|
|
|
Carousel (Widescreen Edition)
: : Like its immediate predecessor, Oklahoma!, this 1956 screen musical boasted then state-of-the-art widescreen cinematography, stereophonic sound, a starring romantic duo with onscreen chemistry, and the Rodgers & Hammerstein imprimatur. Adding to its promise was a source (the venerable Ferenc Molnar play Liliom) that had already been filmed three times. Yet unlike the original Broadway production, and despite evident craft, Carousel proved a box-office disappointment. Why? Hindsight argues that '50s moviegoers may have been unprepared for its tragic narrative, the ...
|
|
|
Oklahoma! (Widescreen Edition)
: :The hit Broadway musical from the 1940s gets a lavish if not always exciting workout in this 1955 film version directed by old lion Fred Zinnemann (High Noon). Gordon MacRae brings his sterling voice to the role of cowboy Curly, and Shirley Jones plays Laurie, the object of his affection. The Rodgers and Hammerstein score includes 'The Surrey with the Fringe on Top,' 'Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin',' and 'People Will Say We're in Love,' and Agnes DeMille provides the ...
|
|
|
West Side Story (Widescreen Edition)
: essential video:The winner of 10 Academy Awards, this 1961 musical by choreographer Jerome Robbins and director Robert Wise (The Sound of Music) remains irresistible. Based on a smash Broadway play updating Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to the 1950s era of juvenile delinquency, the film stars Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer as the star-crossed lovers from different neighborhoods--and ethnicities. The film's real selling points, however, are the highly charged and inventive song-and-dance numbers, the passionate ballads, the moody sets, colorful ...
|
|
|
Richard III (1955) (Ws)
: :The third and final entry in Laurence Olivier's Shakespeare triptych, Richard III (1954) is an audacious portrait of a man determined to prove himself a villain. As the personification of evil impudence, Olivier portrays the Duke of Gloucester with such aplomb that he brings the audience onto his side. This is true even as Richard engineers plots to murder his brother Clarence (John Gielgud), betray his cousin Buckingham (Ralph Richardson), and seduce his niece Lady Anne (Claire Bloom). From the ...
|
|
|
Jesus Christ Superstar (Widescreen Edition)
: :Ted Neeley makes for a wimpy looking Jesus in Norman Jewison's screen adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice 'rock opera,' which was a smash on stage in the early '70s. Jewison (Other People's Money) adds some good exterior settings in the desert, but Lloyd Webber and Rice's dialogue-free story (everything is sung, as in a real opera), with its quasi-profundities about the inner demons of principal figures in the life of Christ, is the real hook. Yvonne Elliman sings ...
|
|
|
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Widescreen Edition)
: :'Something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone: a comedy tonight!' Those words from the opening song pretty much describe the menu in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a frantic adaptation of the stage musical by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove. The wild story, set in ancient Rome, follows a slave named Pseudolus (Zero Mostel, snorting and gibbering) as he tries to extricate himself from an increasingly farcical situation; Mostel and a bevy of inspired clowns, ...
|
|
|
The Music Man (Widescreen Edition)
: :'Something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone: a comedy tonight!' Those words from the opening song pretty much describe the menu in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a frantic adaptation of the stage musical by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove. The wild story, set in ancient Rome, follows a slave named Pseudolus (Zero Mostel, snorting and gibbering) as he tries to extricate himself from an increasingly farcical situation; Mostel and a bevy of inspired clowns, ...
|
|
|
Victor/Victoria (1995 Broadway Production)
: :Fans of Julie Andrews will delight in this 1995 videotaping of the stage musical Victor/Victoria, based on the 1982 movie of the same name. The plot has been kept intact: an out-of-work British soprano (Julie Andrews) in Paris falls in with a down-on-his-luck gay man (Tony Roberts), who gets the idea to present Victoria as the world's greatest female impersonator, Victor. The plan is a phenomenal success until a Chicago mobster on vacation (Michael Nouri) sees Victor in a nightclub ...
|
|
|
Monty Python's Life of Brian (Widescreen Edition)
: essential video:'Blessed are the cheesemakers,' a wise man once said. Or maybe not. But the point is Monty Python's Life of Brian is a religious satire that does not target specific religions or religious leaders (like, say, Jesus of Nazareth). Instead, it pokes fun at the mindless and fanatical among their followers--it's an attack on religious zealotry and hypocrisy--things that that fellow from Nazareth didn't particularly care for either. Nevertheless, at the time of its release in 1979, those ...
|
|
|
Tosca
:Description:Corelli and the voices of Caniglia and Guelfi; De Fabritiis; Rome Opera Chor. & Orch.; Gallone, dir. (1956). 112m. Color. Cinemascope (letter-boxed, no narration or subtitles)
|
|
