Goodbye
To All That (2012/MPI/IFC
Films DVD)/The Maltese
Bippy (1969)/Quick!
Before It Melts
(1964)/Three Bites Of The
Apple (1966/MGM/Warner
Archive DVDs)
Picture:
C/C+/C+/C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C-/C-/D/D Films: C
PLEASE
NOTE:
The DVDs here (save Goodbye)
are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive
series and can be ordered from the link below.
Here
are four comedies that do not totally work, but the makers were
trying for the most part...
Angus
MacLaughlan's Goodbye
To All That
(2012) gives us a 30+ year old guy (Paul Schneider) who has just been
dumped by his wife who can't take the relationship anymore, leaving
him to go looking for another woman. I wanted to like this, but he
was so annoying, I could zee why she filed papers. There actually
are some good moments here, but more for a drama because nothing here
was funny or memorable. Anna Camp, Amy Sedaris, Melanie Lynskey and
Heather Graham are among the cast trying, but this never works much.
Norman
Panama's The
Maltese Bippy
(1969) tries to capitalize on the huge hit success of Laugh-In
(MGM needed another hit) with Rowan & Martin playing guys trying
to make a movie, but land up getting involved with a bizarre series
of murderers and people acting wild, some of whom may be real life
supernatural monsters! Carol Lynley, Robert Reed, Julie Newmar,
Fritz Weaver, Mildred Natwick and a cast of solid character actors
show up, but the comedy is repetitive, ridiculous and not up to the
wit or rapid-fire cleverness of the duo's TV show. This is for kids
at best and almost a cult item, so it should be on DVD just the same.
Delbert
Mann's Quick!
Before It Melts
(1964) has Robert Morse and George Maharis looking for fun and woman
despite being sent to the arctic for work. Morse's fiancee (a
pre-Batgirl Yvonne Craig) has a would-be father-in-law that hates her
and is responsible for the trip he does not want to take. James
Gregory plays another convincing military man, the underrated Michael
Constantine is a Soviet scientist and Anjanette Comer is the
distraction Morse never expected.
Some
of this is amusing and good, plus I had a few chuckles. But it is
too lite for its own good despite the talents involved. Add that
Craig is as sexy as any of the women (making any conflict hard to
believe) and an average film results.
Finally
we have Alvin Ganzer's Three
Bites Of The Apple
(1966) with David McCallum (the original Man
From U.N.C.L.E.)
as a tour bus guide when he reluctantly makes a big chunk of cash at
a local casino, which gets the attention of sexy Sylvia Koshina, who
starts following him all over the place. The lite romanic parts are
not bad, if overdone, but then her crime partner shows up and this
becomes a would-be thriller. Tammy Grimes is one of the bus
customers, underused here and this becomes about not much except
seeing good actors in a film not certain of what it is doing. The
cover art is a take-off of the board game Monopoly. If only the film
was that fun.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on That
is the newest shoot on the list by 43 years, but it is the softest
performer throughout with poor detail and color that gets in the way
of the performers, while the remaining films are here in
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image presentations shot in real
35mm anamorphic Panavision and developed in MetroColor that hold up
better than you might think. Not that the prints are always perfect,
as there are point where age, wear, dirt and minor artifacts show,
but they are not bad or much.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on That
has some moments where it has the cleanest & clearest sonics
because it is a newer recording, but it is also not always well
mixed, is dialogue-based and even quiet a few times. Music is
responsible for half the surrounds, so the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0
Mono on the rest of the films comes across surprisingly good for
their age and sound pretty clear. The only extras are Original
Theatrical Trailers on That
and Bippy.
To
order all of the Warner Archive DVDs, go to this link for them and
many more great web-exclusive releases at:
https://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo