Damn Yankees - October 12
08-26-04, 04:14 PM
#1
DVD Talk Special Edition
Thread Starter
Damn Yankees - October 12
VideoETA.com emailed me a notification that a release date has popped up for Damn Yankees. I won't get my hopes too high until other sites start talking about it, but I don't have reason to distrust VideoETA.
08-26-04, 04:29 PM
#2
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08-30-04, 12:50 AM
#5
DVD Talk Gold Edition
Three words:
ABOUT F**KIN' TIME!!!!!!!!!
Though I woulda done a MUCH better 2-disc set DVD with an Ultra-Resolution hi-def track, remastered DD 5.1 and original mono, isolated music track, Tab Hunter commentary, documentaries, interviews tributes to Gwen Verdon and Ray Walston, deleted scenes, trailers, the whole schmeer.
ABOUT F**KIN' TIME!!!!!!!!!
Though I woulda done a MUCH better 2-disc set DVD with an Ultra-Resolution hi-def track, remastered DD 5.1 and original mono, isolated music track, Tab Hunter commentary, documentaries, interviews tributes to Gwen Verdon and Ray Walston, deleted scenes, trailers, the whole schmeer.
10-16-04, 09:05 PM
#10
Suspended
Damn Yankees on DVD: The Very Good and the Not So Good
Well, the DVD is out and it confirms what everyone has been saying forvever, that "Damn Yankees" is one of the best Hollywood adaptations of a Broadway musical ever made. Period.
How good is it? It's tingly good. I didn't stop tingling from the moment Robert Shafer is transformed into Tab Hunter to the very end! The song "Heart" in all its original stage glory (sung by Russ Brown, Jimmie Komack, Nathaniel Frey and Albert Linville) is especially memorable and, yes, tingle-inducing, with its false finale, sly applause-milking reprise and over-the-top harmonies.
The transfer is excellent, even though the 1:77 cropping sometimes feels a little tight for the probable intended 1:66 format. ("Antoinette, dainty queen" is decapitated in more ways than one.) The colours are exceptionnally vivid. The print is fine. The package is bare bones, but at least the widescreen is anamorphic.
The dance numbers are all choreographed by Bob Fosse (who was married to Gwen Verdon then) and he also appears in the film dancing with wifey. This alone would suffice to make it a collector's item.
The number "Two Lost Souls" is especially powerful as a choreographic statement, where Fosse is telling us these people may seem to be in a nightclub, but they're really in hell (and enjoying it, just the same). I also like the devious way Tab Hunter is made to appear to be dancing when he really is not. (Hey! That's not what they paid him for! He was paid to look callously innocent!)
The Not So Good: Broadway revivalist producer Didier C. Deutsch put the soundtrack album on CD back 1989 in a brand-new stereo remix. It's a pity that WB put out this DVD without attempting some kind of enhacement to the glorious mono (1.0) original soundtrack - which is clear as a bell, but that's not the point.
Also: rumours have been going around forever that there exists a print out there with the censored song "The Game" (sung by Tab Hunter in his real, gosh-darn voice, like all his other songs, in case anybody wonders about that, Tab being the only non-B'way performer in the cast.) A commentary or extras explaining this and other mysteries would have been a welcome addition. Like the fact that the trailer talks about a film called "What Lola Wants" - an attempt at censoring the very name "Damn Yankees"?!?
In short, "Damn Yankees", a musical about baseball, a populist opera by the makers of the equally memorable "Pajama Game", a Stanley Donen film (like the latter), an adaptation of "Faust" with choreography by Bob Fosse, an ode to monogamy and a national monument, is an unqualified classic in every respect. It just deserved the whole kit and caboodle: back-slapping star tributes, fond reminiscences, juicy anecdotes, technical details, commentaries, alternate versions (endings?), bloopers, deleted scenes and a re-channelled track.
How good is it? It's tingly good. I didn't stop tingling from the moment Robert Shafer is transformed into Tab Hunter to the very end! The song "Heart" in all its original stage glory (sung by Russ Brown, Jimmie Komack, Nathaniel Frey and Albert Linville) is especially memorable and, yes, tingle-inducing, with its false finale, sly applause-milking reprise and over-the-top harmonies.
The transfer is excellent, even though the 1:77 cropping sometimes feels a little tight for the probable intended 1:66 format. ("Antoinette, dainty queen" is decapitated in more ways than one.) The colours are exceptionnally vivid. The print is fine. The package is bare bones, but at least the widescreen is anamorphic.
The dance numbers are all choreographed by Bob Fosse (who was married to Gwen Verdon then) and he also appears in the film dancing with wifey. This alone would suffice to make it a collector's item.
The number "Two Lost Souls" is especially powerful as a choreographic statement, where Fosse is telling us these people may seem to be in a nightclub, but they're really in hell (and enjoying it, just the same). I also like the devious way Tab Hunter is made to appear to be dancing when he really is not. (Hey! That's not what they paid him for! He was paid to look callously innocent!)
The Not So Good: Broadway revivalist producer Didier C. Deutsch put the soundtrack album on CD back 1989 in a brand-new stereo remix. It's a pity that WB put out this DVD without attempting some kind of enhacement to the glorious mono (1.0) original soundtrack - which is clear as a bell, but that's not the point.
Also: rumours have been going around forever that there exists a print out there with the censored song "The Game" (sung by Tab Hunter in his real, gosh-darn voice, like all his other songs, in case anybody wonders about that, Tab being the only non-B'way performer in the cast.) A commentary or extras explaining this and other mysteries would have been a welcome addition. Like the fact that the trailer talks about a film called "What Lola Wants" - an attempt at censoring the very name "Damn Yankees"?!?
In short, "Damn Yankees", a musical about baseball, a populist opera by the makers of the equally memorable "Pajama Game", a Stanley Donen film (like the latter), an adaptation of "Faust" with choreography by Bob Fosse, an ode to monogamy and a national monument, is an unqualified classic in every respect. It just deserved the whole kit and caboodle: back-slapping star tributes, fond reminiscences, juicy anecdotes, technical details, commentaries, alternate versions (endings?), bloopers, deleted scenes and a re-channelled track.
Last edited by baracine; 10-17-04 at 12:00 PM.
10-17-04, 10:12 AM
#11
Suspended
DVD Savant pitches in...
Glenn Erickson (DVD Savant) had this to say last night about the preceding post (by personal e-mail, the guy really does exist!):
My e-mail to him:
Hi Benoit .... that one hasn't shown up, grrr, but I'll happily buy it. I think it's my favorite musical.
The reason the soundtrack wasn't used is because the takes are different. Not only don't the songs fit, but they'd sound different too in little ways. So I'm glad they went with the mono.
Thanks! Glenn
The reason the soundtrack wasn't used is because the takes are different. Not only don't the songs fit, but they'd sound different too in little ways. So I'm glad they went with the mono.
Thanks! Glenn
Dear Mr. Savant,
Here is my posting in the "Damn Yankees - October 12" discussion thread in DVD Talk, dvdtalk.com. Maybe you'll answer some of my questions...
I look forward to reading your column, as ever.
Here is my posting in the "Damn Yankees - October 12" discussion thread in DVD Talk, dvdtalk.com. Maybe you'll answer some of my questions...
I look forward to reading your column, as ever.
Last edited by baracine; 10-17-04 at 10:23 AM.
10-17-04, 11:28 AM
#12
DVD Talk Legend
When I was a kid, this seemed to be on TV all the time, and I loved it back then. Bought the DVD Tuesday and watched it that night. I had never seen it in color (or widescreen) and it was a mind-blowing Down-Memory-Lane experience! When's the SE coming out?? 
