First Love (1939)
Comedy, Romance, Music • 1h 24m
Director: Henry Koster
Cast: Deanna Durbin, Robert Stack, Eugene Pallette, Helen Parrish, Lewis Howard, Leatrice Joy, Marcia Mae Jones, June Storey, Frank Jenks, Kathleen Howard, Thurston Hall, Samuel S. Hinds, Doris Lloyd, Charles Coleman, Jack Mulhall, Mary Treen, Dorothy Vaughan, Lucille Ward, Virginia Brissac, Lillian Bronson, Ralph Brooks, Jack Chefe, Sayre Dearing, Rex Evans, Bess Flowers, Julia Griffith, Grace Hayle, Thomas Martin, Lon McCallister, Harold Miller, Peggy Moran, Edmund Mortimer, Broderick O'Farrell, Robert Paige, Ronald R. Rondell, Larry Steers, Bert Stevens, Amzie Strickland, Walter Tetley, Ellinor Vanderveer, Russell Wade, Larry Wheat, Eric Wilton, Sam Harris
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 18 days ago
Overview
In this reworking of Cinderella, orphaned Connie Harding is sent to live with her rich aunt and uncle after graduating from boarding school. She's hardly received with open arms, especially by her snobby cousin Barbara. When the entire family is invited to a major social ball, Barbara sees to it that Connie is forced to stay home. With the aid of her uncle, who acts as her fairy godfather, Connie makes it to the ball and meets her Prince Charming in Ted Drake, her cousin's boyfriend.
Directors: Henry Hathaway & Howard Hawks & Henry King & Henry Koster & Jean Negulesco
Director: Henry Koster
Universal 4K Blu-ray, excellent master and grade
Director: Joel Coen
Director's Cut: Disappointing UK StudioCanal/US Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: LaserDisc or 2001 UK Universal DVD
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=21782879#post21782879 - comparison. StudioCanal is a massive improvement to the Criterion but still flawed in some areas (chroma noise)
Director: Leo McCarey
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Criterion Box Set coming on October 20th with FiM encode
DTS:X mix most closely approximates original surround mix
Criterion DVD has additional features not found on the 4K Blu-ray
Director: John Carpenter
Sources: blog.sporv.com (opens in a new tab)
1997? Signature Collection LD
Good: 2017 Arrow and 2016 Shout! Factory Blu-ray have the original audio options.
the only track on Universal 4K, which is in DTS:X, has a mixing error of around 6dB too low on side channels, otherwise very similar to other 5.1 mixes.
Director: James Whale
Universal Complete Legacy Collection 4K Blu-ray set on September 26 2026
?
More Comedy on Blu-ray
Director: Bruce Robinson
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray has stronger encode than Criterion
Director: Olivier Assayas
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Encoding is clunky on both Arrow and Criterion BDs but Arrow at least included the original stereo mix in addition to the 5.1 remix, while Criterion only included the 5.1 remix.
Director: Morton DaCosta
Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray Nov 24th
TV series
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative for all episodes
Director: Norman Taurog
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Delbert Mann
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Garson Kanin
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Only Streaming has 1080p
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