Learning
To Drive (2014/Broadgreen
DVD)/Serial
(1980/Paramount/Olive Films Blu-ray)/Sleuth
(1972/Palomar/Umbrella PAL Import DVD)/Speedy
(1926/Criterion Blu-ray)
Picture:
C+/B-/C/B Sound: C/C+/C/B Extras: C-/D/D/B Films:
C/C/B-/B
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Sleuth
Import DVD is now only available from our friends at Umbrella
Entertainment in Australia, can only play on Blu-ray and/or DVD
players that can handle the PAL DVD format and can be ordered from
the link below.
Here's
the latest set of comedies for
you to know about...
Isabel
Coixet's Learning
To Drive
(2014) wants to be a slice-of-life comedy with Ben Kingsley as a
Hindu driving lesson teacher who lands up with upset student Patricia
Clarkson trying to learn how to drive late in life, which is supposed
to be a metaphor for her new life now that her marriage has fallen
apart. He's trying to find happiness in an arranged marriage, but is
also trying to help (partly out of religion, partly out of
personality) family and friends. I expected this to be even funnier,
but the script plays it too safe resulting in missed opportunities in
what could have been a smart laugh riot.
I
also did not buy the pat ending or some of the other results, but
those who like the leads will want to see this once just to see what
they think. Otherwise, it doesn't go far or do much more than we've
already seen before.
A
Photo Gallery is the only extra.
Bill
Perskey's Serial
(1980) is an attempt to be a wacky comedy in the Caddyshack,
Airplane!
and 9
To 5
cycle of subversive, counterculture comedies being made at the time,
this on about California of the time and still-prevalent hippie
culture as many had grown (or almost had grown) into adults. Perskey
had two big, important TV hits with Marlo Thomas in That
Girl
and later, Kate
& Alley.
Martin Mull (Mary
Hartman, Mary Hartman)
and Tuesday Weld play a married couple that is a bit dysfunctional,
but no matter their quirks, they are the 'new normal' versus their
friends and associates.
Their
daughter starts to get involved in a cult, their friends don't know
what to do with themselves, no matter their money or success and
between the sometimes crude dialogue (trying too hard to be funny and
rarely working) and trying to spoof any movement, trend or political
view it can along with sex items, the film is a strange time-capsule
train-wreck of a mess that was never good, but has aged in unusual
ways. Definitely, it wants to be a broader variant of a Robert
Altman film's smart-ass side, but even such Altman films at this
point (namely H.E.A.L.T.H.)
were not cohering, meaning this approach had become played out.
Still,
this is worth seeing once because of the great cast that includes
Bill Macy, an oddly cast Christopher Lee, Tina Louise, Sally
Kellerman (Altman's M*A*S*H),
Peter Bonerz, Pamela Bellwood (just before Dynasty),
Tom Smothers and the always watchable Nita Talbot. This deserves to
be out on Blu-ray and those curious should see it once, for better
and worse.
There
are no extras.
Joseph
L. Mankiewicz's Sleuth
(1972) is the film that proves Mankiewicz had more in him long after
his Cleopatra
(1963) bombed so badly, pairing Sir Lawrence Olivier (a a mystery
writer) with Michael Caine (his ex-wife's hairdresser) in a battle of
wits and wittiness written by Anthony Shaffer (The
Last Of Sheila,
Amadeus)
that Caine would revisit on some level later in Deathtrap,
Dirty
Rotten Scoundrels
and the odd remake of this film with Jude Law, the film's joy comes
from two of the greatest actors of all time taking on each other with
material up to their high talents and the highest standards.
Made
by the smaller Palomar Productions, it did well enough in its time
and people still talk about it, but I think the film is a bit
overrated, if still really well made. Like the films that followed
it like it, it takes some ideas, and just stretches them a little too
far, though it is still very smart cinema and to its credit,
something particularly British about it the later Caine films like it
and and several imitators lack. See it, especially if you never have
before.
There
are sadly no extras.
Ted
Wilde's Speedy
(1926) is
at least as much of a classic, but much funnier than I expected in
what was the great Harold Lloyd's last silent film, one of his best
films overall and a big hit in its time. He plays a guy trying to
make it in New York City (some of it was shot there, but most of it
in Hollywood with interesting results), but lands up getting in all
kinds of trouble, falling into funny events, falling for a gal and
trying in the spectacular end to save the last horse-drawn streetcar
in the entire city.
Lloyd
is in amazing form here, the supporting cast is a hoot and Babe Ruth
shows up as himself in another funny turn. An influential film, its
shocking how much is funny here, how much holds up and free-form the
film really is. Many TV sitcoms and later comedies were influenced
by it, but Lloyd was at the peak of his powers, so the energy and
pace here are superior. Speedy
is a real gem more than deserving of serious rediscovery for a few
new generations!
Extras
include an illustrated paper pullout on the film including
informative text and essay on the film by Phillip Lopate, while the
Blu-ray adds a new feature length audio commentary track by
film scholar/historians Bruce Goldstein & Scott McGee whom both
know much about this film and Lloyd et al, Goldstein's documentary
featurette In The Footsteps Of ''Speedy'' about the
locations used on the film, a second such Goldstein piece with stills
and deleted scenes from the film, rare archival footage of Babe Ruth
hosted by David Filipi, Suzanne Lloyd (Harold's daughter) narrates
some rare home movies in nice shape and Bumping Into Broadway
(1919), a Lloyd two-reeler silent short recently restored.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Drive has some weak
points, but is not bad for a new digital shoot, but it could have
been more consistent, while the anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1
image on Sleuth looks like the same older videomaster on the
film that has been kicking around for a while. Color can be good,
but it is just too soft and aged, long overdue for a HD restoration.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Serial
also has some nice shots, but the film print(s) show the age of the
materials used including more grain and dirt than expected. Color is
at least consistent mostly, but the film stocks used are only so
good.
So
amazingly, the 1080p 1.33 X 1 black and white digital High Definition
image transfer on Speedy is easily the best presentation here
despite the film being nearly 90 years old. A really impressive 4K
restoration really shows off the actors, locales and the humor works
much better when it is this clean, clear and even crisp. Some shots
are going to have minor damage or show their age, but wow, this is
impressive.
As
for sound, the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Drive
is a real disappointment with problematic soundfield, low volume
transfer and weakness overall that ties for the aged sound on the
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Sleuth.
In both cases, be careful of high volumes and volume switching. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 1.0 lossless mix on Serial
also shows its age, from a time when monophonic films were still
being issued by the major studios as Dolby Stereo (as well as
imitators like Ultra Stereo and old standby magnetic stereo) was only
starting to catch on. The results are flat and some harmonic
distortion is inherent throughout, but it is better than the DVDs.
By
default because it is a much newer recording of only instrumental
music, the PCM 2.0 Stereo on Speedy
has the best sonic performance here by default, granted you like the
music. This is silent film after all and works without it (and
well), of course.
To
order the
Umbrella PAL-format import DVD of Sleuth,
go to this link for it and other hard to get releases:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
