Young At Heart Blu-ray Review
If Young At Heart were produced today, one could easily imagine Alex Karpovsky(Girls) playing the role of the cynical music arranger Barney Sloan, played in this film by Frank Sinatra. Sinatra and Doris Day co-starred in Young At Heart, a seemingly forgotten musical drama produced by Warner Brothers in 1954. The excellent cast also included Ethel Barrymore(Pinky), Gig Young(Teacher's Pet), Dorothy Malone(Written On The Wind), Robert Keith(Men In War) and Alan Hale, Jr.(Gilligan's Island).
Studio: Other
Distributed By: N/A
Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audio: English 1.0 DTS-HDMA (Mono)
Subtitles: English
Rating: Not Rated
Run Time: 1 Hr. 57 Min.
Package Includes: Blu-ray
Amaray
Disc Type: BD25 (single layer)
Region: A
Release Date: 04/08/2014
MSRP: $29.95
The Production Rating: 3/5
Gregory Tuttle(Robert Keith) is a musician with 3 daughters also musically inclined, played by Doris Day, Dorothy Malone, and Elisabeth Fraser. Alex Burke(Gig Young) is a composer visiting the household who finds himself the object of desire of all 3 daughters, at least until the arrivals of Bob Neary(Alan Hale, Jr.) and Barney Sloan(Frank Sinatra). Melodrama ensues as the Tuttle girls find love, marriage, and the complications that arise inevitably in this type of film.
Young At Heart is a remake of Four Daughters(1938) with Sinatra taking over the role originated by John Garfield. At the time, Sinatra was hot off of his Academy Award winning role in From Here To Eternity. Sinatra insisted, as a condition of playing the role, that his character not suffer the same demise as his counterpart in Four Daughters. Sinatra also used his clout to have Charles Lang(Sabrina, One-Eyed Jacks) removed as director of photography(Lang wanted to do multiple takes) and to have Doris Day's manager/husband Martin Melcher banned from the set.
Young At Heart is a serviceable melodrama with an excellent cast that is not given the most challenging material. The result is a film that stands out much more for its cast, and its musical numbers, than for its screenplay. Young At Heart benefits from its title song, which was a hit by Sinatra before being included in this film, as well as his rendition of Someone To Watch Over Me. This was Doris Day's final film as an exclusive contract player with Warner Brothers, and she also sings several numbers.
Video Rating: 3.5/5 3D Rating: NA
Young At Heart appears on Blu-ray in a 1.66:1 aspect ratio that includes a sliver of footage visible more at the top and bottom of the frame than was the recommended aspect ratio, which I would guess to have been 1.85:1. The film frames well in this aspect ratio without revealing boom mikes and spotlights. Colors are perhaps a touch less vibrant than they ought to be, owing to the Warner Color process used on this film. Still, the colors do not appear overly faded.
It appears that the original Warner Brothers shield logo may have been cut off the print in the film's changes of ownership over the years. The Warner shield appears in its correct place at the beginning of the film(even if this film is not owned anymore by that studio), but the video quality is initially very poor until the logo fades out and the title fades in, at which point video quality improves dramatically.
Some sharpening has been applied, which is most apparent in its absence during the dissolves, which have the same type of baked in opticals as other Warner films from the mid-1950s. (Seven Men From Now is a good example of another film with this feature.) Much of the film seems excessively grainy compare to many other films from the 1950s, but thankfully the grain has not been scrubbed away at the expense of fine detail. (Just admire the detail evident in the wallpaper designs inside the Tuttle home.) The level of film grain fluctuates throughout the film, with many scenes seeming to have little or no grain at all.
Audio Rating: 3/5
The audio is in mono DTS-HD MA. For all that, the audio is surprisingly good. There is a richness of seemingly high fidelity sound during the musical numbers that approaches the quality of stereo, and there is little if any background hiss in the audio. Volume levels remain consistent with dialogue consistently audible.
Special Features Rating: 0/5
This release has no special features.
Overall Rating: 3/5
Young At Heart is an adequate if unexceptional melodrama that is elevated by the high level of acting talent in its cast and the songs by Frank Sinatra and Doris Day. The video and audio reproduction are good but not great. Even if its stars were worthy of better material, Young At Heart is worth seeking out for the performances by Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, and the other members of the cast.
Reviewed By: Timothy E
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