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Rating:  - Classic Musicals
I have a copy of this set. I bought another set of this GREAT COLLECTION to give as a gift and it was greatly received. Everyone who likes Musicals should own this collection.
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 number "Come to Me Bend to Me" is formatted as an outtake, as if there wasn't time for it in the tv format. I remember when the film was released in 1964. All of us in the production had a sense that this was a show that could delight and move people who would never see a stage production. I cannot fathom why the people that gained the rights to the dvd transfer did nothing more than dump a tv-commercial-edited version onto a piggy-back of a multi-dvd set--they don't know the show, or don't give a damn
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 leading lady. The movie has been criticized for its sound stage re-creation of a Scottish village, but that is a plus for me. Along with CinemaScope, one gets the feel for what this show was like on Broadway. A dozen songs, choreographed by Kelly, include "The Heather on the Hill" and "It's Almost Like Being in Love." BRIGADOON is a lovely movie, with remastered color and sound. Bonuses include three outtake musical numbers and several original theatrical trailers.
Francis Ford Coppola does brand-new audio commentary on his own fabulous FINIAN'S RAINBOW (1968), in Technicolor and letterboxed Panavision. Again, we are mostly on a soundstage, with Fred Astaire and Tommy Steele as leprechauns and Petula Clark at her loveliest as Astaire's daughter. This E.Y. Harburg-Fred Saidy-Burton Lane musical has songs I cannot get out of my head weeks later, including "Look to the Rainbow,""That Old Devil Moon," "How Are Things In Glocca Mora?" and Steele's show-stopper: "If I'm Not With the Girl I Love, I'll Love the Girl I Am With." The movie is glorious and very underrated, from a late 1960's era of underrated movie musicals, including STAR! and HELLO, DOLLY!
BELLS ARE RINGING.(1960), with Vincente Minnelli directing a delightful Betty Comden-Adolph Green screenplay, with Jule Styne music, is a great musical vehicle for wonderful Judy Holliday, re-creating a Tony winning stage role. She is a switchboard operator named Melasande at Susanswerphone in a lower-depths part of Manhattan. She is not supposed to get personally involved with the clients, but as "Mom" falls in love with songwriter Dean Martin. She also does not know that bookie Eddie Foy, Jr. is using the answering service as a gambling front. Terrific songs here include the legendary "Just in Time" and "The Party's Over". DVD bonuses, in addition to remastered color and sound, include outtake musical numbers and a filmmaking documentary. You also get to see a CinemaScope movie at its right aspect ratio.
The two crown jewels of the BROADWAY TO HOLLYWOOD set are double disks of Charles Walters' EASTER PARADE (1948) and Vincente Minnelli's THE BANDWAGON (1953). Both have magnificently remastered sound and picture to look and sound brand new. EASTER PARADE has about fifteen old and new Irving Berlin songs, performed by the incomparable Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. Its magnificent bonuses include the finest Garland documentary, two full hours from PBS, that I have ever seen; a filmmaking documentary; and audio commentary by Astaire's daughter Ava and Garland biographer John Fricke. This is an all-time favorite musical of mine, and I have never enjoyed it more.
Last and probably best (which is saying a lot!) is THE BANDWAGON (1953), which several movie musical experts feel is the best movie musical of all time. It is certainly one of the most sophisticated and stylish color ones, with a wonderful Oscar-nominated Comden and Green screenplay about putting on a Broadway show. Astaire stars this time with lovely Cyd Charisse, never better than in "Dancing in the Dark." Other hit songs include "By Myself," "Shine on My Shoes." "Triplets," "Louisiana Hayride," the gorgeously-designed Mickey Spillane climax, and "That's Entertainment!" Comden and Green have a delightful time spoofing themselves as the Nanette Fabray and Oscar Levant characters. The biggest bonus here is audio commentary by a very happy and friendly Liza Minnelli and Michael Feinstein, along with a filmmaking documentary and an hour-long "Men Who Made the Movies" documentary on Vincente Minnelli.
If you'd like to own this DVD boxed set, BROADWAY TO HOLLYWOOD, it retails for about $60, but sells from Amazon for about $45, less than an orchestra ticket for a downtown San Francisco stage show. Happy viewing!
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 to the large screen.
Brigadoon is for Gene Kelly super fans only. Kelly is great but this is not one of Lerner and Lowe's better efforts (Think Gigi and My Fair Lady).
There are only 2 great films.
The Band Wagon is Fred at his best. This is classic camp. A show within a show. Fred, Nannette Fabray and Oscar Levant are making a musical version of Faust that turns into a big egg. But they quickly take all the good pieces and rework it to a smash. Sounds familiar but it is original. Most people remember this for the Tripplet's Song.
Bells are Ringing is Judy Holiday at her best. She conquered Broadway with this show and then proved herself again with this film. Dean Martin is her costar and features Jean Stapleton.
Of course both are Comden and Green shows, which of course helps. My suggestion is buy the titles you like seperately.
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