The Mikado (1939) [The Criterion Collection]

Director: Victor Schertzinger
Writer: W.S. Gilbert, Geoffrey Toye
Stars: Kenny Baker, John Barclay, Martyn Green

The legendary Gilbert and Sullivan troupe the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company joined forces with Hollywood for this 1939 Technicolor version of the beloved comic opera The Mikado, the first work by the famed duo to be adapted for the screen. Directed by musician and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Victor Schertzinger, it is a lavish cinematic retelling of the British political satire set in exotic Japan, with such enduringly popular numbers as “A Wand’ring Minstrel I” and “Three Little Maids from School,” and featuring American singer Kenny Baker as well as a host of renowned D’Oyly Carte performers, including Martyn Green and Sydney Granville.

Extras:
- Newly remastered digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- New video interviews with Topsy-Turvy director Mike Leigh (18:15) and Mikado scholars Josephine Lee and Ralph MacPhail Jr. (29:08)
- Short silent film promoting the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's 1926 stage performance of The Mikado (03:42)
- Deleted scene with Ko-Ko's "I've Got a Little List" song (02:46)
- Excerpts from 1939 radio broadcasts of the stage productions The Swing Mikado (Three Little Maids From School 01:57, The Flowers That Bloom In The Spring 02:01) and The Hot Mikado (Willow, Tit-Willow 02:50, Medley: Mikado's Entrance / "A More Humane Mikado" 05:54)