Cabin in the Sky Lena Horne

Directed by Vincente Minnelli
USA 1943

Hollywood's first all-black film since The Green Pastures tells the vibrant fable of rascally Little Joe, torn between the love of his good wife Petunia and the wiles of good-time bad girl Georgia Brown...and caught in a tug-of-war between emissaries from the Lord and Satan. How can virtue triumph over evil? Well, as Petunia says, "Sometimes when you fight the devil, you gotta jab him with his own pitchfork." Debuting movie director Vincente Minnelli (An American in Paris, Gigi) and stars Ethel Waters, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington are more than a match for the devil in this musical treasure. With a soundtrack of dazzling standards including Taking a Chance on Love and Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe, Cabin in the Sky is a joyous classic.

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Theatrical Release: April 9th, 1943

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DVD Review: Warner - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Warner Home Video - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC
Runtime	1:38:30
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 4.29 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	English, Spanish, French, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Warner Home Video Aspect Ratio: Original aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Commentary by: Evangela Anderson and Eva Anderson (wife and daughter of Eddie "Rochester" Anderson), Fayard Nicholas, and black cultural scholars Todd Boyd and Drew Casper, with interview excerpts of Lena Horne • Vintage Pete Smith Specialty short "Studio Visit" • Louis Armstrong "Ain't It the Truth" audio-only outtake • Theatrical trailer DVD Release Date: January 10th, 2006 Keep Case Chapters: 30

Comments:

For Warner this is a decidedly soft image. I see none of the usual signs of restoration - sharpness, contrast, greyscale and grain are not present to the same degree that they have been with most of Warner's output of 2005. Audio was clear but a bit inconsistent in a few spots. However, the commentary is excellent further helping appreciation of the film and it was nice to see the 'Studio Visit' short and the musical outtake included. Subtitles are excellent and the price is right just don't have strong expectations for the image.