MovieChat Forums > The Mikado (1939) Discussion > Sound quality is dreadfully poor in many...

Sound quality is dreadfully poor in many spots

posted 10 years ago by ZolotoyRetriever
3 replies | jump to latest

The sound quality was so poor in many spots that I could not make out the spoken dialogue at all - especially the parts with the chorus singing. Which is unfortunate because there are many interesting word formations and plays on words that the viewer must understand in order to "get the joke" as it were. Fortunately I found a site where I was able to download the entire script, and read along. That's a bit clumsy, but at least it cleared many things up.

Of course, they could just release a version of this movie with subtitles.... hint, hint.

[–] phelpsg1 10 years ago

The streaming version available on Netflix does have optional subtitles, which were indeed very helpful in catching some of the comic dialogue and singing.

[–] ZolotoyRetriever 10 years ago

That is fantastic that Netflix provided the subtitle option. You are lucky! Me, I don't "do" Netflix (not yet, anyway)... I saw this wonderful movie courtesy of Turner Classic Movies which unfortunately did not have any Closed Captioning or Subtitles on their TV broadcast. The script that I found online was the best I could do. But it really made a lot of difference in my appreciation, believe me.

[–] BullSchmidt 9 years ago

The streaming version available on Netflix does have optional subtitles

Thanks for the tip! I recorded this off TCM recently and found it completely unwatchable (not TCM's fault, obviously).