World Famous Comics: Gilbert & Sullivan - Ruddigore / Michell, Price, Trevelyan, Opera World
Gilbert & Sullivan - Ruddigore / Michell, Price, Trevelyan, Opera World
Starring: Keith Michell, John Treleaven, Vincent Price, Paul Hudson, Donald Adams Directed By: Barrie Gavin Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Format: Classical, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC Label: Acorn Media Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: October 22, 2002 Running Time: 116 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 1982
Product Description: Featuring the london symphony orchestra and a host of international stars including vincent price joel gray peter marshall keith mitchell frankie howerd and peter allen. Filmed in england and created especially for tv they have delighted fans on pbs and the bbc. Studio: Acorn Media Release Date: 01/20/2004 Run time: 96 minutes
Amazon.com: Ruddigore, a pseudo-melodramatic ghost story, became most famous for the moment when the portraits of Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd's ancestors spring to life and demand that he uphold the family curse of performing a crime every day. Less flawlessly balanced between score and libretto than some of Gilbert and Sullivan's works, it's a pleasurable trifle set to gorgeous music. Since this is the only version widely available, we're lucky it's so good. Vincent Price is wonderfully typecast as Despard Murgatroyd, the brother who hands over the title and the curse when Ruthven gives up hiding from his evil fate. Price can't sing--and he has a good 15 years on Keith Michell, who plays his older brother--but it really doesn't matter. He carries off his performance with supreme deftness. Unlike many G&S productions, this one is admirably free of mugging; the actors don't condescend to their material. The staging is as beautifully absurd as the plot. The chorus of professional bridesmaids are an indistinguishable unit out of a fractured fairy tale, sleeping in one bed and showing up in the middle of other people's scenes; and during a lovely but dramatically static madrigal, the cast plays croquet. Part of the Opera World series of 12 Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, produced in the early 1980s, Ruddigore is among the best in an uneven project. --David Olivenbaum
It's Price's show. A-many years ago, with young and overly ambitious ideas of enlisting the late, great Vincent Price to play Sir Roderic Murgatroyd, I approached him after a talk he gave at Indiana University. His interested and gracious decline was almost as good as an acceptance. Imagine my astonished gratification to see him later as -- not Sir Roderic -- but Sir Despard. Without Price, I would give this particular version of my favorite operetta about half a star. Act I is downright embarrassing, at least before Sir D's entrance. Price's smooth-as-cream Despard Murgatroyd, however, rates a solid five stars. Vincent Price collectors really shouldn't miss this one. Phyllis Ann Karr
Spooky fun and Vincent Price, too This is one of the 1982 series of G&S productions produced by the BBC. It's a charming opera but largely overlooked and this is probably one of the only way most people will see it.
Shy young Robin is in love with sweet Rose Maybud, but can't bring himself to confess his feelings. Plus, he has a secret--he's really the rightful Baronet of Ruddigore, but faked his death to escape the title and its curse.
His younger brother, Despard (played with campy style by Vincent Price, who is clearly having fun with the role), is the current title-holder and dutiful executor of the terms of the curse: He must commit a crime a day or perish in agony inflicted by his ancestors, who all exist as portraits in his Portrait Gallery.
Robin's foster-brother Dick Dauntless comes back from the sea, falls in love with Rose Maybud, and reveals the truth about Robin's identity. He says his conscience made him do it (Awfully convenient, that!).
Robin must become Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, thereby losing Rose Maybud and gaining a curse. The Act I finale is abbreviated in this production and a lot of good singing is left out. I regretted the omission but don't know how other people might feel about it.
Robin (now Sir Ruthven) tries his hand at being bad, but he's really not cut out for it. The Portrait Gallery comes to life and Donald Adams sings Sullivan's gloriously creepy "When the night wind howls". Vincent Price makes his reappearance as a reformed Baronet and sings the super-fast patter song "my eyes are fully open" with Sir Ruthven and the formerly mad Margaret, and in the end everything gets sorted out in typical Gilbertian topsy-turvy fashion.
This is my favorite of the G&S operas, and the production is a good one--although I don't have much to compare it to. Worth a watch.
Totally Disappointing ! Having seen this on stage and enjoyed it so much, I was horrified at such a poor rendition. I do not even consider it worth putting on a DVD/video at all. Amateur performances on the whole and mediocre singing. It lacked the drama of a good stage performance but did not take advantage of the possibilities of film. The cartoon-like intervals were ridiculous and so not amusing, the ghosts so mundane....in fact the whole scene lacked the necessary "spooky" atmosphere. I couldn't even find the patience to watch it through to the end.
A Horribly Good Time I have mixed feelings about this film. On the positive side, it was kind of fun to see this send-up of hammer films, complete with Vincent Price (who surprisingly holds his own in the G&S environment). In this respect, it is an amusing halloween treat that I admittedly enjoy watching every October. On the negative side, like so many other incomplete films in this "complete G&S" series, several favorite songs are missing and some of the attempts at horrific humor fall very flat. The chorus was rather annoying to watch, and the ghosts tried to be funny instead of ghostly, which made them almost as annoying as the chorus. And yet for all of that, it is a highly enjoyable film to watch. The best scene? The opening of Act Two with the banter between Ruthven Murgatroyd and Old Adam.
Ruddigore The scenery is excellent, novel use of old fashioned bicycles. Keith Mitchell and Vincent Price both take superb parts. Bridesmaids are VERY athletic ! maybe a bit too much so (and maybe not quite irritating enough with 'Hail the Bridesmaid') Worth adding to your library.
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