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  • Full Frame
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  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • English: Dolby Digital Stereo
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    French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish
  Extras
  • Audio commentary - Nancy Sinatra and director/producer Jack Haley Jr.
  • Animated menus
  • Behind the scenes footage
  • Digitally remastered
  • Discography
Nancy Sinatra - Movin' With Nancy
Warner Vision/Warner Vision . R4 . COLOR . 59 mins . G . PAL

  Feature
Contract

I don’t know why I have always thought that Nancy Sinatra is so darned cool. Could it be those to-die-for go-go boots? Her Barbie with ‘tude looks? Maybe it’s the fact that These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ was number one on the “hit parade” the day I was born (good one Amy, now everybody knows how ancient you are), or perhaps it’s just simply because she, well, is?

Movin’ With Nancy is a television special that was made in 1967, and is essentially a collection of video clips made pretty much before the phrase, or indeed the concept, had ever been thought up (The Beatles just may have a right to protest at Nancy and company’s claims that they indeed were the first to think of the idea, however yet again I digress...) Featuring a veritable cavalcade of stars, including her brother Frank Jr. (albeit briefly), Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and of course “Daddy”, it all starts with THOSE boots sashaying their way over to a rather gorgeous ’57 Chevy convertible, and like the title suggests, we are then indeed movin’ with Nancy.

And so riding Nancy’s utterly gorgeous orange coattails we cruise the California highways, go Up, Up and Away in a hot air balloon, hang out in forests and at waterfalls, watch the Marlboro Man ride out from the sunset – oh wait, it’s actually Lee Hazlewood, cruise beaches, visit the Golden Gate Bridge, get involved in a groovy-baby photo shoot with Sammy, check out Dean Martin’s magical cane (stop tittering!), pop by and say “hi” to “Daddy” at the recording studio and get to let our hair down at an abandoned fairground, and all to the strains of some fabulous ‘60s pop tunes – and some utterly diabolical schmaltz as well.

Interspersed throughout is a selection of ads for RC Cola, the sponsors of the program. Whilst normally I’d scream blue murder at ads being included in a DVD release, these are simply marvellous examples of Andy Warhol-on-steroids type ‘60s nostalgia, with a couple featuring Nancy herself, plus a few forgotten faces and even a brief and phenomenally campy insight into how cola is made. Suffice to say that the jingle claims that RC is “a mad, mad, mad, mad cola” – that should give you a fair indication of how much fun these indeed are.

Riddled with so many scenes that would no doubt make Mike Myers salivate – so much so that I expected Austin Powers to pop up at any time, Movin’ With Nancy is quite simply a massive slab of fab sock-it-to-me day-glo ‘60s pop culture squished onto one shiny little disc for us to treasure for posterity.

  Video
  Audio
  Extras
Contract

“The following program is brought to you in living colour on NBC” – and having been shot originally in 16mm and recently lovingly remastered it’s a pretty fair claim. A rainbow of candy colours awaits us, and whilst still showing signs of age, and quite possibly a lack of lovin’ over the years, the job done to tart the vision up to a suitably DVD-like standard is commendable. There are still speckles and dirt to be witnessed, and indeed quite some grain at times, however unlike you would demand from a movie presentation, the slight wear and tear almost makes this experience more telly-realistic in a way.

Audio too has been given a makeover, with the songs all soaring out of the speakers in remastered Dolby 5.1 sound. There’s only so much you can do with music recorded in the ‘60s, especially as back then four tracks to play with were sheer luxury, so whilst the surrounds hardly start go-go dancing around the room, it does all still sound quite splendid and alive.

I guess you can’t expect extras on a release such as this – but wait! Not only do we get a ten minute behind the scenes look at some of the location shooting, with most everybody clinging to either a coffee cup or cigarette (back in the days when smokers weren’t social pariahs – aah), its silence is broken by – a commentary from Nancy and director Jack Haley Jr.! Whilst often sparse, it was a most unexpected surprise, but not as unexpected as the full-length commentary from the two that accompanies the main feature! Mercifully with the actual finished show being a lot more inspirational than random shots of crew lugging boxes and lights around, the two are quite inspired and bounce off each other to the point where this commentary is oft-times incredibly riveting, with their recollections from the shoot some 23 years before (it was recorded just last year). Rather than just going “oh look at that”, many of the scenes inspire further remembrances from the time, and are a blast for any pop-culture junkie such as myself. Rounding out the extras are a few screens showing Nancy on CD (although without track listings), some DVD production credits, thanks and contact addresses. Everything is held together by some rather nice animated menus too, accompanied by Nancy’s sultry tones.

By the end it starts to drag a little, simply as the more fun pop led into some more marshmallow-like pap, however anybody who got off on the whole Austin Powers thing should find this a smashingly groovy addition to their wee shiny disc collection, even with the simply criminal omission of THAT song. Whilst Nancy admits in the commentary that she was simply sick to death of it at the time, she does at least regret not including it now – although when in almost the same breath she mentions there was indeed a filmed version of it I couldn’t help but wonder why they didn’t stick it on the disc somewhere.

Are you ready boots? Start walkin'...


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  •   And I quote...
    "A massive slab of fab sock-it-to-me day-glo ‘60s pop culture squished onto one shiny little disc..."
    - Amy Flower
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-535
    • TV:
          Sony 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Onkyo TX-DS494
    • Speakers:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse RBS662
    • Centre Speaker:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECC442
    • Surrounds:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECR042
    • Subwoofer:
          DTX Digital 4.8
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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