quarter) and with deep blacks, but the running time (shorter than the listed 96m) implies a 25 fps PAL conversion. English sub- titles are provided and the mono audio track is satisfactory. A res- toration demonstration is the only extra.
MIRANDA 1948, VCI,
$19.99, 76m 38s, DVD By Michael Barrett
On a fishing trip to Cornwall, Dr. Paul Marton (Griffith Jones) gets in over his head with mer- maid Miranda (a delightful Glynis Johns). “I love tall men,” says she. “The last two I caught were so short I had to throw them back again.” She wheedles the good doctor into taking her with him back to London to look at the sights, especially the male ones. “Look at that beautiful man!” she says of a Buckingham Palace
guard—and, in truth, she never meets a man she doesn’t like. She especially notes the hands and ears.
This British film is notably racier than the same year’s Hol- lywood offering, MR. PEABODY AND THE MERMAID, and it’s fun- nier and sexier than SPLASH. Unselfconscious and disarming (or dislegging), Miranda is a si- ren of robust libido, and her democratic spirit of free love embraces the proper married doctor, a bohemian artist (John McCallum) and a servant (David Tomlinson, later Johns’ husband in MARY POPPINS). She certainly has a way with her, and appar- ently her way with them. The ef- fect is positively continental. Standing by is the phlegmati- cally wacky Margaret Rutherford (only a twist or two away from her Madame Arcati in BLITHE SPIRIT) along with Googie Withers, Sonia Holm, Yvonne
UK promotional trade ad.
Owen and Maurice Denham. Ken Annakin directed a script by Pe- ter Blackmore and Dennis Wal- dock from Blackmore’s play. Thanks to digital restoration, Ray Elton’s photography is shown off on this sharp 1.33:1 print. The credits tell us the tail is by Dunlop, and it’s a good tail. It would be nice if VCI could release MAD ABOUT MEN (1954), the sequel also starring Johns and Rutherford.
THE STEPFATHER: UNRATED
DIRECTOR’S CUT 2009, Sony,
$24.95, 102m 10s, BR By Shane M. Dallmann
Joseph Ruben’s 1987 original THE STEPFATHER has dated in only one way that might justify a modern remake: today, nobody would need to request a photo- graph of a serial killer through the
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