Tonight's Movie: Skylark (1941) - A Universal Blu-ray Review

SKYLARK (1941) is one of four recent Claudette Colbert Blu-ray releases from Universal Pictures.

The other titles are MAID OF SALEM (1937), ZAZA (1938), and I MET HIM IN PARIS (1937). I reviewed the latter film last month.

SKYLARK focuses on the floundering marriage of Lydia Kenyon (Colbert) and her husband Tony (Ray Milland).

Tony is a workaholic, though in his defense he's provided Lydia with a lovely home. When Lydia meets charming Jim (Brian Aherne) on her fifth wedding anniversary, she's all too eager to be wooed by him and decides to walk out on her inattentive husband.

The apologetic Tony wants to reconcile, but Lydia seems intent on divorce, and perhaps a future with Jim...but this being a romantic comedy of sorts, a viewer can guess how things will turn out in the end.

Still, despite a satisfying conclusion after 92 minutes, this isn't precisely a relaxing romantic comedy. When I reviewed it in 2010 I wrote "There's a little too much pain and not enough champagne bubbles in the mix."

I was curious to see if I would feel differently after over 15 years, but I found myself feeling pretty much the same. Colbert is too impatient, Milland is too initially dense, and Aherne plays a homewrecker. I love spending time with the cast, and yet...the film is unsettlingly dark.

As I noted back in 2010, individual pieces of the movie are excellent. The screenplay by Allan Scott, adapted by Zion Myers from a play by Samson Raphaelson, has good dialogue; the performers are charming; and it's a stylish film with fantastic sets and a strong supporting cast, including strong players such as Walter Abel and Binnie Barnes.

In the end, the film is worth seeing for the positives mentioned above, especially via this very nice Blu-ray, but I think everyone involved has made more enjoyable films.

The movie was directed by Mark Sandrich and filmed in black and white by Charles Lang. The score is by the great Victor Young. Colbert's gowns are by Irene.

The supporting cast also includes Mona Barrie, Grant Mitchell, Ernest Cossart, Leon Belasco, Warren Hymer, Hobart Cavanaugh, James Flavin, Patricia Farr, and Fritz Feld,

SKYLARK was released on DVD in the Universal Vault series in 2014. I haven't seen that print for comparison, but the new Blu-ray sparkles and definitely ups appreciation of the film a notch. Sound quality is strong.

There are no extras on this disc, but it includes optional English-language captions.

For an even deeper dive on this film, please check out my 2010 review.

Thanks to Allied Vaughn and Universal for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. It may be purchased from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

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