Legend Films/Paramount –
10 DVD Film Review
Picture/Sound/Extras/Film:
The Pied Piper C+/C+/D/C+
French Postcards C+/C+/D/B-
Hurricane C+/C+/D/B-
Baby It’s You C+/C+/D/B-
The Busy Body C+/C+/D/C+
The Optimists C+/C+D/B-
The Skull C+/C+/D/B-
Villa Rides C+/C+/D/B-
Those Daring Young Men in Their
Jaunty Jalopies C+/C+/D/C+
Girl on the Bridge B-/B-/D/B+
Legend
Films is releasing and licensing their films and partnering with Paramount to
distribute a great selection of films that this film was serve as a cross-section
of some of those catalogue titles. We
have already covered some of the best (Z.P.G.,
Mandingo, Possession Of Joel Delaney) and now look at the following:
The Pied Piper is the 1972 version starring Jack
Wild, Donald Pleasence, John Hurt, and Donovan as the title role. The film reeks of the 1970’s and is almost
too psychedelic to be taken seriously, then again fans of Jesus Christ Superstar and other musicals of that period will
appreciate the quirkiness of this one.
The one saving grace here is the direction by Jacques Demy, which we
have covered some of his material and most especially his masterful Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which you can
read more about at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2127/The+Umbrellas+Of+Cherbourg+(Koch)
French Postcards is from the authors of American Graffiti, but lacks the
execution power of that film and plays off as a dated romantic comedy that
hasn’t aged very well since its release in 1979. The film stars a young Debra Winger as well
as other minor actors of the time as they explore their sexuality in Paris…how
original!
Hurricane has nothing to do with the Denzel
Washington film, instead it was shot in 1979 and stars Jason Robards, Mia
Farrow, and Max Von Sydow. It is perhaps
one of the better films in this roundup and involves a love affair between a
Samoan chief and a young American Painter (Farrow) and the tension that ensues
with her family and customs. Jan Troell’s direction of the material works and
the ability to shoot on location with this film really helps its overall
credibility.
Baby It’s You is John Sayles film from 1983
starring Rosanna Arquette and Vincent Spano, who play opposites that attempt to
attract in this comedy set in the 1960’s.
Sayles handles the material well and uses the era as a way to show the
contrast between love and sex in a time when things were …different.
The Busy Body is worth seeing just for how
wacky it truly is as Sid Caesar, Anne Baxter, and Richard Pryor star in this
wild comedy romp directed surprisingly by horror filmmaker William Castle. The film was released in 1967 and looks good
for its age and has dated quite well despite being heavily branded by the
era.
The Optimists stars Peter Sellers in this 1973
film with London serving as the environment where Sellers (who is a street
performer of the time) ends up learning a lot about life and love through two
children that he crosses paths with because of their hard upbringing, yet they
have a great outlook on life, thus the title of the film. While it might not be Seller’s greatest work,
he definitely brings chemistry and magic to the role and is worth a look!
The Skull is a little gem of the bunch as
well starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in yet another horror film to
add to both of their huge resumes.
Released in 1965 and directed by cinematographer turned director Freddie
Francis who has lensed some of the more memorable films over the past
half-century, including David Lynch’s masterpiece The Elephant Man, Edward Zwick’s Glory, and Martin Scorsese’s remake of Cape Fear. The film involves
skull-collecting and most notably that of the Marquis de Sade in this
supernatural tale of murder and intrigue.
Villa Rides is one of many films about the
infamous Pancho Villa and is another gritty screenplay by Sam Peckinpah, who
handed the directing reigns to lesser known Buzz Kulik, who manages the
material well, but the film never grew to the level of something like The Professionals, which was released
in 1966, just two years prior to this film.
The most notable aspect of this film though is the amazing-as-always
performance of Yul Brynner in the title role!
The film also stars Robert Mitchum and Charles Bronson and makes for an
entertaining time.
Those Daring Young Men in their
Jaunty Jalopies AKA
Monte Carlo or Bust is of course the 1969 follow-up to the successful Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying
Machines, but lacks the scope and overall direction of that film and even
with Tony Curtis the film just can’t manage to hold much interest.
Finally
we come to the absolute diamond in the rough out of this bunch, that being
2000’s Girl on the Bridge, which
stars Daniel Auteuil and Vanessa Paradis and reminds me of the brilliant film
L’Eclisse, which is a 1962 film directed by accomplished filmmaker
Michaelangelo Antonioni. Here we meet up
with a woman on the verge of killing herself, but is suddenly swept away by a
young man working in the carnival as a knife thrower. Together their lives make more sense as they
begin their odd, yet charming love affair together. The film was shot in real Panavision and by
default looks the best in the bunch too with a 2.35 X 1 scope B&W image
that looks great, nice contrast, and appropriately grainy as well.
All of
the films (with the exception of Girl on
the Bridge) look about the same transfer wise with the overall presentation
looking a bit dated and demonstrating the weakness of the DVD format with depth,
detail, and overall color fidelity. The
transfers are all 1.78 X 1 widescreen with the exception of The Busy Body, Villa Rides, The Skull,
and Girl on the Bridge, which are
all scope films and are presented in 2.35 X 1 widescreen.
The Dolby
Digital mixes for all of the films are either Dolby Digital Stereo, although
the older titles appear to be more of a 2.0 mono mix, which serves the material
well. None of these films are sonically challenging and are sufficient with all
things considered, there are no extras to speak of, but it’s great to see some
of these lesser-known films out for the public to finally see in the home. Many of these films were never released or
were limited in their exposure on VHS and even the 12” Laserdisc to some
degree.
- Nate Goss
