BMX Bandits (1983/Umbrella Import Region B Blu-ray)/Front Page Woman (1935/Warner Bros.)/Hello Down There (1968/Paramount/Warner Archive DVDs)/The Miracle Of Morgan’s Creek
(1944/Paramount DVD vs. Warner Archive DVD Reissue)/The Perfectionist (1985/Umbrella Import Region Free DVD)/Rock ‘N’ Roll High School
(1979/Umbrella Import Region B Blu-ray)/Sleepless
In Seattle (1993/Sony/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)
Picture:
B-/C+/C+/B-/C/B-/B- Sound:
C+/C+/C+/C+/C/C+/B- Extras:
C+/C-/D/B-/D/B-/C Films: C+/C+/C/A-/C/B-/C
PLEASE NOTE: The Front Page Woman and Hello
Down There DVDs are only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series, while the Region Free Blu-ray of BMX Bandits, Region Free PAL DVD of Perfectionist and Region B Blu-ray of Rock ‘N’ Roll
High School imports
are only available from Umbrella Entertainment. The Sleepless
In Seattle Blu-ray is limited to 3,000 copies and is available exclusively
at the Screen Archives website which can be reached at the link at the end of
this review. All can be ordered from the links below and the original Miracle Of Morgan’s Creek is out of
print, but you can get the new version at the Warner Archive site. This review includes an update of our
previous coverage of the first Creek
DVD.
Now for a
diverse new set of comedy releases…
A
favorite of Quentin Tarantino, Brian Trenchard-Smith’s BMX Bandits (1983) has a young Nicole Kidman in a hit teen bicycle
film from Australia that is
a big deal there, but was hardly issued in the U.S.,
though Tarantino amusingly enjoys it more than the overrated U.S. hit The Goonies. That the King of Oz-Ploitation directing even
did such a film is something, but it is fun and a nice change of pace from so
many bad, formulaic U.S. 1980s variants that it is worth a look. We previously covered the film at this link
in a PAL Region Free DVD from Umbrella:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10239/BMX+Bandits+(1983/Umbrella+Entert
Extras
are exactly the same as the previous DVD and it works even better on Blu-ray.
Going
back almost half a century for more laughs, Michael Curtiz’s Front Page Woman (1935) was not only
and early winner for the enduring journeyman filmmaker, but as well for Warner
Bros. and star Bette Davis, playing a woman anxious to break into the world of
journalism and getting the chance at an execution! She does not handle that one very well, supporting
the myth that women should not be in that business, but she is able to handle a
friendly rival journalist at a rival newspaper (George Brent) who is interested
in her. She is more interested in the
big story.
Davis is
really good here and at a time when women did not do much serious white collar
work if anything (especially pre-WWII), this was more shocking and surprising
in its time, but she has the energy to be more than up to the part and though
this is a comedy, it is not a screwball comedy.
Curtiz makes it work, but the screenplay (from no less than five
writers!) presumes very wrongly that women will never be an important part of
the workforce and that along with conventions and formulaic predictability
(including a condescending sense of failure against woman) dated the film and firmly
establishes it as a male (and even male chauvinist) point of view tale that
Davis manages to exceed the limits of.
The
supporting cast is decent, the sets and set ups hold up well and it is an early
sound film that does not feel stiff or limited by the still-then new
format. The black and white
cinematography by Director of Photography Tony Gaudio, A.S.C. (The Dragon Murder Case, Kid Galahad, Dawn Patrol, Juarez, The Adventures Of Robin Hood) is the
other reason the film holds up, as the high class, grade-A look of the film is
the other reason it endures so well. Be
sure to see it if you never have before or if you have not for a long time.
A fun
trailer with Davis
calling Brent to do a radio tie-in to the film, worth seeing after you watch
the film, is the only extra.
U.S.
B-movie king Jack Arnold took his shot at a family film in Hello Down There (1968) and much like BMX Bandits, it is a change-of-pace as Tony Randall plays a
building architect whose wild boss (Jim Backus of Gilligan’s Island and Mr.
Magoo fame) is so unhappy that he will tear down an expensive underwater
home built without his knowledge unless Randall can get a family to live in it
for 30 days. He picks his family!
This is
news to his water-phobic wife Janet Leigh (is that a Psycho joke?) or their teen children more interested in their new
Rock band and making a hit record.
Richard Dreyfuss is one of the non-family band members, Ken Barry shows
up as Randall’s rival, Roddy McDowell shows up as a wacky Austin Powers-styled
record executive, Charlotte Rae (Facts
Of Life, Car 54, Where Are You?)
is great and not in the film enough as the family’s alcoholic maid and a young
Merv Griffith shows up as himself.
In an
attempt to capture the live action Disney audience, Arnold and Paramount
co-produced the film with Ivan Tors (TV’s Flipper,
the James Bond smash Thunderball)
shooting the underwater effects, footage, live animals and much more in a team
that also includes the great Ricou Browning and Lamar Boren so it is a
good-looking film. However, the script
is too much like a TV sitcom and the added would-0be funny sound effects are
way overdone. However, it has enough odd
and interesting moments between the cast and underwater work that it is worth
seeing once, even if it never adds up to what it could have. Leigh reminds us how great a comedienne she
really was.
There are
sadly no extras, but this film could use some.
And now
for the original text of the Miracle At
Morgan’s Creek DVD:
“Preston
Sturges remains one of my all time favorite comedic directors. His
ability for timing and pace is simply staggering and his films take you for a
whirlwind of entertainment. You feel like you were just on a
rollercoaster ride of hysterical proportions. The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek happens to be at the peak of Sturges’ power after such a hot roll
with classics The Lady Eve and Sullivan’s Travels; all three are
relentless in their takings and show a gifted director bringing incredible
power to the screen. Only Ernst Lubitsch at this time could rival some of
the hilarious work here, plus the underlying themes were politically, socially,
and racially inherent such as Trouble in
Paradise a masterpiece that must be seen again and again!
The
content of the film, even by today’s standards, is near taboo and the fact that
this film was released in 1944 still blows my mind. Not only that, but
it’s socially charged in just about every way making it a timeless piece based
solely on the fact that it still has relevance. Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty
Hutton) has a ‘thing’ for soldiers and after a wild and crazy party, in which
she hardly remembers anything she wakes up married and pregnant, yet recalls
nothing. Ok, pause right there! So, basically she got drunk and
knocked up…right? Well, there’s also a local boy who happens to be madly
in love with her as well and he is dead set on putting the pieces together in
order to make the story jive. The comedy only begins there!
The film
runs just over 90-minutes and never gives you enough time to catch your
breath. Like with most of his films the darting dialogue keeps you on
your toes throughout so pay close attention to the subtext of the film as it’s
so obvious that Preston Sturges was totally toying with the censors of the film
industry. In fact, there was a huge war essentially occurring behind the
scenes between Sturges and that committee on just about every film he released
during his prime. There are two great extras on the DVD release from Paramount that chronicle
both. One called Preston Sturges
and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (14:03) and the other Censorship: Morgan's Creek vs. the
Production Code (7:38). What a great bargain for this inexpensive
DVD!
Quality
is also fairly top-notch as this black and white film contains a good grayscale
with minimal damage to the print. The transfer of the full-frame image
seems consistent throughout. I love the fact that the print remains
clean, but also contains a nice balance of grain to give the film its endearing
quality. The 2.0 Dolby Digital Mono is as can be expected a bit
compressed, but not distorted or anything along those lines. It serves
the film well being heavy in dialogue and works just fine here.
The
bottom line here is that this is just a terrific DVD worth adding to any
collection. Also, it’s not a widely known film, but perhaps with this
terrific DVD from Paramount
it can now get the recognition it deserves. People might even be shocked
with its contents even by today’s standards and this is just a small dose of
the power that Sturges had. Pick it up soon and get ready to hold your
stomach from the pains of laughter!”
Chris
Thomson’s The Perfectionist (1985) is
a relatively newer family comedy set in Australia nearly two decades later and
topically involves a married couple (Jacki Weaver and John Waters as the
uptight title character) ready to break up after holding their fragile family
together for so long. He is starting to
get involved with another woman and she meets a young Danish man who she hires
as their babysitter (Steven Vidler) before they get very involved. He is also a hard Left Wing kind of guy,
which might be exciting to her and annoying to her husband.
Running
90 minutes, this is based on the work of writer David Williamson and might have
worked on the page, but despite some fine casting and acting, starts to run out
of stream midway through and never coheres as I had hoped it would. Still, Weaver’s appearance alone makes it a
curio and it is worth a look for the very curious, especially since this would
have never been made in Hollywood
by then.
Stills,
trailers for other Umbrella releases and an introduction by screenplay writer
David Williamson are the only extras.
Allan
Arkush’s Rock ‘N’ Roll
High School (1979) has already had
several U.S. versions and
now it finally arrives on Blu-ray in Australia
in the same exact pressing as the U.S. Blu-ray version we reviewed at
this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9887/Rock+%E2%80%98N%E2%80%99+Ro
This
includes all the same extras as the U.S. Blu-ray except the booklet,
but die hard Ramones fans will want if for the better soundtrack and slightly
different packaging. The film remains an
interesting curio and I still cannot believe the band Madness turned this one
down. What a big mistake.
Finally
we have Nora Ephron’s hit Sleepless In
Seattle (1993) sold as a romantic comedy, but really belonging more to the under-recognized
cycle of Yuppie Cinema that began with St.
Elmo’s Fire and took way too long to burn out. If it were not for the co-stars Tom Hanks and
Meg Ryan, plus cinematography by legendary Director of Photography Sven
Nykvist, A.S.C., this would have been as forgotten and as disposable as so many
similar 1980s and 1990s films. However,
the leads have chemistry, even if the film is obvious, predictable and boring.
The
gimmick of the two not meeting until the end is contrived, but a gimmick that
people bought and it was a hit for Columbia/TriStar that helped all involved,
but I do not think it has even aged that well and I was not a fan to begin
with. Bill Pullman, Rita Wilson, Cary
Lowell and even Rob Reiner show up in the formulaic script that references An
Affair To Remember more than I would like to remember, but here it is
surprisingly as a limited edition.
Extras include
another nicely illustrated booklet on the film including informative text
including an essay by Julie Kirgo, while the Blu-ray adds a feature length
audio commentary track with Nora & Delia Ephron talking about the film in
detail, “When I Fall In Love” Music
Video, Original Theatrical Trailer and an Isolated Music Score of the
instrumental music by Marc Shaman.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on BMX Bandits just surpasses its previous DVD incarnation and is more
than a match for the 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on School and Seattle, but all three have more than a few issues with color
consistency, the age of the prints used, detail limits in some scenes and
somewhat uneven presentations throughout.
As a result, the 1.33 X 1 black and white image on both Miracle At Morgan’s Creek DVDs can just
abort compete with a fresher-looking print and more detail consistency! Seattle also looks a
little redder than it should and is likely an older HD master.
The 1.33
X 1 black and white image on Front Page
Woman is also in crisper condition than you would expect for a film its
age, but thank Ted Turner again for taking care of these films early on when
they really needed them. That leaves the
1.33 X 1 color image on Perfectionist
looks the softest and poorest as this copy of the 35mm film is from an older
analog, standard definition video master and it shows with aliasing errors and
staircasing throughout.
The sound
on our seven films are not great and despite the range of release years, only
offer so much sonic fidelity. The DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mix on BMX is an improvements over the previous DVD edition, while the
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 upgrade on Seattle
is the best sonic presentation here by default, but far from a knockout and was
originally issued in the old Dolby A-type analog sound system
theatrically. The DTS-MA upgrade shows
the flaws ands the isolated music score adds to that in comparison, yet this is
sonically the best release on the list!
BMX still sounds better here than it
did before, it is by a narrow margin as the soundtrack sees its improvements
offset a bit by hardly any Pro Logic-type surrounds and more fidelity issues
are also exposed.
School sadly only had lossy Dolby
Digital 2.0 Stereo that it had on the U.S. Blu-ray while the lossy Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono sound on Morgan’s Creek
(the same mix on both DVD versions), Page
and Down are the runner-ups with
professionally recorded work that holds up well for their respective ages and
in the case of Page at 78 years and
counting, surprisingly so. So the big
unfortunate surprise is that the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Perfectionist is so low, simple, basic
and poor that we need to warn you of volume switching and overly high levels.
To order
either of the Umbrella import Blu-rays or DVD, go to this link:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
…Sleepless In Seattle can be ordered
while supplies last at:
www.screenarchives.com
… and to
order either of the Warner Archive DVDs, go to this link for them and many more
great web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nate Goss and Nicholas Sheffo
