Customer Reviews

Melody

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I got my eagerly anticipated copy of the DVD a few days ago, and I have to say that they did a really lousy job. From the amateurish packaging done by someone who knows nothing about graphic design to the printing on the disc which is merely labeled with a single word "Melody". That's nothing compared to the quality of the actual movie print though. I don't know where they dug up this print (somebody's dusty attic?), but it has really been through the ringer. It has scratches and marks that never completely go away, the colors are completely washed out, it's grainy, and the sound is not very sharp. Several splices are obvious. Besides this, the only extra is a "slide show" of grainy screen captures from the movie with lame dissolves between the pictures.

It is also FULL SCREEN. Beware!

The packaging says "digitally remastered" and "enhanced audio". I don't really see how this can possibly be true.

The "unofficial" copy I bought off eBay is much, much better quality, AND it's in widescreen format.

So it's a huge disappointment, but at least it is officially released now, people can easily get it, and more people will see it.

Maybe Criterion Collection will pick it up and do it right!

I had never seen this film before, as I was only 1 year old when it came out and from what I have read, it did not get distribution in the States anyway. But I am an avid follower of Mark Lester's. He really was the perfect Oliver, and such a charming screen presence that I find myself slowly wanting to watch all of his movies, which leaves me with one BIG problem: Most of them are not available on DVD. For someone who still holds a pretty big cult following, he has one of the worst DVD production rates of any former child actor. If I were him, I would buy all the prints of my films and release them myself. But, I digress, which leads me to this movie.

Truthfully, there is not much to this movie at all. Boy meets best friend, boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, best friend shows a brief flash of jealousy, boy and girl decide they want to get married, best friend marries them with the whole class watching. Along with this distinct lack of meaty plot comes a HORRIBLE DVD transfer which made me feel like I was watching an old kinescope on a bedsheet. Now, that would be the minuses. But you know something? I was utterly charmed from beginning to end and was certainly not sorry I bought it. It is an awesome little time capsule of working class London circa 1970, and seems to have been filmed with very few extras. Scenes at the beach and at a school athletics competition feature onlookers who seem to have been pulled in off the street, which adds a lot. Mark Lester is charming as usual, and Jack Wild, the Artful Dodger himself, is a riot at times playing the best friend as a cheeky boy who always gets into trouble. And then there is the soundtrack. I knew a few of the Bee Gees early songs, such as To Love Somebody and First of May, but this film also includes overlooked gems such as In the Morning and Give Your Best. Put simply, the movie would be worth buying for the soundtrack alone, but with Mark Lester along for the ride and a few amusing scenes here and there, it was well worth buying in my humble opinion.

As others have posted, this was possibly the worst print of the movie they could find - it is full of very noticeable scratches and horrible cuts that cause momentary gaps in the movie at various places. Plus it's a pan & scan. What they did to this great film is an embarrassment to the DVD business.

But, there is now an alternative...

If you have a Region 2 compatible DVD player that can handle PAL (or a computer that can read and play region 2 DVDs - which is more common), then you can buy this version from Amazon.co.uk.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Melody-DVD-Jack-Wild/dp/B002VD5SA6/

This version (which I ordered and had shipped from the UK) is an absolutely stunning print - not a scratch to be seen. And it's a wide-screen version as well.

Melody is a film about two 10 year school children who fall in love, then face constant adult opposition, as well as nonstop harassment from the other children. The two main characters, Daniel Lattimer (Mark Lester) and Melody Perkins (Tracy Hyde) are seeking someone to love and to provide companionship. Daniel is largely ignored by his trendy, upper middle class parents, while Melody longs for something other than her existence in a poor, lower end housing project. The story is a tender, sweet story of innocent love between two children, backed by a great music track by the pre-disco BeeGees. It contains no objectionable language, no sexual content, and no violence. Melody is a thoroughly entertaining film, one which will grab your attention from the opening, and hold it throughout the movie. This reviewer would give it 10 stars and a thumbs-up.

This brings back some memory.
Please make this available on DVD.

A tale of teen (or rather pre-teen) love. In a very traditional school in England (where corporal punishment is still practiced), a boy and a girl (both about twelve) fall in love. Relatively realistic during most of its running time, during the final twenty minutes it falls into anarchist fantasy, as the children in the school thwart the attempts of the parents and the school masters to prevent their elopement and marriage. Unlike other people, I didn't watch this as a child: it's not filtered by childhood memories, so I think I can judge it better as a movie. It's a good romantic story, sometimes demagogic, sometimes overwrought in its criticisms of traditional England, but it's still irresistible. The actress playing the girl, the beautiful Tracy Hyde, is fantastic (unfortunately, and despite her obvious talents, she never became a major star) The screenplay was by Alan Parker (the director was the unknown Waris Hussein, who would never made a major movie again). There is a great soundtrack, mostly by the Bee Gees, but the best song is probably is "Teach the Children" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. The fine color photography is sometimes reminiscent of a 70s commercial, but it also let you see the ravishing London of almost forty years ago (one of the best scenes have the young lovers skipping school and sightseeing around the English capital). A relative failure in England and the United States when released, this nevertheless became a huge hit in Latin America and the Far East (specially, Japan). Incredibly, this movie has been very seldom shown in television, and the DVD is unavailable in many countries (including the US).

very good I love it so much.I been looking this movies so many year.even the price was high I still like to but it and keep it for rest of my life.101% good

This is easily a five-star movie, one of the best "school days movies" ever made, and the audio quality is quite good, but the quality of the video is poor with scrapes on the film not repaired and carried over onto the supposedly "digitally remastered" DVD. It would also have been nice, considering the price of this item, if the disc had included subtitling for those who are hard of hearing, but the biggest problem with this product is the poor quality of the video. For a movie from the early Seventies, better prints should be available.

I read some of the reviews people had created before me so when I bought this DVD I expected the quality to be much worse. Frankly, the picture wasn't that bad. There are little, white flakey things that flicker but you really don't notice them unless you are looking for them. And there was one part, when Melody and Daniel are eating in the graveyard, that there is a big white line down the center of the screen. The sound quality wasn't very good, but I expected that, too. I'm a huge Jack Wild fan, so I don't really care about the quality as much as others might.
I don't know what this movie is rated but if you want if for a family movie, There are a few things you should be aware of: 1. some school boys (early in the film) look at some pornographic magazines. 2. A boy is also found by his mother painting naked women's torsos. 3. A group of boys are smoking outside briefly. 4. a group of girls talk about kissing. 5. a teacher asks a boy is he's been drinking. 6. a couple of boys try to get into a girl's restroom.
Besides the above, the film is a good family movie, very sweet.

Let me make this clear; I bought the DVD from Amazon UK. It was worth paying the extra shipping cost since the print is really fantastic. I am told the print on Amazon US really sucks.

If you want to order the movie from there go to
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Melody-DVD-Jack-Wild/dp/B002VD5SA6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297339615&sr=1-1

Ok, now for my comments:

I first saw this movie soon after I finished school and was absolutely captivated by its charming story and brilliant music. This is probably the best soundtrack the Beegees ever made and that includes Saturday Night Fever. Teach Your Children remains among my top three CSNY songs (The other two are Judy Blue Eyes and Carry On).

I always wondered why I could never get a decent print of this movie and thanks to Canal that finally has happened. I wish they would remaster the soundtrack though, the mono track is a bit disappointing. But the picture is so sharp that I could feel my heart strings being tugged at all over again.

Lovers of the movie will rejoice, but I think there'a a whole generation out there who would discover the movie if it was marketed cleverly.

Finally, even after all these years, Tracy Hyde remains as lovely as she was all those years ago.

This may not be the best movie I have ever seen but it is certainly somewhere high on my list. Viewers from India would be interested to learn that the director is an Indian.