Flower Drum Song is the last of the filmed versions of a Rodgers & Hammerstein Broadway musical to be released on Blu-ray.

Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music, as well as two versions of the made directly for the screen State Fair had been previously released in the format. The made-for-TV Cinderella has all three of its versions released on DVD but not Blu-ray. Allegro, Me and Juliet, and Pipe Dream were never filmed.

Flower Drum Song is based on a novel by C.Y. Lee. It was first presented on Broadway in December 1958. Its original cast was headed by recent Oscar winner Miyoshi Umeki (Sayonara) as a mail-order bride, Larry Blyden (On a Clear Day You Can See Forever) as a nightclub owner, singer Pat Suzuki as his principal singer-dancer and love interest, Hawaiian singer Ed Kenney as the intended groom, Keye Luke (Charlie Chan’s no. 1 son) as his conservative father, Juanita Hall as his liberal aunt, Patrick Adiarte as his younger brother, Jack Soo (TV’s Barney Miller) as the nightclub’s emcee, and newcomer Arabella Hong as a seamstress secretly in love with Kenney.

The cast of the 1961 film version directed by Henry Koster (The Bishop’s Wife) is headed by Nancy Kwan, straight from her sensational film debut in The World of Suzie Wong in Suzuki’s role; James Shigeta, straight from Bridge to the Sun in Kenney’s role; Jack Soo moving up to Larry Blyden’s role; Miyoshi Umeki reprising her Broadway role but no longer given top billing; Benson Fong (Charlie Chan’s no. 3 son) replacing Keye Luke; Juanita Hall and Patrick Adiarte reprising their Broadway roles; Victor Sen Young (Charlie Chan’s no. 2 son) in Jack Soo’s old role; and newcomer Reiko Sato replacing Helen Chao.

The story has been reworked with an emphasis on the characters now played by Kwan and Shigeta rather than those played by Umeki and Soo on Broadway. The songs have also been re-ordered with only “Like a God” missing. It is spoken in a coffeehouse scene rather than being sung by Shigeta’s character.

Kwan had become an overnight sensation in the 1960 film version of The World of Suzie Wong opposite William Holden. France Nuyen, who created the role on Broadway the month before Flower Drum Song opened, made her film debut as Juanita Hall’s daughter in South Pacific. African American singer Hall was not supposed to be in the film, which had been touted as having an all-Asian cast. Legendary Anna May Wong (Piccadilly) had been cast in Hall’s stage role but died before filming began so Hall was then brought in to reprise her showstopping performance.

For some reason, the Rodgers & Hammerstein estate has bene reticent in releasing Flower Drum Song on home video. The film was not released on DVD until 2008, six years after the successful 2002 Broadway revival which changed the narrative even further. Maybe someday they’ll make a film of that version, but until they do, we have this superb Kino Lorber Blu-ray release to cherish.

Kino Lorber has also released a Blu-ray upgrade of Michael Winterbottom’s 1996 film of Jude based on Thomas Hardy’s last completed novel, Jude the Obscure.

Not filmed as frequently as either Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd or Tess of the D’Urbervilles, it follows John Schlesinger’s high-profile 1967 film of the former and Roman Polanski’s even more high-profile 1980 film of the latter (as Tess). It precedes Thomas Vinterberg’s 2015 acclaimed version of Far from the Madding Crowd as one of the four best-known film versions of Hardy’s work.

Christopher Eccleston (TV’s The Leftovers) had his best screen role ever as the late 18th Century stonemason who seeks to better himself by obtaining a university education after his wife Rachel Griffiths (Hilary and Jackie) leaves him, falling recklessly in love with his cousin (the pre-Titanic Kate Winslet). When Winslet learns that Eccleston is already married, she marries another man in retaliation, but the two can’t stay away from one another and she eventually leaves her husband to live with Eccleston who is by now divorced from Griffiths. She refuses, however, to marry him even after her husband divorces her, or to tell a white lie pretending they are married. This causes him to be fired from various jobs even after he gains custody of his son from his marriage to Griffiths, and he and Winslet have two more children together with a third on the way when tragedy strikes.

Winslet is as good as she has ever been, but this is Eccleston’s film. The story may be an exercise in misery, but his extraordinary performance shines through, giving us more of his character’s light of desire than his crush of defeat at every turn.

On a lighter note, Kino Lorber has released Francis the Talking Mule 7 Film Collection on Blu-ray starring Donald O’Connor (Singin’ in the Rain) in six of the films as the man the mule talks to, with Mickey Rooney replacing him in the last film,

Universal released the original film in 1950, with the sequels following at one-per-year through 1956. The best film is easily the second one in the collection, Francis Goes to the Races, in which he is given a co-star of equal stature, the great Piper Laurie (The Hustler, Carrie). Cecil Kellaway (Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner) is also on board as Laurie’s grandfather. Chill Wills (Giant) provides the voice of Francis to O’Connor in the first five films.

Channing Tatum co-directed 2022’s Dog with Reid Carolin, his Magic Mike co-producer. The film, about the bonding of an Army Ranger and a retired service dog on a road trip to the funeral of the dog’s handler, is nicely done. It’s available on Blu-ray and standard DVD form MGM.

The latest iteration of The Batman is available from Warner Bros. on Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, and standard DVD. It’s a film that I admire more than like. I first saw it in a streaming version but found it hard to watch this very violent film on 4K UHD considering the killing of nineteen 4th graders and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas the day it was released. I’ll get to it someday but not now.

This week’s new releases include the 4K Ultra High-Definition Blu-ray releases of 1776 and The Untouchables.