Saratoga (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Oct 03, 2023
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Jack ConwayRelease Date(s)
1937 (September 26, 2023)Studio(s)
MGM/Loews, Inc. (Warner Archive Collection)- Film/Program Grade: B
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: C
Review
In its Golden Age, MGM boasted “more stars than there are in heaven,” and often parlayed its stars into further box office magic by pairing them. Spencer Tracey and Katharine Hepburn, William Powell and Myrna Loy, Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, Greta Garbo and John Gilbert, all brought in the dollars in the 1930s. Gable and Jean Harlow had made an equally successful duo and in 1937, they made their sixth and final film together, Saratoga.
Duke Bradley (Gable), a bookie, holds the mortgage on the horse breeding farm Brookdale, deeded over to him by previous owner Frank Clayton (Jonathan Hale) as collateral for his debts. Frank’s daughter, Carol (Harlow), alarmed on learning that her father is in ill health, has returned from a sojourn in Europe, hoping to help her father recover, but he dies shortly after her return. With his death, Brookdale legally belongs to Duke, and Carol wants it back. Though she became engaged abroad to wealthy American businessman Hartley Madison (Walter Pidgeon), Carol sets about trying to find the money to buy the farm without her finance’s help.
Carol is resentful of Duke and quite standoffish, but Duke finds her charming. In typical 1930’s romantic comedy style, it’s just a matter of time before the ice melts between them and turns to steam thanks to the stars’ excellent chemistry.
At the height of his popularity, Gable is comfortable playing the charming rogue to Harlow’s uptight socialite snob. With Duke’s catch phrase “I love ya” spoken to nearly every character in the film, Gable exudes star power in every scene, often overshadowing Harlow, who has the less showy role. Duke treats everyone as if they were old pals. His open friendliness, along with conscientious ethics, have stood him in good stead, as trust and honesty are essential to the success off a bookie. Gable’s line delivery is so conversational and natural that it seems as if he’s speaking his own words, not those of screenwriters. Hartley and the doctor who examines Carol for “nerves’ act condescendingly toward her but Duke turns out to be the film’s major male character who treats her respectfully, acknowledging that she’s an adult woman with a sharp mind.
The film has many of the ingredients of screwball comedy but is less frivolous. Duke and Carol try to outmaneuver each other to gain advantage, only to be outsmarted in the process. There’s bedroom farce when Duke hides under a sofa as Carol’s fiancé Hartley enters the room. When Hartley sees Duke’s burning cigar in an ashtray, Carol casually picks it up and puffs away, explaining that she’s trying to cut back on cigarettes.
Jean Harlow died at the age of 26 during the filming of Saratoga. Rather than scrap the footage and re-shoot it with another actress, the studio hired a Harlow stand-in for the unfinished scenes and the picture was completed. That’s why, in various scenes of the picture, we see Carol largely from the back, wearing a broad-brimmed hat, or not at all during a telephone conversation. Her absence—or near absence—hurts the overall impact. What started out as a clever premise by writers Anita Loos and Robert Hopkins turned out to be a tribute to Harlow’s short career rather than a success in its own right. The film did very well, mostly because of the public’s eagerness to see Harlow in her final screen role.
Saratoga benefits from an impressive roster of supporting performers including Cliff Edwards (The Ghost Ship) as Tip, Duke’s handicapping partner; Hattie McDaniel (Gone With the Wind) as cheery maid Rosetta; George Zucco (Sherlock Holmes in Washington) as comically patronizing doctor Harmsworth Bierd; and Una Merkel (Destry Rides Again) and Frank Morgan (The Human Comedy) as bickering married couple Fritzi and Jesse Kiffmeyer. Lionel Barrymore (It’s a Wonderful Life), who has a large role as cantankerous Grandpa Clayton, shamelessly steals scenes with histrionics and needlessly broad line readings. An unexpected joy is a brief scene aboard a train between cosmetics mogul Kiffmeyer and his seat mate (Margaret Hamilton, The Wizard of Oz), who complains that his beauty cream has had no effect on her. Morgan’s reaction is priceless as he stares at the lady’s less-than-attractive face. Another enjoyable scene is the entire cast including Harlow singing several choruses of The Horse With the Dreamy Eyes, with Hattie McDaniel and Cliff Edwards showcased.
Saratoga was shot by director of photography Ray June on 35 mm black-and-white film with spherical lenses and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.37:1. The presentation is outstanding, with no age-related issues such as scratches, dirt specks, emulsion clouding, or splices. Detail is quite good, with patterns on Gable’s ties and men’s suits, leaves on trees, and a polka-dotted bow tie well delineated. Complexions are well rendered, with special care taken to make Harlow and Merkel look radiant. Barrymore wears elaborate make-up that includes a mustache and wig. Process photography is used when scenes from inside a train show the countryside passing outside. A few close-ups of jockeys on their horses during a race are also achieved with back-screen projection. Long shots of horse races edited from second-unit sources display different grain quality from the studio-shot scenes, which are much crisper. However this is not distracting enough to impair enjoyment. In the film’s second half, Harlow’s face is visible in only a few scenes with a double, turned away from the camera, standing in for the deceased actress.
The soundtrack is English 2.0 Mono DTS-HD Master Audio. English SDH subtitles are an available option. Dialogue is clear and distinct throughout. The bouncy tune, The Horse With the Dreamy Eyes is sung enthusiastically aboard a train, with occasional sounds of the steam engine chugging along. A brief bit of a dreary song is warbled by a night club singer and, in keeping with the subject of the film, the sound of thoroughbreds racing around the track dominate a few scenes.
Bonus materials on the Blu-ray release from Warner Archive include the following:
- The Romance of Celluloid (10:45)
- Original Theatrical Trailer (1:36)
The Romance of Celluloid – This black & white short from 1937, narrated by Frank Whitbeck, goes behind the scenes to illustrate the manufacture of film and the making of motion pictures. A segment shows the steps by which cotton from the fields is transformed into celluloid strips and eventually reels of 35 mm film. It’s noted that Kodak, the manufacturer, uses five tons of silver each week to manufacture the film. Scenes of sets being constructed on the back lot are shown, make-up artist Jack Dawn transforms an actor into Abraham Lincoln, and fashion designer Adrian shows a sketch of a dress Jeannette McDonald will wear in a film. MGM’s upcoming films for the 1937-1938 season are announced, and include The Girl of the Golden West, Big City, Three Comrades, Test Pilot, The Bride Wore Red, Rosalie, and Double Wedding. A disclaimer before the short accounts for “ethnic and social prejudices that were commonplace in American society” at the time. The film is presented as it was originally created “because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed.”
Theatrical Trailer – In a prologue, actor Lewis Stone notes that Saratoga is “the picture which theatergoers of the world insisted, through letters, telegrams and petitions, be finished.”
Saratoga is more interesting as a cinematic historical curiosity than as a sharp comedy. It illustrates how a studio like MGM had access to so much talent under contract that it could take a routine comedy, pack it with stars and well-known character actors, and have its publicity department turn it into a must-see picture. Harlow’s untimely death ironically turned Saratoga into one of the studio’s biggest hits of the year.
- Dennis Seuling