Party Girl Blu-ray - Cyd Charisse

Firstly, a massive thank you to our Patreon supporters. Your generosity touches me deeply. These supporters have become the single biggest contributing factor to the survival of DVDBeaver. Your assistance has become essential.

What do Patrons receive, that you don't?

1) Our weekly Newsletter sent to your Inbox every Monday morning!
2) Patron-only Silent Auctions - so far over 30 Out-of-Print titles have moved to deserved, appreciative, hands!
3) Access to over 50,000 unpublished screen captures in lossless high-resolution format!

Please consider keeping us in existence with a couple of dollars or more each month (your pocket change!) so we can continue to do our best in giving you timely, thorough reviews, calendar updates and detailed comparisons. Thank you very much.

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka 'Traquenard')

USA 1958

When Nicolas Ray (Johnny Guitar, Rebel Without a Cause) turns his talents to a gangster movie, a familiar genre becomes startling and new. Set in 1930s Chicago, Party Girl follows a bum-legged mouthpiece for the mob (Robert Taylor) and a gorgeous, wised-up vamp (Cyd Charisse) who fall in love, try to go straight...and head straight for trouble. Ray deepens the drama and heightens the violence with filmmaking artistry that has given Party Girl cult status: a screen painted in sinister ebony and blood red, an urban landscape of shattered glass and shattered bodies, and a scene where a Jean Harlow-besotted mobster learns his idol has married - and shreds her photo with a rat-a-tat of lead.

***

Although it's basically a gangster movie, it's Charisse's dancing that is the high point of the film. She slinks across the screen in her role as a nightclub dancer who falls in love with Mob lawyer Taylor. She wants him to go straight and testify against his former employers, but they kidnap her to keep him toeing the party line when his day in court arrives. The two leads are great at displaying vulnerability around each other, but it's Cobb's role as the gangster boss that steals the acting honors.

Excerpt from Channel 4 located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: October 28th, 1958

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

Comparison:

Warner Home Vidéo - Region 2 - PAL vs. Warner (Archive Collection) - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Box Covers
			BONUS CAPTURES:
Distribution	Warner Home Vidéo - Region 2 - PAL	Warner Home Video Region 0 - NTSC	Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:34:48 (4% PAL speedup)	1:38:54	1:38:53.969
Video	2.35:1 Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 7.11 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	2.35:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 5.25 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	2.35:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 29,634,566,205 bytes Feature: 28,740,802,560 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: PAL
Bitrate: NTSC
Bitrate: Blu-ray
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0), DUB: French (Dolby Digital 2.0)	Dolby Digital 2.0 (English)	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1806 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1806 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles	French, None	None	English (SDH), None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Warner Home Vidéo Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Edition Details: • none DVD Release Date: March 8th, 2006 Keep Case inside cardboard box Chapters: 12	Release Information: Studio: Warner Home Video Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 2.35:1 Edition Details: • Theatrical trailer (2:46) DVD Release Date: May, 2009 Keepcase Chapters 10	Release Information: Studio: Warner Archive 2.35:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 29,634,566,205 bytes Feature: 28,740,802,560 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Trailer (2:49) Blu-ray Release Date: November 30th, 2021 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 38

Comments:

Those interested in the 1995 Party Girl with Parker Posey - the Blu-ray review can be found HERE.

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Warner Archive Blu-ray (February 2024): Warner Archive have transferred Nicholas Ray's Party Girl to Blu-ray. It is on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. The SD transfer always produced an inherently soft-ish image and the 1080P does improve the sharpness although the visuals would never be considered tight - but flesh tones cool and normalize. It is also brighter and looks like a decent upgrade considering the mediocre image on the DVDs. The HD presentation was very pleasing on my system - Cyd Charisse in hi-def a.n.y.t.i.m.e.

NOTE: We have added 48 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Warner Archive use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. There is a mass of gunfire in the conclusion and a score credited to Jeff Alexander (Westward the Women, Ransom!, Support Your Local Sheriff!) - there is Tony Martin (Cyd Charisse's husband!) singing the Party Girl 'theme' and a few musical numbers (with Gloria Wood DUB'ing Cyd Charisse) as the showgirls 'danced' (choreography by Robert Sidney.) It's clean in the lossless with some eye-candy entertainment. Warner Archive offer optional English (SDH) subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The only extra remains a trailer. I think a commentary would have been warranted.

Nicholas Ray was stifled in a few areas of production input for Party Girl, despite European critics haling his "mise-en-scene", and and aside from MGM's last two remaining (major) contract stars, Robert Taylor and Cyd Charisse - there isn't a lot to extol, imo. Notably Erich von Stroheim's son (EvS Jr.) has a bit part as an uncredited police lieutenant, and was also the assistant director on the film. I even think the noir categorization is a stretch with Party Girl being in both CinemaScope and color. Meh. Now saying all that, it is 48% OFF at Amazon.com and coming to the UK for the first time this Monday (Feb 26th, 2024.)

***

Party Girl got a DVD release in France back in 2006. Warner finally got around to a US release in 2009 - sticking it, unfortunately, in Warner DVD-R Archive purgatory. Comparing the two releases though, the transfers seem to be very close - both progressive, and anamorphic. The PAL image is slightly thicker and I might give the edge in detail to the NTSC edition.

The Archive disc has a short trailer, while French disc is bare-bones offering a French dub and an option for French subtitles.

Those sensitive to PAL speedup have an easy choice - otherwise whatever is cheaper in the geographic area you live.

- Gregory Meshman

***

ON THE FRENCH DVD: Quite a decent cinemascope image on this European Warner PAL DVD. There is some definite black/red boosting tending to give the image a very heavy look with occasional overly-red skin tones. It almost produces some unwanted moiring. Otherwise the colors look quite good and the widescreen ratio is impressive. It is acceptably sharp with a little haze to it. Only French subtitles but they are removable (not on the fly though - must press 'aucun' on the Languages selection screen). Consistent audio and no extras - but I recommend this bare-bones DVD and still wonder why region1/NTSC are dragging their heels on many of these hidden Hollywood gems.

For the film, it seems to have squeaked into the Noir genre and like any healthy hetero-male I'm all for Cyd Charisse twirling on the screen. The film has some basic weaknesses but if you can look beyond it Ray's signature is still bold enough to dole-out some keen enjoyment.

Gary W. Tooze

DVD Menus

Warner Home Vidéo - Region 2 - PAL LEFT vs. Warner (Archive Collection) - Region 0 - NTSC RIGHT

Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray