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Complete releases of Hello Dolly! and Thoroughly Modern Millie would be so awesome. I just about wore out my lp of Millie as a kid. I've always loved that score. Bernstein did a perfect job of weaving everything together seamlessly. It never bothered me that his Oscar was for Millie.
Also, re My Fair Lady, I had a close friend who saw the original production on Broadway many times -- and her descriptions of the show as experienced at those performances were, in many ways, light years from how I experience the film. While I admire the film for capturing some, stressing some, of the magic of some of the original performances, it always seems to me that the film as directed and edited tends to "land" each scene, each performance, each song, each new set design, each new costume, with such weight that I find the film tiresome. It always wears out its welcome, for me at least, well before the concluding number. I guess it just seems too dark and too overdone to me in many ways.
I gather from what my friend described that the original show had more theatrical magic and more movement and didn't seem "weighty" (it was known for an ingenious use of revolving platforms as I recall), with performances balanced perfectly between comedy and drama. My friend said it just seemed to weave an effortless and magic spell. I can't say the same for the film. Just IMHO.
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Lennie Hayton doesn't get enough credit for his work here.
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I posted somewhere (likely in a thread about Doctor Dolittle) that we had intended to follow up with Hello, Dolly but found that the original 35mm mag audio elements had succumbed to extreme vinegar syndrome, as had Star!. So both are unfortunately past saving, leaving just the album masters.
Millie is something we'll look into at Universal at some point.
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I realize this is unrelated to the subject of this thread, Mike, but would you happen to know what has become of the tapes for South Pacific?
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It's something that Disney could look into, and with Hollywood Records distributing through Universal Music Group, at least there is now some sort of administrative connection between the film and the soundtrack album.
R&H produced South Pacific and Fox was involved as a distributor only (of the 35mm version) which likely has something to do with the fact that no music for it has ever been located at the studio.
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It's something that Disney could look into, and with Hollywood Records distributing through Universal Music Group, at least there is now some sort of administrative connection between the film and the soundtrack album.
R&H produced South Pacific and Fox was involved as a distributor only (of the 35mm version) which likely has something to do with the fact that no music for it has ever been located at the studio.
I was afraid that would be the case, though I must admit I’m a little confused by your comment about there being a 35mm version (was it just distribution of 35mm prints of the general release version or was there yet another version that was along the lines of the CinemaScope version of Oklahoma!).
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Getting somewhat back on topic, Film Forum will be showing a new 4K restoration of Millie in November (though their synopsis erroneously states it was based on the Broadway show when it was the other way around), so there’s that to look forward to while we wait for an expanded release of the score.
https://filmforum.org/film/thoroughly-modern-millie-ffjr
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R&H produced South Pacific (and Oklahoma!) through Magna Corporation for 70mm roadshow release in the U.S.. Fox distributed the movie for general release 35mm. They were reduction prints, not an alternate performance like Oklahoma!, but some footage was cut for general release.
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Definitely MILLIE, and please throw in THE COURT JESTER.
I do have THE COURT JESTER on CD that was coupled with HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN. It's primarily a Danny Kaye collection. It was released by Varese back in 1994 and the reissue was produced by Bruce Kimmel.
Cheers,
Harry
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