Warner Brothers Classic Holiday Collection, Vol. 2

Warner Brothers Classic Holiday Collection, Vol. 2

Blossoms in the Dust (1941) It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947)

Holiday Affair (1949) All Mine to Give (1957)

Titles

Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon star in this true story of Edna Gladney, a woman who devoted her life to finding homes for unwanted infants. Felix Bressart co-stars. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy. This film is good, but doesn't tell anywhere close to the true story of Edna Gladney. She didn't need all of the family melodrama portrayed in the film to motivate her, and she was a real force in the care of children in Fort Worth,Tx. throughout her life.

It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947)
This screwball comedy is about a hobo and friends who move into a mansion while the owners are out of town for their Christmas holiday. The film was directed by Roy Del Ruth and stars Don DeFore and Ann Harding.

Holiday Affair (1949)
This classic Christmas romantic comedy stars Janet Leigh as a poor young widow torn between a boring successful businessman and a romantic ne'er-do-well. Robert Mitchum and Wendell Corey co-star. I'm sure you can figure out which actor plays which man. This movie is very mature and realistic. Nobody is all bad or all good in this film.

All Mine To Give (1957)
A touching drama, All Mine To Give tells the sad story of six pioneer children who struggle to stay together on Christmas Day following the deaths of their parents. It stars Patty McCormack and Glynnis Johns along with Ellen Corby. This is perhaps one of the saddest movies I've ever seen, and I can remember the first time I saw it 40 years ago when I was 10.

Posters

Theatrical Releases: Various from 1941 - 1957

DVD Reviews

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

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Warner - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC
Time:	over 6.5 hrs. of feature films total on four discs
Bitrate: Blossoms in the Dust
Bitrate: It Happened on 5th Avenue
Bitrate: Holiday Affair
Bitrate: All Mine to Give
Audio	English (original)
Subtitles	English (CC), French, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Warner / Turner Aspect Ratio: All Original Aspect Ratios - 1:33 and 1.85 for All Mine to Give Edition Details: • trailer for Blossoms in the Dust DVD Release Date: November 11th, 2008 4 standard keep cases inside a cardboard box

Comments:

NOTE: The 4 main features (4 discs) of this boxset are housed in individual standard keep cases (see image above) and three are also sold separately - It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947), Holiday Affair (1949) and All Mine to Give (1957).

Technical specifications of the discs: All four DVDs are coded for regions 1 thru 4 in the NTSC standard but only one of the four is dual-layered - It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947) - and another - Holiday Affair (1949) - is interlaced! The widescreen feature, All Mine to Give (1957), is anamorphic. Each have original English audio and options for English (CC), or French subtitles in an off-white font. There are no extras save a trailer on Blossoms in the Dust (1941).

Image: Aside from the dual-layered It Happened on 5th Avenue , which has some muddy contrast, none are stellar showing various noise and artifacts from their single-layering. Holiday Affair may be one of the worst I've seen from this production company. the image is hazy and interlaced! the other three are watchable, despite light scratches and infrequent speckles, but fall short of expectations. The screen captures below should give you a good idea of how these discs will look.

Audio - All original or 2.0 with and there are optional English or French subtitles for each film.

Extras - Nutt'in - aside from the trailer on Blossoms in the Dust (1941) there is nothing at all.

Overall impression: Four excellent films but the digital treatments and lack of extras leave a lot to be desired. I was the least keen on All Mine to Give as a movie but admit to being very disappointed in Holiday Affair as it was the one I most wanted to view. I don't know if the individual editions will have more supplements or better transfers - but I sincerely doubt it - and the price tag of the three at $17.99 each is outrageous! This entire package is only $21.99 and I would still recommend but don't get your expectations too high as fans appear to have been given short shrift this time around.