ADDITION: MGM - Region FREE - Blu-ray - May 11': I suspect without a further restoration - this is as good as it will get for the classic Wilder comedy. This new, dual-layered, Blu-ray has the same speckles as the 2-disc DVD and we can assume the same source. It improves in all the expected areas - tighter, some depth, far less artefacts and it visually picks-up contrast more notably. Technically the 1080P transfer is strong with over 42 Gig donated to the 2-hour feature and, hence, a high bitrate (over 4x the anamorphic DVD). It is in the 1.66:1 aspect ratio. This looks good in-motion and show a tad more information in the frame.

The DTS-HD Master 5.1 (bump) at 4057 kbps sounds pretty solid with the musical numbers. There isn't abundant separation but there is a crispness not apparent on the CE. There is some pleasing depth in "Sugar Blues" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" - overall a definite improvement - I doubt I have heard the film sounding this good. There are a host of DUBs and subtitle options signifying the disc as being region FREE.

Supplements mimic the CE but are accessible on one lone disc. We keep the commentary and featurette documentaries but lose the Pressbook, postcards/poster and liner notes. At under $15 this has to be considered a must-own. Great package of a timeless film looking and sounding better than ever with a bevy of solid extras. Recommended!    

***

ON THE DVDs: NOTE: There is another edition that came out between these two - a 'Special Edition' that was still 'flat' letterboxed. It had more extras than the original but far less than the new CE.

There is quite a significant difference even beyond that the original is not anamorphic and the CE edition is 16X9 enhanced. We took extra screen captures for comparison to help highlight some of these differences.

In a nutshell, the old edition shows more damage (slight speckles, very light scratches) and extensive artifacts next to the smoother CE. Another obvious difference is that the new CE is much darker. I prefer the darker look personally and feel it is probably closer to the original, but this is only an eduacted guess. The new CE does look like it has had boosted black levels - possibly excessively and it is quite possible that the original had boosted contrast/brightness as well. One could give examples from various scenes where background objects are obscured because of this on both editions. I don't feel it is overly significant although on the new CE skin tones can often look very dark (see 'secretary' capture and one following that). The old edition always looked 'thin' and this new CE may look too 'thick' for some viewers.

In direct comparison we can see the old edition is slightly cropped - not a lot but enough to bother mentioning it (it was 1.63 ratio to the CE's 1.66).

Overall the image quality weighs far in the new CE's favor - anamorphic, opened-up slightly, less damage and far less artifacts. It is an adequate replacement based solely on image.

Audio on the new CE contains the same options as the older release (5.1 and mono, plus a French DUB) minus the optional Spanish DUB on the original.

The original release does not have an English subtitle option (only French and Spanish). Unfortunately the new CE's subtitles are back to the common brighter yellow.

I wasn't overly impressed with the new commentary - it had few redeeming features. Writers Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel share some input interspersed with archived comments by Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. There was nothing overly interesting or unique. I enjoyed the two featurette documentaries much more with soundbites from Lemmon, Wilder and many more in the 'Making of...". There is also a Tony Curtis/Leonard Maltin piece which is as one would expect.

On the whole the new CE is the way to go. Although not perfect - it is better than one might expect from MGM. An easy choice for recommendation.       

 - Gary Tooze