A PEEK AT FLOWER DRUM SONG (1 Viewer)

[Dick]

If you're incensed about her casting then it follows you must be incensed about Ms. Salonga, Mr. Chakiris, Ms. Wood, Mr. Brynner...

Not to mention the truly offensive and blatantly stereotypical comic portrayal of an Asian by Mickey Rooney in the otherwise near-perfect BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S.

 

[JPCinema]

The Amazon is the old DVD transfer and looks horrible. This thing is in a whole other universe. Has anybody checked it out?

On Amazon it is in SD and looks bad.....no comparison with the VUDU and iTunes version.

 

[haineshisway]

I'm bumping this old thread because TCM is airing Flower Drum Song in HD tonight.

It seems like this really ought to have had a Blu-ray release by now. If Universal doesn't want to put it out, maybe they could license it to Kino or Criterion? I would also have thought this a good one for Twilight Time, but we all know what's happening to them.

Kino has stated that they're not interested in Flower Drum Song - given some of the obscurities they put out that must sell all of two hundred copies, one could find that disinterest odd.

 

[MatthewA]

Kino has stated that they're not interested in Flower Drum Song - given some of the obscurities they put out that must sell all of two hundred copies, one could find that disinterest odd.

They seriously considered All Night Long, a movie that became a Barbra Streisand star vehicle at the last minute and still flopped, more worthy of release. And do they really think Song of Norway will sell more copies? Florence Henderson may have had Wessonality, but that didn't turn into box office success, even in 70mm.

 

[Thomas T]

Kino has stated that they're not interested in Flower Drum Song - given some of the obscurities they put out that must sell all of two hundred copies, one could find that disinterest odd.

I suspect that perhaps they feel it is a "controversial" title. A certain segment of the Asian American community find the film simplistic and offensive in its portrayal of Asians, a sort Asian "Uncle Tom" movie (hey, don't shoot the messenger). On the other hand, they did release Birth Of A Nation .....

I don't agree and find the film absolutely charming but then again I'm not Asian. As a gay man, I find The Boys In The Band offensive and full of dated stereotypes but I would never object to a physical media release (yes, I know it already has one) of the film.

 

[Noel Aguirre]

The TCM print on tonight was unbelievable!

 

[richardburton84]

I suspect that perhaps they feel it is a "controversial" title. A certain segment of the Asian American community find the film simplistic and offensive in its portrayal of Asians, a sort Asian "Uncle Tom" movie (hey, don't shoot the messenger). On the other hand, they did release Birth Of A Nation .....

I don't agree and find the film absolutely charming but then again I'm not Asian. As a gay man, I find The Boys In The Band offensive and full of dated stereotypes but I would never object to a physical media release (yes, I know it already has one) of the film.

Kino also tried, but failed to get Thoroughly Modern Millie, a film which might today be considered more controversial than Flower Drum Song with its mostly negative depiction of Asian stereotypes (entertaining as the film is).

 

[RetroGuy]

I'm bumping this old thread because TCM is airing Flower Drum Song in HD tonight.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention or I'd have missed it! It was a special treat to see Nancy Kwan being interviewed before and after the airing of the film!

 

[Jake Lipson]

Thanks for bringing this to my attention or I'd have missed it!

You are most welcome.

I also just noticed that the film is streaming with Amazon Prime memberships, but I'm not sure how the print they have compares to what TCM aired quality wise.

I would love it if I didn't have to bump threads for TCM airings because the film was already on Blu-ray. Are you listening, Universal? Criterion? Anyone?

 

[haineshisway]

The same hi-def transfer that TCM aired has been on Vudu for a year now - that's why I began this thread. One didn't need to wait for TCM.

 

[Gary16]

The same hi-def transfer that TCM aired has been on Vudu for a year now - that's why I began this thread. One didn't need to wait for TCM.

Based on what I saw it was not a true hd showing on TCM. The picture did not completely fill the frame which usually indicates an upconvert and still shows up with some other older widescreen movies on TCM. Compare that to “Sayonara” that followed, which properly filled the frame and was razor sharp. FDS by comparison looked a little soft but with beautiful colors l.

 

[richardburton84]

Based on what I saw it was not a true hd showing on TCM. The picture did not completely fill the frame which usually indicates an upconvert and still shows up with some other older widescreen movies on TCM. Compare that to “Sayonara” that followed, which properly filled the frame and was razor sharp. FDS by comparison looked a little soft but with beautiful colors l.

Sayonara also has the benefit of being shot in large-format Technirama whereas Flower Drum Song was shot in regular CinemaScope, so it’s not really a fair comparison.

 

[Rob W]

Gary is correct about how non-HD transfers display on TCM HD - it has nothing whatsoever to do with the format the two titles were filmed in.

 

[usrunnr]

Our local PBS station showed "Lawrence of Arabia" last night ---- window boxed and letterboxed. Non-anamorphic?

 

[RetroGuy]

The same hi-def transfer that TCM aired has been on Vudu for a year now - that's why I began this thread. One didn't need to wait for TCM.

I actually bought the Vudu version as soon as you told us about it - so thank you for that, Bruce! I'm just extremely grateful that I didn't miss the TCM showing yesterday, as I wouldn't have seen the interview with the wonderful Nancy Kwan, of whom I'm a big fan!

 

[Garysb]

I noticed that "Flower Drum Song" as shown on TCM had the Samuel Goldwyn Company logo before the Universal International logo, does Universal still own the home video rights?

Is it true that Miyoshi Umeki destroyed the Oscar she won for Sayonara, later in life, as mentioned before that film aired on TCM? I had never heard that story before.

 

[Worth]

Our local PBS station showed "Lawrence of Arabia" last night ---- window boxed and letterboxed. Non-anamorphic?

I don't think SD anamorphic broadcasts were ever a thing, so anything wide would have been letterboxed within a 4:3 frame.

 

[Cineman]

It was actually done all through the 1960s everywhere - I have tons of summer stock ads for it with all sorts of interesting folks. It had a national tour that was very successful - I think it even played Vegas.
...

I am only just catching up with this thread recently. Yes, I remember it playing at the Thunderbird Hotel in Las Vegas for a very long time in the 1960s. Then it was so popular it was brought back for additional runs there several times. From what I have read, it was the first Broadway musical presented in a Las Vegas resort showroom. I wouldn't be surprised if it was performed more often and to a larger audience in that Las Vegas venue than the original Broadway run and London run combined. Strange that on the Internet the typical comment about the stage show is that it was "rarely produced" after the 1961 film with virtually no mention of that long and repeated Thunderbird Hotel Las Vegas run. In Wikipedia, there is not even a passing reference to it in the "Subsequent Productions" (post original Broadway run) section about it.

I also remember the film version turning up in movie theaters off and on for years after that initial 1961 release. I think I saw it for the first time in my Los Angeles, California area neighborhood movie theater sometime around 1965-1966. It was probably revived on the strength of The Sound of Music's box office success.

I loved the movie and so did everyone else in my family. As a 12 or 13 year old Caucasian kid it was a bit of a revelation to see a cast full of Asian characters being depicted as cool, charming and funny as anything I'd seen with other ethnic characters in movies and television. The great Jack Soo! The bits with the stubborn, authoritarian dad seemed pretty hilarious to me at the time and no small element of that was how similar it was to other funny, stubborn, authoritarian dads depicted in other movie comedies and sitcoms of the era.

Is it politically incorrect for me to also mention how impressed I was by Nancy Kwan and the other Asian beauties in that movie? Bear in mind, at age 12 or 13, I was just crashing into puberty at high speed. In fact, I was so impressed it might very well have been an early influence for why I am happily retired in Asia right now. haha. I would love to get a Blu-ray or catch a high-def stream of Flower Drum Song with a Thai subtitles option included. But I don't think there is one.

 

[JPCinema]

Thoroughly Modern Millie was shown restored and in 4K at the Film Forum in New York a few months ago. I'm hoping "Millie" is part of the new deal with Universal. Kino's previous answer to a "Millie" release was before the new Universal deal.

 

[RobertSiegel]

I've been thrilled with the showings of Flower Drum Song on the channel Reteroplex. I am not sure if it is the same transfer being shown on TCM or HDnet, but it's gorgeous and absolutely remastered since the DVD version. The sound is a great upgrade, I played my DVD and the Reteroplex versions and switched back and forth and the new Reteroplex showing had a huge bump in sound quality. There are several points in the film where there were 2 very small mistakes where the orchestra was gone for just a second at the end of a song, it was on the TCM showings before 2020 too and it is fixed in the Reteroplex, plus the high end is so much more clear and solid, and I hear a real increase in quality of the singing vocals.

Ok, that's all wonderful, the film has probably been given, I would say for being Rodgers and Hammerstein, a 4k transfer (I hope anyway), but when are we going to see this on blu-ray? I have been writing Universal every single week for over 10 years now for them to release their 3 60's musicals, Flower Drum Song, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Sweet Charity. Of course, after Charity came out, I just wrote about the other 2, which happen to be 2 of my 5 most eagerly awaited blu-ray releases (Flower Drum Song and Millie). Kino's first deal with Universal didn't have either, they said in their thread (here or the one on the other site) that Thoroughly Modern Millie was not available the first deal, and they never asked about Flower Drum Song, so it may have been available and Kino chose something else. But many people over the course of the time the 1st deal titles were being released, mentioned Flower Drum Song in both Kino threads, and I made sure they were well aware how good of a movie it is, so I would assume, hopefully, that they would have asked for it the 2nd deal, but they won't tell us. But they do say that Millie was not available again.

All I want are these 2 films on blu-ray disc. I am surprised the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization has not made a push for Flower Drum Song. I have written Ted, the president, several times but no response. Millie, from what I have seen lately on TV showings anyway, really needs a remaster. If you listen to the theme song, Julie's vocals sound very poor, as if they were coming from AM radio, while the orchestra sounds great, It looks like his may have been the way the film was recorded, but Universal could, if they wanted to, redo the entire soundtrack from the music stems, which they have. Nick Redman once mentioned somewhere that he had heard the music stems from Millie and said they were night and day better than the DVD release. He was trying to get Universal to let him release a 2-disc soundtrack CD using the music stems because if you have purchased the Millie Soundtrack that Universal released on MCA records, it's just horrible. Obviously from the record master not the stems, all distorted, even the reviews on Amazon are much less than nice as far as the sound quality. The same is true of the Flower Drum Soundtrack on CD, absolutely horrid, distorted, can't sit through 2 songs. If Universal were smart they would start releasing some of these soundtracks from the music stems. Soundtrack releases from older films are so popular, with releases from FSM, Rhino, Varese Sarabande, but they virtually never touch the musicals. It would be a dream to hear these 2 soundtracks complete including underscore from the music masters.

All in all, it's sad these 2 films are being ignored both as soundtrack releases and blu-rays. Blu-ray would really make these 2 titles shine.