A Few Words About While we wait for A few words about...™ The Rodgers & Hammerstein Collection -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[DeeF]

Too bad Bruce.

 

[DeeF]

Here's another screenshot from 'The King and I'. I do not believe this is an optical (previous transition was about 20 seconds earlier, next transition is about 18 seconds after).

I brought that image into Photoshop and measured the color of Anna's "white" gloves. This is a patch of that color:

Then I also measured the color on one of the poles of the hut in the background:

I'd appreciate if someone with the DVD would post a screenshot of the same scene!

Mark

See my post, above.

 

[battlebeast]

Is this collection exclusive to amazon? Can I get The King and I separately?

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Is this collection exclusive to amazon? Can I get The King and I separately?

Yes.

Not yet.

 

[battlebeast]

BOO! Do we know if it is comming out separatly?

 

[David Weicker]

According to the press release, The King And I and Oklahoma should come out in October.Not sure if exclusive to Amazon

 

[battlebeast]

Thanks. I'd buy the set, but I already have The Sound of Music and I really only need king.

 

[Doug Bull]

Hopefully "The King And I" will have a make-over in time for the October release.

 

[Mark Booth]

Okay, I'm burned out on the disagreement over the real gem in this collection, the TODD-AO release of 'Oklahoma!'. So, let's argue over the horrible treatment that 'The King and I' received. THAT is the real atrocity of this collection. There should be 200x the uproar over that instead of 'Oklahoma!'.



Mark

 

[CMNash]

Now that the bickering overing the colour timing of certain films has died down, why not talk about some interesting finds on the blu-ray. I'm re-watching Carousel, but this time with the Spanish mono track. And, the music is a little strange. The underscoring for the beginning of the film is not the same underscoring in the English version. Then the opening titles begin with a different section of the Carousel Waltz. After a couple overdubs-for-translations, the audio mixes into the correct part of the Carousel Waltz. Even trippier is when Billy begins to recount his days on the carousel, the audio uses parts of the Carousel Waltz that isn't in the film. It seems as if they took the version from the Capitol Records tapes. And, they added more dialogue to flesh out the action during the carousel ride. Then the underscoring during the argument between Julie and Mrs Mullins is different. The dialogue, funny enough, shifts into English when they say "slut yourself".

[minutes later]

The oddness continues on. However, I think I just figured out what is happening. All of the songs are sung in English. So it looks like Fox did not supply music-only & effects tracks for the dubbing. For underscoring, they may have gotten music from somewhere else and also the Capitol Records soundtrack. So odd.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

The Todd AO Oklahoma looks fantastic and I enjoyed it thoroughly, but on a purely critical level from my point of view (story story story), Carousel is so much better a movie: the complexity of the story, the depth of emotions, even the music - it just hits more powerful highs... and depths. Oklahoma is nice pretty entertaining fluff, but Carousel is a real journey that touches so much more of what the human experience is all about. You can't get through it without taking one in the gut and shedding some serious tears.

I can't possibly conceive how Rodgers and Hammerstein pulled it off, but at every age or point in your life when you watch this film it will hit you in a different and profound way. As a child, you relate to the insensitivity of the haves kids (Snows) to the have-nots (Louise). As a young lover, whether girl or boy, you are swept away by Julie's idealism and the promise of how true love can fulfill (or sabotage) your life. As a father, wow, Bigelow's soliloquy just nails it and rips your heart out with all the joy, fear, expectations, and helplessness of having a child and ultimately knowing you can't control their destiny. And as anyone who has suffered the loss of someone they love, you wallow in empathy for the stark absence hollowing out Julie and her daughter's lives, but also stir with that unexpected strength within as Nettie reminds you that you will never face the unknown future alone if you have faith.

It's all there, captured in one beautiful (but dark) story with some of the loveliest melodies you'll ever hear. There's nothing remotely simple about it.

When the character Don Draper in Mad Men delivers his masterpiece pitch for Kodak's new 'wheel' and talks about Nostalgia literally translating as 'a pain from an old wound, a tinge in your heart - a time machine that takes us to a place we ache to go again - and that it's not a wheel, it's a Carousel that takes us around and around again to a place we are loved'... is there any doubt the writer could have really had this Carousel in mind?

 

[classicmovieguy]

Oh my, that was so beautifully put, Wayne.

 

[bujaki]

Please do yourselves a favor and watch Liliom, directed by Fritz Lang, starring Charles Boyer, and included in the BD of Carousel. It may not have the glorious R&H music and lyrics, but it is very rewarding in its own right. It also fleshes out the characters in a more realistic way.
And if you can find it, watch Borzage's version of Liliom, starring Charles Farrell. It's quite beautiful and strange, with the actors behaving as archetypes.

 

[Brian Sharp]

Now back at $73.99 at Amazon.

 

[Randall Ogren]

Woohoo! Thanks for the heads up. With Sunday delivery I'm gonna go nuts watching them tonight!

 

[ABaglivi]

Down to $69.99 at Amazon!

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Goddam. I could have saved four dollars!

 

[classicmovieguy]

Watch the price plummet even further come Black Friday sales.

 

[WilliamMcK]

Oscar Hammerstein mentored musical theater guru Stephen Sondheim, and Sondheim once observed that OKLAHOMA! is about a picnic, whereas CAROUSEL is about life and death. (I actually think that sells OKLAHOMA! way too short, but nevertheless, I agree that CAROUSEL is the deeper and more beautiful piece... I actually wish its film version were a bit stronger though... the structure was hurt by adding the frame device, and changing Billy's suicide to an accidental death really robs the story of a lot of its power).

I also second the comment about watching the two versions of LILIOM (CAROUSEL's source)... The Fritz Lang version is an extra in the R&H set, but the real gem is the Borzage version... which you have to dig to find (it's only ever been released in the U.S. as part of the huge box set... MURNAU, BORZAGE AND FOX).

The Todd AO Oklahoma looks fantastic and I enjoyed it thoroughly, but on a purely critical level from my point of view (story story story), Carousel is so much better a movie: the complexity of the story, the depth of emotions, even the music - it just hits more powerful highs... and depths. Oklahoma is nice pretty entertaining fluff, but Carousel is a real journey that touches so much more of what the human experience is all about. You can't get through it without taking one in the gut and shedding some serious tears.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

I get moved immensely by the natural power of Carousel.
But Oklahoma! has quite a bit of real depth too .. not least musically, in its wealth of great melodies. It is a stunning work when performed in the theatre by a strong cast.
And I am always brought up short when I remember that it opened in 1943, two years before the close of the War and in the middle of the brutal Pacific campaign. US soldiers were given cheap tickets to see the show, which was, for many of them, their last great event before they died on the sands of some Pacific beach.