Another Look at the Spies of X-Men: First Class

In my review of the latest X-Men movie, I looked at it (quite naturally) from a spy point of view.  Here's another interesting review that approaches the film from that perspective as well at the blog Overthinking It.  The well-written article by John Perich offers a fascinating argument for Matthew Vaughn's film as an examination of the dichotemy of the Sixties spy hero combining the worlds of Ian Fleming, Len Deighton and John Le Carré. Personally, I think I'd equate Xavier more with Smiley than Harry Palmer, but overall I agree with all of his points!

Smiley Re-Jacketed

In George Smiley's first appearance in Call For the Dead, John le Carré described his most famous creation in a rather unflattering manner: "Short, fat, and of a quiet disposition, he appeared to spend a lot of money on really bad clothes, which hung about his squat frame like skin on a shrunken toad."  Yet now, thanks to artist Matt Taylor, Smiley is undergoing an uncharacteristically stylish upgrade.  In a move that surprised the book industry, le Carré defected from long-term publisher Hodder and Soughton to Penguin in 2009. Part of the new publisher's appeal to the author was said to be the chance to occupy the same roster as his literary idols, Graham Greene and Joseph Conrad, both of whose catalogs are very handsomely maintained by Penguin. Ironically, another spy author whose company the move puts him in is Ian Fleming. "I dislike Bond. I'm not sure that Bond is a spy. I think that it's a great mistake if one's talking about espionage literature to include Bond in this category at all," le Carré told an interviewer in 1966... though he later conceded that his reactive statement may have been a tad harsh. Penguin have been the stewards of Fleming's Bond books for the last decade now, and expertly shepherded them through a succession of classy reissues on both sides of the pond. No matter how le Carré feels about Fleming, one can't help speculate that 007's treatment in the hands of Penguin may also have played a part in his decision to make the publisher his new home.

Now, in anticipation of the new film version of le Carré's seminal work, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (see today's earlier post), Penguin have unveiled a series of Smiley reissues just as striking as their Bond covers. On June 7 they'll release the first two books in the "Karla Trilogy" (Tinker, Tailor, which earns a "Soon to be a major motion picture" banner, and The Honourable Schoolboy) with colorful new covers by Taylor, who also provided artwork for the recent paperback edition of le Carré's latest novel, Our Kind of Traitor. The third volume, Smiley's People, follows on June 28. After that, the reissues continue with non-Smiley works The Little Drummer Girl (the same day as Smiley's People), A Perfect Spy and The Naive and Sentimental Lover (both in late July).

These three novels are not the only ones featuring George Smiley, but they are the best and the most substantial—and they form the core not only of le Carré's body of work, but of the Espionage Canon as a whole. This trilogy is absolutely essential reading for anyone with even a passing interest in the spy genre. (I'm praying that the new Tinker, Tailor movie will prove successful enough to merit film versions of all three novels; I'd love to see The Honourable Schoolboy filmed!) All three books will also be issued as eBooks the same day. Unfortunately, there's no way of telling from Penguin's website if the author's introductions from the Scribner editions (penned in the 1990s) will be included in the new reissues. I suppose it's possible that those might belong to the old publisher like special features on a Criterion DVD that fail to appear on a subsequent studio version. I do hope they're included, because I've found all of them to be insightful supplements to the novels. For constant coverage on all things Smiley, I recommend the relatively new website SmileyWatch (linked on the right of this blog), who first reported on Tinker, Tailor's new cover back in April.

Age of Heroes Trailer

With a big tip of the hat to The Book Bond (the foremost site out there for news on the literary 007, by the way, and an absolutely required daily visit for me as we enter the home stretch toward the publication of Carte Blanche), here's the official trailer for that movie about Ian Fleming's 30 Assault Unit we've been following here since its initial announcement last year.  I have to say, I think it looks fantastic. It may not look particularly big budget, and it might use a questionable font, but that trailer pushes all my movie buttons--from its Ian Fleming-meets-The A-Team opening to the awesome action of a snowbound commandos in white camoflage.  Evidentally, it will receive theatrical release in Britain on May 20--though it's bound to be a limited engagement, since it's already been announced for DVD release in June. Neither venue seems particularly likely right now in America, which is too bad, because I am dying to see it! Age of Heroes stars former Bond villain Sean Bean, and James D'Arcy plays Commander Fleming.

New Spy DVDs Out This Week and Last

Farewell
I was very curious about this fact-based French spy film when it got limited theatrical release late last year, but I didn't have the opportunity to see it.  I look forward to rectifying that now that it's available on DVD and Blu-ray from Terra. Director Christian (Joyeux Noël) Carion's film traces the true story of a KGB defector who enlisted the unwitting aid of a French engineer working in the Soviet Union during the 1980s to smuggle secrets (including ones pertaining to American national security) out of the country to French intelligence. The DVD retails for $24.98 and the Blu-ray for $34.98, though both are significantly cheaper on Amazon, as usual.

Arabesque
Moving from harrowing true spy stories to fluffy ones of the most escapist variety, we come to the mod, ultra-Sixties confection Arabesque. Though it's been available for some time as part of the boxed set The Gregory Peck Collection, Stanley Donen's 1966 follow-up to Charade was finally issued on its own last week (along with a Peck mystery of similar vintage, Mirage). Try as it might, Arabesque doesn't quite recapture Charade's particular magic, but Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren make charming and attractive stand-ins for Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, and the story of a college professor caught up in psychedelic intrigue involving a beautiful spy and Middle Eastern politics is still plenty of fun. And "psychedelic" is the operative word, even if you wouldn't expect it to be used in the same sentence as "Gregory Peck." Donen gleefully taps into the zeitgeist of the moment, and that wonderfully dated view of Swinging London is a big part of what makes the film so appealing today. (You can see plenty of examples in this article on SpyVibe.) Universal's single-disc release of Arabesque (on DVD only) is a steal at the MSRP of just $14.98... but it's even cheaper than that on Amazon.

Thanks to Collin for the heads-up on that one... and I'm sorry I took so many weeks to finally act on it!

Any Human Heart
Any Human Heart based on the acclaimed novel by William Boyd, is only partially a spy story, but it does involve James Bond creator Ian Fleming as a character.  The miniseries, which recently aired in American on PBS' Masterpiece, follows a writer named Logan Mountstuart as his life intersects with a number of famous figures, including Fleming (played by Casino Royale's Tobias Menzies), Ernest Hemingway (Foyle's War's Julian Ovenden), Wallis Simpson (Johnny English Reborn's Gillian Anderson) and her husband the Duke of Windsor (Hanna's Tom Hollander). Mountstuart is played at different points during his life by Sam Claflin, Spooks/MI-5's Matthew Macfadyen and Jim Broadbent.  Hayley Atwell (one of the few highlights of the 2009 Prisoner remake) also stars.  Menzies' Fleming only appears in a couple of scenes, though one is a key moment when, as assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence, he assigns Macfadyen's Mountstuart to a wartime spy mission involving Wallis and Edward. The DVD, from PBS, contains all four episodes as they originally aired in the UK, not the re-edited 3-episode configuration seen on American TV. It also includes a wealth of special features, including interviews with Boyd and the actors, an On Set featurette, and deleted scenes. Retail is $29.99, though it can currently be had for half that on Amazon.

Callan: Wet Job
The most exciting spy release of the last few weeks, however, has to be the 1981 Callan reunion telefilm "Wet Job," which is finally available on DVD! (In the UK, anyway, as a PAL Region 2 release from Network.) It didn't get included as a bonus feature in Network's Callan: The Colour Years, but now it sees its first ever legitimate home video release as a standalone.  Despite being scripted by series creator James Mitchell, "Wet Job" doesn't have a very good reputation.  (Even Edward Woodward disparaged it in his commentary on the Acorn release Callan: Set 2.) That said, fans of the series (and, really, any spy fan should be a fan of this amazing series) will still rejoice to be able at last to own this elusive postscript to one of the best serious spy shows of all time.  Retail is £14.99, but it's currently much cheaper on Amazon.co.uk. Bear in mind, though, that next Ocotober the company will issue Callan: The Definitive Collection, a 12-disc megaset collecting every surviving black and white episode from seasons 1 and 2, every color episode from seasons 3 and 4, the original Armchair Theatre pilot play, "A Magnum For Schneider," "Wet Job," a brand new Callan documentary and a definitive book on the series by Andrew Pixley. That will retail for £99.99 (though it's currently available to pre-order for £69.99). It's great that Callan will finally get Network's usual special feature treatment, but at the same time no doubt annoying to fans who have already purchased The Monochrome Years and The Colour Years on their own. Hopefully the company will make the documentary available individually as well, as they have done in the past with their Prisoner and Saint documentaries. Fingers crossed! In the meantime, I'm absolutely thrilled that I'll finally be able to see "Wet Job," even if I know it won't be up to the standards of the show itself. This is the spy release of the spring!

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Age of Heroes

Age of Heroes, the movie we first heard about last year about "Ian Fleming's Red Indians," the 30 Assault Unit created by the future Bond author while he served in Naval Intelligence during WWII, will come out on Region 2 PAL DVD and Blu-ray this June from Metrodome Distribution. The film stars former Bond baddie Sean Bean, and James D'Arcy plays Commander Fleming. If the film proves at all historically accurate, then Fleming himself will remain deskbound, since as much as he may have wanted to, he did not go on missions with the 30AU. (That hasn't dissuaded other movies, though, like Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming with Jason Connery, from portraying him in the field.) 

According to the official copy, "Age of Heroes is inspired by this incredible true story, the little told story of how James Bond creator Ian Fleming oversaw the activities of an elite and supremely well-trained commando unit during World War II, and about the danger and adventure that the 30 Assault Unit faced in their brave efforts to extract the most crucial Nazi-Axis secrets with their pioneering stealth techniques." Age of Heroes was supposed to have a theatrical run in Britain last month, but I don't know if that actually happened. There is still no US release date. For more on Fleming's involvement with 30AU, check out Craig Cabell's books Ian Fleming's Secret War and The History of 30 Assault Unit: Ian Fleming's Red Indians.

Last Day To Hear "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" Radioplay Online

Following their very cool adaptations of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels Doctor No and Goldfinger, BBC Radio 4 has aired yet another Fleming-based radioplay.  This one's adapted (by Sherry Ashwell) from his classic children's book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Imogen Stubbs and Alex Jennings star. You can listen to it online with the BBC's iPlayer, but it's only available through this weekend, so listen quickly! In other Chitty news, The Book Bond recently reported that author Frank Cottrell Boyce will pen new adventures for Fleming's magical car... though she'll be transformed into a rather dubious minibus.

Jeremy Duns Examines Ben Hecht's Unfilmed 1960s Casino Royale Script

This is the must-read Bond story of the year. While it's always been public knowledge that Ben Hecht, one of the most accomplished and prolific screenwriters of Hollywood's Golden Age (whose work includes the Alfred Hitchcock spy classic Notorious) contributed to Charles K. Feldman's Casino Royale script, spy novelist (and all-around expert on the genre) Jeremy Duns actually tracked down Hecht's drafts at a library in Chicago.  Last weekend, he published a fascinating examination of them in the UK newspaper The Telegraph, along with script excerpts. Even though some of his ideas did indeed end up being incorporated in Feldman's sprawling, all-star 1967 mess of a spoof, Hecht's take on the novel was apparently a straightforward and relatively faithful adaptation.  All fans of Ian Fleming's novel and Hecht's work and Sixties Bond films—and all who enjoy speculating on What Might Have Been—should waste no time in heading over to The Telegraph to read all about it. Truly fascinating stuff!

Speaking of Duns, his blog, The Debrief, has been a link here for some time, and it's one that spy fans should definitely check in on regularly.  He's always posting interesting, in-depth and meticulously researched articles.  One recent post I learned a lot from debunked a lot of the myths about Ian Fleming that spring from the notoriously unreliable 1990s biography 17F: The Life of Ian Fleming by Donald McCormick.  I always just thought of the book as shamefully erroneous; I didn't realize that it was actually the work of a documented hoaxer.  I also had no idea as to the extent of his ceaseless hoaxing, and certainly fell for a few of his oft-reprinted assertions over the years, like the myth that Elizabethan spy and alchemist John Dee signed his secret correspondence "007." Duns explodes this and other misnomers started by McCormick and perpetuated in the press over the years in various news stories.  Check that out, too.

Casino Royale's Tobias Menzies Plays Ian Fleming on PBS This Weekend

Early last year, we learned that Britain's Channel 4 was making a miniseries based on William Boyd's novel Any Human Heart, which features Ian Fleming and other historical figures as a supporting characters. At the time, there was no information on who would play Fleming and the project fell off my radar.  It played in the UK last autumn, but I didn't read anything about it at the time.  Now Any Human Heart will air in the US on PBS's Masterpiece (just coming off the truly fantastic Downton Abbey) in three parts beginning this weekend.  And James Bond author Fleming (in his wartime Naval Intelligence days) is played by Tobias Menzies, the actor who played M's assistant Villiers (sort of a mash-up of Moneypenny and Bill Tanner) in Casino Royale!  He also narrated a number of remarkable "background materials" in a dossier telling the story of Daniel Craig's Bond's pre-00 career on that film's website. Menzies is probably most famous in America, though, for his role as Brutus on HBO's Rome.  I wouldn't have pegged him as Fleming, but I have to admit that he does kind of look the part in that still from the series.

Any Human Heart follows a writer named Logan Mountstuart as his life intersects with a number of famous figures, including Fleming, Ernest Hemingway (Julian Ovenden), Wallis Simpson (Gillian Anderson) and her husband the Duke of Windsor (Tom Hollander). Mountstuart is played at different points during his life by Sam Claflin, Spooks/MI-5's Matthew Macfadyen and Jim Broadbent.  Hayley Atwell (one of the few highlights of the 2009 Prisoner remake) also stars.  I believe that Menzies' Fleming will only appear in the second segment, when he assigns Macfadyen's Mountstuart to a wartime spy mission involving Wallis and Edward, but I could be wrong.  (Mitch Silver's novel In Secret Service, published after Boyd's, also concocted an espionage plot involving Fleming, Simpson and the former monarch... though not very successfully.)  The first part airs this weekend on most PBS stations, but you'll have to check your local listings. After that, it should be available to watch online on the Masterpiece website for a while, and the DVD comes out on April 5. You can watch a short trailer on the Masterpiece website.

Los Angeles Spy Event: "Bond Appetit" This Saturday

Attention Los Angeles Bond fans!  The LA Weekly (via MI6) reports that the the Culinary Historians of Southern California will host the event "Bond Appetit: James Bond, Foodie" this Saturday, December 11th, at 10:30 AM at the Downtown Central Library (Mark Taper Auditorium).  The Weekly describes the event thusly:

With inspiration from the writings of Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels, as well as the movie series and period cookbooks, food historian Linda Civitello will guide you through what cuisine the spy could have paired with his famous "shaken, not stirred" martini.

Civitello tells us, "James Bond and his creator, Ian Fleming, were world travelers and enjoyed food. Bond always ate locally -- except that he was in exotic locales. Fleming kept notes on restaurants he ate in when he traveled, including when he came to Los Angeles."

As for what graced Fleming's (and Bond's) plate, she says: "I will do a taste profile of Bond food preferences using sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami, and other flavors."

That sounds really cool!  I'll definitely be there as long as I can get myself up that early on a Saturday morning...  A reception with refreshments (presumably themed) follows the event.

New Spy-Related DVDs And Games Out This Week

No straight-shooting spy titles out this week, but quite a few spy-ish DVDs.  Plus, of course, a few videogames that have a lot of Bond fans excited. 

First up, from MGM Home Entertainment, is the1968 film musical adaptation of Ian Fleming's children's book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, on Blu-ray/DVD and DVD/Blu-ray combo packs.  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was produced by 007 producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, scripted by You Only Live Twice screenwriter Roald Dahl and counts Bond alums Desmond Llewelyn and Gert Frobe among its cast. Dick Van Dyke stars as inventor Caractacus Potts, and Sally Ann Howes plays the Bond Girlishly-named Truly Scrumptuous. The new combo release comes in two configurations: a BD/DVD combo pack in a Blu-ray size case, and a DVD/BD combo in a more kids' section-friendly standard DVD Amray case.  All of the special features are on the Blu-ray.  The only new ones (besides the high-def transfer, of course, and newly upgraded 7.1 audio) are kid-oriented (“Toot Sweet Symphony melody maker – the Toot Sweet Toots Musical Maestro" and “Chitty's Bang Bang Driving Game”), but happily all of the interviews and vintage promotional material from the last DVD edition is ported over, including "Remembering Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with Dick Van Dyke," the featurette “A Fantasmagorical Motorcar” (about the actual car used in the film and its current owner, if memory serves), the original Sherman Brothers demos of the film’s most popular songs, vintage featurettes including “The Ditchling Tinkerer,” “Dick Van Dyke Press Interview,” and “The Potts Children's Featurette,” a photo gallery and a vintage advertising gallery including English and French versions of the theatrical trailer and several television spots. There's also a sing-a-long version of the film for the tots. Both combo variations retail for $34.99, but are available considerably cheaper from Amazon and other online vendors.

An old woman detective may not seem very spy-like at all, but there's actually plenty in Agatha Christie's Marple: The Geraldine McEwan Collection, from Acorn Media, to interest spy fans.  First and foremost, there's Timothy Dalton (in The Sittaford Mystery), who leads a pack of spy-friendly guest stars that also includes Joanna Lumley, Jane Seymour, Keeley Hawes, Herbert Lom, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Richard Armitage, Jane Asher, Robert Powell, Tim McInnerny, Mark Gatiss and many, many more.  (Besides being an actor, Gatiss is the co-creator of the BBC's new Sherlock series and author of the wonderful Lucifer Box spy novels.) This set includes all 12 feature-length mysteries that McEwan starred in on 12 DVDs, plus plentiful extras including an hour-long "backstage" documentary with cast and crew interviews, behind-the-scenes featurettes, a history of Miss Marple adaptations (that sounds fun!), photo galleries, an Agatha Christie biography, and cast filmographies. Retail is $99.99.

It's a good week for Timothy Dalton fans, because in addition to his debut on Chuck, we also get the aforementioned Marple DVD set and Toy Story 3, in which he voiced the adorable stuffed hedgehog with delusions of Shakespearean grandeur, Mr. Pricklepants.  It's not a huge part, but it's great to hear a hedgehog talking like Timothy Dalton.  Plus, Toy Story 3 is an amazing movie.  I think it's my favorite of the Pixar trilogy, and one of my favorite movies of the year.  It's available on standard DVD, Blu-ray and a 4-disc Blu-ray/DVD Special Edition Combo pack. For the huge Disney fans out there, it's also available as part of the massive, 10-disc Toy Story Trilogy Blu-ray/DVD combo set. That one will cost you dearly, though, so you might want to save it for Santa.

There are also two new James Bond videogames out today: James Bond 007: Bloodstone and GoldenEye 007, the latter a remake of the classic N64 first-person shooter of over a decade ago (though not from the same makers).  I don't really cover videogames here simply because I don't play them.  I'm no good at them.  I kind of wish I was, though (and that I had the hours required to devote to them, but I'm afraid this blog takes up all of those!), because these games both look pretty neat based on the trailers.  Both star Daniel Craig, which in the case of GoldenEye is pretty weird, since Pierce Brosnan, of course, starred in the movie. 

The new GoldenEye 007 should actually hold interest for Bond music fans as well as Bond gamers, because David Arnold composed the score.  I'm really curious to hear it.  The movie GoldenEye has one of the worst Bond scores, by Eric Serra, and I've often fantasized about what an Arnold score might have been like for it since he did all the other Brosnan Bonds.  Now I guess we can find out!  I really hope that the score is released in some format, be it on CD (unlikely, I guess) or at least as a digital download.  The one part we can hear so far struck me as a tad disappointing.  Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger steps in for Tina Turner to cover the movie's original title song, penned by U2's Bono and the Edge.  With David Arnold producing the cover, I was hoping for something along the lines of his fantastic 1997 Bond covers CD, Shaken and Stirred, which paired classic songs with unexpected performers for uniformly impressive results.  Unfortunately, instead of an indie artist of the caliber of Aimee Mann or Natacha Atlas, we get a Pussycat Doll.  And Scherzinger simply doesn't have the vocal chops to deliver an interesting or worthy rendition.  Too bad.  I did like the orchestration, but was a bit taken aback at how familiar it sounded.  Based on Shaken and Stirred, I'd expected a more radical reinvention.  Oh well.  I hope the score is good, and for people who are into first person shooters, I hope the game is good too!  Let me know. 

GoldenEye 007 retails for $49.99 for the Wii, $29.99 for the Nintendo DS and $69.99 for a special edition of the Wii version that comes with a special Golden Gun controller.  James Bond 007: Bloodstone retails for $59.99 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, and $49.99 for PC.

James D'Arcy Plays Ian Fleming

Well, who would have thought it?  One of those many Ian Fleming movies in development has actually come to fruition!  I first reported last March about Age of Heroes, the British film about Fleming's "Red Indians," the 30 Assault Unit he formed while working for Naval Intelligence during WWII.  At the time, I had no idea how close that film actually was to production.  (Often things reported in the trades take years to actually get made, if ever.)  Well, apparently this one got made.  It actually filmed over the summer!  There are even some reports of an October 1 UK release date, which is right around the corner.  (Can anyone in the UK confirm this?)  When I wrote that first report, I speculated as to how large a role Fleming would have in the picture (since he didn't actually participate in the commando unit's raids, as was depicted in the 1990 TV movie Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming starring Jason Connery) and who would play him.  Well, now we know thanks to both the IMDb and a Fujifilm magazine story reprinted on the Sean Bean fansite The Mighty Bean (who also supply that poster) that James D'Arcy is playing Fleming.  How large a role it is is still to be determined.  According to that article:

"During the filming James D’Arcy, whose previous roles have included British navy First Lt. Tom Pullings in Master and Commander (2003), Father Francis in Exorcist: The Beginning (2003), and numerous British TV roles, offered some brief thoughts on his role as Ian Fleming to the Norwegian press. He said: ‘Fleming lived an unreal life. It’s strange, really, that the story of his life isn’t better known’."

Hm. I can't recall him from Master and Commander; the role I most immediately associate with James D'Arcy is Sherlock Holmes, whom he played in an ill-received (and decidedly non-canonical) 2002 TV movie called Sherlock: A Case of Evil (which actually pre-figured both the Robert Downey Jr. film and the current contemporary TV version in some key ways).  He doesn't look much like Ian Fleming, but then again he doesn't categorically not look like him either, so make-up should be able to do the trick.  Fleming has previously been played by Jason Connery, Charles Dance (who was a dead ringer for the author) and Ben Daniels.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Comes To Blu-ray

While there's still no word on any future Bond Blu-rays (come on, MGM; you're holding out on some of the best! Give us On Her Majesty's Secret Service! Give us The Living Daylights! Give us Tomorrow Never Dies! Give us You Only Live Twice!), MGM Home Entertainment isn't entirely ignoring the works of Ian Fleming, Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman in the high-def format.  On November 2, they will release the Bond producers' 1968 film musical adaptation of Fleming's children's book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, in Blu-ray/DVD combo packs.  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was scripted by You Only Live Twice screenwriter Roald Dahl and features Bond alums Desmond Llewelyn and Gert Frobe. Dick Van Dyke stars as inventor Caractacus Potts, and Sally Ann Howes plays the Bond Girlishly-named Truly Scrumptuous. The new combo release will come in two configurations: a BD/DVD combo pack in a Blu-ray size case, and a DVD/BD combo in a more kids' section-friendly standard DVD Amray.  All of the special features are on the Blu-ray.  The only new ones (besides the high-def transfer, of course, and newly upgraded 7.1 audio) are kid-oriented (“Toot Sweet Symphony melody maker – the Toot Sweet Toots Musical Maestro" and “Chitty's Bang Bang Driving Game”), but happily all of the interviews and vintage promotional material from the last DVD edition is ported over, including "Remembering Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with Dick Van Dyke," the featurette “A Fantasmagorical Motorcar” (about the actual car used in the film and its current owner, if memory serves), the original Sherman Brothers demos of the film’s most popular songs, vintage featurettes including “The Ditchling Tinkerer,” “Dick Van Dyke Press Interview,” and “The Potts Children's Featurette,” a photo gallery and a vintage advertising gallery including English and French versions of the theatrical trailer and several television spots. There's also a sing-a-long version of the film for the tots.