The DVD Report #127: October 27, 2009

It’s a sad commentary on the current state of movie affairs when a by-the-numbers romantic comedy is hailed as the “best comedy of the year”, but The Proposal is nevertheless a pleasant time-killing experience thanks to the charm of its stars.

Sandra Bullock is a cold fish publishing executive whose Canadian visa has expired. In order to avoid being deported she bribes her male assistant (Ryan Reynolds) with a promotion in order to get him to enter into a sham marriage of convenience. They go to visit his family in Alaska and true love blossoms.

Mary Steenburgen and Craig T, Nelson have thankless one-note roles as Reynolds’ parents while Betty White as his soon to be 90-year-old grandmother chews all the scenery in sight and then some.

The Proposal is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Reuniting the screenwriter, director and one of the stars of Dangerous Liaisons seemed like a good idea on paper, but aside from the musical version of Gigi, French novelist Colette has never been a good source for screen fodder. Stephen Frears’ film of Cheri is no Gigi. The art direction and costume design are exquisite, but they’re only a diversion. The story has no bite. In Gigi, we wanted Louis Jourdan to make an honest woman out of Leslie Caron. In Cheri, we couldn’t care less if Rupert Friend marries happily or not.

Michelle Pfeiffer, still looking fabulous at fifty, is hardly the “old lady” she refers to herself as, as the retired courtesan who trains the son of another courtesan in the ways of love. Friend, with his gym rat physique constantly on display, looks way too modern for his melancholy pre-World War I character. Kathy Bates is a bit too over-the-top as his mother and Anita Pallenberg and Harriet Walker are unrecognizable as two of Pfeiffer’s and Bates’ contemporaries. None of them seem the least bit French at all.

Cheri, having been a box-office flop for Disney, is available on standard DVD only.

It’s rare to find a horror movie that is genuinely scary and funny at the same time, but Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell is just that.

Alison Lohman plays a bank loan officer who turns down an elderly woman’s request for an extension on her mortgage, resulting in imminent foreclosure on the woman’s house and a curse on Lohman. Justin Long is her clueless college professor boyfriend. It’s an enjoyable romp released on home video just in time for Halloween.

Drag Me to Hell is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD. The theatrical release version and an unrated director’s cut are included on both.

Also in time for Halloween is Columbia’s William Castle Film Collection featuring re-mastered versions of five of Castle’s previously available tongue-in-cheek horror films and three that are new to DVD.

The best film of the lot is probably 1961’s Homicidal, the filmfor which producer-director Castle, the “poor man’s Alfred Hitchcock”, gives us both a dead-on parody of Psycho and a tense psychological horror movie in its own right.

Nominal leads Glenn Corbett and Patricia Breslin have the John Gavin and Vera Miles roles, while “Jean Arless” has pretty much both the Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh roles. “Jean Arless” is a pseudonym for Joan Marshall, Mrs. Hal Ashby, the talented actress who was later the original Lily Munster in the famed TV series’ pilot.

Castle’s biggest hit was 1964’s Strait-Jacket, written by Psycho writer Robert Bloch originally for Joan Blondell who fell through a plate of glass requiring 60 stitches which forced her to drop out of the production. Enter Joan Crawford whose participation proved to be a box-office magnet.

Crawford is riveting as an axe murderess released from the mental institution where she has spent the last twenty years only to become the prime suspect in a new series of grizzly axe murders. The camp aspects of the film threaten to overwhelm the narrative but Crawford and Diane Baker as her daughter manage to keep it real to the bitter end.

Castle’s lightest film is 1960’s 13 Ghosts about a family led by Donald Woods and Rosemary DeCamp that inherits a haunted house with a housekeeper played by Margaret Hamilton who may or may not be a witch. The play on Hamilton’s character from The Wizard of Oz gets a generous amount of screen time and she has a marvelous bit with a broomstick at the film’s conclusion, which is a special treat. You also get one of TV and the movies’ most affable nice guys, Martin Milner, as the villain. What more could you want?

Castle was nothing if not a showman whose marketing gimmicks sold his films regardless of the quality of the material on screen. No greater example of this exists than 1959’s The Tingler in which Vincent Price plays a scientist who discovers that fear is an object that resembles a plastic lobster which crawls along a terrified person’s spine. It can only be removed by screaming. To promote the film, Castle had certain seats in theatres playing it wired to vibrate during the film’s “scream” sequence. Without the gimmick the film kind of falls flat except for Price’s hilarious over-the-top tripping-on-LSD scene.

The gimmick with 1961’s Mr. Sardonicus was that there were allegedly two endings. The film was stopped before the ending while audiences got to vote “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” on the fate of the film’s villain. Gambling that no one would want a happy ending for the guy, only one ending was actually shot. Guy Rolfe played the man with the frozen smile and Oscar Homolka was his not so faithful servant.

Those were the previously released films. Joining them in this new box set are three rather mediocre comedy/horror films. 1963’s 13 Frightened Girls is about a group of embassy brats who run afoul of international spies. Murray Hamilton, Hugh Marlowe and Khigh Dhiegh star. 1962’s Zotz! is about a college professor who discovers a magic word that can be used for good or ill. Tom Poston and Cecil Kellaway star. 1963’s The Old Dark House is a labored remake of James Whale’s 1932 classic which even Robert Morley and Joyce Grenfell can’t save.

There are featurettes for each of the five main films and a feature-length documentary on Castle’s career. An added bonus is the unsold 1972 pilot for the planned TV series, Ghost Story, hosted by Sebastian Cabot with Barbara Parkins, David Birney and Sam Jaffe in a very creepy haunted house story.

Reaching further back in time, Douglas Sirk’s 1944 film of playwright Anton Chekhov’s only novel, The Shooting Party, has also been released on DVD. Re-titled Summer Storm, it is not to be confused with a 1985 film called The Shooting Party, which was based on a British novel of that name.

Linda Darnell stars as a Russians peasant who bewitches three men: a poor caretaker (Hugo Haas) whom she marries, a wealthy landowner (Edward Everett Horton) and a judge (George Sanders). One of them kills her. Anna Lee co-stars.

This was only Sirk’s second film in Hollywood and the first Hollywood film made of any of Chekhov’s works, which had been filmed outside of Hollywood since the silent days. Chekhov’s various works have since been filmed close to 300 times throughout the world.

In other news, Amazon U.S. has begun selling Blu-ray discs intended for sale in Great Britain and Australia. Because Australia shared the same Blu-ray coding as the U.S. and Canada, these discs will play on Blu-ray players sold in the U.S. and Canada. However buyers should beware. Of the three Studio Canal releases Amazon is now selling, only two of them, The Deer Hunter and The Elephant Man, have been encoded for Australian release. The third, Belle de Jour, has been encoded for release only in Region B.

Both The Deer Hunter and The Elephant Man look stunning on Blu-ray. The Elephant Man, which includes a documentary on the real John Merrick is especially worth considering now that Paramount has discontinued its standard DVD version of the 1980 film.

-Peter J. Patrick (October 27, 2009)

The DVD Report #126: October 20, 2009

Paramount has re-mastered Roman Polanski’s 1974 classic, Chinatown in high definition but has released it only on standard DVD, presumably to make more money when they get around to producing a Blu-ray in another year or two.

The perfect film noir, it was made thirty years after the genre peaked but with situations and themes that weren’t possible in 1944. Everything about it clicked, from Robert Towne’s compelling script to Polanski’s lean direction to John Alonzo’s exquisite lighting to Sam O’Steen’s economic editing to the performances of Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway at their very best. Jerry Goldsmith’s haunting score, which was so much a part of the film, was miraculously composed in nine days and edited into the finished product after the film was previewed and producer Robert Evans ordered it re-scored.

The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, but won just one – for Towne’s script.

The tenth film in Paramount’s Centennial Collection, the DVD package includes five brand new documentaries several of which contain interviews with Towne, Nicholson, Evans and Polanski.

Brett Simon’s first film, Assassination of a High School President is a smart, witty high school comedy in the tradition of Rushmore and Election with a little Heaven Help Us thrown in. It was a hit at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival where it was bought by Sony but never released theatrically. Its DVD release is the first opportunity many of us will have of seeing it.

Although a DVD cover blurb assesses it as a combination of Rushmore and The Usual Suspects, it more closely resembles Chinatown than The Usual Suspects in its denouement, even mimicking Chinatown’s famous closing line.

Reece Thompson stars as the nerdy school reporter who solves the mystery of the school’s stolen SATs, not once, but twice. First he is tricked into falsely accusing high school president Patrick Taylor, but when he gets too close to discovering the truth he himself is framed for the crime which only makes him try harder at discovering the truth.

Mischa Barton is the hot chick who dumps Taylor for Thompson once her boyfriend is outed as the thief. Luke Grimes is her stepbrother who becomes president once Taylor is out of the way and a very good Bruce Willis is the lay principal of the Catholic high school.

As someone who couldn’t stand the overbearing Nia Vardalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I was pleasantly surprised by her sweetly beguiling performance in My Life in Ruins.

Reminiscent of 1968’s If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium, Ruins, directed by Donald Petrie, wisely concentrates on just one country, Greece, in which out of work history professor Vardalos has become a tour guide who hates her job.

Alexis Georgoulis, Brian Palermo, Ian Ogilvy and Richard Dreyfuss are among those who make life on her latest tour bearable. The film has some genuinely hilarious moments. The scenery isn’t bad either!

A film that fell between the radar when released theatrically a year ago and again when it hit DVD shelves last February, Marc Abraham’s Flash of Genius is an interesting biopic about Bob Kearns, the college professor turned inventor who successfully sued Ford and Chrysler for patent infringement. It cost him his marriage and twelve years of his life, but who’s counting?

Greg Kinnear gives a very restrained performance as the everyman genius and Lauren Graham is good as always as his frustrated wife. Durmot Mulroney is in and out of the film as his best friend and Alan Alda has what amounts to an extended cameo as his first attorney.

The most frustrating thing about the film is that it doesn’t provide a time frame with its flashbacks and flash forwards. You have to tell by the changing clothes and car styles and TV programming that the film’s time frame runs from 1963 to 1975.

If you’ve ever wondered why some of your favorite films are available on Blu-ray in Canada but not the U.S., I can’t answer that, but I can tell you that Canada is the same region as the U.S. – Region A – so any film released on Blu-ray in Canada will play on U.S. equipment. I can also tell you that you can order them from Amazon, Ca and other Canadian retailers at comparable prices to U.S. releases.

Among the titles available are Good Will Hunting; Chasing Amy; Chocolat; The Pianist; 21 Grams; Cold Mountain; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Illluisonist. If you’ve forgotten any of those titles, her are a few reminders:

One of the best coming-of-age films of recent years, 1997’s Good Will Hunting was nominated for nine Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director (Gus Van Sant) and Actor (Matt Damon), andwon two – for its original screenplay by Damon and Ben Affleck and for Robin Williams’ supporting performance.

Joey Lauren Adams won a Golden Globe nomination for 1997’s Chasing Amy, a more serious than usual comedy from director Kevin Smith in which Adams is a lesbian pursued by Ben Affleck in what could have been a disaster but is instead sweet and charming throughout.

Despite mixed reviews, 2000’s Chocolat, directed by Lasse Hallstrom,received five Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Actress (Juliette Binoche) and Supporting Actress (Judi Dench). The romance between Binoche and Johnny Depp may be a bit too heavily on the sweet side, but the tart performances of Lena Olin, Alfred Molina and especially Dench help balance it out.

One of the best of the screen’s many holocaust dramas, 2002’s The Pianist won three of the seven Oscars it was nominated for – Best Director (Roman Polanski), Actor (Adrien Brody) and Screenplay.

Written by Guillermo Arriaga and directed by Alejandro Gonzalez-Inarritu’s, 2003’s 21 Grams is a film very much in the style of their later Babel, in which seemingly disconnected story lines merge at a crucial point. Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro won Oscar nominations for their performances.

Renee Zellweger won an Oscar for her supporting performance in 2003’s Cold Mountain, a Civil War drama directed by Anthony Minghella, which was nominated for another six Oscars including Best Actor (Jude Law).

The Oscar for Best Original Screenplay went to 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a science fiction romantic drama that won Kate Winslet the fourth of her six Oscar nominations as Jim Carrey’s object of affection.

Nominated for an Oscar for its cinematography, 2006’s The Illluisonist was one of two films about turn-of-the-century magicians that clamored for our attention that year. This is the one directed by Neil Burger with Edward Norton, Paul Gaimatti, Jessica Biel and Rufus Sewell. The other one was The Prestige directed by Christopher Nolan with Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johnasson and Michael Caine. That one, which is available on Blu-ray in the U.S. was nominated for two Oscars for its art direction as well as its cinematography.

-Peter J. Patrick (October 20, 2009)

The DVD Report #125: October 13, 2009

Today’s kids are raised on full length animated features on DVD practically from birth.They tend to develop favorites at an early age without any understanding of a particular film’s place in history.After all, what parent is going to entertain an infant with films in proper chronological order?

I was fortunate enough to have seen Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs before I saw any other Disney animated feature, which is why the film has always held a special place in my heart the way it did for millions lucky enough to have had the same experience.The year was 1952, during the film’s second re-issue.I was eight.

Technically it's not as brilliant as much of what was to follow, even Disney’s Pinocchio of just three years later is a vast improvement, but without it there would have been no Pinocchio, no Disneyland or Disney World and probably no tradition of full length animated features. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the cornerstone of the Disney franchise.

The filmtook four and a half years to make and was ridiculed in the press as Disney’s folly, yet from the moment it opened it has been considered a masterpiece and a mightily successful one at that.The film was nominated for Best Score at the 1937 Academy Awards, but otherwise ignored the year it was eligible to compete.The chagrined Academy made up for it the following year by awarding Walt Disney an honorary Oscar “for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, recognized as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field.”  The award consisted of one regular sized Oscar and seven miniature ones, which were presented to him by nine year old Shirley Temple.

The Blu-ray edition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs includes tons of extras as well as a standard disc version of the film presumably to give away or keep in case your Blu-ray player breaks down.

The holidays must be upon us because Fox has released two versions of Miracle on 34th Street on Blu-ray.

The original 1947 version has been both a Thanksgiving and Christmas Day TV staple since the late 1950s.No other film can claim that distinction.

Filmed on location during Macy’s 1946 Thanksgiving Day parade and at Macy’s flagship Herald Square store during the holiday buying season, Fox chief Daryl Zanuck decided to release the film in June, 1947 instead of the following Christmas.The film opened to rave reviews and was such a hit it stayed in theatres until Christmas at a time when films generally played one or two weeks before disappearing.It was a highpoint of the careers of just about everyone attached to it including director George Seaton and stars Edmund Gwenn (as Santa Claus), Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Natalie Wood and an unbilled Thelma Ritter in her delightful screen debut.It won three of the four Oscars it was nominated for: Original Story; Screenplay and Supporting Actor (Gwenn).Nine year-old Wood was shocked to see Gwenn without his beard at the cast party after the completion of the film.She thought he really was Santa Claus!

In a case of less being more, the Blu-ray release omits both the hideous colorized version and the disappointing 1959 TV remake with Thomas Mitchell and Teresa Wright that were included in the standard disc Special Edition of just two years ago.All other extras including Maureen O’Hara’s commentary and an excellent AMC Back Story are included.

Fox has also released the 1994 color remake of Miracle on 34th Street with Richard Attenborough on Blu-ray.It’s a more than competent version of the story but is hardly in a league with the masterful original which still spins magic no matter how many times you’ve seen it. 

Of course before we get to Thanksgiving and Christmas we have Halloween to celebrate, and that means an increase in horror film releases on DVD.

This year’s big theatrical horror release was supposed to have been a remake of the 1941 classic The Wolf Man, but with that film’s delay until next year, Universal has cancelled plans to release a new Special Edition DVD of the film.Not to fear, other werewolf films are filling the gap.

Universal has given us a sparkling new Blu-ray release of John Landis’ 1981 comedy-horror classic, An American Werewolf in London. David Naughton is the American tourist who is bitten by a werewolf and becomes one himself at the next full moon.Jenny Agutter is the nurse with whom he becomes involved and Griffin Dunne is his best friend who dies early on, but returns as one of the undead to egg Naughton on.Rick Baker’s marvelously realistic gory makeup won a much deserved Oscar, the first in that category.   

Columbia has released its own tongue-in-cheek werewolf film on Blu-ray.Mike Nichols’ Wolf from 1994 was a prestige production with first class production values and a strong cast headed by Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pheiffer, James Spader, Kate Nelligan, Christopher Plummer and David Hyde Pierce which was only a modest hit at the time.Horror purists tend to dismiss it because it lacks the gore content usually associated with such films.It is, however, a well thought out psychological mood piece laced with humor.It’s well worth seeing for the performances, particularly those of Nicholson and Spader at his oily best as Nicholson’s backstabbing protégé.

Warner Bros. has released TCM Spotlight: Esther Williams, Vol. 2 featuring six more of the aquatic star’s films.

Williams is a swimming teacher swept off her feet by millionaire Carleton Young in 1945’s Thrill fo a Romance, directed by Richard Thorpe.He’s called to a business meeting in Washington, D.C. while on their honeymoon and she falls in love with soldier Van Johnson in his absence.Metropolitan Opera star Lauritz Melchior plays Cupid and Spring Byington and Henry Travers are featured as Williams’ ditzy aunt and uncle.

Williams swims briefly in 1947’s Fiesta, also directed by Thorpe, but gets more exercise in the bullring fighting bulls when she twice masquerades as twin brother Ricardo Montalban.Williams’ charm, the on-location filming in Mexico and the dancing of Montalban and Cyd Charisse make up for the incredulous story which also features John Carroll, Mary Astor and Akim Tamiroff.

Thorpe once again directs Williams in 1947’s This Time for Keeps, a surprisingly sweet love story in which swimming star Williams falls for singer Johnny Johnston, who unbeknownst to her is the son of opera star Lauritz Melchior.Jimmy Durante supplies the laughs as Williams’ family friend, while Dame May Whitty as her grandmother and Sharon McManus as her niece provide support.  

Beautiful Hawaiian locations substituting for Tahiti are the best thing about 1950’s Pagan Love Song directed by Robert Alton in which island newcomer Howard Keel tries to convince native girl Williams to stay on the topic island.

Williams has one of her meatiest roles as Edwardian era swimming star Annette Kellerman in 1952’s Million Dollar Mermaid, directed by Mervyn LeRoy.The highlight of the film is the hubbub surrounding Kellerman’s 1907 arrest for wearing a one piece bathing suit in public.The film follows Kellerman’s screen career but omits any reference to her then even more shocking nude scene in 1916’s A Daughter of the Gods.Victor Mature, Walter Pidgeon and David Brian co-star.

Van Johnson, Tony Martin and John Bromfield all romance Williams in 1953’s Easy to Love, her last successful film, directed by Charles Walters.Filmed on location in Florida’s Cyress Gardens, the climax of the film is the spectacular water ski ballet that was such a highlight of 1974’s That's Entertainment.

New TV shows on DVD’s include Castle, Nip/Tuck, Medium and Bones.

Castle – The Complete Fist Season is similar in style to The Mentalist which I previously reviewed. In both cases, the title character is an outsider working the police to solve baffling murders. In The Mentalist the police are the fictional C.B.I. (California Bureau of Investigation) which allows location filming all over California. In Castle the police are the N.Y.P.D. which limits locales to within the city limits.

Nathan Fillion is Castle, Stania Katic his female boss while veteran Susan Sullivan supplies comic support as Castle’s eccentric actress mother.

Kinky as ever, Nip/Tuck – Season 5, Part 2 packs a lot of drama into a brief 8 episodes, the continuation of the season interrupted by the 2008 writers’ strike.  Dylan Walsh, Julian McMahon, Joely Richardson, John Hensley and Roma Maffia star.The emphasis in this set is on McMahon’s male breast cancer. 

Alllison Dubois (Patricia Arquette) continues to solve murders for the Phoenix, AZ District Attorney through her visions in Medium – Season 5 while protecting as best she can her family’s privacy.Jake Weber, Sofia Vassilieva, Maria Lark and Miguel Sandoval co-star.

Bones (Emily Deschanel) and Boone (David Boreanaz) continue to play pussyfoot in Bones – Season 4 while solving murders from forensic evidence uncovered by Bones and her team.Michaela Conlin, Tamara Taylor, T.J. Thyne and John Francis Daley co-star.

-Peter J. Patrick (October 13, 2009, 2009)

The DVD Report #124: October 6, 2009

Things change. The world today is not the same as we knew it even just a few years ago. One thing that remains constant is old movies.

Everyone, I suppose, remembers the first time they saw The Wizard of Oz. For me, the year was 1949. I was five year old, the film was already ten years old.

What was my biggest impression at that tender age? Not the tornado. Not the flying house. Not the wow transition from black-and-white to color. Not the Munchkins. Not the scarecrow. Not the tin man. Not the lion. Not the melting of the wicked witch. Not the revelation of the wizard as a fake. Nope, all that was fascinating, of course, but the biggest impression was my grandmother’s revelation that the good witch was played by someone named "Billy"!

My first reaction was that "Billy" was a man dressed up as a woman, something I had never heard of before. My grandmother, however, explained that, no, "Billie" was a woman whose name was a nickname for Wilhelmina. Actually it wasn’t. Her birth name was Mary William, but that’s another story.

My grandmother’s cousin, she went on to say, made all of Billie Burke’s clothes when she was a great star of the Broadway stage. Whether "made" meant she designed them or merely stitched them together I don’t know, but the woman was apparently quite well enough off and because she died intestate, her money was divided up between her surviving cousins. Because my grandmother predeceased her, my family got nothing. It annoyed my mother that none of her aunts and uncles were willing to share their good fortune with her, but that, too, is another story.

The second time I saw The Wizard of Oz was when it began its annual TV showings in the mid-1950s. TV was black-and-white back then and the biggest screens were only 17", but even so it was an unforgettable experience that many of us re-visited every year until color TVs came along and made the experience even more memorable.

Since the advent of home video in the early 1980s, it’s been possible to own The Wizard of Oz and watch it any time the spirit moved us. It was one of the first films released in the DVD format in 1997 and has now been re-released three additional times in at least five different versions.

There was the 1999 Special Edition which added commentary and a "making-of" documentary hosted by Angela Lansbury. Six years later there were two versions: the two-disc Special Edition and the three-disc Special Edition, both of which added tons of extras, the three-disc version including five previous versions of the story.

The newly released "ultimate collector’s edition" on both standard DVD and Blu-ray includes all that and more.

New to this "ultimate" edition are a 70th anniversary watch with "genuine crystals"; a reproduction of the original 1939 campaign book; a "Behind the Curtain of Production 1060" book; a one page replica of the original budget; a documentary on director Victor Fleming; the 2007 Hollywood Walk of Fame salute to the Munchkins and the 1990 TV movie, The Dreamer of Oz about author L. Frank Baum starring John Ritter, Annette O’Toole and Rue McClanahan. An added bonus is the six hour 1992 mini-series, MGM: When the Lion Roars, which is presented on standard DVD within the Blu-ray box set.

Both the Blu-ray and standard DVD releases of "the ultimate collector’s edition" are limited copies, but "limited" is a subjective word here. The Blu-ray, for example, is limited to 143,000 copies. Contrast that with the Original Cast recordings of hard to find Broadway shows that are "limited" to 1,000 copies and still not selling out!

Long before movies were available for home viewing by the general public, Original Cast recordings were the closest thing we had to simulate the theatre going experience in our living rooms. It’s a rich tradition that was begun by the British who recorded the 1928 London cast of Show Boat while the original Broadway cast went unrecorded. While songs from various productions of shows in the U.S. were recorded, it wasn’t until 1943’s Oklahoma! that full cast recordings were made. Kiss Me, Kate and South Pacific in 1949 were the first to be recorded on LP vinyl, the format that lasted until CDs took over in the late 1980s.

By the time My Fair Lady was recorded in 1956, cast recordings and movie soundtracks were best sellers among the record buying public and commonplace in homes across the country. Nowadays they have become a niche item. Where once it was a given that a hit Broadway show or revival would be recorded for posterity, shows today often come and go without a record deal.

Fortunately most of the hit shows of yesteryear were recorded on vinyl and transferred to CD before the market dried up and are available to the dwindling number of collectors out there. Unfortunately releases of the few that have not been transferred to CD have practically come to a halt. Sony, much to my surprise, actually did release one of the legendary missing shows earlier this year when it dusted off Maggie Flynn, the melodic 1968 Civil War musical starring Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy.

Aside from the occasional offerings of the major record labels, we thankfully now have Kritzerland. Kritzerland is a small company that is trying to fill the gap by reproducing old shows and movie soundtracks that have fallen between the cracks. However, with their limited budget and small following they are able to produce only 1,000 each of their products. Ironically the movie soundtracks, even of obscure titles, sell out faster than the cast recordings of long missing gems.

This year they have already given us Illya Darling; Anya and Show Girl and have just released Cry for Us All.

The oldest of these shows is Show Girl, a 1961 revue that earned Carol Channing a Tony nomination for Best Actress.  She’s delightful and the tunes are amusing if forgettable but it’s nice to have if for no other reason than to confirm that Channing was not just a two-show wonder (Gentlmen Prefer Blondes; Hello, Dolly! ).

The 1965 musical, Anya, the musical version of Anastasia, was a troubled production. Though the music is first rate, the libretto has always been a problem and the show has never been successful in any of its subsequent incarnations. This original version stars Constance Towers, Michael Kermoyan, Lillian Gish and Irra Petina.

Various record companies had been promising us Illya Darling for years, but it took Kritzerland to get hold of two songs missing from the original LP release of the 1967 musical version of Never on Sunday and to place all the songs in the show in their proper order. Though hardly one of the greats, it’s a charmer with Melina Mercouri recreating her most celebrated screen role. She won an Oscar nomination for the film, a Tony nomination for the show.

The musical version of Hogan's Goat, 1970’s Cry for Us All should have been a major hit with its score by Man of La Mancha ’s Mitch Leigh and a cast that included Robert Weede, Joan Diener, Steve Arlen, Tommy Rall and Helen Gallagher, but alas, was not. People don’t know what they’re missing. It’s a great score beautifully sung by some of the best voices of the last century. Weede (The Most Happy Fella; Milk and Honey ) was nominated for a Tony.

-Peter J. Patrick (October 6, 2009)