'THE MAD MISS MANTON' (1938), 'THE SKY'S THE
LIMIT'
(1943)
and 'STAGE DOOR' (1937)
- A review by Richard Harrison (2010)
The Guardian has now published their list of the top 25
comedy films ever, and, as a certain American would say, 'you CANNOT be
serious!' (wait- that belongs in the sporting movies
section really). What might have started as a little joke in the
editorial office ('let's see how much we can upset our readers...')
has finished, it seems, with an overblown, overstated and (let's face
it) jaw-droppingly incompetent list. I'm all for the notion of
re-assessing and re-evaluating (after all, Citizen
Kane isn't the best film ever- and continually saying it is
has become tedium personified). However, a list of COMEDY films
(key factor- that they are funny) that includes NO Buster Keaton,
NO Harold Lloyd, NO Laurel and Hardy and only one Chaplin and
one Marx Brothers film yet manages to find room for the appalling
Clueless and include Team America is no joke
whatsoever.
Given this current debate about comedy films and/or the travesty
of the aforementioned newspaper's poll, it seems apposite to feature
three new comedy releases from Odeon Entertainment which, although not
mentioned
in the 'top 25' list, are still perfectly good pieces of entertainment
in their
own right.
Odeon Entertainment have rightly not focused on yet more re-packages
and re-issues of familiar titles, but are dusting off perfectly
enjoyable films from the vaults. The second offering of individual
titles comprises:-
The Mad Miss Manton (1938)- starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry
Fonda.
The Sky's The Limit (1943)- starring Fred Astaire, Joan
Leslie
and the perenially underrated Robert Ryan.
and
Stage Door (1937)- starring Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers
and Adolphe Menjou.
The print quality of each film is
excellent, with monochrome hues sharp and devoid of distracting damage.
Most importantly, these titles look to have been mastered from the
original source materials (as opposed to some budget releases which are
clearly mastered from 16mm prints of the films concerned, meaning a
lesser quality product).
The cast in each case, together with the previously limited
availability of these titles, should mean that these new releases are
‘must buys’ for fans of classic Hollywood cinema. 'The Mad Miss Manton'
would seem to be a particularly good buy for UK cineastes as the only
other issue of this title is part of the 'Warner Archive' series,
which,
though excellent, means importing from America.
All titles are available from the end of October 2010 from Odeon
Entertainment.
Odeon Entertainment website
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