THE RANDOM JOTTINGS OF SIRIAMI

The 100th anniversary of  composer Miklós Rózsa’s birth has started well – with releases on CD of his scores for “Sodom & Gomorrah”, “The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes” and a complete “Spellbound”.

Born on the 18^th April 1907, maestro Rozsa furnished masterful film scores for many classic Hollywood and international movies, as well as classical compositions.

Digitmovies in Italy has recently issued a 2 CD set of the soundtrack score to the 1962 Robert Aldrich “Sodom and Gomorrah”  sword and sandal  epic.

http://www.digitmovies.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/digitmovies.woa/1/wo/zJvNGUqb6zIbevs4Xbb9gM/0.1.siteNav.9 

And Tadlowmusic

http://www.tadlowmusic.com/

(thanks to James Fitzpatrick) are about to give us (well, on the 18^th April to coincide with the composers centenary) a complete re-recording of Rózsa’s magnificent score for Billy Wilder’s 1970 film “The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes”.

And  - as if the above two releases aren‘t enough - INTRADA announces: SPELLBOUND Conducted by ALLAN WILSON, performed by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (INTRADA MAF 7099), to be released in May or June.

http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.ACCT67745/it.A/id.5373/.f?sc=2&category=5

“The Runaway Bus” (Pickwick)

Imagine everything that could be wrong with a film transfer: missing frames, scratches, poor contrast, bad sound, freezing of the image (more than once!), this abysmal Pickwick transfer of the 1954 Val Guest film “The Runaway Bus” has ‘em all! And, just to add insult to injury, there is even a point where we are treated to 4 seconds of leader film during a reel change! It says a lot for the film, and Val Guests’s direction, that it remains watchable.

Margaret Rutherford steals the show, as always, and Petula Clark gives a more than creditable performance as a vexed air hostess (for those younger readers, substitute “cabin staff“).

For Fox Sake! 

Question: Where do you go to find out information about upcoming and current Universal DVD releases? For example, what and which films are on the recently released Universal Region Two Marlene Dietrich box set – and what does the box art look like? Answer: Certainly not the Universal/UK DVD site – why? Because, as far as I am aware; there ain’t one!  

And, while we’re at it – whereabouts on Fox DVD’s UK website are details of their new and possibly desirable Hollywood Musicals 8-DVD box set? Nada, zilch, zero – it isn’t anywhere to be found there. Before parting with nearly 50 quid of my hard-earned money, I would like to see what this set consists of – extras (if any – after all this is Fox/UK), individual DVD art; how is the set housed: slimpack, digipack, individual DVD cases? Is it too much to ask? 

Why is it that UK DVD companies seem so complacent about maintaining their UK customer relations – if, after all, they are in the business of selling DVDs to us punters, why don’t they get a bit more aggressive and tell us about them for a start! 

Thanks to website forums like the DVD Forum, DVD Times and others, fellow film enthusiasts like myself can ferret out information about current and upcoming releases, but it would be so much better if guys like Fox/UK and Universal here in Great Britain would consider giving us more information on their websites – providing, that is, they operate one! 

Am still collecting DVDs: got the upcoming Warners “Tough Guys Collection” on order…it’s on its way!  Arrived yesterday (Saturday 22nd July). Looks excellent - loaded to the gunwhales with extras, including those Warner Bros. Blooper reels that are such a rare treat!