The Mikado (1939)
In a small Japanese town, Ko-Ko is appointed to the unenviable position of executioner. Knowing he must successfully perform before the appearance of the Mikado in a month's time, Ko-Ko finds a suitable victim in Nanki-Poo, who is distraught over his unrequited love for the maiden Yum-Yum. Nanki-Poo agrees to sacrifice his life if he is allowed to spend his remaining days with Yum-Yum, who is betrothed to Ko-Ko.
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hyped garbage
Excellent adaptation.
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
This was an unexpected delight. The only exposure I had to The Mikodo was a live "under the stars" show at the Open Air Theater in Washington Crossing Park, N.J. (starring Lee Bristol, president of Bristol/Myers) and the film Topsy Turvy. Kenny Baker was OK, but I can't help thinking that he was "groomed" to be another Dick Powell. I was laughing like a little kid more than once at the zany antics. A bit more physical comedy could have been displayed but that might have endangered the purity of G&S. Looking at Martyn Green's performance made me think of how Buster Keaton could have played Koko. And that brought to mind the old television version with Groucho Marx in the role. Despite the cuts, it was a fine program.
This old Technicolor film from 1939 is shown on television quite a lot.Kenny Baker is a taste I never acquired (Dennis Day, his successor on the Jack Benny show was much more bearable.) and, especially in the prologue, he's all over the place. He even sings "The Sun and I" which is one of Yum Yum's songs, though she later sings it as well. Kenny's problem is not only his American accent but his really overripe tenor and equally overripe smile gets quite irritating after a while, at least to me.Despite all this, the film is an important record of the D'Oyly Carte company in 1939 and especially of Martyn Green's performance. And I'm pleased they didn't cut the madrigal. A most interesting film for its time.******* out of ***********
Admittedly, there are some magnificent performences here. Ko-Ko is truly delightful, and probably quite canonical. However, the cuts and interpolations made to turn the play into a movie are absolutely vile. Several totally uncessary scenes are added, songs are given to the wrong characters, and several of the best are cut. What's The Mikado without "I've Got A Little List" or Katisha's magnificent "Oh, Living I" aria? I'd also be more comfortable with classic Japanese costumes (which, BTW, Gilbert insisted on) rather than these exaggerated, silly versions of them. Sigh. The D'Oyley Carte association with this film led me to expect an absolutely authentic production, and I was terribly disappointed.
For 1939 and early color this is a film to be remembered. As Maltin says, Kenny Baker is not ideal, mainly because he has the only American accent in a cast of English G&S specialists and strikes a somewhat discordant note.(I saw this film when I was in the second grade and I still have vivid memories of it, I might even say that it opened a whole new world of musical theatre to me).