Blu-ray Review Flower Drum Song Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[roxy1927]

There was such a discrepancy back then in opening dates between NY and LA as I was saying about WSS. A month I would think is a fairly long time. Here it seems 5 weeks. FDS opened at Radio City as the Thanksgiving film in mid November. I believe the Warner Hollywood is long gone?

 

[Charles Smith]

Just long closed. Still there, waiting...

 

[Al (alweho)]

Wasn't Warner Hollywood used as an experimental theater over the past few years? I seem to remember they used to run sound and picture tests. Of course, I could be mixed up about this.

 

[MartinP.]

^^^

You could be thinking of the Warner Hollywood. From Los Angeles Theatres:

It's still owned by Robertson Properties, the real estate arm of Pacific Theatres. The last regular film exhibition was in 1994. It was later used as a test house for digital projection technology and, until mid-2013, for church services. It's been boarded up and vacant since the church had their rental agreement terminated in June 2013. There's no word as to what is next for the building. Preservation groups including Hollywood Heritage and the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation had been in talks with the owners, who said that they were exploring various options. But there's been no communication from them since about 2017.

And to quote someone from LAHTF: "Nothing good happens in an empty theatre."

Or...you could be thinking of the Vine Theatre. As a theatre it opened in 1940 as the Admiral. Known in the 50's and 60's as the Rector Admiral and then in 1969 became the Vine Theatre. Dolby leased the Vine in late 2013 and the theatre was gutted down to the bare walls in 2014. It was rebuilt as a private demonstration showcase for their Dolby Vision process, featuring laser-based projection.
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As for FLOWER DRUM SONG, I watched it a couple days ago and found it very much to my liking. I've been looking up youtube videos of Patrick Adiarte dancing, on Hullabaloo for one, ever since. Heh!

 

[Craig999]

What were you viewing it on?

Watching it at 54" high x 130" wide from an 8' viewing distance with a JVC RS3100 projector, up-scaled to 4K by MadVR left absolutely nothing to be desired.
Definitely nothing "muddy" about the details or the colors.

OK, I may have had one glass of wine too many. I have a Sony XR-55X90J 4K LCD, fed my a Sony UBP-X800m2. I'll try again tonight and do some extra picture adjustments to get the depth in detail I was looking for. I love the movie so sure don't mind watching it all again!

 

[roxy1927]

I have no idea what these two guys are talking about but I am very envious all the same.
I'll just be watching it on a LG TV from a LG 4k disc player.

 

[Will Krupp]

I have no idea what these two guys are talking about but I am very envious all the same.
I'll just be watching it on a LG TV from a LG 4k disc player.

Allow me to translate for you, Vincent:

I have a Sony XR-55X90J 4K LCD, fed my a Sony UBP-X800m2.

He's watching it on a Sony LED TV from a Sony 4k disc player!
See? Not so different after all

 

[DarkVader]

Allow me to translate for you, Vincent:



He's watching it on a Sony LED TV from a Sony 4k disc player!
See? Not so different after all

Ah! I get it now - there using the model # of the TV and the player.

 

[cinemel1]

Just finished watching Flower Drum Song twice, a second time with the charming audio commentary with Nick Redman and Nancy Kwan. It’s from the DVD release of 2006. Audio and video are excellent. Enjoyed every minute. I was comparing the song list of the film and the Broadway production. Only one song (Like a God) was left out of the film. I saw the original stage production and remember liking it. I don’t remember whether it had as much dancing as the film. I also saw the 2002 re-imagining of the show. I like the original better. Miyoshi Umeki gave a wonderful performance. Too bad she didn’t do much more of note after this and Sayonara for which she won a Supporting Actress Oscar. The several short supplements also ported over from the DVD are also welcome and informative.

 

[MarkA]

Just finished watching Flower Drum Song twice, a second time with the charming audio commentary with Nick Redman and Nancy Kwan. It’s from the DVD release of 2006. Audio and video are excellent. Enjoyed every minute. I was comparing the song list of the film and the Broadway production. Only one song (Like a God) was left out of the film. I saw the original stage production and remember liking it. I don’t remember whether it had as much dancing as the film. I also saw the 2002 re-imagining of the show. I like the original better. Miyoshi Umeki gave a wonderful performance. Too bad she didn’t do much more of note after this and Sayonara for which she won a Supporting Actress Oscar. The several short supplements also ported over from the DVD are also welcome and informative.

Miyoshi Umeki was in The Courtship of Eddie's Father with Bill Bixby for 3 seasons after Flower Drum Song.

 

[DarkVader]

Just finished watching Flower Drum Song twice, a second time with the charming audio commentary with Nick Redman and Nancy Kwan. It’s from the DVD release of 2006. Audio and video are excellent. Enjoyed every minute. I was comparing the song list of the film and the Broadway production. Only one song (Like a God) was left out of the film. I saw the original stage production and remember liking it. I don’t remember whether it had as much dancing as the film. I also saw the 2002 re-imagining of the show. I like the original better. Miyoshi Umeki gave a wonderful performance. Too bad she didn’t do much more of note after this and Sayonara for which she won a Supporting Actress Oscar. The several short supplements also ported over from the DVD are also welcome and informative.

"Like A God" was technically not left out of the film, it was re-purposed. Go watch the scene where Sammy Fong takes Mei Li to the beatnik joint. The male performer on stage is reciting the lyrics to "Like A God".

 

[roxy1927]

While a wonderful bluray it seems towards the end of the movie a number of scenes have yellowed. But I seem to be the only one to have noticed this so maybe that's how it was filmed with a yellow gel.

 

[DFurr]

Finally got around to screening this last night. I keep my Epson 5010 on a brightness of "1" but had to turn it up for FDS. For years I was use to the brightness of a technicolor 35mm print with a 2,000 watt xenon bulb so it looked dim to us on the Epson. Looked much better once we turned up the light.
FDS is a wonderful movie, great dancing and fun songs. The BD looks fantastic.
Recommended for everyone!!

 

[Jake Lipson]

I finally got my copy today and could hardly believe how gorgeous it looks. tt took way too long for this to come to Blu-ray, but the wait was worth it to get such a great disc. @Kino Lorber Insider and the entire team that works there should be commended for making this available and putting such effort into a high-quality release. Thank you all for completing the R&H Blu-ray catalog in such terrific fashion. It was a delight to watch this disc. I'm so happy to have it in my collection and anticipate returning to it frequently.

For anybody reading this who hasn't gotten it yet, Amazon dropped their price to $14.99, which makes the disc an even better deal.

 

[Capt D McMars]

The main problem with Mickey Rooney's take was that he was so HAMMY. Excruciating. Yul being Yul was brilliant. Marlon was ok, but not as good as in his greatest of all roles, as Jor-el.

Same with Zero Mostel in Mastermind, LOL!!!

 

[Noel Aguirre]

Watched it last night and the sound improvement is the biggest uptick to me- the Newman orchestra sounds fantastic . The visuals look very good too but so did the DVD for it’s limited rez and the gain in more due to blue-ray’s resolution gain. Much better then the gain I viewed for 1776 that I sampled today going from blu tp 4k- but that’s for another thread. .

 

[roxy1927]

In the Sunday number when they are going in and out of the doors in the hallway it looks like it was done all in one take. How long did it take to rehearse and how many times did they have to start filming it over again due to a mistake? I never realized how amazing it is and nobody ever mentions it. One of the more remarkable stagings I've seen in a movie musical because there are no edits.

 

[Ethan Riley]

In the Sunday number when they are going in and out of the doors in the hallway it looks like it was done all in one take. How long did it take to rehearse and how many times did they have to start filming it over again due to a mistake? I never realized how amazing it is and nobody ever mentions it. One of the more remarkable stagings I've seen in a movie musical because there are no edits.

The thing that gets me is the roller skating waiter, having to serve and then pick up all those drinks with such perfect timing.

 

[roxy1927]

Yes I've always thought that was terrific.

 

[DFurr]

^^^
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