Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

The Criterion and Arrow blu-rays (both identical, sourced from Criterion's master) sound bad. Lots of noise reduction, but the bigger problem is EQ -- everything sounds extremely harsh. They're also pitched 0.7 semitones too low (the equivalent of PAL speed-up but in the opposite direction). The MGM R2 DVD sounds similar, but its pitch is correct.

My hunch is that the pitch error was introduced when the film's audio was mastered in the early 2000s. The R2 DVD, being intended for PAL markets, was then adjusted to the correct pitch with the addition of PAL speed-up. If I'm correct, the R1 DVD (which I don't have) should also be pitched too low.

Here are the blu-ray and DVD tracks without any pitch adjustments from me. Look for a horizontal displacement in the frequency line graphs and a vertical displacement in the spectrograms:

More importantly, how do I know the LaserDisc is correctly pitched? Matching musical excerpts from the film to tracks in the score/soundtrack album (Tidal version, which is the same mastering as this UMG/Verve release) reveals that the LaserDisc pitch matches that of the album:

Also, while the original trailer is comprised of alternate takes, anecdotally I think those takes do sound more like the LaserDisc and more like what Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster actually sounded like.

The LaserDisc has a lower midrange hump that benefits from being recessed a bit, which I've done for the comparison clip below. The dialogue bits have some spoilers, so skip those if you haven't seen the movie.