Search - The Unsinkable Molly Brown on DVD

DEBBIE REYNOLDS IN HER MOST MEMORABLE ROLE

hcampo | Culver City, Ca. | 03/20/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Debbie Reynolds gives the finest performance of her career in 1964's THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN. It is widely believed by many that Reynolds was cheated out of a much-deserved Academy Award for Best Actress for this picture. 1964 was the year that the Academy and everyone in Hollywood was feuding and steaming over Jack Warner's decision to cast Audrey Hepburn rather than Julie Andrews in the film version of MY FAIR LADY. Hepburn was not even nominated for her excellent performance in that film, which won eight Oscars, including "Best Picture." But despite the fact that everyone believed that Reynolds gave the best performance that year, fellow nominee Julie Andrews won for her first film, MARY POPPINS, a fluffy role that just required the actors to sing well and stay out of the way of the Disney magical effects work. Audiences had already voted for Debbie with their box office dollars. THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN broke all attendance records everywhere it played, including a record breaking long run at New York's Radio City Music Hall. Astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young even named their Gemini spacecraft the MOLLY BROWN in honor of their favorite film. Nearly forty years after the original release of the picture, in most part thanks to theatrical revivals and television showings, most people still associate the character of Molly Brown with Debbie Reynolds, despite the fact that the real Molly Brown was far from being the great beauty as portrayed by Reynolds. But Reynolds' multi-layered performance captures the essence of what makes Molly such a well-remembered heroine and in the process sings and dances her way into our hearts. This picture still is great family entertainment and because it is a period piece the film ages well and that accounts for its appeal to this day.From a technical standpoint THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN on DVD is truly spectacular! How wonderful it is to hear the Meredith Wilson score in a Dolby Digital sound mix derived from the original multi channel discrete stereo sound. The bold, sharply etched and beautifully saturated Technicolor restored wide screen (2.35:1) image probably looks better than the inferior Metrocolor original. This movie looks and sounds better than the majority of today's films. This disc is demonstration quality in both picture and sound and preserves for today's audiences one of the greatest and most popular motion pictures of all time, a movie truly worthy to be called a CLASSIC."