The Golden Head

source: The Golden Head

Let me say before I get into this review, that I am a staunch supporter of Cinerama and purchase these remasterings when they are released, regardless of what the film is. The format was abandoned just as the franchise found it's way out of the boring scripts and scenic travel films. If they had kept going, after "How the West was Won," and built on that film's success, we might have had many more wonderful widescreen films to watch. Unfortunately, "The Golden Head" epitomizes the issues with the Cinerama films before "How the West Was Won." They were lovely to look at, but they were in essence a travelogue of exotic places with virtually no story, which doomed them to failure. This isn't even a true Cinerama film. It was begun in that format, then changed over to a Super Technirama 70 format. It's meant to be a family film, but even kids want a story. There are long stretches of film with someone repeatedly saying, "Look at that," as we go past some landmark in Budapest, Hungary. If you took all of these scenes out, the film would be about 30 minutes long. A prior reviewer mentioned "Emil and the Detectives," a better caper film than this. I'll mention Disney's 1963 film, "The Horse Without a Head," a "stolen loot hidden in an unlikely place" movie with an imaginative, well-written script and an interesting cast of both kids and adults, still memorable after 55 years. Both were superior to "Golden Head," and were made for a fraction of the cost. It was pointless to make this, yet they did, and here we are five decades later dealing with its myriad faults. On to the cast. Buddy Hackett, who seemed to be a staple of Cinerama-class films, having shown up in three of them, including "Brothers Grimm," is in full annoyance mode here. He could be a wonderful actor, as he was in "The Love Bug," but the director apparently gave the actors no guidance. It's criminal to have George Sanders, one of the most suave, satiric actors in film, and not use him to his fullest potential. He smiles his way through the movie, and mostly sleepwalks through his part. Again, the script is the major culprit; the director just abets its failures. There was also a change in directors; it was begun under one director, who then left and another took up the rest of the filming. Actors were also replaced, and that kind of chaos can have a bad effect on a film. However, without a good script nothing could have saved this. There are a few moments of interest in the "Golden Head," but it's a hackneyed affair no matter how you look at it. It's worth a viewing simply to see the scenery, and for its historical value. It also has some valuable extras on the release, and you should buy it for those. They are worth the money of the disc It's been reported that the true Cinerama film, "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm," hasn't been released on Bluray because the original negative is in such bad shape. Yet "Golden Head" survived, a travesty of justice. Note to the group that remasters these Cinerama films: The laserdisc release of "Brothers Grimm" looked amazing...can that be used along with whatever elements of the negative are in good shape, and used for a Bluray? With the technology today, I would hope something could be done. Bring that out and I'd buy it the minute it was for sale.

This movie is mainly aimed at small kids, so you might feel like I am being too harsh on it. And I am pretty sure, there won't be many that agree with me (hence I expect quite a few "not helpful" checks), but despite that, I cannot just act as if I liked the movie. Speaking of "act" ... I wish they had chosen child actors that could spell the word (even better: Practice it!). But if you do not care about the simple story, the simple gags (I wonder if kids nowadays even would care about the gags .. maybe if they are small enough not to care about an incoherent story and other things that make the movie almost dreadful ... or so bad, that it's good?), than you might wanna try this out. It's not worse than all those "spoofs" that are coming out in the "noughties" ...

source: The Golden Head

Let me say before I get into this review, that I am a staunch supporter of Cinerama and purchase these remasterings when they are released, regardless of what the film is. The format was abandoned just as the franchise found it's way out of the boring scripts and scenic travel films. If they had kept going, after "How the West was Won," and built on that film's success, we might have had many more wonderful widescreen films to watch. Unfortunately, "The Golden Head" epitomizes the issues with the Cinerama films before "How the West Was Won." They were lovely to look at, but they were in essence a travelogue of exotic places with virtually no story, which doomed them to failure. This isn't even a true Cinerama film. It was begun in that format, then changed over to a Super Technirama 70 format. It's meant to be a family film, but even kids want a story. There are long stretches of film with someone repeatedly saying, "Look at that," as we go past some landmark in Budapest, Hungary. If you took all of these scenes out, the film would be about 30 minutes long. A prior reviewer mentioned "Emil and the Detectives," a better caper film than this. I'll mention Disney's 1963 film, "The Horse Without a Head," a "stolen loot hidden in an unlikely place" movie with an imaginative, well-written script and an interesting cast of both kids and adults, still memorable after 55 years. Both were superior to "Golden Head," and were made for a fraction of the cost. It was pointless to make this, yet they did, and here we are five decades later dealing with its myriad faults. On to the cast. Buddy Hackett, who seemed to be a staple of Cinerama-class films, having shown up in three of them, including "Brothers Grimm," is in full annoyance mode here. He could be a wonderful actor, as he was in "The Love Bug," but the director apparently gave the actors no guidance. It's criminal to have George Sanders, one of the most suave, satiric actors in film, and not use him to his fullest potential. He smiles his way through the movie, and mostly sleepwalks through his part. Again, the script is the major culprit; the director just abets its failures. There was also a change in directors; it was begun under one director, who then left and another took up the rest of the filming. Actors were also replaced, and that kind of chaos can have a bad effect on a film. However, without a good script nothing could have saved this. There are a few moments of interest in the "Golden Head," but it's a hackneyed affair no matter how you look at it. It's worth a viewing simply to see the scenery, and for its historical value. It also has some valuable extras on the release, and you should buy it for those. They are worth the money of the disc It's been reported that the true Cinerama film, "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm," hasn't been released on Bluray because the original negative is in such bad shape. Yet "Golden Head" survived, a travesty of justice. Note to the group that remasters these Cinerama films: The laserdisc release of "Brothers Grimm" looked amazing...can that be used along with whatever elements of the negative are in good shape, and used for a Bluray? With the technology today, I would hope something could be done. Bring that out and I'd buy it the minute it was for sale.

This movie is mainly aimed at small kids, so you might feel like I am being too harsh on it. And I am pretty sure, there won't be many that agree with me (hence I expect quite a few "not helpful" checks), but despite that, I cannot just act as if I liked the movie. Speaking of "act" ... I wish they had chosen child actors that could spell the word (even better: Practice it!). But if you do not care about the simple story, the simple gags (I wonder if kids nowadays even would care about the gags .. maybe if they are small enough not to care about an incoherent story and other things that make the movie almost dreadful ... or so bad, that it's good?), than you might wanna try this out. It's not worse than all those "spoofs" that are coming out in the "noughties" ...

The Golden Head