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India Press Store - Song of Norway
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List Price: $19.98
Our Price: $93.00
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Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
Starring: Toralv Maurstad, Florence Henderson, Christina Schollin, Frank Porretta, Harry Secombe
Directed By: Andrew L. Stone
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786305074076
Format: Color
ISBN: 6305074070
Label: Starz / Anchor Bay
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Starz / Anchor Bay
Release Date: 1998-08-11
Running Time: 142
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Theatrical Release Date: 1970-11-04
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Oh Where Oh Where Is This Bad Movie Treasure????
Comment: Andrew and Virginia Stone (Julie, Cry Terror) are no ordinary movie realists. In 1960, when they decided to make a movie about the sinking of an ocean liner, (The Last Voyage), they hired the aged Ile de France, hauled her out into the Pacific Ocean, and then effectively scuttled her, in the interests of their art and their commerce. In an industry where big is par, the Stones think colossal.
In 1970, their newest project opened at the Cinerama Theater, on a screen almost as wide as the Scandinavian peninsula. SONG OF NORWAY is a film resurrection of the 1944 Broadway operetta about Edvard Grieg, set to the Grieg music as edited and rearranged by Robert Wright and George Forrest, who also wrote those lyrics that Mr. Grieg somehow happened to overlook.
A saccharine fantasy with 45 musical numbers, 25 songs, international uvulas, and a production line of fjords, SONG OF NORWAY is no ordinary movie kitsch, but a display to turn Guy Lombardo livid with envy. The film, conceived as a kind of living postcard, is so full of waterfalls, blossoms, lambs, glaciers, folk dancers, mountains, children, suns, and churches, that, it raises kitsch to the status of art. Writer/director Andrew Stone composes every schlocky musical turn by cutting away to landscapes -- so that it becomes a visual ode to the Norwegian soul as defined by the Norwegian Tourist Office. If he sees a summit, you may rest assured that someone is romping up it, a sun is sinking behind it, or an airplane, carrying a camera, is buzzing it, while the movie's six-track stereo system pounds out still another reprise of the piano concerto. It quickly becomes exhausting as people keep breaking into impassioned warbling and frenetic hoofing every few minutes. No location is safe: a hayride, a ferry ride, a snowball fight, and a chase down winding village streets inevitably turn into cause for belting out a tune.
And the music is among the worst ever put on a soundtrack. Grieg didn't write show tunes, nor did he ever imagine people would be singing hackneyed versions of his classical compositions while throwing snowballs at each other. With tunes like "Freddie and His Fiddle," "The Life of a Wife of a Sailor," "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and the appropriately titled "Strange Music," the film simultaneously brings joy to the eyes as the lyrics lay waste to the ears!
The cast includes Toralv Maurstad, a blond Norwegian actor too elderly to play the young Grieg, Frank Porretta, a young American singer, as his best friend, and Florence Henderson, who is sometimes photographed through what looks like gauze, as his wife. If you ever paused to ask yourself: "How come we've never seen any movies starring Florence Henderson?" Well, the answer to that Zen-worthy riddle can be summarized in just three words: "Song of Norway." Yes, she can sing - but whatever charm and pleasantness she could offer for the sale of cooking oil and denture cream was nowhere to be found here.
Robert Morley, Edward G. Robinson and Oscar Homolka also appear - mostly as scenic obstructions.
SONG OF NORWAY was cruelly attacked by the critics. Pauline Kael's New Yorker barbecue was the most articulate: "The movie is of an unbelievable badness; it brings back clichés you didn't know you knew - they're practically from the unconscious of moviegoers" Life magazine raved: 'Godawful'. The New Yorker wondered whether it had been made by trolls. The Medved Brothers dubbed Florence Henderson, 'the female Peter Frampton for the Geritol generation'.
The film's failure was swift but its leading actors suffered the most: Maurstad never made another American movie, Porretta never made another film, and Florence Henderson was never trusted to appear in a movie until her cameo role in 1992's SHAKES THE CLOWN.
But SONG OF NORWAY does have some small rewards -- for critics (who can quote its inane dialogue), and for general audiences (who can feel superior to it).
Will there ever be an official dvd release? We can only pray.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beware of bad DVD transfer
Comment: Song of Norway is a musical based on the life of Edvard Grieg. The film version has more camp quality than anything else, but this is not about the movie itself. Whatever one may think of it as a movie, it looked and sounded wonderful when it was new and in the movie houses. This DVD does not give justice to that. At all!!
If you manage to get hold of this British DVD edition, do not buy it. It is a terribly bad transfer of a VHS edition that was bad enough in itself. The picture is so blurry it is almost impossible even to read the opening credits. The presentation is not widescreen. The sound is so lousy that you cannot hear what they are saying and the music is way out of key. There are no subtitles to help you along the way. It is also shorter than the original movie. I do not know how much shorter, since it claims to be the original running time on the cover. But it is not. Several songs included on the soundtrack LP are missing, and I do remember seeing them performed in the original release. One musical number is even cut brutally in the middle, with a strange sound, and then nothing. This is the worst DVD presentation I have seen of any movie.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wanted: SONG OF NORWAY in widescreen & 6 track stereo sound NOW!!!
Comment: Is there anyone out there who knows who currently holds the rights to release SONG OF NORWAY in Super Panavision and 6-track stereo sound on DVD? I propose a letter-writing campaign! What is taking so long? Anchor Bay Entertainment had the rights and did, in fact, announce it for summer 2003. Sadly, they lost the rights before it could happen.
SONG OF NORWAY is my holy grail for a widescreen DVD restoration. It has been a glaring omission and is more so today in light of the recent surge of interest in musical films. Mr. Rightsholder, please read the many reviews here on [...] by people like me, the world community, from Bombay to Bellmore, who are positively CLAMORING for it. (Andrew Stone's follow up, THE GREAT WALTZ, has already seen the light of day of a decent widescreen stereo presentation on Turner Classic movies, though it too deserves a soundtrack CD and a first-rate DVD!)
Many beloved films have their imperfections, and I admit SONG OF NORWAY has some curious editing anomalies. The most glaring one comes at the end of the picture, when Grieg is running through the streets to reunite with Nina, and is seen to callously knock a little girl playing hopscotch to the ground! Film editor, Virginia Stone, you bad. I hereby give you, Mr. Rightsholder, my blessing to snip these 3 or 4 offending frames in the restoration process. Does anyone out there know whatever happened to the roadshow overture and missing musical cues from the "John Heggerstrom" sequence, cues present on the soundtrack album?
In closing, a commentary by Florence Henderson, a making of documentary, interviews with surviving cast members, trailers, radio spots and more would be nice touches, as would a long overdue CD soundtrack with longer music cues and underscoring not included on the original vinyl release. Are you listening, Turner Rhino?
Michael Takach, Astoria, NY -- videovixennyc@gmail.com
Customer Rating:
Summary: memorable music
Comment: This was certainly an odd movie and very unusual. Whoever did this certainly had their own vision and did not follow too many footsteps of other musicals in it's day. I myself, at the time, was a movie soundtrack buff with many movies, not all musicals. Since I have not seen this particular movie in some time, I can say for a fact that the original soundtrack was more of an asset than the movie itself. I agree that the natural scenery was nothing short of awesome, but the storyline involving the movie itself is forgotten. What stuck was the cinemagic and the music. Being I had the original vinyl album release, and still have it, I found the album cover and vinyl soundtrack outrated the movie. Even the cover graphic, complete with piano outline with insets of movie scenes surrounded by blossoming daisies was exhilarting. I think I purchased the soundtrack before I saw the movie. My favorite cuts were "Strange Music", "Three there were", and "At Christmastime." The opening piano intro is totally unforgettable. I think Florence Henderson did a superb job with her long golden hair and wonderful voice. As an added note, I think the most memorable scene was towards the final song where there was a tense awkward moment in which a woman was forced to sing an anthem song at a dining room table in front of the fabled pianist. Can't wait for the DVD release on this feature also.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautiful music and scenery, cheesy '70's production
Comment: I love the music, the scenery is breathtaking, I adore Florence, and Edward G. Robinson is always fun. However, the titles, the sudden camera zooms, and some really awful choreograhy all glaringly point to the period in which the movie was made. Watch and enjoy, but be ready to flinch. I've got a bad VHS copy, but when is this finally going to be put on DVD?
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