Press Release Warner Archive Press Release: The Great Caruso (1951) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Waldo Lydecker]

Betty Hutton won Photoplay award the year before for “Annie Get Your Gun”...

 

[RobertMG]

Been asking about Northwest Passage 1940 this article is a GREAT read - can u imagine MGM was going to pull the same thing Fox did! https://www.deseret.com/1990/2/10/18845735/movie-classics-are-crumbling-away

 

[Richard Gallagher]

Mario Lanza won the Photoplay Gold Medal Award for 1951 for The Great Caruso. The same year Show Boat won for Best Picture.

When I was about ten years old I was looking through my parents' record collection and I came across a box set of 45 RPM Christmas carols by Mario Lanza, who I had never heard before. When he reached the finale of "The Lord's Prayer" his voice sent a shiver down my spine, the first time that ever happened to me.

 

[roxy1927]

I saw Easter Parade a number of times at the Regency in the 70s which had excellent prints and the bluray is pretty much what I saw back then. At least from what I remember so I was very happy with it. If it can look even better I'm all for it.

I'd like to see the Seven Hills of Rome. I'm a sucker for great location wide screen photography in European cities in the 50s and 60s. And I was shocked that it contained some of the laughing trio from the first scene of Cosi Fan Tutte. I was like oh my god Lanza could sing Mozart as well. What could have been! Ok he looks like he's in his 50s rather than in his 30s but he still sounds great.

 

[Gerani53]

THE SEVEN HILLS OF ROME is a lot of fine, totally enjoyable in full widescreen. Famous Italian comedian Renato Rascel is a surprisingly engaging sidekick for Mario, and the parody song where Lanza imitates Dean Martin, Perry Como and ultimately even Louis Armstrong ("He wasn't Italian -- Lady, he doesn't have to be!") is a standout. I also very much enjoy the "Tonight, tonight, there's a party" production number, where half the population winds up following Mario and Renato around some magnificent locations as super-singer ML does his thing.

 

[Gerani53]

Actually, I meant a lot of "fun"... although there's clearly a lot of "fine" in SEVEN HILLS as well, particularly in terms of music and locations.

 

[GWTWTOO]

I seem to remember seeing MGM once re-released this in a 70mm blowup.

 

[rojobin]

I’ve been thinking that I wish they’d redo Easter Parade (again). The Blu-ray is beautiful but the saturation seems to be really high- everyone looks as though they spent a little too much time in the sun. It’s a little harsh, especially when you compare it to the newer three-strip releases, which look beautifully balanced.

I think 'On The Town' could use a re-do. Great movie, great songs, great fun, but I was disappointed in the blu-ray.

 

[roxy1927]

On the Town could use a re-do period. As a movie. Those Roger Edens' songs are painful to the ear. Problem is there would be no director, choreographer and cast available to do the material justice.

 

[Mark B]

On the Town could use a re-do period. As a movie. Those Roger Edens' songs are painful to the ear. Problem is there would be no director, choreographer and cast available to do the material justice.

I have the live version with Comden & Green, Tyle Daly, et al which I feel is a splendid presentation of the original score. The MGM version is just that. It would have been interesting to see them take the darker approach but that would have been very unFreed-like. I'm fond of both readings of On the Town.

 

[roxy1927]

If you haven't heard it the studio recording using most of the original cast from the early 60s conducted by Bernstein gives you an idea of what might have been.

 

[Matt Hough]

If you haven't heard it the studio recording using most of the original cast from the early 60s conducted by Bernstein gives you an idea of what might have been.

And the one cast replacement is the astoundingly effective tenor John Reardon whose renditions of Gabey's songs send shivers down my spine.

 

[roxy1927]

Oh my lord yes. His Lonely Town is so beautiful. If only they had given it to Sinatra in the film and if only they had given Kelly Lucky to Be Me.

 

[SFMike]

I'm waiting for The Student Prince as the DVD is a horror.

 

[cinemel1]

I'm waiting for The Student Prince as the DVD is a horror.

Just watched it on TCM. It looked pretty good. The audio on the DVD is excellent however, true stereo. The student choruses are full and Lanza & Blyth sound great.
With a video upgrade, the disc would be stellar.

 

[roxy1927]

I thought Lanza didn't do the film because he was in terrible shape but there is an interview on youtube with his only surviving child who said he had a fight with the studio and walked off the set. Another great talent beset by demons.

 

[Matt Hough]

I've always heard that after the huge success of The Great Caruso, Lanza's stardom went to his head and he became next to impossible to work with.

 

[Johnny Angell]

On the Town could use a re-do period. As a movie. Those Roger Edens' songs are painful to the ear. Problem is there would be no director, choreographer and cast available to do the material justice.

 

[RichMurphy]

On the Town could use a re-do period. As a movie. Those Roger Edens' songs are painful to the ear. Problem is there would be no director, choreographer and cast available to do the material justice.

Like with its version of SHOWBOAT, I guess MGM didn't want to make a musical with darker elements, so they made major changes. In the case of ON THE TOWN, they ditched almost all of the songs by that unknown hack Leonard Bernstein.

While I enjoy both films for what they are, I realize that MGM's versions of SHOWBOAT and ON THE TOWN are different animals than their source material.

 

[Garysb]

I don't get where the Broadway version of " On The Town" was dark. It was merely sexually suggestive. For example it is implied that Alice Pierce's character Lucy Schmeeler had a one off with Claire's boyfriend/ maybe sugar daddy , Pitkin,( referred to as her guardian and not seen in the movie, as he ends up with cold in the Broadway musical. He is asked if he ever had an indiscretion which he denies, and then sneezes like Lucy. He and Lucy had spent most of the show searching for the other characters. Lots of changes . The song "Carried Away" was replaced with "Prehistoric Man". Pitkin's song "I Understand" was cut along with Pitkin and not replaced. Many other changes. I would say most of the story changes were production code mandated. The musical numbers such as "I can Cook, Too" were probably cut for that reason as well as seeming too avant garde for the time for the general public. Whether that was true or not I can't say .