Liza-19

This was an attempt and condenscing a very long, 6 hour miniseries into 2 hours. They recast all except 2 of the actors, and glossed over most of the important parts of history. The miniseries was over-long, I'll grant you, but they didn't miss anything. This was... muddled.

There's no real rythm to this film, it's just fractures of Henry VIII's life as he's laying on his deathbed, but it all comes out disjointed and uneven. They didn't even cover Anne Boleyn's execution! I'm no Anne Boleyn fan, but even I'm wondering how they could skip that.

The only real shining star is Lynn Frederick as Catherine Howard. She's only got about 10 minutes of screentime (probably less) but she's on her game. Beautiful and young and foolish, she gives the first sympathetic and probably most realistic portrayal of Henry's 5th wife. She nearly stole the show, and would have if they'd given her more time.

Anne of Cleves was a sad attempt at comic relief and Katherine Parr was an afterthought. I would let this go, if the focus was really on Henry - but it wasn't really about him either. It was so disjointed and uneven that the final film makes very little sense. You have to know your Tudor history to even follow it, and even if you do, it's still a confusing film.

After several years of rumors on the internet, many fans wondered if this episode actually existed. It does, but after viewing it, you can understand why it is so easily forgotten.

Shelley Duvall (who created, produced, and starred in several episodes) is throwing a costume party for all of the actors who appeared in Faerie Tale Theatre. Her friend Teri Garr is helping her pick an outfit. The party gets underway and people like Dana Hill, Brock Peters, Jean Stapleton, and Paul Reubens are having a grand old time.

There are actors from the shows that have aired, as well as future episodes. Some of the actors wear costumes from their roles, others chose different fairy tale outfits (Bridgette Anderson was dressed as Alice in Wonderland, Dana Hill was a pink rabbit). Several of them are interviewed, and it does provide a little bit of insight to the creation of a brilliant show. Pam Dawber discusses how she got the role of the Little Mermaid, Paul Reubens (still in the height of his Pee-Wee Herman phase) discusses his interpretation of Pinocchio. Unfortunately, there are several actors who do not appear - Klaus Kinski, Mick Jagger, and Liza Minnelli being the three that jump to mind.

There is a tiny bit of a plot here: Shelley hits her head and dreams she is put on trial by the Brothers Grimm for doing justice to their stories. She has to defend herself,and does it by showing clips from several episodes. Really it's just an excuse to film the reunion party.

For those of us who are crazy FTT fans, this is one that you can't skip. It's just so unusual. But if you are only recently discovering the series, this is really just a fluffy addition to the new DVD set. It's okay, but not necessary to enjoy the rest of the show. Stick to the actual fairy tale adaptations, which were all fabulous.

I wanted to see this movie for years and finally found a copy this year. Well, the actual production left something to be desired. The sets seemed cramped, and the whole thing has kind of a thrown-together feeling to it, but that's easy enough to overlook. The musical was obviously a lot of fun to make and all of the actors seem to really be enjoying themselves.

Lauren Bacall shows her usual dramatic star-power, but (Tony Award or no Tony Award) the woman really can't sing. Fortunately, for her part at least, it really doesn't matter. She's a strong enough actress that she can put emotion behind the lyrics and it doesn't really matter if it matches the melody or not. Larry Hagman plays Bill - but he seems almost wasted, having very little to do until the end. Penny Fuller was a fairly good Eve, but she was definitely no Anne Baxter. Still, I doubt Anne Baxter could have sung as well as Fuller did. Her last number was very impressive.

The real surprise to me was English actress Debbie Bowen completely stopping the show with the title song "Applause." She nailed it. I never even knew she could sing, and she nearly steals the entire show with just that one number. Very impressive talent, too bad she seems to have disappeared from the entertainment world. She was the one to watch in this movie.

The rest of the supporting cast is mostly forgettable. The plot line is pretty faithful to "All About Eve" although the script does seem to nicey it up a little too much. Why did they get rid of one of the best characters in the movie - Addison DeWitt? George Sanders won the Oscar for that role, it was probably the most intelligent character in the whole story. For a long time the audience is kept sympathizing with Eve and hating Margo, which is not the way the story is supposed to go at all. The end is rather abrupt and doesn't really come across as satisfying. But the music alone is a great, great asset to this. It's worth watching if you can find it.