Lady of Burlesque

"The Roan Group DVD of Lady of Burlesque (1943) promises ""newly restored sound and picture,"" but is, in fact, far less impressive visually than the Image Entertainment version that came out in 2001 -- the latter offers a brighter, generally crisper picture, not perfect but clearly from a better source with more detail in its frames and sharper focus overall than the Roan disc. On the other hand, the Roan disc does pump the volume higher, but it's hard to say the sound quality is superior -- louder yes, but the Image disc pumps up nicely and gives us far better picture to boot, which allows us to better appreciate the set designs, costumes, camera moves etc., and the music, though louder on the Roan disc, has less detail in its textures. The Roan disc limits itself to six chapters for the 91-minute movie without any markers for the priceless performance pieces, and otherwise includes a few perfunctory historical notes. In fairness, both editions are missing frames at key moments, and the Image disc loses a great Barbara Stanwyck wisecrack/comeback -- neither one is perfect, but Roan's is definitely not a good first choice while Image's rival edition is out there."