Thoughts on the BFI Mutuals, Vol. 1

For those of you who have all-region capability and haven't yet
bought it, this region 2 DVD is now available at www.bensonsworld.co.uk
for 13.99 pounds, a saving of 6 pounds over the current prevailing price.

I am extremely impressed with this disk. The music is spectacular. As David
Shepard commmented in an earlier post, Carl Davis's music makes watching
these films a fresh and often revealing experience. There's also an
interview with Davis in which he is more relaxed and informative than he
has been in previous interviews.

As earlier posters mentioned, _The Rink_ has a bit of footage added in the
kitchen. While there is a noticable drop in image quality for a few
seconds, this addition intensifies the mayhen in a very agreeable way.

A large number of titles, including an order for the cocktail that shakes
Charlie, are added to _The Rink_. These enhance it more than one might
expect, and the score for this film is particularly inspired. To me it
looked virtually like another film, much funnier than I'd ever found it
before. The last few seconds are still missing, but that's a small deficit
compared to such enormous gains. _The Rink_ alone is worth the price of the
disk.

Connie K.
--
"To hell with the pillow in the background. It's a good scene, and that's
more important." Chaplin, Interview with Richard Meryman, 1966.

"Constance Kuriyama" <do481.DeleteThis@FreeNet.Carleton.CA> wrote in message
news:cu3l04$pcp$1@theodyn.ncf.ca...
>
> For those of you who have all-region capability and haven't yet
> bought it, this region 2 DVD is now available at www.bensonsworld.co.uk
> for 13.99 pounds, a saving of 6 pounds over the current prevailing price.
>
> I am extremely impressed with this disk. The music is spectacular. As
David
> Shepard commmented in an earlier post, Carl Davis's music makes watching
> these films a fresh and often revealing experience. There's also an
> interview with Davis in which he is more relaxed and informative than he
> has been in previous interviews.
>
> As earlier posters mentioned, _The Rink_ has a bit of footage added in the
> kitchen. While there is a noticable drop in image quality for a few
> seconds, this addition intensifies the mayhen in a very agreeable way.
>
> A large number of titles, including an order for the cocktail that shakes
> Charlie, are added to _The Rink_. These enhance it more than one might
> expect, and the score for this film is particularly inspired. To me it
> looked virtually like another film, much funnier than I'd ever found it
> before. The last few seconds are still missing, but that's a small deficit
> compared to such enormous gains. _The Rink_ alone is worth the price of
the
> disk.
>
> Connie K.

Thanks for the info, Connie. I do look forward to getting this (when I have
the $$), even though the films are still unnecessarily compromised. Pretty
frustrating when you know the missing material exists. I still dream that
someday, with the help of Doug Sulpy's notes, materials, and painstaking
attention to detail, that a definitive restoration of the Mutuals will be
done. All the existing missing bits put back in the right order,
intertitles restored in the authentic Mutual style (as Doug has already
perfected), appropriate music scores (can't wait to hear the new Carl Davis
ones), and extras in the form of commentaries, outtakes, alternate takes
from foreign prints, original poster art, documentary on the
restoration/production history/distribution history, etc. etc. etc. These
films are so important to the history of film comedy that they deserve
nothing less than the best possible presentation. Although, I could live
happily without the extras if the films were restored properly, which, to
this date, they sadly haven't been.