Product Description
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Disc 1: Doll Face Disc 2: Greenwich Village Disc 3: If I'm Lucky
Disc 4: Something For the Boys Disc 5: The Gang's All Here
Remastered
.com
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Even if it were only to present a batch of Fox musicals in
ultra-spiffy versions, this five-film box set would be a valuable
slice of film history. The hook here, however, is a glimpse at
the short-lived but delirious stardom of Carmen Miranda, that
fruit-wearing (and genuinely talented) purveyor of Brazilian
samba and silliness. Miranda scores points in all the films here,
especially in that Citizen Kane of absurdity, The Gang's All Here
(1943), which arrives in this set in a version improved over the
one that was included in the first Alice Faye Collection. The
plot is best ignored, but director Busy Berkeley's mad
inventiveness and the sheer Technicolor outrageousness of it all
is hard to resist--and Carmen Miranda is at her daffiest,
especially in the banana-licious "Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat,"
a signature number. Greenwich Village is another colorful bauble,
with Don Ameche as a "longhair" composer drawn into the less
exalted world of show business. As is often the case in these
pictures, Miranda is in a frankly peripheral role but gets a lot
of screen time anyway--and here her fractured English locutions
and exuberant performing style are lusciously showcased. Vivian
Blaine, Fox's pinch-hitting musical star for those movies that
didn't feature studio queens Alice Faye and Betty Grable, is the
true female lead--as she is in four of the five films here.
In Something for the Boys, Miranda and Blaine inherit a decaying
Southern mansion, along with distant cousin Phil Silvers (whose
quasi-minstrel number is one of the more groan-worthy things in
the picture). A few Cole Porter songs and a young Perry Como add
musical appeal, and you can't mistake the young Judy Holliday,
even if she only appears on screen for a few seconds. Doll Face,
which relegates Miranda to sidekick status (and black and white,
which just doesn't seem right), is an adaptation of famed
stripper Gypsy Rose Lee's play. It's a very "meta" thing about a
burlesque queen whose memoir becomes a hit play; Dennis O'Keefe
provides the male ballast, and some extremely politically
incorrect views, site Blaine. If I'm Lucky is another
black-and-white picture with La Miranda on the margins,
indicating her waning status at Fox. Its tortured plot puts a
mild-mannered crooner (Perry Como) in line to run for governor.
Some fine extras fill out the box set, with TV appearances by
Miranda and an informative 90 minute bio, which includes serious
appreciation and a clip of her final performance, taped hours
before her death. In Doll Face someone tells her character, "You
could be another Carmen Miranda," but there was only the one.
--Robert Horton
.com
It is a testament to Carmen Miranda's status as a larger than
life pop culture icon that she warrants a DVD box set for films
in which she isn’t even the star. Without her, though, they would
be merely pleasant diversions. The best in the bunch, 1943's The
Gang's All Here, is a splashy Technicolor riot directed by the
legendary Busby Berkeley (this edition, also available
separately, is a big improvement over the one included in The
Alice Faye Collection). Never mind Alice Faye's showgirl or James
Elison's smitten soldier. All eyes are on "The Lady in the Tutti
Frutti Hat," who plays matchmaker when she isn't otherwise wowing
audiences at a New York nightclub that judging by the spectacular
production numbers must have a stage the size of the Roman
Colosseum. There is no denying the camp value of a phalanx of
showgirls manipulating massive bananas while Miranda sings, "Some
people say I dress too gay/But every day I feel so gay/And when
I'm gay I dress that way/Something wrong with that?" Suffice to
say, they absolutely do not make 'em like this anymore. New to
DVD, Something for the Boys (1944) is an entertaining "let's put
on a show" musical starring the unlikely trio of Miranda, Vivian
Blaine, and Phil Silvers (with hair!) as three cousins who decide
to convert the dilapidated mansion they've inherited into a home
for army wives. From the same year, and also making its DVD
debut, is Greenwich Village, starring Don Ameche as a composer
who enters the bohemian world of New York's Latin Quarter, where
Miranda works as a fortune teller at William Bendix's "members
only" club. Miranda adds exotic color to two black and white
musicals, If I'm Lucky (1946), featuring an underwhelming Perry
Como as a crooner who is recruited to run for governor, and the
snappy Doll Face (1944), based on Gypsy Rose Lee's book about a
"burley-q" dancer (Vivian Blaine) who writes a sensational
autobiography to legitimize herself with Broadway producers.
Miranda may not be the star of these films, but with her stylized
outfits, signature crazy hats, hips-don't-lie dancing (on
platform heels, no less), and comic malapropisms that make fruit
salad out of the English language ("You're making a ain out
of mothballs"), she is definitely the main attraction. She's am
earthy force of nature for whom one will suffer Como's y
rendition of "Red Hot and Beautiful" in Doll Face to see her
perform "Chico Chico." This set contains a cornucopia of extras,
the best of which is a documentary about Miranda's remarkable
life and one-of-a-kind career. A clip from The Jimmy Durante Show
says it all about this ultimate show business trouper. She is
stricken during a musical number, but gamely dances offstage,
waving and blowing kisses to the audience. She would die 12 hours
later. --Donald Liebenson