Savant's new reviews today are
Happy Monday ... I just got a report from a correspondent who went to three of the American Cinematheque's 70mm screenings
this weekend:
"Hi Glenn. Jacques Tati's PLAYTIME looked great, and made more sense on the big screen than on the soft, cropped
VHS I saw years ago. Considering that it's largely an indictment of modern living, the tone of the film is curiously gentle.
The brand-new Todd-AO print of THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES was truly stunning, almost like an IMAX movie. Scott McQueen worked with Fox to have the new print ready for the 100th anniversary of flight. Stuart Whitman (who didn't seem to remember much) and Ken Annakin did a Q&A after the movie. Annakin said that Peter Sellers was originally going to play both the Gert Frobe and Terry-Thomas roles; Dick Van Dyke was to have Whitman's part. The film was offered to UA, but they turned it down because they were gambling on MAD WORLD.
The film itself isn't very funny, but it's harmless, amiable fluff. Whitman is the weak link in the cast--they needed someone with more charisma or star power. Terry-Thomas can take almost any material and make it amusing; I wish his part had been bigger.
The IT'S A MAD MAD MAD WORLD print was O.K. overall, but the color timing was a little off in some scenes; it's like watching a first answer print that needs a bit of tweaking. They did include the intermission police calls that inform the audience what's going on during the break. We're told at one point that "The little boy is throwing rocks at Otto Meyer now", and later that "Otto Meyer is on a rock in the middle of the stream yelling at the little boy, even though he's been gone for 20 minutes.""
In addition to the Savant reviews above, I've added a short notice to the DVDTalk review database only: Annie (1982).
You also might want to revisit the review of Swing Shift if you're interested in Jonathan Demme's suppressed original cut for that film ... there's a link to an article that goes into it in detail. Thanks for reading, Glenn E.
Posted by DVD Savant at January 26, 2004 05:43 PM