Powell, Eleanor

Classic Musicals from the Dream Factory, Vol. 3 (Hit the Deck/Deep in My Heart/Kismet/Nancy Goes to Rio/Two Weeks with Love/Broadway Melody of 1936/Broadway Melody of 1938/Born to Dance/Lady Be Good)

HIT THE DECK - Anchors Aweigh. On the Town, Hit the Deck. Hollywood has always known what to do with sailors on leave: Give 'em some pretty girls and some great songs and watch the fans line up to enlist! Hit the Deck hits all the right notes as three sailors (Tony Martin, Vic Damone, Russ Tamblyn) and three cuties (Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Ann Miller) flirt, squabble, run afoul of shore patrol and of course, fall in love to a hit parade of Vincent Youmans tunes. Highlights include Miller's polishing the floor as The Lady from the Bayou, Martin's romantic mastery of More Than You Know and the stage-filling rouser Hallelujah. Music, romance, fun: don't miss the boat! DEEP IN MY HEART - That Kelly lad sure can dance. Fred Kelly. In his only credited film role, he and legendary brother Gene happily hoof a I Love to Go Swimmin' with Wimmen specialty romp in this colorful musical biopic about Sigmund Romberg, the ex-piano man who went on to compose some 80 productions. There's much more to love, too. Ann Miller gams and glams It (from The Desert Song). Jane Powell and Vic Damone remember Will You Remember (Maytime). Jose Ferrer (as Romberg) demos all the roles of a gleeful Jazza-Doo spree. And before Deep in My Heart is sung, danced and jazza-done, you'll find Cyd Charisse, Merle Oberon, Howard Keel and more. The talent runs deep. So does the fun. KISMET - With Alexander Borodin's soaring music fashioned by Robert Wright and George Forrest into Stranger in Paradise, Baubles, Bangles and Beads and more evergreens, Kismet turned the Broadway stage into a glittering, gleaming Arabian Nights' dream. And this was ideal material for the dream factory. To Hollywood and director Vincente Minnelli, Kismett was kismet. This lavish musical follows one fateful, fabulous day as a beggar-poet (Howard Keel) and his daughter (Ann Blyth) cross paths with a wicked wazir, a wily temptress, a handsome prince, a magical curse, opulent sets and exotic adventure. "Princes come, princes go," sings the beggar. Glorious Kismet endures! NANCY GOES TO RIO/TWO WEEKS WITH LOVE - Yes, Nancy Goes to Rio - and fun comes along! A colorful backlot Rio is the setting for a comic tale of personal and professional mixups as aspiring actress Nancy (Jane Powell) and her Broadway-veteran mother (Ann Sothern) seek the same stage role. Adding to the Brazilian flair: Carmen Miranda in zany-hatted performance glory. Powell's sunny charm and bright soprano are again on display when she and Debbie Reynolds turn a 1900s Catskills vacation into Two Weeks - with Love. Powell hopes to catch the eye of suave Ricardo Montalban by wearing a form-fitting undergarment: a (shhh!) corset. Reynolds reels in affable Carleton Carpenter for a legendary Aba Daba Honeymoon showstopper. Speaking of legends, Busby Berkeley provides the musical staging. BROADWAY MELODY OF 1936/BROADWAY MELODY OF 1938 - There's no stopping them now. Eleanor Powell taps the spangled ebullience of Broadway Rhythm in Broadway Melody of 1936, 15-year-old Judy Garland sings a smitten Dear Mr. Gable to a portrait of Hollywood's King in Broadway Melody of 1938 and both actresses notch out career breakthroughs. Powell plays an Albany girl-next-door who poses as France's and Broadway's exotic La Belle Arlette in the Oscar®-winning* '36 romp. The '38 tale has her portraying a horse trainer who's just as much at ease in taps and tuxedo as she is in riding boots and jodhpurs. Judy steps lively, too, joining Buddy Ebsen for Everybody Sing. Everybody enjoy. These star-making Melodies are playing every classic fan's song. BORN TO DANCE/LADY BE GOOD - Eleanor Powell's the girl, James Stewart's the gob and Cole Porter's the tunesmith in Born to Dance, a break-a-leg tale of an understudy turned Broadway star that includes Powell taking command of a battleship for Swingin' the Jinx Away. Her radiant appeal and astonishing tap-dancing skills energize the screen ag

Broadway Melody of 1940

One of the most famous tap numbers in film history distinguishes Broadway Melody of 1940, the fourth and final installment in MGM's Broadway Melody series. When Clare Bennett (Eleanor Powell, who had appeared in Broadway Melody of 1936 and 1938) needs a new partner for her hit Broadway show, small-time hoofers Johnny Brett (Fred Astaire in his MGM debut) and King Shaw (George Murphy) get their big chance. But due to a case of mistaken identity, King, rather than the more talented Johnny, gets the job, and the girl. Astaire and Powell can't match the chemistry he had with Ginger Rogers at RKO, but she was the best technical dancer he was ever teamed with, and the sense of fun they share is infectious. Their above-mentioned tap duet to Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" is legendary, but there are other fine moments as well: Astaire and Murphy's duet "Please Don't Monkey with Broadway," Powell's athletic number with a chorus of sailors "I Am the Captain," Astaire playing the piano and singing "I've Got My Eyes on You," and his and Powell's high-velocity duet "Jukebox Dance." --David Horiuchi

That's Entertainment, Pt. 2

Thousands Cheer

The second half of this 1943 Technicolor musical is an excuse for MGM's contract talent to perform songs and sketches in a big show at an Army base. Unfortunately, more than an hour passes before the show arrives, stranding the viewer with a thin service comedy about an opera singer (Kathryn Grayson) tagging along to a military camp in hopes of reuniting her estranged parents, whose names are Bill and Hillary (no comments, please). Romance comes in the form of private Gene Kelly, a former trapeze artist who misses the glory of his former life. Grayson warbles, and Kelly has one nifty solo dance (with a mop and broom), but the all-star revue is the movie's main attraction. The song selection is generally poor ("I Dug a Ditch in Wichita" is performed twice), with Lena Horne's sultry take on "Honeysuckle Rose" an exception. She's backed by Benny Carter and His Orchestra. Specialty player Virginia O'Brien delights with one of her deadpan numbers, Eleanor Powell tap dances, and Judy Garland delivers with a boogie-woogie lilt on "Jumpin' Down at Carnegie Hall." Comedy sketches with Red Skelton and Frank Morgan are stubbornly unfunny. Then there's José Iturbi, the Spanish-born conductor, making his film debut at the beginning of his run as MGM's supposedly cute highbrow. Director George Sidney would team up two years later with Iturbi, Kelly, and Grayson in Anchors Aweigh, a much more enjoyable musical confection. --Robert Horton