By the 1960s, Bing Crosby was still dutifully finding movie projects for himself even though the box-office luster that he had achieved over more than two decades (including five years as the top draw in the movies) had faded considerably. Blake Edwards’ High Time is a pleasant comedy for Der Bingle, not particularly striking or outrageous (Edwards’ previous Operation Petticoat was much more raucous), but the movie showed Crosby was still game for just about anything. The movie doesn’t paint a particularly evocative picture of real college life either, but as an amiable time passer, it’s moderately appealing.
High Time (Blu-ray)
Directed by Blake Edwards
Studio: Twilight Time (Fox)
Year: 1960
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 103 minutes
Rating: NR
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 English
Subtitles: none
Region: 0
MSRP: $ 29.98
Release Date: August 14, 2012
Review Date: August 10, 2012
The Film
3.5/5
With his kids grown, wealthy restaurateur Harvey Howard (Bing Crosby) decides he wants someone in his family to have a college degree, so he enrolls at Pinehurst College as a freshman and begins a four year journey to graduation. Along for the ride are his three roommates Gil Sparrow (Fabian), Bob Bannerman (Richard Beymer), and T.J. Padmanagham (Patrick Adiarte) and their gal pal Joy Elder (Tuesday Weld). They pledge fraternities together, work on class projects, cheer jock Gil on as he competes in football, basketball, and swimming, and help one another study. Widower Harvey also becomes intrigued with French professor Helene Gauthier (Nicole Maurey) whom he really likes but must keep at arm’s length due to their on-campus relationship as teacher and student.
Tom and Frank Waldman have written a screenplay that doesn’t really capture the essence of college life except in a few details around the fringes like sports events and bonfires and fraternity inductions. (It honestly seems more like high school than college with no talk of majors or careers for Harvey’s roommates, students continuing to take basic core classes like math or chemistry all four years, and a class valedictorian speech rather than any mention of Summa Cum Laude graduates.) The script naturally places the focus on the Crosby character’s determined efforts to be one of the gang, whether he’s doing chin-ups in gym, climbing to the top of the bonfire pile, or dressing in drag for a fraternity initiation. It doesn’t go into much depth with any of the other characters, however, and there's almost no conflict. We have no real knowledge about Beymer’s or Adiarte’s characters, and the romance between Harvey and the lady professor is on the low burner for the entire movie (she even does the proposing). Better are small touches that Blake Edwards does to give the project some flavor. The transitions between scenes are fun (sometimes fall leaves blowing or snow being scraped across the screen wiping into the next scene), and there are some glimmers of Edwards’ slapstick that he’d mine to greater effect in comedies that would follow later in the decade. He also shoots the bonfire sequence with the rising flames and an army of encompassing students from an elevated point of view really showing off its impressive size and structure. (A later scene outside the professor’s house with the student body carrying torches casts a similar spell). But apart from the lovely James Van Heusen-Sammy Cahn Oscar-nominated “The Second Time Around” and the carol “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” songs don’t enter much into the action, a surprise since the two top billed stars were famous as vocalists.
Fifty-seven and playing fifty-one, Bing Crosby uses all his professional know-how to give the movie a lightness and sense of ease even donning full drag in an extended sequence that is one of the movie’s highlights. The script doesn’t quite make it clear why he thinks marriage to the professor would be impossible once school is over, so the film’s ending seems a bit unsatisfying without an explanation as to why his opinion had changed. No one else in the cast gets an extensive character workout though Fabian gets the best opportunities to show off athletic prowess and sing one forgettable song. Tuesday Weld is really wasted as the gal pal/hanger-on who changes interests and philosophies with each passing year. As the thwarted love interest, Nicole Maurey is appealing visually but struggles a bit with acting in English. Gavin MacLeod as the accident prone chemistry professor scores in an early role.
Video Quality
4/5
The film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is presented in a 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. There is pleasing sharpness of image throughout, and while color saturation occasionally seems subdued, colors are certainly under control, and flesh tones appear natural. There are occasional specks and bits of dust, and black levels can be good but are seldom great. The film has been divided into 12 chapters.
Audio Quality
4/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 sound mix offers a nice spread across the front channels for the film’s sound effects, dialogue, and Henry Mancini’s energetic score, the latter of which also folds into the rear surround channel effortlessly and to good effect. Dialogue is always understandable but, as with some other 4.0 mixes from Twilight Time, spreads entirely across the three front channels rather than simply existing in the center channel or seeming explicitly directional.
Special Features
2.5/5
The isolated score track is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo and sounds marvelous. There are clear suggestions here of Henry Mancini’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s score which would be coming up one year later as the next project he and Blake Edwards collaborated on.
The theatrical trailer is presented in 480i and runs for 2 ¾ minutes.
The enclosed six-page booklet contains numerous stills from the movie, the poster art on the back cover, and film historian Julie Kirgo’s incisive comments on the film.
In Conclusion
3.5/5 (not an average)
High Time is a slight albeit feel good comedy that suggested the generation gap wasn’t perhaps as wide as people of the time might have thought, a clearly rosy-eyed view of college life in the late 1950s. Only 3,000 copies will be available for this seldom seen entry in the Blake Edwards and Bing Crosby filmographies, so those interested should hop to www.screenarchives.com to see if copies are still available. They're also available via Facebook at www.facebook.com/twilighttimemovies.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
