MUSICAL DVDS
ANNIE GET YOUR GUN
Warner Home Video
Movie 3.5; Disc 4.0To classic horror film fans the devoutly sought cinematic Holy Grail is London After Midnight. As a avid musical fan, my Holy Grail consists of two titles—Paramount’s 1937 Western musical High, Wide and Handsome and Annie Get Your Gun, which had not legally been shown on television since 1973 and had never been released on Video, Laser or DVD due to litigation. Finally, after mentioning my quest, a fellow film fanatic sent me a grainy videotape of Annie Get Your Gun. Of course, I had seen clips (which only whetted my appetite) and had previously seen the Judy Garland scenes shot (Garland was eventually replaced by Betty Hutton). With great anticipation and trembling hands I popped in the videotape. To say I was disappointed was an understatement. It seemed at the time Betty Hutton, as Annie, was over-the-top, the production numbers didn’t do the fabulous songs justice and the ending really bothered me where Annie had to throw the shooting contest to get her man, after all “You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun.” But...
Let’s fast forward to Christmas 2000. Gary bought me Annie Get Your Gun on DVD. Since we had decided to add a home theater to our house, I wanted to wait to get the full theatrical experience. Wow, was I wrong about this film. The DVD is simply spectacular—the Technicolor is mind-boggling with dark, rich reds, greens and blacks, the soundtrack crisp, clear and surprisingly full-bodied, the grand Irving Berlin musical production numbers such as “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “I’m an Indian Too” provide cinematic chills galore and Betty Hutton, rather than over-powering the small television screen, lassos the role of Annie Oakley and makes it her most stellar cinematic performance. Howard Keel is outstanding in the difficult role of Frank Butler, which requires him to be a cocky, petty and jealous rogue but at the same time the audience must like him enough to accept the unabashed love Annie feels for him and embrace the union of the two sharpshooters. Louis Calhern, tapped to replace Frank Morgan as Buffalo Bill when Morgan died, is everything you’d expect from the famous old West hero and his parental affection for Annie is touching. The film is also interesting as a historical tool in the representation of the American Indian in Hollywood. The Indians are most often used in Annie... as comic relief, but J. Carrol Naish’s Chief Sitting Bull is shown as a shrewd and clever man who sees things more clearly than other characters. It’s also interesting to note how this buoyant musical lets us know the Indians were segregated and treated as second class citizens. Keenan Wynn, one of my favorite character actors, once again provides outstanding support and opens the film with the production number “Colonel Buffalo Bill.”
The DVD supplemental materials provide the two filmed Garland musical numbers, “Doin’ What Comes Naturally” and “I’m an Indian Too.” We also see the opening “Colonel Buffalo Bill” as it was filmed with Frank Morgan and get a deleted musical number, “Let’s Go West Again.” I must confess I always thought Judy Garland would have done a better job as Annie, but after viewing Betty Hutton’s glorious performance and Judy Garland’s filmed scenes on this outstanding DVD, I must conclude Hutton was the definitive Annie Oakley. The film would be nominated for four Academy Awards winning the Best Score Oscar for Adolph Deutsch and Roger Edens. The DVD of Annie Get Your Gun is right up there with the best of cinematic experiences.—Susan Svehla
BRIGHT EYES
Fox Home Video
Movie: 2.5; Disc: 3.0As a child, I was always entranced by the string of movies Shirley Temple made in the 1930s, starting with 1934's Bright Eyes , the film in which Shirley introduced "On the Good Ship Lollipop." While Bright Eyes is not the best of the bunch, it is certainly entertaining and introduces all the various devices that would become formula in the world of Shirley Temple cinema by the end of the decade.
First of all, I never realized the hidden fantasy elements in Shirley Temple's movie world. The thought of a five-year-old child walking down the highway, literally thumbing a ride, would be pure insanity today, but even in 1934, I doubt that any parent would be this trusting to allow her infant child to hitchhike a ride with strangers. Second, the idea of so many aviators and airplane mechanics working on Christmas day might be reality, but the fact that all of them had so much time to devote to Shirley's onboard plane party stretches credibility. Of course her father used to be an aviator who "cracked up" and died prematurely, so the entire crew loves the little girl as their own, especially James Dunn (Loop), who was her father's best friend.
All the typical icons are here introduced: the bratty little girl (Jane Withers, no less) contrasted to Shirley's angel, the lovable old cranky geezer (Charles Sellon as Uncle Ned) with the heart of gold for Shirley, the dare-devilish rogue male who wants to become Shirley's guardian, the spoiled rotten, greedy rich young couple who hate the innocent Shirley, the adult working-class folk who become Shirley's protectors, etc.
The story involves the tragic death of Shirley's mother, running across the street to catch a bus with Shirley's Christmas party cake in hand, and the battle between rich old Uncle Ned and "I sleep in the airplane hanger" James Dunn over who can adopt the orphaned pixie. Of course Dunn's old flame, who dumped him at the altar, still carries a torch for Dunn, and the viewer knows that if they finally get together, the mystery over who can win custody of the child would be easily solved.
But Temple is just so darn cute, singing and dancing for her aviator buddies, melting the heart of Uncle Ned, salvaging a poor pathetic doll from the garbage with Jane Withers intervening, tearing off its arms and head, denying the poor Shirley the chance to nurse the baby doll back to health. Director David Butler balances the laughs and tears just about equally throughout, and while the world depicted in Bright Eyes never really existed, it still is a world that seems worth revisiting again and again. And Bright Eyes , once accepted for what it is, definitely entertains. Extras include a digital colorized version of the film, as well as the original black-and-white one. Unfortunately, the mastering for the DVD is the same as the videotape, so the print, while clean with good contrast, is a tad soft with a grainy cast. It could definitely benefit from a restoration and remastering.
OKLAHOMA! [from the ROGERS & HAMMERSTEIN COLLECTION]
Fox Home Entertainment
Movie: 3.0; Disc: 2.5In 1955 when this 20th Century-Fox roadshow musical was released, MGM was no longer the only game in town when it came to expensive musicals. In fact, Fox musicals in Technicolor go back to the late 1940s, but they never garnered the same attention as the Arthur Freed unit at MGM. By this time, the new regime of MGM canceled the production of some musicals and cut the budget of others (thus, Brigadoon , instead of being filmed on location in Ireland, was relegated to the MGM backlot). Oklahoma! became one of the biggest-budgeted musicals ever, here on DVD presented with full Roadshow treatment featuring entrance music, intermission and exit music. The movie, filmed in CinemaScope and Technicolor, rivaled the best of the MGM musicals for having a big cast, expensive look and the necessary on-location shooting.
Opening with a panaramic cornfield shot showcasing Gordon MacRae riding his horse through the corn to the tune of "Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'," Oklahoma! has a visual audacity that milks the widescreen photography for all it's worth. With longshots of twisting trails when carriages and horse riders enter and exit the frame far left and right at will, the dense Technicolor photography creates the classic movie musical look in a realistic setting that puts the audience right in the midst of action. The cast, which includes the introduction of Shirley Jones (then a teenager), as well as featuring support from Gene Nelson, Eddie Albert, James Whitmore and Rod Steiger as the Western badass, is perhaps best defined by film noir icon Gloria Grahame portraying an eccentric single Western woman who, slightly past her prime, is still looking for the right man. And the supporting performance of Charlotte Greenwood as the irascible elderly aunt is perhaps the best performance in the entire movie.
While the Rodgers and Hammerstein songs are classics ("The Surrey with the Fringe on Top," "People Will Say We're in Love," etc.) and the choreography by Agnes De Mille is energetic and visually creative, the movie's plot seems stretched to the max running two and a half hours. Although several sequences are stunning (the opening, the straw-burning climax, the dance sequence, etc.), often the filler between seems too much like filler and the movie's momentum and pacing suffers.
Most distressing on this THX digitally mastered disc is the presence of extreme digital artifacting, many sequences ruined by their presence. In one musical number, with cowboys dancing left and right across the screen, two cowboys enter from the left of the screen in back of the main dancers, their movement digitally ghost-like with herky-jerky movement that immediately draws one's eye to the problem. In long shots, whenever movement occurs, the artifacting is noticeable, often almost turning images into pixels instead of people. In all my years watching DVDs, the artifacting problem has never been this noticeable to me on any disc. And the movie bears the THX symbol on the cover. Perhaps my pressing of the disc is defective, but mine is not the only one to look like this, I am sure.
I haven't had time to check out the other films in this exceptional box set collection, but the packaging and pricing are superb, and this set would make a wonderful gift for the musical lover in your household. The other Rodgers and Hammerstein movies in the collection are Carousel, The King and I, The Sound of Music, South Pacific and State Fair . Again, even with the artifacting problem noted, this edition of Oklahoma! has the intensity of the theatrical presentation and the digital 5.1 surround sound is awe-inspiring. While flawed, the movie is nonetheless a joy.
MOULIN ROUGE
Fox Home Video
Movie: 3.5; Disc: 4.0Who is director Baz Luhrmann and what is this visual absinthe-induced trip called Moulin Rouge ? And can this movie be the visual mind-blower of 2001...a subtle assimilation of Brian DePalma's and Ken Russell's gonzo styles of the 1970s recast in the new century?
Or perhaps it is Singin' In the Rain or West Side Story for a new generation?
The Hollywood movie musical, which prospered in the 1940s and 1950s at 20th Century-Fox and MGM studios, continuing with bigger-budget productions more sporactically in the 1960s and 1970s, was dead as a viable movie genre for at least 20 years. But now director Baz Luhrmann, whose previous movies were Strictly Ballroom and Romeo+Juliet , has reinvented the movie musical as the energetic, magical, mystical film genre it always was, but as Emeril might say, " bam ..." kicked up a notch!Remember, the MGM Gene Kelly classics, with what some critics now consider gaudy Technicolor, gimmicky wide-screen photography and a quasi-realistic world where people break out into song or dance at will, were just as unrealistic as the musical world of The Wizard of Oz . The visualization of their magical music world was just as important to MGM and Fox as the singing and dancing performances. These movies were the marriage of sight and sound. Formerly, most Hollywood musicals based their music on the classics (Irving Berlin tunes over two decades old, sometimes augmented with a few new originals written by the best in the music industry at the time). But Hollywood made everything old new again And here Luhrmann works again with the "classics," rethinking Elton John, David Bowie and Madonna as Broadway show tunes.
Moulin Rouge is sensory overkill, from its opening red curtain rendition of the logo/theme of 20th Century-Fox, through its sepia and scratchy ancient look of Paris from "the summer of love," 1899, to its full-bodied visualization of a brothel/night club/theater that melds 1900 Paris with modern music and dance. As Sue says, it's MGM on acid, but it's a carefully controlled trip. The music, one song segueing into another, the choreography, is carefully manipulated and edited for maximum effect. My foot and toes were tapping endlessly, but my eye was dazzled by visuals which seemed both over-the-top envelope-pushing, yet appropriate.
Somehow, in the midst of such a marriage (or rather an orgy) of sight and sound comes a sensitive, operatic screenplay that pushes all the emotional buttons to the limit, trying to magnify a screenplay whose only theme is hammered over the viewers' heads again and again: "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is to love and to be loved in return." Add to this the Bohemian's naive belief in Truth, Freedom, Beauty and Love. Moulin Rouge cuts deeply because the sensory overload in the visual/auditory department merely embellishes a simple story of love, but amplifies it by turning up everything to a 10! The visuals constantly remind us of other works...allusions to Hello, Dolly! with dancing waiters, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with its "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" production number, etc. But even when Luhrmann acknowledges the roots to the past, he is forging something totally unique and original so that Moulin Rouge will continue to be discussed as either an innovative film classic or overbaked crap for decades to come. Moulin Rouge at least is the most audacious movie of 2001. Not to be overshadowed, the performances of Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor and the supporting cast are full-bodied and resonate. And unlike many Hollywood musicals, Kidman and McGregor do all their own singing, and do a fine job to boot.
All I can say is that I was totally entertained, emotionally engaged and visually wowed. Moulin Rouge is not without its excesses, but for what it offers, it is one of my top films of 2001.
The two-disc DVD is also a marvel, featuring the DVD equivalent of a CD with its box within a box, with flaps that open up big and fold small, all in full color. A 12-page full-color brochure is also included. The movie is presented with both Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound with a magnificent letterboxed print that jumps off the screen. Audio commentary tracks by the director and production staff are included. On the second disk we have dance sequences unedited, which can be watched with the multi-angle feature from different points of view. Music videos are included, trailers plus even more. In other words, the director, who oversaw the entire production of the package, gave the viewer the kitchen sink plus. Let's face it, without the musical jump-start of Moulin Rouge signifying the return of the movie musical, we wouldn't be watching Chicago this year. Surprisingly, the movie musical is back and long may it reign.SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN
Warner Home Video
Movie: 4.0; Disc: 4.0Unfortunately, happy-go-lucky musicals have gone the way of the dinosaurs. The films that today pass themselves off as musicals are usually vile, venom-spewing “artistic” nightmares (Hedwig and the Angry Inch comes immediately to mind). But for those classic film musical lovers still out there, Warner Video has finally given us the ultimate musical gift package with their two-disc special edition release of the greatest musical ever made, Singin’ in the Rain.
I have always considered Singin’ in the Rain to be a perfect film. There is never a dull moment or unnecessary scene; each sequence moves flawlessly into the next. The musical numbers from the Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown catalog are all first rate. The story by Adolph Green and Betty Comden wittily entwines the songs with a backlot story of the impact of sound on motion pictures. Comden and Green would provide the inspiration for two of the main characters in my second favorite musical of all time, Bandwagon (I’m still waiting for that on DVD). Sadly, Adolph Green passed away in 2002, but his contribution to the glory days of Hollywood and the golden age of the movie musical will live on forever.
Gene Kelly was smart enough to let his co-stars shine on their own as can be seen in the Donald O’Connor number “Make ’Em Laugh,” one of the best in the film. O’Connor would prove himself Kelly’s best partner as they tear up the set, literally, in “Moses Supposes.” Kelly would also feature co-stars wonderfully in On the Town in dazzling sequences such as the Ann Miller number “Pre-historic Man” and the Betty Garrett/Frank Sinatra numbers “You Can Count on Me” and “You’re Awful.” Stanley Donen presents a much different portrait in his autobiography, but I say the screen doesn’t lie and often egos do.
Casting for the female leads was equally successful with Jean Hagen as the sly silent star Lina Lamont, whose shrewish personality was matched only by her irritating voice. Hagen would earn an Oscar nomination for her performance. Unfortunately, in Hollywood’s bizarre book of rules, Singin’ in the Rain, one of the best films ever made, would not win an Academy Award because Kelly’s An American in Paris had practically swept the Awards the year before. Ingenue Debbie Reynolds’ tart sweetness played well off the more worldly Kelly’s Don Lockwood, and Cyd Charisse set the screen ablaze with her sexy siren in the spectacular “Broadway Melody” number.
I doubt anyone can watch the most famous film musical number ever made, “Singin’ in the Rain,” without smiling with idiotic delight. Kelly brilliantly enacted the joy of love, rain and life with those few shining cinematic moments. And with the terrors of the real world coming closer and closer to home, isn’t it nice to escape to the glorious Technicolor merriment of Singin’ in the Rain.
The two-disc set print is stunning and offers brilliant Technicolor, plus commentary by Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, Cyd Charisse, Kathleen Freeman, Stanley Donen, Betty Comden, Aldolph Green, Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann and film historian Rudy Behlmer. Also included on disc two is the 50th Anniversary Documentary What a Glorious Feeling hosted by Debbie Reynolds, and clips of the greatest products of the Freed unit including Meet Me in St. Louis, Ziegfeld Follies, Annie Get Your Gun, On the Town and An American in Paris.—Susan Svehla
THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS
20th Century Fox Home Video
Movie: 3.0; Disc: 3.5Marketed in the Marilyn Monroe "Diamond Collection" boxed set, but able to be purchased separately, There's No Business Like Show Business , released by 20th Century-Fox in CinemaScope and Color by DeLuxe, only features Monroe in a supporting role, as the movie is not actually a vehicle for the blonde star. However, There's No Business Like Show Business is a wonderful example of movie musicals of the past, musicals produced by Fox and not MGM. Featuring a simply marvelous print letterboxed at 2:35:1, the Color by DeLuxe has been restored to almost Technicolor hues and density and the print is absolutely pristine. This production takes us back to Vaudeville Days as envisioned in 1954 when the movie was made, and it evokes the best of 1950s escapist movie entertainment.
Starring Ethel Merman (whose transformation from the Broadway stage to Hollywood was a rocky one, by virtue of not fitting Hollywood's image of the beautiful female star), Donald O'Connor, Marilyn Monroe, Dan Dailey, Johnny Ray and Mitzi Gaynor, and featuring music and lyrics by Irving Berlin (including the title song), the movie follows the fictitious history of the Donahue family, one of Vaudeville's finest, as they cope with changes in the entertainment business and changes within their own family (son Johnny Ray becomes a priest, second son Donald O'Connor, who drinks too much, suddenly disappears without word nor warning).
The movie, using the framework of the musical, attempts to profile a loving American family as it comes to cope with change both from within and without. The manner in which early on the two performing Donahues end their act by bringing their young children onstage, dressed in costumes to match their parents, to dance a few steps and take a bow, segues into several years later when the now grown-up children join the family business and become The Five Donahues. Borrowing from the concept of Meet Me in St. Louis , the film focuses on the characters themselves, merging the drama of family and business crises with the wonderfully energetic musical framework. Donald O'Connor does a splendid job as the son who rebels against his father and the family act, having problems both professionally and with his love life (Monroe, whose career is beginning to take off, does not have enough time to devote to a relationship which frustrates the often-neglected O'Connor), creating a darker veneer over the festivities than is generally common with the Hollywood musical.
Marilyn Monroe has several colorful, gyrating and sensual production numbers, and she becomes a standout in a role that does not dominate the movie. She plays a clear-headed business woman who explains that she does not have the family support nor reputation that the Donahues have, that it is more difficult for her to break through to the big time, but break through she will. She knows when to back down (when the Donahues announce they will be performing the same number that she has sweated bullets to perfect, she graciously understands she is the supporting act and backs down) and when to hold firm. This is a more realistic, non-ditzy Monroe performance, and her musical talents are wonderfully displayed.
However, by movie's end, the tear-jerking warmth of the Hollywood musical wins out by having the entire Donahue clan reunite, all hugs, kisses and forgiveness, as they appear on the bill for the final performance of a former great Vaudeville theater and dance and sing their way into everyone's hearts one more time. While There's No Business Like Show Business is not a classic Hollywood musical, it is a darn good one and a movie that allows the audience to sink into another bygone era of moviemaking and simply be entertained by good drama, wonderful production numbers and dazzling color and CinemaScope.