Cinderella (1965) receiving 50th Anniversary DVD 9/9/2014

[beautywickedlover]

Posted: 7/8/14 at 8:26pm

The 1965 remake of 'Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella' is receiving a 50th Anniversary DVD this September. It will feature a new digital transfer from the original master, showcasing this treasured classic with the best picture quality imaginable. I'm so glad they are restoring it to its original quality. As a child I always preferred watching this over the 1950 animated film since it did not have scary moments like the dark palace guards chasing after Cinderella or the stepsisters tearing apart her dress. The cast is perfection and the songs are wonderful. This was also my parent's favorite version of the story as well.














Lesley Ann Warren "Cinderella" being reissued on DVD Updated On: 9/7/14 at 08:26 PM

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 7/8/14 at 9:33pm

I've actually still never seen this version. I love the soundtrack CD though.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 7/8/14 at 9:37pm

Id love a bluray

[DramaTeach]

Posted: 7/8/14 at 10:21pm

This is my favorite version. Looking forward to it!

[JohnyBroadway]

Posted: 7/8/14 at 10:25pm

My favorite out of the three adaptions. I actually think Beanes adaption was closest to this version.

[vpd1981]

Posted: 7/8/14 at 10:31pm

I wish they'd do this with Carol Burnett's "Once Upon a Mattress" television performance (not the most recent one where she played the Queen).

[madlibrarian]

Posted: 7/8/14 at 10:35pm

A fiftieth anniversary edition for the forty-ninth anniversary?

[beautywickedlover]

Posted: 7/8/14 at 10:39pm

^ We're heading into the 50th Anniversary. Lots of movies do it a little early for promotion. 'Sleeping Beauty' and 'Pinocchio's first Blu-ray releases celebrated their 50th and 70th anniversaries respectively even though they were released a year early. 'The Wizard of Oz' began celebrating its 75th Anniversary in Fall 2013 even though it was released in 1939.

Updated On: 7/18/14 at 10:39 PM

[broadwaybabywannabe2]

Posted: 7/8/14 at 10:39pm

well being old enough to remember the Julie Andrews live presentation of CINDERELLA, I really preferred Julie to Lesley Ann as Cinderella...I grew up on that version and learned all the songs because of that tv night...Lesley Ann is sweet but Julie Andrews is after all JULIE ANDREWS!!!...:)

[ddenoff2]

Posted: 7/8/14 at 10:46pm

I posted this a few weeks ago on another thread. You can pre-order on Amazon now

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JHH1ZN8/?tag=dickvandykesh-20

http://shoutbroadway.com

[beautywickedlover]

Posted: 7/8/14 at 10:49pm

When I looked up information on the cast on IMDB many years ago I could not believe that Pat Carroll who played Prunella was the voice of Ursula in 'The Little Mermaid'.

"well being old enough to remember the Julie Andrews live presentation of CINDERELLA, I really preferred Julie to Lesley Ann as Cinderella...I grew up on that version"

It was originally shown only once on television. It was not until 2004 that A black and white kinescope of the broadcast was found and shown again on television and became available on VHS and DVD.

[Plexsis]

Posted: 7/8/14 at 11:16pm

I would love a remastered release of the Mary Martin Peter Pan. It's been out of print for ages

[beautywickedlover]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 1:19am

Thank you Broadway World. A classic deserves promotion.


CINDERELLA Set For 50th Anniversary DVD Special Edition, Out 9/9

[ChairinMain]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 1:22am

This version always leaves me conflicted.

On the one hand, it is the version I grew up with and I have very strong memories of watching it when I was VERY young (I'm talking three or four), so it holds a place in my heart. On the other, everytime I rewatch it, I am left with the sense that none of it is very good. The last time I watched this was when I was laid up with a dislocated knee, waiting for the doctor to give me a diagnosis and terrified that I was going to have to quit a show (I didn't have to, thank God). I felt intensely nostalgic and looked this one up on youtube. And as soon as it was done, I said "okay, I'm going to watch the OTHER TV versions to remind myself why I like this show."

Lesley Ann Warren would become a wonderful actress but she is really green here, strident in her acting and shrill in her singing. She is lovely, and she can dance but, just like in Victor-Victoria, there's no competing with Julie Andrews. :) The rest of the cast range from dull to less dull, but that's mostly the fault of whoever took all the wit and actual jokes out of Hammerstein's script. It's badly shot, badly designed and badly paced.

I hate to be so negative about this, but between the sparkling performances and snarky wit of the 1954 version, and the beautifully-shot, well-performed and more often-than-not well written 90s version, this one just gets left out in the cold. I invite debate.



Updated On: 7/9/14 at 01:22 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 6:31am

Before everybody gets their hopes too high about a new "remastered" edition, this version of Cinderella was shot on video tape, not film.

That's 486 lines (or dots if you will) of NTSC standard-definition information.

You can't make a Blu-ray or HD-quality master from a standard-def video tape. The most you could do is uo-rez it to 1080p or 1080i (actually), which is the same thing most Blu-ray players do now. (A fake resizing that is still better than stretching the image.)

So while I'm sure they will do what they can to improve the color timing and contrast, etc., it's still a video tape.

If they had shot it on film, then an HD master would be possible. In this case, it's not.

[ddenoff2]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 9:33am

best12bars - you are very correct. The special was shot on quad video tape (although it was re-transferred to another media when the original DVD came out) and everything possible was done to digitally deal with 'ringing' and other video 'artifacts' typical of video from that era. But had it been released on Blu-Ray the HD would have MAGNIFIED those inherent defects rather than showcasing a beautiful show. Even a film Kinescope of a live TV show can look better in HD, as can shows shot on film to begin with, such as The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Love Lucy.

So while Blu-Ray would have been groovy, it wouldn't have done the special justice. Sort of like shooting certain film stars thru a silk stocking filter as Harry Stradling famously did - the end result is better than the raw goods.

It's still a gorgeous transfer and I think everyone will be very pleased.

oh, and NTSC video is 525 lines.

Updated On: 7/9/14 at 09:33 AM

[Plexsis]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 10:22am

Was Into The Woods also shot on tape? I feel like in the 80s it was pretty standard for that to happen (star trek the next generation was actually shot on film but transferred to tape during editing. The blu was possible since they went back to the original film elements).

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 4:55pm

ddenoff2 --- my appologies. When I was writing above, I was mixing my comments about lines with pixels.

525 scan lines, yes.

In pixels (I worked in digital video on 200 films and TV shows) ...

NTSC video = 720x486 pixels
NTSC D1 (DVD) = 720x480 pixels
PAL video = 720x576 pixels
Square pixels = 720x540

All standard def for broadcast.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 8:20pm

This shall be mine! :)

[Eris0303]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 11:32pm

The Amazon.com price just dropped to $14.99

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 7/10/14 at 1:46am

I am fond of it and It was the version that I grew up watching, but, I'm sorry, no one involved in this production could hold a candle to their counterparts in the original production, and that includes the script writer.

Though, having said that and still thinking that Julie Andrews runs rings around her in the title role, Leslie Ann Warren has a quality of such naive innocence in the part that you believe that she believes that this is all real. Julie seems a more worldly wise Cinderella, though Julie was only 22 when she played it and Leslie Ann was only 19.

[beautywickedlover]

Posted: 7/10/14 at 1:30pm

Having done this musical in high school and seen many other professional productions, including the Broadway production, I always wondered why the step-family did not sing "A Lovely Night" with Cinderella in this version, even though they sing "Where You're Driving Through the Moonlight" with her. It always made sense for Cinderella to sing "A Lovely Night" with them and it seemed strange that she's singing the lyrics "a finer night you know you'll never see" to herself rather than her stepsisters and stepmother. I assumed it was because Jo Van Fleet had never done a musical before and they thought it was better that she only sang a little bit in this show. It also might have been because they wanted to show off Warren's ballet skills, which were beautiful.

[Musical Master]

Posted: 7/10/14 at 11:29pm

Now, if only the Julie Andrews version can get a big DVD edition with the color restored...

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 7/10/14 at 11:47pm

Though because only the black and white kinescope of the Julie Andrew version exists restoring the color would be akin to Ted Turner and his "let's colorize all the old films" craze. I would be curious, though, how many color photographs or design sketches and renderings might still be in existence somewhere to serve as a guide if somebody did undertake the project, or would it have to all be from memory and guesswork?

[Musical Master]

Posted: 7/11/14 at 12:03am

There could be a chance that those things could exist, but if not, I guess we'll have to keep the black and white version. Even though I remember reading that the original broadcast was in color.