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THE DVD SHELF: "Mister Roberts," "One Touch of Venus" and a New Hitchcock Collection
By Steven Suskin
03 Nov 2008
This month, we view a made-for-TV staging of "Mister Roberts," with Kevin Bacon and Charles Durning; the unmusicalized 1948 version of Kurt Weill's One Touch of Venus; and a restored box of eight films by Alfred Hitchcock.
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If it's "Mister Roberts" you want, the logical choice is to turn to the 1955 motion picture version starring Henry Fonda, James Cagney and William Powell, with the young Jack Lemmon stealing his scenes (and an Oscar) for his performance as Ensign Pulver. This was a Hollywoodized version of the award-winning play by Thomas Heggen and Joshua Logan, and not exactly an untampered transfer of the material. Still, it had Henry Fonda repeating the stage role that fit him so well; to many, he remains the one and only Mister Roberts. A second alternative has become available with the DVD release of the 1984 made-for-TV version of the play, filmed live in front of a studio audience. This gives you Mister Roberts [Acorn] more or less as written, which is perhaps a more effective reading of the play than the film version is. However, and it's a big however, you don't get Fonda, Cagney, Powell and Lemmon; what you get is, for starters Robert Hays as Lt. JG Doug Roberts. You know, Robert Hays, famous for — what? "Airplane"? And "Airplane 2"? Which doesn't exactly give him the stature of Hank Fonda, who not only brought with him decades of stardom but two years of playing Roberts on stage. Howard Hesseman, another star for 1984 TV purposes, doesn't offer much in the role of Doc. They did at least have two stage actors on hand, Charles Durning (as the Captain) and Kevin Bacon (as Pulver, just after "Footloose"). Durning and Bacon, needless to say, are as watchable as they always are; and director Melvin Bernhardt — who worked magic on the stage productions of The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Da and Crimes of the Heart — does a sturdy job considering the star he was (presumably) handed. But given a choice, I'd stick with Fonda and Lemmon in Hollywood. Continued...
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