Petula Clark-This Is My Song (1988)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Audio & Animation Discography Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	1988
Running Time	54:57
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Jim Pierson
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Petula Clark Tony Hatch Richard Carpenter David Cassidy Andy Williams Lynn Redgrave Harry Belafonte
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$34.95	Music	Petula Clark Tony Hatch

    Think of Petula Clark and, if you're 40+, you might hearken back to the swinging 60's, Dr Who, short skirts, heavy mascara and the ringing clear tones of  Pet Clark singing Downtown. Her remarkable career spans much further back than the 60's however, as she had made 25 movies whilst still a child and was a wartime favourite sweetheart for the UK, suffering the blitz of WWII. This feature DVD, Petula Clark - This Is My Song, ranges from Newsreel footage of blitz-torn London to the present day and includes many of the entertainment greats of the past century. Andy Williams, Fred Astaire, Dean Martin, David Cassidy, even Lucille Ball all appear here performing, or appearing with, the diminutive, bright-eyed girl with the Welsh accent. She's even played her small part in history by insisting on footage of her singing duet with Harry Belafonte, whilst cradling his arm, being broadcast to a white supremacist America in the grips of Lutherite racial tension.

    A long-time hit in the UK, she also conquered France, living there for several years before Tony Hatch helped lure her back to the UK with the hit-in-genesis Downtown, probably her theme tune. She also rose to prominence in the USA appearing on numerous TV specials, top-billed shows in Las Vegas and was invited by Jack Warner to star in Finian's Rainbow with Fred Astaire. She subsequently co-starred with Peter O'Toole in the tear-jerker UK box office smash Goodbye Mr Chips, all the while writing, producing and singing songs.

    This made-for-TV feature is nicely presented. Whilst there are plenty of anecdotes from the singer and her colleagues spanning over the years, there is also plenty of archival footage and full performance clips of 9 songs without the irritating voice-overs or truncation endemic to this sort of feature. It's an enjoyable trip back to the past where girls could look sexy without overt display of their midriffs, mandatory pelvic thrusts and the aggression of present day Teen-Queen Girlpower. Sharon Stone could also take a lesson on how to sit down elegantly, wearing a hip-length mini without a full gynaecological display! There's also a timeless quality to the technical perfection of a voice described as 'timeless' and true 'white-soul'.

Video

    The feature is offered in an aspect ratio of 1.33 and is not 16x9 enhanced. Several of the archival film clips have obviously been cropped to fit the format, but as Petula forms the centre of attention we don't lose out much as a result.

    Recent video is tolerably sharp but more aged footage is soft and pastel-like which is quite appropriate for this type of feature. Low level lighting is infrequent so there is little shadow detail on display and there is no low level noise.

    Colours are mostly soft and the single layer disc space limitations results in chroma noise in some of the back-drops eg 1:52.

    Pixelization of the background is present throughout the feature but only really intrusive on larger screen viewing. Aliasing is infrequent and minimal. The older film-based stock has a variable number of film artefacts.

    There are no subtitles.

    The disc is a single layer DVD-5 so there is no layer transition point.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Even though there are no subtitles they are hardly needed (except of course for those with impaired hearing) as Petula's clarity of diction is exemplary and there are never any doubts as to what she is singing - how often can you say that?

    There are no discernible problems with audio sync.

    Much of the music is composed or co-composed by Petula herself - I guess the style would be said to be 60's pop, easy listening or middle of the road but in no way does this diminish the quality of the content.

   There was no stereo, surround or subwoofer activity - I think a stereo LPCM soundtrack wouldn't have been too much to expect given the importance of sound in this feature - you'll just have to go out and check out her CDs. Come to think of it, it would have been a nice touch to include the CD version of this feature.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Photographs

    30 good quality still images nicely presented in a panned fashion.

Discography

    Very nicely presented graphic of a TV (1.33:1 of course!) which shows the album covers (CD and vinyl) of 5 decades of albums and 4 decades of singles - phew I confess I didn't get round to counting them all!

    There is no identical version of this release in R1 but a considerably expanded (by another 20 minutes) dual-layered version, with an LPCM stereo audio track, goes by the name of Petula Clark-A Sign Of The Times and would seem to be a much better buy.

    Petula Clark - This Is My Song is a well constructed feature which will be of interest to those interested in 60's and 70's popular music.

    The video is adequate for the job and typical of this style of presentation - it is well selected though with plenty of archival content.

    The sound would be just adequate for a small (very) TV speaker but isn't up to present day home theatre standards or expectations.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall