Warners Doris Day Collection - April 26 (1 Viewer)

[John Hodson]

From arejorgen at www.thedvdforums.com :

The Doris Day Collection

Young Man With a Horn, Lullaby of Broadway, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, The Glass Bottom Boat, Love Me or Leave Me, Billy Rose's "Jumbo" Six New-to-DVD Titles and Two Previously Released Classics Available April 26 from Warner Home Video

Burbank, Calif. January 26, 2005 - Doris Day -- whose on-screen wholesomeness, unfailing optimism and understated strength of character helped make her America's sweetheart in the '50s and '60s -- comes to DVD on April 26 with eight of her films. Warner Home Video's The Doris Day Collection features six new-to-DVD titles -- Young Man With a Horn, Lullaby of Broadway, Love Me or Leave Me, Billy Rose's "Jumbo", Please Don't Eat the Daisies, The Glass Bottom Boat -- along with two of Ms. Day's all-time favorite musicals, Calamity Jane and Pajama Game which have been repackaged for the Collection. All DVDs are packed with bonus features including vintage shorts and featurettes, cartoons, trailers and more. The gift set will be available for $88.92 SRP. Each title is also available separately for $19.97 SRP/$14.95 MAP. Orders are due March 29.

Born Doris Mary Ann Von Kapplehoff in Cincinnati, Ohio, Ms. Day started out as a dancer, but after a near-fatal car crash ended her hopes of becoming a ballerina, at her mother's suggestion she began refining her vocal skills. With a voice of distinct beauty at just 14 years of age, Ms. Day was soon discovered by a vocal coach who arranged an appearance on a local radio station.

Soon after, the young songstress met local bandleader Barney Rapp who convinced her to adopt the moniker that would soon become a household name. Rapp suggested "Day" after the song "Day after Day" which was part of her repertoire. Ms. Day toured briefly with Rapp's band, as well as those of Bob Crosby and Les Brown, and then set out on her own in the late 1940s.

Ms. Day's film career began in 1948 after a screen test at Warner Bros. resulted in her first film role in the smash-hit musical Romance on the High Seas. It was in this film that she introduced the hit song "It's Magic". The song and the film catapulted her to super-stardom. Throughout the 1950s she appeared in dozens of films from musicals to dramas to comedies. By the 1960s she was best known for a string of successful romantic comedies opposite some of Hollywood's greatest leading men including Cary Grant, James Garner, Rod Taylor and Rock Hudson. In 1960, she earned a Best Actress Oscar® nomination for her role in the hugely popular Pillow Talk with Hudson.

In April of 1968, Ms. Day's film career came to an abrupt end with the death of her third husband, manager/producer Marty Melcher. Left penniless and deeply in debt through what turned out to be a series of sordid investments by Melcher, Ms. Day soon bounced back and found success in television with "The Doris Day Show." Now in her 80s, Ms. Day is an active and vocal supporter of animal rights, focusing the majority of her attention on her Animal League and Animal Foundation organizations.

Details of The Doris Day Collection Films

Young Man With a Horn (1950)
With a second-hand trumpet and the loving guidance of a brilliant bluesman, a lonely boy grows into manhood as a superb musician whose talent carries him from honky-tonks to posh supper clubs. But his desperate search for the elusive high note, trapped in his mind but impossible to play, starts him on a boozy downward slide. Charged with dynamic performances by Kirk Douglas (the title role), Doris Day, Lauren Bacall and Hoagy Carmichael and pitch-perfect direction by Michael Curtiz, the film is a feast of hot, cool, moody jazz. Legendary Harry James dubbed Douglas' horn work.

DVD special features include:
* Doris Day trailer gallery
* Languages: English & French
* Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Lullaby of Broadway (1951)
Day danced divinely and sang in this musical delight about a singer newly arrived in New York and destined for Great White Way fame in the capable company of co-stars Gene Nelson, S.Z. Sakall, Billy DeWolfe, Gladys George and Florence Bates. Highlights are the inclusion of the Oscar®-winning title tune, Cole Porter's "Just One of Those Things", "Somebody Loves Me" and six more songs.

DVD special features include:
* Doris Day trailer gallery
* Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Love Me or Leave Me (1955)
Laced with Doris Day's vibrant performances of songs from the era, this 1955 Academy Award® winner (Best Motion Picture Story) is the tough-minded true tale of Ruth Etting's life with the man who boosted her career with strong-arm tactics yet smothered her in an obsessive grip she escaped at great peril. As Martin "The Gimp" Snyder, James Cagney earned one of the film's six Oscar® nominations. Ms. Day's Etting was a career-best dramatic performance, bringing acclaim from critics and protest letters from fans unprepared for the departure from her traditionally sunny roles.

DVD special features include:
* Soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1
* Three vintage shorts, the first two with Ruth Etting
- A Modern Cinderella
- Roseland
- A Salute to the Theatres
* Theatrical trailer
* Languages: English & French
* Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962)
Radiant Doris Day sings beloved Rodgers and Hart tunes and does her own horseback riding tricks in this razzle-dazzle musical based on Billy Rose's stage spectacular and featuring circus sequences directed by Busby Berkeley. The story revolves around a circus owner (Jimmy Durante, star of the 1935 Broadway original) with only two real attractions: his daughter (Day) and popular pachyderm Jumbo. Three-ring pandemonium breaks out when a handsome rival (Stephen Boyd) infiltrates the circus, and father, daughter and Dad's wisecracking fiancée (Martha Raye) are suddenly at risk of losing the greatest show on earth.

DVD Special Features include:
* Soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1
* Musical short Yours Sincerely
* Tom and Jerry cartoon Jerry and Jumbo
* Original overture rejoined to the film for the first time in more than 40 years
* Theatrical trailer
* Languages: English & French
* Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1962)
Ms. Day brings her trademark radiance to this jovial comedy from the bestseller by playwright Jean Kerr. With Janis Paige, Spring Byington and Richard Haydn on hand for snappy comic support, Please Don't Eat the Daisies is breezy family fun with popular songs "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" and "Anyway the Wind Blows."

DVD special features include:
* Theatrical trailer
* Languages: English & French
* Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

The Glass Bottom Boat (1966)
Doris Day entered her eighth consecutive year as a Top-10 Box-Office Star when she boarded The Glass Bottom Boat, a blending of romantic comedy and the era's burgeoning spy-movie genre. Frank Tashlin directs with a cartoonist's sensibility, embracing everything from spy guises to push-button chaos in a futuristic kitchen. The film also stars top comedians Arthur Godfrey, Paul Lynde, Edward Andrews, John McGiver, Dom DeLuise and Dick Martin.

DVD special features include:
* Three vintage featurettes:
o Catalina Island
o Every Girl's Dream
o NASA
* Oscar®-winning cartoon The Dot and the Line
* Theatrical trailer
* Languages: English & French
* Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

 

[Robert Crawford]

It's obvious that some of the people that write the press releases for these dvd announcements, know very little about the films in question. Case in point, how can they not mention the following actors in these releases, David Niven for "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" and Rod Taylor for "The Glass Bottom Boat"?





Crawdaddy

 

[Roger Rollins]

Rod Taylor is mentioned in paragraph 5 of the press release, although not directly in reference to THE GLASS BOTTOM BOAT.

 

[Eric Peterson]

This is the first WB box announced that I may not pick up. I'm not a huge Doris Day fan, but admittedly haven't seen many of her movies. I also love to support WB's efforts in providing top notch DVDs, so if someone can convince me...........

 

[JohnMor]

WooHoo! More DD on DVD! I can't wait, especially given WB's track record of excellence in the transfers department.



ERIC: While this isn't the first grouping of films that would come to my mind for a Doris collection, it actually is a pretty great overview of her career from early to late. I think Doris was a really remarkable screen presence and a vastly underrated actress, given that she never had an acting lesson. Jack Lemmon and James Cagney both called her an Actor's Studio unto herself, and Cagney said she was one of the 3 greatest natural actresses he had ever seen (the other 2 being Laurette Taylor in the original "The Glass Menagerie" and Pauline Ford in "Anna Christie". No joke.) I like all the movies in the collection, some more than others, but I especially love her work in "Please Don't Eat The Daisies." I'm biased, but I think the set's worth a look...

 

[RafaelPires]

I would rather get a Doris Day box set that included only her works from the late forties to the The Pajama Game. A Doris Day Sinature Collection should contain Romance in the High Seas, Tea for Two, April in Paris, at least. I don't like her 60's image. So I'll only get "Young man with a Horn", "Lullaby of Broadway" and "Love Me or Leave Me". 3 movies that I really love.

 

[Jay E]

Very strange including the only film I really want out of this set, Young Man With a Horn. It doesn't really fit in with the other Doris Day films in the set as it is somewhat dark and the real star is Kirk Douglas. It really should be part of a Kirk Douglas box set (Lust for Life, Two Weeks in Another Town...).

 

[Armin Jager]

I agree the set has four fluffy forgettable movies, only Love me or Leave me and Young Man with a Horn are worth the money. The Curtiz film is the best and fortunately has not too much Day in it. I know only a shortened version so I'm really looking forward to this film which strikes as one of Curtiz' best.

 

[Marc^H]

Sounds like a nice set. "Jumbo" improves 1000% when presented in widescreen, and the Cinemascope "Love Me.." has a very movie-palace-ish stereo soundtrack (well, at least the laser did). The Ruth Etting shorts will be interesting to see.

Only oddity is the minor "Lullaby of Broadway," which I have never heard anyone say anything good about. Her other early Warners material--especially the hilarious "Tea for Two" and the technicolor marvel that is "Romance on the High Seas", would seem like more obvious DVD choices. No matter, I'll be buying this one for sure!

 

[Larry Bevil]

I'm looking forward to this box set. I like most of the movies included. Now if Warner will only release a box set of Esther Williams.

 

[Randi]

I'll get it. I like the Glass Bottom Boat and I like what I've seen of Daisies. I'll buy the set just based on Warner's track record.

Miss Randi

 

[Brandon_D]

Does anyone else want to see On Moonlight Bay and By the Light of the Silvery Monn get their DVD releases?

 

[JohnMor]

Brandon_D: Yes! I definitely would like to see those 2 on DVD. I would also LOVE to see I'll See You In My Dreams on DVD. In fact, I would buy ALL of Doris' Warners film on DVD. While I really don't like April In Paris, The West Point Story and The Winning Team, the completist in me would buy them just to have a complete collection. But I think WB is off to a GREAT start! As with their VHS "Doris Day Collection", the others will come in time...

 

[Doug Bull]

I'll certainly be buying Love me or leave me, Jumbo and Lullaby of Broadway.
I'll possibly get Glass Bottom Boat, not so much for the movie, but for the extras.
I'm a sucker for rare Vintage Shorts.

 

[Scott Leopold]

I may get The Glass-Bottom Boat just for The Dot and the Line. This is one of my favorite animated shorts ever, and is worth the $20 MSRP on its own. Does anyone know if it's been released elsewhere?

 

[ChrisPearson]

I wonder if putting this short on is a mistake on Warner's part. It's one of two one-shot cartoons Chuck Jones made while at MGM in the 1960s, the other being The Bear That Wasn't, adapted from a book by the director of TGBB, Frank Tashlin. I'm happy to be getting TDATL, but it seems odd that a live-action feature by one of Holywood's finest cartoon writer-directors should feature a bonus cartoon by Chuck Jones.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

I agree, this ideally belongs on a "Phantom Tollbooth" release and I hope this isn't the only medium that WB plans to issue it...

 

[JohnMor]

I gotta say I think TDATL is an ideal short for this film. With it's humorous, mathematical look at love, it corresponds perfectly to the sub-plot in the film where the NASA scientist makes up a mathematical calculation on how to win the leading lady. Math, science and love run through both pieces.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Perhaps... but with "The Phantom Tollbooth" still unreleased on DVD (like this short), both having been produced the same year and both by the same director, both uniquely stylized and finally both being animated adaptations of books written by Norton Juster - that really would have been the ideal medium to finally issue this wonderful short to DVD.

It also would have better appealed as fans of one are undoubtedly fans of the other, and moreso I imagine, would yearn to see it released on DVD... unlike this situation, where many animation enthusiasts could care less about a Doris Day film. Perhaps that was the studios intention in provoking people who otherwise wouldn't have looked twice at this title on shelves, into a potential purchase... but I just can't justify the value and I really doubt it.

Basically, it could have been more appropriately paired imho. Hopefully this isn't the last time we'll see the short released to disc...

 

[ChrisPearson]

Ah, but many of us are very interested in getting another live-action Tashlin film to DVD, Marco. I don't think TGBB (or any Tashlin feature) would look out of place in a cartoon fan's library.