Half a Sixpence

A constant joy
I resent the Amazon reviewer's caustic remarks about the movie, Richard and Steele. This movie was a true delight from beginning to end. The dancing was glorious and lots of it. The songs by this time were old friends. Incidentally, I've heard the cast recordings of the London, Bway and movie versions. A few songs were the same in all 3, others came and went, which I thought was odd. Tommy Steele (35 years ago, can you believe it!) was wonderful as was everyone, it was a little long (2 hours and 25 minutes), but it was always fun and exciting. I loved it. Incidentally, the villains were just nasty enough to get their point across, nothing to enrage you, and their comeuppance was also just right, not some scathing triumph. I found the whole thing a pleasure, just as I did 35 years ago.

Half a Sixpence on DVD--Better Than None
Contrary to what another reviewer has said, Half a Sixpence was a throughly delightful show on stage, at least on Broadway, thanks to a great performance by Tommy Steele, a charming cast, and wonderful choreography by Onna White who went on to do the choreography for the film version of Oliver! The movie version of Sixpence didn't quite have all the charm of the show, but it does have Steele, who gives his all, a touching performance by Julia Foster as Anne, and Grover Dale from the Broadway cast (who would also appear in the Demy film musical The Young Girls of Rochefort. The production values are pleasing to the eye. I'd say one of the flaws of the movie is the unimaginative choroeography by Gillian Lynne (who eventually worked on Cats)--I'm not sure why White wasn't available. The movie includes most of the score of the show, but it cuts one of the show's best songs, Long Ago--it's sung briefly by a chorus at the beginning and is also used as background music but it was an...

Widescreen and Stereo at last!
British entertainer Tommy Steele appeared in three big-budget, reserved seat musicals within a year's time - 1967-1968, and then never made another musical film again. While Steele is one of the only assets in Disney's interminable "The Happiest Millionaire", he was much more well utilized in "Finian's Rainbow" as Og the Leprechaun. But his biggest starring role was in the film that came between those two - the gigantic film version of the stage musical "Half a Sixpence". Directed by George Sidney, the film massively realizes what had been a fairly middle-weight, mediocre stage show. Until this DVD release, the film has never been available on home video in its original Panavision aspect ration, with four track stereo surround. And what a difference this transfer makes from the cropped, grainy VHS tape of the film! Splendidly designed, beautifully shot, elegantly scored, and using both studio sets and sweeping location footage, the film is at least...

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