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Musicals DVDs

Menotti - Amahl and the Night Visitors

Sales Rank:5704
List Price: $24.95
Lowest New Price: $16.79
Lowest Used Price: $17.31
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Black & White
Classical
DVD-Video
Subtitled
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Menotti
Kuhlmann
McIver
Schippers

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Going My Way/Holiday Inn

Sales Rank:3638
List Price: $14.98
Lowest New Price: $5.00
Lowest Used Price: $4.14
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Black & White
Closed-captioned
DVD-Video
Full Screen
NTSC

Director(s):

Leo McCarey
Mark Sandrich

Actor(s):

Bing Crosby
Fred Astaire
Barry Fitzgerald
Marjorie Reynolds
Virginia Dale

Going My Way
This irresistible Oscar winner from writer-director Leo McCarey (An Affair to Remember) stars Bing Crosby as a low-key, crooning priest who joins the parish of a no-nonsense but sweet old Irish man of the cloth (Barry Fitzgerald). While Bing turns local toughs into a choir, the elder priest worries over the church building fund and whether he'll get a chance to see his old mother back in Ireland before she dies. One would have to have a heart of stone not to be won over by this charmer, with a lovely ending guaranteed to make you bawl for a week. --Tom Keogh

Holiday Inn
This perennial, Christmas-season favorite from 1942 teamed Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire as entertainers (and rival suitors of Marjorie Reynolds) running an inn that is only open on holidays. It's a great excuse for lots of singing and dancing, seamlessly wrapped in a catchy story, and Astaire's frequent director Mark Sandrich (Top Hat, Shall We Dance) doesn't let us down. The Irving Berlin numbers (each one connected to a different holiday) are winners, with Crosby's warm performance of "White Christmas" a movie touchstone. --Tom Keogh

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Hair

Sales Rank:2939
List Price: $14.98
Lowest New Price: $5.84
Lowest Used Price: $4.93
MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Closed-captioned
Color
DVD-Video
Full Screen
Letterboxed
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

John Savage
Treat Williams
Beverly D'Angelo
Annie Golden
Dorsey Wright

The Age of Aquarius is brought to life by the filmmaker who made Amadeus a household word. Milos Forman directed this version of James Rado, Gerome Ragni, and Galt MacDermot's landmark musical in 1979 between his Oscar-winning films One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus. With mixed reviews (Gene Siskel named it that year's best film) and lukewarm box-office grosses, the film all but disappeared from the collective consciousness. Yet the film beautifully delivers on its promise to bring the '60s back to life. Hair re-creates a colorful world of counterculture finding an anvil to pound on: the Vietnam War. Forman and his design team allow the film to wash over you, starting at the free-flowing opening in which masses of hippies, police, and even their horses eagerly groove to the familiar beat of "Aquarius." In the best work of his career, Treat Williams makes his leading- man debut as Berger, the leader of the Central Park troop who takes draftee Claude (John Savage) under his wing on his trip through New York City and the apex of what the '60s was. The new recording of the music is quite fine, with Chicago band member Don Dacus's rendition of the title song a highlight. As Berger's pièce de résistance number says, "I've Got Life"; so does the film, right down to its poignant declaration to "let the sunshine in." --Doug Thomas

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Gigi (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Sales Rank:1791
List Price: $20.98
Lowest New Price: $10.99
Lowest Used Price: $10.54
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Color
DVD-Video
Original recording remastered
Restored
Special Edition
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Leslie Caron
Maurice Chevalier
Louis Jourdan
Hermione Gingold
Eva Gabor

Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's 1958 direct-to-screen follow-up to their My Fair Lady was--miraculously--every bit as memorable as that stage smash. Set in fin-de-siècle Paris and based on a Colette story, Gigi also is about a girl (Leslie Caron) on a lower rung of society who blossoms into Cinderellahood before our eyes and ears. Thank heaven for Hermione Gingold and Maurice Chevalier as her mentors, and Louis Jourdan as her prince. The screenplay writer and lyricist Lerner always said that Gigi's title song was his favorite of all he'd written, and it's easy to see why--"Gigi" is a transcendent anthem to being transformed by love from an unexpected source. The entire score, including "Say a Prayer" (which had been cut from My Fair Lady), "I Remember It Well," "The Night They Invented Champagne," and "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," comprise a sparkling, rare soundtrack recording that stands alone and can be enjoyed and understood by those who have not yet seen the movie, deprived souls that they are. The winner of nine Academy Awards (plus a special Oscar for Chevalier), including Best Picture, Gigi was the last great MGM movie musical and one of the best. --Robert Windeler

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Buena Vista Social Club

Sales Rank:4931
List Price: $9.98
Lowest New Price: $4.62
Lowest Used Price: $3.98
MPAA Rating: G (General Audience)

Format:

Anamorphic
Black & White
Closed-captioned
Color
DVD-Video
Full Screen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Compay Segundo
Ibrahim Ferrer
Rubén González
Eliades Ochoa
Ry Cooder

In 1996, composer, producer, and guitar legend Ry Cooder entered Egrem Studios in Havana with the forgotten greats of Cuban music, many of them in their 60s and 70s, some of them long since retired. The resulting album, Buena Vista Social Club, became a Grammy-winning international bestseller. When Cooder returned to Havana in 1998 to record a solo album by 72-year-old vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer, filmmaker Wim Wenders was on hand to document the occasion. Wenders splits the film between portraits of the performers, who tell their stories directly to the camera as they wander the streets and neighborhoods of Havana, and a celebration of the music heard in performance scenes in the studio, in their first concert in Amsterdam, and in their second and final concert at Carnegie Hall. The songs are too often cut short in this fashion, but Buena Vista Social Club is not a concert film. Wenders weaves the artist biographies with a glimpse of modern Cuba remembering its past, capturing a lost culture in music that is suddenly, unexpectedly revived for audiences in Havana and around the world. Wenders makes his presence practically invisible, as if his directorial flourishes or off-screen narration might deflect attention from the artists, who do a fine job of telling their own stories through interviews and music. It's a loving portrait of a master class in Cuban music, with a vital cast of aging performers whose energy and passion belie their years. --Sean Axmaker

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The Glenn Miller Story

Sales Rank:2512
List Price: $9.99
Lowest New Price: $4.49
Lowest Used Price: $3.96
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Anamorphic
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Subtitled
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

James Stewart
June Allyson
Harry Morgan
Charles Drake
George Tobias

James Stewart, at his warmest and most avuncular, plays the bandleader who rocketed to fame during the swing era. The Glenn Miller Story may be a whitewashed version of Miller's life, but it certainly is a pleasant example of the feel-good Hollywood biopic, with the usual conventions: early struggles, loyal wife (June Allyson at her chirpiest), personal sacrifice--Miller joins the Army when war breaks out, although he doesn't have to--and ultimate tragedy. All the Glenn Miller classics filling the soundtrack make the film pretty easy to take, too: "Moonlight Serenade," "A String of Pearls," "Chattanooga Choo-Choo." Miller plays the great "In the Mood" with his military band during a World War II air-raid warning. Pure corn, but it works. Director Anthony Mann, better known for his superb series of hard-bitten fifties westerns with Stewart, keeps the story moving gently and gracefully. A hot jazz interlude features Louis Armstrong and Gene Krupa. --Robert Horton

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Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (Full Screen Special Edition)

Sales Rank:2585
List Price: $19.98
Lowest New Price: $9.98
Lowest Used Price: $6.91
MPAA Rating: G (General Audience)

Format:

AC-3
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Full Screen
Subtitled
Special Edition
NTSC

Director(s):

J.M. Kenny
Mel Stuart

Actor(s):

Gene Wilder
Jack Albertson
Peter Ostrum
Roy Kinnear
Julie Dawn Cole

Having proven itself as a favorite film of children around the world, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is every bit as entertaining now as it was when originally released in 1971. There's a timeless appeal to Roald Dahl's classic children's novel, which was playfully preserved in this charming musical, from the colorful carnival-like splendor of its production design to the infectious melody of the "Oompah-Loompah" songs that punctuate the story. Who can forget those diminutive Oompah-Loompah workers who recite rhyming parental warnings ("Oompah-Loompah, doopity do...") whenever some mischievous child has disobeyed Willy Wonka's orders to remain orderly? Oh, but we're getting ahead of ourselves ... it's really the story of the impoverished Charlie Bucket, who, along with four other kids and their parental guests, wins a coveted golden ticket to enter the fantastic realm of Wonka's mysterious confectionery. After the other kids have proven themselves to be irresponsible brats, it's Charlie who impresses Wonka and wins a reward beyond his wildest dreams. But before that, the tour of Wonka's factory provides a dazzling parade of delights, and with Gene Wilder giving a brilliant performance as the eccentric candyman, Wonka gains an edge of menace and madness that nicely counterbalances the movie's sentimental sweetness. It's that willingness to risk a darker tone--to show that even a wonderland like Wonka's can be a weird and dangerous place if you're a bad kid--that makes this an enduring family classic. --Jeff Shannon

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Calamity Jane

Sales Rank:3210
List Price: $19.98
Lowest New Price: $12.84
Lowest Used Price: $12.81
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Closed-captioned
Color
DVD-Video
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Doris Day
Howard Keel
Allyn Ann McLerie
Philip Carey
Dick Wesson

This 1953 musical is very much a vehicle for Doris Day, in the title role, as a wild cowgal who can outshoot and outsing any boy on the range. When an actress arrives in Deadwood and uses her feminine charms on Jane's secret love, Wild Bill Hickock (Howard Keel), Jane tries to mend her tomboy ways. Not exactly up to the feminist code of honor, this is still energetic and Day is very perky. Of course, one could almost detect a homosexual undercurrent with the cross-dressing Jane, but this was Hollywood in the 1950s, so we best not. This won an Oscar for Best Song--"Secret Love," by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster. --Rochelle O'Gorman

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High Society

Sales Rank:3378
List Price: $12.97
Lowest New Price: $5.92
Lowest Used Price: $6.78
MPAA Rating: Unrated

Format:

Full Screen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Bing Crosby
Grace Kelly
Frank Sinatra
Louis Armstrong and His Band

MGM's bold idea to remake George Cukor's Oscar-winning upperclass romantic farce, The Philadelphia Story, into a star-studded, Technicolor musical with Cole Porter tunes somehow works splendidly and remains an underrated gem. Even the plot and character names--and some bits of dialogue--all remain the same as the original. Crooning Bing Crosby replaces Cary Grant as the wealthy ex-husband trying to win back his soon-to-be-remarried ex-wife, spoiled ice queen Tracy Lord (Grace Kelly, stunning and aloof in her last film role, originated in the earlier comedy by Katherine Hepburn). Unlike Grant, however, Crosby has jazz great Louis Armstrong, playing himself, in his corner for quixotic persuasion. Frank Sinatra (cocky in James Stewart's former role) and Celeste Holm add support as the nosy reporters covering, and subsequently complicating, the upcoming wedding. Sure, High Society lacks the original's witty satire, sarcasm, and character complexity; but it's assuredly paced and wonderfully acted, and contains enough romantic chemistry to keep the plot engaging. And then there's the music. Unlike the grandiose production numbers of many '40s and '50s musicals, High Society's musical sequences are considerably low-key and intimate, focusing on Porter's lyrical content, and the style in which it's delivered by the charismatic performers. Armstrong kicks the film off in telling style: he sings the title track, a calypso tune outlining the plot like a Greek chorus, not as an elaborately choreographed song-and-dance number, but instead stuffed claustrophobically in the back of a limousine with his jazz band. Other musical standouts include Sinatra and Crosby playfully tossing barbs during "Well, Did You Evah?"; Crosby and Armstrong teaming up for an energetic clash of styles in "Now You Has Jazz"; the two soaring, archetypal ballads by the leads--Crosby's "I Love You, Samantha" and Sinatra's superior "You're Sensational"; and, finally, the satirical Sinatra/Holm duet, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?," the closest High Society ever comes to social or class commentary. --Dave McCoy

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The Doris Day Collection, Vol. 2 (Romance on the High Seas / My Dream Is Yours / On Moonlight Bay / I'll See You in My Dreams / By the Light of the Silvery Moon / Lucky Me)

Sales Rank:5364
List Price: $59.98
Lowest New Price: $32.01
Lowest Used Price: $32.00
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Black & White
Closed-captioned
Color
Full Screen
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Chuck Jones
David Butler
Friz Freleng
Jack Donohue
Jack Scholl

Actor(s):

Jack Carson
Doris Day
Janis Paige
Danny Thomas
Mel Blanc

Doris Day fans will be dizzy with pleasure over The Doris Day Collection, Volume 2. This package of six Warner Bros. films covers the early phase of Day's movie career, including her debut picture, and is actually better and more of-a-piece than Warners' previous Day set. The box doesn't include anything from the later Rock Hudson stage of her career: This is the former Doris von Kappelhoff in full youthful sparkle, with her tomboyish attitude and freckled perkiness (and skillful singing, which is showcased in each film).

Her 1948 debut, Romance on the High Seas, actually presents Day in a different light from her subsequent well-scrubbed image. (Maybe this is what co-star Oscar Levant meant when he later quipped, "I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin.") She's a sassy, hep-talking band singer, drawn into an unlikely (and extremely silly) plot involving confused identity during a South American cruise. Michael Curtiz might not be a comedy director, but the script is fun and there's no mistaking the spectacle of a star being born.

The follow-up, My Dream Is Yours, returns Curtiz and leading man Jack Carson in a tale that has some parallels to Day's real life: she's a singer with a young child, looking for her breakthrough. The movie's a serviceable but humdrum backstage story with great vintage locations, and Bugs Bunny appears in a surreal dream sequence. The Technicolor shines here, as it does through much of the set; the only black-and-white film is I'll See You in My Dreams, an enjoyably low-key biopic of lyricist Gus Kahn (Danny Thomas), who wrote so many of the signature tunes of the 1920s. A great score ("Makin' Whoopee," "It Had to Be You") help this one past the conventions of the composer biopic; Doris plays Kahn's alpha-female wife.

Day's rising popularity was confirmed with the success of On Moonlight Bay and By the Light of the Silvery Moon, a pair of old-timey musicals based on Booth Tarkington's "Penrod" stories. Nostalgia for the WWI era runs high in these sugary confections, with Doris paired with Gordon MacRae and a batch of vintage tunes. The strong ensemble and the backlot re-creation of a bygone era are almost impossible to resist.

By her own account, Day was exhausted by her Warners contract at the time of Lucky Me, the latest film (1955) in this set. The lame showbiz story indicates as much, with Doris stranded in Miami and coming to the attention of composer Bob Cummings. The widescreen CinemaScope process gives some oomph to the musical numbers, and if Day herself was exhausted it doesn't show; America's sweetheart never failed to turn on the high beams, and it's easy to see why the moviegoing public needed her to twinkle. --Robert Horton

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