MovieChat Forums > The Battle of the River Plate Discussion > US R1 DVD release arrives 11/9/10

US R1 DVD release arrives 11/9/10

posted 14 years ago by hobnob53
12 replies | jump to latest

At long last, the late-career Powell/Pressburger war film The Battle of the River Plate is being released on DVD in the US, on Nov. 9, 2010. It's in anamorphic widescreen and (apparently) under its original British title, not the American Pursuit of the Graf Spee. List price is $24.95.

The one possible caveat is that the film is being issued by an outfit called Hen's Tooth Video, of which I have little knowledge and no experience. Many of us had hoped the movie would, like most P/P films, be released by Criterion, or at any rate by its subsidiary Eclipse; but alas, no. Hopefully the disc's quality will be good (as it should be, at that price). Don't know about possible extras, not very important to me personally, but as Anthony Quayle would no doubt agree, the play's -- or film's -- the thing.

I have an R2 disc from the UK, but it's not in the film's proper VistaVision aspect ratio, so if this disc is as advertised, that'll be an improvement. Even TCM hasn't run it widescreen, as complaints on another thread have made abundantly clear; perhaps with the release of this disc, they will next time.

Now if someone would only do a good R1 DVD of the boys' first film as The Archers, One of Our Aircraft is Missing.

(I know two other posters have started threads about this DVD, but I figured, what the heck, join in. Sorry, Steve!)

[–] Steve Crook 14 years ago

No need to apologise. I never complain about calls for any of the Powell and/or Pressburger films to be released.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004176JJY/papas-20

Steve

[–] hobnob53 14 years ago

Yes, we could turn this into a veritable riot demanding this P or that P. After I get this disc I'll post a review of it here, about quality, etc.

[–] Steve Crook 14 years ago

We do our best, but there are still a lot waiting for their first DVD release and there are lots of others waiting for a better one.

But the news is generally still good.
They're currently doing a full digital restoration on Colonel Blimp like they did on The Red Shoes. That should be ready by Cannes in May next year. After that they start on The Tales of Hoffmann

There's a 50th anniversary DVD of Peeping Tom due to be released next month. There should be a lot of publicity for that because Marty & Thelma along with Columba Powell will be interviewed on stage when it's shown next month.

See http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Trips/Pinewood/20101022/index.html

Steve

[–] hobnob53 13 years ago

Hoffman never intrigued me much. Beautifully done, but not my cup of tea. But I've always liked Blimp. More my subject, and era, of interest. And with examples of the usual, slightly odd P/P touches...my favorite being the exchange between Wynn-Candy and the young soldier who raids their Turkish bath hours before the war games' official start: Candy's "my forty years" spluttering riposted by the soldier's "And in 1983, I hope it will be said that I was a fellow of enterprise." How mysteriously distant, and how jarring, must mention of the year "1983" have been for audiences in 1943. It still jars a bit.

The 50th anniversary issue of Peeping Tom -- 1960 -- coming next year? This is its 50th year, not 2011. This has happened a lot lately...so-called 50th (or 40th, or 25th) anniversary issues coming out the year after the actual anniversary. But the weirdest "anniversary" DVD I ever saw was for the 1978 mercenary film The Wild Geese...which had a "30th anniversary" issue released in 2005 -- its 27th anniversary!

[–] Steve Crook 13 years ago

The 50th anniversary DVD of Peeping Tom will be released next month, not next year.

I agree that Blimp is a great film and a firm favourite. If it wasn't for all the other brilliant films P&P made it might even be my favourite film. That's the trouble, they made so many marvellous films how can one ever pick a favourite?

But for me, A Matter of Life and Death beats all the others. Not by all that much, but it's definitely my favourite. I've seen it countless times. I know every frame and every line. I've seen it in all sorts of situations from just seeing it by myself to seeing it in a crowd of thousands - but every time it reduces me to tears. Not because it's sad, it's joyous. They're just the only escape for the emotions that it stirs up every time I see it

Steve

[–] hobnob53 13 years ago

It's also the only film I can recall where the notion of having one performer -- in this case, Deborah Kerr -- acting multiple roles really works. And not two, but three parts...and all different women, not the usual dual-role part where someone plays his own twin, or a father/son, mother/daughter combination.

By all odds, that conceit should not have worked at all...but somehow, they pulled it off. That to me is perhaps the greatest wonder of Blimp.

Not my favorite P/P, as you know -- I'm still stuck on 49th Parallel -- but perhaps their most sustained and complex piece of filmmaking...perhaps, indeed, their best. Blimp is a marvelous film, as you say (allowing for US/UK spelling variations!). Although A Matter of Life and Death may be their most original...not an easy distinction to make, given their ouevre. Hard to choose among, indeed.

[–] Steve Crook 13 years ago

Deborah didn't just play the three roles, to perfection. She did in in what was only her 6th film (7th if you count one where she was just an uncredited voice). To give such an assured performance so early in a career is very rare. And she was only 22.

It's no wonder that MGM snapped her up when they saw her performance in Blimp

Steve

[–] hobnob53 13 years ago

Metro snapped DK up four years later -- after Black Narcissus in 1947. She made her first Hollywood film later that year, The Hucksters. But it took a while for them to use her properly, though she had her first of six Oscar nominations just two years on, for MGM's made-in-Britain (using blocked dollars) Edward My Son.

How is it, Steve, that every time you and I start off discussing the film on this site, we quickly end up going all over the Powell-Pressburger cinematic map? Not that I don't enjoy it, my friend...!

Still, to paraphrase Bernard Lee, looking on at the wreckage of his freighter, "Poor little River Plate."

[–] Steve Crook 13 years ago

Because it's such a fascinating area of cinema history. There never were any film-makers like The Archers before they hit their stride and there almost certainly never will be again. They made full use of a remarkable set of circumstances that gave them incredible freedom and control over the films they made. 17 feature films in just about as many years. That's a helluva body of work.

As for Deborah, Powell wanted to use her again in A Canterbury Tale (1944) but her agent had sold her contract to MGM. She did Perfect Strangers (1945) which was another MGM film made in Britain. Her credits in Black Narcissus say "Courtesy of MGM"

When she went to America in 1943 or 44 that also meant The End of the Affair (a title used for a film she made in '55) between Deborah & Michael

Steve

[–] hobnob53 13 years ago

Yes, you must be right about Deborah, although she didn't actually go to H'wood until '47, I believe.

As to the other, P&P certainly were among the most singular pair of filmmakers who ever sat behind a camera. I think the novelty, or uniqueness, or even, occasionally, eccentricity, that powered their creative spark came much more from Powell, who had evinced such an offbeat bent well before (as well as after) teaming with Pressburger.

How many filmmakers would have found, or even thought to have looked for, drama on a dying Scottish isle as he did in Edge of the World? Or his bizarre, almost career-ending turn with Peeping Tom? But they clearly drew creative strength from one another and had remarkably free reign to do pretty much whatever they pleased, hence such stunning one-of-a-kind landmarks as Blimp, Canterbury, I Know, Life and Death, Narcissus and the like. In their hands, even what is at base a rather commonplace, even cliched, story like Red Shoes became something magical (a word I thought I'd never use, but there you are: P&P uniquely bring out the cliche in me).

Enough so that, when it comes to a film such as River Plate, made at a time when the industry and public tastes were changing, and their own creativity was, as inevitably happens, beginning to flag, their treatment of the story was among the most conventional of their careers (as would be Ill Met by Moonlight, which I finally saw in Britain in June, and about which I've been meaning to place some comments on its site). Still, there were always a few touches of differentness in any P&P film to set it apart from others' work, even if they sometimes fell short of their own high standards.

[–] Steve Crook 13 years ago

Remember that all the films they made together from Contraband (1940) to A Matter of Life and Death (1946) were original stories by Pressburger. So any quirkiness in the basic story (not the dialogue but the underlying story) is due to Emeric. Black Narcissus was adapted from the novel and then they went back to an original story (based loosely on the Anderson fairy tale) for The Red Shoes

Powell was mainly just the director. For most of their films, Emeric wrote the original story and wrote the screenplay. Micky helped with some British expressions in the dialogue that Emeric wasn't too familiar with and then the rest of the team could make suggestions as well. While they were filming, if any scene wasn't working out as well as they wanted or if anyone on set had a good idea then they were often willing, after a short discussion, to change things. Emeric was usually on hand to make sure it fitted into the story seamlessly. They have the "Final shooting script" at the BFI for a few of the films, and there are usually quite huge changes from that to what we actually see on screen. The whole team of The Archers worked as an artistic collective. Each of them striving for the best and pushing themselves and each other to achieve the best they possibly could.

Emeric also acted as the producer. He was better organised and was more diplomatic at keeping other people from interfering. Emeric also helped out with the editing, especially the music (he used to play violin in an orchestra and was a good musician).

So maybe they should have called the partnership Pressburger and Powell?

Micky himself was always the first to admit that he couldn't have done a fraction of what he did without Emeric. They really were a perfect match for each other. The patrician Englishman who had a world view when most of his fellow islanders were quite insular. The Hungarian Jew who had been chased around Europe and washed up on these shores. So it was the insider looking out and the outsider looking in. But the total was hugely greater than the sum of the parts.

It's not just particular films that I like, it is the complete body of work that never ceases to astound me. So many films, so many totally different films and all of such high quality. With a quality in depth as well. They repay repeated viewing better than most other films. The story is beautifully constructed and the characters are fully three dimensional, even those in minor roles.

I do like The Battle of the River Plate, a lot. Maybe partly because I nearly joined the Royal Navy when I was younger so I've always been interested in films about the Navy and the sea. But also because it's one of the few films about naval battles where they can use real ships and we see real guns firing for the film. They don't just use stock library footage and models (until the finale)

Steve

[–] hobnob53 13 years ago

Very well said, as always.

It was always pretty clear that, the credit "Written, Produced and Directed by" both men notwithstanding, those chores were in fact divided between them, as you say. But I didn't know that Pressburger acted the part of principle producer, though this does make sense as you relate it. But MP was indeed very generous about his partner. I recall him once saying, "I have never met a better writer than Emeric Pressburer, and I hope I never do" -- when you think about it, a kind of odd tribute, but a suitably quirky one.

Their partnership has always in a way reminded me of the one between Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett. Wilder was the immigrant Jewish refugee, bitter, sarcastic, a brilliant wordsmith and director; Brackett the old-family American, cultured, refined, a good writer and better producer. One liberal, profane, urban; the other, conservative, genteel, urbane. Together they made some of the most innovative films Hollywood ever had in that era. Wilder remained at the top of his game for a decade or more after breaking with Brackett in 1950, whereas Brackett, though becoming a commercially successful producer and sometime writer at Fox, never achieved anything like the artistic and critical heights he had attained with Wilder.

Don't get me wrong -- I like River Plate too, in spite of its flaws. (Or maybe in part because of them.) It's one of those pictures that, to me, are rather endearing in ways difficult to quite quantify or explain, especially since it is by no means a perfect, or perfectly executed, film. Other British war films of the period, such as The Cruel Sea, are much better. Still, something about the look and feel of TBOTRP makes it stand out, in some inexplicable manner. That, too, may be part of Powell's and Pressburger's genius...though I don't feel that way about Ill Met by Moonlight, about which I posted some comments yesterday, with which I'm sure no one will agree!