Strikingly-filmed musical western delight with Rosemary Clooney, RED GARTERS makes it's DVD debut from Paramount with a fine transfer which does full justice to the film's bold Technicolor palette. Clooney plays Calaveras Kate (perhaps a sly dig at Calamity Jane), a saloon singer who's in love with the local golden boy Jason Carberry (Jack Carson). Though when she claps eyes on handsome cowboy Reb Randall (Guy Mitchell) she sees the perfect way of getting Jason jealous...and down the aisle! Some great Jay Livingston-Ray Evans tunes including "This Is Greater Than I Thought", "Red Garters" and "Meet a Happy Guy". Designed in avant-garde style by Hal Pereira and Roland Anderson, the striking visual look of the film is highlighted by a yellow sky backdrop and fanciful theatre-style set pieces.
Four years earlier, Clooney had been paired with up-and-comer Mitchell on a range of CALL ME MADAM cover singles for Columbia. They had a remarkable chemistry and continued their friendship through this film.
Paramount's DVD offers no extras, but the full-frame image is crisp and colourful, and will make a fine addition to your classic movie collection.
Red Garters
There are very few duets that can match the talent of Guy Mitchell and Rosemary Clooney. They are superb. Set these two voices to the background of a satire story-line and you produce a classic, one of a kind movie that will last for generations. Set the whole movie on stage and you create the look and feel of todays "computer generated graphics" The stage setting amplifies the underlying satire of western movies and the Mitchell/Clooney music is upbeat and enlightening. The combination is enjoyable, funny and creative. Guy Mitchell's singing voice is, as always, inexplicably perfect.
The Sets Are So Distracting!
This movie really has no solid storyline, poor actors aside from Jack Carson & Rosemary Clooney, and horrible sets. Don't waste your money unless you love Technicolor and Rosemary's singing.
This is the second film titled Anything Goes to star Bing Crosby (the first was a 1936 film). Both films change a lot of the original Cole Porter stage musical, but at least the later version keeps a few more Porter songs. Still, there is something odd about a Cole Porter film filled with "additional songs" by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen (perhaps Porter's work was not warm and cuddly enough for 1956 America, although it seemed to work well at MGM with High Society, released the same year). Crosby plays a Broadway star teamed up with young TV hotshot Donald O'Connor. Vacationing separately in Europe and needing a leading lady for their upcoming show, each signs a prospect--Crosby snaps up Mitzi Gaynor (at her perkiest) and O'Connor finds Jeanmaire, a French dancer. The... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Robert Lewis DVD Release Date: Released the 27 September 2005 Usually ships in 6 to 7 days
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Fans of classic movie musicals will be in heaven with Astaire & Rogers Collection, Vol. 1, featuring the DVD debut of five films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the quintessential dancing duo. The two gems of the set are Top Hat (1935), generally considered their definitive movie, and Swing Time (1936), which many consider their most enjoyable. Follow the Fleet (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), and The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) fill out the set, each with its own charms.
This is one movie musical that doesn't bother adapting its stage presentation for the big screen: Li'l Abner cheerfully uses brightly colored, patently fake backdrops and stage sets for its mythical setting. And why not? A movie musical based on a cartoon strip is about as far from reality as you can get. Al Capp's legendary comic about the hillbilly denizens of Dogpatch was brought to Broadway by the estimable comedy team Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, who also produced the movie. Along with sampling Capp's world (the pursuit of noncommittal Abner by Daisy Mae on Sadie Hawkins Day is a major plot device), the movie is a goofy record of 1950s attitudes and concerns--in fact, Dogpatch is threatened with destruction when the government wants to use it as an atomic test site. The... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Leslie Parrish - Stubby Kaye Director(s): Melvin Frank DVD Release Date: Released the 19 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Broadway to Hollywood: The Classic Musicals Collection is a five-film set of fondly remembered, mostly MGM musicals: Easter Parade (1948), The Band Wagon (1953), Bells Are Ringing (1960), Finian's Rainbow (Warner, 1968), and Brigadoon (1954). Four of the films are making their DVD debut, all are available separately (for a higher price), and the two best films, Easter Parade and The Band Wagon, come in two-disc special editions complete with commentary tracks, new and vintage documentaries, and musical outtakes. Both of those films star Fred Astaire following his return from premature retirement. Easter Parade is a Pygmalion-like tale of a Vaudeville veteran (Astaire) who attempts to develop an act with a small-timer... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Kelly DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Two innocent sisters from Ohio hit Greenwich Village and must cope with wall-shaking subway construction, the neighborhood kooks, and a whopping $65 a month for an apartment. My Sister Eileen is one of those "Look out, world, we're conquering Manhattan!" movies, with Betty Garrett as a plain, would-be writer and Janet Leigh as her knockout sister, an aspiring actress who draws men like milk draws kittens. The 1955 movie's well-scrubbed Greenwich Village is a delightful fantasy playground. The city was never like this, but it probably should have been. In one of his early roles, Jack Lemmon (crooning one of the Jule Styne-Leo Robin songs quite charmingly) plays a magazine publisher, one of the many Young Men with Ideas he would play in the subsequent decade. Even more interesting... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Richard Quine DVD Release Date: Released the 22 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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