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Rocketman, the film about the early-to-middle-aged life of Elton John, was written by Lee Hall who wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplay for Billy Elliot and the book and lyrics for Billy Elliot the Musical for which John wrote the music. It was directed by Dexter Fletcher who took over the direction of Bohemian Rhapsody after the firing of Bryan Singer.

Produced by John, with a writer who previously collaborated with him and the completion director of the similarly themed musical biography of another British rock legend (Freddie Mercury), the project was in good hands. Adding to its anticipated strength was the casting of main stars, Taron Egerton, who previously starred in Dexter’s biographical Eddie the Eagle as the legendary British Olympic ski jumper, and Jamie Bell, who was the original Billy Elliot. Egerton plays John, Bell plays his longtime lyricist, Bernie Taupin.

While I generally found the screenplay to be on par with the richly detailed screenplay for Bohemian Rhapsody, which was co-written by three writers, I found the film somewhat disappointing in that it ended with the now 72-year-old John in his mid-40s when he was just entering into a new-found sobriety that has sustained him in the years since. A lot of the music he’s written since surpasses some of what was used in the film. Bohemian Rhapsody ended with the reunion of Mercury and the rest of Queen, not with his death, but nothing after that 1985 Live Aid concert added anything to his legend with just six years left until his death from AIDS. The same can hardly be said of John’s life after 1991 which encompassed scores for movies (The Lion King), Broadway shows (Billy Elliot), great charitable works, knighthood, the meeting of his life partner and eventual same sex marriage, fatherhood, and performing at state funerals. There’s so much there that a TV mini-series would probably be required to capture it all. What is there, though, is good.

The performances are all excellent. Egerton is terrific singing in his own voice. He’s not quite John, but he is a reasonable facsimile. Bell as Taupin only gets to sing briefly on two songs, but he’s also quite good throughout. Richard Madden, playing a rare unsympathetic role, is astonishingly good as John Reid, John’s manager and first male lover. He plays a heel extremely well.

Bryce Dallas Howard, Gemma Jones, and Steven Macintosh are all fine as John’s family members, as are Matthew Illesley and Kit Connor as the child and teenage John, respectively.

Paramount’s Blu-ray release contains over 75 minutes of bonus content including extended musical sequences and 10 deleted and extended scenes, as well as a Sing-Along.

Warner Archive has released a long overdue Blu-ray upgrade of William Wyler’s 1938 film Jezebel, which was Warner’s answer to Gone with the Wind.

The Broadway play on which the film about the Antebellum south was based was a flop in 1933 starring Davis’ later nemesis, Miriam Hopkins (The Old Maid, Old Acquaintance). Warner Bros. purchased it on the cheap as a vehicle for Davis in 1935 but it wasn’t until speculation over the casting for the film version of literary sensation Gone with the Wind that Warner got serious about the property.

William Wyler, hot on the heels of These Three, Dodsworth, and Dead End, was borrowed from Samuel Goldwyn to direct. Wyler hired John Huston to spruce up the screenplay while Warner Bros. supplied cinematographer Ernest Haller (Captain Blood) and composer Max Steiner (The Informer), both of whom were hired for Gone with the Wind on the strength of their work here for which both were nominated for Oscars with Haller winning. Orry-Kelly (whose later works included An American in Paris and Some Like It Hot was the costume designer.

Davis’ first Oscar for 1935’s Dangerous has always been considered a consolation prize for her not being nominated for her superior performance in the previous year’s Of Human Bondage, but she is at her best here, deservedly earning a second Oscar for her portrayal of the headstrong, win-at-all-costs Louisiana belle whose selfish ways turn fiancรฉe Henry Fonda against her. Her unselfish act at the end of the film redeems the character and turns a good film into a truly great one. Fonda, George Brent, Donald Crisp, Fay Bainter, Richard Cromwell, Margaret Lindsay, and Spring Byington all provide strong support with Bainter’s portrayal of Davis’ aunt winning her a supporting Oscar.

Bainter’s win was likely the result of her having become the first person nominated for Oscars for both leading and supporting roles in the same year, having also been nominated for her lead portrayal of the mysterious cook in White Banners. That award might otherwise have just as easily gone to one of three other great character actresses whose last name begins with B, two of whom also have a first name that begins with that letter – Beulah Bondi in Of Human Hearts, Billie Burke in Merrily We Live, and Spring Byington in You Can’t Take It with You. Only opera singer Miliza Korgus (“rhymes with gorgeous”) in The Great Waltz had no chance of winning. Davis’ chief competition was the former wife of both Wyler and Fonda, Margaret Sullavan in Three Comrades.

Warner Archive’s Blu-ray contains all the extras on the previous DVD.

Kino Lorber has released a Blu-ray upgrade of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1930 film Murder!.

After the great success of The Lodger and Blackmail and the relative failure of Juno and the Paycock, Hitchcock realized that his forte was suspense and with rare exception, spent the rest of his life making suspense films and, for a time, TV plays for which the world is eternally grateful. Murder! was the first film he made under his new resolve.

Adapted from the novel Enter Sir John, Herbert Marshall stars as a celebrated actor who, while serving on a jury, used his knowledge of actors and stagecraft to convince his fellow jurors that the actress on trial for murder was guilty. After her conviction and pending execution, he has seconds thoughts which cause him to investigate the murder which may have been committed by a bisexual transvestite.

Watch out for Una O’Connor in only her second film. She’s a hoot as a landlady, a role that may have served as her audition for her legendary landlady in James Whale’s 1933 classic The Invisible Man.

If you think the film’s ending seems rushed and confusing, that’s because it is. Watch the extended ending which is included as an extra on the Blu-ray. It will all make sense.

This week’s new releases include Men in Black: International and Ma.

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