The Mikado
(DVD Video, Book - Regular Print) 

Originally produced as a motion picture in 1939.

Special features: Interviews: Mike Leigh (18 min.); Scholars Josephine Lee and Ralph MacPhail, Jr. (29 min.); 1926 D'Oyly Carte promo [b&w silent film] (4 min.); Deleted scene (3 min.); Audio feature: 1939 radio broadcast excerpts from "The swing Mikado" (4 min.) and "The hot Mikado" (8 min.); Booklet includes the essay "Celluloid Savoy" by Geoffrey O'Brien.

Synopsis partially derived from the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive.

Decor, Vertès ; cameraman, Bernard Knowles ; technicolor photographer, William V. Skall ; editors, Philip Charlot, Gene Milford ; art director, Ralph Brinton.

Kenny Baker (Nanki-Poo), Martyn Green (Ko-Ko), Sydney Granville (Pooh-Bah), John Barclay (The Mikado), Gregory Stroud (Pish-Tush), Jean Colin (Yum-Yum), Constance Willis (Katisha), Elizabeth Paynter (Pitti-Sing), Kathleen Naylor (Peep-Bo); the London Symphony Orchestra and the Chorus of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

The legendary Gilbert and Sullivan troupe, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, joined forces with Hollywood for this 1939 Technicolor version of the fabled comic opera, the first complete work by the famed duo to be adapted for the screen, directed by musician and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Victor Schertzinger. The result is a lavish cinematic retelling of the British political satire set in exotic Japan. Nanki-Poo, son of the Mikado of Japan, fled his father's imperial court to escape marriage with Katisha, an elderly lady. Now, disguised as a traveling musician, he meets and falls in love with Yum-Yum, the young ward of Ko-Ko, a cheap tailor in the town of Titipu. Yum-Yum, however, is already betrothed to her guardian, and Nanki-Poo is in despair.

DVD; Region 1, NTSC; Dolby Digital mono.; full screen presentation, preserving the 1.33 :1 aspect ratio of its original theatrical exhibition.

In English with optional subtitles in English.