A colorful and fun MGM musical
593005
One of the most enjoyable of the MGM Technicolor musicals, ON THE TOWN (1949) was produced by Arthur Freed and co-directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen.  The witty Betty Comden and Adolph Green screenplay, based on the Broadway musical, stars Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin as three love-starved sailors given 24 hours shore leave in Manhattan.  The movie goes non-stop from 6:00 a.m. until the following 6:00 a.m. and benefits from a lot of rare on-location filming.

(CAUTION:  PLOT SPOILERS THROUGHOUT THIS REVIEW!)  First of all, the guys fall in love with a poster of Miss Turnstiles of the Month (Vera-Ellen) in the subway, then find her for real and do not let her out of their sight.  Kelly is paired off with her for some sensational dances.  Sinatra sets his sights on a lady taxi driver (a wonderful Betty "Come Up to My Place" Garrett) as the gang heads to the Museum of Natural History.  There, Munshin moons over anthropologist Ann Miller ("Modern Man").  Before you know it, the gang is doing "New York, New York" on top of the NBC Building in Rockefeller Center, with its spectacular aerial view of Manhattan.  (The gone World Trade Center towers were not even built yet.)

ON THE TOWN boasts rich color and imaginative production design as we move into nighttime.  The sextette meets on top of the Empire State Building at dusk, then in a hilarious series of restaurants with waiters fawning over Miss Turnstiles, and finally Coney Island in the middle of the night and a nutty police escort on the Brooklyn Bridge in the pre-dawn hours.  (The dinosaur has collapsed at the Museum of Natural History.)  Fear not, though, there is a happy and romantic ending (a reprise of "New York, New York") to this tuneful and rather underrated musical delight.  The six actors have seldom been better or more charming.  (Reviewed from videocassette)
2743615
60 years on, this musical, based on the 1943 Broadway hit with music by Rodgers and Hammerstein is still an upbeat delight.
I have memories of this airing on CBS back in the 70s, but as I was very young, I didn't really appreciate it or understand its storyline.
 By 1980, there was some televised commemoration of the film's 25th anniversary with commentary by star, Shirley Jones, who made her film debut  as the heroine, Laurey. One got a sense of the joyousness Jones had in undertaking the task, and made wish I'd been around to experience that.
 As the 80s continued, and I was living the the big state south of Oklahoma, I developed a considerable appreciation for they way it captured the atmosphere of the dusty rural Midwest and Southwest.
  Set in early 1900s  pre-statehood Oklahoma Territory, we are greeted with a view of the story's hero, Curly, portrayed by the incomparable Gordon MacRae as he rides through a cornfield en route to see  young Laurey Williams, who resides at the farm of her Aunt Eller(Charlotte Greenwood), and invite her to be his date at an upcoming box social. The very witty and perceptive Aunt Eller can see the sparks between Curly and her niece. But Laurey's snide remarks result in Curly's withdrawal of the invitation, and and overly prideful Laurey inviting her aunt's dubious farmhand, Jud Fry(a sinister Rod Steiger) instead.
  Curly invites a rather dimwitted girl named Gertie( Barbara Lawrence) to the box social instead.
 In the meantime, the locals are diverted by return of cowboy, Will Parker(Gene Nelson) from Kansas City, Missouri. Destined for a romance of his own , Will gives those gathered to welcome him at the train station that "Everything's Up-to-Date in Kansas City", leading most of those present in a lively dance routine.
 Curly has a snide confrontation with Jud Fry before the big event in the farmhand's grim and unkempt living quarters.
 Ado Annie, (Gloria Grahame), Laurey's friend, with a reputation for being a shameless flirt discourses on her reputation with the song, "I'm Just a Gal Who Can't Say No", and is intrigued by a fraudulent traveling  peddler going by the name, Ali Hakim (the delightful, pre-"Green Acres" era Eddie Albert, with whom I had a chance encounter as a child in the late 70s).
  While girls headed for the box social stop at Laurey's house to change and freshen up for the event, there is a lovely, graceful, and occasionally comical moment( prominently featuring "Brigadoon's" Virginia Bosler) during which Laurey encourages her guests not to spend too much time lamenting a lost love and to be resilient via the song, "Many a New Moon". But we shall see that she has trouble following her own advice.
  She tries the Elixir of Egypt given to her by Ali Hakim, and falls asleep in a rocking chair where she has a dream--which turns into a very bad one--about what her life with Jud would be like if she married him, which does give Ali Hakim at least some credibility.
  Laurey's decision to ditch Jud en route to the party leads to a more hazardous turn of events.
  To the song, "Territory Folks", Eller has to maintain order when bickering between cowboys and farmers threatened to ruin the square dance.
 In the face of Jud's threats, Curly purposes to Laurey amid the beauteous strains of "Let People Say We're in Love".
 But even their wedding day is threatened by Jud's villainy.
  James Whitmore's Mr. Carnes, Jay C. Flippen's Skidmore, "Oklahoma's" original Broadway cast member Bambi Linn as Dream Laurey and James Mitchell's Dream Curly help round out the cast as those involved receive their romantic rewards to a classic score whose titular song is now Oklahoma's State Song, and  to a fabled ride in a surrey with fringe on top, we witness a glorious and triumphant finale under silver-lined clouds.--A beautiful morning, and a beautiful day, indeed!
3596464
As a huge fan of musicals I was curious to hear what Harry had done with them in this album.  I was not disapointed.  A great twist on great classics from the Wizard of Oz, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Annie, Mary Poppins, and the Sound of Music.  It's music for all ages.  A feel good cd.
1050648
Musical theater fans will eat this up.  It is not the original cast save for Ben Vereen who is matchless--sinuous in voice and movement.  I remember seeing him in a preview of the first production and the audience fairly demonstrated the joy and excitement they took in his performance when he simply re-entered a scene.  Chita Rivera does Leland Palmer's old role, and she is inimitable.  Martha Raye (!) does the role Irene Ryan originated and Andrea Martin won a Tony for in the latest revival, and she is a surprise--singing well and keeping the mugging to a minimum.  William Katt is a revelation as Pippin (originally John Rubinstein)--guileless, handsome in face and voice.  This DVD is a delight.
4576829
Loved this musical when I saw it on Broadway.  Fun music even if you haven't seen the production.  See it if you can.  But I highly recommend the soundtrack before you go.  The lyrics can be fast and furious and I caught so much more of it once I had the soundtrack to listen too.
4434976
Don't get me wrong, vol. 1 was great to see.  But I have some fond memories of the listed numbers, and it's possible this volume might have less star wattage and show familiarity but more polished, enjoyable performances.  The list:

The Leads:
Patti LuPone, Anything Goes
Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur, Mame
Robert Morse, How to Succeed
Jane Lapotaire, Piaf
Richard Kiley, Man of La Mancha

All Singing, All Dancing
Nell Carter and cast, Ain't Misbehavin'
Michael Jeter and Brent Barrett, Grand Hotel
Gregory Hines and cast, Jelly's Last Jam
Walter Bobbie and Nathan Lane, Guys and Dolls

Revivals and Record Breakers
George Hearn and cast, La Cage aux Folles
Cast, Les Miserables
Shirley Verrett and cast, Carousel
Jerry Orbach, Chicago

Bonus Performances
Katharine Hepburn, Coco
Robert Lindsay, Me and My Girl
Tom Bosley, Fiorello!
Kathi Moss and cast, Nine
Bill Hutton and cast, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
2297545
a big extravaganza musical. the musicals are very grand and ostentious but very much in the tradition of musicals in the 30s when entertainment was escape from the dreary reality of the Depression. william powell, luise rainer and myrna loy are all wonderful, thought myrna loy's billie burke came very late in the movie. my favorite scene was when Flo (powell) was courting Billie (loy) at grant's tomb. simplicity and wonderful sweet. you ll have to see it just for that scene. luise rainer's telephone won her the oscar. the movie has a few touching scenes, but i did wish the movie was brisker and tighter.
4530849
If you love Broadway shows, this movie will be right down your alley.  It is a feast for the eyes and ears. It is a real treat to see Gene Kelley's choreography in not only the marvelous chorus numbers, but with the leads as well.  While we might not agree that Barbara Streisand is exactly the right age, she gives her usually honed and larger than life performance.  Walter Mathau is perfect as Mr. Vandergelder!  All the 2nd leads lend just the right touch.  It is well worth the very small cost to wander back to the deligtfuly 1890's.
2757370
A pleasant group of songs. I like the musical. This documents a different time and I like it. The voices sound better than those on the original cast cd.
1072004
Mr. Sondheim created this show, which failed to find backers, before he got the job of writing lyrics for Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story." It reflects the '50's musical sensibilities, although the setting is Brooklyn at the time of the stock market crash. This staging, from the year 2000, has a nice crew of voices. Compare the innocence of "Saturday Night" to the darkness of "Sweeney Todd" and you learn a lot about the history of American Musical Theater during the last half of the 20th century. If you are a big fan of Stephen's work, you will want this show in your collection. Even though most of us will never see this on a stage, it is easy to follow the  story and listening to the album while on a summer drive is fun.
4755504
I had heard this was a very funny movie, and it was.  It was also beautifully done.  What was siprising to me is that it is an "old school " Disnery Musical.  Yes, the pictures are CGI generated as opposed to hand drawn but it features music on par with say Hercules, which was a pleasent suprise.  I'd reccomend it to anyone who is a fan of the mid Diseny classics (aladdin, The little Mermaid, etc).
2993854
I enjoyed this musical collection. Sinatra and Kelly made a good duo.  Supporting casts of Betty Garrett, Ann Miller, Vera Ellen, Jules Munshin, Ester Williams and Kathryn Grayson made all three movies special.  Really enjoyed the energy and talents of Betty Garrett and Jules Munshin. Gene Kelly is still the consummate dancer/singer. These movies are rarely broadcasted so they were a great addition to my classic movie collection.
2964549
Susan Hayward at her spectacular best. This is a great musical with an abundance of songs and glorious production numbers and Jane Froman's voice on the soundtrack. The technicolor is radiant and the entire cast is superb. If you are a musical fan, a Hayward fan, or a fan of pure entertainment, then I urge to get this movie on DVD.
2793206
This well performed,  musical classic is a joy to watch.  Great songs, wonderful costumes and a old fashioned romance -- everyone in the story is a winner
3842768
"The Climax" provides Boris Karloff not only with his first Technicolor film, but audiences with a handsome, humdinger of a mustache-twisting Victorian melodrama.

True, the story is not supernatural, but what does that matter when Boris keeps his deceased girl friend preserved beneath a gauze shroud in a secret room? If this is not sufficient, then just savor the mouth watering color photography, art direction and costumes.

This is one of the most visually handsome color films from the 40's, and ranks favorably against Minnelli's "Meet Me in St. Louis" in the warmth, depth, and clarity of its chromatic range, whilst simultaneously recalling Twentieth Century Fox's lighting schemes from "The Little Princess," and anticipating "Blanche Fury" in its tonal subtleties.

The settings are both sumptuous and historically accurate, (sharp eyed viewers will note that some of the same props show up later in Ulmer's "Bluebeard,") and provide the perfect background for the cloak and dagger theatrics.

Not to be outdistanced are Vera West's (one of Hollywood's most undervalued designers) late Victorian gowns--each a marvel of velvet, chiffon, plumes, and various embroideries, not to mention being a testament to the lost art of dressmaking.

Susanna Foster not only wears them charmingly, but sings like an angel, until Boris hypnotizes her. Thereafter, she is a bit somnambulistic--something of a problem given an impending operatic engagement.

Not to worry though, a turban-less Turhan Bey will save the day, in a nick of time, allowing Susanna to hit her high C on opening night, as scowling villain Karloff rushes off to a succulent fate.

That fate, as depicted, with Uncle Boris collapsing on a curtained bier that is laden with the corpse of his long dead (though still photogenic) inamorata, as they both go up in flames, is as aesthetically and dramatically delicious as they come.

One can almost imagine the the whoops of the popcorn patrons as they cheered this pyrotechnic finale in the Rialto's of yesteryear.

Not to be missed.
1943617
There is a long list of classic American musicals I had never seen or hadnt seen until the last few years.  One of those was Grease.  Id avoided it because of some of what Id heard about the storyline.  But I couldn't pass when I saw that Fox was joining the live musical bandwagon and producing Grease Live!  With people I am familiar with in the cast, I figured this was as good a time as any to watch the movie.  Sadly, it was pretty much exactly what I was expecting.

The musical takes up back to 1959 and tells the story of Sandy (Julianne Hough) and Danny (Aaron Tveit), high school seniors who had met the summer before on the beach.  They figure they are going their separate ways until Sandys family moves from Salt Lake City and she attends a new school, the school where Danny just happens to go.

Of course, they cant just get back together.  Sandys a good girl with strict parents.  Dannys a greaser.  Sandy makes friends with a group of girls lead by Rizzo (Vanessa Hudgens), who seems to have a bit of a crush on Danny.  Will their very different backgrounds keep them from making their relationship work in the real world?

I can certainly see the appeal of the musical.  Even today, 1950s nostalgia is strong, and it was certainly strong in the 1970s, when this musical was first written.  The music is fun, and the dancing is top notch.  This is an example of the best in the genre from that standpoint.

And NCB could learn a thing or two from the production here.  Yes, it was all done on soundstages live, but that didn't mean it was anything less than glorious.  The costumes and the sets were both wonderful.  The effects shots, pretty much reserved for a drag race late in the movie, were top notch.  This was a huge step up from the three NBC efforts.  There are also some awesome costume changes that compare to the best of Broadway.

Likewise, the acting was better.  Oh, Im not comparing it to any of the performances from the classic movie since Ive never seen that.  Again, Im comparing it to the NBC live shows weve gotten so far, which have featured acting that can be a bit stiff.  And it was a blast watching the cast, which included such people as Boys II Men, Carlos PanaVega, and even Eve Plumb as the female mechanics teacher at the school.  I felt everyone did a great job.

I think one different was the live audience, which gave the performers someone to react against.  Of course, it was a double edged sword when they used the audience as part of the action.  For some scenes it work, but for others, it left me scratching my head.  One scene in particular with two sets of bleachers on front lawn of the school springs immediately to mind in the head scratcher category.

No, my issues with the movie are more with the story.  First, theres the question of the timeline.  I guess the story takes place over the course of a school year, but it felt to me like maybe a month had passed at most.  Either I didn't follow the story as much as I thought I did or they weren't clear on the passage of time in this version.

But thats not nearly as big a deal to me as the moral of the story.  All the conflict goes away when Sandy changes herself and her values to match Dannys.  What relationship will last when you change that much for someone?  Whats even worse is that from the very beginning, Danny and his friends are shown as shallow teens who degrade women.  Trust me, they will not have a healthy relationship.  And we even get an object lesson in how they treat women with a storyline involving Rizzo.  Considering I hear Never change for a man preached to teenage women, Im surprised this is such a popular musical since it has the exact opposite moral.

So I guess Im one of the few who will never be a fan of this story.  For a new generation, this product is fun, but the moral keeps me from fully recommending Grease Live!
1543534
This was not the first film version of this great George and Ira Gershwin musical, but it was the best.  It had been a huge hit on Broadway, with Ginger Rogers in the lead role (a fact nodded at by changing the female lead from Molly Gray to Ginger Gray).  It was the final and best of a half dozen or so musicals that Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney made together in a very short period of time.  It isn't that the production was so much more lavish than the previous films, but the blending of several absolutely stellar Gershwin songs with the combined talents of Judy, Mickey, and Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra.

We have to be honest here:  the plot is nothing to write home about, like a host of other musicals (until the late 1940s and early 1950s, the majority of film musicals were rather thin on plot).  The story, such as it is, is a frame upon which to hang songs, and luckily there are a host of songs.  This is not exactly the original songs as performed in the stage version of the show; some of the weaker numbers being replaced by stronger Gershwin numbers.  At worse, the numbers are highly entertaining, but a few of them completely transcend the typical productions in most of the Garland-Rooney MGM musicals.  Judy Garland had few moments in her career as splendid as when she sang "But Not for Me," and almost the same thing could be said for "Embraceable You."  "I Got Rhythm" is one of the finest numbers that Judy and Mickey ever did together.  I am not a fan of the big bands ( I mean the swing bands, not jazz orchestras such as Duke Ellington's), but I make a bit of an exception for Tommy Dorsey, and the numbers his orchestra covers in this film show why.  "Fascinatin' Rhythm" features a marvelous arrangement, and gives wonderful moments for many of the wonderful soloists that filled his band.  My lone complaint is that Dorsey himself doesn't do as much playing as I would have liked.  Though he wasn't a great jazz innovator, his technique on trombone was simply amazing, and he managed to transform the instrument from a bleating horn to a subtle, beautiful, and lyrical instrument.

This film is also an important transition film in the careers of both Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney.  It was the last film that they would ever do together, after having starred together in a host of youth musicals in the previous few years.  It signaled the beginning of the decline of Rooney's career.  He would go on to make a huge number of films in his career, most of them rather minor parts, and he would from time to time score a very fine role, but from this point on his and Judy Garland's careers would be moving in opposite directions.  In their first film together, Rooney was the big star and Garland the newcomer, but immediately after this film Garland would be catapulted to stardom in a host of great MGM films throughout the 1940s.  But this also signaled the end of a period for Judy Garland.  She is so pure and innocent looking in this film that it almost breaks your heart.  It was essentially her last film as a teen (though she was 21 at the time).  Her next film would be MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, and it was during this film that people began giving her the drugs that would play such a large role in the rest of her life.  She would remain fresh and beautiful looking in her next several films such as THE CLOCK and THE HARVEY GIRLS, but eventually the strain would take its toll.  But not in GIRL CRAZY.  Her face is a marvel of innocence and loveliness.  I'm not sure she was ever more beautiful than in this one.