Hudson Movie Reviews

It's the equivalent of documentary fast food, but there's something irresistible about these long-shelved scraps of Hollywood history. Sometimes formal, sometimes loose, these screen tests show a batch of actors as you've never seen them--i.e., nervous, hesitant, but often flashing the X factor that separates them from the other would-be stars. Check out the 1958-model Sean Connery, or Mia Farrow auditioning for the role of Liesl in The Sound of Music (her warbling on "I Am Sixteen" suggests one reason she didn't get the role). Newcomer Ann-Margret needs no vocal help; knocking out a couple of songs, she looks about as inexperienced as Helen Hayes. Cultists will zip to Patty Duke's test for her role in Valley of the Dolls, and there's a long section devoted to the '60s Batman TV series. Lyle Waggoner as the Caped Crusader? Ah, how different screen history might have been. --Robert Horton

Judy Garland in Valley of the Dolls? Walter Matthau in The Seven Year Itch? These are among the what-ifs offered by these screen tests from the vaults of Twentieth Century Fox. Some of the pieces are more intriguing than others (there's too much time spent on Hello, Dolly!), but the goodies are choice: teenage Tuesday Weld showing her independent spirit in a casual "personality test," and the brand-new Rock Hudson rather unpolished in an extended emotional scene. A highlight is a long test of a pre-Green Hornet Bruce Lee (shot, Lee mentions, a few days after the birth of his son Brandon), in which the future star shows off his dazzling kung fu moves. Matthau's test (he was favored by director Billy Wilder) is played side-by-side with Tom Ewell trying the same scene; Ewell got the role he'd played on Broadway, but this snippet makes you wonder what might have been. --Robert Horton

This 1983 Royal Opera Covent Garden production looks right and Plácido Domingo sounds right. So do the chorus and orchestra, though they could have been subtler here and there. Silvano Carroli makes a superbly villainous sheriff. Carol Neblett looks good and acts reasonably well as Minnie, the amiable barmaid and surrogate mother to a camp full of lonely minors. Unfortunately, her voice is not quite competitive with that of Mara Zampieri, who shared the La Scala production with Domingo nine years later.

Those who prefer this Fanciulla will probably be attracted by Domingo's youthful vitality, but the whole production is quite attractive if one makes allowance for Neblett's tonal shortcomings. The music has color and subtlety, and the story will bring nostalgia attacks to anyone who spent childhood Saturday afternoons nibbling popcorn and watching horsemen in 10-gallon hats galloping across the screen. --Joe McLellan