Carousel [1956]
The 1956 screen adaptation of Carousel, like its immediate predecessor Oklahoma!, boasted then state-of-the-art widescreen cinematography, stereophonic sound, a starring romantic duo with on-screen chemistry, and the Rodgers & Hammerstein imprimatur. Adding to its promise was a source (the venerable Ferenc Molnar play Liliom) that had already been filmed three times. Contributing to the lustre are the coastal Maine locations where 20th Century Fox filmed principal photography. Yet unlike the original Broadway production, and despite evident craft, Carousel proved a box-office disappointment. Why? Hindsight argues that movie-goers of the 1950s may have been unprepared for its tragic narrative, the sometimes unsympathetic protagonist, and a spiritual subtext addressing life after death.
Whatever the obstacle, Carousel may well be a revelation to first-time viewers. The score is among the composers’ most affecting, from the glorious instrumental “Carousel Waltz” to a succession of exquisite love songs (”If I Loved You”), a heart-rending secular hymn (”You’ll Never Walk Alone”), and the expectant father’s poignant reverie, “Soliloquy”. Top-line stars Shirley Jones (as factory worker Julie Jordan) and Gordon MacRae (as Billy Bigelow, the carnival barker who woos and weds her) achieve greater dramatic urgency here than in the more successful Oklahoma!. MacRae in particular attains a personal best as the conflicted Billy, whose anxiety and wounded pride after losing his job are crucial to the plot. It’s Billy’s impatience to support his new family that drives him to an ill-fated decision, which transforms the fable into a ghost story. –Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com
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Customer Review: Well worth going to the Carousel
Regarded by many as the best Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, it still manages to pack a punch after all these years. Most people will probably already be familiar with the hymn-like standard ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, but there are plenty of other gems here that are worth tuning in for. Fans of Frank Sinatra may recognise Billy’s ‘Soliloquy’. The scene on the beach where Gordon McRae belts it out is now a movie musicals’ classic. My personal favourite is the beautifully tender duet ‘If I Loved You’, a song so loaded with the promise of romance and deeply felt regret all at the same time - surely (or Shirley??) one of the best love songs in any Broadway repertoire. Another of the musical’s high points comes with the opening ‘Carousel Waltz’ itself, an instrumental piece that perfectly captures the very mood of a funfair and is probably one of Rodgers’ finest compositions. It won’t leave your head for days! While the camerawork may look a bit dated now, the story is still relevant and quite moving. Both of the leads (Gordon McRae and Shirley Jones) are well cast and the singing is excellent. Exquisite stuff indeed.
Customer Review: A Timeless Musical Masterpiece
Undoubtedly the most touching and beautifully written of Rogers and Hammerstein's movie-musicals, this film is in turns lightheartedly funny and tear-jerkingly sad. Featuring classic songs “June is Busting Out All Over”, “If I Loved You” and “You'll Never Walk Alone” and the undisputed talent of Shirley Jones and Gordon McRae, this film will leave you with tears streaming down your face long after the credits.
I, Tina
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Saint-Saen’s Carnival of the Animals
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Customer Review: Brilliant
Really good. Our three year old can really enjoy the music because she can follow the pieces by looking at the illustrations. These give her all sorts of ideas for acting out and dancing.
Body Heat [1981]
While scoring high-profile credits as a screenwriter (including The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the Lost Ark), Lawrence Kasdan made his directorial debut with this steamy, contemporary film noir in the tradition of Double Indemnity and other classics from the 1940s. In one of his most memorable roles, William Hurt plays a Florida lawyer unwittingly drawn into a web of deceit spun by Kathleen Turner (in her screen debut) as a married socialite who plots to kill off her husband with Hurt’s assistance. Kasdan’s dialogue is a hoot (sometimes it borders on satire) and the sultry atmosphere is a perfect complement to the perspiration-soaked chemistry between Hurt and Turner, whose love scenes caused quite a stir when the film was released in 1981. John Barry’s score sets the provocative mood and both Ted Danson and Mickey Rourke are splendid in memorable supporting roles. –Jeff Shannon
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Amazon Price: ?4.97
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Customer Review: SUPERLATIVE FILM NOIR…
This film is simply top notch. With deft direction by Lawrence Kasdan, a stellar cast, and a clever, well thought out script written by the director himself, this is a moody, atmospheric film, reminiscent of those potboilers of the nineteen forties. Highly stylized, the film tautly maintains its tension and suspense. The plot is simple, yet ingenious. In steamy, hot and sultry coastal Florida, a beautiful blonde, unhappily married socialite, Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner), a veritable man trap with her smoky voice and Venus de Milo curves, meets a womanizing chump, Ned Racine (William Hurt), a small town, not too successful lawyer. He can’t believe his luck when he hooks up with the wealthy Matty, as most of the women with whom he consorts work as waitresses, nurses, or in other service occupations. Better yet, the sexy, alluring Matty seems to want him as much as he wants her, and a torrid affair ensues. Matty is married to a rapacious business man, Edmund Walker (Richard Crenna), whom Matty wants to have permanently removed. He is definitely a man with whom to reckon and the type of guy that takes no prisoners. He is, quite simply, a ruthless businessman, and the type of guy one loves to hate. He is also rich, very rich. Matty claims that she cannot divorce him without losing her wealthy life style, due to a draconian pre-nuptial agreement. Matty, in between huge dollops of steamy sex, does not hesitate to tell Ned how much she loves and wants him and that, were her husband were to die, all that money would be theirs. Beneath her love goddess exterior, however, lies a mind like a steel trap. As Matty slowly spins her web and ensnares Ned, like a mouse in a trap, he falls into lock step with Matty’s homicidal plans. What he does not initially realize is the extent of Matty’s perfidy and deceit, until it is too late. As the realization of what actually has happened begins slowly to dawn upon Ned, it is a thing of on screen beauty and an absolutely brilliant contrivance with which to push the film further along to its ultimate resolution. What initially appears to be just a film about sexual obsession turns out to be something quite different, with enough plot twists to keep the viewer riveted to the screen. It is hard to believe that this was Ms. Turner’s screen debut, so powerful a performance does she turn in. She is absolutely mesmerizing as the sexy siren with an agenda all her own. Just as she reels in Ned Racine, she reels in the viewer, as well, hook, line, and sinker. William Hurt is also terrific as the bottom of the barrel attorney who realizes too late that all is not what it seems. He approaches the role with the right amount of naivete, not letting the sleaze factor overwhelm the character. In the final analysis, there is a measure of sympathy for him, such as that for a little boy who is found with his hand caught inside the cookie jar, no easy feat given the nature of the character’s actions. A goofy looking Ted Danson is excellent in the small role of Peter Lowenstein, the State’s attorney and Ned’s friend, who suspects that Ned may be involved in the death of Edmund Walker. He, too, plays a game of cat and mouse with him. J. A. Preston is wonderful as Ned’s friend and the detective investigator who follows the homicide investigation no matter where it leads. Mickey Rourke is very good as Ned’s client and small time criminal, as well as a man who seems to have more sense than his lawyer. This is a superlative film that is well worth having in one’s collection. Bravo!
Customer Review: A sexy film noir, great score, superb plot twist
One of my favourite films (others are The Usual Suspects, Apocalypse Now, The Sixth Sense, Diner and Diva). This film sustains repeated viewing because of the atmosphere generated by the director, which conjures up the heady, sweaty Florida heatwave; the greed, lust and deviousness of it’s two main protagonists, and the wonderful score by John Barry. The script is superb, the performance of William Hurt, Kathleen Turner and Mickey Rourke (it was Turner’s and Rourke’s debut) are exceptional, and the plot is just a dream come true. If you like films that will entertain you, and then leave you feeling dumb at the end because of a plot twist, then this is for you. See it, and drink in it’s atmosphere, and I hope (like The Sixth Sense) that the first thing you want to do after watching it, is watch it again.
Prizzi’s Honor [1985]
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Customer Review: The less you know about it, the more you’ll enjoy it
So many of the laughs in Prizzi’s Honor come from the plot twists (most of them included in the film’s trailer, conspicuous by its absence on this DVD) that it’s best not to go into it knowing too much. The fact that I’d forgotten so many of them is perhaps why I enjoyed it so much more the second time around. It’s a civilized entertainment - perhaps a little too civilized at times, although William Hickey’s deathly white vampiric Don gives a whole new meaning to the phrase Cookie Monster - elegantly made and plotted, which wasn’t so rare in 1985 but these days is a positive novelty. Jack Nicholson’s hamming it up again, but not as much as usual as the luckless Mafia enforcer who meets the woman of his dreams only to discover she’s ripped off the family. His comparative restraint helps keep the film from disappearing into slapstick and ridicule, but he still feels something of an impostor in this world - far more so than Kathleen Turner, on good form here as his fatal attraction. Quietly enjoyable. No real extras on the UK DVD apart from a few text trivia notes, but at least it isn’t panned-and-scanned like other titles from theABC library but has an acceptable non-anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen transfer.
Customer Review: Bullets are hitting the wrong targets and missing the right ones
When the mafia becomes the argument of an action film and little more it is no longer funny, it is no longer strange, it is no longer fascinating. It is nothing but outlandish and terroristic. It takes all Jack Nicholson can give to make these characters in anyway palatable, and even so. In the Prizzi family all other considerations than the family is outlawed, except maybe for a couple of weeks and the woman concerned by this out-breeding passing passion has to submit and take the color of the wall on which she is being pinned. If she does not then she will be executed and cut off. There is no depth in that film, no subtleties or even subtlety. Get the message, bang it down on the table and then cram it down your brain. Business is business and in-breeding is the rule. I will always wonder why a hit-woman with a reputation of efficiency and effectiveness misses her husband when he intends to kill her though she manages to shoot one bullet first. Suspend your disbelief and incredulity. The cinema is the new church of the visual dominant animal man is. To see is to believe. But at times to believe is easier when you are blind, and probably deaf too. Apart from that it is interesting even if we do spend a little bit too much time in planes going east and planes going west, kind of an airlift between New York, or whatever may titillate you, and Los Angeles, or whatever it takes to please you. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne
Treasured memories of the Turners: About the families of William Basil Turner (1814 Ga. - 1895 Ala.) and wife, Nancy (Haney) Lourana Garner (1815 Ga. - … Cove ” NE of Walnut Grove, Etowah Co., Ala
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