Cagney is his usual cocky screen self in Lady Killer, a movie that starts light and gets even lighter as it goes along.
Video:
The transfer of this seventy-odd-year-old, black-and-white film looks typical of the product Warner Bros. have been offering for years on DVD. It's a clean print that the studio has obviously tidied up to look as good as it probably ever looked. The B&W contrasts are reasonably vivid, the blacks are fairly deep, and the whites glisten. Although there is a slight bit of natural film grain, there is nothing in the way of excessive aging one notices, no lines, specks, or flecks. It's really quite a nice picture for its time, or for any time.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 1.0 audio processing is nothing special, unless you consider its age and that movies had only just begun using sound a half a dozen years earlier. The mono is free of background noise, and it's smooth and comfortable. It does what it needs to do but won't win any contests with "Transformers" for sonic wow.
Extras:
As with the other releases in WB's "Gangsters" series, this one comes loaded with extras. The first is an audio commentary by film historian Dr. Drew Casper, a man we've heard a number of times in the past remarking on older films. His presentation is not always the most lively to listen to, but he always provides a wealth of useful background information for the serious movie buff. After that is one of WB's "Warner Night at the Movies," which tries to give viewers a feel for the kinds of attractions that might have accompanied the main feature during a typical night out at the picture show. This includes a ten-minute movie retrospective, "The Camera Speaks"; a vintage newsreel clip of Alcatraz Island; a musical short, the twenty-one-minute operetta "Kissing Time," with Jane Froman and Georges Metaxa; a classic, black-and-white Merrie Melodies cartoon, "The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives," complete with warning message stating that it contains racial stereotypes that were a product of its day; and a theatrical trailer for "Footlight Parade."
The bonuses wrap up with twenty-one scene selections (but no chapter insert); an original theatrical trailer for "Lady Killer"; English as the only spoken language; French subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired.
Parting Thoughts:
For viewers interested in more Warner Bros. gangster movies, the studio is now up to three sets in their "Warner Bros. Pictures Gangsters Collection," with yet another set of "Tough Guys" on top of that. You'll find all the movies in the sets available individually as well.
You can get "Lady Killer" separately, but if you want it in a set, it comes in the "Warner Bros. Pictures Gangsters Collection," Volume 3, along with "Smart Money" (1931), directed by Alfred E. Green and starring Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney as cronies in the barbering and gambling business; "Picture Snatcher" (1933), directed by Lloyd Bacon and also starring Cagney, this time in the story of an ex-con using his know-how to get daring snapshots, like that of a woman in the electric chair; "The Mayor of Hell" (1933), directed by Archie Mayo and starring Cagney as a tough guy who takes an interest in the way kids are mistreated at a reform school; "Black Legion" (1936), directed by Archie Mayo and starring Humphrey Bogart becoming involved with a white-supremacist group; and "Brother Orchid" (1940), a sentimental but charming picture directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart as rival mobsters.
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