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A Few Words About A few words about...™ How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Robert Harris

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I'm betting that some readers here may only know Robert Morse as Bertram Cooper of Mad Men.

For those folks, be aware that he's been in the business since the 1950s.

I "discovered" him in late 1961, when I saw the show on Broadway, with he and the legendary Rudy Vallee in the roles they recreated for the film, along with Charles Nelson Reilly. Michele Lee is also on board, recreating her role, after replacing Bonnie Scott on stage.

Still stage (or studio) bound for the big screen, the film is in many ways a filmed of the play, with a wider proscenium, and that's fine.

The play was an award-ladden production, including seven Tony, inclusive of Best Musical.

It also won something called a Pulitzer for drama.

That's a pretty good set up for a film, and the 1967 film, as directed by David Swift, remains a fun, sprightly encounter with the gang at WWW (World Wide Wicket) half a century later.

The Blu-ray from MGM via Twilight Time is a delight. While typical MGM work, it's fine, with color, densities, and grain levels all seemingly in their requisite places.

The only real problems, which will probably go unnoticed by most viewers go back to the telecine, or scans, which vertically crush frames at either cuts or notches. Avoidable, yes, but it would have cost a few dollars extra to get it right.

The original monaural track has been remixed to 5.1,and also sound great.

When the film does head outdoors, it gives us one of its most charming sequences, as Mr. Morse dances his way down a Manhattan sidewalk, with passers-by taking very little notice of his antics.

Interviews with Mr. Morse and Ms Lee round out the extras, beyond the expected TT fare.

One of the most charming musical films of the '60s.


Image - 4

Audio - 4

4k Up-rez - 4

Pass / Fail - Pass

Recommended

RAH
 

bugsy-pal

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I will get this - and patiently waiting for "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung you in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad'
 

Mike Frezon

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Coming up on two weeks after release date and Screen Archives still lists my March 1st pre-order as "pending"--even after responding to my e-mail by telling me it was on the way. :angry:

This is one I would have watched the day I got it. Still might...if it ever gets here.
 

moviepas

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The missing coffee track seems to have gone awol way back when. Search of MGM vaults for this by the asset manager and a reviewer of today back at that time failed to find it. Someone may have taken it home and.....
 

Joe Caps

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When the laserdisc was released, I tracked down the director of the film. He told me -
"There was only ONE print of the film that had the Coffee Break Number and the stereo sound - the Radio city Music Hall print. They wanted to cut the film alightly to make way for the Rockettes and the Coffee Break number was the earliest number to easily be cut.
UA then cut all other prints to make it the same as New York.
I saw the film opening day at Radio City with the Coffee Break number and stereo.
I would love to know what MGM used to remix the stereo for 5.1
 

haineshisway

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When the laserdisc was released, I tracked down the director of the film. He told me -
"There was only ONE print of the film that had the Coffee Break Number and the stereo sound - the Radio city Music Hall print. They wanted to cut the film alightly to make way for the Rockettes and the Coffee Break number was the earliest number to easily be cut.
UA then cut all other prints to make it the same as New York.
I saw the film opening day at Radio City with the Coffee Break number and stereo.
I would love to know what MGM used to remix the stereo for 5.1

Either the director had lost his marbles or you are reporting completely erroneous information. Coffee Break was in NO print after the initial sneak previews several months before the film's release. I saw one of those initial sneaks at the Village Theater and the number was in. I also saw a subsequent preview about two or three weeks prior to the film's release and the number was gone - the film had been long locked by that point and Coffee Break wasn't in it. Ever.
 

ahollis

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Bruce - what are your thoughts on the Coffee Break number? I believe it was on the soundtrack and I have always enjoyed it whenever I saw it on stage.
 

KPmusmag

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Is the music in true stereo?

In my personal opinion, I don't think so; a friend just got the blu and last night we compared it to the soundtrack CD. The CD has quite vivid stereo, with wide separation. The blu has a pleasant sense of "space", but not the separation the CD has. Just my opinion, but to my ears the 5.1 is more an "expansion" than true stereo.
 

haineshisway

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In my personal opinion, I don't think so; a friend just got the blu and last night we compared it to the soundtrack CD. The CD has quite vivid stereo, with wide separation. The blu has a pleasant sense of "space", but not the separation the CD has. Just my opinion, but to my ears the 5.1 is more an "expansion" than true stereo.

This is exactly what I thought about the Peyton Place music, but others who seem to know say it's absolutely real stereo - but I did what you did here - I put my ears up against the speaker and I just don't hear the kind of separation I normally would from stereo music. Who knows?
 

Joe Caps

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Sorry, but Coffee Break, when I saw it at Radio City is the number that made me fall in love with the film.
 

Will Krupp

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Glenn Erickson talked to David Swift in regards to "Coffee Break" about 20 years ago and Swift didn't mention that it ever played in the movie during its actual release.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s34coffeebr.html

An interesting note from the article that sounds like there might be some false memory associated with this:

I have no Hollywood background in my family, but as it so happens I once worked with the son of one of the producers of Succeed in a Westwood theater in the early 1970's. He was in high school then, and I really hadn't seen him at all since about 1976. So I gave him a call. He had his own 16mm print of the film and was certain that the missing musical number was in it. Unfortunately, when he finally took the print out and checked it, it wasn't there after all.

I can relate. For years I was convinced that Albert Finney's SCROOGE once had a scene in it depicting small, dirty children clinging to the robes of the Ghost of Christmas Present.
 
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haineshisway

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Sorry, but Coffee Break, when I saw it at Radio City is the number that made me fall in love with the film.

Sorry, but it wasn't - ever - in any theatrical run of the film. You are misremembering - isn't the first time its happened and certainly won't be the last :) As Will Krupp rightly states: False memory. :)
 

Will Krupp

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Sorry, but it wasn't - ever - in any theatrical run of the film. You are misremembering - isn't the first time its happened and certainly won't be the last :) As Will Krupp rightly states: False memory. :)

I wanted to clear this up so I went to the newspaper archives.

This is the New York Times from March 9, 1967 (aka "opening day") While the picture/stage show times are not always represented as consistent times (some programs throughout the day must have contained extraneous bits like previews, etc) we know that the film's run time can't be longer than the SHORTEST time between picture and stage show. According to imdb the film, as we know it, runs 121 minutes. The first show of the day is advertised to start at 10:30 am with the first stage show following at 12:29 pm. Now I realize there are two minutes missing from that schedule but we can chalk it up to human error as I don't think that these were run as an exact science down to the second. It's clear that there's not really any room for the film to still contain another musical number even on opening day.

03.09.67-page-001.jpg


What's more, six weeks into the run there was no appreciable change in the picture/show ratio (and let's face it, removing a 5 minute musical number only would have saved them 25 minutes a DAY anyhow) In fact, the time allocated for the picture portion is generally even LONGER (save the 7:12 pm show) than during the opening.

04.16.1967-page-001.jpg
 
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PMF

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Sorry, but Coffee Break, when I saw it at Radio City is the number that made me fall in love with the film.
I, too, saw the Coffee Break number at Radio City Music Hall; but not in a showing of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Instead, Coffee Break found its way into the early 80's Radio City Music Hall presentation of Able Gance's "Napoleon". Apparently, the projectionist found this footage in the booth and, amongst all the reels of Kevin Brownlow's restoration, mistook it for an epic lengthed Intermission leader. Still, it was quite exciting watching Coffee Break as the curtains opened up revealing a 3-panel screen; where the left screen showed a cup of coffee with cream and sugar in it and the right screen a cup of tea; with the center screen being a straight cup of black. I am now of the belief that what I was watching were interjected visuals, replicating a 60's style television commercial, that took advantages with the usages of the Coffee Break number; if such a thing's possible.
Furthermore, I absolutely remember everyone in the lobby clamoring at the vast concession stand in order to buy their own cup.
Not a folded box of popcorn was sold...just coffee and tea.:rolleyes:

But seriously, how can Joe Caps be making up the existence of a musical number in his memory that few others have seen? Somewhere, within the recesses of his mind, he must have seen it; right?:thumbs-up-smiley:
 
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PMF

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Damn. All this talk is has planted the seed for, yet, another TT purchase.;)
 

haineshisway

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Not the first time it's happened - won't be the last :) Always amazing what we think we remember that never happened, the most obvious of which is the "to be continued" card for Back to the Future, which people swear they saw, when they could not possibly have seen it because it didn't exist. Once upon a time Joe and I got into it about the Valley of the Dolls soundtrack release, which he swore up and down had come out when the film did. There was no winning until I finally found the ad for the soundtrack release - which didn't happen for many months after the film's release - only then, when the proof was in front of his eyes, did he sort of back off his iron-clad claim. As I said, it happens - but it's important to not let the erroneous information become fact because one person swears they saw something that no one else ever saw (except for me, of course, and those in attendance at that early sneak preview).
 

Peter Apruzzese

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But seriously, how can Joe Caps be making up the existence of a musical number in his memory that few others have seen? Somewhere, within the recesses of his mind, he must have seen it; right?:thumbs-up-smiley:

Remind me and I'll tell you of my 30+ year quest to prove that the long 70mm version of Heaven's Gate that I saw in NYC in 1980 *didn't* have subtitles in the Russian scenes. I was adamant about it since when I finally saw the shorter version 1981 it had subtitles, and I was insisting that I hadn't seen them on the other version. 34 years later, the actual 70mm print of Heaven's Gate that I saw in 1980 in NYC screened in DC at the AFI and... it *had* subtitles. Oops.

Memory is a tricky business.
 
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