Hollywood Musicals of the 40's

Show #1 HOLLYWOOD MUSICALS OF THE 40s

In the 1940's. America was just emerging from The Great Depression. War engulfed half the world and the future looked uncertain. The Hollywood musical had the recipe to make things better. Because of this original American art form, people still believed that dreams really can come true. Glamour spread across the screen. Whether in glorious color or black and white, the screen always glittered.

Join Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Jeanette MacDonald, Fred Astaire, Alice Faye, Gene Kelly, Betty Grable, John Payne, Ann Miller, George Murphy, Margaret O'Brien, Bing Crosby, Doris day, Danny Kaye, Carmen Miranda, Frank Sinatra, Martha Raye, Jimmy Durante, Lena Horne, Tony Martin, and a host of others as we celebrate the great Musicals of the 1940's, when Hollywood put its best dancing feet forward. From nostalgia to contemporary jazz, the Hollywood Musical had it all.

Show #2: Hollywood Victory Caravan

Hollywood Victory Caravan is typical of the War Bond promotions of the second World War. Musical comedy stars Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton, Carmen Cavallero, Bob Hope, and Olga San Juan strut their stuff in this musical short. Barbara Syanwyck, Alan Ladd, Humphrey Bogart, and Robert Benchley make cameo appearances. Rare behind-the-scenes views of the Paramount studio highlight this gem from the 1940's. This is a real treat for fans of the Musical!

it's a terrible play--but it makes for a starter rehearsal...

Hollywood Musicals of the 40's is one DVD I won't be recommending anytime soon. I couldn't agree more with the other reviewers on this page. What you get is a series of rather short clips of song and dance numbers thrown at you haphazardly without any sense of order. What's worse, there are the most annoying printed ads from the trailers imposed upon many of the clips rendering them mostly unwatchable. The narration was also distracting from the footage; I could have written the narrative better while sleeping.

And that's so unfortunate, because this could have been another "That's Entertainment" style of retrospective. Instead too much is covered in too little time. Although the movie is advertised as lasting two hours, it really only lasts about 90 minutes.

The one thing I did appreciate was the interview time they gave to Betty Garrett and Margaret O'Brien. These two ladies reminisced--and Margaret O'Brien especially had some nice stories to tell. Ann Miller also tells some stories that are interesting.

The quality of the footage isn't always the best--the clips from the movie entitled Lillian Russell, for example, are very dark and poorly displayed. Other clips that were too dark even include the small bits of footage from Broadway Melody of 1940 with Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell dancing together. Now THAT'S a shame!

There is one bonus feature entitled Hollywood Victory Caravan. This is a fine example of what was mostly likely a one reel short that would have been shown in movie theaters during WWII to raise money for war bonds. However, this is a bonus and not the actual retrospective--it saves the DVD somewhat but it doesn't make up for the poor presentation of the major feature.

I give this DVD two stars. It had such potential and it flunked every test. I am very disappointed with this DVD retrospective of Hollywood musicals from the 1940s. Don't waste your time!
March 31, 2008

Disappointed

I was disappointed in this DVD. I was expecting much more than a collection of movie trailers. Very few songs were performed in entirety and the words appearing over the singers and dancers were very distracting. As I said, it is a collection of movie trailers, interesting in themselves but not worthy of being termed "selections from movies". June 23, 2007

with due respect to mr. pennington...

Why would a film about 40s musicals spend its time in Doris Day -- she only made three films in the 40s. October 22, 2005

The Judy Garland Show, But What About the Great Doris Day?

I hesitated in buying a DVD called HOLLYWOOD MUSICALS OF THE 40s because I felt that they would ignore Doris Day and conscentrate on Judy Garland and the rest of the MGM crowd.

When the price went down, I ordered it, reluctantly. Well, I was correct in my assumption: it's THE JUDY GARLAND SHOW with special guests Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire and the rest of the MGM crowd. S.Z. Sakall got more coverage than Doris!

Doris Day is saved for the last of this documentary with trailer-like coverage of ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS. Yes, I know that Day made only three musicals in the late 40s, but she and she alone, saved the movie musical which was in decline in the late 40s. Not included is Doris' wonderful "It's Magic" number from "Romance," and the incredible singing and dancing she did in "My Dream Is Yours" and "It's A Great Feeling." Certainly, her performances in those films were centuries better than anything that Alice Faye or Betty Grable did. Even, better than Judy Garland!

There were many dull scenes with Alice Faye, Betty Grable and June Havor and other boring "musical" stars of the 40s singing horrible songs, but there was PLENTY of Judy, Mickey Rooney, Fred, Gene, Eleanor Powell, Nelson & Eddy and some people I'd never heard of;, like Susanna Foster, who got plenty of screen time! Was she bigger than Doris Day?!!!

Why does Doris Day get treated this way? It puzzles me, even when documentaries are done on TV about legendary movie stars -- if Doris is mentioned, it's often only in passing. They give plenty of time to people like Betty Garrett, Vera-Ellen, Margaret O'Brien and others who never made it as big as Doris Day. Why is that?

Is Doris really hated that much or do people in the media feel that they must discrimate against Day because of all the criticism she got in the '60s about her "virginity" and all that nonsense?

I've met people who recoiled at the mention of 'Doris Day.' "Oh, she's such a goody two-shoes..." I've fought back and defended her, but stopped because I realized I was dealing with the ignorant and people who just jump on bandwagons to criticize just to make themselves feel better.

In Day's case, I think most of this stuff is just jealousy -- no female star ever had the boxoffice clout or popularity that Doris had in the movies and in the record business. You'd think that Marilyn Monroe, Judy, Jane Powell, Gene Kelly, Ann Miller were all bigger the Doris! Especially Marilyn, with all the publicity she gets, even to this day.

I wonder what Doris thinks of the way she's treated by these "historians." December 5, 2004

Poor Quality -- Poor Attempt at Reminiscing

Worst DVD compilation I've seen and a big waste of time. It's basically a series of movie previews and trailers strung together with narrative. The quality is very poor. This DVD cover and label shows a pic of The Barkleys of Broadway, which was a favorite of mine. There was nothing on the DVD about Barkleys. I do think this was a rip-off and I wouldn't consider looking at the rest of the series of their musicals of the 50s and 60s. August 9, 2004

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