Fay Wray fans can celebrate as another classic movie she starred in has been given a Blu-ray release courtesy of Sony Pictures! The film, Once to Every Woman is a pre-code drama from 1933 that is basically a hospital drama. Wray, mostly known for screaming at the top of her lungs in the mega-classic King Kong, shares screen time with legendary actor Ralph Bellamy in a medical facility, where the entire film takes place.
The movie has several plots to keep track of. The glue that holds the plots together is Fay Wray, who plays the role of medical ward supervisor Mary Fenshawe. Also on hand is veteran doctor in Dr. Walter Selby (Walter Connelly, Lady for a Day, The Bitter Tea of General Yan) as well as an up-and-coming doctor in Dr. Jim Barclay (Ralph Bellamy, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Brother Orchid) who are disputing over what method to perform a critical surgery on patient, referred to as number 5. Jim wants to try new methods to save a human life while Walter insists that he continue to operate, the same old way. Jim is so adamant about trying operating over this one patient that he is willing to resign over it. Another doctor, Dr. Preston (Walter Byron) is flirting and fooling around with a new and unfortunately, careless and irresponsible nurse, Doris Andros (Mary Carlisle, Ladies Must Love, Dead Men Walk). His lust for Andros is painfully obvious. Poor Mary Fenshawe thinks the womanizing doctor is only interested in her and to her chagrin, is she ever wrong! Things do go to a head with the pair secretly fooling around on the roof while a patient of theirs drinks iodine and needs an emergency stomach pumping to remove the iodine and the two are nowhere to be found. Jim, who has just tried his new procedural methods on patient number 5, gets called in to save the patient. These activities lead to even more consequential moments.
Sony has given Once to Every Woman a decent Blu-ray release. The 1080p image is strong as Sony does have standards when it comes to their releases. Black levels look solid, dark and crisp, and whites look just as sharp, and the greyscale looks balanced. The interior shots look great and detailed. Film grain is present and no DNR has been applied to the picture.
For their Blu-ray, Sony uses a DTS-HD master audio 2.0 and the dialogue is clear. There isn’t much in the way of action sounds or music, save for the beginning, and it’s booming. Outside of that, this is a dialogue heavy film and the 2.0 track does not fail to capture it without coming in too aggressive or too mild. No hissing or drop-offs were detected
There are no extras for this release.
Outside of the lack of extras, Once to Every Woman looks and sounds great on Blu-ray. I would love to see more classics like these from Sony in the future, including one that also stars Ralph Bellamy, titled Before Midnight.
Once to Every Woman
Director – Lambert Hillyer
Cast- Fay Wray, Ralph Bellamy
Country of Origin-USA
Distributor – Film Masters
Number of Discs –1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date – 9/2/2024