The Great McGinty Blu-ray

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

(aka "Down Went McGinty")

Directed by Preston Sturges
USA 1940

From Preston Sturges, the legendary writer/director of Christmas in July, The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story and Unfaithfully Yours comes this classic comedy about an opportunist who turns corruption into a promising political career, but struggles to stay on top when he tries to go honest. Dan McGinty (Brian Donlevy, The Quatermass Xperiment) is a hungry hobo who wows the ballot-stuffers by voting 37 times in an election for Mayor. He immediately becomes the protégé of “The Boss” (Akim Tamiroff, After the Fox), who guides and schemes McGinty to Alderman, Mayor and ultimately Governor with a series of payoffs, kickbacks and bribes. In trouble, McGinty flees the country and winds up (or down) as a bartender in a seedy Central American dive where the tale has a gleeful surprise ending. The Great McGinty, a high-spirited comedy of rogues and rascals, won the 1941 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (Sturges).

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Told in flashback, Depression-era bum Dan McGinty is recruited by the city's political machine to help with vote fraud. His great aptitude for this brings rapid promotion from "the boss," who finally decides he'd be ideal as a new, nominally "reform" mayor; but this candidacy requires marriage. His in-name-only marriage to honest Catherine proves the beginning of the end for dishonest Dan...

Posters

Theatrical Release: July 24th, 1940

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Comparison:

Universal (Preston Sturges Collection) - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Box Cover		Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Universal Home Video - Region 1 - NTSC	Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:21:51	1:21:51.281
Video	Original Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Average Bitrate: 6.86mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.33:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 25,324,870,490 bytes Feature: 24,362,821,632 bytes Video Bitrate: 35.90 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	English (Dolby Digital mono)	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1553 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1553 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit) Commentary: Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles	English, French, Spanish, None	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Universal Pictures Aspect Ratio: Original aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Theatrical Trailers for all except Hail the Conquering Hero DVD Release Date: November 21st, 2006 (see image at top and below) Chapters: various	Release Information: Studio: Kino 1.33:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 25,324,870,490 bytes Feature: 24,362,821,632 bytes Video Bitrate: 35.90 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian Samm Deighan • Theatrical Trailer (1:41) Blu-ray Release Date: January 14th, 2019 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 9

Comments:

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

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (January 2020): Kino have transferred Preston Sturges' The Great McGinty to Blu-ray. It is advertised as being from a "Brand New 4K Master" and has over five times the bitrate of the 2006 DVD. It is brighter than the DVD and looks excellent in-motion with a max'ed out bitrate. Grain texture is more prevalent and black levels are richer and deeper. It looks very good in 1080P - a solid notch ahead of the older DVD with no compression issues.

NOTE: We have added 36 more large resolution Blu-ray captures for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel mono track (16-bit) in the original English language. The lossless offers a clean uplifting score by Friedrich Hollaender (Christmas in Connecticut, Caught, Berlin Express, Background to Danger, The Verdict, A Foreign Affair, Bluebeard's Eight Wife) and John Leipold (Those Redheads from Seattle, Murder in the Zoo, The Devil is a Woman, The Flying Deuces, Duck Soup as all as Preston Sturges's The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels) adding another layer to the film. Kino offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Kino Blu-ray has a new audio commentary by film historian Samm Deighan who relates plenty of keen observation of Sturges first effort as a director, the film being based in political corruption, no morals advancement of the Dan McGinty character, how Sturges films have people rewarded by circumstance, and the writer/director's cynicism, bucking the Hayes Code, Donlevy's best role, as well as much more. She always provides a great commentary. There is also a theatrical trailer and trailers for other films.

Sturges' fascinatingly cynical and almost black-comedy motifs in The Great McGinty make it brilliant to view in today's light . The universality remain humorous today in that some things that never change. It's a film that speaks volumes with the dialogue subtleties. Great job in bringing this to Blu-ray. Kino! I think this is a must-own for fans of vintage comedy and the director's incredible body of work. Buy with confidence!

Gary Tooze