Warners "CLASSIC MUSICALS FROM THE DREAM FACTORY" in 2006 (1 Viewer)

[CameronMcC]

heres to hoping that warner will do some big reveals this week for the new year.

 

[John Hodson]

From DVD Times:

Warner Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of Classic Musicals from the Dream Factory for 25th April 2006. This collection of five newly-remastered favourites from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Golden Era are all making their debut on DVD, and include It’s Always Fair Weather, Summer Stock, Three Little Words, Till the Clouds Roll By, and Ziegfeld Follies and contain some of the most memorable numbers by the greatest stars of the genre, specifically the Hollywood musical’s golden trio of immortal legends –- Judy Garland, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly.

The famous M-G-M slogan “More Stars Than There are in Heaven” was never truer than in this spectacular collection of the fabled studio’s vintage musicals which features some of the most eye-popping numbers in the history of the film musical. In addition to Judy, Fred and Gene, the studio piles on Lena Horne, Esther Williams, Cyd Charisse, June Allyson, Frank Sinatra, Van Johnson, Kathryn Grayson, Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, William Powell, and too many to name them all!

Each feature film in this collection has been meticulously restored and remastered from its original elements by Warner Home Video and complimented with new featurettes, rare outtake musical numbers, audio only bonus outtakes and vintage cartoons. The titles will be available individually for $19.97 SRP and the five-disc collection will sell for $59.92 SRP.

Classic Musicals from the Dream Factory Collection

It’s Always Fair Weather (1955)
Originally conceived as somewhat of a follow up to the wildly successful On the Town, It’s Always Fair Weather didn’t reunite the original cast of that landmark 1949 MGM musical, which starred Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin, six years earlier. By 1955, Sinatra was unavailable and Munshin was blacklisted, so the project needed to have a fresh approach while still remaining very much a Gene Kelly vehicle. “…Fair Weather” teamed Kelly for the third and final time with the top creative talents including Stanley Donen as co-director and co-choreographer, producer Arthur Freed and writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green. This impressive group had revolutionized the movie musical, first with On The Town (1949) and then the masterpiece Singin’ in the Rain (1952). This final collaboration was a highly original film, and was the Kelly/Donen directorial partnership’s first project in Cinemascope. 25-year-old “wunderkind” Andre Previn, who was already an MGM veteran of almost a decade, was hired to write all the songs for the film’s original score (with lyricists Comden and Green) and also served as musical arranger and conductor.

Sparkling with satiric wit and exuberant production numbers, It’s Always Fair Weather centres on three World War II buddies (Kelly, Dan Dailey and Michael Kidd) who vow to reunite for old time’s sake in 10 years. When they do, they discover that their lives have moved in different directions. But romance, the fight game, the ad biz and a new medium called TV combine to restore their bond. Highlights include the buddies’ high-spirited romp using trash-can lids as dancing shoes, elegant Cyd Charisse’s k.o. of a routine with broken-nosed pugilists, and Kelly’s joyful, astonishing roller skating tap dance. Previn’s music was nominated for an Academy Award® as was Comden and Green’s writing.

DVD Special Features:
New 16x 9 widescreen transfer in 2.55:1 aspect ratio with soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1
New featurette It’s Always Fair Weather: Going Out on a High Note
3 outtake musical numbers:
The Binge/Trashcan Dance (alternate takes)
Jack and the Space Giants (with Michael Kidd)
Love Is Nothing but a Racket (with Gene Kelly & Cyd Charisse)
Two segments from The MGM Parade featuring Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly
2 classic MGM cartoons:
Deputy Droopy
Good Will to Men [16x9 2.4:1]
Audio-only bonus: I Thought They’d Never Leave outtake featuring Dolores Grey’s unused vocalTheatrical trailer
Languages: English & Français
Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)

Summer Stock (1950)
Summer Stock was Judy Garland’s last picture under her long-term MGM contract, but she went out on a high note with one of the most spectacular production numbers of her stellar career, the joyous “Get Happy.” Performed in a man’s fedora, suit jacket and black tights (eventually a signature look), with a chorus of men behind her, it’s just plain vintage Judy.

Gene Kelly performs some great numbers, including the shuffle-and-squeak You, Wonderful You dance solo making use of loose boards and newspaper on the floor. Also featured is Heavenly Music, a Kelly-Phil Silvers duet as country-bumpkins backed by woofing canines.

The picture, a throwback to the early Judy-Mickey Rooney films (Babes in Arms, for one) with their ‘putting-on-a-show-in-the-barn’ back story, also represents the third and last on-screen pairing of Garland and Gene Kelly (the others being For Me and My Gal and The Pirate). Garland plays Jane Falbury, a farm owner more than a bit riled when her aspiring-actress sister (Gloria DeHaven) shows up with a theatrical troupe wanting to stage a musical. Any guess who becomes the show’s sudden star after its lead runs off with a Broadway actor?

With sharp direction by Charles Walters, and great new songs by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon, the film has become a beloved audience favourite over the years.

DVD Special Features:
New featurette Summer Stock: Get Happy!
Classic MGM cartoon The Cuckoo Clock
Vintage Pete Smith Specialty Short Did’ja Know?
Audio-only bonus: outtake song Fall in Love
Theatrical trailer
Languages: English & Français
Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)

Three Little Words (1950)
Unlike most composer biopics proliferating in the late ‘40s, Three Little Words is actually a very accurate depiction of the lives of tunesmiths Bert Kalmar (Fred Astaire) and Harry Ruby (Red Skelton). Kalmar always wanted to be a magician but all it takes is a disastrous opening night to make his dream go poof! So Kalmar moves on…and finds songwriting magic with collaborator Ruby.

Highlights include Astaire tap-dancing as only he can, including a lovely duet with Vera-Ellen (the first time they danced together); Gloria DeHaven recreating her mother’s original performance of Who’s Sorry Now and Debbie Reynolds, in her third screen appearance, portraying Boop-Boop-a-Doop girl Helen Kane (resulting in a Most Promising Newcomer Golden Globe nomination). It’s movie magic as only MGM could create.

DVD Special Features:
New featurette Three Little Words: It’s All True
Vintage Fitzpatrick Traveltalk short Roaming Through Michigan
Classic MGM Tex Avery cartoon Ventriloquist Cat
Audio-only bonus: Paula Stone’s Hollywood USA radio promo featuring Fred Astaire & Harry Ruby
Theatrical trailer
Languages: English & Français
Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)

Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)
Till the Clouds Roll By finally receives the deluxe presentation it deserves with its first legitimate DVD release, with this stunning new transfer directly from the original studio Technicolor camera negatives. The epic film begins with a glorious, musical-within-a-musical recreation of the 1927 opening of Jerome Kern’s Show Boat and ends with a spectacular musical cavalcade of Kern classic melodies, climaxing with Frank Sinatra singing Ol’ Man River, a number Ol’ Blue Eyes would reprise throughout his career. From start to finish, the glittery biopic about renowned stage-and-screen composer Kern (Robert Walker) features 25 stars and a nearly equal number of Kern tunes. Highlights include Judy Garland as Marilyn Miller asking Who? to a bevy of top-hatted admirers; Dinah Shore hauntingly recalling The Last Time I Saw Paris; and Lena Horne’s just Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man.

DVD Special Features:
New featurette Till the Clouds Roll By: Real to Reel
Vintage Fitzpartick Traveltalk short Glimpses of California
Classic MGM Tex Avery cartoon Henpecked Hoboes
Two musical outtake sequences: Judy Garland performing D’Ya Love Me? and Music in the Air (I’ve Told Ev’ry Little Star/The Song is You) performed by Kathryn Grayson and Johnny Johnston
Theatrical trailer
Languages: English & Français
Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)

Ziegfeld Follies
Two years in the making, Ziegfeld Follies was a distinct departure from musicals that preceded it. Presented in a revue format with no storyline, Ziegfeld Follies allowed the stars to shine in a musical extravaganza without that pesky plot getting in the way.

With the “crème de la crème” of credited and uncredited Hollywood creative talent, this all-star revue is heaven to fans of movie musicals. Fred Astaire dazzles not once, not twice…but four times, including The Babbitt and the Bromide with Gene Kelly, the first time the two greatest dancers in musical history dueted. Red Skelton reprises his funny Guzzler’s Gin skit. Esther Williams swims, Lena Horne sings and Judy Garland spoofs snobbery. Add to this a Verdi opera and the legendary Fanny Brice (who rose to stardom under the Ziegfeld touch) enacting one of her inimitable comic numbers and the result is the musical form at its purest.

DVD Special Features:
New featurette Ziegfeld Follies: An Embarrassment of Riches
Vintage MGM Crime Does Not Pay short The Luckiest Guy in the World
2 classic MGM cartoons:
The Hick Chick
Solid Serenade
Audio-only bonus: outtake songs If Swing Goes, I Go Too, This Heart of Mine and We Will Meet Again in Honolulu
Ziegfeld movies trailer gallery
Both remixed Dolby Surround Stereo and original Mono English Audio
Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)

 

[Richard M S]

Though there are no "new" outtakes that I don't already already have on laser disc and Rhino CD, I still am definitely buying this set, the remastering alone makes it worthwhile.

 

[Paul Borges]

Thanks a lot Warner! The musical is my favorite film genre.

 

[Marco S]

Paul--
Mine Too!!!!

 

[Garysb]

So many films to watch. I still have not opened my Astaie Rogers or Thin Man sets. Now this is another one I will want.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

More Tex Avery... SOLD!!!

 

[Mark B]

I was transferring the session audio tracks from TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY from laser to mp3 yesterday, and came across part of an answer to a long unanswered question. Maybe someone here can give me a bit more info.

At the end of the film the camera pulls back and shows the entire set and chorus from the finale. I noticed two extra podiums for soloists, 6 total, yet only 4 songs. Who is standing on the other two and what were the songs? Well I have found from the session recordings that after Kathryn Grayson's "Long Ago and Far Away" on podium 1, there is a segue into "Dearly Beloved." I don't know who the singer is on podium 2, but that's the song obviously. This segues into podium 3 (Virginia O'Brien - "A Fine Romance") -- on to 4 (Tony Martin - "All the Things You Are") and podium 5 (Lena Horne - "Why Was I Born"). On podium 6 I see three people. The prerecordings to CLOUDS are mostly lost, and so I don't have help from those. Does anyone know who these performers were or what the song was? I'm assuming podium 2 or 6 contains Johnny Johnston. Here's a photo of a laser cover which shows the podiums.





And here's an mp3 of the "Long Ago" and "Dearly."
Long Ago and Dearly mp3

 

[alistairKerr]

According to the excellent (and indispensible) Hugh Fordin book "The World Of Entertainment: Hollywood's Greatest Musicals" (Equinox pbk 1976). I quote:
"The set for the finale.....was relatively simple, a series of ascending platforms, rising high, on each of which was posed a star. Musically, it was a medley: "Land Where the Good Songs Go" (Lucille Bremer), "Yesterdays" (Chorus), "Long Ago & Far Away" (Kathryn Grayson), "Dearly Beloved" (Johnny Johnston), "A Fine Romance" (Virginia O'Brien), "All the Things You Are" (Tony Martin), "Why Was I Born?" (Lena Horne), "The Way You Look Tonight" (Lucille Bremer), "Ol' Man River" (Frank Sinatra)."

Wonderful....
Alistair

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

PS - To the powers that be, Mr. George Feltenstein and others involved...


Assuming it was an honest mostake, could you please try your best to ensure that the cartoon prints sourced on this release are all UNCUT and UNEDITED, unlike your last and previous issue of Tex Avery films included as bonus features on DVD?

Specifically, the print of "Henpecked Hoboes".

I just want to point this out and bring it to your attention in advance. Also, I hope this is your way of subtely introducing these films to a general audience in order to ready them for something more comprehensive in future, and not a means to an end!

Anyways, thanks for reading. We film enthusiasts appreciate your effort.

 

[Paul Borges]

I must admit I don't understand the cartoon extras. I mean they have nothing to do with the musicals. Are the cartoons mini-musicals? I don't think I've seen these ones.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Chances are if you went to see one of these films in a theater in 1950, you would have likely experienced one of these accompanying cartoon shorts as well. That is why they are included, to recreate that wonderfully nostalgic golden age cinematic experience

That, and they are incredibly entertaining film classics in their own right.

 

[Richard M S]

Mark B, I always wanted to know the answer to that question as well, so alistairKerr thanks for providing the response.

It does make one realize that though Lucille Bremer ultimately performed just one number (Land Where The Good Songs Go) in the finale, someone (such as Arthur Freed?)obviously thought enough of Lucille Bremer to give her 2 songs in the finale, when even established MGM stars had just one.

 

[DaveK]

Hey Warners.....

For Ziegfeld Follies...don't use that crappy artwork that was used on the box of the video release 10 years ago.

Use this:



This pic of Lucille Ball on the cover looks better.

 

[Will Krupp]

According to David Shipman's biography of Judy Garland, Lucille Bremer was a...errr..."special protege" of Arthur Freed's who he determined to make a star at all costs.

Years later, Judy was supposedly asked by a reporter whatever happened to Lucille Bremer. Her response was "She got married and retired....and nobody minded!"

 

[alistairKerr]

The Classic Musicals DVD covers are pictured on the excellent Judy Garland website: thejudyroom

And, yeah, they are using that lovely "Ziegfeld Follies" cover art

Alistair

can't post web URLs unfortunately

 

[Mark B]

Regardless, she was a fine dancer, and her numbers with Astaire are classics. Acting or singing...well...you can't have everything.

 

[Paul Borges]

And she was hot!

 

[felipenor]

 

[Jing_B]

Neat! DaveK got his due.