- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
- Messages
- 18,425
- Real Name
- Robert Harris
As highly prized (and priced) as they are, every three-strip Technicolor production cannot find it's way to DVD via "Ultra-Rez."
But in their continuing effort to meet public demand for Technicolor musicals of the classic (Arthur Freed) era, they've lovingly created a second package offered as Classic Musicals from the Dream Factory: Volume 2, and at a street price of under $45, it's a winner.
While the films are all quality releases, it should be remembered that on a technical level of reproduction, they are generally derived from extant duplicating elements created from the originals by photo-chemical / photo-optical means.
There may be an occasional registration anomaly or other defect, which is to be expected from the process, but this is the norm.
Other than that, these films are a delight.
There are a total of seven films, which works out to slightly more than $6 per film, with several major productions plus the 1985 documentary That's Dancing!, which like it's predecessors, That's Entertainment, covers the history of dance on film, but in this case spreading out to cover more than simply the M-G-M productions.
There is a sequence in That's Dancing, covering the career of Busby Berkeley, that affords the DVD viewer, once again, a perfect example of what a film element from the 1930s can look like, if properly handled. You'll recognize these brililant black & white images when you see them.
Probably at the top of the "must have" list is the 1948 Judy Garland / Gene Kelly production, The Pirate, in brilliant technicolor hues. In normal WB fashion, it is backed by a myriad of extras, which will remind some of the extra-packed laserdiscs of that earlier back-breaking boxed era.
Words and Music, a star-laden biopic about Rodgers and Hart is also filled to the brim with Warner extras.
Two Fred Astaire vehicles, The Belle of New York (1952) co-starring Vera-Ellen, and Royal Wedding (1951) also with Jane Powell, and herein bravely rescued from "public domain" hell, although never really in the PD, as it always held protection from music rights are next up. Royal Wedding was made famous for it's ship-board "dancing on the ceiling" number, one of the great pieces in musical film history.
And finally, the first two films created around the man generally considered to be the greatest operatic talent of the post-war era, Mario Lanza, That Midnight Kiss (1949) and The Toast of New Orleans (1950).
As a summer release, I want to make very certain that this wonderful boxed set isn't lost between trips to the beach, and receives the attention it deserves.
Recommended.
RAH
But in their continuing effort to meet public demand for Technicolor musicals of the classic (Arthur Freed) era, they've lovingly created a second package offered as Classic Musicals from the Dream Factory: Volume 2, and at a street price of under $45, it's a winner.
While the films are all quality releases, it should be remembered that on a technical level of reproduction, they are generally derived from extant duplicating elements created from the originals by photo-chemical / photo-optical means.
There may be an occasional registration anomaly or other defect, which is to be expected from the process, but this is the norm.
Other than that, these films are a delight.
There are a total of seven films, which works out to slightly more than $6 per film, with several major productions plus the 1985 documentary That's Dancing!, which like it's predecessors, That's Entertainment, covers the history of dance on film, but in this case spreading out to cover more than simply the M-G-M productions.
There is a sequence in That's Dancing, covering the career of Busby Berkeley, that affords the DVD viewer, once again, a perfect example of what a film element from the 1930s can look like, if properly handled. You'll recognize these brililant black & white images when you see them.
Probably at the top of the "must have" list is the 1948 Judy Garland / Gene Kelly production, The Pirate, in brilliant technicolor hues. In normal WB fashion, it is backed by a myriad of extras, which will remind some of the extra-packed laserdiscs of that earlier back-breaking boxed era.
Words and Music, a star-laden biopic about Rodgers and Hart is also filled to the brim with Warner extras.
Two Fred Astaire vehicles, The Belle of New York (1952) co-starring Vera-Ellen, and Royal Wedding (1951) also with Jane Powell, and herein bravely rescued from "public domain" hell, although never really in the PD, as it always held protection from music rights are next up. Royal Wedding was made famous for it's ship-board "dancing on the ceiling" number, one of the great pieces in musical film history.
And finally, the first two films created around the man generally considered to be the greatest operatic talent of the post-war era, Mario Lanza, That Midnight Kiss (1949) and The Toast of New Orleans (1950).
As a summer release, I want to make very certain that this wonderful boxed set isn't lost between trips to the beach, and receives the attention it deserves.
Recommended.
RAH
I cannot WAIT to watch each and every title and all the extras. These are some of the very films that turned me into a classic movie fan and musical enthusiast as a pre-teen in the mid-80s. So I am forever grateful to THE PIRATE, WORDS AND MUSIC, ROYAL WEDDING, TOAST OF NEW ORLEANS etc. for making me discover the great musicals all those years ago and, by the same token, for giving me my lifelong passion for the classics. 
