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Yume, yume no ato (1981)
Shown on broadcast TV in Japan
There are effectively bootleg copies of Dream, After Dream (aka Rêve après Rêve {France}, aka Yume, Yume, no ato {Japan}) floating around from when it was first broadcast on TV in Japan. This film can be viewed from these various poor quality VHS recordings made in the 80s.
Unfortunately, these home recordings of this film are apparently the only recordings that have survived and are not great in quality. Note that the TV broadcast in Japan was, like most TV film broadcasts, modified and edited to fit the time allotted. However, the TV edit version is still sufficient to understand the story behind this film.
The film's story is fairly simplistic and is ultimately a fairy tale. I'd have suggested that instead of live action filming this tale, Kenzo Takada should have opted to turn this story into animé, in similar form to the shorts featured in the Heavy Metal film released the same year.
If Dream, After Dream had been filmed as animé, the transformation sequence, which occurs about 2/3rds the way through the film, could have been much more grand and nuanced than the weak practical effects used (feathers glued to a costume)... which ultimately didn't sell the idea well. The effects were potentially one big reason the film didn't go over well, along with its rather short story and long musical interludes.
This story opens with a sequence of a young man sitting on a ledge recounting a story from his past.
After a few moments, we begin a flashback sequence of a young man (remains nameless) who receives a prophetic message from a soothsayer, where he is sent across a desert in search of a castle. Crossing that desert nearly depletes him. When he is found ailing and passed out in the sand, he is brought back to health at a castle. When he wakes, he is greeted by a pretty young girl (Tsuki) who takes a fancy to him quickly and gives him clothes to wear.
While strolling the castle, this young man sees another young woman (Yuki) who fascinates him. He asks Tsuki about her, when Tsuki becomes quite jealous and storms out.
After several back and forth sequences of the girls fighting over him, a governess steps in to offer a stern warning. The governess who runs the castle and who understands the castle's secrets knows exactly what happens if both of these girls take a fancy to this young man. The governess tells Yuki to carry out her fate or face consequences.
In fairy tale form, a curse had been visited upon these two young girls earlier who, if one of them doesn't take the life of any young man who happens along, will transform irrevocably.
At this point in the film, it is explained that these two girls were visited by an incredibly powerful lightning storm which ultimately killed these two girls much earlier on. Two birds had taken pity on the girls' deaths and gave up their own lives to bring the girls back to life, but with one big drawback. They must remain alone and celibate. If the girls ever have any relations with any men, they will transform back into the birds who gave them their lives. Thus, any men who visit the castle must die by one of these girl's hands.
At this point, after the governess prods Yuki strongly to do the deed, Yuki refuses to kill this young man as she had done so many times before (note an earlier scene where the young man stumbles into a graveyard of bones).
By not killing him, Yuki transforms into a bird. Tsuki also refuses to do the deed, likewise also transforms into a bird. These transformations happen right before the young man's eyes. He then realizes what and who he had just lost.
At this point, the movie flashes forward where we see the young man sitting on a ledge (just as in the opening of the film), recounting his time at this castle and all that had happened there. As he wanders off, the film ends.
Overall, the film isn't horrible, but it's also not great. Journey provided the soundtrack music for the scenes. There are also large swaths of this film that feel like MTV interspersed with storytelling segments. For example, the scene of the young man crossing the desert entirely consisted of a full length Journey song played along side it. It felt like watching an MTV music video of a guy wandering in the desert.
There are several long music sequences just like the desert scene above, where the story stops to play a seemingly long MTV musical interlude. I kinda half expected to see MTV music credits appear each time. This story wasn't horrible, but it also wasn't excellent. As I said, this story would have been better served as an animated short in Heavy Metal than as a standalone live action film.
I'm giving this film 6 stars because Journey's musical segments did help carry this film tremendously. Overall, though, the story was really about 30 minutes of story stretched into a 101 minute movie runtime... with too much of that runtime filled with MTV-style music video interludes.
Dead Ringers (2023)
Preposterously bad.
In the first 15 minutes, we're treated to a set of fake neurotic female twins doctors (?) who are harangued by a male patron in a diner. Let me just say that this scene is so preposterous it's incredible it made it into the script.
Worse, that the twins even chose to entertain this clear satyr of a man is questionable at best. Worse, the dialog that ensues between them and this man is, as stated, preposterous. How often have you had a random conversation about sex with a total stranger in a diner?
It only gets worse from here. The next scene after this one is atrocious and unnecessary. Appalling for the sake of being appalling isn't a reason to include it.
Further, why would a production about twins choose to hire a single actress to play the part of twins (spending extra money to build the scenes using camera effects and doubles) when the production could have hired an actual set o twins and actually had both twins act together in the same scene?
Unfortunately, they hired Rachel Weisz, a single actress hired to play the role of identical twins, an actress who is essentially a discount Natalie Portman.
Yes, let's just abandon the Cronenberg roots and "go our own way" all without giving credit to Cronenberg's original vision. Instead, "we'll just make it as disgusting and insulting to the viewing audience as possible", all in the name of "art".
No, thanks.
Citadel (2023)
Trying way too hard
The writers are trying way too hard with this one. Unfortunately, this series is yet another Mission Impossible, Alias, 24, Mr. And Mrs. Smith and/or La Femme Nikita. Moles, spying and plot holes abound. The first and biggest plot hole is that episode 1 jumps 8 years in the span of seconds, yet neither of the leads have aged a day. I have to roll my eyes when this trope is used. If the characters need to age 8 years in seconds, then plan to hire a separate set of actors who have properly aged.
The secondary problem is that the "agency" that we're supposed to be rooting for claims to be the "good guys". They don't look like good guys to me. Though, to be fair, the "Manticore" supposed bad guys are an unknown quantity.
To be honest, the series looks more like a retelling of G. I. Joe vs Cobra. To be sure, there will be lots of explosions with random character deaths, a little smattering of intrigue, spies randomly changing sides and a huge amount of romantic tension between the male and female leads, who will banter the audience to death. It's all so predictable under the guise of yet another spy vs spy TV romp.
From the first episode's preposterous premise of "amnesia" for the male lead, using this trope is already unbelievable. Nothing about this series says "watch me" and everything says "turn it off". I've already watched Mission Impossible, Alias, 24 and La Femme Nikita. I don't need to watch something like this again. Is it really so hard to come up with something original?
Solis (2018)
Personal space fiction that could have been better.
This is yet another film entry into the "personal space fiction" category. It's essentially a modified type of a soliloquy. Think of Silent Running. The plot consists of single on-screen character attempting to pull out all of the stops for survival on board a shuttle hurtling towards its demise.
There is a second character with whom he talks over a radio at times. The problem is, the main character has a concussion. You don't know what's real and what isn't, including the voice... and neither does he. If you like watching soliloquies unfold, this may be your thing. If you don't, particularly as slow burn as this one is, you might not go for this film.
It's not a bad film, but it's also not a great film. There are so many things that could have made this film much more gripping. Yet, I kept finding myself feeling the need to skip portions of the film because it covered too much of the same ground as what came before. In fact, the vast majority of the "struggle" was overkill and challenged the viewer's patience.
The main problem I have with this film is really the shuttle design itself. Why would anyone design this tube with two chairs affixed to the floor at such odd angles? How hard is it put down a flat floor like in a plane? There are no medical quarters or living compartments, yet whoever built it spent the time to build a coolant "room" and other areas? Yet, the character insists spending his time sitting strapped into that oddly placed chair next to a dead body while being baked by the sun.
It also does some fairly improbable things, like the main character pulling out random, but very convenient items from the dead body next to him.
The writers also deprived us of seeing what led up to the "hurtling" other than what the character describes in dialog at the opening of the film.
Overall, it's an average film that suffers from the predictable sameness from scene to scene. Once you get to the end, it's not at all surprising.
4D Man (1959)
Intriguing late 1950s B-movie romp, but not the first
While this 1959 movie may seem like an original and unique idea, Irving Yeaworth's '4D Man' heavily takes its cues from a 1943 short story by Marcel Aymé, Le Passe-muraille. This short story by Aymé sees a man (Dutilleul), at age 42, learn he has the ability to pass through walls with perfect ease.
In 1951, a movie by the same name was made from Aymé's short story 'Le Passe-muraille' and released in the U.S. retitled 'Mr. Peek-a-Boo'. It also sported some impressive visuals for 1951. This 1951 movie also took liberties with Aymé's story and was mostly a farce. Aymé's short story wasn't intended to be a farce.
As for the story of '4D Man', this film features a trio cast, with a common female love interest between two brothers (and an oppressive boss). Le Passe-muraille likewise features a trio including the male lead, female love interest and an abusive husband of the female (and an oppressive boss). In fact, there are many similarities between Aymé's story and Yeaworth's '4D Man' screenplay.
In Aymé's story, the main character Dutilleul works at a job where he gets pushed aside. In '4D Man', Scott Nelson likewise gets pushed aside. In Aymé's story, Dutilleul discovers his ability accidentally. Based on a doctor's examination, it seems to be a medical condition which Dutilleul is prescribed medication and which he stops taking. A headache serves as a plot device in Aymé's story. Scott Nelson also has a brain medical condition which gives him frequent headaches and which, based on his brother's prompting, frees Nelson's ability. Nelson also sees a doctor. The setup in both is similar... which leads to their 'condition'.
Both stories then progress from amusement at their newfound power to exploring the darker realms of the human psyche when faced with such power. From here, both stories progress to very similar endings due to very similar reasons. Both Dutilleul and Nelson spiral from their former good selves to robbing banks and other institutions for personal gain. Both gain police notoriety for their actions. Both fear losing the girl they love and ultimately do. Dutilleul does a stint in prison, which is not explored in '4D Man', but the police are involved in '4D Man'. Both end up becoming stuck in a wall at the end of the story to unrequited love (and their own stupidity). Dutilleul gets stuck because he takes the pills the doctor prescribed solely by accident when trying to rescue the damsel. Nelson gets fatally injured by his very girlfriend before passing into and getting stuck in a wall.
Because there are so many story similarities between these two, Yeaworth had to have been acutely aware of Aymé's story which he adapted for his own cinematic purposes in '4D Man'. Yeaworth effectively Americanized and horrorized Aymé's story for the American market. Thus, Yeaoworth's adaptation made it more palatable (at least so he thought) to American horror and film tastes (scientists vs bankers), rather than sticking to the French undertone and plot of Aymé's story.
Even then, Yeaworth's 1959 '4D Man' was not the only adaptation of Aymé's story to release that year, even though '4D Man' was an extremely loose adaptation. A German version of Le Passe-muraille was released in Germany just 7 days after the release of Yeaworth's '4D Man' in the U.S. The German film, while filmed in black and white, offered similarly impressive visuals to Yeaworth's '4D Man'.
Ultimately, '4D Man' is a decent B-Movie horror flick modeled very loosely after Aymé's 'Le Passe-muraille' short story. As a side note, Aymé's short story is more like what you might expect to see out of a Twilight Zone episode rather than a film... except Twilight Zone wouldn't come to exist for another 16 years after Aymé's story was written. However, even though 1959's '4D Man' left a lasting impression on many who saw it (it did when I saw it in the early 70s), know that it wasn't the first film to present the idea of a man walking through walls.
The one sore point of Yeaworth's '4D Man' is the odd and out-of-place improvisational Jazz soundtrack. Its ear shattering loudness overpowers wherever it is used. It just didn't serve the film's tone properly at all, but it did add a level of memorable quirkiness to the film that it might not have otherwise had.
With that said, '4D Man' is worth seeing for 1950's B-Movie nostalgia and for its effects. For different reasons, so are 1951's French 'Le Passe-murraile' (aka Mr. Peek-A-Boo) and 1959's German 'Ein Mann geht durch die Wand' (aka The Man Who Walked Through A Wall). Even some of the newer TV adaptations of Aymé's story are worth watching, particularly 2016's French TV remake of 'Le Passe-muraille'. Unfortunately, most of these foreign films are not English subtitled nor do they have English soundtracks. But, the effects used in these films are well worth seeing.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018)
Poorly written with twice-told tropes designed for B-movies
Unfortunately, like so many other recent shows, this take on the Archie's Sabrina is made dull by the writers.
On top of the entirely unnecessary soul-being-sold-to-the-devil plot device, the Sabrina character is just odd and not like the character in the comic. While Sabrina in the comics was always happy-go-lucky-confident in her ways (because she had magic on her side), this show's Sabrina tries that same happy-go-lucky level of confidence, but it comes off as neurotic dangerous rather than confident.
In places where Sabrina should be scared or worried, she beams positive confident for no reason. Like, for example, when she invites a rather ominous goblin to take the form of Salem and then she quips, "Such a cute kitty". In a comic format, this works. In a dark gritty realistic TV show, it doesn't work. In fact, it makes the character look mentally unstable and oddly scary. That's not Sabrina.
While I was expecting a similar level of darkness of the later Harry Potter series, what we get instead is satanic occultism with goat sacrifices. What was the point in these unnecessary plot elements? How hard is it to write a fictional nemesis for Sabrina that doesn't involve Satan? The writers are simply not even trying. I'm sorry, but this Sabrina series is entirely ruined by the unnecessary satanic elements. Now that the writers have opened this Pandora's box, they cannot close it. This means the series is doomed to repeat these satanic elements forever. That kind of message is not the reason I watch a witch show like this. Harry Potter never went down the Satan path. I Dream of Jeannie never went there. Bewitched never went there. Charmed kind of went there with the Demons, but never really went all the way there. Even the Sabrina sitcom never went there. So, why here, why now and why right out of the gate?
On top of this, Sabrina is supposed to be a witch who lives with two witch aunts and one witch uncle. Yet, there's rarely any magic performed and almost none by Sabrina. In the comic, Sabrina's happy-go-lucky personality combined with her witchcraft created a bumbling, but likeable character not unlike Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie. She's a character who uses her magic to try and fix something making the situation worse. Then she'll end up having to undo it all by magic in the end. Yes, it's a pretty worn thin plot trope, but it would be preferable to this show where almost no magic is ever to be seen and the show is dominated by everything boring other than magic. How can you have a show full of witches and never perform any on-screen magic?
When Sabrina does perform magic, it's through her uncle who lives with her. She and he perform a spell on the principal that is so dark and horrifying that would likely see that principal quit and leave town. Yet, she plays it off as fun and helpful... again, dangerous neurotic. The principal comes back and doesn't even bat an eye after that ordeal.
Overall, the stories are more about Sabrina's want to stay in the mortal world with "her friends" over becoming a witch. I guess this kind of follows the comic, but at the same time that torn-between-two-worlds trope has been done before and done better. It's too bad the creators couldn't have come up with better ideas for this darker Sabrina. The show is just too odd and sends the wrong message with stories that just don't work.
The acting is decent including Kiernan Shipka as Sabrina. Unfortunately, it's the writing that's doing this show in and it's not even out of its first season. Feel free to watch it, but don't say you weren't warned of its content. The final thing that kind of annoys me is the casting of Keirnan Shipka who could double as Emma Watson's sister. Were they seriously trying to find an actress who looks like the film version of Hermione Grainger?
Cargo (2009)
Mostly space fluff
There is little in the way of realism to like about this suspense thriller. Sure, it's set in space, but it's essentially a space thriller. A space thriller without adhering to at least some measure of safety norms.
The problems I have with this film are many and varied. For example, the characters all speak in German. Yet, the ship is outfitted with computers that are all in English. Why is that? If you're planning on speaking German, then carry through with German on everything including the ship's hull, the tablet computers and the ship's automated computer systems. Even the electronic door locks say 'Door Locked' or 'Door Open' in English.
If you knew you were going to be selling this to an English speaking market, then why not have the characters speaking English when all of the supporting props display English text? If they're strictly German speakers, they won't be able to read the computer information. If they can read it, then they can likely speak English.
Another problem is with unnecessary things going on in that ship. At one point, a character is roaming around in the corridors with hot tea to take to Yoshida. Yet, she's ducking under running water in the corridor. Seriously, if there's water running, there's a problem in that ship. You don't want water leaks in a space ship.
Yet another unrealistic moment.. Whenever the characters are in space, they wear gloves on their suits. However, when two of the crew need a key card to enter a locked door, he dips his bare hand into the cryo liquid to grab it off of the cryo-suspended captain. And worse, his hand got burned from the cryo liquid. Ok, so why is it when people are seen getting into the cryo baths, they aren't burned? Shouldn't he have been able to grab it without a problem? Also, if it does burn, why didn't he just use his glove? If it does burn, why wasn't the captain burned when we see her later after exiting the cryopod? Inconsistent.
If the cryo-suspension chambers are fully sealed, why spend the energy to have gravity in the cargo areas? Lacroix is pushed and falls to his death there. Other than for story purposes, having gravity there doesn't make sense. Even if the ship does need gravity there, it would likely be 1/6 (or less) the gravity of Earth... meaning, he shouldn't have died. Maybe slightly injured or a concussion, but certainly not death. That area certainly doesn't need the full gravity of Earth.
The crew is running around the ship with pistols? Really? You're in space. A bullet could rupture the hull. Yet, there they are, firing off weapons in a space tin can willy nilly.
The ship's interior design is way too reminiscent of Alien (flashing lights, spinning fans, fluorescent lighting tubes on walls, etc). I don't know how they could have made that ship interior look any more like the Nostromo if they had tried.
There's one scene where Laura ends up in what appears to be a stowaway's den, very reminiscent of Newt's den under a spinning fan on LV-426 in Aliens. When the occupant returns and begins struggling with Laura, someone pulls out a pistol and shoots the guy attacking Laura. It's never really explained why the gun person was there, who it was or anything else about that. The whole thing is just dropped.
I would have liked this film better had he filmmakers tried just a little harder to sweat the realism details more. The overall story, though, takes a fairly existential nihilistic view of its inhabitants. If you like that sort of thing (and can overlook the realism details), you might like this film. I'm giving this 4 stars primarily for the visuals and the cinematography.
Ascension (2014)
Excellent beginning. Finishes with an incomplete mess of ideas
This is a TV mini-series from 2014. You'd think with the amount of episodes allotted, the writers could have pulled off a complete idea. Unfortunately, no. This mini-series ends up a disjointed mess of ideas that never congeals into a single poignant point. *SPOILERS AHEAD*
At first we're led to believe this show is about a 50 year old secret space mission aboard a star ship that began sometime in the mid 60s. The ship's name is allegedly Ascension and has been traveling in space for 50 years of its 100 year mission. Its final destination, 'Proxima'.
Just as we're getting comfortable with the crew and this ship's inhabitants and the idea that they're in space, the writers take the show 180 degrees. This then ruins the suspension of disbelief by showing us that the ship is actually an Earth project to see what people would do if trapped in a space ship-like environment for generations. We now get to see life inside the ship and the life of the laboratory operators who guide this experiment. This turns a story of wonder into a story of oppression.
Inside the ship, there's a little girl (why is it always the creepy little girl cliché) who's got some kind of mystical unexplained powers. It seems it is this little girl that the experiment is ultimately about. If that were the case, why not simply extract the little girl early on?
Outside the ship, there's a power struggle between the higher ups and the experiment operator. Though, why it took 50 years for this power struggle to form is unexplained. From here, the show devolves into a mess of too many ideas from both inside the ship and outside of it that simply fracture the once decently flowing narrative into a series of unconnected and unnecessary plot ideas that end up far too unwieldy for the writers to handle.
The show can't seem to keep its eye on the ball by the last few episodes and the mini-series loses its steam when two people get transported to some planet somewhere (or so we're led to believe). We really don't know what the final shot means as there's no explanation before the fade out. Though, the experiment operator leads us to believe that whatever happened was the goal if the experiment all along, even though the story never once led us in on that idea.
Ultimately, there was no clear explanation of what happened to Ascension after, what happened to the laboratory or, indeed, what the whole thing actually meant. If this is the level of storytelling that we're expected to endure in the teens, I'd rather visit the endodontist for a root canal. A root canal at least has a beginning, a middle and an end.
Conquering Northern China (2017)
Well worth watching
I like the tone, feel and production value of both Conquering Southern China and Conquering Northern China better than what's on ADVChina. I like seeing Matt and Winston out of their comfort zones. Don't get me wrong, I do like ADVChina content, but for an entirely different reason.
The third party film crew capturing both documentaries did an amazing job and it's a much welcome relief to have a third party observing Matt and Winston's explorations. Both CSC and CNC series offer a very positive, uplifting look into rural China, the people, culture and values. This documentary lets the viewers form their own opinions about China rather than throwing out Matt's and Winston's opinion, most of what tends to be featured on ADVChina, SerpentZA and laowhy86 YouTube channels. In fact, I'd like to see the ADVChina channel reinvented into this same documentary exploration format instead of offering up personal opinions. Leave the opinion pieces to your individual channels. Otherwise, the channels all end up pretty much the same type of content. ADVChina is already about riding around talking, let's just add in stopping and talking to the locals and sampling local cuisine (for better or worse).
One suggestion I would make for any future series is let us see what you guys really ate after you sampled those icky foods. That can't have been the only thing you ate that day? Letting us in on your actual meal is the payoff for having watched you eat those local 'delicacies'. I'd also like to have seen just a little more around where you bedded down that night and everything up to the point where you flip the light off at the end of the day. CNC did offer more of this than CSC.
My final observation is, you spent over a month on the road and it only distills down to around 2 hours of content for CSC and 3 hours for CNC? Seems like we missed an awful lot. Though, I guess driving for hours and hours on the road wouldn't be that exciting, but speeding through the roadtrip portions at high speed as time lapse footage would have been cool to watch (at least the daytime footage). It would also have offered up visual passage of time between stops, shown us a bit more of the countryside, the crazy truck drivers, weather and extend the length of the episodes.
Both Conquering Southern China and Conquering Northern China documentaries are well worth watching. Though, both documentaries do contain squeamish bits and are rated MATURE for a reason. I should also point out that CSC only offers up to 1080p where CNC offers up to 4k.
Supergirl (1984)
Story problems abound. Lead role entirely miscast.
This movie is an okay film, but offers no where near the wonder, amusement or story as Superman (the first film). However, the real problem with this film is, unfortunately, Helen Slater.
As good as Helen Slater looks in the Supergirl costume, her acting was just as oppositely bad. Most of the time, Slater's acting was flat and wooden. She has a weird speech pattern that, most of the time just didn't work for the role. While I realize, Kara is from Argo City, it was never established that people there had weird speech patterns, unless you count the over-the-top scene-chewing dialog that spewed from Peter O'Toole's mouth. I can forgive Peter O'Toole's Shakespearean dialog delivery for several reasons: 1) he's a supplemental character who, thankfully, has limited screen time, 2) what he says and does is mostly inconsequential to the main plot of the film and 3) it establishes that O'Toole's character, who was a former well known and respected scientist has now become an eccentric crackpot who is no longer respected for any of his ideas.
However, Slater is the lead in this film. As a lead in a superhero film, the actor must strike up a rapport with the audience immediately as both likable and believable. Slater fails to properly secure both of those qualities with the audience and, instead, goes on to deliver a mostly utilitarian screen romp. Unfortunately, while Slater tries hard to make Kara seem innocent and sympathetic and likable, her 19 year old acting abilities are severely taxed and get in the way of this role. In other words, while she looks the part, she couldn't act it. She was ultimately miscast.
As for Faye Dunaway, Brenda Vacarro and the rest of the cast, they do their level best to bring some semblance of life to their characters and roles. Sure, Dunaway is way over-the-top like O'Toole, but in her own different way. For the witch Selena, her over the top delivery, while a bit campy, works for what it is. In fact, if the lead role had been cast properly, I believe Dunaway's offbeat acting would have worked perfectly fine to balance the mostly straight forward lead role.
Instead, what we get is an odd array of actors with very little chemistry or balance together. Though, Brenda Vacarro and Faye Dunaway together as a team was probably the best casting in the film. These two truly seemed to be BFFs and pulled it off in spite of the dialog.
The story itself is simplistic and silly. Two super people fighting over a 'muscle pool guy' is about as inane a plot device as you can think up for a superhero film. Argo City is in peril and Supergirl has a school girl crush on some random muscle guy that she feels she has to constantly save? Yeah, no.
Saving the Omegahedron, the power source of Argo City, is her most important task. Yet she has time to gawk at and save this muscle guy too many times from Selena, let alone run around at some girl school playing student in a tiny town. I know why they included the school. It was intended as a way to introduce Lucy Lane... an inconsequential character that didn't need to be in the film. Yes, it did let us know that Lois has a younger sister, but still an entirely unnecessary addition to the film.
Having Supergirl thrown into the phantom zone and then emerging only to fight Selena's 'demon' left the film about as much fun as yanking off an adhesive bandage. Overall, I was hoping for a more sensible Superhero film with Supergirl taking on more important tasks than facing a silly little witch. In fact, Supergirl should have been able to find and retrieve the Omegahedron in the first 15 minutes of the film which would have left 1.25 hours to actually let Supergirl explore more of the earth, pick and choose more important problems to solve rather than be stuck in a tiny inconsequential town saving a lame muscle guy who's character is about as dumb as a brick. I can't even fathom why someone from an advanced society like Argo City who is smart enough to understand sixth dimensional math would be at all interested in a dumb earth muscle jock?
Cinderella (1957)
Charming, but surviving kinescope is only a rehearsal
While I would like to rate the actual telecast higher, I never got to see it live and I still haven't seen the actual telecast. In fact, no one may ever see the actual production again. The March 31st, 1957 telecast was live and may or may not have been recorded.
A little bit of history
So, you're probably thinking, "Well, what about the kinescope copy?" This copy was not of the live March 31, 1957 production. I'll quote from the 1999 release of the CD liner notes written by Dider C. Deutsch:
"By all accounts, the production of the telecast was not unlike a highwire act from the start; as Richard Lewine acknowledged in a recent interview, 'There was no room for error. Remember that everything was live then, and when we got on the air ... there was no possibility for a retake.... I suggested to my boss, Hubbell Robinson, that we should make a kinescope of the production, not for broadcast mind you, just to see what it looked like before we went on the air. He said, ''Do what you think is right, and if you have a problem let me know.... '' So, on March 17 we had a sort of preview in front of a small invited audience at CBS Color Studio 72, at 81st Street and Broadway, which is where the show was to be done.'
The values of the full scale rehearsal were obvious. As Richard Lewine remarked, 'We made notes, we saw all kinds of things we wanted to change, in short there was our chance to do it the way wanted to do it.... For example, Dick (Rodgers) didn't like the way the designer had done the dress for Cinderella in the opening scene; it was a makeshift poor girl dress, he went on the stage and looked at it and said, ''This is a piece of junk...'' And he tore a piece off it...' (it was too fancy).
Overall, the rehearsal might have added an estimated $20,000 to the production's budget of $350,000, but it helped make a sleek presentation that was far superior to anything that had been done on television." -- Dider C. Deutsch
Based on these notes above, the kinescope version was not of the actual March 31, 1957 telecast, but of the March 17, 1957 full-scale preview rehearsal. It makes no mention of a kinescope copy of the actual production. In short, there does not presently appear to exist a copy of the live telecast production in any form that I am aware of. The only version we have is of the full-scale dress rehearsal from March 17th. This is a fine point to consider when writing a review for this production. Since the kinescope version doesn't depict the live telecast performance, the final production may have had better production values than what we see in the kinescope copy as they had nearly two weeks to polish the production with better costuming, sets, lighting and practice.
Note that 1956 saw the introduction of the color Quadruplex (quadrature scanning) tape recorders using Ampex tape. By 1957, NBC had such a recorder in its studio at the time of this telecast. CBS may or may not have had one. Some have theorized that NBC may have (or had), in its archives somewhere, a quadrature tape copy of this production in color that it taped on the night of the performance. CBS may have also had a color copy for rebroadcast purposes, but some theorize the tape was bulk wiped a week after presentation. I'm still hopeful that someone will find a quadrature tape of this color production in their archives and finally release the actual March 31st color presentation.
Review of this production
What I will say about the surviving kinescope copy is that this version of Cinderella is charming and unique. Clearly, Julie Andrews pulls off her version of Cinderella perfectly. Her upbeat sweetness translates well to this classic version of Cinderella. The production does lack in-camera effects. Edie Adams plays the godmother in an almost sadistic way. It's like she enjoys trying to make Cinderella completely unhappy before granting her wish. Cinderella doesn't comply, though. She just wishes harder. More than this, the godmother compounds her sadistic streak with her odd cackling laugh right before she does something good. It's a weird combination. The rest of the cast pulls off their parts amazingly well, including Robert Penn, the town crier with his booming baritone voice.
The R&H numbers work amazingly well across the board with the many strong vocalists chosen. In fact, this really is a televised stage production. CBS could have turned around and placed this right onto a Broadway stage immediately following the broadcast and milked a stage production in 1957. Unfortunately, there was apparently a lack of foresight for cross-marketing in 1957.
The downside is that what we are seeing in the kinescope copy is not the actual production. It's a rehearsal. So, it's likely the sets and costumes may not have been fully completed. The actors may not have fully had their lines down yet. So, it appears to be rough in places. Overall, I enjoyed it enough to purchase the music in stereo which is well worth a listen.