By Steven Suskin
01 Nov 2009

Also on Blu-ray comes Miracle on 34th Street [Fox]. This 1947 charmer is a grand and heartwarming film, good enough to merit perennial viewings. Maureen O'Hara and John Payne star, but it is the featured cast that really perks up the screen. Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle with a twinkle in his eye, of course; but also the likes of Gene Lockhart, Porter Hall, Bill Frawley, Philip Tonge, Jerome Cowan, Alvin Greenman as Alfred, and Thelma Ritter with a sterling bit as a skeptical Christmas shopper. What an actress! And of course there's nine-year-old Natalie Wood, with a delectable performance that I suppose she never managed to top. The Blu-ray transfer is not brilliant, as these things go; however, I'm happy to say that they give us the film in the original black & white, rather than the colorized version. As far as I'm concerned, anytime — Thanksgiving, Christmas, mid-July — is a good time for "Miracle on 34th Street."

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If the juxtaposition of Zanzibar, Berkeley Square and Brooklyn Heights sets you subconsciously singing, have I got a DVD box set for you. Yes, it's The Patty Duke Show, Season One [Shout Factory]. That's the one about the identical cousins — who ever heard of identical cousins? — who got into various sitcom scrapes for three seasons starting in 1963. The show was the brainchild of Sidney Sheldon, who next conjured up "I Dream of Jeannie" and eventually turned himself into a best-selling novelist.

Did he borrow the idea from the 1961 Disney film "The Parent Trap," in which Hayley Mills played a typical American teenager and her identical British sister? One would guess so. In a day when special effects were relatively primitive, this split-screen technology was quite a gimmick. Sheldon pulled off something of a coup in casting Duke, who by the age of 16 had already starred on Broadway as Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker" and won a 1962 Oscar for the film adaptation of that role (making her the youngest person at the time to receive a competitive — rather than honorary — Oscar). So "The Patty Duke Show," with a newly-minted Oscar winner, had a certain air of distinction going for it. As it turned out, it is a conventional but entertaining operation, still suitable for family entertainment. (Preteens I know who are devoted to the two "Parent Trap" movies and the long-running sitcom "Full House" have instantly adopted "The Patty Duke Show" as a made-to-order gem.) That catchy theme song — "but they're cousins, identical cousins all the way" — was written by Broadway's own Sid Ramin, with a lyric by Robert Wells.

The first season box features 36 episodes. Not included is the Sammy Davis episode from March 1965, which had me confused for years. As I remember it from back when it aired — and in those days you didn't have continual reruns and repeats on cable and everywhere — Patty needs to talk Sammy into appearing at a school benefit. There's a scene filmed at the stage door of Golden Boy in Shubert Alley. Golden Boy played the Majestic Theatre, but this was clearly shot at the Shubert complete with a Golden Boy billboard. This had at least one 12-year-old viewer puzzled, until I eventually realized that they obviously borrowed the Shubert stage door (given that the Majestic stage door is hidden away in an alley). I do hope that Shout comes along with "The Patty Duke Show, Season Two," so I can see this episode — along with the shots of Shubert Alley (still bordered by the Astor Hotel) and Sammy Davis in his prime — once more.

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For those who are looking for something other than family fare, may we suggest It's Garry Shandling's Show: The Complete Series [Shout Factory]? Shandling came to cable in 1986 and, among other things, obliterated the fourth-wall; all those subsequent comic-talking-to-the-audience shows owe a lot to Shandling. (This goes back further, of course, to George Burns; but Shandling built his show around it.) As box-sets go, this is a big box; all four seasons, on 16 — count 'em — discs. This is a pricey purchase, yes; but you do get all 72 episodes in a handsome package. The enclosed booklet includes appreciations from Larry Gelbart and Judd Apatow, both of whom know a good thing — comedy-wise — when they see it. "It's Gary Shandling's Show" is not for everybody, needless to say. But then, that's the point.

(Steven Suskin is author of "The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations" as well as "Second Act Trouble," "Show Tunes," and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached at Ssuskin@aol.com.)