Calum Hutton
It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
Deanna
There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
Lela
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
Kinley
This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
commorancy
While I would like to rate the actual telecast higher, I never got to see it live and I still haven't seen the actual telecast. In fact, no one may ever see the actual production again. The March 31st, 1957 telecast was live and may or may not have been recorded. A little bit of historySo, you're probably thinking, "Well, what about the kinescope copy?" This copy was not of the live March 31, 1957 production. I'll quote from the 1999 release of the CD liner notes written by Dider C. Deutsch:"By all accounts, the production of the telecast was not unlike a highwire act from the start; as Richard Lewine acknowledged in a recent interview, 'There was no room for error. Remember that everything was live then, and when we got on the air ... there was no possibility for a retake.... I suggested to my boss, Hubbell Robinson, that we should make a kinescope of the production, not for broadcast mind you, just to see what it looked like before we went on the air. He said, ''Do what you think is right, and if you have a problem let me know.... '' So, on March 17 we had a sort of preview in front of a small invited audience at CBS Color Studio 72, at 81st Street and Broadway, which is where the show was to be done.'The values of the full scale rehearsal were obvious. As Richard Lewine remarked, 'We made notes, we saw all kinds of things we wanted to change, in short there was our chance to do it the way wanted to do it.... For example, Dick (Rodgers) didn't like the way the designer had done the dress for Cinderella in the opening scene; it was a makeshift poor girl dress, he went on the stage and looked at it and said, ''This is a piece of junk...'' And he tore a piece off it...' (it was too fancy).Overall, the rehearsal might have added an estimated $20,000 to the production's budget of $350,000, but it helped make a sleek presentation that was far superior to anything that had been done on television." -- Dider C. DeutschBased on these notes above, the kinescope version was not of the actual March 31, 1957 telecast, but of the March 17, 1957 full-scale preview rehearsal. It makes no mention of a kinescope copy of the actual production. In short, there does not presently appear to exist a copy of the live telecast production in any form that I am aware of. The only version we have is of the full-scale dress rehearsal from March 17th. This is a fine point to consider when writing a review for this production. Since the kinescope version doesn't depict the live telecast performance, the final production may have had better production values than what we see in the kinescope copy as they had nearly two weeks to polish the production with better costuming, sets, lighting and practice.Note that 1956 saw the introduction of the color Quadruplex (quadrature scanning) tape recorders using Ampex tape. By 1957, NBC had such a recorder in its studio at the time of this telecast. CBS may or may not have had one. Some have theorized that NBC may have (or had), in its archives somewhere, a quadrature tape copy of this production in color that it taped on the night of the performance. CBS may have also had a color copy for rebroadcast purposes, but some theorize the tape was bulk wiped a week after presentation. I'm still hopeful that someone will find a quadrature tape of this color production in their archives and finally release the actual March 31st color presentation.Review of this productionWhat I will say about the surviving kinescope copy is that this version of Cinderella is charming and unique. Clearly, Julie Andrews pulls off her version of Cinderella perfectly. Her upbeat sweetness translates well to this classic version of Cinderella. The production does lack in-camera effects. Edie Adams plays the godmother in an almost sadistic way. It's like she enjoys trying to make Cinderella completely unhappy before granting her wish. Cinderella doesn't comply, though. She just wishes harder. More than this, the godmother compounds her sadistic streak with her odd cackling laugh right before she does something good. It's a weird combination. The rest of the cast pulls off their parts amazingly well, including Robert Penn, the town crier with his booming baritone voice.The R&H numbers work amazingly well across the board with the many strong vocalists chosen. In fact, this really is a televised stage production. CBS could have turned around and placed this right onto a Broadway stage immediately following the broadcast and milked a stage production in 1957. Unfortunately, there was apparently a lack of foresight for cross-marketing in 1957.The downside is that what we are seeing in the kinescope copy is not the actual production. It's a rehearsal. So, it's likely the sets and costumes may not have been fully completed. The actors may not have fully had their lines down yet. So, it appears to be rough in places. Overall, I enjoyed it enough to purchase the music in stereo which is well worth a listen.
johnstonjames
next to Disney's delightful cartoonish contrive, this is my favorite version of 'Cinderella'. and not to commit iconic blasphemy, R&H's very best musical.i know i know. how can i say such a thing when 'South Pacific' and 'Oakiehomie' are such monumental works? simple. they're just that. monumental. how dull, boring and oppressively overpowering. i like it when things are kept pure and simple. R&H completed this in half the time and effort as their other works, and that bare basics approach works in this production's favor. rarely are media musicals this sincere and unpretentious. a pure delight for anyone that relishes sweet unpretentiousness. it also has the straight-forward, raw quality that only live television and performances can provide.and the performances in this can be just wonderful. not only is Dame Julie a perfectionist delight a Cinders, but the supporting cast is just marvelous fun. Kaye Ballard and Alice Ghostley are liltingly hilarious and "lovely" as the awkward stepsisters. and Edith Adams and Ilka Chase are wonderful. this has to be the most entertaining "fairy godmother" you could imagine outside of Disney. "impossible", stands right alongside "Bibbidi-Bobbidi" as one of musical's most delightful and very best.even though this first rate, Broadway-like production, is only preserved in a primitive, rough, kinescope telecast videotape, young unexperienced viewers must keep in mind that the original CBS-TV broadcast was seen by the largest TV audience on the planet at that time. it was a television, historical event that reached millions and millions of viewers stretching from Canada to Cuba. a real milestone in the "Golden age" of television. by today's standards, that event is "impossible" to conceive.for anyone that loves American television history, this is a true national treasure. and if you let yourself believe, "impossible things are happening everyday".
newkidontheblock
Before the TV movie musicals explosion of the later 90's and early 2000's, there was Cinderella, a Rogers and Hammerstein adaptation of a classic fairy tale. In the 1950's, color T.V. was the new thing and everyone wanted to show off their capabilities. This was also a time when art of all kind was for show on commercial television.Not to be outdone by rival NBC, CBS announced that they would get the legendary team of Rogers and Hammerstein to write a for-T.V. musical based on the beloved tale of Cinderella. The show would use such talent as Howard Lindsay, Dorothy Stickney, Edie Adams, and a young up and coming Broadway star named...oh...what's her name...Julie something or other, I think. I'll remember later. You've probably never heard of her, anyway.Though only black and white kiniscopes exist now, the show was filmed in glorious color and live in a cramped studio. What we'd find out later is that this was shown in front of the biggest audience at that time.ANDREWS! Of course.I've seen all three televised version of Cinderella, and I can say that the original is, without question, the best of the three. It had the one quality all great musical performances have...engagement. I was absolutely sold on everything that happen throughout the musical. Only the best shows and performances can do that. Andrews showed the country why she was a mighty force on Broadway and why she would become a beloved actress the world over. The old, familiar faces and the new people from different places, this was a meeting of all of them. I only hope we can see this again on the small screen again in the near future.
Louis G. Partridge
This is the first that I had seen the original TV version. I had seen both of the other television versions -- the 1965 Lesley Ann Warren version and the 1997 Brandy version. This version is so superior to the others. The copy at the Museum of Television and Radio is in black-and-white although it had been presented in color. If you are in New York and get the chance to visit the museum, the presentation is well worth the 1-1/2 hours. Oh, yes. The commercials which are part of the recording are quite humorous.
