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DVD Review Mother Wore Tights DVD Review (1 Viewer)

Matt Hough

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Mother Wore Tights DVD Review

Betty Grable reached the zenith of her career as a singer, dancer, and actress in Walter Lang’s Mother Wore Tights. Supported by a delightful song score, a new leading man who could equal her own talents as a performer, and a period production rich in color and design without being gaudily overdone, Grable was never better, and the film, one of her most popular and one which returned her to the heights as the top ranked female star at the box-office, was not only the best film she ever made but also one said to be her own personal favorite.

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Studio: Fox

Distributed By: N/A

Video Resolution and Encode: 480I/MPEG-2

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Audio: English 2.0 DD

Subtitles: None

Rating: Not Rated

Run Time: 1 Hr. 47 Min.

Package Includes: DVD

Amray case

Disc Type: DVD-R

Region: All

Release Date: 02/19/2014

MSRP: $19.98




The Production Rating: 4.5/5

Despite being the lead in her high school’s senior class play, Myrtle McKinley (Betty Grable) has no intention of going into show business for a living but stumbles into an audition and is hired as a showgirl on the spot. Heading the bill is Frank Burt (Dan Dailey), a talented performer but a stage hog and girl chaser. Working together, however, the two eventually fall in love and marry while rising up the bills at vaudeville houses across the country. Myrtle retires from show business for six years to have their two daughters (Mona Freeman, Connie Marshall) and stay home with them but returns to the act when Frank needs a leading lady placing the girls in an exclusive finishing school. There, older daughter Iris becomes self conscious about her parents’ vocation and is ashamed to let any of her friends know anything about what they do to earn a living. Her shame devastates Frank and Myrtle utterly.Lamar Trotti’s screenplay doesn’t break any new ground especially for a Fox musical with all of its numbers being performance pieces, but the saga of the Burt family as they weather the ups and downs of both show business and Iris’ adolescence is serviceable enough to support a healthy amount of singing and dancing. Musical performers Grable and Dailey are blessed to have a first-rate song score by Mack Gordon and Josef Myrow which includes tuneful ditties like “This Is My Favorite City” (given a delightful montage rendition showing Frank and Myrtle touring the country with their act), “Kokimo, Indiana” and “There’s Nothing Like a Song” (wonderful new songs that are believable turn-of-the-century novelty numbers), and especially “You Do,” the Oscar-nominated tune which gets three separate renditions in the film, each one more impressive than the last: Frank’s hammy burlesque rendition, Myrtle’s embracing ballad version, and Iris’ loving tribute to her parents (dubbed for Mona Freeman by Imogene Lynn) which won’t leave a dry eye in the house. And there are familiar interpolations, too, like “Burlington Bertie from Bow” (which both Dailey and later Grable parodying Dailey perform), "Put Your Arms Around Me, Honey," and “Tra-la-la” which Shirley Temple had introduced seven years earlier in Young People.In Dan Dailey, Betty Grable is paired with her ideal co-star: he buoyant and happy-go-lucky to her more settled and steady performer. It’s little wonder they did three more movies together. Both stars sing and dance their hearts out (Dailey is really the first star dancer Grable was linked with who could actually outdance her), and they make the most of both the comic and dramatic possibilities offered in the script. Mona Freeman is spectacularly pretty as Iris even if she is the one saddled with the rather tiresome plot device of causing angst for her parents. Connie Marshall is a pistol as the effervescent younger sibling Mikie, and Sara Allgood offers her own plucky performance as the wise grandmother. And bless Veda Ann Borg’s heart for her memorable gum-smacking showgirl who is Myrtle’s knowing backstage confidante in the film’s first quarter. Fans of the early years of television will recognize familiar acts The Banana Man and Senor Wences who perform delightfully during the movie. Anne Baxter narrates the film as the grown-up Mikie.


Video Rating: 3.5/5 3D Rating: NA

The film’s original theatrical 4:3 aspect ratio is faithfully reproduced here. With the knowledge that the original vibrant three-strip Technicolor elements are no longer around, the Eastmancolor elements we’re left with are, sad to say, quite variable in quality. Some scenes have decent color and offer reasonably accurate skin tones, but other scenes seem pale and lacking the kind of color that would draw one into the scene. The transfer is reasonably clean with only a few stray dust specks and is certainly sharp enough, but the color is a pale reflection of what the film once looked like. Other Grable Technicolor films currently on DVD somehow manage to present a more vivacious representation of the original Technicolor look that is definitely missing here. The film has been divided into 11 chapters.



Audio Rating: 3.5/5

The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound mix is decoded by Dolby Prologic into the center channel. Though there is some low level hiss present, most of the track blends the dialogue, the Oscar-winning musical scoring, and the sound effects with superb balance and a decent amount of fidelity.


Special Features Rating: 0/5

There are no bonus features on this made-on-demand disc from Fox Cinema Archives.


Overall Rating: 4/5

Mother Wore Tights is such an entertaining movie that even the lackluster color that’s left for this MOD release can’t spoil its diverting singing and dancing, and at least the transfer isn’t overly dark, overly loud, or riddled with artifacts, all problems with some previous Betty Grable releases in this made-on-demand program. Recommended!


Reviewed By: Matt Hough


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SeanAx

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I agree: One of the better Fox Archive presentations and a fun pairing of Grable and Dailey. I confess, however, that as much I generally prefer using original poster art for the covers, this is one of the worst movie posters that 20th Century Fox ever made.
 

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