The
Damned: Don't You Wish We Were Dead
(2013/MVD Visual Blu-ray w/DVD)/Having
A Wild Weekend
(1965/Dave Clark Five/Warner Archive DVD)/I
Could Go On Singing
(1963/United Artists/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/The
Rolling Stones: Totally Stripped
(1995/Eagle SDBlu-ray w/CD)/Victor/Victoria
(1982/Ladbroke/MGM/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/Hank
Williams: The Complete Mother's Best Collection... Plus
(1951/Time Life 15 CD set w/DVD)/You're
My Everything
(1949/Fox Cinema Archive DVD)
Picture:
B- & C+/C+/B/C+/B/C+/C+ Sound: B- & C+/C/B-/B-/B/C+/C
Extras: C+/D/B/C-/B-/C-/D Main Programs: B-/C/B-/B-/C+/B+/C
PLEASE
NOTE:
The You're
My Everything
DVD is a limited edition Fox release available on line only, so go to
our sidebar to order, the I
Could Go On Singing
Blu-ray is now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, is
limited to only 3,000 copies and can be ordered while supplies last,
and finally, the Having
A Wonderful Weekend
DVD and Victor/Victoria
Blu-ray now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series. All can be ordered from the links below.
Here's
a new, diverse set of music releases everyone should know about....
Wes
Orshoski's The
Damned: Don't You Wish We Were Dead
(2013) is a Rockumentary (compilation at that) of the highly liked if
never well-known first Punk Rock band from the U.K., the first to
make it over to the U.S. and is a very thorough crash course on the
band's life, times, history and music for those who don't know and
likely a big surprise for diehard fans who never abandoned them.
Running 110 minutes, it also manages to give us an idea of the
industry at the time and major music figures you would more likely
know (Chrissie Hynde, Billy Idol, Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode, Nick
Mason, comic actor Fred Armisen and Lemmy, who Orshoski also made a
documentary on before his passing) telling the untold story very
thoroughly.
Even
if you don't like Punk, there is more here worth seeing at least once
and MVD Visual is to be applauded for continuing to issue such key
works.
John
Boorman's Having
A Wild Weekend
(1965) is one of many attempts at the time to get a popular Rock Band
into a feature film, as The Beatles' A
Hard Day's Night
(1964, now out in a great Criterion Blu-ray edition we highly
recommend) was such a huge hit and showed them off well. Thus the
decent-performing Dave Clark Five get the same treatment here in an
early film by Boorman, who turned out to be a major filmmaker later,
now issued on DVD by Warner Archive.
However,
there is not enough of their music here, the send-up of advertising
via the love interest of the lead singer (she's a model here) is very
pedestrian and the 91 minutes drag on way more than they should.
Still, it is a curio all serious music fans should see once and is an
all-too-rare opportunity to see the band (whose hits on Epic Records
include ''Catch
Us If You Can''
from this film, ''Over
& Over'',
''You
Got What It Takes'',
''Bits
& Pieces''
and ''Glad
All Over'';
they we not one hit wonders by any means) on quality 35mm film. Most
music acts did not get that at the time.Barbra Ferris also stars.
Ronald
Neame's I
Could Go On Singing
(1963) was not an easy film to get made as its star and legend Judy
Garland was doing well, but the 'difficult' label was taking hold
despite having hist like A
Star Is Born
(1954, see the blu-ray elsewhere on this site), so she flew to the
U.K. to make this backstage musical melodrama about a singer (played
by her) dealing with her old lover she never married (Dirk Bogarde,
who used his clout to get this film made) and their sin she has not
seen in years since she left son and father together thinking she
could not handle motherhood.
The
film is uneven and drags in its predictability, plus Garland was
starting not to look as good (addiction was sadly catching up with
her), but gentleman director Neame pulled the film off and and got
what would sadly be her last big screen motion picture appearance,
her last movie ever. The title song was by the team that wrote
''Over
the Rainbow''
for Wizard
Of Oz
(1939, see our Blu-ray 3D review elsewhere on this site) and this
never goes wrong when she is singing. Some dramatic moments even
work, but I wish it worked better.
Originally
made by United Artists, MGM has licensed this film (now with somewhat
of a cult following and certainly a fave of Garland fans) to Twilight
Time, who have delivered a Criterion-calibre Limited Edition Blu-ray
with the debut of the stereo music on the isolated music track and
WOW, the improvement in fidelity impresses. Too bad the 1963 release
did not have these sonics.
Jack
Klugman also stars.
The
Rolling Stones: Totally Stripped
(1995) is an unusual release from 'the greatest rock 'n roll band's'
catalog as it feature not only music performances, but interviews and
behind-the-scenes footage with the band playing smaller venues
(something they still
do) and Eagle has issued this as part of their SDBlu-ray series,
adding a bonus CD and upscaling older pre-HD video. The result is a
solid record of the band still touring to sellout sales despite few
major studio works, but that is the point they were at and still are
20+ years later, though a new studio album is in the works.
They
are good at being themselves, never really hold back on what they
want to say and are still serious about the music, so this is a set
fans will especially want and those wanting to know more about the
band should check into as they usually don't so this ind of thing.
Nice to see it again after all these years.
Blake
Edwards' Victor/Victoria
(1982) is
the surprise hit film (Edwards was still having hits and critical
successes, even as the Pink
Panther
films were winding down) featuring Andrews as a woman, pretending to
be a man, then pretending to be a woman. This was more shocking and
racy at the time of release, arrived just before the AIDS crisis and
remade a pre-Nazi German cinema gem from the time. Andrews plays all
three-in-one roles the best she can, a stage performer out to shock
and entertain in the most subversive ways. With a supporting cast
that includes Robert Preston, Leslie Ann Warren, Alex Karras and
James Garner, it is a fine, solid, consistent work that is well made,
professional, advanced in some ways and never gets stale for being on
sets the whole time.
It
was even shocking as Andrews was so strongly associated with her Mary
Poppins
and Sound
Of Music
family hits despite having a big screen acting career (Star,
Torn
Curtain,
etc.) that went far beyond that and showed her range. However, with
all that and even she giving it her all, I was never totally
convinced that she was who she was and saw Andrews the whole time.
It is really impossible to by her as a chameleon, though she still
has her moments, but it is one of the boldest things she ever did
just the same.
Despite
how popular this film is, Warner Archive is handling this one as a
web-only Blu-ray release and never lost its audience. Good thing it
is one of the best playback quality releases on this list.
Hank
Williams: The Complete Mother's Best Collection... Plus
(1951) expands the 3-CD/1 DVD I
Saw The Light
set to a 15 CD set w/DVD, which is repeated here. Here is our
coverage of the older set...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13844/Hank+Williams:+I+Saw+The+Light+-+The+Unrele
Now
that the I
Saw the Light
feature film (reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) has been
released, many more rare acetate recordings have been thankfully
located and you get much more including his Aunt
Jemima Audition Show.
That makes this the set to own.
Finally
we have Walter Lang's You're
My Everything
(1949) is a backstage musical comedy with actors and performers
mostly unknown today from Fox, but with Anne Baxter and Dan Dailey as
leads, a married couple who are happy and well. He wants to get a
movie part, but when she shows up, accidentally gets signed instead
of him!
The
songs are not very memorable, though they fit the narrative and the
script is formulaic and predictable, but having Baxter here (who did
not always do musicals) makes it a curio. Lang was a great director
of the genre and the studio did put the money out for it to be a big
Technicolor hit. Now you can see for yourself while supplies last.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on Singing
(with grain at times) and Victoria
are the visual winners here, shot well on color 35mm film negative
stocks in real anamorphic Panavision and built to last, with the
latter having its share of indoor scenes and the latter totally on
sets. This is the best i've seen or heard either film.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Damned
Blu-ray show the age of the materials used, but is still better than
the anamorphically enhanced DVD version, which tends to be softer.
However, some of the clips are old analog video, so only expect so
much. Well edited though.
The
1080i 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Stones
upscales and bookends old 1.33 X 1 color videotape and the results
are not bad, but sometimes noisier than expected. Like similar clips
on Damned,
analog
videotape flaws can include video noise, video banding, telecine
flicker when some films clips only survive on old tape transfers,
tape scratching, cross color, faded color and tape damage, showing
the age
of the materials used.
Williams
has the same anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image DVD as before,
and it can compete with the Stones
upscale and anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 black and white image on
Wild.
The 1.33 X 1 image on Everything
is not bad for a Technicolor film, but could be a bit better, even
without considering a Blu-ray version.
As
for sound, Victoria
has a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix, Singing
a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 1.0 Mono lossless mix and the Stones
a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix, while Damned
and Stones
have lossless PCM 2.0 Stereo tracks and the Stones CD is PCM 16/44.1
2.0 Stereo. All tie for second place, but Victoria
(in part because part of the Stones
release is interviews and other talking) is the sonic winner here,
remastered from its original sound elements. Damned
ranges from mono to stereo, while the 2 PCM Stones
tracks are passable, but Singing
surprised me in how clear it was for its age and mono format. Even
more amazing (as noted above), its isolated music tracks make their
stereo debut here with Garland singing in stereo and it sounds great!
The
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on the Williams
DVD is still passable and the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Wild
and Everything
are a bit weakest than I would have liked and are the
under-performers on the list. The Williams
CDs have PCM 16/44.1 2.0 Mono sound is really good for it age and as
good as it could be for the old format.
Wild
and Everything
have no extras, but Damned,
Singing,
Stones
and Williams
(which we already noted retains the bonus DVD from the older, smaller
version) include illustrated booklets on each respective release, the
film including informative text and essays all around. Singing
adds another excellent, underrated essay by the great film scholar
Julie Kirgo, while it and Victoria
add feature length audio commentary tracks (2 on Singing
[film scholars Lem Dobbs & Nick Redman on one, scholar David Del
Valle & Steven Peros on the other] and Andrews & Edwards on
Victoria)
all solid and Original Theatrical Trailers. The Singing Isolated
Music Score has select Sound Effects and we also get TV Spots.
Damned
has four bonus featurette clips and a live performance of ''Smash
It Up''.
To
order the I
Could Go On Singing
limited edition Blu-ray, buy it and more rare releases while supplies
last at these links:
www.screenarchives.com
and
http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/
… and
to order the Having
A Wonderful Weekend
Warner Archive DVD or Victor/Victoria
Warner Archive Blu-ray, go to this link for them and many more great
web-exclusive releases at:
https://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
