The Saddest Music in the World

As I've previously noted, TVA Films is replacing the fullscreen DVDs with new widescreen ones. However, the new DVD will apparently be hardcoded widescreen instead of anamorphic. This seems in line with the general lack of care about quality on the previous DVD, which was incorrectly marked as widescreen, and who knows what new defects may appear on this version. I personally have had about enough of this, and I'm going to get MGM's DVD instead.

This is a review of the DVD. The film itself is a wonderful and inventive absurdist comedy with some very fine dark humour. However, the DVD is a travesty. There are three huge problems with the DVD: (1) It is in FULLSCREEN, not WIDESCREEN as the DVD packaging claims which means much of the film image is missing from the theatrical release. (2) The DVD package claims the film is in COLOUR. This is also false. Over 90% of the film is in black and white with a few colour sequences. This doesn't bother me - false claims do. (3) The transfer quality is the worst I have ever seen and with over 500 DVD titles in my DVD collection that really says something - I cannot express how poor the quality is - honestly, it looks like an army of cats scratched the film to pieces. I saw "Saddest Music In The World" in the cinema and it looked NOTHING like this. There was deliberate grain and some scratching to give the film an aged 1930's look, but, the DVD transfer, and I'm not joking, looks worse than silent films made around 1915 - my DVD copy of "The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari" looks pristine in comparison. I feel totally ripped off and disgusted by this release and the companies responsible should be ashamed to have their names associated with this truly disgraceful butcher job of a superb film. I threw my money out the window when I purchased this DVD. BUYER BEWARE!!!

The idea itself is wonderful! A pub in a small town of Saskatchewan during the depression suffers from the lack of customers who cannot afford beer anymore. So the owner starts a competition of the saddest music of the world, because when you are sad you tend to drink a lot more...
The visual is fantastic, very "cinématographe" approach with the black and white and the overblown grain of the photography. Even the lighting reminds us of Von Sternberg with Marlene Dietrich.
The actors are brilliants. The writing is such as the actors have to play a incongruous emotion to the action they're doing. It gives a peculiar atmosphere to the movie.
The artistic choice of using everything (and I mean everything) of the old cinema as an hommage is a very good choice and over using it is part of the humor of the film.
It is funny and weird. I just loved it!