stuartdj Reviews

Tomorrow La Scala! (2002)

The Music

[7/10 · 28 August 2006]

I enjoyed this BBC Films production very much. It was reported in the press in the United Kingdom that the film was due a cinema release. However, it was alleged in those newspapers that the necessary permission had not been given to use the music in a cinema release (or could not in some other way be secured at the right price). Thus it was shown on British television (on BBC 2) since those rights had been obtained or were so covered by one of a number of agreements the BBC has with organisations representing music composers and lyricists.

One of the talents who made the film was reported to have said that this is the trouble with using music from a living composer.

It seems that, as a result, it has not been submitted to the British Board of Film Classification for release in the United Kingdom and it appears at the moment unlikely.

The Ladykillers (2004)

Not As Good As The Original

[4/10 · 26 August 2006]

CRITIQUE CONTAINS SPOILERS The original 1952 film was about a group of crooks, posing as musicians, who rented a room and an old lady's house in London. She was unwittingly drawn into their plans to steal a large sum of money. The old lady was portrayed by Katie Johnson as a vulnerable woman who, nonetheless, was saved from being implicated in the plot and rose above it.

The remake takes the central story, transfers it to the United States, and makes the old lady anything other than vulnerable. That being the case, the outcome of this film is always clear. She is not and never will get drawn into the plot of the gangsters living in her midst, unwittingly or otherwise. Also seen in the remake is the old lady routinely attacking her lodgers, something only fleetingly glanced at in the original.

When old, classic films are remade the authors should bear in mind what makes them special and try to keep it. In The Ladykillers (2004) this was lost. The studio thus served up another film which didn't benefit the world of cinema one iota.