Powell, Dick

The Busby Berkeley Collection (Footlight Parade / Gold Diggers of 1933 / Dames / Gold Diggers of 1935 / 42nd Street)

The Busby Berkeley Collection is a 6-disc compilation of five remastered Warner Bros. classics from one of the greatest motion picture choreographers of all time.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569678460 Manufacturer No: 67846

The Busby Berkeley Collection celebrates the work of one of the most visually inventive director-choreographers in the history of film. The centerpiece is of course 42nd Street (1933). This is the quintessential backstage musical in which young Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler) goes from wide-eyed chorus girl to leading lady, urged by Warner Baxter, "You're going out there a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!" A cast that also includes Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers (when she was an RKO contract player and before she teamed up with Fred Astaire) performs "Shuffle Off to Buffalo, " "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me," and the title tune, in which Keeler tap-dances on a black surface that turns out to be the roof of a car. Berkeley's numbers are known for their kaleidoscopic patterns, their stark black-and-white contrast, and their sheer sense of spectacle. But more than anything, they're known for their celebration of women. By the dozens, they dance, play pianos, frolic in waterfalls, and, in some of the most overtly sexual numbers, stand spread-eagled in a line as the camera passes through their legs. In many ways, the title song from Dames sums it up best: "What do you go for / to see a show for? / Tell the truth, you go to see those beautiful dames."

While Berkeley choreographed and directed the musical sequences in these films, the plot sections were generally directed by others such as Lloyd Bacon. Keeler and Powell were the most frequent headliners, supported by character players such as Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee, and Ned Sparks, and most of the songs were contributed by Harry Warren and Al Dubin. The stories aren't much, usually revolving around the putting-together of a musical show as well as the lives and loves of chorus girls. The term "gold diggers," which is the source of the title of two of the films included in this set, refers unflatteringly to chorus girls in search of wealthy husbands.

Gold Diggers of 1933 opens with a justly famous shot of Ginger Rogers wearing an outfit of coins and singing "We're in the Money" first in English then in pig Latin. Gold Diggers of 1935 is capped by "The Lullaby of Broadway," a 14-minute story-within-a-story that seems one of the inspirations for Singin' in the Rain's "Broadway Melody." Dames (1934) has the aforementioned title tune as well as "I Only Have Eyes for You" (with Powell singing to dozens of Keeler faces). Footlight Parade changes things up a bit by starring James Cagney as a producer desperately cranking out musical numbers. Keeler and Powell emerge from their bit-character roles to headline two of the big productions stacked together at the end, while Cagney replaces Powell in the third, showing off the vaudeville hoofing skills he would use later in 1942's Yankee Doodle Dandy.

DVD supplements are generous. The sixth disc is the 163-minute Busby Berkely Disc, a former laserdisc program that collects just the musical numbers from nine films without the plot filler. Most of the numbers are already included in the films in this collection, but there are also one number each from Fashions of 1934, Wonder Bar, In Caliente, and Gold Diggers of 1937. Also on the discs are new and old featurettes (one tracks the development of 42nd Street from book to screen to stage), and vintage cartoons and shorts (one promotional short has Berkeley on-screen talking up Dames). Picture quality is about the same as on the Astaire and Rogers Collection, Vol. 1: good for the age of the material, but with noticeable fuzz and print damage. --David Horiuchi

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Love is blind fickle and true. And under the sway of capricious fairies it becomes blinder ( a queen romances as donkey) more fickle (best friends swoon over each other's beau) and truest of all (lovers repledge their devotion). "Lord what fools these mortals be!" in Shakespeare's bewitching comedy!Running Time: 143 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569591226 Manufacturer No: 65912

James Cagney and Mickey Rooney romping in a Shakespearian fairyland? This could only be A Midsummer Night's Dream, Warner Bros.' 1935 attempt at classing up the proletarian studio. The legendary German stage director Max Reinhardt had produced the play at the Hollywood Bowl to enchanted, sold-out audiences, and Warners decided to hand Reinhardt the keys to the studio (along with fellow Germans William Dieterle, co-director, and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who adapted Mendelssohn's music). Reinhardt created an eye-popping phantasmagoria, a movie laced with sparkling sequins, flying fairies, and moon-kissed forests. As for the words, Reinhardt had a collection of Warners studio players, notably James Cagney as Bottom, whose playing of "Pyramus and Thisby" with Joe E. Brown is perhaps the movie's comic high point. The other actors are decidedly varied, and they tend to be overwhelmed by the production design. Not so Mickey Rooney, whose performance as Puck is a feral, antic act of imagination (he was 14 during filming); picture a boy raised by wolves who somehow memorized Shakespeare. His Puck growls and screams and mocks the drama of the other characters, a little postmodern imp before his time. (Critic David Thomson called this Puck "truly inhuman, one of the cinema's most arresting pieces of magic"). The rest of the movie comes to earth with some regularity, but it's a one-of-a-kind production, and a reminder of the lavish, unreal possibilities within a movie studio. --Robert Horton

42nd Street (Keep Case)

Set during the depression, this is the granddaddy of backstage musicals in which the understudy finally gets a chance to shine. It may seem a little cliché now, but in 1933 this was hot stuff. All that behind-the-scenes atmosphere feels very genuine, and the script is more acerbic than you might expect.

A sickly Julian Marsh (Warner Baxter) puts his all into what may be his last show, only to face a disaster when leading lady Dorothy Brock (Bebe Daniels) sprains her ankle. Thank heavens for ingenue Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler), who steps in at the last minute. The vivacious soundtrack includes "Shuffle off to Buffalo," and the still-catchy title tune. Best of all are those extravagant, kaleidoscopic dance numbers by Busby Berkeley, then in his prime. --Rochelle O'Gorman

When the leading lady of a Broadway musical breaks her ankle, she is replaced by a young unknown actress, who becomes the star of the show.

Murder, My Sweet

"Murder My Sweet" based on the Raymond Chandler novel "Farewell My Lovely" featured a then controversial choice of Dick Powell to play the famous Philip Marlowe. Previously Dick Powell was known only for comedies and musicals so his appearance in a Film Noir DVD makes the Murder My Sweet DVD an especially unique choice for your mystery DVD collection and for those who enjoy collecting Raymond Chandler novel-turned-movie DVD's. Quick "Murder My Sweet" DVD Summery: His name is Phillip Marlowe and for the right price this private eye will follow an unfaithful husband find a missing bankroll or spy on a suspicious neighbor. When he's drawn into a complex web of murder blackmail and double-dealingthe result is the quintessential film-noir - the one that set the standard for the Film Noir genre. Complete your Film Noir DVD collection - Buy the "Murder My Sweet" now!Running Time: 95 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS UPC: 053939675429

Dick Powell will forever be known as a 1930s crooner in archetypal musical comedies, but this career-changing role shows Powell at his best and remains perhaps the most faithful cinematic representation of Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled hero, Philip Marlowe, ever put on screen. In this adaptation of Farewell, My Lovely, Powell's cynical, smart-talking private eye is hired by a dim ex-con (pug-nosed Mike Mazurki) to find his girl Velma, and by the prissy stooge of a blackmail victim to babysit him during a handoff. The meeting ends with the stooge's death, and Marlowe is immediately engaged by the owner of some jewels, the wily Mrs. Grayle (Claire Trevor), to recover them. As Marlowe navigates the dark, dangerous world of wartime L.A., splitting his search between high-society haunts and the cheap, smoky bars and flophouses of the inner city, he turns up one too many stones, winds up on the wrong end of a fist, and wakes up to a drug-induced nightmare that director Edward Dmytryk delivers with a mixture of surreal symbolism and sinister expressionism. Powell delivers screenwriter John Paxton's snappy lines and droll asides with hard-boiled cynicism, like someone not quite as tough as he talks; but it's Powell's innate vulnerability that makes this reluctant saint of the city so compelling. Dmytryk's shadowy style creates a visual equivalent to the web of intrigue Marlowe navigates, an almost perpetual world of night. One of the first great films noir and an often-overlooked detective-movie classic. --Sean Axmaker

The Bad and the Beautiful

In The Bad and the Beautiful, Kirk Douglas plays a tyrannical, manipulative producer fallen on hard times. To get back on his feet, he asks for help from three Hollywood giants whose careers he helped launch--a director (Barry Sullivan), an actress (Lana Turner), and a writer (Dick Powell). Unfortunately, they all hate him. Flashbacks explain why. Douglas had been close to all three at different points in his career: He and the director started out together making B-movies, he gave the wayward actress her first starring role, he turned the novelist into a successful screenwriter. Then in one way or another he stabbed each of them in the back, though not always deliberately. The script has a lot of backstage clichés, but Vincente Minnelli's sharp, energetic direction, the gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, and the topnotch performances--particularly Douglas and Gloria Grahame, who won an Oscar for her sweet role as the writer's cheerful Southern wife--flesh out the clichés with cutting details and convincing bile. Caustic, starry-eyed, and slyly funny, The Bad and the Beautiful is a strange and skillful blend of "If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere" pluck and poisonous cynicism, one of the great movies about making movies. --Bret Fetzer

The Alice Faye Collection (That Night in Rio / Lillian Russell / On the Avenue / The Gang's All Here)

Includes:The Gang's All HereTwo friends take jobs as truck drivers unaware that the trucking company is being targeted by a gang of saboteurs who will stop at nothing including murder to stop them.That Night In RioAn entertainer (Ameche) in Rio impersonates a wealthy arisocrat (also Ameche). When the aristocrat's wife (Faye) asks him to carry the impersonation further complications ensue.AndOn The AvenueLillian RussellFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS UPC: 024543403562 Manufacturer No: 2240356

The brevity of her stardom might account for her relative lack of 21st-century fame, but believe it: Alice Faye was a huge star. She was the queen of Twentieth Century Fox for a few years and became the heroine of the wartime musical until she was displaced by her Fox stablemate Betty Grable. As a singer, she enjoyed a string of hits with her surprising voice, a low, mellow croon, which somehow sounds like the World War II homefront. Faye's fleshy, cornfed face had much to do with her girl-next-door persona, although the figure she shows off in a gold dress in That Night in Rio leaves no doubt about another aspect of her appeal.

The four-disc Alice Faye Collection gives a cross-section of Faye's Fox career: one film as the up-and-comer (On the Avenue), two splashy mega-musicals (The Gang's All Here and That Night in Rio), and one expensive, serious musical biopic (Lillian Russell). In all, she smolders rather than burns, and rarely goes long without a song.

The 1937 On the Avenue is an Irving Berlin spectacle with a silly streak: Broadway boy Dick Powell locks horns with the richest girl in America (Madeleine Carroll), with Faye on the sidelines as Powell's regular-gal pal. You can see why audiences loved her, and the movie itself is a snappy, sarcastic little gem, featuring some antic routines by the Ritz Brothers and a kooky collection of Berlin tunes (including "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm"). Lillian Russell, a 1940 bio of the famous Gay 90s singer, was intended as Faye's crack at a dramatic role. The movie's whitewash of Russell's real story (which, as a 20-minute documentary makes clear, made Russell the Madonna of her era) limits Faye's chances. Henry Fonda plays a long-faithful suitor, with Don Ameche and Edward Arnold (reprising his title role from the film Diamond Jim Brady) also in her orbit. That Night in Rio casts Faye opposite frequent co-star Ameche again; he plays a double role, as a suave Baron and a brash nightclub impersonator. The story is nonsense, but Carmen Miranda is around to do the chica-boom, and Alice looks drop-dead sexy.

And then there's The Gang's All Here, one of Hollywood's most legendary excursions into surrealism. Don't pay attention to the plot--just check out director Busby Berkeley's lunatic staging of the dance numbers. "The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat," a showpiece for Carmen Miranda (it's the one with the giant bananas in a chorus line) looks like something dreamed up by Salvador Dali after an acid trip. Benny Goodman's swing band is also around.

Some care has gone into the DVD extras: a two-part bio of Alice Faye, featuring her daughters (and giving the story of how Faye walked away from film in 1945); a charming film she made for the Pfizer drug company, extolling the virtues of keeping fit; and a 20-minute intro to Berkeley's style. The print transfers are more problematic. Avenue looks fine, and Rio looks like other Fox color films of the era. Lillian Russell is preceded by a disclaimer warning of the limitations of original source materials, and indeed the print here is marred by serious tears in the middle of the screen during a few sequences. Gang's All Here will disappoint Technicolor fans; the colors don't "pop" as they should, and the film looks dimmer and vaguer than its onetime splendor. Here's hoping a cleaner, fuller version will emerge. --Robert Horton

The Great American Songbook

The people and events that put the music in our lives are celebrated in this lively anthology hosted (and featuring vocals) by Michael Feinstein that traces popular music from its roots in ballads and minstrel shows through the jazz age big bands Broadway and Hollywood. Delight as Fats Waller boogies George Gershwin invents a musical rhapsody Arthur Freed becomes the wizard of oohs and aahs and biopics like "Three Little Words" (Boop-boop-bedoo!) bring lives of famous tunesmiths to the screen. Among some rare performance footage Bessie Smith sings the blues Hoagy Carmichael is touched by "Stardust" Fred and Ginger dance the Depression away and Judy pines for the place beyond the rainbow. It all adds up to one very special musical treat!Running Time: 175 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. UPC: 085393738525

The Great American Songbook is an ambitious documentary that chronicles 100 years of American popular song through film clips and photographs. It stretches from minstrel shows to Elvis, but features most prominently the "Golden Age" songwriters of the 1930s through the 1950s--Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, Richard Rodgers with both Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein, and others. That means you can enjoy some of the most exquisite music of the 20th century including Paul Robeson singing "Old Man River," Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing "Cheek to Cheek," and Judy Garland's "The Man That Got Away," plus performances of historical importance such as Al Jolson's "Swanee."

Over the course of its three hours (it was cut for PBS broadcast), the program has some drawbacks--performers are identified but films aren't, the performances tend to be almost complete rather than complete, and scenes from fictional films illustrate the earliest historical moments, which doesn't feel true--but they're minor, and Michael Feinstein proves a perfect host, narrating and occasionally singing at the piano. Fans of Feinstein's cabaret shows will also enjoy his commentary track, which provides a lot of interesting and funny background on the songs and songwriters. His commentary isn't constant, but a useful icon allows the viewer to find the next section of commentary with the click of a button. Another slight inconvenience is that chapters are named by subject matter rather than by song title so if you're skimming for highlights you have to know what you're looking for. --David Horiuchi

TV Favorites 150 Episodes

Harken back to the Golden Age of Television with this collection of 30 Classic TV programs. These 150 episodes will entertain one and all with this collection featuring some of the best of the popular comedies dramas westerns and adventure programs from the 1950's and 1960's. You'll be entertained by such iconic stars as Groucho Marx Lucille Ball Jack Benny Red Skelton Andy Griffith Bob Cummings and Betty White. You'll be thrilled by the adventures of Robin Hood Long John Silver Rin Tin Tin and The Buccaneers. You'll find intrigue and danger while watching Mr & Mrs. North Richard Diamond Boston Blackie Dragnet Richard Diamond and Sherlock Holmes. This collection has something for everyone and the entertainment is sure to last for hours!Included:1. Adventures of Long John Silver The2. Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet The3. Adventures of Rin Tin Tin The4. Adventures of Robin Hood The5. Andy Griffith Show The6. Beverly Hillbillies The7. Bob Cummings Show The8. Bonanza9. Boston Blackie10. Buccaneers The11. Dangerous Assignment12. Dick Tracy13. Dragnet14. Flash Gordon15. Four Star Playhouse16. George Burns and Gracie Allen Show The17. Jack Benny Program The18. Lawless Years The19. Life With Elizabeth20. Lone Ranger The (TV)21. Lucy Show The22. Mr. and Mrs. North23. One Step Beyond24. Public Defender The25. Racket Squad26. Red Skelton Show The27. Richard Diamond - Private Detective28. Sherlock Holmes29. Trouble With Father30. You Bet Your LifeSystem Requirements:Running Time: 3585 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 826831070377 Manufacturer No: MV07037

On the Avenue

In this song-packed Irving Berlin musical actress Mona Merrick (Alice Faye) infuriates an heiress (Madeleine Carroll) by savagely portraying her in a hit play. When the show's producer (Dick Powell) begins a love affair with the heiress jealous Mona makes her satirical performance even more scathing setting off fireworks between the new couple.System Requirements:Running Time: 89 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS UPC: 024543411475 Manufacturer No: 2241148

Gold Diggers of 1933