Next, I watched the musical version of GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS on laserdisc.
This has to be the weirdest photography ever for a big budget roadshow musical. I can understand how the screen goes to soft focus in MAME when Lucy Ball has a close-up; they were trying to disguise her true age. But unless this is just a miserable laserdisc transfer (and parts of it are stunningly colorful and crisp) isolated scenes are washed out and soft, and I don't just think it's a bad print used for the transfer. It looks like the focus of the photography was softened, but I can't figure out any reason why particular shots were done that way and not entire sequences. It seems like haphazard decisions were being made on the fly. Of course, I've never thought Herb Ross was that great a director anyway.
This isn't the first time I watched this laserdisc, but it's the first time on the bigger screen TV, and I guess that's why I noticed it this time and not the other dozen times I've watched the film.