Jailhouse Rock – HD DVD
September 17, 2007 – 3:57 AM - Posted by: Justin Sluss
– The Movie Itself (has an average rating of 6.3 on IMDb)
– Video Quality (1080p in VC-1 on a 30gb disc)
– Audio Quality (Dolby TrueHD & Digital Plus 5.1)
– Bonus Materials (are skimpy but in 480p Widescreen)
– 
– 1957
– 96 minutes
– Warner (originally MGM)
Buy it for $19.95 @ Amazon.com
The Movie Itself may strike some of you as just another Elvis film but honestly there’s a lot more too it and a pretty well written script. Keep in mind this is the 3rd film that Elvis did and also that it’s now going on a little over 50 years-old. Elvis plays a character named “Vince Everett” who’s this blue-collared construction worker. Things start us off with “Vince” receiving his paycheck, cashing it his local bar and proceeding to arm wrestle the bartender (with the loser buying drinks for everybody). This seems to be his routine as he knows he’s going to lose every time but he “likes that kind of punishment, someday he’s gonna learn” as one of the bar patrons observes. This could not be more true and really sets the mood for this film. “Vince” starts speaking to a lady at the bar who is obviously trying to flirt with him. Well long story short, her husband shows up (obviously a “wife beater” as “Vince” says) and a fist fight proceeds. “Vince” gets his tempter a bit out of control ends up hitting the guy so hard he kills him. He’s sentenced with a case of manslaughter and off to the Jailhouse. He goes from doing “hard time” to being “big time” in just a bit after he serves his sentence. This film is probably one of the better written films Elvis did and also shows a bit of life imitating art (later in his career) and obviously shares similarities to the Rock star that he was.
Video Quality on this release is 1080p in VC-1 on a 30 gigabyte Dual-Layered HD DVD. This film is in Black & White and shouldn’t require too much more than that on even this version compared to the 25 gigabyte Blu-ray Disc version. The video looks absolutely amazing to be exactly 50 years-old. This film has really stood the test of time I guess you can say.
Audio Quality on this release is in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 as well as Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 @1.5Mbps. This is a major improvement over the original Mono track (which is actually included for “old school” fans) obviously to be in 5.1 surround but I think maybe the TrueHD was a little overkill here on this Elvis title. Whereas I believe the other title released the same day as this (“Viva Las Vegas“) really takes much more advantage of the rear channel presence. Honestly most of the film you’ll hear out of the center channel and only in big numbers like the title track “Jailhouse Rock” do you really get to appreciate the surround mix a bit. Overall this mix again is an improvement and definitely comes across very clear but just isn’t really the most amazing example of Dolby TrueHD.
- Audio Commentary by Steve Pond (Author of “Elvis in Hollywood“) : This proves to be really interesting and very informative to Elvis fans. Steve Pond does a better job at this Commentary than some Directors do these days. Warner obviously picked the right person to do this Commentary track and even the one on the other Elvis film “Viva Las Vegas.”
- Theatrical Trailer (2 minutes) in 480p 16:9 Widescreen. This has an amazing retro feel to it obviously to be over 50 years old of a movie trailer.
- “The Scene That Stole Jailhouse Rock” (15 minutes) in 480p 16:9 Widescreen is a new featurette on the most famous scene of the film as well as Elvis‘ early career in Hollywood. This offers as a tribute to this scene’s place in Rock and Roll History as well as to the man that was Elvis Presley. We get interviews from obviously Steve Pond (author of “Elvis in Hollywood and does the Commentary track), Joe Levy (Editor of Rolling Stone), Robert Relyea (Assistant Director on the film) and George Klein (who was a close friend to Elvis). A lot is discussed of the writing, recording of the songs for the film like the title track (“Jailhouse Rock“), “Treat Me Nice” and “I Wanna Be Free” which were written by the songwriting team Jerry Leiber / Mike Stoller. We get interviews with them as well and this all proves to be a really informative featurette. My only real complaint is we don’t get maybe one more this good but I have to keep in mind (as well as should you) that this film is over 50 years-old.
— Review written by Justin Sluss
