Classic Musicals from the Dream Factory, Vol. 3 (Hit the Deck/Deep in My Heart/Kismet/Nancy Goes to Rio/Two Weeks with Love/Broadway Melody of 1936/Broadway Melody of 1938/Born to Dance/Lady Be Good)
Starring: Jane Powell, Eleanor Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Gene Kelly, Judy GarlandStudio: Warner Home Video
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Format: Box set, NTSC
DVD Release: April 8th 2008
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DVD Review
HIT THE DECK - Anchors Aweigh. On the Town, Hit the Deck. Hollywood has always known what to do with sailors on leave: Give ’em some pretty girls and some great songs and watch the fans line up to enlist! Hit the Deck hits all the right notes as three sailors (Tony Martin, Vic Damone, Russ Tamblyn) and three cuties (Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Ann Miller) flirt, squabble, run afoul of shore patrol and of course, fall in love to a hit parade of Vincent Youmans tunes. Highlights include Miller’s polishing the floor as The Lady from the Bayou, Martin’s romantic mastery of More Than You Know and the stage-filling rouser Hallelujah. Music, romance, fun: don’t miss the boat! DEEP IN MY HEART - That Kelly lad sure can dance. Fred Kelly. In his only credited film role, he and legendary brother Gene happily hoof a I Love to Go Swimmin’ with Wimmen specialty romp in this colorful musical biopic about Sigmund Romberg, the ex-piano man who went on to compose some 80 productions. There’s much more to love, too. Ann Miller gams and glams It (from The Desert Song). Jane Powell and Vic Damone remember Will You Remember (Maytime). Jose Ferrer (as Romberg) demos all the roles of a gleeful Jazza-Doo spree. And before Deep in My Heart is sung, danced and jazza-done, you’ll find Cyd Charisse, Merle Oberon, Howard Keel and more. The talent runs deep. So does the fun. KISMET - With Alexander Borodin’s soaring music fashioned by Robert Wright and George Forrest into Stranger in Paradise, Baubles, Bangles and Beads and more evergreens, Kismet turned the Broadway stage into a glittering, gleaming Arabian Nights’ dream. And this was ideal material for the dream factory. To Hollywood and director Vincente Minnelli, Kismett was kismet. This lavish musical follows one fateful, fabulous day as a beggar-poet (Howard Keel) and his daughter (Ann Blyth) cross paths with a wicked wazir, a wily temptress, a handsome prince, a magical curse, opulent sets and exotic adventure. “Princes come, princes go,†sings the beggar. Glorious Kismet endures! NANCY GOES TO RIO/TWO WEEKS WITH LOVE â€" Yes, Nancy Goes to Rio â€" and fun comes along! A colorful backlot Rio is the setting for a comic tale of personal and professional mixups as aspiring actress Nancy (Jane Powell) and her Broadway-veteran mother (Ann Sothern) seek the same stage role. Adding to the Brazilian flair: Carmen Miranda in zany-hatted performance glory. Powell’s sunny charm and bright soprano are again on display when she and Debbie Reynolds turn a 1900s Catskills vacation into Two Weeks â€" with Love. Powell hopes to catch the eye of suave Ricardo Montalban by wearing a form-fitting undergarment: a (shhh!) corset. Reynolds reels in affable Carleton Carpenter for a legendary Aba Daba Honeymoon showstopper. Speaking of legends, Busby Berkeley provides the musical staging. BROADWAY MELODY OF 1936/BROADWAY MELODY OF 1938 â€" There’s no stopping them now. Eleanor Powell taps the spangled ebullience of Broadway Rhythm in Broadway Melody of 1936, 15-year-old Judy Garland sings a smitten Dear Mr. Gable to a portrait of Hollywood’s King in Broadway Melody of 1938 and both actresses notch out career breakthroughs. Powell plays an Albany girl-next-door who poses as France’s and Broadway’s exotic La Belle Arlette in the Oscar®-winning* ’36 romp. The ’38 tale has her portraying a horse trainer who’s just as much at ease in taps and tuxedo as she is in riding boots and jodhpurs. Judy steps lively, too, joining Buddy Ebsen for Everybody Sing. Everybody enjoy. These star-making Melodies are playing every classic fan’s song. BORN TO DANCE/LADY BE GOOD - Eleanor Powell’s the girl, James Stewart’s the gob and Cole Porter’s the tunesmith in Born to Dance, a break-a-leg tale of an understudy turned Broadway star that includes Powell taking command of a battleship for Swingin’ the Jinx Away. Her radiant appeal and astonishing tap-dancing skills energize the screen ag
User Reviews
More like "MGM Musicals not yet on DVD Volume 1" - Rating: 4/5
This package, as others have mentioned, appears to be a mixed bag of musicals not yet on DVD. The good news is that some of the Eleanor Powell films I've been waiting for are among them - Broadway Melodies of 1936 and 1938, Born To Dance, and Lady Be Good. I'm less crazy about the 1950's era musicals in this package. Personally I'd say that the Broadway Melodies and Born to Dance are 5/5, Lady Be Good is 4/5, and the 1950's era films are between 3 and 4 out of 5. It's not that I don't like Jane Powell, the star of many of the later entries, it's just that the stories in some of these films seems to be more of a hindrance than a help. Nobody else has listed the extra features, which are essential when judging a package like this. So I have included those next, along with the rating for each film as given by a popular Internet film database:
Hit the Deck (1955) (6.4/10)
Special Features:
· Soundtrack remastered in both a new Dolby Digital 5.1 mix and 5.0 presentation of the original 4-track theatrical mix
· Classic M-G-M Pete Smith Specialty comedy short: The Fall Guy
· Classic M-G-M Tex Avery cartoon: Field and Stream
· Audio-only bonuses: Dolby 5.1 music-only track for song sequences
· Audio-only outtake song Sometimes I'm Happy (Powell/Damone reprise)
· Original Theatrical trailer
· Languages & subtitles: English & Français (main feature)
Deep in my Heart (1954) (6.5/10)
· Soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1, as well as original theatrical Mono
· Oscar-nominated musical short: The Strauss Fantasy
· Classic cartoon Farm of Tomorrow
· Outtake musical numbers: Dance, My Darlings (Traubel) and Girlies of the Cabaret (George Murphy and Esther Williams)
· Theatrical trailer
· Languages & subtitles: English & Français (main feature only)
Kismet (1955) (6.1/10)
· Soundtrack remastered in both a new Dolby Digital 5.1 mix and 5.0 presentation of the original 4-track theatrical mix
· Oscar-nominated CInemaScope short: The Battle of Gettysburg
· Classic cartoon: The First Bad Man
· 2 excerpts from The MGM Parade TV Series
· Complete version of partially-censored musical number Rahadlakum
· Audio-only bonus: Outtake Song Rhymes Have I
· Theatrical trailers of both the 1944 and 1955 Kismet
· Subtitles: English , Français & Portuguêse (main feature only)
Nancy Goes To Rio (1950)/Two Weeks With Love (1950)
Disc 1
Nancy Goes To Rio (6.5/10)
· Oscar-nominated Pete Smith Specialty comedy short: Wrong Way Butch
· Classic cartoon: The Peachy Cobbler
· Theatrical trailer
· Languages & subtitles: English & Français (main feature only)
Disc 2
Two Weeks With Love (6.7/10)
· TCM special Reel Memories with Jane Powell, hosted by Robert Osborne
· Vintage short: Screen Actors
· Classic cartoon: Garden Gopher
· Theatrical trailer
· Subtitles: English & Français (main feature only)
Broadway Melody of 1936/Broadway Melody of 1938
DISC 1
Broadway Melody of 1936 (7/10)
· Vintage short: Sunkist Stars at Palm Springs
· Classic cartoon: To Spring
· Audio-only bonus: Leo Is on the Air radio promo
· Theatrical trailer
· Subtitles: English & Français (main feature only)
DISC 2
Broadway Melody of 1938 (6.7/10)
· Oscar-winning short: That Mothers Might Live
· Classic cartoon: Pipe Dreams
· Audio-only bonuses: Outtake Songs Yours and Mine, Your Broadway and My Broadway, and Sun Showers
· Feelin' like a Million test recording
· Good News of 1938 radio program and Leo Is on the Air radio promo
· Theatrical trailer
· Languages & subtitles: English & Français (main feature only)
Born to Dance (1936)/Lady Be Good (1941)
DISC 1
Born to Dance (6.5/10)
· Vintage short Hollywood: The Second Step
· Oscar-nominated cartoon: The Old Mill Pond
· Audio-only bonus: Hollywood Hotel Radio program
· Theatrical trailer
· Languages & subtitles: English & Français (main feature only)
DISC 2
Lady Be Good (6.6/10)
· Vintage FitzPatrick TravelTalks short: Glimpses of Florida
· Oscar-nominated cartoon: The Rookie Bear
· Audio-only bonuses: outtake song I Love to Dance and Leo Is on the Air radio promo
· Theatrical trailer
· Subtitles: English & Français (main feature only)
Delightful musicals - Rating: 5/5
At last we can see again these nostalgic and delightful titles. When "Esther Williams, Vol. 2", "Betty Grable, Vol. 2", "Alice Faye, Vol. 2", Ann Blyth's "Rose Marie", "The student prince" and "The great Caruso", "Athena", "Yolanda and the thief", "Doris Day, vol. 3"...? I would be even delighted to be able to see once more those tiny poor musicals with Judy Canova from Republic.
Odd mixture of MGM musicals - Rating: 3/5
This is a rather odd combination of MGM musicals, possible the result of the scraping together some of the titles which had not yet appeared on DVD. They are certainly a variable lot falling into 3 subgroups - 4 with Eleanor Powell, 2 starring Jane Powell and 3 second rate titles from the fifties.
In the mid thirties, Eleanor Powell became the dancing queen of MGM with her spectacular tap. She only made at most 2 films per annum and each had large, superb supporting casts and great songs to showcase her. If you have not seen Powell's dancing, you are in for a treat. The production numbers have a glitter and excitement with the shiny black and white photography and dynamic orchestrations.
- "Broadway Melody of 1936", released in 1935, was Powell's first MGM film and it is masterfully made to disguise her limitations as an actress. The film has a great score including "Broadway Rhythm" and "You are my Lucky Star", both appearing later in "Singing in the Rain". With Frances Langford to belt out the songs, Robert Taylor as an impossibly handsome leading man and Buddy Ebsen and Una Merkel providing solid support, the film was a great success and spawned a series of films with "Broadway Melody" in the title.
- The next in the series, released in 1936, was "Born to Dance", using the familiar plot of 3 sailors and their girls. Ebsen, Langford and Una Merkel were back with Taylor replaced by James Stewart who introduces the classic Col Porter "Easy to Love" in an uneasy vocal. The other great song is "I've got you under my Skin" presented by Virginia Bruce.
- For 1937, the "Broadway Melody" title returned with Robert Taylor and the addition of Sophie Tucker and a very young Judy Garland. This is the film in which Garland sang "Dear Mr Gable", a version of "You made me Love You". It is interesting to see Garland and Tucker together but the plot in this one becomes tiresome.
- In "Lady be Good", released in 1941, Powell had been demoted from the lead. She supports Ann Sothern and Robert Young in a really boring and overlong story of a song writing team. Busby Berkeley staged the finale, George Gershwin's "Fascinating Rhythmn", with Powell in great form. The other highlight is the touching "The Last Time I saw Paris", poignantly delivered by Ann Sothern and the winner of the Oscar for best song that year. It is ironical that Powell was relegated to the second lead here because she is much more relaxed and attractive than in the earlier films.
In the late forties, Joe Pasternak produced a series of light "family" musical comedies starring Jane Powell. These films date badly although the two titles here are probably the best in the series. The films are well made in glorious technicolour and Jane Powell's work always improved.
- the title, "Nancy goes to Rio", says it all. Ugh! This is a film in the mould of Gidget and is fairly nauseating, to say the least. It certainly benefits from the presence of Ann Sothern as Powell's mother and there are a few pleasant songs, but otherwise, the cringe meter will score high.
- "Two weeks with Love" is a better film. It has an amusing screenplay, an excellent supporting cast and Powell is quite funny although Debbie Reynolds, with a naturalness that was soon to disappear, steals the film as her younger sister. Her duet with Carleton Carpenter of "Aba daba Honeymoon" is famous.
The last 3 films are a real mixed bag. MGM continued to make the grandest musicals of all the studios but by the mid fifties, the films were becoming increasingly heavy handed.
- "Deep in my Heart" is an all star biopic of Sigmund Romberg with a charmless Jose Ferrer showcased in the title role and a dreary screenplay. The biographic film allowed guest appearances by the studio roster and Ann Miller steals the show, closely followed by Gene Kelly, dancing with his brother.
- "Hit the Deck" is another version of the cliched yarn about sailors on shore leave and the musicals numbers, often dynamic, save the viewer from complete boredom, the best being "Hallelujah". The cast are competent and energetic but generally second rate when compared to "On the Town" to which it has many similarities.
- "Kismet" is a technicolour Arabian Nights yarn which was a great Broadway hit but is another boring and overproduced dinosaur. Howard Keel was always good and how he managed to keep a straight face with some of the material he was handed is a credit to him. Dolores Gray jumps off the screen but Ann Blyth and the others are awful. Films such as these killed the musical genre stone dead.
So there you have it. It is too early to know the quality of the prints and the extras but if you like musicals, you may like all these titles. Personally, I would prefer a disk which just contained the musical numbers. Incidentally, that's the cast of "Lady be Good" displayed on Amazon.
More great ones - Rating: 5/5
Nice announcement of more classic musicals from MGM. The nine titles are just fine. Who could ask for anything more. Well maybe a few others like YOLANDA AND THE THEIF; THE OPPOSITE SEX; SKIRTS AHOY; RICH, YOUNG AND PRETTY; A DATE WITH JUDY. Maybe the next batch will include those and more. Thanks Warners for these titles. There is some fine musical numbers to be had in these films, especially in the underated DEEP IN MY HEART. Keep em' comin'.
