The Rodgers & Hammerstein Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

The Rodgers & Hammerstein Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 11, 2014

Note: The scores above are averages spread over the four new releases in this set. See individual reviews for details.

Most theater geeks and fans of Glee could probably correctly pair Strouse with Adams, Bock with Harnick, Adler with Ross, Kander with Ebb, and Maltby with Shire, but even the relatively unwashed masses would have no problem recognizing the vaunted partnership of Rodgers and Hammerstein. These two titans of the Broadway musical achieved their renown though a combination of both incredibly artistry, providing the Great American Songbook with untold treasures from their musicals, and fairly rare business acumen, which preserved their creative control over their properties but, due at least in part to their role as producers as well as composer-lyricist-librettist, above the title billing which is usually reserved for the acting talent. Rodgers and Hammerstein had each had their own individual successes prior to teaming with each other, Rodgers most notably with Lorenz Hart and Hammerstein with Jerome Kern, but together they seemed almost ideally suited to remaking the American musical in their own sophisticated yet homespun combined images. From the 1943 premiere of Oklahoma! on Broadway through 1960’s stage version of The Sound of Music, Rodgers and Hammerstein enjoyed an almost unparalleled string of successes (despite occasional lackluster outings like Allegro or Pipe Dream), with several of their shows still acclaimed as unmatched masterpieces to this day. Because Rodgers and Hammerstein were so hands on in the curating of their properties, it actually took over a decade for the first of their immense hits to even make it to the screen, but 1955 proved to be a stellar year for the team on the silver screen, with not just that show, Oklahoma!, appearing in not one but two formats (and versions), but their follow up Broadway smash Carousel also lighting up the screen with some of the same cast as Oklahoma!. The Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals are all models of expert plotting and precise characterizations, and they all benefit from the somewhat sardonic but mellifluous genius of Richard Rodgers, one which acted as a sort of slightly bittersweet gin to Oscar Hammerstein’s effervescent tonic.

This new box set combines two reissues along with four new to Blu-ray releases. For complete reviews of each of the titles, please click on the appropriate links.

The two returning films are:

South Pacific Blu-ray review. This is the same two disc version, albeit with different disc art. Though the second disc is a Blu-ray, the roadshow version of the film contained on it is still in standard definition.

The Sound of Music Blu-ray review. Note that this is only one disc with the feature film and the supplements of the first disc on the previous releases, namely "Your Favorite Things", the two commentaries, Sing-Along and Music Machine.

New to Blu-ray films include:

State Fair Blu-ray review

Oklahoma! Blu-ray review

Carousel Blu-ray review

The King and I Blu-ray review

The Rodgers & Hammerstein Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Click on the links above for assessments of the video quality of each release.

The Rodgers & Hammerstein Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Click on the links above for assessments of the audio quality of each release.

The Rodgers & Hammerstein Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Click on the links above for assessments of the supplements of each release.

The Rodgers & Hammerstein Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Is one grand slam home run worth the price of admission to this set? That's going to be the most hotly debated point here, since probably only the Todd-AO version of Oklahoma! will muster enough support to outrun the naysayers who find things lacking in the other new to Blu-ray releases in this set. Fox is usually one of the better studios in harvesting the best elements and providing often sensational high definition accounts of their deep catalog, but in this case, they've let the ball slip through their fingers (to continue the analogy above). With a standalone release of Oklahoma! due in a few months, it might be best to wait for that, or at least until this set starts being discounted more severely.