The Life of Emile Zola (1937) (Warner Archive Collection)

[MifuneFan]

Warner Archive will be releasing The Life of Emile Zola (1937) on Blu-ray on August 29th.

New 1080p HD master from 4K scan of Original Nitrate Camera negative.
Coming to Blu-ray August 29th!
THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA (1937)
Run Time: 116 Minutes
Subtitles: ENGLISH SDH
Audio Specs: DTS HD-MA 2.0 Mono
Aspect Ratio 16x9 1.37:1 with side mattes
Product color: B&W
DIsc Configuration-BD 50
Special Features: 5/8/39 LUX RADIO THEATER BROADCAST with PAUL MUNI, WB Shorts ALIBI MARK (HD) and MAL HALLETT AND HIS ORCHESTRA (HD), Original Theatrical Trailer;
Cast: Paul Muni, Gale Sodergaard, Joseph Schildkraut
Paul Muni gives an unforgettable performance as one of the world's greatest writers, a man who proved that one voice can overcome social inequality and change the course of a nation. The Life of Emile Zola is a magnificent production, skillfully directed by William Dieterle. The film chronicle's Zola's days as a struggling writer in Paris to his first success with the publication of Nana and his brilliant J'accuse, which exposed “the Dreyfuss affair” as a gross injustice to cover up government incompetence, The film earned three Academy Awards®, including Best Picture….the first Warner Bros. film to be granted the film industry's highest honor.

[Gacivory]

Haven’t seen this, but really interested!

[BluPat]

Oh wow! This sounds good! Definitely getting this!

[Egbert Souse]

One of the truly underrated 30s Best Picture winners. Great lead performance by Paul Muni, plus it has a great message. Warner Bros. really knew how to make films with a higher purpose without getting preachy or shallow (like Gentleman's Agreement ten years later).

Knowing this is from the camera negative is exciting as the DVD didn't look so great.

[BluPat]

Thank you again Warner Archive for preserving and saving these Hollywood classics with such care and devotion. When I see the Warner Archive logo, I know the film will look beautiful.

[rdodolak]

[Cremildo]

Worthy for Muni's performance.

[Shanghai Express]

I'm glad to support basically any 30s Warner title on Blu-ray. What's with the anachronistic royalty-free digital font, though? The original typography from the poster and DVD is much better.

[RBBrittain]

I'm shocked, shocked that WAC actually found & scanned the OCN. For a long time, Emile Zola was the only Best Picture with no HD transfer available even on streaming services; its Movies Anywhere version was SD only. But that may be because unlike The Broadway Melody & Cimarron, Emile Zola actually came from WB itself (why I intentionally made a Casablanca pun).

[Akoutroubas]

Has anyone seen the disc?

[RBBrittain]

Originally Posted by Akoutroubas

Has anyone seen the disc?

I just got mine today from Amazon, shipped UPS 2nd Day Air from Staten Island (pretty long distance for me). At first glance it doesn't look like a huge upgrade, but it does appear to be an improvement over the Vudu SD streaming version.

It has four special features -- two Vitaphone shorts of the day (Taking the Count, with Shemp Howard in a supporting role, and Mal Hallett and his Orchestra), a Lux Radio Theater broadcast from 1939, and the original theatrical trailer. Otherwise it's similar to Cimarron -- no scene selections from the menu, only Play, Subtitles On/Off, and Special Features.

I'll leave any further reviews to those with experience writing them. The big deal here is it's one of the last Best Picture winners to hit BD, and the absolute last one to get an available HD transfer on any platform; the other two not yet on BD anywhere (The Great Ziegfeld and Around the World in 80 Days) have HD streaming editions available though they're probably not BD quality.

[MEB]

The press release listed 'Alibi Mark' as one of the included shorts. As RB points out, the first included short is 'Taking the Count' (Joe Palooka). There's no 'Alibi Mark' to be found on the disc.

We watched Zola today, the first time we've seen it. Fabulous film! And I think the transfer looks terrific.

Mark

[russkie]

Just finished watching. Movie and Muni looked fantastic. I wish more of his movies were on BD.