Product: School For Scandal (C. 1965-ENGLAND)
Rating: 4.0
Hands down the best SCHOOL... I've found
If all you care about is slick packaging and color video, by all means pass on to the thoroughly acceptable color DVD from the Broadway Theatre Archive, but if you want to see Richard Brinsley Sheridan's classic Restoration Comedy, THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL, performed by a theatre cast which would be hard to beat, this wonderful production starring a very young Joan Plowright and the always wonderful Felix Aylmer (don't miss him in the theatrical films of Bernard Shaw's THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA and SAINT JOAN) should be on your shelves. The smash hit 1963 Broadway production (recorded on Command Records) with John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson *may* have surpassed this production for polish, but I have yet to see a film or video production which could.Sheridan's play premiered in London during the spring of 1777, and was playing in New York before the final shots were fired in our War For Independence. I'm having trouble finding the exact date of the broadcast documented in this Video Yesteryear release (and how I wish the packaging on more video releases from even more "upscale" releasers included such important information), but this video gives you the feel of what our founding fathers (and the British officers occupying New York for most of that war) must have enjoyed when it was new - the very graininess of the released film contributes to the illusion - and reminds us as effectively as the wonderful 1776 musical that they were actually flesh and blood people too. What a pleasure to share a high pleasure like this with them.