Gilbert & Sullivan - The Mikado (1966 D'Oyly Carte) [VHS]

Though made for the screen, this version derives closely from a stage production. It takes place before a painted backdrop, and neither the actors nor the camera moves a great deal. The cast's thick makeup has not been modified for the intimacy of film; some of it, like the bald caps on several of the men, verges on the grotesque. There is plenty of comic business, much of it drained of spontaneity. But Kenneth Sandford, as the most rigid of Pooh-Bahs, is very effective, such as when Ko-Ko remarks on "the awkwardness of your position" while Pooh-Bah raises only his lower half into a standing posture. The one real breath of comic energy, however, comes from John Reed's Ko-Ko. Diminutive and agitated, he breaks through the stodginess around him, kicking up his heels like a vaudevillian, coyly flirting with Katisha. Reed wonderfully sang the comic leads on those great '60s recordings; it's even more delightful to see him in action. --David Olivenbaum