6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.6 |
When the Kwimper family car runs out of gas on a new Florida highway and an officous state supervisor tries to run them off, Pop Kwimper digs in his heels and decides to do a little homesteading. He and his son Toby and their "adopted" children - Holly, Ariadne and the twins - start their own little community along a strip of the roadside. The fishing is good and the living is easy until the mob sets up a gambling operation and the state supervisor sics a sexy social worker on the Kwimpers in an effort to take away Ariadne and the twins.
Starring: Elvis Presley, Arthur O'Connell, Anne Helm, Joanna Moore (III), Jack KruschenMusical | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
Music: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
There must have been something in the water (or whatever it is Hollywood types were drinking back then) in 1962, for not only did the lackluster Elvis Presley film Follow That Dream hit theaters that year with its depiction of country bumpkins attempting to make their way in the big, wide, civilized world, a little television series called The Beverly Hillbillies with much the same general premise debuted in September of that year. There are a number of salient differences between the two, of course, even if Elvis’ character of Toby Kwimper seems more than a bit reminiscent of sweet but dunderheaded Jethro Clampett from the long running CBS sitcom. The most salient of these differences is the fact that the Clampetts had money—a lot of it, in fact, due to Jed’s fortuitous discovery of “Texas tea” on his property. In Follow That Dream, the extended Kwimper family (which includes several adoptees, a point which will become a major plot device) seems to be living off the government dole. Pop Kwimper (Arthur O’Connell) is a vagabond who makes allusions to collecting unemployment, while Toby himself is on “total and complete disability” due to having injured his back in the Army. There are some passing attempts to satirize this situation in Charles Lederer’s screenplay (culled from a novel called Pioneer, Go Home! by one Richard P. Powell), but it’s not clear exactly what or whom is being satirized. The Kwimpers are supposed to be the good guys, homesteading a little piece of property next to a brand spanking new Florida highway where they end up due to an early misadventure, and meddling government types are at least putatively some of the villains in the film. But the film never really capitalizes on this socioeconomic and political subtext, and instead goes off on a number of detours that see the Kwimpers fight both social workers (who want to take the adopted kids away) as well as nefarious gangsters who decide to homestead right next door to the family. Common wisdom suggests most sixties Elvis film efforts are fairly shabby, and while there are certainly exceptions to this general rule, Follow That Dream could probably be held up as Exhibit A for anyone promoting this hypothesis.
Follow That Dream is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Elements are in very good condition, and while my dislike of Deluxe often colors (sorry) my reaction to the palette in films of this vintage, things look really good here most of the time, with blues especially robust. However, there does appear to be some intermittent slight fade to brown (take a look at the flesh tones and especially the "red" of the Cadillac fin and bunting in screenshot 12). Grain is effectively managed, giving a nicely organic appearance to the proceedings. There's a combination of location footage (which often looks great) and rear projection (which can sometimes look surprisingly shoddy), with varying levels of sharpness resulting. There are no signs of digital tinkering here, and fans of Follow That Dream should be generally quite pleased with this release.
Follow That Dream features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix which supports both the middling song score as well as dialogue and a few sound effects very well. There's actually some good midrange (more so in the soundtrack than the isolated score, in my opinion), giving those great Jordanaires backup vocals some real oomph. Dialogue comes through very clearly and cleanly in this problem free track.
For some unknown reason, I often imagine Elvis' infamous manager and agent Col. Tom Parker as what I consider to be his counterpart in The Simpsons, the co-called "rich Texan" (maybe because Parker himself seemed to be something of a cartoon). It's easy to picture either iteration pitching this film to some midlevel bean counter in Hollywood. "Aw, shucks, fellas, just stick Elvis under a palm tree with a pretty girl—wait. . .two pretty girls—and have him sing a few songs, and it's like putting money in the bank." Once the Kwimper jalopy breaks down, the family has to do a lot of walking, so it's probably little wonder this film is so pedestrian. Elvis fans will no doubt be thrilled that Follow That Dream has made it to Blu-ray, and for them the good news is technical merits are excellent.
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