Blu-ray Review Sweet Charity Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

Bob Fosse’s Sweet Charity is an excellent movie adaptation of a hit 1966 Broadway musical which Fosse himself had brought to the stage as director and choreographer.



Sweet Charity (1969)



Released: 17 May 1969
Rated: G
Runtime: 149 min




Director: Bob Fosse
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Music, Musical, Romance



Cast: Shirley MacLaine, John McMartin, Ricardo Montalban, Sammy Davis Jr.
Writer(s): Neil Simon (from the New York stage production book by), Federico Fellini (based upon the screenplay by: "Nights of Cabiria"), Tullio Pinelli (based upon the screenplay by: "Nights of Cabiria"), Ennio Flaiano (based upon the screenplay by: "Nights of Cabiria"), Peter Stone (screenplay)



Plot: Taxi dancer Charity continues to have Faith in the human race despite apparently endless disappointments at its hands, and Hope that she will...

Continue reading...

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Wow! Slight disappointment that the Entr’Act or Exit Music was left out of this release, but that aside, who could ask for anything more? This disc sounds like it has met everyone's expectations in PQ.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Audio Commentary: attached to the alternate version, film historian Kat Ellinger provides a nattery, chattery commentary on the film that offers some facts on the production and the stars but often segues into long-winded unnecessary discussions of everything from Barbara Bouchet’s career (while completely ignoring the presences of Stubby Kaye, Ben Vereen, Lee Roy Reams, and Suzanne Charny) to Italian neorealism. She also makes errors (saying Charity was the one Tony nominated role Gwen Verdon didn’t convert into a trophy; she didn’t win for Chicago either) and spends too much time describing what’s on the screen.

I once reviewed a disc where she spoiled the endings of no less than five other films which were completely unrelated to the film being commented on, while failing to provide any sort of useful information about the actual film playing onscreen. After a couple other similar less-than-stellar listens, I resolved to pass up any review disc where I'd have to review another such commentary.

I understand that everyone has a different approach to a track and there's no one right way to record one, but I find it generally preferable when the commentator talks about the movie the commentary track is on.

 

[Matt Hough]

I once reviewed a disc where she spoiled the endings of no less than five other films which were completely unrelated to the film being commented on, while failing to provide any sort of useful information about the actual film playing onscreen. After a couple other similar less-than-stellar listens, I resolved to pass up any review disc where I'd have to review another such commentary.

I understand that everyone has a different approach to a track and there's no one right way to record one, but I find it generally preferable when the commentator talks about the movie the commentary track is on.

Yes, her commentaries are a chore, made equally so here since the movie she's nattering away at is lengthy.

 

[Mark B]

It looks as though the trailer that's been circulating on home video releases for 30 years in 4x3 is all they could come up with for this.

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

Kat Ellinger does excellent commentary tracks. Her commentaries on Altman’s Images, Vampyres, The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion are great.

Also great video pieces on titles such as Crimson Peak, Kill Baby Kill.

I’m sure she would apologize for any mistakes of facts etc.

Her love for cinema to me is infectious. From horror, drama, classics, foreign and more transgressive cinema - Just check out some of her Daughters of Darkness Podcasts with co host Samm Deighan.

Their topics range from Stephen Throwers Nightmare USA, to exploitation film and even more recently director John Hayes.

 

[PMF]

[...]I understand that everyone has a different approach to a track and there's no one right way to record one[...]

Albeit, there's no one right way to record one. But, by most accounts, there's definitely a wrong way; and Kat Ellinger is it.

 

[PMF]

Yes, her commentaries are a chore, made equally so here since the movie she's nattering away at is lengthy.

Maybe they cut the Entr'acte and Exit Music to spare us from hearing 7 more minutes of her commentaries.
Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to the arrival of "Sweet Charity" - already ordered - at a price that I deem to be supportive and fair for the restorative work that was achieved.

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

“Kat Ellinger provides a nattery, chattery commentary on the film that offers some facts on the production and the stars but often segues into long-winded unnecessary discussions of everything from Barbara Bouchet’s career”

Barbara Bouchet!!
We’re talking Kalinda from Star Trek here.

I wouldn’t be able to talk about anything else either.

Counting down to Aug 20th when I receive my Sweet Charity package!

 

[haineshisway]

So, still no one can illuminate whether this is the exact same transfer on the French Blu-ray.

 

[Robin9]

Barbara Bouchet!!
We’re talking Kalinda from Star Trek here.

I wouldn’t be able to talk about anything else either.

Barbara Bouchet from In Harm's Way too, but most of all Barbara Bouchet from those glamorous publicity shots taken while she was working in London. Alas! They seem all to have disappeared.

 

[Matt Hough]

She's undeniably beautiful, but her brief role in the film hardly justifies the amount of time Ellinger spends discussing her credits especially since Ricardo Montalban is the focus of their scenes together and she BARELY mentions him later in the commentary, and Stubby Kaye, with a much more substantial role in the movie, isn't mentioned at all.

 

[TJPC]

I found her commentary unlistenable. People can’t help physical characteristics, but I found her voice like listening to chalk on a blackboard, or the calming voice of the peacock! Maybe I couldn’t do better, but I do not profess to do so!

 

[PMF]

She's undeniably beautiful, but her brief role in the film hardly justifies the amount of time Ellinger spends discussing her credits especially since Ricardo Montalban is the focus of their scenes together and she BARELY mentions him later in the commentary, and Stubby Kaye, with a much more substantial role in the movie, isn't mentioned at all.

Thank goodness Julie Kirgo was brought in to do the essay for "Sweet Charity";
otherwise, we might've ended up with a Kat Ellinger thesis on the career of Bud Cort and an asterisked footnote alerting younger generation viewers that Charity is being portrayed by the same Shirley MacLaine who was sometimes seen in Downton Abbey.

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

F.a.u.b.

 

[MatthewA]

Thank goodness Julie Kirgo was brought in to do the essay for "Sweet Charity";
otherwise, we might've ended up with a thesis on the career of Bud Cort and an asterisked footnote alerting younger generation viewers that Charity is being portrayed by the same Shirley MacLaine who was sometimes seen in Downton Abbey.

And about halfway between those two came a little thing called Steel Magnolias. Even that would have been more relevant to a commentary that's supposedly about Sweet Charity. Where do they dig up these people? Couldn't they get, oh gee, just for an example, Shirley freakin' MacLaine? She's still alive, you know.

 

[MDS]

It's too bad that they couldn't branch the happy ending onto disc one, so you can choose which version you'd like to see. And have disc 2 have the shorter, neighborhood theatres, version for comparison. But I will get it anyway.

 

[MDS]

Adding to MatthewA's comment

And Chita Rivera, Paula Kelly, Ben Vereen, Le Roy Reams, Suzanne Charney, Barbara Bouchet and many of the other Fosse dancers. A missed opportunity.

 

[warnerbro]

Were none of the hundreds of people connected to this production unwilling to do a commentary?

 

[Mark Mayes]

Kat Ellinger is likeable, but her dialect does strain one's ears (curious in one who has such a knowledge of movies, since that tends to standardize one's English.) Her true genre love seems to be cult films of the horror variety. I know some West Hollywood musical experts who'd work cheap!