![The Mikado (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] (1939)](/wp_content/uploads/2011/03/61214_XyiL._SL500_AA300__150x150.jpg "The Mikado (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] (1939)")
THE MIKADO (1939, Blu-ray released March 29, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
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Victor Schertzinger‘s 1939 adaptation of Gilbert & Sullivan‘s The Mikado is something of a cinematic anomaly – a play, turned into a film that feels like a play. It’s a movie like no other presented here for the first time on Blu-ray by The Criterion Collection.
- “The legendary Gilbert and Sulliavan troupe the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company joined forces with Hollywood for this 1939 Technicolor version of the fabled comic opera, the first complete work by the famed duo to be adapted for the screen, directed by musician and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Victor Schertzinger (One Night of Love, Road to Singapore). The result is a lavish cinematic retelling of the British political satire set in exotic Japan, with such enduringly popular numbers as “A Wandering Minstrel I” and “Three Little Maids from School Are We,” and featuring performances by American singer Kenny Baker as well as a host of renowned D’Oyly Carte actors, including Martyn Green and Sydney Granville. “
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, musicals aren’t my thing. It’s just a particular style that I’ve never been able to get into. And The Mikado, wordy as it is and performed here at breakneck speed to keep the film under 90-minutes, goes beyond being a style that I can connect to, it’s also quite often incomprehensible. But for as much as I would fault the film being as it is – not a completely accurate reproduction of the stage play but also not a complete success as a film – it’s a remarkable product of it’s time and a warm remembrance of the type of work popular on the stage of London’s Savoy in the late 19th Century. The static direction that keeps it looking like a stage-production and the uneven performances are buoyed by truly astonishing production design, costumes and cinematography. The Mikado is all-around beautiful.
As alluring as the images on the Blu-ray might be, I have to admit that I found the presentation often distracting. It is overall quite attractive but for all the rich colour and detail on display, there’s a fair amount of tonal shift (misaligned Technicolor strips) and colour pulsing. I have no doubt that the image is accurate to the best available source but it simply can’t touch the best catalogue transfers and restorations. This is, without question though, the best The Mikado has ever looked on home video. A rare treat for fans.
From the liner notes:
- “This new high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from a 35mm interpositive. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI’s DRS system and Pixel Farm’s PFClean system, while Digital Vision’s DVNR system was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction.“
The lossless mono audio track shows it’s age but is clean, clear and solid from top to bottom.
From the liner notes:
- “The monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the original optical tracks. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated workstation.“
I have little doubt that The Mikado was initially approached as a special feature itself, to be included by Criterion with their release of Mike Leigh‘s Topsy Turvy until it was deemed a strong enough package to stand on it’s own. There’s no commentary track on the Blu-ray disc but the supplements present are excellent. Leigh speaks of the film in terms of influence on Topsy Turvy in a 20-minute discussion, a short documentary that, along with the half-hour chat with G&S scholars Josephine Lee and Palph MacPhail Jr., put the film in context of the stage play and cinema history. The disc is rounded out with a deleted scene, a short, silent, 4-minute promo for the D’Oyly Carte company’s 1926 performance of The Mikado, excerpts from two radio broadcasts and an excellent essay, printed within a beautifully illustrated booklet.
Special Features:
- Newly remastered digital transfer with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New video interviews with Topsy-Turvy director Mike Leigh and Mikado scholars Josephine Lee and Ralph MacPhail Jr.
- Short silent film promoting the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company’s 1926 stage performance of The Mikado
- Deleted scene with Ko-Ko’s “I’ve Got a Little List” song
- Excerpts from 1939 radio broadcasts of the stage productions The Swing Mikado and The Hot Mikado
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien
[...] much as I found Victor Schertzinger‘s 1939 adaptation of Gilbert & Sullivan‘s The Mikado to be impenetrable – every drama, every exchange set to barely-intelligible song lyrics [...]
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