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Must See Movie...

The acting in this movie is really good.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

It was estimated that 107 million people saw the original broadcast of this made-for-television musical created by no less than the legendary team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. That represents an astonishing 62% of the U.S. population at a time when there was no pay-per-view, no cable, no TiVo. Having just read Julie Andrews' remarkable early-life autobiography, "Home", I have to admit my interest was piqued to see this seminal production. Andrews was all of 21 on the night of March 31, 1957, when she performed the title role live, and it's fascinating to watch her screen persona so fully formed seven years before her big-screen debut in "Mary Poppins". Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the musical specifically for her talents as she was then wowing Broadway audiences as Eliza Doolittle in the smash hit, Lerner and Lowe's "My Fair Lady". The evidence refutes Jack Warner's later claim that she was not photogenic enough to be in the film version, and the 2004 DVD is the closest many of us will get to see what her Eliza was like.Captured in black-and-white kinescope, the show is definitely a product of the Golden Age of Television with its flickering images and claustrophobic, sometimes awkward staging. However, as directed by Ralph Nelson ("Father Goose"), the story's universal charm and farcical touches, the expert cast of mainly Broadway veterans, and the memorable musical score more than offset the technical deficiencies. Andrews' bell-like soprano is at its best in her sadly hopeful ballad, "In My Own Little Corner". As the King and Queen, playwright Howard Lindsay (he co-wrote "Life with Father" and the original book for "The Sound of Music") and his real-life actress wife Dorothy Stickney prove to be a comically adroit pair. Fellow stage legend Ilka Chase plays the malevolent stepmother with catty aplomb, and the comic duo of Kaye Ballard and Alice Ghostley fulfill the comic possibilities as the jealous stepsisters. Edie Adams lends a more saucy twist to the ethereal role of the Fairy Godmother. Much later a reliable character actor best known as the Chief of Police on "Hill Street Blues", a stalwart Jon Cypher fits the cardboard dimensions of the gallant, smitten Prince and showcases a surprisingly robust tenor voice first in a soaring duet with Andrews on "Ten Minutes Ago" and then on the show's best song, "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?".Like most of my generation, I am more familiar with the 1965 color remake (starring a very young Lesley Ann Warren) since the original production aired only once. Running a fleet 77 minutes, it's a shame that the original color footage could not have been saved since the fairy tale atmosphere begs for it. Luckily, as part of the DVD, there is a gallery of color production and rehearsal stills to give you an idea of what the original audience may have seen if they owned a color TV set, a rarity at the time. Other DVD extras include rare archival footage of Rodgers and Hammerstein appearing on "The Ed Sullivan Show" to publicize the show (including a recited performance by Hammerstein of "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?"), as well as a recently filmed introduction by Andrews. The best extra is a half-hour retrospective featurette, "A Lovely Night: the Making of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Television Classic", which features Andrews, Adams, Ballard and Cypher fondly recalling the experience. Children may not be able to tolerate the black-and-white, but baby boomers will find particular joy in seeing this particular production.

I was around when there was no televisions in the homes and you had to go to the movie theaters to see movement on a screen, in fact, a very large screen we thought until Cinerama came into our lives. Everything was live. There was no filming for perfection and the first person to come up with the idea of filming live programs was Desi Arnaz when they started "I Love Lucy" on television, but I'm getting ahead of myself.Think of it! Every week, Sid Ceasar and Imogene Coca and others were rehearsing for a one and a half hour variety program called "Your Show of Shows" and even during the live T.V. Show, they made such mistakes that made the show funnier than if it was filmed. "Your Hit Parade" was live ever week. Snooky Lansen once had the hit song of the week and had a problem remembering lyrics and one time wrote them on the floor of the studio in chalk and when it come time to sing the song, someone had erased the lyrics! Ah, the days of live television! Then came along Rogers and Hammerstiens "Cinderella" in which they starred their new found personality Julie Andrews who was wowing Broadway in "My Fair Lady". So, they got the right cast together and put of a live musical version of Cinderella with wonderful music and Edie Adams camping it up as the Fairy Godmother when Cindereall, Julie Andrews, claims to Adams, "Oh! Fairy Godmother; what a beautiful dress!" and Adams with disdain in her voice says, "Oh! This old thing! It's 550 years old!" For years, it was rumored that they could never show the old Kinsoscope copy of Cinderella is because it was either destroyed of lost. After seeing all the talent in the show, it would have paid a lot of royalties out, but no more since most of them have passed away, so why not release it on D.V.D.? One thing about years later is that both Julie Andrews and Leslie Ann Warren played Cinderella on T.V. and they both starred together in "Victor Victoria" with Andrews playing a woman playing a man playing a woman and Warren playing a Chicogo Mobsters Whore! YOu must admit they both went from Saints to Sinners through the years.Thank God for the restoration of this wonderful show, and, of course, the original record album, always available, and now on C.D. can still be heard in it's original recording by Columbia! Wonderful show! Let the young'ins see what the fun of live T.V. was like in the golden age of television!

I sincerely hope that many parents and other grownups will share this wonderful, witty musical with their kiddos and kiddo friends. Start them early with quality fare like this, and don't let them develop a prejudice against black & white viewing, or intelligent creations.It really is a shame that later television CINDERELLAs messed with the script, and particularly that they cut the ball- and banquet-planning scene with the King, Queen, Chef, Tailor and...I forget who else. The King and Queen are such stronger roles here than in the later versions. Actually, all the roles seem stronger here, as directed and played. (I don't mean to bash the later two TV CINDERELLAs, both of which have their good points, and good intentions, but end up falling so short of the original, for all their larger budgets, full color, more ethnically diverse casting--the last a plus in my book. A shame they didn't stick with the many strengths of this original script, and build and embellish from there. It also helps to have a Cinderella with a gorgeous, majestic voice.) Besides the wit, humor and intelligence of this musical's book, the big, winning ingredient is the basic sense of love and good will, strong but not cloying. A very Hammerstein element, which, for the most part, he wielded deftly throughout his works. There is an unfortunate tendency to screw with that strong ingredient when people try to adapt and "improve" Rodgers & Hammerstein shows. For a particularly heinous example of this, see the ABC TV, Glenn Close SOUTH PACIFIC. Better yet, don't subject yourself to that horrible desecration of a beautiful work. Watch the good stuff, like this original Cinderella.

I'm gonna piggy-back right along with the previous comments. I just saw it on Maryland Public Television and it was a real event for me. I know both of the remakes, the Disney cartoon, the Prokofiev ballet, and the film EVER AFTER. But I'm a vintage T.V. junkie at heart, and more than anything else, this production was a phenomenal advancement in TV entertainment. Differing from the broadcast adaptation of the Broadway musical PETER PAN- and as Julie Andrews herself mentions in the opening monologue- this production was originally written for television by Rodgers & Hammerstein themselves. And it is the quirky, tongue-in-cheek script which is one of the show's delights. The biggest delight by far, is the fact that this was a LIVE performance, shown warts and all- like a boom mike shadow on a draping wall or a missed song cue in the second act. This performance occurred roughly six months ahead of the first ever videotaped images. No CGI or ILM movie effects here. Once you fully understand that, you can suspend yourself completely into a more innocent and wondrous frame of mind and let the performances and especially the music speak for themselves. A cleaned up, remastered kinescope film, you'll notice the unusually high contrast in some of the darker images and nighttime sequences. But the "Impossible" Act 1 finale with Andrews and gorgeous fairy godmother Edie Adams is still a stellar moment, from the sparkler lighting effects to the final shot inside the moving coach. And it is nice to see so many surviving cast members (Kaye Ballard, Edie Adams, and Jon Cypher) comment on this 47-year-old production. I loved it!!