Bachelor
In Paradise
(1961/MGM/Blu-ray*)/Breaking
News In Yuba County
(2020/AIP/Warner Blu-ray)/Head
Of The Class: The Complete Second Season
(1986/DVD*)/Mr.
Blandings Builds His Dream House
(1948/RKO/Blu-ray*)/The
Ronnie Corbett Show In Australia
(1987/Umbrella PAL Region Free DVD set)/The
Tender Trap
(1955/MGM/Blu-ray/*all Warner Archive)
Picture:
B/B/B-/B/C+/B Sound: B-/B/B-/C+/C+/B- Extras: C-/D/D/C+/D/C
Main Programs: C+/C-/C+/C/C+/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Ronnie
Corbett
Import DVD is now only available from our friends at Umbrella
Entertainment in Australia, can only play on 4K, DVD and Blu-ray
players that can handle the PAL DVD format, while the Head
Of The Class
DVDs and all Blu-rays (save Yuba)
are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive
series. All can be ordered from the links below.
Jack
Arnold is usually known for B-movies, especially with various
monsters, but he was a better filmmaker than just that and Bachelor
In Paradise
(1961) is one of the most interesting films he or lead star Bob Hope
ever made. Not that it is any kind of comedy masterwork, but it has
some laughs and then there are other moments that have aged well and
may even be extraordinary to some.
Hope
is a writer who is in tax trouble and cannot leave the country, a
problem for a man whose series of hit books is about how people live
in other countries. The solution? Make a book that will make money
about how people live in the United States. The approach, move
anonymously to a upscale suburb planned family housing community
called Paradise and get to writing.
Since
only families move there, he has to rent a house from one of the
brokers there (Lana Turner) and get to work, but instead, he starts
meeting all the married women here and starts hitting it off with all
of them, no adultery involved. Well at least one of the women with a
drinking problem has other ideas, but this also takes place in the
San Fernando Valley of the time (no 'valley girls' here yet) and it
manages to show without trying a huge center of wealth that was
somewhat surprising then to some and seems exotic today (especially
after the recent pandemic) with endless new homes that almost look
surreal and a supermarket that makes any Super Wal-Mart look like it
is on the verge of bankruptcy!
With
a supporting cast that includes the amazing Paula Prentiss, Janis
Paige, Virginia Grey, Jim Hutton, Agnes Moorehead and Don Porter,
everyone should see this one once just to see all the amazing and
amusing things that pop out of nowhere. It also shows how savvy
Director Arnold could really be, so if you want a few good laughs,
see it, especially restored so remarkably well as it is here.
A
trailer is the only extra.
Tate
Taylor's Breaking
News In Yuba County
(2020) proves that his overrated film The
Help
was a fluke indeed. Allison Janney plays to type as a working
suburban wife whose husband disappears one day, finally giving her a
chance to maybe make her life better. He was cheating on her (in a
turn that stretches believability, like so much here) and she lands
up finding her way into the mainstream media in its current
(permanently?) tabloid mode. This is supposed to be a funny comedy,
but tries so hard, that hardly anything is here.
This
was apparently sold as funnier considering the supporting cast
includes Wanda Sykes, Mila Kunis, Awkwafina, Regina Hall, Samria
Wiley, Matthew Modine, Clifton Collins Jr., Ellen Barkin and Juliette
Lewis. However, though not smug, the film just thinks anything it
says or does is funny when it is not and even when the actors are
trying, bad pacing, lack of energy and bad timing just never works
out. The script ultimately is the culprit and I can see why it did
not reach an audience. The breaking news is that no 'News' is good
news. Skip it!
Digital
Copy is included, but there are no extras.
Howard
Hessman (WKRP
In Cincinnati)
stars in Head
Of The Class: The Complete Second Season
(1986), which is a fun sitcom about a teacher whose heading a class
of very smart and talented young people through their own personal
life struggles and growing pains. The show isn't too terribly dated
and is a fun and easy watch and is more of a coming of age story than
anything. Presented here over the course of three DVDs, Head
of the Class
is back for a new generation to enjoy.
The
show also stars Robin Givens, Khyrstyne Haje, Dan Frischman, Leslie
Bega, Brian Robbins, Dan Schneider, and Tony O' Dell to name a few.
22
Episodes span Season
2 and
include Science
Fair, Weather Friends, The Write Stuff, The Big Squeeze, Child of the
Sixties, Trouble in Perfectville, Coach Charlie, That'll Be The Day,
Poltergeist 3, Psyched Out at Fillmore, Revenge of the Liberal, Play
it Again,Woody, Will the Real Arvid Engen Please Stand Up, On the
Road Again, Fatal Distraction, Cello Fever, Parent's Day, Love is
Debatable, For Better or Worse, We Love You, Mrs. Russell, Don't Play
with Matches, The 21st Century News, Moore Than You Know, Radio
Activity,
and I
Am The King.
We
also covered the first season here
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15749/Enter+The+Fat+Dragon+(2020/Well+Go+Blu-
H.C.
Potter's Mr.
Blandings Builds His Dream House
(1948) is one of Cary Grant's early comedies where he would break or
nearly break the fourth wall at some point. That was more surprising
then, though he would only it very rarely until more, later in his
career in more commercial comedies than even this one. At the title
family man and advertising executive (an occupation that has made for
some weird cinema) brings us to his fine city home.
There
he has his children, maid and wife (Myrna Loy in a semi-deadpan
performance purposely subdued throughout) in New York City, but his
wife has considered a house and when the time comes to look at a
property in somewhat nearby Connecticut, he is not amused. Despite
this, thanks to prodding from a good friend (Melvyn Douglas) and his
wife, they go.
Thus,
the odyssey begins where the couple both has sudden ideas about what
they would like to see built where a place that has seen better days
is, the lot they will buy, then will they get to pay a fair price?
Hmmm.
Though
the film has some amusing moments, I was never a fan and must have
been better then as may of the ideas here later landed up endlessly
in TV sitcoms. Loy and Grant make a convincing couple and you
believe they are the success their characters are here, but its more
like a time capsule than anything else and yes, this did inspire the
mixed Tom Hanks vehicle The
Money Pit.
That was even worse.
Extras
include a reissue trailer, two abbreviated radio versions of the film
(both with Grant!) and the hilarious Technicolor animated cartoon The
House Of Tomorrow,
directed by Tex Avery.
The
Ronnie Corbett Show In Australia
(1987) is one of many TV shows the famous comedian from Britain did
so much TV over his 50+ years in the business that some of it is
bound to be less remembered. This six-episode short run on
Australia's Nine Network has a mix of good moments, a few funny ones,
a few good jokes, some odd moments where local music artists cover
more popular songs from the U.S. and maybe U.K. and at least one
moments (blackface!) that is horrendous and shocking it could happen
so late on TV in any country. Guess the Apartheid in South Africa
issue had not been solved yet, either?
Of
course, it is yet another time capsule of a show, the kind they do
not make anymore, the variety show. Dead in the U.S. by then, even
this was not a regular series, so this might have been the last gasp
down under (give or take Don Lane or Graham Kennedy?) is one of the
last shows off its kind and worth a look either way.
There
are no extras.
That
leaves us Charles Walter's The
Tender Trap
(1955) with Frank Sinatra as a bachelor who is juggling all kinds of
women, based on a stage play. Things are going well for him when a
young woman with more disciplined plans with her life (the great
Debbie Reynolds) shows up. At first, she is just another gal on a
long list, but soon, they start to get to know each other better, but
there is no guarantee of anything working out, including her getting
the stage role she is after.
In
the meantime, he has an old friend (David Wayne in an extended role
that works) stopping by and the parade of great actresses who appear
throughout (all great fun here and looking like a million dollars)
include Celeste Holm in some of her best form here, plus Carolyn
Jones, Lola Albright and others. The script is a bit soft, but it is
entertaining enough to give it a good look, especially now that it
has been as restored as it likely ever will. Mark that as another
Sinatra feature film finally saved and issued on Blu-ray!
Extras
include an Original Theatrical Trailer, two clips from the MGM Parade
series promoting the film with Debbie Reynolds & George Murphy
and the decent Frank
In The Fifties
featurette.
Now
for playback performance. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition
image on Paradise
looks really fine throughout, with nice clarity for an older
CinemaScope film, whose lenses tend to distort the image somewhat,
but the MetroColor looks very rich and accurate and this is an
impressive restoration all around.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Yuba
is the only digital shoot here and it is at least competent and
consistent, but nothing special either. The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black &
white digital High Definition image transfer can show the age of the
materials used, but this is far superior a transfer to all previous
releases of the film and another race of a restoration of an RKO
film. I was impressed at the detail and depth, so it looks fine and
and is always watchable, even if you do not land up liking the film.
The
1080p 2.55 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Tender
Trap
can also show the age of the materials used, but this is far superior
a transfer to all previous releases of the film, yet it is one of the
earliest CinemaScope films and it has more softness and distortion,
but that is the way it was produced. MGM's labs were switching from
underrated Ansco Color to Kodak by this time and the color is what
you would expect for a Eastman Color film of the time. Warner
Archive has done their best to fix the film.
All
four Blu-rays offer DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless sound, with
Paradise
offering 2.0 Stereo that might be a mixdown from its original 4-track
magnetic stereo, the master of which may be missing. It sounds fine
otherwise. Blandings
is 2.0 Mono and really shows its age, but has been cleaned up and
fixed as much as possible. The remaining films offer 5.1 mixes with
Yuba
dialogue/joke based and adequate, while Tender
Trap
expands its 4-track magnetic stereo soundmaster nicely enough, though
it cannot hide the age of the soundmaster. For its age, though, it
still sounds good and you get some traveling dialogue and sound
effects too.
Both
TV shows on DVD are presented in standard definition and their
original 1.33 X 1 standard aspect ratio, with Class
looking as good as the prior set and a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
mix on each episode that is clear enough. The show is presented here
commercial free and shows some compression issues which is native for
the format. Analog
videotape flaws including video noise, video banding, telecine
flicker, tape scratching, cross color, faded color and tape damage
can be seen on both shows, but much more on the older Corbett
set. With some outdoor footage shot on 16mm film (not retransferred
either) and the majority on PAL video, it can have some color quality
over the later NTSC U.S. TV show, but a few more flaws cannot be
helped. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on the show can sound
older, yet slightly warmer at times.
To
order the
Corbett
Umbrella import DVD, go to this link:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
and
to order either of the Warner Archive Class
DVD or the rest of the Blu-rays, go to this link for them and many
more great web-exclusive releases at:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20
-
Nicholas Sheffo and James
Lockhart (Class)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
