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Dom Robinson reviews
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 1424 DVD
- Running time: 96 minutes
- Year: 1975
- Pressing: 2001
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 36 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English (for the hard of hearing)
- Widescreen: 1.66:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: 2 * DVD 9
- Price: £24.99
- Extras: Audio Commentary, Multi-View Theatre Experience, AudienceParticipation, Participation Prompter, Deleted Scene, Interview excerpts from’Behind the Music’ and ‘Where are They Now?’, VH1 Pop-Up Video of ‘Hot Patootie!’,Outtakes and Alternate Credits Ending, Rocky Horror Double Feature Video ShowDocumentary (37 min), 2 Trailers, Sing-A-Longs ‘Toucha Toucha Touch Me’ and’Sweet Transvestite’, Photo Gallery, Reconstruction of how the “misprint”ending appeared on first release.
Director:
- Jim Sharman
(The Night Prowler, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Shirley Thompson vs. The Aliens, Shock Treatment, Summer of Secrets)
Producer:
- Michael White
Screenplay:
- Jim Sharman and Richard O’Brien
Music:
- Richard O’Brien and Richard Hartley
Cast:
- Doctor Frank-N-Furter: Tim Curry
Janet Weiss: Susan Sarandon
Brad Majors: Barry Bostwick
Riff Raff: Richard O’Brien
Magenta: Patricia Quinn
Columbia: Little Nell
Dr. Everett Scott: Jonathan Adams
Eddie: Meat Loaf
The Criminologist: Charles Gray
If I was to say that the Rocky Horror Picture Show was bizarre,that would be a major understatement.
Beginning innocently enough with the wedding of the best friends toBrad Majors (Spin City‘s Barry Bostwick) and Janet Weiss(Susan Sarandon), on the way home their car breaks down close to thehouse owned by the clearly-mad transvestite Doctor Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry,in easily his best-ever performance to date).
Sadly they’ve chosen the wrong night to drop in since Frank’s just about tounleash his brand new muscle-bound male creation onto an unsuspecting world. Couple thiswith handyman Riff Raff (The Crystal Maze‘s Richard O’Brien,who also wrote the music for the original stage play and co-wrote the screenplay),the domestic Magenta (Patricia Quinn) and groupie Columbia (Little Nell)and they leave Brad and Janet about as out-of-sorts as you can possibly imagine.
Narrated by “The Criminologist” Charles Gray and featuring cameosfrom Meat Loaf as ex-delivery boy Eddie, Christopher Biggins asone of the Transylvians and an uncredited Koo Stark as a bridesmaid,not to mention the range of accompanying tunes, I’m Just a Sweet Transvestite,Hot Patootie Bless My Soul, Dammit Janet and, of course, the classicTimewarp and you have a film in a league of its own. There’s never beenanything quite like it and I doubt there will ever be again.
I was also lucky enough to see the stage show itself at the now-defunctDavenport Theatre, near Stockport, in the mid-80s.
The original ratio for the film was 1.66:1 so wouldn’t normally be quitewide enough from which to strike a 16:9 anamorphic widescreen transfer.However, this is certainly possible by placing the 1.66:1 image within the16:9 frame, the only slight downside meaning there are miniscule black barsdown each side. This is to be expected though and I would far rather have itpresented as it is here than as a non-anamorphic image which I’d zoom inanyway and would lose 33% of the original resolution. There are a fewartifacts and print scratches on minor occasions and the picture inexpicablyshakes for about a minute, 71 mins in, but no complaints at other times.The average bitrate is 6.33Mb/s, starting off by regularly peaking over 9Mb/sfor the first 20 minutes and then dropping to its average for the rest of themovie.
The sound is first-rate with a remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack thatmakes the endless show-tunes shine and sound just as fresh as they were whenyou first heard them.
Released over two discs, the first one offers no less than five ways to enjoythe Rocky Horror Experience. There’s the film as it stands and a feature-lengthaudio commentary from Richard O’Brien and Patricia Quinn,plus ways to make you feel surrounded by those who also found it intenselyentertaining.
- Multi-View Theatre Experience: See both the film and the crowd. This versionlasts around twice as long as the film because you see what happens in themovie first before going back to experience what the crowd went through in anAmerican cinema.
- Audience Par-tic-i-pa-tion: Hear the crowd roar along while you’re watchingjust as if you’re in the theatre. Probably the one time when you won’t mindthis sort of canned laughter and reaction.
- Participation Prompter: No script subtitles are available during this option,but at certain points throughout the film direction prompts will be given inkeeping with the spirit of the film.
I’m still waiting on the second disc for this set which contains stacks more extras:Deleted Scene – musical sequence ‘Once in a While’, Interview excerpts from’Behind the Music’ and ‘Where are They Now?’, VH1 Pop-Up Video of ‘HotPatootie!’, Outtakes and Alternate Credits Ending (11 min), Rocky HorrorDouble Feature Video Show Documentary (37 min), 2 Trailers, Sing-A-Longs’Toucha Toucha Touch Me’ and ‘Sweet Transvestite’, Photo Gallery and aReconstruction of how the “misprint” ending appeared on first release.
There are 36 chapters over the 96 minute film which is excellent, plus subtitlesin English (plus an option for the hard of hearing), Czech, Danish, Finnish,Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese and Swedish.The menus are brilliantly animated with instructions and comments from themoving mouth shortly followed after by a pair of legs in fishnet stockings…
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.