|
|
|
Search Movie Review
Archives
|
|
|
| |
| Dvdivas
was founded by John Gabbard in 2000. It's purpose has been and
remains to be to provide you, the entertainment community with
the latest dvds and movie reviews. It will continue to be your
link to the most popular dvd movies. |
|
|
“I Love
Lucy-The Complete Fourth Season“
|
 |
Reviewed
by: |
Wayne A. Klein |
| Genre: |
Comedy |
| Video: |
1.33:1 Full
screen |
| Audio: |
Dolby Digital
1.0 (mono) |
| Languages |
English,
Spanish (on most episodes) |
| Subtitles |
English,
Spanish |
| Length |
819 minutes
|
| Rating |
NR |
| Release Date |
5/3/05 |
| Studio |
Paramount
Home Video |
| Commentary:
|
None |
| Documentaries:
|
None |
| Featurettes:
|
“Behind-the-Scenes” audio
featurette |
| Filmography/Biography:
|
Guest cast
information |
|
Interviews: |
None |
| Trailers/TV
Spots: |
None |
| Alternate/Deleted
Scenes: |
Original
animated sequences, flups |
| Music
Video: |
None |
| Other:
|
Production
notes, restored music, 5 complete episodes of Lucy’s show “My
Favorite Husband” |
| Cast
and Crew: |
Lucille Ball,
Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley, Richard Keith, Johnny
Jacobs |
| Written
By: |
Todd Holland,
Bryan Fuller, Tim Minear, Liz Garcia |
| Produced
By: |
Gretchen
j. Berg, Michael J. Maschio, Paul Rabwin |
| Directed
By: |
Todd Holland,
Allan Kroeker, Peter Lauer, Michael Lehmann |
| Music:
|
Michael
Andrews -- |
| The
Review: |
What can you say about the situation
comedy that changed TV? “I Love Lucy” matured in its fourth
season with some of its best episodes ever. The characters
had been well established by the first season so the performers
continued to mine the characters for laughs during season
four deepening the character comedy. The most important aspect
of this season, though, is the fact that the cast travel to
Hollywood to pursue Ricky’s dream of being a movie star. ---
|
| Image
and Sound: |
“I Love
Lucy” looks good considering the age of the source prints. The
blacks are solid and the image has been cleaned up considerably.
However, there are some defects to note in this set. On episode
in particular “The Fashion Show” suffers from compression problems
and image problems that look like they could have happened during
the Telecine process (where the film is transferred to high
definition video for DVD) or, quite possibly, it’s a flaw in
a particular pressing. It’s possible that these flaws have been
fixed on later pressings. I would write Paramount if you’ve
already purchased the flawed set. Some of the episodes here
appear to be from the syndicated versions (which ran, on average,
anywhere from 2 minutes shorter) as thee is apparently some
footage missing from some episoes. The mono sound is pretty
decent and there’s not really much beyond a digital clean up
and pumping up the volume that Paramount could have done here.
--- |
| The
Extras: |
We get
a nice audio featurette on the making of the series, 5 vintage
radio shows from the series “My Favorite Husband” that Lucille
Ball did during the series run. There’s also biographies on
all the cast and guest stars. We also get script excerpts
for scenes that were shot but discarded, extra scenes that
designed to bookend reruns as well as outtakes where the process
shots didn’t work or lines were screwed up by the actors.
We also get the original animated sequences for the opening
of the show. There’s also restored music and most of the episodes
are available in Spanish as well. ---
|
| Commentary:
|
No audio
commentary tracks. |
| Final
Words: |
A solid
set from Paramount for this groundbreaking TV series, “I Love
Lucy: The Complete Fourth Season” evidently does have a number
of bad discs in the initial run. You may want to contact Paramount
if you have one of these sets. With some nice extras, this essential
season has been nicely packaged with some smart extras from
Paramount. |
|
|
