My
Fair Lady (1964) DVD
Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison
Lerner & Loewe's delightful musical originally adapted from playwright
George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion," "My Fair Lady" has become one of the
most popular musicals of all time. Egotistical linguist Henry Higgins bets
that he can transform a "lowly" Cockney flower girl into a lady in time
for an important society ball. Soon the confused and amazed Eliza Doolittle's
been washed and scrubbed, dressed in pretty clothes and tutored in speech
until she's ready to fall in exhaustion. Henry Higgins' gamble may yet
pay off, but... Order
VHS |
| "This is Mrs. Norman Maine":
Could these be the most heartbreaking words Judy Garland ever uttered?
George Cukor directed and Moss Hart wrote this film, a musical remake of
the 1937 original. The story is a show-biz classic: He (James Mason) is
a major movie star who is past his prime and on the way down; she (Garland)
is an aspiring singer who, with his help, becomes a bigger star than he
was. Their marriage becomes a seesaw of success and failure, as he slowly
drinks himself to death out of bitterness at the fickleness of fame, until
his bad behavior begins to threaten the career of his long-suffering and
loving wife. Mason and Garland are both terrific, with her singing "The
Man That Got Away" among others. Remade in a 1976 Barbra Streisand vanity
production. --Marshall Fine
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Bye
Bye Birdie (1963) DVD
When Elvis-like rock & roll
star Conrad Birdie is drafted into the military, the teen nation is united
by a contest in which the winner bestows a farewell kiss upon their idol
while on the Ed Sullivan Show. Ann-Margret (in her film debut) is the lucky
little lady from Sweet Apple, Ohio, who wins the contest, much to the chagrin
of her steady beau (Bobby Rydell) and miserable parents (Paul Lynde and
Mary LaRoche). Dick Van Dyke and Janet Leigh are an older couple kept from
marrying by his meddlesome mother, played to the hilt by Maureen Stapleton.
Lightweight but fun, this features an exuberant soundtrack with such memorable
ditties as "Put on a Happy Face" and "Kids" and the title track. --Rochelle
O'Gorman
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Funny
Girl (1968) DVD
Starring: Barbra Streisand, Omar
Sharif. Barbra's Oscar-winning film debut in a reprisal of her Broadway
role as Ziegfeld star Fanny Brice in this highly fictionalized musical
biopic. Brice, a poor Jewish girl from the lower east side, rose to fame
and won audience's hearts everywhere with her comic antics and powerful
singing. Unfortunately, she had far less success in her personal life,
and the film focuses on her doomed romance with her first husband, gambler
Nicky Arnstein.
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Hello,
Dolly! (1969) DVD
Starring: Barbra Streisand, Walter
Matthau. Streisand directed by Kelly with a popular Herman score--this
film is one of the last big, splashy Hollywood musicals. Playing widow
Dolly Levi, a matchmaker, Streisand finally finds herself a match. Based
on Wilder's successful Broadway play The Matchmaker, the film earned seven
Academy Award Nominations, including Best Picture, and won three: Best
Score of a Musical Picture, Art Direction and Sound. Order
VHS |
The
Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) DVD
Released in 1964, The Unsinkable
Molly Brown gave Debbie Reynolds one of her most memorable roles and earned
her an Academy Award nomination (she lost to Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins).
Order
VHS |
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| The
Great Caruso (1951) VHS |
| On
Moonlight Bay (1951) VHS |
| Show
Boat (1951) DVD |
| Royal
Wedding (1951) VHS |
| The
Student Prince (1954) VHS |
| Pal
Joey (1957) DVD |
| South
Pacific (1958) DVD |
| The
Sound of Music (1965) VHS |
| Camelot
(1967) DVD |
| Oliver!
(1968) DVD |
| Sweet
Charity (1968) VHS |
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Fiddler
on the Roof
(1971)
DVD
Starring: Topol, Molly Picon, Leonard
Frey
Norman Jewison's classic of
a man struggling to preserve his Jewish heritage. Ukrainian milkman Tevye
clings desperately to the old Jewish traditions while all around him the
world changes, day by day. His three daughters marry men he considers more
and more unacceptable, and the ruling Russian government's anti-Semitism
threatens to drive him from his home. The music is excellent (it won Oscars
for the scoring and the sound), with plenty of familiar songs such as "Sunrise,
Sunset" and "If I Were a Rich Man," which you'll be humming long after
the movie is over.
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Kiss
Me Kate
(1953)
DVD
Fred and Lilly are a divorced pair
of actors who are brought together by Cole Porter who has written a musical
version of The Taming of the Shrew. Of course, the couple seem to act a
great deal like the characters they play. A fight on the opening night
threatens the production, as well as two thugs who have the mistaken idea
that Fred owes their boss money and insist on staying next to him all night.
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Robin
and the Seven Hoods (1964) DVD
Robin and the 7 Hoods mirthfully
gives the Robin Hood legend a Depression-era, mobtown Chicago setting.
There, North Side boss Robbo (Frank Sinatra) hopes to get a leg up in his
power struggle with rival racketeer Guy Gisborne (Peter Falk). Robbo sets
himself up as a latter-day Robin Hood with philanthropic fronts enabling
him to scam the rich, take his cut, and then give to the poor.
Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr.,
Bing Crosby, and Barbara Rush join in the giddy, gangsterish fun.
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