Lullaby of Broadway is a Technicolor musical romantic comedy film from 1951. This features the iconic song “Lullaby of Broadway” that we’ve all heard before somewhere in our lives.
The film stars the legendary singer and actress Doris Day (The Man Who Knew Too Much) as Melinda Howard, an entertainer who travels to New York to see her mother. Unbeknownst to her, is that her mother Jessica Howard ( Gladys George, The Roaring Twenties, The Best Years of Our Life) isn’t the success she thinks her to be. She is an alcoholic and sings in a Greenwich Church Saloon. Melinda’s friends Lefty (Billy De Wolfe, the voice of Magician Professor Hinkle in Frosty the Snowman) and Adolph Hubbell (S. Z. Sakall, Casablanca, Christmas in Connecticut) agree to keep this a secret from Melinda. The comedy for this movie has to do with Adolph being accused of having an affair with Melinda because he was seen buying a fur coat for her. Mrs. Hubbell (Florence Bates, Love Crazy, I Remember Mama) later sees the fur coat, thinks it’s for her but the fur is for Melinda. Mrs. Hubbell thinks her husband is having an affair with Melinda! Throw in romantic lead Gene Nelson (Tea for Two) as Tom Farnham, Melinda’s love interest and a fellow entertainer and some great musical numbers including Lullaby of Broadway sung by Doris Day and you’ve got one great musical.
Warner Archive releases Lullaby of Broadway on Blu-ray and it is another excellent release, certainly an upgrade over the DVD. The colors are much sharper and more vivid with excellent clarity and contrast and deep textures, with immaculate details to cinematographer Wilfrid M. Cline’s photography. There are few scenes that do appear to be a bit soft and some long shots that might be a bit blurry but nothing to ruin the viewing experience.
The English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track supplies has clear and easy to understand dialogue. The musical numbers in the film are dynamic without any distortions such as hiss or crackling sounds. The one big problem that I caught was during the tap dancing numbers, the actual tapping was rather subtle and bland as opposed to crisp tapping sounds. You know the performers are tapping but you can barely hear it when it seems like we should. This might irk some viewers, some might not give a hoot, but I felt it was worth mentioning.
The only extra for this release is a trailer.
I thought Lullaby of Broadway was an entertaining film. This new 1080p release from Warner Archive is an improvement from the past DVD releases with superb audio and video quality on this Blu-ray. If only there were a few extras from some historians to make this package even better, but it still is another recommended Warner Archive release.
Lullaby of Broadway
Director- David Butler
Cast- Doris Day, Gene Nelson
Country of Origin- US
Distributor – Warner Archive / Warner Home Video
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –11/16/2021