ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET CAPTAIN KIDD

[Ray Faiola]

Just an advisory to fans of Bud and Lou that Warners' restoration of A&C MEET CAPTAIN KIDD is finally available through the Warner Archive.

For years, the only prints available were the Gold Key prints, poor reductions from a poor Cinecolor print. Warners obtained the B&W separations and, using an original SuperCinecolor print for reference, made a new printing negative. Both the picture and sound are terrific. I saw the new print at the Lafayette in Suffern, NY. It was VERY well received and it was obvious that both Charles Laughton and Bud & Lou were having a ball making this one.

BTW - In addition to having a 16mm Gold Key color print, I also have one of the B&W RKO reissue prints. I can't tell you how strange it is to see the beeping RKO Tower on screen and hearing Max Steiner's Warner fanfare on the soundtrack. Even as a kid - seeing this on WCBS' Picture for a Sunday Afternoon - I knew something was wrong!

[FrankFay]

Laughton is a scream in this one- love the "My Darling Darling Darlingwhy didn't you tell me this was a love letter?" bit

[Jack Theakston]

Definitely one of the boys' more underrated efforts... more in style with the TV Show, but Laughton's having a blast and the color makes the film go a long way. And I must disagree with Maltin's review—the songs are quite catchy. Not top shelf A&C, but definitely better product from that era.

BTW, much credit should go to Bob Furmanek for tracking down the SuperCineColor three-strip elements on the title (in the UK of all places!), and Cinetech for being the only lab that could properly combine said elements.

[Doug Sulpy]

Thanks for the heads up.

I have that awful German disc (which looks like something out of the $1.00 bin), so this is sure to be a major step up in quality.

They have Rio Rita, too! I think the A&C movies are all out on DVD now .

[Ray Faiola]

BTW, much credit should go to Bob Furmanek for tracking down the SuperCineColor three-strip elements on the title (in the UK of all places!), and Cinetech for being the only lab that could properly combine said elements.

Bob is responsible for quite a few A&C ascentions, including JACK AND THE BEANSTALK and AFRICA SCREAMS, not to mention the tv series.

[moviepas]

BTW, much credit should go to Bob Furmanek for tracking down the SuperCineColor three-strip elements on the title (in the UK of all places!), and Cinetech for being the only lab that could properly combine said elements.

Not so 'of all places'. Many color films have been found there in labs both from productions pre-war & post-war. The 'lost' color negatives to the Gevacolor first Australian color film, Jedda(c1953) were found there, the Herbert Wilcox/Anna Neagle Sixty Glorious Years(color) was 'lost' and found in a lab in London as well and so many more. Both those got onto DVD. Legend has it that the Museum of Modern Art could not store safely the negatives of The Black Pirate and shipped them the the BFI's NFTVA which had better storage facilities for such footage. The BBC's print of Universal 2-strip Technicolor The King of Jazz(1930) was processed at Rank's Brentford Labs. I saw a reduction print of that version about 1978 with all the printing information supplied and on unspliced-in leaders. The person who bought it is recently deceased at 96 and the guy who arranged it is still living so no names. The surviving discs of the soundtrack, found in Australia, have scenes not in the film as it stands which includes some alternate comedy sequences and had been taken home by a projectionist at the time and when he died his wife passed these discs on but I am not sure now there whereabouts but they were played at that time(late 70s?) on a nostalgia radio show presented by the station who were sent the discs. I did not hear them and plans to do a double lp from those discs did not happen. Several years ago I contacted the Vitaphone group and they never replied so I don't know if they followed this up. The US holdings did come out on VHS but a planned laserdisc never eventuated although there was a review in what is now Classic Images for the laserdisc but I think h either got a test the MCA canceled this or he was told it was happening and he faked a review using the VHS. Who knows. Incidentally people have told me that, now former, small theater in Melbourne screened a print of this film as revival sometime after the war in 1945.

So never say, 'UK of all places'. It happens all too often there wars or no wars wrecking cities there.

[Doug Sulpy]

I watched the new DVD last night.

The picture is hardly "terrific" - lots of dirt, specks, scratches and other assorted damage, though it was completely watchable, clear and (no doubt) the best this film is ever going to look (somehow I have trouble seeing Criterion picking this one up...).

Laughton was a blast. It's obvious he's having a great time.

The film looked like it was shot on a budget of next-to-nothing. Indeed, color aside, it looked more like a '50's TV show than a theatrical film.

The songs were laughably bad. It's like someone watched a bunch of musicals, and then tried to imitate what they heard. This isn't necessarily a negative - in fact, besides Laughton, I found the awful music the most entertaining thing about the film.

And it was neat seeing A&C in color (somehow, "Jack and the Beanstalk" failed to register on my brain as "color").

[Ray Faiola]

Some scratches and specks? Oh dear! Films like this aren't going to get Lowery 4K restorations. The reality is, the way this film has been treated over the years, it's a miracle it looks as good as it does. Of course, it's not a Sam Goldwyn production. It's an indy produced by Bud's company and it is pure, unvarnished burlesque. The songs and singers were typical of second-drawer entertainment and both Bill Shirley and Fran Warren were popular warblers. It's 70 minutes of surrender and, judging by the original box office receipts and the reaction by the audience at NY's Lafayette a few years ago, it was and is a crowd pleaser. Everyone on the set was obviously having fun. Some of us still are watching it.

[Doug Sulpy]

Some scratches and specks? Oh dear!

There's no need for an attitude, especially since I only pointed out the defects to rebut your statement that the image looked "terrific."

[Ray Faiola]

True, no need for an attitude. But I desired to employ one nevertheless. My choice. And compared to every previous incarnation of this film, the DVD does, indeed, look TERRIFIC! And it's funny!

By the way, for silent film fans - the waiter who came into the kitchen with a black eye was veteran hero Rex Lease.

[Kevin2]

Can anyone recommend the best DVD release of the boys' Jack and the Beanstalk?

[Jack Theakston]

Most of them are ports from the Lumivision LD, which was transferred from an original SuperCineColor 35mm by Bob Furmanek. It looked real nice. However, I think there may have been remasters since.

I got my copy of CAPTAIN KIDD last week and sat down to it. I know what the original prints looked like and what the UCLA restoration looked like on film. WB has done a good job in tweaking what was weak in the film restoration to look closer to what the original prints looked like, but there has been an effort to mute down the color (the primaries on the original prints really POP, especially that Cinecolor blue). Night scenes were the weakest part of the original print--they were quite dark and fare much better here.

As far as the built-in dirt is concerned, the only dust I saw was during opticals, which you just have to accept as part of the original film--it's dirt and scratches that were on the optical positives and everyone who saw the film saw those errors. And if you think that was bad, you should see some British opticals from the early '60s--shocking!

[moglia]

I normally never purchase DVD-R's as I perceive them as poor value, but in this case I made an exception.

"Props" to Bob Furmanek for getting this to fruition. I've seen it listed on A&C filmography's for years but now I'll finally get to watch it.