Laserdiscs
dialogue gives it the air of some­ thing not only half-assed but half- baked—as if the George Fox/ Mario Puzo script had been scribbled during a power lunch on a bar napkin. The all-star cast includes
Charlton Heston (giving one of his jut-jawed “Damn You” perfor­ mances, and driving a land rover that’s actually louder than the film’s first quake), Victoria Princi­ pal (in a woolly perm), Lome Greene (playing Ava Gardner’s father—though he was only seven years her senior... and looks seven years younger!), Marjoe Gortner (in a wooly perm), Richard Roundtree (Shaft himself as a motorcycle daredevil who never executes a single stunt!), George Kennedy (need we say more?) and Walter Matthau (as an oblivi­ ous drunk, wearing what appears to be wardrobe left over from THE MACK), billed under his real name of Walter Matuschankayasky. It’s like a Zucker-Abrams-Zucker movie played straight, which provokes laughs nonetheless. Especially ticklish are the crash of a falling elevator car, which culminates in a crudely ani­ mated blood splash (!), and a gratuitous cutaway shot of a jet shaking violently in flight dur­ ing the titular event. Originally presented in the­
aters in the Sensurround pro­ cess, sound is everything to a successful presentation of EARTHQUAKE. While this two- disc set is an all-around improve­ ment on MCA’s scratchy, pan&- scanned disc of a few years ago, the sound fails to compare in any way to the often frightening the­ atrical experience—which em­ ployed a special amplifier and 10-20 concert-sized speakers. You’ll need a top-of-the-line subwoofer to replicate even half of the theatrical effect. The aural
64
Wendy Hiller and Pamela Brown in Powell and Pressburger’s fateful romance, I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING!
presentation is erratic overall; the dialogue is sometimes hard to make out against the sound ef­ fects, and sounds best on the analog tracks, while the digital tracks offer a better representa­ tion of the sound effects—most notably, the quake itself. (While on this subject, it should be men­ tioned that the side break sorely disrupts the tension building up prior to the quake, with the Big One kicking in shortly after the commencement of Side Two.) Filmed in Panavision, the
film has been letterboxed at ap­ proximately 2.50:1 and looks generally well-balanced, though nothing of much importance oc­ curs outside the “TV Safe” area of the screen. Made at the height of visual effects artist Albert Whit­ lock’s tenure at Universal, this extravagant folly is worth sitting through at least once for the plea­ sure of his extraordinary matte work. The feature is encoded with over 40 chapter marks, and Side Three—with its unexceptional blow-the-dam finale—is in CAV. (Side Two would have been much
more rewarding for still-frame perusal.) Included after the film is a 1.85:1 theatrical trailer, hailing the film as a “superb drama.”
I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING!
1945, Voyager/Criterion #CC1389L, D/MA, $69.95, 91m 29s
This exquisite, fantastical ro­
mance marked the fourth col­ laboration of the Archers,Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and it is commonly named by admirers who prefer intimate films to ambitious ones as one of their finest works. A smaller, but no less earnest, group of people hold it as the best film ever made. Both of these camps, as well as newcomers, will be pleased with the warmth and af­ fection the Voyager Company has invested in this “Criterion Collec­ tion” edition. The film is accom­ panied on the second analog channel by an audio commen­ tary by film scholar Ian Christie (the author of two books on Powell
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84