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Cinderella Liberty
Marsha Mason landed an Oscar nomination for her first starring role, dropping all of the barriers in her portrayal of a bar girl and prostitute who gets serious for a while with a good-hearted sailor in the 1973 Mark Rydell film based upon a Darryl Ponicsan screenplay, Cinderella Liberty, a 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment release (UPC#024543411994, $20). Ponicsan seemed to forge an entire career out of writing about the Navy in peacetime. Rydell's focus was almost always on performances, which tended to slow his stories down a little, but allowed for other compensations. James Caan plays the sailor, and his scenes with Mason are liquid electricity. At the time of the film's release, when the major studios were backing movies that would have trouble finding a place at Sundance these days, the film was a second rate effort-a little too stagy, a little too on the money, and, shot on location entirely in Seattle, a little too provincial. It has held up remarkably well, however, so that while its shortcomings can be excused by the naivetés of its age, its strengths have not lost any of their power or appeal. Mason and Caan are still outstanding, and because of their charisma, the narrative remains quite involving, while, being so unlike the films of today, but substantially more mature than the films of earlier eras, it is surprisingly fresh and intriguing.The picture is presented in letterboxed format only, with an aspect ratio of about 2.35:1 and an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback. The cinematography, by Vilmos Zsigmond, has his trademark grain in a few dimly lit sequences, but otherwise the image is sharp and brightly colored, and the transfer is immaculate. One of John Williams' earliest scores (and don't get confused, but Paul Williams wrote a couple of catchy songs that are also part of the music track), the remastered stereo track has a basic but appealing dimensionality that adds to the film's freshness. The score is also isolated in stereo (contrary to the menu, there are no effects with it) and has a substantial presence in the film. The 116-minute program has a Spanish audio track in mono, optional English, French and Spanish subtitles, a trailer, a TV commercial, a good collection of promotional materials in still frame and an enjoyable 9-minute 1973 production documentary.
Rydell also supplies a commentary track, mostly expressing his pride for the film and its components, but also adding a few anecdotes about the production, describing his work with the actors and lamenting the changes that have occurred in Hollywood. "I've made a lot of films. I don't think I could get any of the films that I made, made today. The studios are not interested in this kind of film."
April 12, 2007
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