Fred MacMurray, Aline MacMahon, Stanley Ridges, Arline Judge, Roger Clark, Marietta Canty, David James, Ruth Ford, Harvey Stephens, Harry Shannon, Elisabeth Risdon, Charles Lane, Murray Alper, Kitty Kelly, Eddie Acuff, Ernie Adams, Helen Ainsworth, Myrtle Anderson, Georgia Backus, Eugene Borden, Romaine Callender, Chester Clute, Jimmy Conlin, Lorna Dunn, Lou Fulton, Eddie Hall, Charles Halton, Neil Hamilton, Sterling Holloway, Robert Emmett Keane, Carl M. Leviness, Judith Linden, Edward McWade, Frances Morris, William Newell, Paul Oman, Suzanne Ridgway, Ray Walker, Katherine Yorke
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 28 days ago
Overview
Bold, eccentric Broadway performer Elizabeth Madden befuddles her handlers by coming home with a baby she picked up on the street. She wants to keep the baby but has to find a husband to make adoption viable. She offers her new obstetrician Dr. McBain help with his research on rabbits in exchange for marriage - and he accepts. The marriage of convenience turns into a marriage of real love until Dr. McBain's ex-wife comes looking for money.
Kino Lorber Carole Lombard Collection II Blu-ray
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
France Movinside Blu-ray although has contrast boosting, still better than Kino Lorber's aggressive DNR caps
Director: Alan Clarke
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
The 88 Films 4K Blu-ray is disappointing. Indicator Blu-ray > 88 Films Blu-ray. From nicolas:
Fine master, solid HDR but very poorly encoded with strong blocking artifacts in normal areas and clipped highlights that bring Criterion’s Walkabout to mind. Their Blu-ray is slightly better overall but then again still not as good as FiM’s encode for Indicator.
Director: Vincent Sherman
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: John M. Stahl
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Indicator Blu-ray is encoded by FiM and likely better than Kino Lorber Blu-ray
Director: Fritz Lang
Sources: DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
Indicator Blu-ray is superior to Kino Lorber transfer see caps. 2K restoration
Director: Bertrand Blier
The older Studio Canal disc has incorrect pitch - 0.7 semitones lower than it should be. As their PAL DVD release was pitched correctly despite running at 25 FPS, it's likely they just took that master and slowed it down without accounting for that.
More Romance on Blu-ray
Director: Liliana Cavani
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Morton DaCosta
Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray Nov 24th
Directors: Emeric Pressburger & Michael Powell
Imprint 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · filmalert101.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
FiM encode and none of the low-pass filtering present on the Criterion 4K, resulting in more detail and better handling of highlights on Imprint
Review, comparisons
All HD and 4K sources use the same 2009 restoration. Criterion's master (also used by Imprint) is a bit more rolled off, though the difference is minor.
Director: Norman Taurog
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Delbert Mann
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
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