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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Clambake (1967)

Clambake (1967)

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Released 6-Dec-2005

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Musical Theatrical Trailer
Rating Rated G
Year Of Production 1967
Running Time 95:06
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (57:09) Cast & Crew
Start Up Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Arthur H. Nadel
Studio
Distributor

Sony Pictures Home Entertain
Starring Elvis Presley
Shelley Fabares
Will Hutchins
Bill Bixby
Gary Merrill
James Gregory
Suzie Kaye
Harold Peary
Sam Riddle
Angelique Pettyjohn
Olga Kaya
Jack Good
Lee Krieger
Case ?
RPI $14.95 Music Jeff Alexander
Roy C. Bennett
Joy Byers


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Auto Pan & Scan Encoded English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired
German for the Hearing Impaired
French
Italian
Spanish
Dutch
Swedish
Finnish
Norwegian
Danish
Greek
Hebrew
Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Clambake is a film I wish I was in. I'd even be happy as one of the background extras. Imagine a holiday in Florida, painted in vibrant Technicolor, staying in a classy hotel, drinks by the pool, water skiing lessons in the afternoon, and a clambake in the evening. With Elvis Presley singing and a bevy of bikini clad beauties dancing about the bonfire.

    Elvis is Scott Heyward, the jaded playboy son of oil tycoon Duster Heyward (James Gregory). He is on a holiday to Florida to escape from the stifling oppression of a perfect lifestyle where everything is his for the asking, except a real challenge and adult responsibility. When he pulls his roadster, a red 1959 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Racer, into a gas station, owned of course by his father's company, he makes the acquaintance of Tom Wilson (Will Hutchins), a poor wanderer on a motor bike on his way to a five star hotel in Miami to be the new water skiing instructor. When the two commiserate about their respective problems (problems! I wish I had problems like that!) they realise the other is living their own dream. Tom dreams of being a rich playboy, driving a sports car, and having the girls fall into his lap, and Scott dreams of making it in the world on his own terms, and having a girl fall in love with him for his less materialistic qualities. And I dream of swapping with either of them.

    So Scott and his new best friend swap identities, swap vehicles, head on to the hotel, and sing a song as they go. Soon after arriving, Scott settles into his new job as the ski instructor and meets the girl of his dreams, Dianne (Shelly Fabares), a poor gold digger with her sights firmly on another multi-millionaire playboy, James J. Jamison III (Bill Bixby - better known as the Hulk's alter ego, David Banner from the 70s television series). Assuming Scott is as poor as he says he is, Dianne instead uses his skiing instructions as an opportunity to show off her impressive moves on the water in front of the speedboat-racing J.J. Jamison, to very good effect.

    Scott is more than just a wayward Playboy - he seems to be an engineer and a scientist, having worked for his father's oil company. So when he discovers that boat manufacturer Sam Burton (Gary Merrill) has abandoned a damaged racing boat, Scott decides he has the know-how and ability to re-build it, including a new protective resin using a secret formula he invented. If he can win the race, and beat three-time champion J.J. Jamison, he might also be able to win the girl.

    This is a story where the hero has all the answers in life, and it is the people and friends he meets who learn from his example that there is more to life than just money, fast girls, fast cars, and fast boats. But winning is still important. It's good to be the King.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    This is a sharp transfer, with occasional yet notable lapses, presented in the 2.35:1 ratio of the film's original Techniscope process, and is 16x9 enhanced. When checking the disc on my computer I noticed during the opening credits that the image is squeezed into a slightly narrower ratio of 2.06:1, but switches to 2.35:1 immediately after this sequence, a strange effect that I did not see on the television.

    Clambake is 38 years old and is still in very good condition. It is quite sharp, with good shadow detail in the few night scenes, although there is some low level noise. Backgrounds tend to suffer a little in detail, but the foregrounds are nice and sharp, with only some minor edge enhancement. A number of sequences are shot using rear projection,  a notoriously weak special effect, to give the impression Elvis is water skiing, riding a motorbike, or racing a speedboat. The rear projected backgrounds in this film are definitely lacking definition, and occasionally quite blurry, such as the sequence from 14:10-15:55, when Scott tries to give Dianne a water skiing lesson. This problem can also be attributed to the Techniscope process which fits two widescreen frames onto each 35mm frame and therefore lacks the definition of the anamorphic process. Colour is very bright and vibrant, as you would expect in a Technicolor musical.

    Although there not many MPEG artefacts, there is severe compression in a short night shot, from 21:50-21:56, when Scott's and Dianne's doubles go for a motorbike ride. Film-to-video artefacts are also kept to a minimum, with some minor telecine wobble, such as 53:03-53:05.

    Film artefacts are very tame in the print used for this transfer, although there are a number of scratches and blotches to be found. There is a bright blue speck at 5:30, and at 83:50-83:53 there is a hair at the bottom of the frame. This same hair seems to reappear at 86:20-86:23. At 91:22 there is a very noticeable jerk or lurch in the image, possibly from the telecine machine. None of these artefacts is as obvious or as distracting as the small white blotch at 41:00. Although small, and only on screen for less than a second, it is right in the middle of a beautiful girl's bikinied bum, as she jiggles to Elvis singing "Clambake". This exact same artefact is on the same bum in the same place in the trailer. Some things are worth double checking.

    The subtitles tend to omit certain words and names, presumably for brevity, but are mostly accurate.

    This is an RSDL disc, and the layer change at 57:09 was remarkably quick and silent, with the slightest of pauses.

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

Audio

    There are four audio tracks: English, German, Italian, and Spanish. Each is a Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) track which is not surround encoded. The language setting is selected at load up, and that becomes the default for the audio. It can be changed from the language menu.

    The dialogue is always clear, but most of the film was shot on soundstages in Los Angeles which, along with ADR looping, makes for easy to understand dialogue. The audio sync, even in the musical numbers, is spot on, with the only problem being at 4:45-5:35. It is an exterior shot, so most probably recorded with ADR, but something has gone very wrong with the sync.

    Clambake is an Elvis musical so there are a number of catchy tunes for The King. These are less narratively motivated, and more descriptive of plot, as Elvis tends to sing songs about what he is about to do or what he needs to do, such as to win the girl or to win the boat race.

    The score is credited to Jeff Alexander, and is an enjoyable mixture of romantic, ironic, and energetic music.

    This is a conventional mono track, so there is nothing happening in the surrounds and nothing from the subwoofer.

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

Extras

    One theatrical trailer is not a list of extras. The King deserves more.

Menu

    The menu is 16x9, with a number of images of Elvis from the film, and is not accompanied by music.

Trailer (2:38)

    The film's theatrical trailer is in a ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced, and is a number of vignettes and songs from the film along with an enthusiastic voice over.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 4 is also encoded for Region 2, so their disc, which was released in September 2003, is identical to ours, with the same transfer and the same extra.

    The Region 1 version of Clambake was released on DVD by MGM in October 2001. It seems to be very similar to our disc: the running time is 99 minutes (which compares to the 95 minutes in our faster PAL transfer), the video ratio is 2.35:1, and the audio is also mono (although it is unclear whether it is 1.0 or 2.0). However, this transfer is not 16x9 enhanced and is squeezed onto a single layer.

    This is a win for the Region 4 disc.

Summary

    Sure, Elvis didn't even leave LA to make this film, but Clambake is still a lot of fun in the sun, with beaches, babes, and boats.

    The video quality is very good despite its age, and only has a small number of problems.

    The audio quality is very good, even if it is very uneventful.

    The extras are no more than a single trailer.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Cohen (read my bio)
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Review Equipment
DVDPhilips 860, using RGB output
DisplaySony 76cm FD Trinitron WEGA KV-HX32 M31. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL).
AmplificationSherwood
SpeakersSherwood

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