Two Disc set is very good
On a hunch, I looked around for a new DVD copy of this film and found a 2 disc set available at Walmart.com (and other places I am sure). Very nicely done with a narrated version too, and plenty of information about Mike Todd and how the film came about. For the first time in over 50 years, I see the film in it's entirety exactly as I did in a theater when I was 9 years old, wide screen and all! Something about seeing it complete made it much more enjoyable then all the cut versions through the years.
Maybe it's the passage of time, but I now appreciate all the care and detail that Todd put into every scene. The costuming and attention to detail for the big on location scenes like the London street with the valet on a bicycle, the Paris arrival, the opening scenes of the bullfight, and even the many other scenes which are staged. The balloon ride is very nicely done. The Spanish dance number is great. The valet being chased through the streets of "Bombay" is a gem of staging, down to the 3 British half-drunk sailors out on liberty.
Even "Hong Kong" and "San Francisco" had amazing attention to detail. The narrated version explains at what studio these individual scenes were made.
It was bold of Todd to go to Japan on location and show some traditional old time values, perhaps in a spirit of redemption and harmony just 10 years after the terrible war.
I had been somewhat disappointed in the versions I had seen through the years, but now the original greatness comes back again, as I remembered in my innocent youth. Mike Todd was a real "mover and a shaker", too bad his life ended so suddenly.
Interesting trivia: the same ship model was used for both the Mongolia and the Ragoon except the latter was painted black, except in one glaring oversight ! And now we know that the old supposedly "soundtrack albums" of the 1950's & 1960's were actually facsimile recreations done later. Listening to the actual film score today, you can discerne some subtle, and not so subtle differences. Magnificent score by Victor Young (his last) that could have actually filled two old time record albums.
And finally, the additional material explains that it was no secret that Todd's next film project was a dramatization of the Spanish writer Cervantes tale of "Don Quijote of the Mancha", with possibly Fernandel (the coachman in Paris arrival) in the lead role. The project ended with Todd's death.
RSGRE
RSGRE