Sing treat
MUST-SEE MUSICALS: 10 FILM COLLECTION There’s no boxset like this boxset... 1933-62 OUT NOW DVD , BD PG
Lovingly spoofed by the Coen brothers in Hail, Caesar!, the big-budget Hollywood musical still carries all before it in terms of energy, spectacle and pizzazz. Of the 10 in this boxset, five stem from the Arthur Freed unit at MGM, but they’ve all got glories and glitz to spare. First up chronologically, 42nd Street (1933,
defies the Depression blues with Busby Berkeley’s jazzy mass choreography. First of the Freed productions is Meet Me In St. Louis (1944, – Judy Garland at her most poignant. Also from Freed, Easter Parade (1948, teams Garland with Fred Astaire for classy hoofing to Irving Berlin numbers; Annie Get Your Gun (1950,
finds sharpshootin’ Betty Hutton in a Wild West face off with Howard Keel; Singin’ In The Rain (1952, has Gene Kelly in at the birth of sound movies in what for many is the greatest musical ever; and The Band Wagon (1953, another backstager, matches Astaire with a spectacular Cyd Charisse.
Calamity Jane (1953, virtually reruns Annie, with Doris Day facing Keel. A Star Is Born (1954, digs deeper than most, as Judy Garland reaches for stardom while husband James Mason sinks into alcohol. High Society (1956, musicalises The Philadelphia Story to classy effect courtesy of Cole Porter; and in Gypsy (1962, Natalie Wood as stripper Gypsy Rose Lee is steamrollered off the screen by Rosalind Russell as her mum. Lavish extras, not least a nine-person commentary on Singin’
Philip Kemp – cast, filmmakers, the lot.
EXTRAS › Intros › Commentaries › Featurettes › Deleted scenes › Newsreels › Shorts › Cartoons