Seldom has a better composer/lyricist been more ill served by the movies than Stephen Sondheim and his long list of stage masterworks.
After bursting into the spotlight with impressive contributions to the first season of TV's TOPPER and with then with the lyrics to the Prince produced stage Bernstein/Laurents/Robbins WEST SIDE STORY (and later film), Sondheim's stage to film transfers seemed to take a downward trajectory (GYPSY, A FUNNY THING..., A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC) even as his stagecraft was soaring to a position of America's premier working theatrical composer lyricist. This would change when his unparalleled stage shows would begin to be preserved with video of the original stage productions starting with the Tokyo broadcast (filmed on Broadway) of his 1976 masterpiece, PACIFIC OVERTURES, but the commercial BIG screen - which always seems intent on reinventing the wheel by making a workable round design trapezoidal - would have to wait to find a way to use Sondheim's brilliance to best advantage.
Thirty years after its initial release, the Harold Prince directed (as he had on stage) 1977 A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC film still rankles with inexplicably changed lyrics, lines and even character names - the locale had been shifted from Sweden to Austria which Prince had used to far greater effect in his first film, SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE - and the effort to appreciate what is there (which IS worth appreciating) is complicated by the faded "fool-screen" prints which appear all to have survived on the released 1983 Embassy Home Entertainment VHS tapes (labled 110 minutes, but actually 125 minutes).
There are pleasures and even treasures to be found here though. Passing over the mildly disastrous appearance of Ms. Taylor who was at an awkward transition in her career between playing over praised sexpots and more appropriate, more mature women (and whose weight fluctuated wildly even between takes of the same scene[!] - at the upper end of the scale she is at least historically accurate; they liked 'em beefy at the turn of the century), there are wonderful performances from Len Cariou, Laurence Guittard and Hermione Gingold, recreating their original Broadway cast performances and an unexpectedly fine one from (now Dame) Diana Rigg in Patricia Elliott's stage role of Guittard's wife.
Gingold's culminating character song, "Liaisons," was cut after much reputed rejiggering which must remain a major disappointment since she is heard BEST in the number on the post-Broadway RCA London Cast album which gave every indication that laGingold had grown in her interpretation, but given the odd dubbing of the non-stage cast roles (Lesley Anne Down's Anne and Christopher Guard's Henrik/Eric sound like refugees from Sondheim's EVENING PRIMROSE TV soundtrack and less than ideal singers), perhaps it would not have lived up to expectations.
One other unexpected joy however, is the extremely rare on-screen appearance of Jonathan Tunick as the stage conductor in the film. Tunick spent the last 30 years of the 20th century as Broadway's outstanding orchestrator (starting with his groundbreaking layered work with Sondheim), and won the film's only Academy Award for "Adaptation of Score." The film, for all its flaws, begs for restoration and a widescreen DVD release. So much there is still strong all these years after the first time I encountered the show at its first Pre-Broadway preview at Boston's Colonial Theatre the evening after LBJ died and the day the first of several cease fires was announced in Vietnam (Cariou announced the latter from the stage at the curtain call). I'd see it frequently again over the years (it's a strong latter day operetta) on Broadway and at the end of the U.S. National Tour (this time at Boston's Shubert Theatre with Jean Simmons who would later do "Desiree" in London and the wonderful Margaret Hamilton in the Gingold role). That first night in Boston though, we sang "A Weekend In The Country" half the way back to Hartford in the car - I was inclined to today after re-watching the movie again for the first time in several years.
After bursting into the spotlight with impressive contributions to the first season of TV's TOPPER and with then with the lyrics to the Prince produced stage Bernstein/Laurents/Robbins WEST SIDE STORY (and later film), Sondheim's stage to film transfers seemed to take a downward trajectory (GYPSY, A FUNNY THING..., A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC) even as his stagecraft was soaring to a position of America's premier working theatrical composer lyricist. This would change when his unparalleled stage shows would begin to be preserved with video of the original stage productions starting with the Tokyo broadcast (filmed on Broadway) of his 1976 masterpiece, PACIFIC OVERTURES, but the commercial BIG screen - which always seems intent on reinventing the wheel by making a workable round design trapezoidal - would have to wait to find a way to use Sondheim's brilliance to best advantage.
Thirty years after its initial release, the Harold Prince directed (as he had on stage) 1977 A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC film still rankles with inexplicably changed lyrics, lines and even character names - the locale had been shifted from Sweden to Austria which Prince had used to far greater effect in his first film, SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE - and the effort to appreciate what is there (which IS worth appreciating) is complicated by the faded "fool-screen" prints which appear all to have survived on the released 1983 Embassy Home Entertainment VHS tapes (labled 110 minutes, but actually 125 minutes).
There are pleasures and even treasures to be found here though. Passing over the mildly disastrous appearance of Ms. Taylor who was at an awkward transition in her career between playing over praised sexpots and more appropriate, more mature women (and whose weight fluctuated wildly even between takes of the same scene[!] - at the upper end of the scale she is at least historically accurate; they liked 'em beefy at the turn of the century), there are wonderful performances from Len Cariou, Laurence Guittard and Hermione Gingold, recreating their original Broadway cast performances and an unexpectedly fine one from (now Dame) Diana Rigg in Patricia Elliott's stage role of Guittard's wife.
Gingold's culminating character song, "Liaisons," was cut after much reputed rejiggering which must remain a major disappointment since she is heard BEST in the number on the post-Broadway RCA London Cast album which gave every indication that laGingold had grown in her interpretation, but given the odd dubbing of the non-stage cast roles (Lesley Anne Down's Anne and Christopher Guard's Henrik/Eric sound like refugees from Sondheim's EVENING PRIMROSE TV soundtrack and less than ideal singers), perhaps it would not have lived up to expectations.
One other unexpected joy however, is the extremely rare on-screen appearance of Jonathan Tunick as the stage conductor in the film. Tunick spent the last 30 years of the 20th century as Broadway's outstanding orchestrator (starting with his groundbreaking layered work with Sondheim), and won the film's only Academy Award for "Adaptation of Score." The film, for all its flaws, begs for restoration and a widescreen DVD release. So much there is still strong all these years after the first time I encountered the show at its first Pre-Broadway preview at Boston's Colonial Theatre the evening after LBJ died and the day the first of several cease fires was announced in Vietnam (Cariou announced the latter from the stage at the curtain call). I'd see it frequently again over the years (it's a strong latter day operetta) on Broadway and at the end of the U.S. National Tour (this time at Boston's Shubert Theatre with Jean Simmons who would later do "Desiree" in London and the wonderful Margaret Hamilton in the Gingold role). That first night in Boston though, we sang "A Weekend In The Country" half the way back to Hartford in the car - I was inclined to today after re-watching the movie again for the first time in several years.