All
My Friends Are Funeral Singers
(2010)/Artois
The Goat
(2009)/Candyman:
The David Klein Story
(2010/IndiePix DVDs)/The
Chief
(1933/MGM)/It's
In The Air
(1935/MGM/Warner Archive DVDs)
Picture:
C+/C/C/C/C Sound: C+/C+/C/C/C Extras: C/C-/B-/D/C- Main
Programs: C+/C/B-/C+/C
PLEASE
NOTE:
All
My Friends Are Funeral Singers,
Artois
The Goat
and Candyman:
The David Klein Story
are part of a really nice 10-DVD set called the IndiePix
Mix 10 Collection
in
time for the holiday season & sold through Amazon here at
http://amzn.com/B01577BN8S,
while the rest of the DVDs are now only available from Warner Bros.
through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the links
below.
Here's
a group of comic and comical new releases...
Continuing
our coverage of the IndiePix
Mix 10 Collection
in
sections, we have previously covered two of the titles a while ago as
singles. They are...
Tim
Rutili's All
My Friends Are Funeral Singers
(2010)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9931/All+My+Friends+Are+Funeral+Singers+(2010/IndieP
Cliff
& Kyle Bogart's Artois
The Goat
(2009)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10120/Artois+The+Goat+(2009/IndiePix+DVD)
Now
we get to Costa Botes' Candyman:
The David Klein Story
(2010), which tells the sad, sometimes disturbing story of how the
creator of the 'gourmet' jelly bean known as the Jelly Belly
innovated the entire candy industry, only to fall victim to being
part of one of the biggest rip-offs ever!
Klein
loved candy and was a bit of an eccentric when his invention gave the
somewhat stagnant candy business a kick it needed, though the
documentary portrays the industry as being in the dark ages when in
reality, many great and classic candies arrived in the 1960s and
1970s. Despite that flaw, this becomes a biography of the man and
his family (though it glosses over the abuse he takes on his children
much as The
Wolfpack
(reviewed elsewhere on this site) also did and is also a look at both
that business and the dark side of predatory business people when his
idea only gets him a few million, but has made hundreds of millions
to date.
The fact the Ronald
Reagan loves them is one of the big ironies here, but despite his
flaws and that glossing, you still have to have some sympathy for the
man, though the documentary does not delve deeply enough into things
or asks enough questions about certain aspects of things (though the
Deleted Scenes are often interesting) proving 76 minutes was just way
too short for the subject matter. It is my favorite release on the
list and one everyone should see at least once for the untold (even
censored) story it covers. Its not all pretty!
Extras
include two feature length audio commentary tracks (one with Botes,
the other with David & Bert Klein (father & son)), an
Original Theatrical Trailer and over 25 minutes of Deleted Scenes.
The last two films are
Charles F. Riesner comedies made at MGM with two legendary comic
leads who did not always have the best luck with feature films, but
not for lack of trying.
The
Chief
(1933) is an early work by the great comic actor Ed Wynn, playing
his 'perfect fool' character (known from radio and imitated more that
a few times) as the son of a great fireman who for all his ineptness
never followed in his dad's footsteps. From the disaster of the
unveiling of a statue that is a tribute to his dad, to losing jobs,
to gaining fame for saving people and a big crazy mix of all of it,
in between and the works. There are laughs in its mere 65 minutes
that hold up remarkably well, but the script is limited, yet the only
thing that matters is Wynn at his comically brilliant early glory
stealing every scene he is in (even with kids, animals and a young
Mickey Rooney in the start) and (hard to believe) at over 80 years
later, still also has its charm and is worth checking out.
Wynn
has been a little more forgotten that I would have liked and a key
film like this really needs to be in print. The time for his
rediscovery is long overdue and this is worth your time, especially
to see how powerhouse MGM backed its starts in the best way early on.
There
are sadly no extras.
It's
In The Air
(1935) is one of the many feature film attempts to make Jack Benny a
movie star, but he was less successful than Wynn in this respect, the
films never did him justice as his TV shows, cameos and insanely
successful hit radio show did to show off his comic brilliance.
Still, he was less know at this point despite the radio show already
doing huge ratings and business, and trying him in a comedy that was
more subdued (at least at first, before the slapstick kicks in,
failing to save the film) than he would be known for gives mixed
results. He plays a con artist wanted by the law, but he keeps his
various con rackets going, including gambling, identity theft and
paying with checks written in invisible ink. As with The
Chief,
MGM surrounds the star with fun supporting actors and we get the
beautiful Una Merkel (also too forgotten), Ted Healy, Nat Pendleton
and Mary Carlisle. However, the script has too many dulled moments,
though the camera loved Benny. It's just too all over the place to
work, but if you can make it through its 80 longer-than-it-should be
minutes, try it.
An
Original Theatrical Trailer is the only extra.
The
image and sound on most of these releases are a bit soft and rough,
with the anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Singer
the best by default by simply not having too many flaws, but Goat
and Candyman
are rough, with the latter having more archival footage that is rough
(as expected) and not as good as any of them could have really been.
The 1.33 X 1 black & white image on Chief
and Air
are well-shot as Grade-A MGM productions, but the prints are just too
rough and could use some work, which would be worth it because the
look of both work.
In
the sound department, Singer,
Goat
and Candyman
are offered in lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, but Candyman
has more than its share of rough archival mono, as rough as the lossy
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono throughout Chief
and Air.
As a result, all five releases could use some sonic cleaning up.
To
order either 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
