By Steven Suskin
Robert Altman (1925-2006), another talented, unconventional and adventurous director, enjoyed a decidedly up-and-down career over a 50-year span. Altman hit it big in 1970 with his finest film, "M*A*S*H," and continued to surprise and entertain audiences with no less than eight interesting and usually fascinating movies through the decade (including "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" and "Nashville"). Then came a big-screen version of "Popeye" in 1980, starring Robin Williams (naturally enough), which sent Altman's stock plummeting. It's O.K. to be visionary in Hollywood as long as your films make money; then, watch out. Next came a dozen years in which Altman continued to do what he did with determination but relatively little acclaim, a period which ended surprisingly and happily with The Player [New Line/Warner]. Hollywood studio outsider Altman took the town to task with a scathing satire of studio operations — movie executives are all villainous murderers, aren't they? — and Hollywood loved it. No wonder, in that "The Player" is delicious and witty and wildly entertaining; but still, mavericks are rarely embraced by the community. New Line has reissued the film on Blu-ray, and it turns out that what was at the time one of the finest movies ever made about Hollywood retains its many charms. As usual, Altman filled the film with fine actors; they seemed to love working with him because of his penchant for encouraging them to make up lines as they went along. The main cast here includes Tim Robbins (as studio exec Griff Mill), Greta Scacchi, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Gallagher, Sydney Pollack and Lyle Lovett. It is in the star cameos that Altman outdid himself, peopling this chronicle of Hollywood people with Hollywood people — who, again, seemed to be honored to have Altman pointing a camera at them. More than 60 of them, by my count, of varying wattage. Standing out on the list, although some are in the blink-and-you-might-miss-them category, are Steve Allen, Harry Belafonte, Cher, James Coburn, Peter Falk, Louise Fletcher, Scott Glenn, Jeff Goldblum, Elliott Gould, Joel Grey, Sally Kellerman, Jack Lemmon, Malcolm McDowell, Nick Nolte, Burt Reynolds, Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon, Rod Steiger, Lily Tomlin, Ray Walston and Bruce Willis. And, for that matter, Jeremy Piven. Special features — which seem to be carried over from the 1997 DVD release — include commentary by Altman and screenwriter Michael Tolkin; a "One on One" piece with Altman; and five deleted scenes.
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Helen Mirren made the two-part miniseries "Prime Suspect" back in 1991, after she had established herself as a superb actress but long before she became more or less iconic. "Prime Suspect," from Granada Television, was a detective story with a difference, or several differences. The main one, plot-wise, was that the detective was a woman; more importantly, though, the thing was exceptionally well written, acted and produced. The miniseries was duly broadcast in America, to a similar reception, and followed a year-and-a-half later by "Prime Suspect 2." Etcetera, etcetera and so forth, as the saying goes, until Detective Jane Tennison had gone through seven tours of duty, with "Prime Suspect: The Final Act" coming along in the fall of 2006. Acorn Media has now brought us Prime Suspect: The Complete Collection, some 25 hours worth of Mirren on nine discs. Plus a generalized behind-the-scenes special as well as the Series 6 behind-the-scenes featurette. This makes for engrossing and satisfying viewing, not the least for the privilege of watching Mirren develop the character over 16 calendar years. Some winter weekend when you're snowed in or fighting flu or just happy not to go out, you'll be glad to have this special box set sitting by the DVD player.
12 Sep 2010
The Mothers-in-Law [MPI] was one of those often hilarious but stubbornly unsuccessful sitcoms that debuted back in those long-ago days when hair was something you combed or fluffed, and Nixon was just some washed up ex-Vice-President. Ah, nostalgia. The idea was to take a pair of long-time friendly neighbors — just like a suburban Lucy and Ethel — and have their kids get hitched. Turning them into too-close-for-comfort instant relatives, inserting themselves into the lives of the newlyweds and generally gumming up the works with harebrained schemes and wacky machinations. Since the Lucy and Ethel of the occasion were Hollywood's Eve Arden and Broadway's Kaye Ballard, neither of whom ever met a laugh line they couldn't milk, "The Mothers-in-Law" was — and remains — irrepressible. The Lucy link is not incidental; this is what Desi Arnaz busied himself with after leaving Desilu, the influential sitcom factory he started with his former wife, and the series was created and written by "I Love Lucy" scribes Bob Carroll, Jr. and Madelyn Davis. The show ran two seasons, starting in the fall of 1967, and the 56 episodes feature a parade of guest stars (led by Arnaz himself, and ranging from Jimmy Durante to Don Rickles — which is quite a range).
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The eight-DVD set has been carefully and lovingly compiled, with a veritable cascade of extras on that eighth disc. These include a new featurette with Ms. Ballard reminiscing about the series; the unaired pilot, in which daughter Suzie is played not by Deborah Walley but Kay Cole (who some years later gloriously sang "At the Ballet" as the original Maggie in A Chorus Line); Lucille Ball interviewing Eve Arden in 1965 on her "Let's Talk to Lucy" radio show; and more. Most astounding — well, maybe not astounding, but certainly interesting — is the 1966 pilot for "The Carol Channing Show," which Arnaz produced with Charles Lowe. (It is billed as a Lowe-Arnaz Production.) This is the Carol of Hello, Dolly!; that is, Carol as she looked when she starred in the original Dolly at the St. James. The pilot was produced and directed by Mr. Arnaz, and written by Carroll and Davis. Carol wreaks havoc in a restaurant with an electric knife, dances up a storm as a dance-hall hostess, and wolfs down a hot dog in one gulp — presumably the last time she went near one of those. Not much of a script, and not surprisingly a pilot that remained unsold, but there's a bouncy title song by — who else — Jerry Herman! All bundled with "The Mothers-in-Law: The Complete Series."
(Steven Suskin is author of the recently released Updated and Expanded Fourth Edition of "Show Tunes" as well as "The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations," "Second Act Trouble" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached at ssuskin@aol.com.)
