Universal preps 'Flower Drum Song' for November (1 Viewer)

[RobertSiegel]

Thanks Brent, very excited now

 

[DeeF]

Here's a question, sorry about the threadjack:

The new Rodgers and Hammerstein Collection contains the 6 movies, each with 2 disks. Is it just a box containing the various SEs, or is it a smaller box? I'd like to know my options beforehand.

If the box containing all 12 is smaller, then I'll buy that and sell my versions of Oklahoma!, State Fair and The Sound of Music. But if the box is just filled with each of the SEs, then I won't buy it, and I'll just buy the 3 new ones.

Plus, Flower Drum Song, of course.

 

[RobertSiegel]

DeeF, I can't be sure but I think it's the 6 2-disc special editions that are available spearately. Too bad Flower Drum wouldn't fit in

 

[DeeF]

It doesn't matter now. I've just picked up Carousel, The King and I, and South Pacific.

 

[RobertSiegel]

Dee, where did you find them?

 

[AlanP]

I can hardly wait.
However, I wish they would have included scenes from both versions of THE BROADWAY SHOWS, like the FOX series will be doing!!!!!!
I have waited far too long for this set.

 

[Brent Avery]

Checked out Flower Drum on a 128" screen and although there is some softness in various scenes and a bit of grain here and there overall it still holds up very well - alot of closer shots look quite good - upscaled on a Toshiba HD XA1.

 

[Jim*Tod]

Richard MS---- Just when is Yentl supposed to come out on dvd in region 1 and where did you get this info? Thanks.

 

[Richard M S]

I heard the news about Yentl being released , with a commentary from Barbra Streisand, directly from the composer himself, Alan Bergman. So while I am not exactly sure of the release date for R1, here is how I found out: Last week I attended a Michael Feinstein tribute concert of the music of Alan and Marilyn Bergman at Zankel Hall (the new theater under Carnegie Hall). Both Bergmans attended, and came on stage for a "conversation" with Michael Feinstein. After a country singer performed a medley from Yentl, the composer himself, Alan Bergman, said the DVD of Yentl was coming out soon, and that the delay was partially attributed to Streisand's "not finding the right approach" to record the commentary track. Well he said she "found the approach, recorded the track" and the dvd is "finally coming out soon." The audience really applauded at that point.

 

[Jim*Tod]

WOW!!!!!!!!! What a great story. Thanks for sharing that.... though... not sure I would want to hear just what a country singer might do to the score for YENTL. With STAR IS BORN coming out at the end of the month, that would mean that finally all of Streisand's films will be out on dvd. Thanks again for the great story.

 

[m.cellophane]

.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

I wish this thread on "Flower Drum Song" hadn't been hijacked by Streisand and "Yentl." Yuck.

 

[Mark B]

Got my copy today and have watched the featurettes. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the commentary, which is quite insightful and entertaining, and in general is scene specific.

 

[Richard M S]

LOL, I knew that post was coming. Anyway back to Flower Drum Song, I am glad to hear the commentary is insightful, since of all of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical films, this is arguably the most obscure.

And once again veering slightly off-topic but staying with the same composers, does the Oklahoma DVD in the box set contains the exact same transfers found in last year's release?

 

[Greg_M]

Yes the "Oklahoma" discs are the same - unfortunately

 

[AlanP]

This may have been discussed before. Here goes, I know "FLOWER DRUM SONG" was from UNIVERSAL. WERE the other four, "OKLAHOMA", "KING AND I", "CAROUSEL", and "SOUTH PACIFIC" owned by "GOLDWYN" and Fox obtained the rights. Why was "FLOWER DRUM SONG" song a UNIVERSAL production instead of GOLDWYN. Was he not interesed in "FLOWER DRUM SONG" and "THE SOUND OF MUSIC" ??? Is there any one out there that is familiar with the history of THE R AND H films ?? Any clarification would be appreciated.
Thanks,

 

[Greg_M]

I believe the R&H organization owns the rights to all the films, but the studios : FOx and Universal own the films, with the exception of "Oklahoma".

"Oklahoma" was only distributed by FOX for its general release, it was made by Rodgers & Hammerstien's own production company if I recall correctly and filmed in TODD-AO - then a company in itself (Michael Todd).

Both "Carousel" & "The King and I" were bought by FOX as was "The Sound of Music" and FOX filmed these.

I'm not sure on "South Pacific" it also was made by R&H I believe with FOX distributing but I'm not sure (They're others on this forum who know more about it)

"State Fair" was a FOX film to begin with (1954) and they filmed the Re-make. I guess Universal bought the right to film "FDS"

By the way, pick up "Oh! What a Lovely War" It's a great film and a musical with some standout numbers (Maggie Smith esp) it's only $9.99 and released today by Paramount with extras including a commentary. The picture image is beautiful and the film looks like it was filmed yesterday. The cast includes cameos by dozens of Major British stars at the time,

 

[RobertSiegel]

Fox was not interested in Flower Drum Song at the time. They had pre-purchased the rights to Sound of Music already, so they had a Rodgers and Hammerstein in the works (though they let Sound of Music sit on the shelf a long time) and Fox had a huge investment with Cleopatra, which month by month was costing them literally a fortune. Fox production was way down at the time, due to what was happening with Cleopatra. On the Cleopatra special edition (5 star edition), there is a long documentary on the movie, and it gives one a very good idea what was happening to Fox at the time.

I only wish Universal or Rodgers and Hammerstein, had said "no" to Jack Soo for Flower Drum Song. While I feel he is ok as an actor, he TOTALLY ruined his songs, and was more off key during DON'T MARRY ME and SUNDAY than anyone who was allowed to sing in a movie (until Lucy in Mame). I LOVE Flower Drum Song, but the one thing I hate is his botching his songs, which, if he had to play the part, most definately should have been dubbed. I would love to know more about this, as dubbing was popular, and surely the director, Rodgers and Hammerstein and anyone else surely could hear how bad his singing was. A shame, because those are 2 of my favorite songs, especially Don't Marry Me.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

Some of what was said here is slightly incorrect.

20th Century-Fox made STATE FAIR in 1945 and hired Rodgers and Hammerstein to write the songs. It was remade in 1962 with some new songs by Rodgers alone (including "This Isn't Heaven", which he wrote for the movie version of FLOWER DRUM SONG, but it wasn't used.)

Rodgers and Hammerstein didn't trust Hollywood to film OKLAHOMA!, so they produced it themselves, allied with Michael Todd who wanted a big property to introduce Todd-AO to the screen. They formed a new distribution company, Magna, to release it in its original reserved seat engagements (which played very few cities.) A CinemaScope version was filmed at the same time, and that was released by 20th Century-Fox about a year after the Todd-AO version had opened. (These two releases overlapped, and the trade paper Variety reported on their boxoffice performance as if they were two separate movies, which, technically, they are.)

A similar deal was done for SOUTH PACIFIC (but it was only filmed once) -- the original Todd-AO, reserved seat engagements were handled by Magna, while the regular release (about a year later) was distributed by 20th Century-Fox.

There is no Magna any more -- long ago, the Samuel Goldwyn company acquired the theatrical and television rights to OKLAHOMA! and SOUTH PACIFIC.

20th Century-Fox bought the screen rights to CAROUSEL, THE KING AND I and THE SOUND OF MUSIC and filmed those themselves. Rodgers and Hammerstein had very little to do with them (except Rodgers wrote two new songs for THE SOUND OF MUSIC.)

Which leaves FLOWER DRUM SONG, which Universal acquired the rights to, so it's the only one of the seven R&H movies (or eight, counting both STATE FAIRs) that 20th Century-Fox has nothing to do with. (I'm sure Universal Home Video purposely timed the DVD release today to coincide with 20th Century-Fox's R&H releases.)

 

[Mike Frezon]

Frankly, I'm surprised Rodgers didn't insist on his favorite, Marni Nixon, to dub Soo's songs.

Say THAT five times fast! Soo's songs...Soo's songs...Soo's songs...