Garv’s Pick of the Week: The Great Moment (Kino Lorber)
For the release week of February 1st:
Garv’s Pick of the Week: The Great Moment [Blu-ray / Kino Lorber]: The first writer/director of the studio era (and my favorite filmmaker) Preston Sturges had a golden run of seven critical and box offices successes at Paramount Pictures — The Great McGinty (1940), Christmas in July (1940), The Lady Eve (1941), Sullivan’s Travels (1941), The Palm Beach Story (1942), The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944), and Hail the Conquering Hero (1944). Unfortunately, that streak ended with the box office flop, The Great Moment (1944). While the film starred Joel McCrea and Sturges stock company of character actors, it was a departure from the hilarious, screwball comedies that Sturges had been producing. It was a biopic of Dr. William Morton, the dentist who was the first to use ether as an anesthetic in 1846. Sturges originally envisioned a story told with a flashback structure, but the studio was dissatisfied with Sturges’ original cut, and they re-edited the movie without his input. It’s hard to tell whether the public would have accepted Sturges’ version of the story, but they were unenthusiastic about the studio’s truncated version. Unfortunately, Sturges’ cut no longer exists for comparison purposes. However, Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray release will include an introduction and a featurette to help put Sturges’ fascinating failure in context.
Additional Titles of Interest —
Monsieur Beaucaire [Blu-ray / Kino Lorber]: Kino adds two more titles to their Bob Hope Blu-ray releases this week. First up is one of the comedian’s most well-regarded films. In this one, Ol’ Ski Nose is a barber in the court of King Louis XV, who gets mixed up in political intrigue and has to masquerade as a duke.
Where There’s Life [Blu-ray / Kino Lorber]: In this 1947 comedy, Hope is actual royalty. After a European monarch is critically wounded, the assassins also target his only heir, a New York radio personality (Hope).
Zander the Great [Blu-ray / Undercrank Productions]: Marion Davies stars in this 1925 silent, which has been given a new 2K scan of a 35mm preservation print from the Library of Congress. The original color tinting has been reinstated, and a new organ score composed and performed by Ben Model has been added to the Blu-ray release.
Written on the Wind [Blu-ray / Criterion]: Another soapy Douglas Sirk melodrama is getting the Criterion treatment.
Mad Max Anthology [4K UHD / Warner Brothers]: All four of George Miller’s post-apocalyptic action films are upgraded to 4K in this UHD set. Each of the individual movies are also available as stand-alone 4K UHD releases.
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