|
|
List Price: $59.98Amazon.com's Price: $37.99 You Save: $21.99 (37%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Now!
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781419807787
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Special Edition, NTSC
ISBN: 1419807781
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 5
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: March 15, 2005
Running Time: 594 minutes
Sales Rank: 7821
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: September 08, 1954
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Broadway to Hollywood: The Classic Musicals Collection is a five-film set of fondly remembered, mostly MGM musicals: Easter Parade (1948), The Band Wagon (1953), Bells Are Ringing (1960), Finian's Rainbow (Warner, 1968), and Brigadoon (1954). Four of the films are making their DVD debut, all are available separately (for a higher price), and the two best films, Easter Parade and The Band Wagon, come in two-disc special editions complete with commentary tracks, new and vintage documentaries, and musical outtakes. Both of those films star Fred Astaire following his return from premature retirement. Easter Parade is a Pygmalion-like tale of a Vaudeville veteran (Astaire) who attempts to develop an act with a small-timer (Judy Garland) after his partner (Ann Miller) leaves him. Favorite songs include the title tune, 'Steppin' Out with My Baby,' and 'We're a Couple of Swells.' The Band Wagon was a sort of career retrospective for Astaire, as he plays an aging film star trying to resurrect his career by returning to the Broadway stage. Costars include Cyd Charisse, Jack Buchanan, Oscar Levant, and Nanette Fabray, and favorite numbers include 'Dancing in the Dark,' 'By Myself,' 'Triplets,' and 'A Shine on Your Shoes.'
Bells Are Ringing is a charmingly dated Vincente Minnelli film starring Judy Holliday, in a reprise of her Tony-winning Broadway role as an employee at an answering service who finds herself falling for a client (Dean Martin). Favorite songs include 'Just in Time' and 'The Party's Over.' Finian's Rainbow is a bloated oddity directed by a young Francis Ford Coppola and starring Astaire as a leprechaun and '60s pop icon Petula Clark as his daughter. It does have some great songs, however, including 'How Are Things in Glocca Mora,' 'When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love,' and 'Old Devil Moon.' Brigadoon has been out on DVD twice before, but appears now in its best version yet, remastered, anamorphically enhanced, and with musical outtakes. It stars Gene Kelly and Van Johnson as Americans who stumble across a Scottish village that only appears on Earth one day every 100 years, which is a problem when Kelly falls in love with one of its residents (Cyd Charisse). Favorite songs include 'Almost Like Being in Love,' 'The Heather on the Hill,' and 'I'll Go Home with Bonnie Jean.'
While none of the films in the Broadway to Hollywood collection are absolutely top-tier MGM (and Astaire, Garland, and Kelly all made better films in their careers), all have their charms and are welcome additions to the DVD catalog. Trivia note: The title of the set isn't 100% correct. Easter Parade did not originate as a Broadway musical, but Tommy Tune made an unsuccessful attempt to adapt the movie into a Broadway show in the late 1990s. --David Horiuchi
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Old Gold...
While all the musicals in this collection are well worth the price my favorites are The Band Wagon and the incomparable Bells Are Ringing. Have Fun!
Rating: - brigadoon is short-changed
This set was given to me a few months ago. My personal interest is in Brigadoon. Cyd and Hugh are probably the greatest dancers to ever crossover (and Mr Kelly doesn't count since he was never really on the other side). What angers me about the transfer of the film version to dvd is that it was edited. DVD transfer is an opportunity to realize a film's full life. The version of Brigadoon in this collection is clearly formatted for some kind of commercial-tv presentation. The beautiful and crucial ... Read More
Rating:  - Five of the Best Color Musicals Ever Made
BROADWAY TO HOLLYWOOD is Warner Home Video's blanket title for five of the splashiest and most tuneful color MGM musicals ever made: THE BANDWAGON, EASTER PARADE, BRIGADOON, BELLS ARE RINGING, and FINIAN'S RAINBOW.
Two of these are sleeper gems. Vincente Minnelli's BRIGADOON (1954), with an army of musical numbers by Lerner and Loewe, has travelers Gene Kelly and Van Johnson coming upon a Scottish village that can only be seen once every hundred years; Cyd Charisse is the lovely ... Read More
Rating:  - Not the best musicals
Theses are not the best examples of the Hollywood musical. While I love Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, there a much better films with Fred or Gene.
Easter Parade has the two best musical stars, Fred and Judy, but together they have no chemistry and are further hampered by a weak script.
Finian's Rainbow is Fred's last musical and what a poor choice. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, he went on to much better fare. This was a groundbreaking musical but does not translate well ... Read More
Rating: - Thank You, WB!
The wonderful folks at Warner Home Video have outdone themselves recently with several amazing boxed sets of great films. We now have definitive batches of the best of Film Noir, Classic Comedy, Gangster Films--and this beauty, my favorite so far. The sheer brilliance of the technical work that went into restoring these classic musicals is reason enough to pounce on Amazon's bargain price while it lasts.
What can you say about the films themselves that hasn't already been said? THE BAND WAGON ... Read More
|
|
