Blu-ray Review My Fair Lady: 50th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Carlo_M]

I could fill an entire page with praise for the A/V quality of this release, extolling it's various and numerous virtues. But instead I'll just say Thank You Mr. Harris for giving this movie the A+++ treatment it deserves for home theaters. I look forward to repurchasing the 4K UHD release of this in the coming years when that format becomes prevalent for home use. In the meantime, for those on the fence, IMO this literally the best this movie can look and sound for the home environment.

 

[MSC77]

Given all of the recent chatter here about “My Fair Lady,” I suppose I ought to pass along the link to the recently-published article done for my film history column at The Digital Bits. The piece includes an overview of its roadshow release and a historian interview segment. Do give the article a peek if you're a fan of the film and/or of the roadshow era.


http://www.thedigitalbits.com/columns/history-legacy--showmanship/my-fair-lady-50th

 

[PMF]

Wish I could get to a HTF meet.


Meanwhile, let's not forget that Matt gave the restoration of "MFL" a 5/5 scoring for BOTH the Video and Audio Quality.

the final 4.5 score was a factoring in of the supplements.

 

[PMF]

Does anyone know why Theadore Bikel's credit states his character's identity? I find it very odd- I don't think I've ever seen such a credit for such a minor role by a virtually unknown film actor- it's not like he was some famous star from the past. Eleanor Parker as "The Baroness" in The Sound of Music I can understand as she was a star of many films.

Don't forget that Mr. Bikel had guest appearances in:


"Law and Order"

"L.A. Law"

"Murder, She Wrote"

"All In The Family"

"Falcon Crest"

"Dynasty"

"Knight Rider"

"Trapper John, M.D."

"Fantasy Island"

"Police Woman" (which means he met Angie)

"Columbo"

"Charlie's Angels"

"Little House on The Prairie"

"Mod Squad"

"Canon"

"Hawaii Five-O"

"The Twilight Zone"

"Alfred Hitchcock Presents"

"Gunsmoke"

AND

"Rawhide", to name but a few.



Films:

"Sweet November"

"My Side of The Mountain"

"The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming"

"I Want to Live"

"The Defiant Ones"

AND

"The African Queen"


Somewhere, in there, he found some time in his schedule to do "My Fair Lady".

 

[Noel Aguirre]

Don't forget that Mr. Bikel had guest appearances in:

"Law and Order"
"L.A. Law"
"Murder, She Wrote"
"All In The Family"
"Falcon Crest"
"Dynasty"
"Knight Rider"
"Trapper John, M.D."
"Fantasy Island"
"Police Woman" (which means he met Angie)
"Columbo"
"Charlie's Angels"
"Little House on The Prairie"
"Mod Squad"
"Canon"
"Hawaii Five-O"
"The Twilight Zone"
"Alfred Hitchcock Presents"
"Gunsmoke"
AND
"Rawhide", to name but a few.

Films:
"Sweet November"
"My Side of The Mountain"
"The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming"
"I Want to Live"
"The Defiant Ones"
AND
"The African Queen"

Somewhere, in there, he found some time in his schedule to do "My Fair Lady".

Was he in Back to the Future too- riding a DeLorean time machine to star in all you mention that came after MFL?
Bottom line like someone said- he had a great agent.

Back to the film.- There is a weird editing choice at the ball with Mr. Bikel when he tries to cut in on the dance with Eliza. First he's on the extreme right side of the screen, then the extreme left, then the middle. Does anyone else find it odd?

 

[PMF]

Your description of these edits certainly fits the lyrics of "You Did It".

Read, or hear, the ways in which Higgins interpreted the character of Zoltan Karpathy.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I wonder if Audrey Hepburn also appeared with Bikel on that episode of Fantasy Island?


Or maybe Audra Lindley instead?!?

 

[Noel Aguirre]

Your description of these edits certainly fits the lyrics of "You Did It".
Read, or hear, the ways in which Higgins interpreted the character of Zoltan Karpathy.

That's very funny. This film is so much fun to watch- I'm headed to Palm Spring Thanksgiving week and my hostess with the mostest projects movies on the side of her house for night time viewing so I'm bringing this.

 

[nedinme]

Watched the movie yesterday....AWSOME to say the least. It is a beautiful transfer and a terrific film. I haven't looked at the other discs in the set. With that said, I just read Bill Hunt's column on "The Digital Bits" site and he indicated that ".we’re getting reports that people are having trouble with Disc Two of CBS’ new My Fair Lady Blu-ray. We’re looking into it." Anyone have any information on this??

 

[Mark-P]

Watched the movie yesterday....AWSOME to say the least. It is a beautiful transfer and a terrific film. I haven't looked at the other discs in the set. With that said, I just read Bill Hunt's column on "The Digital Bits" site and he indicated that ".we’re getting reports that people are having trouble with Disc Two of CBS’ new My Fair Lady Blu-ray. We’re looking into it." Anyone have any information on this??

Here's a whole thread on it, for your reading enjoyment: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/topic/343931-my-fair-lady-50th-anniversary-edition-defective-second-disc

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Don't forget that Mr. Bikel had guest appearances in:


"Law and Order"

"L.A. Law"

"Murder, She Wrote"

"All In The Family"

"Falcon Crest"

"Dynasty"

"Knight Rider"

"Trapper John, M.D."

"Fantasy Island"

"Police Woman" (which means he met Angie)

"Columbo"

"Charlie's Angels"

"Little House on The Prairie"

"Mod Squad"

"Canon"

"Hawaii Five-O"

"The Twilight Zone"

"Alfred Hitchcock Presents"

"Gunsmoke"

AND

"Rawhide", to name but a few.



Films:

"Sweet November"

"My Side of The Mountain"

"The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming"

"I Want to Live"

"The Defiant Ones"

AND

"The African Queen"


Somewhere, in there, he found some time in his schedule to do "My Fair Lady".

You forgot Star Trek: The Next Generation.


He was Mr. Worf's father.


/even in 1990, I'm betting he was still a major guest star for a Trek series.

 

[davidmatychuk]

Posted July 21 2015 - 08:35 PM

POPULAR


They sure don't make polymath show business performers like Theodore Bikel, or Peter Ustinov, or Orson Welles any more. I think we live in superficial times - the devolution of talk shows from Dick Cavett down to Jimmy Fallon shows that - but perhaps wonderful artists with great minds and a broad spectrum of gifts have always been thin on the ground, and it's only more obvious now in the clickbait era. Mr. Bikel left a wide range of splendid movie and television work for us to appreciate and enjoy on video, along with a wide variety of folk music recordings, and I hope some of you Big City people have memories of his stage work you might share.



I'm quoting myself here, from this thread:


http://www.hometheaterforum.com/topic/334552-my-fair-lady-50th-anniversary-edition-blu-ray-available-for-preorder/page-26


If you start at #512 on that thread, there's a whole lot of love for Theodore Bikel, featured performer extraordinaire.

 

[Mark Mayes]

When I worked at "Videotheque" on Sunset Blvd. in the 90s, Mr. Bikel came in on cue during the ballroom scene (as we played MFL on our big screen TV ) to drop off a tape. Happened one other time with Michael York and "Cabaret."

 

[PMF]

Posted July 21 2015 - 08:35 PM

Mr. Bikel left a wide range of splendid movie and television work for us to appreciate and enjoy on video, along with a wide variety of folk music recordings, and I hope some of you Big City people have memories of his stage work you might share.

My first conscious introduction to Theodore Bikel was as a kid, where I saw "My Side of The Mountain". Shortly thereafter, I got the vinyl soundtrack and at a very early age found myself listening to the "Bando" songs he sung by the campfire. So, he stood out even when I was 8 or 9. After talking about the "star power" actors; past and present; one can look to resumes such as Bikel's and safely say that THIS is also what having a great career on stage and in film entails. Always working and being in command; plus recordings to boot.

Thanks for reminding me of the availability of his folk music. Definitely worth a purchase.

 

[Michael1]

The other strange thing about Bikel in the movie is that, in the stage version of MY FAIR LADY, Karpathy is supposed to have a very full, voluminous beard, which is why Higgins keeps referring to how "hairy" he is. In the movie, Bikel is clean shaven, and the remarks about him being "hairy" are supposed to refer to the hair on his head, which doesn't really work. I've always assumed this is because they didn't want to hire the known quantity Theodore Bikel for the role and then obscure his face with a full beard, but that's a pretty odd way to proceed for a character who's referred to as "hairy" several times, isn't it?


That's only one of many strange things about the movie, which is meticulously well done in some ways and incredibly sloppy in others. I'm thinking of making a list and publishing it here, if I find the time. One thing I don't believe I've ever seen anyone comment on is that, in one of the scenes of people milling about in the rain in Covent Garden at the beginning of the movie, there's one shot with a horrible edit where suddenly everyone on screen is in a different position or has suddenly disappeared, as if about 100 frames or so of the film were just lopped off. It's the kind of mistake you might expect to find in a film with a $1,000 budget, and I can't believe they let it pass, especially since it would have been so easy to fix it. Anyone?

 

[Rob_Ray]

That's only one of many strange things about the movie, which is meticulously well done in some ways and incredibly sloppy in others. I'm thinking of making a list and publishing it here, if I find the time. One thing I don't believe I've ever seen anyone comment on is that, in one of the scenes of people milling about in the rain in Covent Garden at the beginning of the movie, there's one shot with a horrible edit where suddenly everyone on screen is in a different position or has suddenly disappeared, as if about 100 frames or so of the film were just lopped off. It's the kind of mistake you might expect to find in a film with a $1,000 budget, and I can't believe they let it pass, especially since it would have been so easy to fix it. Anyone?

I know exactly the spot you mean and that edit has always bothered me. It could have been so easily remedied by separating the two shots with an inserted cutaway to something else. The editing is quite sloppy throughout. I'm glad the editing Oscar went to MARY POPPINS.

 

[KPmusmag]

Given all of the recent chatter here about “My Fair Lady,” I suppose I ought to pass along the link to the recently-published article done for my film history column at The Digital Bits. The piece includes an overview of its roadshow release and a historian interview segment. Do give the article a peek if you're a fan of the film and/or of the roadshow era.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/columns/history-legacy--showmanship/my-fair-lady-50th

Thank you for the link, I enjoyed the article very much, and it is fascinating to see the list of road show engagements and the lengths of their runs. Movie going is so different today it is hard, I am sure, for young people to even imagine the road show era.


I do take issue with Mr. Holston when he stated there are no horses at Ascot, for there surely are, and it is well known that they opened each end of the soundstage so that they could run through.


I may be one of the few that likes the stylized soundstage look of MFL. To me, it creates a little bubble outside of reality where the story can play out. I have always found that part of its charm.

 

[Michael1]

I may be one of the few that likes the stylized soundstage look of MFL. To me, it creates a little bubble outside of reality where the story can play out. I have always found that part of its charm.

But don't you find the stylized soundstage look tremendously inconsistent? To me, the entire opening sequence at Covent Garden, or example, looks like meticulously recreated realism, as opposed to the Ascot scene and others that are extremely stylized. I guess maybe the thought was that the "Ascot Gavotte" is so stylized that it needed a stylized setting, as compared to the other musical numbers, but I'm not sure I agree with that logic.

I know exactly the spot you mean and that edit has always bothered me. It could have been so easily remedied by separating the two shots with an inserted cutaway to something else. The editing is quite sloppy throughout. I'm glad the editing Oscar went to MARY POPPINS.

Exactly what I was thinking. It could have been fixed with a few minutes' work of editing in a cutaway shot. Another of the many sloppy things I've noticed in the film: In "With a Little Bit of Luck," Doolittle's two friends sing the repeated choruses, but in that sequence where the flower pot (or whatever) falls from above and just misses Doolittle, one of the actors playing the friends stops moving his lips for a bit even though he's supposed to be singing. It's a beautiful, meticulous film in some ways and a tremendously sloppy one in others. I do think I should compile that list.

 

[Noel Aguirre]

The other strange thing about Bikel in the movie is that, in the stage version of MY FAIR LADY, Karpathy is supposed to have a very full, voluminous beard, which is why Higgins keeps referring to how "hairy" he is. In the movie, Bikel is clean shaven, and the remarks about him being "hairy" are supposed to refer to the hair on his head, which doesn't really work. I've always assumed this is because they didn't want to hire the known quantity Theodore Bikel for the role and then obscure his face with a full beard, but that's a pretty odd way to proceed for a character who's referred to as "hairy" several times, isn't it?

That's only one of many strange things about the movie, which is meticulously well done in some ways and incredibly sloppy in others. I'm thinking of making a list and publishing it here, if I find the time. One thing I don't believe I've ever seen anyone comment on is that, in one of the scenes of people milling about in the rain in Covent Garden at the beginning of the movie, there's one shot with a horrible edit where suddenly everyone on screen is in a different position or has suddenly disappeared, as if about 100 frames or so of the film were just lopped off. It's the kind of mistake you might expect to find in a film with a $1,000 budget, and I can't believe they let it pass, especially since it would have been so easy to fix it. Anyone?

The editing is far inferior to let say- The Sound of Music?

 

[Noel Aguirre]

I know exactly the spot you mean and that edit has always bothered me. It could have been so easily remedied by separating the two shots with an inserted cutaway to something else. The editing is quite sloppy throughout. I'm glad the editing Oscar went to MARY POPPINS.

The edit at the ball is another. Zoltan to the left- Zoltan to the right- then the middle. Like????