Half A Sixpence
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: D Film: C
George
Sidney passed away back in 2002, but was a successful journeyman director who
ended his career with a few Musical films.
After favorites Bye Bye Birdie
(1963) and Viva Las Vegas (1964),
the latter being one of the few watchable “Elvis Musicals” that almost buried
The King artistically, Robert Wise’s The
Sound Of Music (1965) shocked
Hollywood by being a huge hit for Fox at a time the studios were all struggling
against changing tastes, social unrest, and especially TV. Paramount Pictures’ British division decides
to back Half A Sixpence.
It was
released in 1967, but did not do well either critically or commercially, as Hollywood over-gambled on the genre. It was soon scooped both critically and
commercially by Sir Carol Reed’s grossly overrated Oliver!, which inexplicably won the Best Picture Academy Award over
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey!!! That deserves more exclamation points than
Reed’s film, demonstrating the older Hollywood thinking to stick with something
safe and conservative. Sixpence stars Tommy Steele and Julia
Foster as childhood friends who become reunited and engaged ill-advisedly
afterwards. The story musically follows
the ups and downs of the boy-meets-girl scenario for a vast majority of the
endless 145-minutes running time of the picture.
The
actors and dancers are giving it there all, but the work based on H.G. Wells’
(of all people) book Kipps never
ends. It is beautifully staged at times
by Sidney, and the cinematography by
Geoffrey Unsworth, B.S.C., who also shot much of 2001. It is an ambitious and
good-looking work, with many sets to boot, but only die hard genre fans and
some children are going to get anything out of this, especially in repeat
viewings. The songs by Irwin Kostal and
David Heneker are forgettable, while the Beverly Cross screenplay is so
book-like as to be restrictive, often beyond belief. Dorothy Kingsley adapted the material in the
first place and deserves some blame as well.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 Panavision image is presented here pretty
completely, a plus for the DVD, and the three-strip Technicolor Unsworth shot
it for is apparent throughout. However,
it is not a real dye-transfer print, nor does it have the dye-transfer
look. The print material is clean, but
is often lacks definition in the finer details beyond how the full frame is
presented on the DVD. That makes it a curio
visually. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
offers Pro Logic-type surrounds and was derived from the 6-track magnetic
stereo sound from the 70mm blow-ups the studio issued. Traveling dialogue and sound effects from the
front speakers are limited, but do exist.
There are no extras, which is remarkable for such a huge
production. If Paramount wanted to spark new interest in
the film, they would have issued a loaded DVD.
Here, you do not even get a trailer.
It was a
series of bombs like this that caused Gulf & Western to seriously consider
closing Paramount Pictures. Fortunately,
Robert Evans changed their mind and the studio was on a huge winning
streak. By 1967, people were more
interested in The Beatles and I do not remember anyone British in Sound Of Music. Half A
Sixpence became Sidney’s final film, but it was not a
career ended on a total whimper, it was just time for an era to end and this
film helps to mark the end of it well; even though it rarely works.
- Nicholas Sheffo
