The
Fortune Cookie
(1966/United Artists/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/A
Street Cat Named Bob
(2015/Cleopatra/MVD Visual Blu-ray)/The
Wheeler Dealers
(1963/MGM/Filmways/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/You'll
Never Get Rich
(1941/Sony/Columbia/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Zero
To Sixty (1978/First
Artists/MGM Limited Edition Collection DVD)
Picture:
B/B/B/B/C Sound: C+/C+/C+/C+/C Extras: C+/C/C-/C/D Films:
C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Zero
To Sixty
DVD is now only available online and can be ordered from our friends
at Movie Zyng via the order button atop this review or on top of our
right hand sidebar, while The
Fortune
Cookie
and You'll
Never Get Rich
Blu-rays are now only available from our friends at Twilight Time,
are limited to only 3,000 copies each and can be ordered while
supplies last, and The
Wheeler Dealers
is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive
series. All can be ordered from the links below.
Here's
a round of old (and old fashioned) comedies that are ambitious, but
all of which deliver mixed results...
Billy
Wilder's The
Fortune Cookie
(1966) is
a comedy about a con job as lawyer Walter Matthau sees football
cameraman Jack Lemmon and his video camera knocked over by an NFL
Football player. Is he OK? If not, let's sue CBS, the NFL and
anyone else we can for a fortune. Broken into segments to show the
'procedure' ad steps to making this happen, this was funnier then
perhaps as this has become all too common on smaller, endless cases
that are rarely this high profile. Having not had seen this for a
long time, I only remembered it in bits and pieces, was not that
amused then and cannot say it got funnier since. I can at least see
how smart it is.
Not
Wilder's biggest hit or most famous film, MGM
has released this United Artists via Twilight Time as a Limited
Edition Blu-ray and such a key film should be available, especially
widescreen looking this good as intended. Completists and fans will
be particularly happy. Judi West, Ron Rich and Cliff Osmond also
stars.
Roger
Spottiswoode's A
Street Cat Named Bob
(2015) is
a drama with some comedy based on the true story of James Bowen (Luke
Treadaway) who was living on the street often homeless and not
knowing where to turn when he met a stray cat that he started taking
care of. This eventually changed his life around ands even the lives
of others around him. Now we've seen this kind of story before, but
it is not badly by Spottiswoode,
whose TV work has been more consistent than his theatrical films (for
every
Shoot To Kill,
Tomorrow
Never Dies,
Under
Fire
and Terror
Train,
we've had to tolerate a Turner
& Hooch,
6th
Day,
Stop!
Or My Mom Will Shoot,
Air
America
and even The
Journey Home)
so this is one of his better films.
Instead
of being picked up a by major studio (most of whom have abandoned
indie films too much for our own good), the Cleopatra
company has picked it up and it is being distributed by MVD Visual on
Blu-ray in the U.S., so it is worth a look if you are interested. I
just wish it had found a new approach to the material.
Arthur
Hiller's The
Wheeler Dealers
(1963) is
also about con artists, but this time, James Garner is a guy who
makes money out of being an in-between man for others and their
money, plus other financial needs. It is a cozy arrangement for him
he has parlayed into success, but money is not everything, especially
when a woman who might be his equal (Lee Remick in stunning fashion)
shows up in his life. This also has a fine supporting cast of actors
usually (mostly) known for comedy like Phil Harris, Jim Backus, John
Aston, Chill Wills, Louis Nye, Elliott Reid and Patricia Crawley, but
despite a solid journeyman like Hiller at the helm, the script is
just too obvious and restrictive throughout. No doubt the cast has
appeal that the producers (MGM
and the underrated Filmways company) knew could work, but it is not
just that good and I found little funny.
Still,
it should be seen, especially with who is in it and involved, so it
is a good thing Warner Archive has restored the film and issued it on
Blu-ray. Now you can judge for yourself.
Sidney
Lanfield's You'll
Never Get Rich
(1941) is
a rare Fred Astaire musical at the time NOT made at RKO and was also
done as WWII propaganda. One of the reasons is that his co-star was
Rita Hayworth, the #1 sex symbol at the time and Columbia Studios
likely did not want to loan her out. They were a smaller company
then, so it bears repeating only the big majors were supposed to luck
out this way. In any event, this is one of the weakest stories and
plots of any music of the time and certainly of anything Astaire ever
did.
Yet,
his musical and dance moments break through the monotony and Hayworth
more than holds her own solo and especially with him. They have
great chemistry and it is worth suffering thigh the many dated and
down moments, though in fairness to the film, the propaganda is a
necessity and makes this a time capsule. Sony
has licensed this to Twilight Time so they can issue it as on of
their great Limited Edition Blu-ray, so fans should order while they
can. Robert
Benchley, John Hubbard, Osa Massen, Frieda Inescort, Guinn Williams
and Donald McBride also star.
Don
Weis' Zero
To Sixty
(1978) is
an interesting attempt to do a fun 1970s chase comedy with a bit of
screwball sensibility (think What's
Up Doc?
(1872, reviewed elsewhere on this site)) with some sometimes darker
jokes. The great Darren McGavin (Kolchak:
The Night Stalker,
A
Christmas Story,
Tribes)
is a man going through a divorce and is about to loose his car to
repossession via a new 16-year-old repo gal (Denise Nickerson being
set up for a potential star-making role that did not happen, but
she's hot the mouth and energy to keep up with things going back to
her child acting days) and it is a novel idea. It is also meant to
be a fun family comedy, before Hollywood gave up on them or got mall
movie 1980s phony about them.
One
of the last major releases by the First
Artists production company (Up
The Sandbox,
Straight
Time,
Up The
Sandbox,
Agatha,
The
Main Event,
the huge 1976 hit remake of A
Star Is Born
with Barbra Streisand) shows some very smart people also believed in
this project behind the scenes. Of course, the biggest and most
well-liked (and well-loved) actors in the business, McGavin (beyond
money) could always get some of the biggest stars around on all his
projects as Kolchak alone demonstrated. Here, we get funny and even
hilarious turns by Joan Collins (still pre-Dynasty
and looking great as always), Lyle Waggoner, Sylvia Miles, Vito
Scotti, Dick Martin, Gordon MacRae, Lorraine Gray, David Huddleston,
Al Checco, Francine York, Jack Grinnage and singing trio The Hudson
Brothers, trying to see if their hit TV show and hit records could
extend to the big screen.
Weis
directed feature films in the 1950s before becoming one the the most
prolific TV journeymen ever, from dramas and comedies to variety
shows to the 1960s Batman
and most significantly here, four of the best Kolchak
episodes. Even when the film does not work, the energy, ambition,
joy and obvious fun the actors are having makes seeing this at least
worth seeing once. McGavin's wife Katherine Browne produced (she has
a brief cameo at the beginning, though I wished she were in the film)
and did a fine job. Those interested should check it out.
The
four Blu-ray releases here are up to what you'd expect for films of
their type and age with the 1080p 2.35 X 1 black & white digital
High Definition image on Cookie
is looking fine throughout with its vivid-enough Panavision 35mm
shoot, showing just how effectively Wilder was using the widescreen
frame to get his laughs. The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition
image on Cat
is the only digital shoot here, but it has better color throughout
than most digital shoots of late that have the dumb habit of dulling
the color. Here, it makes the streets of London all the more
effective, day and night.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Wheeler
can show the age of the materials used at times, but this is far
superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film thanks to a
new HD master from Warner what shows off its MetroColor (this is
about as accurate as it gets) and anamorphic Panavision 35mm shoot.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on Rich
can also show the age of the materials used, but that is to be
expected from an older film, yet Columbia
Pictures gave it the best monochrome 35mm film stock it could muster.
Thus, it looks as good as anything they had made to that time (save
color productions when they could afford those). Of course, the
dance sequences really shine.
That
leaves the anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Sixty
looking decent, with some consistent color, but also a bit more
softness throughout considering how good the quality of the 35mm
print used here actually is. The answer? An older video master that
was good enough for this release, though I bet this would be
surprisingly good on Blu-ray should that happen down the line.
As
for sound, Cat
is the newest production and it sports a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1
lossless mix, bit something went wrong for this Blu-ray and the
dialogue is sometimes overwhelmed by the music in the mix. I tested
this a few times just to make sure, so be careful of high levels of
playback. Cookie,
Wheeler
and Rich
were all
originally theatrical monophonic sound releases, so they are
presented authentically as so with DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 1.0 Mono
(or 2.0 Mono on Wheeler)
lossless mixes and they cannot get much further with the original
soundtracks than they do here. I cannot imagine these sounding any
better, so the restoration work is warm and clear as we are likely
ever to hear it for these films. That will make fans happy.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Zero
does sound a generation down and you should also be careful of volume
switching and high playback levels, but in itself it is a decent
monophonic recording late in the mono era before Dolby System stereo
took over. The Hudson Brothers vocal songs suffer the most.
Extras
are limited, but Cookie
and Rich
get nicely illustrated booklet on the film including informative text
with more excellent, underrated essays by the great film scholar
Julie Kirgo, Isolated Music Scores (Rich also has some sound effects
on its track) and Original Theatrical Trailers, Wheeler
only has a Trailer and Bob
offers a Slide Show, Cast Interviews and Behind The Scenes Bonus
Footage.
To
order The
Fortune Cookie
and You'll
Never Get Rich
limited edition Blu-rays, buy them while supplies last at these
links:
www.screenarchives.com
and
http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/
...and
to order The
Wheeler Dealers
Warner Archive Blu-ray, go to this link for them and many more great
web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.wbshop.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
