DVD/150: THE T*A*M*I* SHOW (Steve Binder, 1964)

This year we said goodbye to Mary Wilson of The Supremes and Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones but they will always be onstage in THE T*A*M*I* SHOW. filmed in Santa Monica in October 1964.

Teenage Awards Music International (who promptly vanished) managed to include visiting acts touring as part of the British Invasion and Motown stars also on tour.

It was recorded on high-definition video using the short-lived Electronovision process which allowed for it to be in cinemas only fourteen days later.

Introduced by Jan and Dean are Chuck Berry, Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Lesley Gore, The Beach Boys, Billy J Kramer & The Dakotas, The Supremes, The Barbarians, James Brown and The Rolling Stones.

The unrelenting go-go dancers included future stars Teri Garr and Toni Basil, while Jack Nitzsche's onstage musicians included Glen Campbell, Leon Russell, Darlene Love and Hal Blaine.

Shelf or charity shop?  Twisting, strutting and falling to it's knees on the shelf!  Despite the occasional clunker, it's an extraordinary gathering of pop and soul talent, all feeding off the audience's feverish energy - the audience were drawn from local high-schools to ensure maximum pandemonium and included the teens David Cassidy and John Landis.  Smokey Robinson is surprisingly wobbly in his vocals, Marvin Gaye is super-smooth while Lesley Gore is pure pop power.  As good as The Beach Boys and The Supremes are, they are overshadowed by James Brown who simply explodes over the stage, delivering the definitive performance of PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, dropping to the stage again and again!  Keith Richards later said it was a stupid decision for The Rolling Stones to follow him and The Famous Flames on the bill.  The final image of all the acts dancing about onstage together is a lasting tribute to pop history...

DVD/150: HIGANBANA (EQUINOX FLOWER) (Yasujiro Ozu, 1958)

Just as Ozu came late to making sound films, so he waited seven years to make his first film in colour.

Businessman Hirayama is the man people turn to in a crisis.  Speaking at a wedding, he congratulates the couple for marrying for love, unlike his marriage to Kiyoko which was arranged by their parents.

His schoolfriend Mikami did not attend the wedding, too ashamed as his daughter has left home after he refused her wish to marry a musician and he asks Mikami to help sort it out.

A young man, Taniguchi, appears in Hirayama's office and tells him that he works with his older daughter Setsuko and they wish to marry.  Hirayama later confronts Setsuko and refuses to give his blessing as he was not consulted.

Thanks to his niece Yukiko and a mournful class reunion, Hirayama understands that parents must ultimately give way over their children's lives.

Shelf or charity shop?  Def shelf!  Just as Jane Austen described her work as "the little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush" so Ozu explores again the faultlines beneath middle-class families of mid-20th Century Japan, still haunted by the war years and out-of-step with the rush to modernity.  In his inimitable style, it's a humourous film which still finds space for the audience to pause for thought, usually at the same time as his characters.  Ozu finds a harmony in the use of colour - the colour red really pops out in scenes - and again elicits lovely performances from his cast of regulars.  Shin Saburi (his fourth Ozu film) is fine as Hirayama while Kinuyo Tanaka (her seventh Ozu) is a delight as his wife Kiyoko who admits to remembering the war years fondly as they kept the family together.  Keiji Sada made his Ozu debut as Taniguchi (looking like a Japanese Gregory Peck) and would appear in three further Ozu films before his tragic death at 37 in a car accident.  Teiji Takahashi is a delight in his third Ozu outing, as the office underling who Hirayama pumps for information about his prospective son-in-law, tragically he was killed the following year, also in a car crash.  Ozu's favourite actor Chishu Ryu appeared in 52 of Ozu's 54 films and here plays the old friend Mikami wonderfully, he even gets to sing a sad acapella song at the school reunion as Ozu's camera stays fixed on him.  Another Ozu regular Nobuo Nakamura is a pleasure to see again as another of Hirayama's old friends. Fujiko Yamamoto made her only Ozu appearance as the resourceful Yukiko and won a Best Actress award for her performance; on loan from a rival studio, she was one of the main reasons for the use of colour!  A gentle masterpiece from Ozu San.

DVD/150: SLEEPING BEAUTY (Ross MacGibbon, Matthew Bourne, 2013)

Matthew Bourne completed his Tchaikovsky trilogy with his Gothic SLEEPING BEAUTY.

It's a darkly romantic tale of Aurora, her love for the palace gardener Leo and the other-worldly creatures who alter their destiny.

Bourne starts in 1890, the year of SLEEPING BEAUTY's premiere, when the childless King and Queen forget to thank the dark fairy Carabosse who helped them get a daughter so she curses the child to die on her 21st birthday. 

However the good fairy Count Lilac alter it so Aurora will fall asleep for 100 years.

In 1911, Aurora celebrates her 21st birthday with gardener Leo who loves her. Caradoc, the now-deceased Carabosse's son appears and enacts her curse leaving Aurora in a deep sleep.  Here Bourne adds his own delicious take - Count Lilac bites Leo's neck, turning him into an ageless vampire.

In 2011, Leo and Count Lilac must rescue Aurora from Caradoc's clutches..

Shelf or charity shop?  A definite shelfer.  I thoroughly enjoyed reliving the sheer Gothic romanticism of Bourne's reimagining, his always entertaining choreography, the excellent performances of Dominic North as Leo, Hannah Vassallo as Aurora and Adam Maskell as Carabosse/Caradoc and the tireless ensemble.  Les Brotherston's set design and costumes are marvellous - I particularly liked the punk elegance of Count Lilac and his retinue with their frock coats and distressed layers of lace and silk - while Paule Constable's lighting design also contributed towards the success of the production, filmed here at Bristol Hippodrome.  Oh and I had forgotten the mischievous Baby Aurora puppet!

DVD/150: WEST SIDE STORY (Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins, 1961)

In 2019 I blogged my 50 favourite musicals and WEST SIDE STORY was #8, largely due to the unshakeable memories of this film which won 10 Academy Awards - the only nomination it lost was for Ernest Lehman's screenplay, unsurprising as it's the weakest element.

Tony and Maria's love across sectarian divides in Manhattan actually only lasts two days but thanks to director Robert Wise and choreographer Jerome Robbins they give Shakespeare a run for his money.

Robbins was hired to direct and choreograph his first film but Wise was signed to co-direct to give him support with the dramatic scenes; but perfectionist Robbins pushed the filming into delays so he was removed but not before filming the iconic PROLOGUE, AMERICA, I FEEL PRETTY and COOL.

Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer don't have the best screen chemistry but Rita Moreno, George Chakiris and Russ Tamblyn's performances still defy the years.

Shelf or charity shop?  Leaping and twirling along the shelf.   It's pure musical cinema but filming wasn't easy: Richard Beymer soon discovered that Natalie Wood disliked him for some unknown reason and this reflects in their on-screen partnership; Wood's contract included that she would record her vocals - and she mimed to them while filming - but ultimately it was decided her voice was too thin and they were replaced by ghost-singer Marni Nixon.  Beymer was dubbed by singer Jimmy Bryant throughout, Russ Tamblyn's vocal for the THE JET SONG was dubbed by Tucker Smith who ironically plays his deputy Ice and who sings COOL, while Rita Moreno was dubbed by singer Betty Wand in A BOY LIKE THAT as she could not not manage the range.  In an even more bizarre twist, Betty Wand was meant to sing Moreno's last note in the QUINTET but she and Moreno both had a cold that day so Marni Nixon was brought back in after dubbing Wood's vocals - in essence harmonizing with herself!  Composer Leonard Bernstein criticized the orchestrations for the large studio orchestra as "overbearing" but did help Marni Nixon when she realised that her contract did not include getting paid for her vocals on the soundtrack album; Bernstein signed over a percentage of his profits to her - not bad as it became the best-selling album of the 1960s in America.  The sense of sharing extended to Robert Wise insisting on Jerome Robbins being billed as co-director despite him beng fired from the project.  The only person happy it seems was lyricist Stephen Sondheim who finally got his wish in having the comic song GEE OFFICER KRUPKE moved to before the Rumble; in the stage version it had come after the murderous fight where he argued it made no dramatic sense - he still hated his lyrics for I FEEL PRETTY however!  But despite all this... the glory endures.