I noted Martin Hafer's review in which he rightly complained about an extremely poor DVD rendering.
He had every right to complain and I agree with him entirely about the print in question. Fortunately, this film is also available on more expensive but better quality DVDs. After her brief stint in Victor Fleming's "The Wet Parade", Myrna Loy was lent to Poverty Row to play the lead in Chester Franklin's modern adaptation of Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" (1932). Although none too attractively photographed, Loy was costumed to the hilt and enjoyed some surprisingly dramatic scenes in this early screenplay by F. Hugh Herbert (of "The Moon Is Blue" fame) with such wonderfully Makepeace characters as Lionel Belmore's lecherous Crawley and Billy Bevan's thanks-but-no-thanks Joseph Sedley.
By the humble standards of Poverty Row, production values were astonishingly lavish. The film was agreeably well-paced and suffered from few of the laborious devices and economies of the independent "B", except perhaps in its slightly dark, under-lit and none-too-contrasty photography, which nonetheless suited the movie's noirish atmosphere right down to the ground. (The Mill Creek DVD rated at least 7/10, possibly 8/10, on my equipment).
He had every right to complain and I agree with him entirely about the print in question. Fortunately, this film is also available on more expensive but better quality DVDs. After her brief stint in Victor Fleming's "The Wet Parade", Myrna Loy was lent to Poverty Row to play the lead in Chester Franklin's modern adaptation of Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" (1932). Although none too attractively photographed, Loy was costumed to the hilt and enjoyed some surprisingly dramatic scenes in this early screenplay by F. Hugh Herbert (of "The Moon Is Blue" fame) with such wonderfully Makepeace characters as Lionel Belmore's lecherous Crawley and Billy Bevan's thanks-but-no-thanks Joseph Sedley.
By the humble standards of Poverty Row, production values were astonishingly lavish. The film was agreeably well-paced and suffered from few of the laborious devices and economies of the independent "B", except perhaps in its slightly dark, under-lit and none-too-contrasty photography, which nonetheless suited the movie's noirish atmosphere right down to the ground. (The Mill Creek DVD rated at least 7/10, possibly 8/10, on my equipment).