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Jun 06, 2015RainbowRabbit rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
I recently purchased and watched the original movie version of this from 1958, I believe. Consequently, the low mark which I gave to this version is in relation to that earlier award-winning film. The male leads in this film are better vocalists than their earlier counterparts, but Glenn Close is a poor choice for the lead female role. She is supposed to be a young woman, seeing the world for the first time after having left Little Rock, Arkansas. This innocent wide-eyed role is not meant to be played by a woman approaching her sixties. What! Will Harrison Ford be the next Peter Pan. It simply does not work. This is the most inappropriate casting since Shakespeare cast a male to play Ophelia. Nor can she carry a note in a pail. She tries. With her great effort, she raises the film to mediocre, but this is not the joyful production which won so many hearts as a stage show and film. The character Bloody Mary is well-drawn in this production. One would have hoped however that Mary's hustling her daughter off to the lieutenant might have been developed with more finesse in our liberal times than was possible in the 50's.