7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 3.2 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Alvie and Boots (Mark Miller and Donovan Scott) are a pair of bumbling felons searching for the ultimate score after a daring prison escape. Savannah Driscoll (the unforgettable Bridgette Andersen in her movie debut) is an imaginative six-year-old whose wealthy politician parents have little time for her. But when Savannah runs away from home and hides in Boots and Alvie’s broken-down getaway car, the small- time crooks are suddenly mistaken for big-time kidnappers. Can a hard-luck fugitive and a failed chicken thief now find a foolproof way to collect the $100,000 ransom? Why is the nation's toughest investigator (Peter Graves) hunting them down like hard-core criminals? And most of all, will the charms of one special little girl teach everyone about love, trust, friendship and family? Michael Parks, Chris Robinson and Oscar-nominee Pat Morita co-star in this beloved childhood favorite that captivated a nation to become one of the most heartwarming hits of the decade!
Starring: Mark Miller (I), Donovan Scott, Bridgette Andersen, Chris Robinson (I), Michael ParksComedy | 100% |
Family | 99% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 16-bit)
BDInfo
None
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 2.0 | |
Audio | 2.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
As perhaps as unbelievable as it may sound, Mark Miller, the writer, co-producer and (maybe not so coincidentally) co-star of Savannah Smiles, mentions in one of the supplements included on this new Blu-ray that his inspiration for the film came from none other than Jean Renoir’s legendary classic La Grande Illusion. That may seem like a bit of wishful thinking on Miller’s part, at least in terms of overall gravitas, profundity and lasting impact, but there’s at least a kernel of understandability in Miller’s anecdote since Grand Illusion does feature a convict on the lam interacting with a child, albeit somewhat tangentially to the main arc of the story. Miller’s conceit was to make that aspect the whole story, with an unhappy little rich girl named Savannah (Bridgette Andersen) running away from a home where she feels unappreciated, and almost by chance ending up in the orbit of two sort of bumbling criminals named Alvie (Mark Miller) and Boots (Donovan Scott). Miller, who may be best remembered by Baby Boomers for his two season stint as the Dad on the television sitcom version of Please Don't Eat the Daisies (as well as being real life father to Penelope Ann Miller), may have called in a few chits for Savannah Smiles, since the film is filled with exactly the sort of character actors you’d expect with a co-producer steeped in sixties television, including the likes of Peter Graves, John Fiedler, Philip Abbott, Pat Morita and Michael Parks. The fact that most of these folks have little to do other than ham it up pretty spectacularly at times may be the best evidence that for all its perceived subtext (some of which may be a little troubling), Savannah Smiles wants to play things mostly on the light side, with an admittedly considerable amount of schmaltz thrown in just for good measure.
Savannah Smiles is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual's MVD Rewind imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The back cover of this release touts that this is culled from a "brand new 2K high definition transfer from 35mm original release film print provided by the Library of Congress". I'll simply defer to the knowledgeable David Storhmaier, who, in the restoration featurette on the new version of This Is Cinerama, mentions that luckily that new version didn't need to be sourced from Library of Congress elements. As undeniably commendable as the Library of Congress collection is, the imprimatur of the vaunted library doesn't necessarily guarantee an element in excellent condition, and for a pretty salient example you need look no further than Savannah Smiles. This is almost always a pretty "dupey" looking transfer, with chunky, yellowish grain (which is easily visible in many of the screenshots accompanying this review), middling clarity and a fairly consistent bluish tone that underlies a lot of the imagery, especially in darker moments. There's also considerable damage at play throughout this presentation, with at times rather large (usually green) vertical scratches and other fairly ragged looking signs of age related wear and tear. There's even a missing frame or two, noticeably in the closing moments, when one of Ken Sutherland's tunes is missing a snippet due to the issue. Some of the Utah cinematography still looks passably decent, but this is a niche cult item that will probably never have the cachet to warrant a full bore restoration. The "plus side" to this presentation (if it can be called that) is there is obviously no aggressive digital tweaking that's been done.
Unfortunately, things fare no better for Savannah Smiles's LPCM 2.0 mono track. The track is hobbled by persistent hiss and crackling and (as indicated above) a couple of missing moments that are affected by missing frames. There's midlevel distortion at times in everything from dialogue to Ken Sutherland's rather enjoyable country inflected song score.
Savannah Smiles is a kind of interesting release for MVD Rewind. It doesn't seem to have the instant cult cachet of something like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! or even the more recent The Return of Swamp Thing. The film boasts a sweet lead performance from little Bridgette Andersen, and there's a kind of goofy element to the putative "bad guys" that kind of reminded me of lesser Disney fare like The Apple Dumpling Gang, but overall the film is a bit listless, drifting from comedy bits with Savannah and the convicts to at times pretty slow moving scenes involving those trying to get her back. (Kind of interestingly if tangentially, Bridgette Andersen evidently co-starred in a short lived sitcom called Gun Shy which was based on the Apple Dumpling Gang films.) The film also flirts precariously with melodrama in its closing act, something that tends to chafe against whatever comedic sensibility has been established up to that point. Fans of the film will no doubt enjoy the supplements MVD Rewind has provided, but the element used for this transfer is badly in need of both video and audio restoration.
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