StevenCapsuto

Cole Porter's final musical (and his only one written for television) was not well received at the time, and it's easy to see why. Though S.J. Perelman's script is a clever, witty retelling of the classic tale, it feels like it had to be padded out to fill the DuPont Show's 90-minute time slot.

Additionally, the hugely talented, charming cast doesn't really make up for the inherent racism of the piece: dozens of white actors in yellowface with taped eyelids, jokes about Chinese people eating dogs, etc. So it's a mixed bag.

Broadway songwriting legend Cole Porter was gravely ill when he wrote the songs, so they're not his best work. (The title song is singularly bland.) Worse, his lyrics are more racially problematic than Perelman's already stereotype-ridden script. The highlight of the score is the bouncy, fun "Opportunity Knocks but Once."

Worth singling out for praise in the cast are Sal Mineo as Aladdin, Una Merkel as his mother, and Howard Morris at his comedic best in a supporting role. Cyril Ritchard chews scenery as the over-the-top villain. Anna Maria Alberghetti (as the princess), Geoffrey Holder (as the genie) and Basil Rathbone (as the emperor) were all wonderful actors, though they're not given anything terribly interesting to do here.

For me, the video's main appeal is seeing Sal Mineo play a romantic lead, and seeing 1950s-era Howard Morris do something other than sketch comedy.

Produced on color videotape, the show is only known to survive as a black-and-white kinescope. This is a shame, because it probably looked spectacular in color.

I feel embarrassed for everyone connected with this flick and anyone who ever knew them. It's *that* bad: awful premise, idiotic script (not coherent even on its own terms as a gross-out fantasy-comedy), the wrong tone (it might have been less off-key if they'd aimed for something closer to the tone of those old "Bill & Ted" films), and James Franco doing a weird, ineffective characterization in a role that has to carry the film.

I sat through the whole thing, but only because 1) the friends I was hanging out with wanted to see it (given its "historic" importance, amid allegations that the North Korean government had hacked Sony Pictures' computer systems in retaliation), and 2) because we were watching it at my apartment and I couldn't politely leave.

In this episodic comedy, a cash-strapped older Englishwoman (Alison Skipworth) hitchhikes from New York to California to pay a surprise visit to her son. She mistakenly believes that San Quentin, the return address on his letters, is his orange ranch.

Along the way she shares misadventures with various new friends: a young woman, a trailer salesman, and a pair of wanted criminals.

It's not an all-time classic, but I loved spending an hour or so with these characters. The film has a solid cast, and even James Ellison (who I usually think of as a B-movie cowboy) acquits himself well here in a romantic-comedy role.

I saw the 77-minute theatrical version (rather than the 53-minute TV print) and found the pacing and storytelling just right.