April
Love (1957/Fox/Twilight
Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Manh(a)ttan:
Season One (2014/aka
Manhattan: Season
One/Lionsgate
Blu-ray)/Michael Collins
(1996/Geffen Pictures/Warner Archive DVD)/Richard
III (1995/United
Artists/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)
Picture:
B/B/C+/B Sound: B-/B-/C+/B+ Extras: B-/C+/C+/C+ Main
Programs: C+/C+/C+/B
PLEASE
NOTE:
The April
Love
and Richard
III
Blu-rays are now only available from our friends at Twilight Time,
are limited to only 3,000 copies each and can be ordered while
supplies last, while Michael
Collins
is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive
series. All can be ordered from the links below.
The
following take us to the dark side of the past, even if the opening
film seems like just a lite musical...
Henry
Levin's melodramatic sometimes-musical April
Love
(1957) showed off then-popular Pat Boone (who made the title song one
his 6 #1 hits and possibly the biggest hit single he ever had) with
Shirley Jones and Dolores Michaels competing for his 'affections' in
this sappy CinemaScope romp that has as many cliches as it has stocks
of wheat or hay. Boone was at his early peak, doing better his own
new material than watered-down Soul and Rock records, while Jones was
a rising star known for Musicals, but who could do more.
The
boy meets/looses/gets gal story is of the 'perfect' post-WWII America
kind, yet there are some dark sides to the tale, the kind of darkness
that would inevitably creep into such stories (but are usually absent
from their cleansed revival since the 1980s) making this a
nice-looking time capsule of the time and an America that never
really existed. Jeanette Nolan and Arthur O'Connell show up to give
the proceedings some weight, but this remains a for-fans-only affair
and I can see why Fox is giving it the Twilight Time Limited Edition
Blu-ray treatment. Nice it is all fixed up.
Extras
include a nicely illustrated booklet on the film including
informative text and an essay by Julie Kirgo on the film, while the
Blu-ray adds a new feature length audio commentary track by
film scholar Nick Redman and co-star Shirley Jones, Original
Theatrical Trailer and Isolated
Music Track of the music including vocals.
Manh(a)ttan:
Season One (2014) is an
ambitious, if somewhat disappointing TV series on the making of the
nuclear bombs that saved the free world and ended WWII via The
Manhattan Project. The cast is really good, the clothing and sets
add up and there are some good moments here, but the teleplays are
hit and miss, sometimes having more dull stretches than a show on
this subject should ever
have. We meet a few famous names involved in the affair, but most
are representative of those usually nameless persons who had to live
in the middle of a makeshift town to get the bomb(s) made.
This
runs a somewhat lucky 13 hours and the downs were somewhat worth
bearing for the up moments, but this show is going to really need to
pick it up in its sophomore season or it should get axed. It is not
bad-looking overall and will remind many of Mad
Men, but a little more on
the actual making (think the underrated film Fat
Man & Little Boy, for
instance) would help. It's worth a look, but have some patience.
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes
capable devices, a paper slip of paper with episode guide synopses,
while the Blu-ray adds audio commentary tracks on select episodes and
four Making Of featurettes.
Neil
Jordan's epic biopic of Michael
Collins (1996) is
remarkable in that it got made in any version and by a major movie
studio considering it is about a man (pre 9/11 or not) who got
tougher using terroristic tactics to get Great Britain to start to
give Ireland (at least some) autonomy. It has a great cast with Liam
Neeson as the title character, Aidan Quinn, Alan Rickman, Stephen
Rea, Sean McGinley, Brendan Gleeson, Gerald McSorley, Charles Dance,
Johnathan Rhys Myers and even Julia Roberts.
It
looks good, has the money in it and also gets its period detail
correct for the most part. The use of more vintage film footage than
usual is not a problem, but the film is flat throughout and never
picks up, especially since Jordan (by his own admission, though it
feels manipulated)
even
admits to taking more than a few liberties with history and that
backfires on a film that needed all the help it could get in dealing
with such a serious subject. The British do not become too
cartoonish, but there are too many close shots and pacing problems
throughout that stopped it from being a great film. It still has its
admirers and credit to Geffen Pictures for backing it when they
could, made before David Geffen co-founded DreamWorks SKG. It too is
worth a look, but I was as disappointed now as then when I first saw
it.
Extras
include the Original Theatrical Trailer and a vintage documentary
running just over 53 minutes.
Last
but not least is the best release on the list, Richard Loncraine's
film of Richard Eyre's WWII-esque updating of Shakespeare's Richard
III (1995), starring Sir
Ian McKellen (who did the role on stage, then co-wrote and
co-produced this film version) as the title character, now recast as
a founder of Classical Fascism and the Axis Powers in what was part
of a cycle of adaptations of The Bard set in more contemporary
surroundings and even in a post-modern (think mix of styles) mode.
This was a smart move since Sir Laurence Olivier made his stunning
1955 big screen VistaVision version of the original in its time
period, as issued by Criterion in this terrific edition reviewed at
this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12139/Richard+III+(1955/Olivier/London/Lopert/Criterion
The
makers had to do something different and they did, pulling off a
pretty impressive transformation of the work and making I work just
fine for the big screen like Julie Taymor's version of Titus
(also issued by Twilight Time on Blu-ray, also on this site) and
other various updatings. Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, Annette
Benning, Jim Broadbent, Nigel Hawthorne, Robert Downey Jr., Jim
Carter and John Wood in a film that was well promoted and received,
but did not do as well or get the credit it deserved at the time.
This new Blu-ray helps correct that, even if only 3,000 copies will
be pressed. See it if you are a fan of any of the cast or have not
seen enough Shakespeare on film. You won't be sorry.
Extras
include another nicely illustrated booklet on the film including
informative text and solid Julie Kirgo essay on the film, while the
Blu-ray adds an Original Theatrical Trailer and Isolated Music &
Sound Effects track.
All
three Blu-ray releases have solid picture performance with only minor
issues, starting with the 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High
Definition image on April and Richard, which use their
wide scope frames well, but April has some minor rough spots
due to the age of the film and use of older CinemaScope lenses, while
Richard has some dated effects and minor image flaws at times
from an otherwise impressive Super 35mm film shoot which is clearer
that April with some good color throughout.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Manh(a)ttan
is a digital shoot styled down to look slightly dated to signify it
takes place in the past, but we get many shots where there is slight
softness that gets in the way of detail and legibility of some text.
Otherwise, the presentation is consistent to what is being attempted
and very watchable.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image Collins is the poor
performer here, but also nicely shot and stylized throughout, so the
lower standard definition of the DVD is the main culprit, as a
Blu-ray would surely be able to more than compete with the other
releases on the list.
As
for sound, all three Blu-rays offer DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1
lossless mixes that may be too laid back for some as is the case on
April
and Manhattan,
or bombastic (maybe too much for some, but not for me, even if it can
be slightly edgy) on Richard.
Despite some minor reservations, Richard
is easily the sonic winner here and its punch really helps.
That
leaves the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Collins,
showing some life, but really needing a lossless 5.1 mix on Blu-ray
to bring out the good sound mixing and design on the film. This is
passable, but by no means a representation of what the film really
sounds like.
To
order April
Love
and Richard
III
limited edition Blu-rays, buy them while supplies last among other
great exclusives, at this link:
www.screenarchives.com
… and
to order the Michael
Collins
Warner Archive DVD, go to this link for them and many more great
web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
