Press Release Warner Archive Press Release: Ziegfeld Follies (1945) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Jay_Z_525]

Wasn't in also cut short because the women were practically drowning in the suds and sliding all over the place and falling down? A lost opportunity for a real Ziefeldian final. Maybe they were just tired at this point and felt they had already spent enough money. Another Grayson fan who a lot of people today seem to dislike.

My appreciation for Grayson grows as time goes on.

Re the all-male group around Lucille Ball. Dorothy Tuttle is the exception which proves the rule.
As everyone here would know, the saying 'The Exception Proves the Rule' means that an exception means the rule is false.... using to 'prove' in the Scottish sense of to 'test'.
Out in the unwashed world, people often wrongly believe an exception prove a rule to be TRUE! How illogical is that!
That's just the digression for today.....

Well well, learn something new every day.

Oh, and just below Dorothy Tuttle is Dorothy Raye. In the mid 90’s the two Dorothy’s were interviewed for a making-of supplement for the “Meet Me in St Louis” dvd- that’s been carried over ever since and is on the Blu-ray.

 

[Alan Tully]

Re the all-male group around Lucille Ball. Dorothy Tuttle is the exception which proves the rule.
As everyone here would know, the saying 'The Exception Proves the Rule' means that an exception means the rule is false.... using to 'prove' in the Scottish sense of to 'test'.
Out in the unwashed world, people often wrongly believe an exception prove a rule to be TRUE! How illogical is that!
That's just the digression for today.....

Or...maybe every rule has an exception, that's certainly true with grammar (but I dunno, I left school aged 15).

I can't make my mind up about this. I'm not a big fan of musicals, but this looks like a big camp OTT Technicolor dream/trip. I might buy it.

 

[Robin9]

Another Grayson fan who a lot of people today seem to dislike.

About half a dozen regular posters here at HTF dislike her intensely but that does not amount to a lot of people.

 

[Joe Caps]

Grayson stars in one of those mgm musicals that everyone loves but me -Anchors Aweigh.

 

[B-ROLL]

Grayson stars in one of those mgm musicals that everyone loves but me -Anchors Aweigh.

Lemme guess - you hate "meeses" to pieces !

 

[Thomas T]

About half a dozen regular posters here at HTF dislike her intensely but that does not amount to a lot of people.

For the record, I find Kathryn Grayson quite an attractive presence and a decent actress. It's only when she starts shrieking like an ambulance siren that I get turned off. I prefer my sopranos more mezzo than coloratura like Julie Andrews.

 

[Matt Hough]

Grayson stars in one of those mgm musicals that everyone loves but me -Anchors Aweigh.

I certainly don't love it. It seems endless every time I watch it, and the plot just doesn't grab me. It has some wonderful numbers, but despite its Oscar nomination for Best Picture, I'd never put it among my top 20 MGM musicals.

 

[John Skoda]

A lot of this one is Minnelli, and if it's like THE PIRATE, seeing it closer to how it was intended to look will be a revelation. Plus, they generated a stereo soundtrack for this way back in the laserdisc days.

 

[Rob W]

Thanks for the information! I'd not heard of this book before---looks like it has been re-titled "MGM's Greatest Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit." I'm going to pick up a copy.

​

Just to confuse things more, my copy from 1984 is called "The Movies' Greatest Musicals."

 

[roxy1927]

Grayson today is disliked by a lot of people besides just 6 on this site. They consider her nothing more than a chirpy soprano.
Not by me.

 

[Joe Caps]

You find out from the fordin book, grayson complained her final high note was too high for her. So a chorus girl supplied the final note. Listen to the dvd and its quite clear it is someone else.

 

[gjn123]

I have always loved Kathryn Grayson. She has in abundance what so many performers lack - charm and grace and looks. And her voice sounds just fine to me. Her presence in a film makes it more enjoyable for me. So there!

 

[lark144]

I certainly don't love it. It seems endless every time I watch it, and the plot just doesn't grab me. It has some wonderful numbers, but despite its Oscar nomination for Best Picture, I'd never put it among my top 20 MGM musicals.

I really really loved "Anchor's Aweigh" when I was a child. I can't tell you how much I adored it. I even loved Kathryn Grayson's neo-classical chirpiness. Of course I was five. Today the only part I still love is Gene Kelly's dance with Jerry the Mouse.

Then again, even that ultimate Blue Meanie, that grouch of grouches, Bowsley Crother, gushed over "Anchor's Aweigh" when it came out. And I mean gushed. So maybe it's just that it was perfect for during the war, when that interminable rah-rahing and cutsey-wootseing with a double scoop of Technicolor was not only palatable but a necessary uplift from daily disaster. It has good things in it. Maybe people went to the smoking lounge during those long stretches between musical numbers. Remember back in those days people just walked in and then out again. They didn't necessarily watch it from the beginning.

And maybe it will play better with a decent master. The current Blu-Ray is awful. "Good News" which isn't exactly compulsive watching, kept me glued to the screen because of that amazing color design.

Though it's interesting that of the MGM musicals which are being released in new restorations through the archive, the ones that I find the most revelatory, such as "The Pirate", are the ones that weren't especially popular in their own time. The one I hope they release soon is "Yolanda and the Thief".

And I'm really looking forward to "Ziegfeld Follies". I've always liked it, in spite of those "filler" sequences that Minnelli had nothing to do with. That's when you're supposed to go to the concession stand.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

I've always found Katherine Grayson a vivacious actress, but terribly variable in her vocals. And what Joe Caps says about her distrusting her higher register makes total sense.
She's absolutely wonderful in 'Kiss Me Kate' and totally painful in the otherwise splendid musical 'The Desert Song' .. a movie which is crying out for a decent transfer, in DVD or Blu ray. The present DVD is a dimly-lit travesty of this gem, compulsive for its great soundtrack, despite Grayson's vocal shortcomings and even though it's a sanitised version of the original musical.

 

[OLDTIMER]

Well, the woman to Lucille’s left elbow is Dorothy Tuttle. So that’s one down.

Can someone tell me a little about Dorothy Tuttle please. She's not listed on the web. I've always noticed her as a stand-out chorus girl in almost every MGM musical since the early forties.

 

[roxy1927]

Am I the only one wondering why they used one of Vargas's rawer illustrations for the cover? I've never seen it before. Was it kept hidden away in the MGM vaults and with good reason?

 

[Will Krupp]

Am I the only one wondering why they used one of Vargas's rawer illustrations for the cover? I've never seen it before. Was it kept hidden away in the MGM vaults and with good reason?

Vincent, it kind of looks like an overzealous photo-shopper tried erasing part of her costume, but otherwise it's the same illustration they used for Boston newspaper ads when it opened as a road show engagement in August of 1945:

and then they flipped and rotated the same illustration for the New York opening the following spring:

 

[filmnoirguy]

I was the same age as Dean Stockwell when I saw Anchor's Aweigh at age 8, and I enjoyed every minute of this musical. It received 5 Oscar nods for Best Picture, Actor Gene Kelly, Color Cinematography, Song--"I Fall in Love Too Easily," and won for Scoring of a Musical Picture.

 

[David Weicker]

Vincent, it kind of looks like an overzealous photo-shopper tried erasing part of her costume, but otherwise it's the same illustration they used for Boston newspaper ads when it opened as a road show engagement in August of 1945:

View attachment 97299

Well, considering that was a 'Boston' ad, I'd assume they added a little extra to the costume.

 

[Will Krupp]

Well, considering that was a 'Boston' ad, I'd assume they added a little extra to the costume.

It looks as though they attempted to remove the telephone from her hand, because everyone knows that phones are slutty!

Strangely, she has a protruding nipple in supposedly prudish Boston that seems to have been "smoothed" for naughty New York.