Sadie McKee - Warner Archive Collection

Sadie McKee is no Mildred Pierce, but this early 1930s, tailor-made Joan Crawford picture captures the actress at the pinnacle of her "working girl" period. After several years as a fun-loving flapper in such silent and early-talkie films as Our Dancing Daughters, Our Modern Maidens, and Our Blushing Brides, Crawford reinvented herself as a hard-knocks, down-to-earth, Depression-era dame determined to rise above the bad hands she'd been dealt. Women of the day identified with the struggles her characters faced and reveled in her triumphs. Though the plot of Sadie McKee rarely rises above the mundane and is pretty predictable throughout, the titular character - and Crawford's performance - keeps the movie interesting.

Sadie (Crawford) is the daughter of the cook who has served the wealthy Alderson family for many years. She grew up with the dashing Alderson heir Michael (Franchot Tone) and the two have enjoyed a genial upstairs-downstairs relationship...until Michael speaks ill of Sadie's bad-boy boyfriend Tommy (Gene Raymond) over a family dinner. The enraged Sadie tells off the entire judgmental clan, quits her job as a maid, and hops a train to New York City with Tommy, who hopes to find his fortune in the Big Apple.

Plenty of hardship, of course, awaits. The couple intends to marry, but Tommy gets seduced by the siren next door, singer Dolly Merrick (Esther Ralston), who convinces him to dump Sadie and join her touring vaudeville show. Rather than return home with her tail between her legs, the heartbroken Sadie pulls herself up by her bootstraps and gets a job as a dancer at the club where her jaded, wisecracking pal Opal (Jean Dixon) tirelessly toils. There she meets the rich, alcoholic tycoon Jack Brennan (Edward Arnold), whose lawyer just happens to be Michael. Despite Michael's objections - or maybe because of them - Sadie marries Brennan, but the cushy comfort of her new Park Avenue life is disrupted by Brennan's constant inebriation and her unrequited love for Tommy, who resurfaces just at the wrong time.

Typical of many romantic dramas of the period, Sadie McKee is elevated by the stylish direction of six-time Oscar nominee Clarence Brown, who directed seven Greta Garbo features but is perhaps best remembered for two classic 1940s family films, National Velvet and The Yearling. Brown's elegant style suits the material well, but the rather thin narrative, which drags during the picture's middle portion, struggles to sustain the film. Screenwriter Viña Delmar, who would pen arguably the greatest screwball comedy of all time - The Awful Truth - a few years later, adapted her own short story, but in fleshing it out she weighs it down.

Crawford, swathed in glamorous Adrian-designed attire, effortlessly carries the movie on her well-padded shoulders, projecting both confidence and vulnerability. Nobody is better at expressing indignation than Crawford, and her ability to turn on the water works at will is impressive. She creates good chemistry with all three of her leading men, but especially Tone, with whom she was peronsally involved at the time. (The two would marry the following year, but Tone quickly tired of his status as Mr. Joan Crawford and they divorced in 1939.)

Most of us know the song All I Do Is Dream of You from the immortal musical Singin' in the Rain (Debbie Reynolds and a bevy of scantily-clad chorines sing and dance the Charleston to it after Debbie pops out of a cake), but it was actually written for Sadie McKee by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed, whose assorted tunes would comprise the Singin' in the Rain score almost two decades later. The song plays over the main titles of Sadie McKee and is both sung by Raymond and Ralston and reprised instrumentally several times during the film.

Clips from Sadie McKee also turn up in the early scenes of the classic 1962 thriller What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? with Crawford and Bette Davis. Crawford's wheelchair-bound character Blanche, a former movie star, is shown watching the film on television and making a couple of quips about it. The last bit of Sadie McKee trivia for classic movie fans is the film marks the screen debut of the great character actor Leo G. Carroll at the ripe old age of 48. He plays Brennan's valet.

Sadie McKee doesn't have the chops to stand up to Crawford's more enduring films, but it's a light diversion that features amiable performances and plenty of MGM gloss. If you're a fan, you'll get a kick out of it.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray

Sadie McKee arrives on Blu-ray packaged in a standard case. Video codec is 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 and audio is DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono. Once the disc is inserted into the player, the static menu without music immediately pops up; no previews or promos precede it.

A brand new 4K scan of the best preservation elements yields a spectacular transfer that makes Sadie McKee look far more youthful than her 91 years. The previous DVD was riddled with print damage and sported excessive grain, but that's all gone now, thanks to a meticulous remastering that has restored the movie's original luster. Grain has been seamlessly reduced, but enough remains to lend the 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 transfer a palpable film-like feel that preserves the integrity of Oliver T. Marsh's lovely cinematography. Deep blacks and bright, stable whites anchor the image, while a vast gray palette helps highlights details and enhance depth. Crawford's furs and the sequins that adorn some of her Adrian-designed gowns are especially well defined and sharp close-ups showcase her huge eyes, prominent lashes, and flawless complexion. Good shadow delineation keeps crush at bay and not a single nick or scratch mar the pristine print. Though a few scenes adopt a slightly soft, grainy appearance, they're few and far between and only fleetingly detract from what is otherwise a dazzling presentation.

Most early 1930s movies sound shrill and noisy due to the primitive recording equipment and ravages of time, but this remastered DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track erases such imperfections. The result is a clean, resonant track that's pleasing to the ears and sounds much more vibrant than its DVD counterpart. All the dialogue is clear and easy to comprehend, the music sounds rich and full, and effects are crisp. During quiet stretches you might be able to detect the faintest amount of hiss, but it's barely noticeable. Everyone always raves about Warner Archive's video transfers, but the company's audio work is just as stellar and that's fully evident here.

Aside from the trailer, none of the extras from the DVD have been ported over to this Blu-ray release. Instead, Warner Archive supplies a few vintage cartoons that have been flawlessly remastered in high definition.

• Vintage Cartoons: Pop Goes My Heart (HD, 7 minutes); Shake Your Powder Puff (HD, 6 minutes); Why Do I Dream Those Dreams? (HD, 7 minutes) - These three 1934 Merrie Melodies cartoons are presented in glorious HD. Shake Your Powder Puff and Why Do I Dream Those Dreams? (a daffy take on the Rip Van Winkle tale) are in black-and-white. Both look terrific, but the showstopper is Pop Goes My Heart, which was produced in two-strip Technicolor and flaunts vibrant, lush red and green hues. All three shorts are rather inane (and feature a troll reciting the tagline "That's all folks!" instead of Porky Pig, who would make his debut the following year), but the animation is impressive. Kudos to Warner Archive for restoring these rare cartoons!

• Theatrical Trailer (SD, 2 minutes) - The original preview for Sadie McKee is in horrible shape, but it's fun to see the chic Viña Delma, the author of the story upon which the film is based, anchor the trailer.

Sadie McKee offers plenty of glamor, romance, comedy, and tears, but this episodic film struggles to sustain itself over the course of its 93-minute running time. Crawford is at the top of her game, and she's ably assisted by Raymond, Arnold, and hubby-to-be Tone, but the script never rises to the heights we expect. On the other hand, the exceptional video transfer struck from a new 4K scan of the best preservation elements and remastered audio exceed expectations and elevate thIs bit of romantic, Depression Era fluff. Recommended.