I’m a big fan of Dolly but some of it even I find cloying and silly. Michael Crawford at times threatens to torpedo the film single handedly with a to put it kindly mentally challenged Cornelius and even the wonderful Danny Lockin overdoes the naïve youth. But this is Kelly’s fault. It doesn’t help that Kidd’s choreography is at times more muscle exertion than the inspired dance of Band Wagon and Seven Brides. The Waiters' Gallop…oy.
Still much of it is pretty great with one of the great production designs of all time. What do you expect with Irene Sharaff and DeCuir given an unlimited budget? I’ve never gotten the over produced objections. Have you ever seen pictures of 14th Street and parades at the beginning the 20th Century? And this is a big splashy musical so we’re talking the scale of DW Griffith’s Babylonia here.
And yeah Streisand kills it. Funny Girl hadn’t even been released yet and she confidently leads a cast of thousands as if she were leading the storming of the Bastille. Her confidence is kind of scary. And she’s at her vocal peak taking a role not known for its vocal demands and turning it into a musical tour de force.
The bluray is a stunner. I always get a kick out of seeing the fibers and textures of the fabric of the costumes and seeing what I always thought were Dolly’s white cloth arm length gloves in the Harmonia Garden are actually calfskin.
A better film yes and it should have opened at the Music Hall instead of Where Were You. Though it could have used another and less racist title.
Walk Don’t Run was another swan song that should have played the Hall and inscrutably didn’t. Even the Times reviewer wondered why and for Grant’s last film he was disappointed it wasn’t chosen.‘66 had some pretty bad films shown there so it wasn’t because it wasn’t good enough. Ironic that in a couple of years the movies that played there would be from hunger.
They are never the movies I want to see or gain anything being seen on the Music Hall screen. Of course the movies I would want to see there would be attended by a total of 10 people.
1776 was probably the biggest Music Hall hit that went down like the Andrea Doria everywhere else. 2 and a half hours trapped in the revolutionary congressional chamber with a crew of Broadway musical hams. I still shudder when I recall it.
The comedy that Day’s audience wanted to see(Doris Day in the New York City blackout!)but a major disappointment to that audience which is why it bombed when it left Radio City. Like Darling Lili a Music Hall hit which nobody wanted to see outside of the Music Hall. It pretty much sunk her Hollywood career.
The first show I saw here was The Rothschilds. It was a big disappointment in that I had no idea they had stripped it of all its interior decoration. Of course bigger disappointments were to come with The Uris and The Minskoff but up until then it was the worst interior of a musical house I ever saw. I haven’t seen the restoration but I’m happy Disney did not rename the theater The Michael Eisner. Though it still could be The Bob Iger.
An elegant theater where I saw El Cid and The Sound of Music in beautiful prints. And though it did not have a huge screen they were satisfying experiences.
$5.00 though was not unheard of. Roadshow movies were charging more than that for the best seats since ‘64.
Sorry about the 245 minutes. I meant 2hours and 45 minutes but as noted it is exactly 2 hours and 52 minutes.
Still the article raises more questions than it answers and the most recent bluray is highly deceptive. I haven’t opened it yet but from the outside it is unclear as to what you are getting. They say ‘Theatrical Version.’ What’s that exactly? Oh it’s the second run general release cut version (which was cut probably for commercial reasons as in getting in more performances per day than sensitive subject matter.) But they don’t say that. Second disc is Extended Road Show version. Well isn’t that a Theatrical Version as well? And did they extend the road show version? You mean it’s more than 172 minutes?
Sorry this release is sloppy and that In 70mm article is a mess. “We created a new interpositive from the original negative,” Original negative? Does that mean the complete Todd AO version? Samples from the Danish road show version that ran 4 years? Where’s the rest of it? But they found a print in an archive in England? What happened to those Todd AO reels I saw delivered in the lobby of the Warner Cinerama? Did they end up in England? Fox treated its legacy very badly.
South Pacific deserved a complete restoration of the entire roadshow film which Fox makes you think you are getting. If I had looked closer I would have realized they were pulling a fast one and not have purchased it.
And did Fox get the Magna production film elements? Because if they did that would be a disaster. And considering their tragic handling of their film legacy it explains why there hasn’t been a stateside Todd AO restoration. The original elements are probably under some southern California freeway. Did Oklahoma survive because Goldwyn productions got their hands on it?
I haven’t seen the recent SP bluray but is the general release print a restoration and from what? It would have been in 35mm. So would it have been restored from a 35mm print? And what about the second disc? What exactly is it? The general release print inserting poor dupes of the missing 15 minutes? Wow is this confusing.
I wish I could find the article about the restoration of a complete 245 minute Todd AO print in Denmark. I fell down a 70mm article rabbit hole and came across it. Now of course I can’t find it. The article was about somewhere from 2010-2012. There was no discussion of any dvd that I can recall. It was just on film. Does this mean that the original elements were tossed so that in the US no restoration was attempted of the Todd AO production? This is amazing considering what was done with Oklahoma and South Pacific was a much bigger international hit with maybe the roadshow long run record of all time.
I’d give anything to see Fall of the Roman Empire in a theater.
I managed to see Barabbas in one which I never thought would happen. A wonderful but very bleak film. I imagine it did not do well on roadshow and very few people seem to remember it.
Have you seen 80 Days and South Pacific in Todd AO? I’ve tried watching the former on TV and found it unwatchable. I imagine on a large Todd AO screen it might be a different animal. Interesting that no restoration of this film has ever been attempted but there doesn’t seem to be much interest. Maybe none of the original elements exist. It seems nobody ever even asked Liz Taylor about it.
South Pacific on the screen in Todd AO at the Warner Cinerama had me enjoying it a lot more than I ever had and the 6 track sound was great. The opening notes of Bali Hai had me pinned to the back of the theater. As I’ve noted the new blu rau DVD restoration is 15 minutes short. The second disc is complete but not restored. But the restoration in Denmark years ago was complete. I guess the people who did the new DVD don’t know there’s a thing called Google.
I certainly did not mean to offend any individual by referring to a film as a bomb. I will refrain from terming any film as such except a couple of personal favorites which I sadly have to admit were indeed roadshow bombs. Does Paint Your Wagon count?
Good book and documentary though I don’t remember him talking about those films. But there’s a lot of info and I remember mostly about Steve, Ali and what an ungrateful wretch Ryan was(is.) Who did he blame Great Gatsby on?
Paramount in ‘70 and '71 stayed true to the Music Hall.
Great ad and I saw it at the Fox in Hackensack which you see listed. however its reserved seat engagement was anything but sensational.
I’m a big fan of Dolly but some of it even I find cloying and silly. Michael Crawford at times threatens to torpedo the film single handedly with a to put it kindly mentally challenged Cornelius and even the wonderful Danny Lockin overdoes the naïve youth. But this is Kelly’s fault. It doesn’t help that Kidd’s choreography is at times more muscle exertion than the inspired dance of Band Wagon and Seven Brides. The Waiters' Gallop…oy.
Still much of it is pretty great with one of the great production designs of all time. What do you expect with Irene Sharaff and DeCuir given an unlimited budget? I’ve never gotten the over produced objections. Have you ever seen pictures of 14th Street and parades at the beginning the 20th Century? And this is a big splashy musical so we’re talking the scale of DW Griffith’s Babylonia here.
And yeah Streisand kills it. Funny Girl hadn’t even been released yet and she confidently leads a cast of thousands as if she were leading the storming of the Bastille. Her confidence is kind of scary. And she’s at her vocal peak taking a role not known for its vocal demands and turning it into a musical tour de force.
The bluray is a stunner. I always get a kick out of seeing the fibers and textures of the fabric of the costumes and seeing what I always thought were Dolly’s white cloth arm length gloves in the Harmonia Garden are actually calfskin.
A better film yes and it should have opened at the Music Hall instead of Where Were You. Though it could have used another and less racist title.
Walk Don’t Run was another swan song that should have played the Hall and inscrutably didn’t. Even the Times reviewer wondered why and for Grant’s last film he was disappointed it wasn’t chosen.‘66 had some pretty bad films shown there so it wasn’t because it wasn’t good enough. Ironic that in a couple of years the movies that played there would be from hunger.
They are never the movies I want to see or gain anything being seen on the Music Hall screen. Of course the movies I would want to see there would be attended by a total of 10 people.
Liza’s next appearance on the Music Hall screen would be in her father’s A Matter of Time 27 years later.
1776 was probably the biggest Music Hall hit that went down like the Andrea Doria everywhere else. 2 and a half hours trapped in the revolutionary congressional chamber with a crew of Broadway musical hams. I still shudder when I recall it.
The comedy that Day’s audience wanted to see(Doris Day in the New York City blackout!)but a major disappointment to that audience which is why it bombed when it left Radio City. Like Darling Lili a Music Hall hit which nobody wanted to see outside of the Music Hall. It pretty much sunk her Hollywood career.
The first show I saw here was The Rothschilds. It was a big disappointment in that I had no idea they had stripped it of all its interior decoration. Of course bigger disappointments were to come with The Uris and The Minskoff but up until then it was the worst interior of a musical house I ever saw. I haven’t seen the restoration but I’m happy Disney did not rename the theater The Michael Eisner. Though it still could be The Bob Iger.
An elegant theater where I saw El Cid and The Sound of Music in beautiful prints. And though it did not have a huge screen they were satisfying experiences.
$5.00 though was not unheard of. Roadshow movies were charging more than that for the best seats since ‘64.
If they’d present this with Serenade To The Stars I’d go.
Sorry about the 245 minutes. I meant 2hours and 45 minutes but as noted it is exactly 2 hours and 52 minutes.
Still the article raises more questions than it answers and the most recent bluray is highly deceptive. I haven’t opened it yet but from the outside it is unclear as to what you are getting. They say ‘Theatrical Version.’ What’s that exactly? Oh it’s the second run general release cut version (which was cut probably for commercial reasons as in getting in more performances per day than sensitive subject matter.) But they don’t say that. Second disc is Extended Road Show version. Well isn’t that a Theatrical Version as well? And did they extend the road show version? You mean it’s more than 172 minutes?
Sorry this release is sloppy and that In 70mm article is a mess. “We created a new interpositive from the original negative,” Original negative? Does that mean the complete Todd AO version? Samples from the Danish road show version that ran 4 years? Where’s the rest of it? But they found a print in an archive in England? What happened to those Todd AO reels I saw delivered in the lobby of the Warner Cinerama? Did they end up in England? Fox treated its legacy very badly.
South Pacific deserved a complete restoration of the entire roadshow film which Fox makes you think you are getting. If I had looked closer I would have realized they were pulling a fast one and not have purchased it.
OK talk about confusing. So what happened to this?
https://www.in70mm.com/news/2006/south_pacific/index.htm
And did Fox get the Magna production film elements? Because if they did that would be a disaster. And considering their tragic handling of their film legacy it explains why there hasn’t been a stateside Todd AO restoration. The original elements are probably under some southern California freeway. Did Oklahoma survive because Goldwyn productions got their hands on it?
I haven’t seen the recent SP bluray but is the general release print a restoration and from what? It would have been in 35mm. So would it have been restored from a 35mm print? And what about the second disc? What exactly is it? The general release print inserting poor dupes of the missing 15 minutes? Wow is this confusing.
I wish I could find the article about the restoration of a complete 245 minute Todd AO print in Denmark. I fell down a 70mm article rabbit hole and came across it. Now of course I can’t find it. The article was about somewhere from 2010-2012. There was no discussion of any dvd that I can recall. It was just on film. Does this mean that the original elements were tossed so that in the US no restoration was attempted of the Todd AO production? This is amazing considering what was done with Oklahoma and South Pacific was a much bigger international hit with maybe the roadshow long run record of all time.
I’d give anything to see Fall of the Roman Empire in a theater. I managed to see Barabbas in one which I never thought would happen. A wonderful but very bleak film. I imagine it did not do well on roadshow and very few people seem to remember it.
I wonder if ISZ could be restored to its Cinerama dimensions. I saw it in the suburbs as a boy.
Have you seen 80 Days and South Pacific in Todd AO? I’ve tried watching the former on TV and found it unwatchable. I imagine on a large Todd AO screen it might be a different animal. Interesting that no restoration of this film has ever been attempted but there doesn’t seem to be much interest. Maybe none of the original elements exist. It seems nobody ever even asked Liz Taylor about it.
South Pacific on the screen in Todd AO at the Warner Cinerama had me enjoying it a lot more than I ever had and the 6 track sound was great. The opening notes of Bali Hai had me pinned to the back of the theater. As I’ve noted the new blu rau DVD restoration is 15 minutes short. The second disc is complete but not restored. But the restoration in Denmark years ago was complete. I guess the people who did the new DVD don’t know there’s a thing called Google.
NYer If Lerner and Loewe, Andre Previn, Nelson Riddle and Joshua Logan considered it singing who are you or I to say it wasn’t?
Yes that’s the film. I used the English translation. Do you know what cinema that was? It was pretty large.
Mr DeLuca do you know which cinema was used when Sandrelli worked as an usher in I knew Her Well?
Any film containing Lee Marvin singing Wanderin Star is a success in my heart.
I certainly did not mean to offend any individual by referring to a film as a bomb. I will refrain from terming any film as such except a couple of personal favorites which I sadly have to admit were indeed roadshow bombs. Does Paint Your Wagon count?
Many of the acts are meh. The best thing about this movie is Jack Benny as the interlocutor. He is wonderful.
Yes! I liked them. I thought they were pretty funny. They might be also in the souvenir program which is somewhere…
Good book and documentary though I don’t remember him talking about those films. But there’s a lot of info and I remember mostly about Steve, Ali and what an ungrateful wretch Ryan was(is.) Who did he blame Great Gatsby on?
Paramount in ‘70 and '71 stayed true to the Music Hall.