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The Mikado (1939) [The Criterion Collection #559] [Re-UP]

Posted By: Someonelse
Date: 16 May 2015 13:54:00
The Mikado (1939) [The Criterion Collection #559] [Re-UP]

The Mikado (1939)
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC 4:3 | Artwork | 01:31:01 | 7,86 Gb
Audio: English AC3 1.0 @ 384 Kbps | Subtitles: English SDH
Genre: Musical, Comedy | The Criterion Collection #559

Director: Victor Schertzinger
Stars: Kenny Baker, John Barclay, Martyn Green

The legendary Gilbert and Sullivan troupe the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company joined forces with Hollywood for this 1939 Technicolor version of the beloved comic opera The Mikado, the first work by the famed duo to be adapted for the screen. Directed by musician and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Victor Schertzinger, it is a lavish cinematic retelling of the British political satire set in exotic Japan, with such enduringly popular numbers as “A Wand’ring Minstrel I” and “Three Little Maids from School,” and featuring American singer Kenny Baker as well as a host of renowned D’Oyly Carte performers, including Martyn Green and Sydney Granville.

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By the late 1930s, the Savoy opera, The Mikado by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, had proven itself a wildly popular phenomena fifty-years after its original production by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Because producers failed to acquire copyrights in the U.S., two separate Broadway shows with a jazz theme at the center were in full swing. At the same time, a film adaptation that would have the composer Victor Schertzinger direct and Geoffrey Toye rearrange the music was under way. Of the three and despite some minor alterations to the storyline (as opposed to everything else in the other two), Schertzinger's film stays fairly true to Gilbert & Sullivan's original intent and the opera's wonderfully comedic spirit.

The Mikado (1939) [The Criterion Collection #559] [Re-UP]

One of the many unique aspects of the musical is the fact that its style and performance is distinctly meant for the stage — a production incredibly difficult to translate to film, where a bit of paraphrasing is a requirement. The story follows a young Japanese prince, Nanki-Poo (Kenny Baker), running away on the day of his arranged marriage to the rather unsightly Katisha (Constance Willis). Disguised as a wandering minstrel, he falls head-over-heels for Yum-Yum (Jean Colin), but she's already betrothed to the village tailor, Ko-Ko (Martyn Green), who is later promoted to the station of Lord High Executioner. In the middle of this love triangle, we have a hilarious romp that breaks out into music with a very specific setting and design.

The Mikado (1939) [The Criterion Collection #559] [Re-UP]

Although he succeeds more often than he fails, Schertzinger clearly respects the material, retaining much of its animated jubilance and witty banter. He also makes audiences feel they're watching a stage production rather than a movie version of the comedic opera. When Katisha arrives in Titipu searching for her fiancé and the entire ensemble sings in the Finale Act I, we know the story is in expert hands as the camera moves about the whole set dramatizing the convivial confrontation. An earlier scene shows Ko-Ko interrupting Nanki-Poo's suicide, where the two men agree on a death that would mutually benefit both. The back and forth between them is beautifully well-done and hilarious — a style of dialogue writing that's greatly missed in most modern-day features (and here, I'm primarily thinking of that miserable dreck 'The Tourist').

The Mikado (1939) [The Criterion Collection #559] [Re-UP]

The Mikado is also intended as a satire of certain British practices and politics during the Victorian era, and I've always felt that Schertzinger somehow downplays, however lightly, this facet of the opera. Still, the director does wonderfully in preserving the plot's most durable and unmistakable theme — making light of death and capital punishment. Martyn Greene as Ko-Ko, single-handedly steals the show with his splendid dance routine during "Here's a how-de-do," where he breaks news of both Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum's impending death. The tone is kept weirdly upbeat and ironically jovial. Later, when The Mikado (John Barclay) shows his excitement in putting to death Ko-Ko, Pooh-Bah (Sydney Granville) and Pitti-Sing (Elisabeth Paynter), this same absurd cheerfulness is maintained and strangely amusing to watch.

The Mikado (1939) [The Criterion Collection #559] [Re-UP]

Schertzinger's adaptation of Gilbert & Sullivan's most popular and enduring Savoy opera, The Mikado, may not be an overwhelming success, but it's a satisfying film version that maintains much of story's eccentrically witty spirit. With such memorable song numbers as "A Wand'ring Minstrel I," "Three Little Maids from School," and "Willow, Tit-Willow," both the movie and musical play continue as classic figures with a permanent place in the collective consciousness of popular culture.
Hi-Def Digest: The Movie Itself
The Mikado (1939) [The Criterion Collection #559] [Re-UP]

In the 1930s the decision was made to do a movie of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta as a star vehicle for Kenny Baker. They decided to do "The Yeomen of the Guard" with Baker as Fairfax and engage members of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company for other roles in the film–including Martyn Green as Jack Point. However, they went back in this decision and decided to make a movie of "The Mikado" instead. In his autobiography, Green states that he feels "Yeomen" would have made a better movie.

The Mikado (1939) [The Criterion Collection #559] [Re-UP]

This is an interesting Mikado, with both its upsides and its downsides. The biggest downside being the large amount of song cuts. The Mikado is one of Gilbert and Sullivan's best works, and it's a shame that so much of G&S's score is left out. Missing from the production are Pooh-Bah's "Young Man Despair;" Ko-Ko's excellent "Little List" song; "So Please You Sir, We Much Regret" (the quartet between Pooh-Bah and the girls); much of the Act I Finale; the quintet between Pooh-Bah, Pitti-Sing, Ko-Ko, the Mikado, and Katisha–"See How the Fates Their Gifts Allot;" Katisha's solo "Alone and Yet Alive;" and Katisha and Ko-Ko's duet "There is Beauty in the Bellow of the Blast." I assume these were all cut due to time, but it is a shame to lose them. Much of the dialogue is cut as well, cutting out some of Gilbert's funniest lines.

The Mikado (1939) [The Criterion Collection #559] [Re-UP]

All this is made up for, however, by the actors. Despite the fact that it's Kenny Baker and Jean Colin's faces you see on the front of the box, the star here is Martyn Green as Ko-Ko. Green was the principle comic baritone with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company (a name which has always been synonymous with the best performances of Gilbert & Sullivan you can find) for many years and both this and the many recordings he made show that he was one of the best actors to ever play the Grossmith roles. He gives a stellar performance as Ko-Ko, the lord high executioner, and it really is a shame the list song was cut. Another D'Oyle Carte regular, Sydney Granville, plays Pooh-Bah and he is excellent as well. His Pooh-Bah is just as great as Green's Ko-Ko. There are quite a few other D'Oyly Carters here as well–Elizabeth Paynter and Kathleen Naylor (Pitti-Sing and Peep-Bo), the entire chorus, and Gregory Stroud (Pish-Tush) had done a bit of work with the D'Oyly Carte during the 1926 season. The rest of the cast does an excellent job as well. Victor Schertzinger manages to transfer the show to film quite well without it feeling too awkward on the screen (although I agree with Martyn Green in feeling that Yeomen would have made a better movie).

The Mikado (1939) [The Criterion Collection #559] [Re-UP]

All in all, despite the song cuts, it is an excellent production of the Mikado, one that is well worth seeing. Of the Mikados I have seen on video and/or DVD (including this one, Stradford's production, Opera World's, and English National Opera's), I would say this is the best one out there. This is G&S performed the way it should be performed, the only disadvantage being that there's not enough of it.
IMDB Reviewer,
19 out of 19 people found this review useful
The Mikado (1939) [The Criterion Collection #559] [Re-UP]
The Mikado (1939) [The Criterion Collection #559] [Re-UP]

Special Features:
- Newly remastered digital transfer
- New video interviews with Topsy-Turvy director Mike Leigh and Mikado scholars Josephine Lee and Ralph MacPhail Jr.
- Short silent film promoting the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company’s 1926 stage performance of The Mikado
- Deleted scene with Ko-Ko’s “I’ve Got a Little List” song
- Excerpts from 1939 radio broadcasts of the stage productions The Swing Mikado and The Hot Mikado
- A booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien

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