General Evans Above Archive for Apr 25, 2022

Singin’ in the Rain 4K review

Apr 25, 2022 – permalink

When you’re covering physical media you see a lot of press releases. You might think “Oh that’ll look great” or “the fans will love to see that upgraded to 4K.” Occasionally, you take off the journalist hat and get personally excited about a release. When Warner Brothers announced that they were celebrating the 70th anniversary of Singin’ in the Rain with a 4K release, I was happy and the announcement transported me back to lazy Sunday afternoons watching the movie on TV with my parents and sister. It’s a joyous movie and you can’t help but be uplifted by the performances of Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds. Warner Bros is releasing the classic on 4K and I had a chance to review it. The WB likes disclaimers, so here goes: Though Warner Brothers provided me with a copy of this release to review, the thoughts and opinions below are mine.

If you’ve never seen it, Singin’ in the Rain is a musical rom-com set in 1920s Hollywood, just as movies are making the transition from silent films to “talkies.” Kelly plays leading man Don Lockwood, whose studio has him “romantically linked” to his irritating co-star, Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen). He can’t stand her and instead begins to fall for a young actress named Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds). When the studio decides to make his latest picture a musical to highlight motion picture sound, we discover that Lina has the perfect voice…for silent movies. What will the studio do? Will Lockwood and his best friend Cosmo Brown (Donald O’Connor) come up with a plan? Make some popcorn and settle in for some fun.

The 2160p HEVC/H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer with HDR10 is presented in a 1.37:1 aspect ratio. The video presentation of this remastered 4K is simply stunning. Details are perfect in the actors’ faces and hair, the clothing and the various sets. The colour palette is a rainbow of Technicolor hues and the HDR colour grading gives colours and highlights that extra pop. The only quibble with colour is with the flesh tones as they shift from pale to pink. This is most likely due to the multiple film sources used as the original negative was a victim of a 1978 storage facility fire. There’s a light level of grain. The blacks are inky and details remain in the shadows. In a word, this transfer is gorgeous.

On the audio side, your ears are presented with an English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, the original English 2.0 Mono track presented in DTS-HD Master Audio, and French, German, Italian, and Spanish (Castilian and Latin American) 2.0 Mono Dolby Digital tracks. Subtitles are available in English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Spanish (Castilian and Latin American), Japanese, and Korean. The best news here is the inclusion of the original mono soundtrack which enable you to hear the movie the way it was originally released. The dialogue is clear and the music sounds great. The English 5.1 track is the same track from the 2012 Blu-ray release and does a very nice job moving the soundtrack into a larger soundscape. Elements of the soundtrack have been moved into the surrounds, but the real star is the music and vocal in the musical number. The stars’ sound great and the music is bright, lush and dynamic. Dialogue is clear, centred and well prioritized.

The Singin’ in the Rain 4K comes with the aforementioned 2012 Blu-ray as well as a digital code. Most of the extras are on that Blu-ray, while the 4K disc contains audio commentary from Cyd Charisse, screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green, co-director Stanley Donen, Kathleen Freeman, Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds as well as filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and author Rudy Behlmer. It also has a quick way to hit the musical numbers. The Blu-ray contains the commentaries, a 50 minute doc, the jukebox feature and a theatrical trailer.

The Singin’ in the Rain 4K set has stunning video, amazing sound and a nice selection of extras. It’s a wonderful presentation of one of the best musicals in movie history that will leave you dancing and singin’ in the rain. Highly recommended.