COVER
GIRL ($25) is a wonderful, Technicolor musical confection starring
Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly that came from Columbia Pictures- a studio
that wasn’t quite as well known for musicals as some of the other major
players in Hollywood during the golden years. Made before he was a huge
star over at MGM, COVER GIRL gave Kelly the opportunity to work
with the reigning queen of the Columbia Pictures lot, Rita Hayworth, as
well as showing off the burgeoning talents that would put him on top of
the musical genre at his home studio.
In
COVER GIRL, Rita Hayworth portrays dancer Rusty Parker, who works
in the Brooklyn nightclub owned and run by her boyfriend Danny McGuire
(Kelly). Hoping to improve her fortunes, Rusty tries her luck at becoming
the cover girl for an important issue of a glamour magazine. After an
acquaintance tries to sabotage her chances, Rusty’s beauty catches the
eye of designer John Coudair (Otto Kruger), which earns her the coveted
magazine cover. As one might expect, Rusty’s new found celebrity begins
to interfere with her work at the nightclub and with her romance with
Danny. The cast of COVER GIRL also features Phil Silvers, Eve Arden
and Lee Bowman.
Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment has made COVER GIRL available on DVD in
a really terrific looking full screen transfer that frames the movie in
its proper 1.37:1 aspect ratio. This is the absolute best that COVER
GIRL has looked in the home venue- easily besting the previous
Laserdisc edition by a wide margin. None of the registration problems that
plagued the Laserdisc are present here, and the new DVD transfer provides
one with a good approximation of what an actual IB Technicolor print might
have looked like. Colors usually appear rich and vibrant, as well as being
rendered without noise or smearing. Shots containing optical fades and
dissolves have slightly subdued colors, but otherwise, the appearance is
fine. Blacks appear velvety and the whites are crisp and stable. The
image itself is pretty sharp and rather nicely defined. The film element
used for the transfer displays some very minor blemishes and occasionally
noticeable grain structure, but otherwise looks marvelous. Digital compression artifacts are always well concealed during the presentation.
COVER
GIRL comes with a fine sounding Dolby Digital monaural soundtrack.
Most signs of background hiss and surface noise have been stripped away in
the mastering process leaving a fairly clean and crisp sounding track.
Fidelity does have the expected limitations coming from a nearly
sixty-year-old soundtrack. However, this being a musical, one will
naturally want to apply a bit of amplification, and the track does manage
to sound rather pleasant at normal listening levels. Dialogue is cleanly
rendered and is always completely intelligible. No other language tracks
are encoded on the DVD, although subtitles are provided in English,
Chinese, Korean and Thai. The basic interactive menus allow one access to
the standard scene selection and set up features, as well as trailers for BYE
BYE BIRDIE, GILDA and PAL JOEY.
COVER
GIRL is a delightful Technicolor musical comedy treat featuring
Hollywood legends Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly. Columbia has done a good
job with the DVD presentation- producing a gorgeous looking and fine
sounding disc. If you are a musical buff or a fan of Hayworth and Kelly,
then COVER GIRL is a DVD you want to add to your collection.
COVER
GIRL ($25) is a wonderful, Technicolor musical confection starring
Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly that came from Columbia Pictures- a studio
that wasn’t quite as well known for musicals as some of the other major
players in Hollywood during the golden years. Made before he was a huge
star over at MGM, COVER GIRL gave Kelly the opportunity to work
with the reigning queen of the Columbia Pictures lot, Rita Hayworth, as
well as showing off the burgeoning talents that would put him on top of
the musical genre at his home studio.
In
COVER GIRL, Rita Hayworth portrays dancer Rusty Parker, who works
in the Brooklyn nightclub owned and run by her boyfriend Danny McGuire
(Kelly). Hoping to improve her fortunes, Rusty tries her luck at becoming
the cover girl for an important issue of a glamour magazine. After an
acquaintance tries to sabotage her chances, Rusty’s beauty catches the
eye of designer John Coudair (Otto Kruger), which earns her the coveted
magazine cover. As one might expect, Rusty’s new found celebrity begins
to interfere with her work at the nightclub and with her romance with
Danny. The cast of COVER GIRL also features Phil Silvers, Eve Arden
and Lee Bowman.
Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment has made COVER GIRL available on DVD in
a really terrific looking full screen transfer that frames the movie in
its proper 1.37:1 aspect ratio. This is the absolute best that COVER
GIRL has looked in the home venue- easily besting the previous
Laserdisc edition by a wide margin. None of the registration problems that
plagued the Laserdisc are present here, and the new DVD transfer provides
one with a good approximation of what an actual IB Technicolor print might
have looked like. Colors usually appear rich and vibrant, as well as being
rendered without noise or smearing. Shots containing optical fades and
dissolves have slightly subdued colors, but otherwise, the appearance is
fine. Blacks appear velvety and the whites are crisp and stable. The
image itself is pretty sharp and rather nicely defined. The film element
used for the transfer displays some very minor blemishes and occasionally
noticeable grain structure, but otherwise looks marvelous. Digital compression artifacts are always well concealed during the presentation.
COVER
GIRL comes with a fine sounding Dolby Digital monaural soundtrack.
Most signs of background hiss and surface noise have been stripped away in
the mastering process leaving a fairly clean and crisp sounding track.
Fidelity does have the expected limitations coming from a nearly
sixty-year-old soundtrack. However, this being a musical, one will
naturally want to apply a bit of amplification, and the track does manage
to sound rather pleasant at normal listening levels. Dialogue is cleanly
rendered and is always completely intelligible. No other language tracks
are encoded on the DVD, although subtitles are provided in English,
Chinese, Korean and Thai. The basic interactive menus allow one access to
the standard scene selection and set up features, as well as trailers for BYE
BYE BIRDIE, GILDA and PAL JOEY.
COVER
GIRL is a delightful Technicolor musical comedy treat featuring
Hollywood legends Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly. Columbia has done a good
job with the DVD presentation- producing a gorgeous looking and fine
sounding disc. If you are a musical buff or a fan of Hayworth and Kelly,
then COVER GIRL is a DVD you want to add to your collection.