And Now, for Something Light and Meaningless
I've been buying a lot of dvds lately; every time I walk into J&R Music I see something that seems incredibly cheap for what it is, usually $5 or $6. In order of importance they are:
Orson Welles' "Mr. Arkadin" - shot on the cheap over several years, this quirky little film has its faults: the dialogue is dubbed badly in many places; there is barely the indication that there was ever a plot. And yet, it is hypnotic. Utilizing many of the same tricks he used in "Citizen Kane" -- the low angle shots, the high-contrast black and white film; the barebone sets -- he follows a a smuggler of some sort to a mysterious castle where he meets the heavily made-up Welles playing the title character, a cross between Howard Hughes and Aristotle Onassis. Not his best work, but, an important addition to a videophile's library.
"[Classic]Variety Shows" - This is worth getting if for no other reason than that it includes about six shows from the old Colgate Comedy Hour With Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, a real discovery for people who only know Lewis from his maudlin annual Muscular Dystrophy telethons. Believe it or not he was actually funny at one time in his career. The same is true, to a lesser extent for singer Dean Martin who shows an early knack for good-humored, self-deprecating charm as Lewis' straight man. The physical impact of seeing Lewis as a thirty year old (he looks even younger) strikes you like a baseball bat to the solar plexus. He comes across as a scrawny, manic-depressive with a real animal magnetism that is scary to look at, at times. The only comparison would be to a kind of cross between Jim Carrey and the late Sammy Davis, Jr. (I'm serious.) At $14.00 it's worth checking out.
"The Adventures of Long John Silver" - No, not the porno star of a generation ago, but, a collection of British actor, Robert Newton's last starring venture as the notorious pirate. Fans of the Johnny Depp film, "Pirates of the Caribbean" may be interested to know that the whole "Arrrh" schtick was perfected by Newton's portrayal of Silver in a British production of "Treasure Island" that later came to be known as "Walt Disney's Treasure Island" when that studio bought the American distribution rights in 1950. In 1955, an Australian television company hired Newton to reprise the role in a series of half-hour plots that supposed Long John as a semi-retired rascal who from time to time came to the aid of a British protectorate "somewhere on the Spanish Main." The production values are pretty good considering it was only a t.v. program -- and one of the few that were filmed in color at the time. Newton, who had appeared in dozens of roles, most notably as Bill Sykes in Ronald Neame's version of "Oliver Twist" [EDIT: actually, Neame was the producer; directing credit would go to the late great David Lean], would die in Australia after working only about a year on the eponymous t.v. show with which he would be forever identified.
"The Real McCoys" - I'd heard that they'd been on cable's Nick At Night for years, but I hadn't seen them since they left network syndication when I was a toddler. What a welcome sight to see Walter Brennan in the role most boomers would remember him by -- Grandpa Amos "the head of the clan", a kind of pre-"Beverly Hillbillies" swipe at mountain folk who wind up starting over in California's San Joaquin Valley. Like Brennan (a four time Academy Award winner for Best Supporting Actor), co-stars Richard Crenna ("First Blood") and Kathleen Nolan are veteran Hollywood actors who bonded so well as an ensemble cast that lots of people (my North Carolina grandmother included) actually thought they were a farming family.
"Private Secretary" - the vehicle that brought two-time Academy Award nominee (for "Letter to Three Wives" and "The Whales [of August"]), Ann Sothern to television in 1956 as Susie McNamara, a kind of road company "His Girl Friday" to media mogul, Mr. Sands (played by Don Porter.) The plots are strictly mysoginistic one-liners regarding Susie's status as a woman in "a man's world", but, Sothern manages to be both smart and stylish and usually gains the upper hand by the end of each show.
"The Jack Benny Show" (Volumes I thru IV are available separately) - a few of these shows have been around for years in VHS format. Having a dvd devoted to six of them at a time is a real treat for old fans. The format is handsome and comes with many of the original commercial breaks and product placements. It is hard to believe that Benny was still doing a weekly radio show as late as 1954; apparently, he wasn't sure t.v. would last. Like many of his Hollywood contemporaries, Benny perfected a bank vault of controlled tics and quirks that with careful pruning and in some cases -- nurturing -- grew with audiences over the years. These dvds show a good sample of them and give a hint as to why he and just a handful of other radio comedians (Hope, Burns&Allen, Red Skelton, among others) were able to make the successful transition to television.
Orson Welles' "Mr. Arkadin" - shot on the cheap over several years, this quirky little film has its faults: the dialogue is dubbed badly in many places; there is barely the indication that there was ever a plot. And yet, it is hypnotic. Utilizing many of the same tricks he used in "Citizen Kane" -- the low angle shots, the high-contrast black and white film; the barebone sets -- he follows a a smuggler of some sort to a mysterious castle where he meets the heavily made-up Welles playing the title character, a cross between Howard Hughes and Aristotle Onassis. Not his best work, but, an important addition to a videophile's library.
"[Classic]Variety Shows" - This is worth getting if for no other reason than that it includes about six shows from the old Colgate Comedy Hour With Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, a real discovery for people who only know Lewis from his maudlin annual Muscular Dystrophy telethons. Believe it or not he was actually funny at one time in his career. The same is true, to a lesser extent for singer Dean Martin who shows an early knack for good-humored, self-deprecating charm as Lewis' straight man. The physical impact of seeing Lewis as a thirty year old (he looks even younger) strikes you like a baseball bat to the solar plexus. He comes across as a scrawny, manic-depressive with a real animal magnetism that is scary to look at, at times. The only comparison would be to a kind of cross between Jim Carrey and the late Sammy Davis, Jr. (I'm serious.) At $14.00 it's worth checking out.
"The Adventures of Long John Silver" - No, not the porno star of a generation ago, but, a collection of British actor, Robert Newton's last starring venture as the notorious pirate. Fans of the Johnny Depp film, "Pirates of the Caribbean" may be interested to know that the whole "Arrrh" schtick was perfected by Newton's portrayal of Silver in a British production of "Treasure Island" that later came to be known as "Walt Disney's Treasure Island" when that studio bought the American distribution rights in 1950. In 1955, an Australian television company hired Newton to reprise the role in a series of half-hour plots that supposed Long John as a semi-retired rascal who from time to time came to the aid of a British protectorate "somewhere on the Spanish Main." The production values are pretty good considering it was only a t.v. program -- and one of the few that were filmed in color at the time. Newton, who had appeared in dozens of roles, most notably as Bill Sykes in Ronald Neame's version of "Oliver Twist" [EDIT: actually, Neame was the producer; directing credit would go to the late great David Lean], would die in Australia after working only about a year on the eponymous t.v. show with which he would be forever identified.
"The Real McCoys" - I'd heard that they'd been on cable's Nick At Night for years, but I hadn't seen them since they left network syndication when I was a toddler. What a welcome sight to see Walter Brennan in the role most boomers would remember him by -- Grandpa Amos "the head of the clan", a kind of pre-"Beverly Hillbillies" swipe at mountain folk who wind up starting over in California's San Joaquin Valley. Like Brennan (a four time Academy Award winner for Best Supporting Actor), co-stars Richard Crenna ("First Blood") and Kathleen Nolan are veteran Hollywood actors who bonded so well as an ensemble cast that lots of people (my North Carolina grandmother included) actually thought they were a farming family.
"Private Secretary" - the vehicle that brought two-time Academy Award nominee (for "Letter to Three Wives" and "The Whales [of August"]), Ann Sothern to television in 1956 as Susie McNamara, a kind of road company "His Girl Friday" to media mogul, Mr. Sands (played by Don Porter.) The plots are strictly mysoginistic one-liners regarding Susie's status as a woman in "a man's world", but, Sothern manages to be both smart and stylish and usually gains the upper hand by the end of each show.
"The Jack Benny Show" (Volumes I thru IV are available separately) - a few of these shows have been around for years in VHS format. Having a dvd devoted to six of them at a time is a real treat for old fans. The format is handsome and comes with many of the original commercial breaks and product placements. It is hard to believe that Benny was still doing a weekly radio show as late as 1954; apparently, he wasn't sure t.v. would last. Like many of his Hollywood contemporaries, Benny perfected a bank vault of controlled tics and quirks that with careful pruning and in some cases -- nurturing -- grew with audiences over the years. These dvds show a good sample of them and give a hint as to why he and just a handful of other radio comedians (Hope, Burns&Allen, Red Skelton, among others) were able to make the successful transition to television.