DVD/150: SHUKUJO WA NANI WO WASURETA KA (WHAT DID THE LADY FORGET?) (Yasujiro Ozu, 1937)

A pre-war comedy-drama which hints at the emotionally complex family dramas of Ozu's post-war years.

The uneventful life of a medical professor and his suburban-minded wife are disrupted by their 16 year-old niece visiting from Osaka.

Aunt Tokiko disapproves of Setsuko's modern ways - driving, drinking, smoking - but her vivacity charms Uncle Komiya.  Meanwhile his assistant Okada is cornered into helping a friend's son with maths but in doing so, he too meets Setsuko.

Toniko tells an unwilling Komiya to go on a planned golfing weekend but, following Setsuko's example, he hides his clubs with Okada and ends up with his niece getting drunk and visiting a geisha house.

Of course Toniko finds out about the deception and the resulting confrontation leaves the three relatives changed...

Pleasing performances from Tatsuo Saito as Komiya and Michiko Kawano as feisty Setsuko overshadow the dull Sumiko Kurishima as Toniko.

Shelf or charity shop?  It's a shelf as it shares the same DVD disc as my more personal favourite EARLY SUMMER but it is very enjoyable in it's own right.  As I said it's worth it for the performances of Tasuo Saito and Michiko Kawano (who was to tragically die nine years later) and Ozu's assured and leisurely direction.

DVD/150: BROADWAY: THE GOLDEN AGE (Rick McKay, 2003)

Ex-actor Rick McKay took six years to film his oral history of the personalities who witnessed Broadway's golden age - roughly 1945 to 1967 - but his tenacity paid off as his illustrious cast look back at the creative period they all lived through.

His documentary is funny, tender, and tinged with a wistful sadness on the ghosts who haunt his cast's memories.  As there are now 25 of the 87 interviewed still living, this increases the poignancy.

The cast reminisce on their first experience of New York, how they lived and auditioned while waiting for the big break, where they hung out and how New York and the theatre world changed around them.

In particular, his stars remember three actors whose performances still burn bright: Marlon Brando, Kim Stanley and Laurette Taylor as Amanda Wingfied in THE GLASS MENAGERIE.

Sadly, McKay didn't live to see his film sequel fully completed.

Shelf or charity shop? One for the shelf because, as well as his wonderful cast, McKay also has a dazzling treasure trove of archive material including an astonishing 1938 screen test that Laurette Taylor did for David Selznick; her natural line-readings would put Streep to shame but she wasn't employed as they felt she wasn't 'acting' as they thought it was.  Standouts include Sondheim, Chita Rivera and Carol Lawrence on WEST SIDE STORY, Shirley Maclaine and Hal Prince on how she lived the cliché "understudy becoming a star" in THE PYJAMA GAME and memorable memories from Beatrice Arthur, Angela Lansbury, Ben Gazzara, Gena Rowlands, Maureen Stapleton, Uta Hagen, Frank Langella, Elaine Stritch, Kim Hunter, Julie Harris, Eva Marie Saint, Tommy Tune, Gwen Verdon, Carol Burnett, Carol Channing, and Barbara Cook among many others.