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Johnny Come Lately [Blu-ray]
(William K. Howard, 1943)
Review by Gary Tooze
Production: Theatrical: William Cagney Productions Video: Olive Films
Disc: Region: 'A' (as verified by the Oppo Blu-ray player) Runtime: 1:37:49.738 Disc Size: 19,372,425,977 bytes Feature Size: 19,242,307,584 bytes Video Bitrate: 24.04 Mbps Chapters: 8 Case: Standard Blu-ray case Release date: May 6th, 2014
Video: Aspect ratio: 1.33:1 Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio English 890 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 890 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 16-bit)
Subtitles: • None
Extras: • None
Bitrate:
Description: For his first independently-produced starring effort, James Cagney chose the sentimental drama Johnny Come Lately. Cagney plays itinerant newspaperman Tom Richards, who wanders into a small corruption-ridden town. Striking up a friendship with elderly Vinnie McLeod (Grace George in her only movie appearance), the editor of the local newspaper, Tom tries to help Vinnie exposed the community's crooked politicians. He is thwarted in his efforts until Gashouse Mary (Marjorie Main), a wealthy dowager with a shady past, exposes the machinations behind a phony Orphan's Fund. At the insistence of star Cagney, the cast of Johnny Come Lately was filled with familiar character actors (Hattie McDaniel, Edward McNamara, George Cleveland, Margaret Hamilton, Lucien Littlefield) who are herein offered a lot more screen time than was customary. Based on the Louis Bromfield novel McLeod's Folly, Johnny Come Lately was produced by Cagney's brother William; the film garnered an Oscar nomination for Leigh Harline's nostalgic musical score.
The Film: In 1906, Tom Richards (James Cagney), a drifter, arrives in Plattsville and befriends newspaper proprietor Vinnie McLeod (Grace George), who is battling the corruption of the town's leading citizen Bill Dougherty (Edward McNamara). He takes over as managing editor of the Plattsville "Shield and Banner" and, despite initial resistance from the oppressed citizens, finally drives Dougherty out of town. Excerpt from Wikipedia located HEREE
Image : NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc. Johnny Come Lately has another one of Olive's modest Blu-ray transfers. This is only single-layered with a decent bitrate. It looks good - clean and crisp with some nicely layered contrast. Generally the image is consistent. Visually, it is very solid, but never stellar - there is no depth but the Blu-ray gave me an acceptable presentation. I see a smattering of textures and saw no flaws.
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio :Authentic 1.0 channel mono track via a DTS-HD Master at a lowly 890 kbps. It exports the films sound competently. The score by Leigh Harline (Pickup on South Street, 23 Paces to Baker Street, House of Bamboo, Broken Lance) seems to benefit occasionally sounding crisp. There are no subtitles and m y Oppo has identified it as being a region 'A'-locked.
Extras : No supplements - not even a trailer which is the bare-bones route that Olive are going with all of their releases now.
BOTTOM LINE: Gary Tooze April 27th, 2014 |