Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by rico (A) on May 21, 2006 at 08:16:37

This is a wonderful collection of five Berkley musicals plus a bonus disc of complete musical segments from each of the films. I made the mistake of watching the bonus disc first and since it contains the creme de la creme going back to the films themselves was a bit of a letdown. The big surprise here is the picture and sound quality. The sound is wonderful, pure and indistorted and it sound nothing like it was recorded over 70 years ago (like the new remastered "King Kong" does, for example). The picture quality is stunning with rich, deep blacks and a beautiful gray scale. The oldest film, "42nd Street" is probably in the best shape of all. Everyone here knows or knows of Berkely but this collection allows one to immerse oneself in his genius and to fins undeiscovered gems, like, for example, James Cagney in "Shanghai Lil' Recommended.