7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
During WW2, a man persuaded to live on an isolated island and spot aircraft finds himself responsible for a teacher and several students, all female.
Starring: Cary Grant, Leslie Caron, Trevor Howard, Jack Good, Sharyl LockeRomance | 100% |
War | 31% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Cy Coleman is one of my favorite composers, one who effortlessly blended jazz, Tin Pan Alley and traditional Broadway idioms. Coleman penned a large number of huge hits through the years, including “Witchcraft” and “The Best is Yet to Come”, two major smashes for Frank Sinatra (whose gravestone actually is inscribed with the title of the second song). Coleman’s collaborator on those two tunes was the lyricist Carolyn Leigh, and Coleman and Leigh went on to create two moderately successful musicals, 1960’s Wildcat, which starred Lucille Ball and introduced the standard “Hey, Look Me Over”, and then Little Me, which starred Sid Caesar in a variety of roles and introduced the standard “Real Live Girl”. Coleman moved on to working with the legendary Dorothy Fields for his next Broadway outing, Sweet Charity, which became perhaps his best remembered score (though he went on to write a number of other high profile and award winning musicals), one which contained a number of notable successes like “Big Spender”, “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This”, “Where Am I Going?”, “I’m a Brass Band” and one of Coleman’s biggest hits, “If My Friends Could See Me Now”. Coleman was one of very few tunesmiths competent enough to handle scoring duties for a major motion picture, and when Sweet Charity made it to the screen in 1969 (and when are we going to get it on Blu-ray?), Coleman received credit (and an ultimate Oscar nomination) for adapting his score for the screen. But Coleman had already flirted with the movies a few years previously by providing the original scores to three films that came out over the course of a couple of years between 1964 and 1965. One of these was the ebullient comedy Father Goose, the next to the last film a certain Cary Grant appeared in, and one which featured a rollicking Coleman-Leigh song called “Pass Me By”, which according to legend was written at the behest of Grant himself so that Grant could once again perform something akin to what he did early in his career in British music halls.
Father Goose is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The elements utilized for this transfer are in remarkably good condition, with only a few very minor white specks and other negligible flecks showing up very occasionally. The colors here seem just slightly faded, with flesh tones edging toward the pink side of things, and with some of the colors looking perhaps a bit less vivid than might be hoped. Otherwise, though, this is a very commendable looking high definition presentation. Fine detail is quite good, even in midrange shots, something that actually points out some of the miniatures and tank work that was done in some of the water scenes. As with virtually all Olive releases, there doesn't appear to have been any digital tweaking of any kind to the source elements.
Father Goose's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix is a surprisingly boisterous affair, replete with an excellent rendering of Cy Coleman's very playful score (which rather anachronistically features recorders and only hints at the film's wartime setting) as well as some unusually vivid foley effects (the opening sequences features some rather surprisingly effective explosions, and later in the film other low end effects a are similarly effective). Dialogue is very cleanly presented, with excellent fidelity and unusually wide dynamic range for a "mere" comedy.
No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.
Despite Father Goose's kind of Odd Couple-esque set up, this isn't a Neil Simon laugh-a-thon, but more of a gently amiable comedy that coasts on the considerable charisma of Grant (looking unusually rumpled) and Caron (managing to remain sophisticated despite being stranded on a tiny island). The shenanigans of the kids are occasionally giggle worthy, but it's the chemistry between the stars that makes Father Goose so enjoyable. And just for you sticklers— the fact that Cy Coleman's birth surname happens to be curiously similar to this reviewer's has absolutely nothing to do with my love for his music—well, mostly nothing, anyway. Recommended.
1959
Warner Archive Collection
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Indiskret
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Universal 100th Anniversary
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Warner Archive Collection
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Rental Copy
2015
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Warner Archive Collection
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