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January 2005, Week 5

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Subject:
From:
Leo Enticknap <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 29 Jan 2005 19:34:33 +0000
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I'm sure I've seen either VHS or DVD copies of 'Meet Mr. Lucifer' on the 
shelves at Virgins or HMV, but a search on Amazon UK didn't reveal anything.

If you manage to track down 'Simon & Laura' I'd be very interested to hear 
about it.  I was having a pint and a chat with a friend who is a 
Vistavision nut and former preservationist with the BFI/NFTVA.  He told me 
that, sadly, original elements don't appear to survive in good enough 
condition to make a proper restoration possible - 4-perf seps are the 
nearest extant material, and even on those the shrinkage differential ain't 
nice.

The film is one of my favourites, and IMHO a wonderfully sarcastic take 
both the emergence of television, cinema's technological fightback and the 
social aspects of 1950s end of the age of austerity consumerism; the 
'you've never had it so good' ideology.  For those who aren't familiar with 
the film, it features Peter Finch and Kay Kendall as the stars of a TV soap 
opera.  In the show they play an idyllically married couple; but off it 
their marriage is on the rocks and they can't stop fighting. This scenario 
then simmers through a series of incidents motivated by the producer trying 
to save their marriage and thereby save his ratings.  The denouement comes 
during the live broadcast of the show's Christmas special, in which the 
tensions get too much and they have an unscripted and almighty row in front 
of millions of viewers, while the producer gazes at his monitor in utter 
horror, contemplating imminent unemployment.

I've only ever seen the film in a manky, panned and scanned off-air VHS, 
but the contrast of flickery 405-line TV sets shown within the pin-sharp 
Vistavision image must have added a lot to the humour.

Leo 

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