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Review Walt Disney Home Video / Mary Poppins [DVD] [1964]
Actors & Directors
  • Cyril Delevanti
  • Reginald Owen
  • Julie Andrews
  • Ed Wynn
  • Robert Stevenson
  • Reta Shaw
Release date: 2002-07-08
Run time: 133 min.
Creator: Reta Shaw
RRP: £19.99
Price: £23.75

Review Mary Poppins [DVD] [1964] / Walt Disney Home Video:

There is only one word that comes close to accurately describing the enchanting Mary Poppins, and that term was coined by the movie itself: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Even at 2 hours and 20 minutes, Disney's pioneering mixture of live action and animation (based on the books by P. L. Travers) still holds kids spellbound. Julie Andrews won an Oscar as the world's most magically idealized nanny ("practically perfect in every way," and complete with lighter-than-air umbrella), and Dick Van Dyke is her clownishly charming beau, Bert the chimney sweep. The songs are also terrific, ranging from bright and cheery ("A Spoonful of Sugar") to dark and cheery (the Oscar-winning "Chim-Chim Cheree") to touchingly melancholy ("Feed the Birds"). Many consider Mary Poppins to be the crowning achievement of Walt Disney's career-and it was the only one of his features to be nominated for a best picture Academy Award until Beauty and the Beast in 1991. -Jim Emerson A pioneering film within Animation, Musicals and Fantasy, Walt Disney's Mary Poppins is possibly one of the warmest and dearest films ever made. Based on a story by PL Travers we find Julie Andrews on fine form in her debut lead role (for which she would win the "Best Actress" Oscar). She is practically perfectly teamed with Dick Van Dyke as the lovable chimney sweep Burt, whose cockney accent is endearingly inaccurate. Along with a fine supporting cast, where even the child actors hold their own without appearing like stage school wannabes, Poppins and her crew take you on a magical ride through chalk pictures, the roof tops of London and show you that laughter is not always the best medicine (even with a spoon full of sugar) when you can't get down. [+]
In total Mary Poppins clocked up five Academy Awards including Best Song and Best Visual Effects and has made it into the staple diet of family viewing across the world. On the DVD: Mary Poppins has certainly cleaned up a treat, restoring her to 1. 85:1 widescreen glory and 5. 1 Dolby digital sound-which is guaranteed to be music to your ears. The special features are "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" with the "Sing Along with the Movie" subtitles for all your favourite songs when they appear in the movie and the "I Love to Laugh" game offering Uncle Albert flying high in his parlour once more. "The Movie Magic of Mary Poppins" lets you look behind the scenes at how the magic was done and is fun, informative and easily understandable-pity the same cannot be said about the narrator. "Hollywood goes to a World Premiere" is a warm and amusing reminder about how premieres and stars used to be in 1964. The only disappointment is the lack of commentary-Dick Van Dyke would surely have offered a gem of a cockney voice-over! -Nikki Disney.

Review Warner Home Video / The Great Ziegfeld [1936] [DVD]
Actors & Directors
  • Fanny Brice
  • Frank Morgan
  • Myrna Loy
  • Robert Z. Leonard
  • Luise Rainer
  • William Powell
Release date: 2004-02-16
Run time: 177 min.
Creator: William Anthony McGuire
RRP: £13.99
Price: £2.45

Review The Great Ziegfeld [1936] [DVD] / Warner Home Video:

Winner of three Academy Awards including Best Picture, 1936's The Great Ziegfeld stars William Powell in a biopic "suggested by romances and incidents in the life of America's greatest showman, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr". With admirable accuracy, the film follows Ziegfeld's career from small-time sideshow barker to creator of the famous Ziegfeld Follies, the collection of singing, dancing, and comedy vaudeville acts that launched the careers of such luminaries as Fanny Brice, Ray Bolger and Harriet Hoctor-all of whom play themselves in the film. In the title role Powell offers a believable combination of ambition and hucksterism, and his Thin Man costar Myrna Loy makes a late appearance as his second wife, but it's large-eyed Luise Rainer who has the showier role (and won an Oscar) as Ziegfeld's first big star and first wife. The musical numbers, however, don't hold up quite as well as the plot, and at some three hours the film is overlong. It's fascinating, though, to see the vintage stars performing and the eight-minute spectacle "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" is an eye-popper with an elaborate revolving set supporting a large cast singing and dancing to the Irving Berlin tune while throwing in some Puccini, Strauss, Leoncavallo and Gershwin for good measure. -David Horiuchi.

Review MGM Entertainment / Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Collector's Edition Box Set [DVD] [1968]
Actors & Directors
  • Barbara Windsor
  • Sally Ann Howes
  • Ken Hughes
  • Dick Van Dyke
  • Lionel Jeffries
  • Gert Frobe
Release date: 2003-11-10
Run time: 140 min.
Creator: Barbara Windsor
RRP: £29.99
Price: £14.98

Review Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Collector's Edition Box Set [DVD] [1968] / MGM Entertainment:


Review Warner Home Video / Girl Happy [DVD] [1965] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Elvis Presley
  • Shelley Fabares
  • Boris Sagal
  • Harold J. Stone
  • Gary Crosby
  • Joby Baker
Release date: 2007-08-07
Run time: 96 min.
Creator: Harvey Bullock
Price: £4.39

Review Girl Happy [DVD] [1965] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Warner Home Video:

Elvis Presley does the clam-a now-forgotten dance-in this 1964 potboiler in which the King stars as a singer who gets a gig in Ft. Lauderdale with his combo but has to baby-sit a mobster's teenage daughter (Shelley Fabares) as part of the deal. Fabares's character, looking for a break, runs wild and makes life difficult for Elvis. The film has the usual "Elvis movie" bounce, wolfish jokes and glossy disposability, but the endearing (and smart) presence of Fabares as the love interest adds a bit more zip than usual. Songs include the title track, plus "Puppet on a String", "Do Not Disturb" and "Let's Party Tonight". Directed by Boris Sagal who went on to helm the cult sci-fi classic The Omega Man (1971). -Tom Keogh.

Review Warner Home Video / The Wizard Of Oz [DVD] [1939]
Actors & Directors
  • Judy Garland
  • Victor Fleming
Release date: 2006-10-09
Run time: 98 min.
Creator: Judy Garland
RRP: £7.99
Price: £4.67

Review The Wizard Of Oz [DVD] [1939] / Warner Home Video:


Review MGM Entertainment / The Beatles - Yellow Submarine [VHS] [1968]
Actors & Directors
  • Ringo Starr
  • George Dunning
  • The Beatles
  • George Harrison
  • John Lennon
  • Paul McCartney
Release date: 2000-02-01
Run time: 85 min.
Creator: Roger McGough
RRP: £15.99
Price: £15.99

Review The Beatles - Yellow Submarine [VHS] [1968] / MGM Entertainment:

This restored, animated valentine to the Beatles offers viewers the rare chance to see a work that's been substantially improved by its technical facelift, not just super-sized with extra footage. Recognising that its song-studded soundtrack alone makes Yellow Submarine a video annuity, United Artists has lavished a frame-by-frame refurbishment of the original feature, while replacing its original monaural audio tracks with a meticulously reconstructed stereo mix that actually refines legendary original album versions. What emerges is a vivid time capsule of the late 1960s and a minor milestone in animation. The music represents the quartet's zenith-Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The story line, cobbled together by producer Al Brodax and a committee of writers, is a broad, feather-light allegory set in idyllic Pepperland, where the gentle citizens are threatened by the nasty, music-hating Blue Meanies and their surreal arsenal of henchmen, with the Beatles enlisted to thwart the bad guys. Visually, designer Heinz Edelmann mixes the biomorphic squiggles, day-glo palette and Beardsley-esque portraits of Peter Max with rotoscoped still photographs and film; Edelmann's animated collages also nod to Andy Warhol and Magritte in properly psychedelic fashion, which works wonderfully with such terrific songs. High-orthodox Beatlemaniacs can still grouse that the animated Fab Four are (literally) flat archetypes, but that's missing the sheer bloom of the music or the giddy, campy fun of the visuals. Making sense of the story is second to submerging blissfully in the sights and sounds of this video treat. -Sam Sutherland.

Review Warner Home Video D012265 / Lucky Me [1954]
Actors & Directors
  • Jack Donohue
  • Doris Day
  • Nancy Walker
  • Robert Cummings
  • Phil Silvers
  • Eddie Foy Jr.
Run time: 97 min.
Price: £0.59

Review Lucky Me [1954] / Warner Home Video D012265:

Don't step on a crack. Open an umbrella only outdoors. Stop the show if the audience numbers 13 people. Candy Williams (Doris Day) has lots of ways to keep bad luck from crossing her path. Maybe that's why the most lopsided day of her life soon leads to the luckiest. As luck would have it, "Lucky Me" reunites Day with tunesmiths Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster, who penned Calmity Jane's Oscar-winning Best Song "Secret Love" (1953). From the opening, the collaborators work magic again: Day makes the sidewalk stroll a hilarious series of near-mishaps in the "Superstition Song". It's a good omen: "I Speak to the Stars", "I Wanna Sing Like an Angel" and more bright melodies are on the way. And so are the funny antics and showbiz pizazz of co-stars Robert Cummings, Phil Silvers, Eddie Foy Jr. and Nancy Walker. [+]
How lucky can a musical comedy fan get?.

Review Warner Home Video / The Desert Song [VHS][1953]
Actors & Directors
  • Steve Cochran
  • Kathryn Grayson
  • Gordon MacRae
  • Dick Wesson
  • Bruce Humberstone
  • Raymond Massey
Run time: 106 min.
Price: £14.98

Review The Desert Song [VHS][1953] / Warner Home Video:

The Desert Song (1953) :Musical,110 min. Director: H. Bruce Humberstone Starring: Kathryn Grayson, Gordon MacRae, Steve Cochran, Raymond Massey, Allyn Ann McLerie, Dick Wesson, Ray Collins, Frank DeKova, William Conrad, Paul Picerni. [+]
This film, based on Sigmund Romberg's romantic operetta, is set in the African desert and features Gordon MacRae as the mysterious leader of the Riffs who fight evil Arabs. Features musical numbers Riff Song, Romance, The Desert Song, One Flower, One Alone, Gay Parisie.

Review Warner Home Video D065904 / For Me And My Gal [1942]
Actors & Directors
  • Judy Garland
  • Gene Kelly
  • Busby Berkeley
  • George Murphy
  • Martha Eggerth
  • Ben Blue
Run time: 99 min.
Price: £11.50

Review For Me And My Gal [1942] / Warner Home Video D065904:

After a late-night cup of coffee, vaudevillians Jo Hayden and Harry Palmer sit at a piano and work a song. Moments later, Jo realises she's found exactly what she wasn't looking for: a partner. And with Judy Garland as Jo and Gene Kelly as Harry, the partnership isn't just ideal. It's a film fan's dream come true. Kelly debuts and Garland dazzles in this Busby Berkeley-directed tale of a song-and-dance pair who take on tank towns, tough times and World War I while struggling for show-biz success. A hit parade of era tunes paces the film, including the wowser "Ballin' the Jack" and the sweetly harmonized title tune. Bursting with vitality and old-fashioned charm, "For Me And My Gal" is for the ages.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / State Fair: 2-disc (Special Edition) [DVD] [1945]
Actors & Directors
  • Jeanne Crain
  • Fay Bainter
  • Dana Andrews
  • Frank McHugh
  • Donald Meek
  • Walter Lang
Release date: 2006-03-20
Run time: 96 min.
Creator: Jeanne Crain
RRP: £15.99
Price: £2.00

Review State Fair: 2-disc (Special Edition) [DVD] [1945] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Warner Home Video / That Midnight Kiss/The Toast of New Orleans [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Kathryn Grayson
  • Norman Taurog
  • José Iturbi
  • Mario Lanza
  • Keenan Wynn
  • Ethel Barrymore
Release date: 2007-07-24
Run time: 195 min.
Creator: Tamara Hovey
Price: £12.24

Review That Midnight Kiss/The Toast of New Orleans [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Warner Home Video:


Review Walt Disney Video / The Happiest Millionaire [DVD] [1967] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Geraldine Page
  • Fred MacMurray
  • Greer Garson
  • Tommy Steele
  • Norman Tokar
  • Gladys Cooper
Release date: 2004-06-01
Run time: 172 min.
Creator: Tommy Steele
Price: £5.56

Review The Happiest Millionaire [DVD] [1967] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Walt Disney Video:


Review 20th Century Fox / Carmen Jones [DVD] [1954] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Pearl Bailey
  • Harry Belafonte
  • Otto Preminger
  • Joe Adams
  • Olga James
  • Dorothy Dandridge
Release date: 2002-01-22
Run time: 105 min.
Creator: Oscar Hammerstein II
Price: £3.50

Review Carmen Jones [DVD] [1954] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / 20th Century Fox:

Few actresses have dominated the camera as powerfully as Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones. Her polished beauty plays in irresistible contrast to her title character's leonine sexuality and fluid emotions; a man can't decide from moment to moment if he wants to save her from doom, build her a castle, or never let her out of bed. Of course, that's the problem with the boys in this semi-experimental adaptation of Bizet's opera, Carmen. Straight-arrow Joe (a strapping Harry Belafonte), an obedient corporal on a southern military base during World War II, is all set to go to flight school and marry his hometown sweetie, Cindy Lou (Olga James), when his troublemaking sergeant orders him to accompany Carmen to a civilian court. In short order, Joe is swept up in Carmen's carnal anarchy and her craving for release from lousy options in life. An impulsive act of violence ensures that Joe's future is gone forever, putting Carmen in the difficult position of destroying their relationship to save him. Oscar Hammerstein II took Bizet's music in 1943 and rewrote the book and lyrics. The result is largely a smashing success with a few missteps (the bullfighter in Bizet's piece becomes a heavyweight boxer here, which breaks up a certain grace in the story) and a couple of perfect stretches (the long prelude to Carmen and Joe's first embrace, set on Carmen's hoodoo-ish home turf). Despite the fact that both Dandridge and Belafonte were singers, their vocal performances were dubbed by LeVern Hutcherson and Marilyn Horne. (Yes, it is a little disconcerting to hear another voice coming out of the more familiar Belafonte's mouth. [+]
) Otto Preminger directed with his usual eye on economy of action and production, as the numerous musical numbers tend to be shot in lengthy, single, carefully choreographed takes. The result can be a little visually static at times, but the passion behind the singing pulls everything through. -Tom Keogh.

Review Warner Home Video / Anchors Aweigh [DVD] [1945] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • José Iturbi
  • Gene Kelly
  • George Sidney
  • Dean Stockwell
  • Kathryn Grayson
  • Frank Sinatra
Release date: 2008-05-13
Run time: 143 min.
Creator: Joe Pasternak
Price: £4.04

Review Anchors Aweigh [DVD] [1945] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Warner Home Video:


Review MGM Entertainment / Clambake [DVD] [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Elvis Presley
  • Shelley Fabares
  • Will Hutchins
  • Arthur H. Nadel
  • Bill Bixby
  • Gary Merrill
Release date: 2003-09-15
Run time: 95 min.
Creator: Arthur Browne Jr.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.76

Review Clambake [DVD] [1967] / MGM Entertainment:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / The Beggar's Opera [DVD] [1952]
Actors & Directors
  • Daphne Anderson
  • Laurence Olivier
  • Stanley Holloway
  • Hugh Griffith
  • Dorothy Tutin
  • Peter Brook
Release date: 2008-04-07
Run time: 90 min.
Creator: Stanley Holloway
RRP: £15.99
Price: £5.98

Review The Beggar's Opera [DVD] [1952] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Half A Sixpence [VHS] [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • George Sidney
  • Cyril Ritchard
  • Penelope Horner
  • Elaine Taylor
  • Tommy Steele
  • Julia Foster
Release date: 1999-10-01
Run time: 139 min.
Creator: H.G. Wells
RRP: £5.99
Price: £16.12

Review Half A Sixpence [VHS] [1967] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review Warner Home Video D011511 / Tea For Two [1950]
Actors & Directors
  • Doris Day
  • David Butler
  • Gene Nelson
  • Billy De Wolfe
  • Eve Arden
  • Gordon MacRae
Run time: 94 min.
Price: £3.45

Review Tea For Two [1950] / Warner Home Video D011511:

Wealthy, stage-struck Nan Carter strikes a bet that she can say "no" to everything for 48 hours. If she wins, she gets the $25,000 to back a Broadway musical vehicle for herself. She's determined, even if it means saying "no" when the fella she loves pops the question. Nan doesn't know it yet, but her fortune has been wiped out in the crash of '29. Doris Day is a sunny sensation in "Tea For Two", a flapper-era musical romp loosely based on the two-time Broadway smash "No, No Nanette". Gordon Macrae and Gene Nelson provide songs, dance and romance. Skilled farceurs Eve Arden, Billy DeWolfe and S. Z. "Cuddles" Sakall deliver lots of laughs. And the Gershwins, Vincent Voumans, Harry Warren, Otto Harback and other Tin Pan Alley greats supply wonderful melodies, including the title tun, "Do Do Do", "I Only Have Eyes For You", "I Want To Be Happy" and lots more.

Review Warner Home Video / Take Me out to the Ball Game [DVD] [1949] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Frank Sinatra
  • Gene Kelly
  • Betty Garrett
  • Esther Williams
  • Edward Arnold
  • Busby Berkeley
Release date: 2008-05-13
Run time: 93 min.
Creator: Harry Crane
Price: £4.53

Review Take Me out to the Ball Game [DVD] [1949] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Warner Home Video:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The Sound Of Music (2 Disc Special Edition) [DVD] [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Wise
  • Eleanor Parker
  • Anna Lee
  • Christopher Plummer
  • Julie Andrews
  • Richard Haydn
Release date: 2007-11-12
Run time: 165 min.
Creator: Christopher Plummer
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.84

Review The Sound Of Music (2 Disc Special Edition) [DVD] [1965] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Some people may sneer at this 1965 musical, but the truth is the film has earned its status as a perennially watchable romantic-drama, largely on the strength of a fun story and chemistry between stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. Veteran filmmaker Robert Wise (The Day the Earth Stood Still) mostly stays out of the way of the film's appealing elements, which include a based-on-fact tale of Austria's von Trapp family, who fled their Nazi-occupied country in 1938. Andrews is delightful and even fascinating as Maria, who sheds her tomboyish ways as a novice nun to accept the mantle of adulthood, becoming matron of the motherless von Trapp clan. Plummer is matinee-idol handsome and gives a smart performance to boot, and the cast of young people and kids who make up the singing von Trapp children make a strong impression. Based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical, the score includes such winners as "Maria" and the future John Coltrane hit "My Favourite Things. " -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.

Models & Brands:
Mary Poppins [DVD] [1964], The Great Ziegfeld [1936] [DVD], Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Collector's Edition Box Set [DVD] [1968], Girl Happy [DVD] [1965] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], The Wizard Of Oz [DVD] [1939], The Beatles - Yellow Submarine [VHS] [1968], Lucky Me [1954], The Desert Song [VHS][1953], For Me And My Gal [1942], State Fair: 2-disc (Special Edition) [DVD] [1945], That Midnight Kiss/The Toast of New Orleans [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], The Happiest Millionaire [DVD] [1967] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Carmen Jones [DVD] [1954] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Anchors Aweigh [DVD] [1945] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Clambake [DVD] [1967], The Beggar's Opera [DVD] [1952], Half A Sixpence [VHS] [1967], Tea For Two [1950], Take Me out to the Ball Game [DVD] [1949] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], The Sound Of Music (2 Disc Special Edition) [DVD] [1965]

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