Elsewhere, the film is an amusing but forgettable trifle, with Tom Ewell starring as the hapless publishing executive who tries to resist Monroe’s charms when his wife and son leave Manhattan to escape the summer heat. The film’s thin membrane between reality and fantasy occasionally yields excellent comedic bounty, but the film’s inescapable staginess and the bowdlerized humor lessen the impact.
The Blu-ray transfer of the film’s widescreen CinemaScope image is strong, easily besting the DVD in clarity, sharpness and fine detail. There’s a little pulsating in the image, causing some color inconsistencies, but it’s a good-looking transfer overall. The disc is also the only one in the set to feature new extras — a commentary by Wilder biographer Arthur Kevin Lally, a featurette on Wilder and Monroe and a picture-in-picture track about the film’s self-censorship alongside a previously included making-of, deleted scenes and trailers.
Rounding out the set are Wilder’s Some Like it Hot (1959) and John Huston’s The Misfits (1961), with identical discs from their earlier releases included. Both are excellent films, and the transfer for The Misfits is especially stunning. For more on these titles, you can see my full reviews of Some Like it Hot and The Misfits.
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