By Steven Suskin
08 Oct 2007

Walt Disney's The Jungle Book [Disney] has now been given the Platinum treatment, coming to us in a clean and colorful, 40th Anniversary edition. This was the last Disney movie from Walt himself; the master magician died in December 1966, ten months before "The Jungle Book" was released.

The songs are mostly from the Sherman Brothers, Richard and Robert, midway between the film "Mary Poppins" and Broadway's Over Here! While they are pleasant enough, none are especially memorable. "The Jungle Book" is remembered by many, mainly, for that rambunctiously delightful "Bare Necessities." But that's not from the Shermans; it was written by one Terry Gilkyson. As performed by Phil Harris, it is indeed pretty special. Also in the cast of voices are Sterling Holloway, Sebastian Cabot and George Sanders.

I must admit that I was never overwhelmed by "The Jungle Book," which I find far less involving than Disney gems like "Snow White" and "Dumbo." Still, it is a great favorite of many, and the new, feature-filled release is certainly worth a look for fans of the film and fans of the genre.

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Rounding out this month's offerings — last but not least, as they say — comes Funny Face [Paramount]. This is the big M-G-M musical that wasn't. With the house of Louis B. Mayer slowing down on the musical front (if you can call "Gigi" slowing down), Fred Astaire, Stanley Donen and Roger Edens went over to Paramount for this 1957 effort. There they met up with Audrey Hepburn, who in her third major American film took star billing over Astaire. Hepburn was originally trained as a dancer — her first paying job seems to have been as a 19-year-old chorus girl in the 1948 London production of High Button Shoes — so she more than holds her own with that grand old man, Fred.

Even so, there is something jarring about this romantic pairing. Fred was 30 years older than Audrey, but she looked relatively younger than her age — 27 at the time of the film's release — while he looked rather older; that first kiss, on a bookseller's ladder, is almost creepy. (No wonder she looks surprised!) In one scene, where Fred and co-star Kay Thompson go to rescue the young star from a handsome, existentialist rake, they seem old enough to be Audrey's grandparents.

But all that is neither here nor there. This is one of those not-so-original stories about a mousy Cinderella going to Paris and finding love and beautiful clothes; with Fred Astaire (or Gene Kelly) as the guy and songs borrowed from the catalog of the Gershwins (or one of their peers), you've pretty much seen it before. What rescues "Funny Face," and makes it so fascinatingly watchable, is the vision. Not so much because the man-and-the-mouse in this case are a photographer and a model, but because Richard Avedon was onboard. His billing was "special visual consultant." In practice, he seems not only to have taken the many fashion shots that are featured in the film — including that striking open-faced shot of Hepburn that was used both on screen and as advertising — but helped map out a lot of the sequences. (The Astaire character was apparently modeled after Avedon, though Richard had considerably more hair.) There is also a color sense in the design that makes the film a remarkable bouquet. You have only to look at "Think Pink" — one of the several non-Gershwin songs that Edens wrote with scenarist Leonard Gershe — to make this DVD more than worth the purchase price. Add in Audrey's "beatnik ballet" section, and you've got a double bonus.

Which leaves us with Kay Thompson. After a long career on the M-G-M music staff — she was one of the finest vocal arrangers of the mid-century — Thompson was given the No. 3 on-screen slot in "Funny Face." Here she is in 1957, just approaching her 50th birthday, in her first and only major screen role — and she is so dynamic that you can't take your eyes off her. She sings, naturally enough; she dances, pretty well; and her line readings seem to be a combination of Eve Arden and Roz Russell. The woman is unbeatable; put her onscreen with Fred and Audrey, and Kay pulls the attention. After which she all but disappeared from Hollywood, suddenly flush from a little children's book she wrote in 1956 called "Eloise." If "Funny Face" is one of the few tangible records of Thompson as a performer, it certainly establishes her credentials.

"Funny Face" is based on the 1927 musical comedy of the same title, with songs by the Gershwins. This was a mess of a show; it practically shuttered out of town, at which point they changed the title (from Smarty) and fired the librettist (one Robert Benchley). They managed to turn the thing into a hit — it served as opening attraction at the Alvin (now Neil Simon) Theatre — but the film has nothing to do with the musical other than the use of several songs. And the same leading man, in Mr. Astaire. It is nice to hear how well these songs work in context; one is especially struck by Ira Gershwin's well-crafted lyrics. All in all, "Funny Face" (despite some plot holes and that grandfatherly romance) is pretty much — to quote Ira — s'wonderful.

(Steven Suskin is author of "Second Act Trouble," "Show Tunes," and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached at Ssuskin@aol.com.)