| Price: | $2.99 |
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Ships from and sold by Amazon Unbox Video
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #205 in Movie
- Released on: 2008-01-02
- Rating: NR (Not Rated)
- Running time: 103 minutes
GLORIAT
AWESOME . JUST PLEASED TO BE ABLE TO SEE THIS MOVIE ANYTIME I WANT TO.
Joyous MGM musical
In my opinion this is the greatest of all MGM musicals and a strong candidate for the best ever from any source.It has great songs ,a stellar cast at peak form ,quite exceptional dance routines and a story that is warm ,nostalgic and witty .This is in addition to direction of the highest quality ,displaying great panache and brio ,from joint directors Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly .The direction perfectly reflects the speed crazy era of its setting -the Roaring Twenties.
Screenwriters Adolph Green and Betty Conden were asked to devise a musical that would draw upon some of the best tunes (many written by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown)from the MGM output of previous decades .They found that many of these were from movies made in the transitional era between silent cinema and the conversion to sound and decided they would focus their story on that volatile period in Hollywood history when careers rose and fell overnight and new faces replaced established favourites .
It opens in 1927 Hollywood when romantic and dashing lead actor Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly)and blonde bombshell Lina Lamont (Jean hagen)are the major romatic coupling in movies .Lina mistakenly believes their on screen romance is for real.Don and his lesser known partner Cosmo Brown(Donald O'Connor)have paid their dues having risen through vaudeville and stunt work to their present position and are adequately prepared for the arrival of the sound era .Not so Lina whose corncrake voice and Brooklyn accent are wrong for her image and roles ,despite the best endeavours of a voice coach(whose prissy and pompous style are mocked by Cosmo and Don in their brilliant routine to "Moses Supposes")Enter kathy Seldon (Debbie Reynolds )an aspiring "serious"actress with whom Don falls in love and who eventually dubs Lina's voice in the movies before things progress to a happy ending in which true love reigns supreme.
This movie has some of the very best choreography ever put on screen and more than anyone Kelly is responsible for the ambience of the movie and its spectacular qualities.I would cite as an example his tour de force rendition of the title song which alone makes this a must see picture .It is a wonderful secular hymn to the joys of being in love ,and joyous though it is it is run close by the energetic O'Connor routine "Make 'Em Laugh"and the dazzling "Broadway Ballet"as danced by Cyd Charisse.
It is a clever movie and it also beautifully evokes the excitement,pleasure and sheer hard work of making movies .The script is indeed fact based and many of the incidents featured in it actually happened .One aspect which -for me -has been unjustly overlooked is the wonderful Jean Hagen performance as Lina -a woman who may have vocal issues but is no dumb blonde and knows her way around a contract.This is a little gem of a comedic performance -touching ,funny and vulnerable.Kelly ,O'Connor and Reynolds are splendid-Reynolds was always at her best when playing people whose energy levels were as substantial as herv own -as per The Unsinkable Molly Brown and this movie.
Its a joy -an unalloyed joy .Please see this movie even if musicals are not normally your thing
View product details at Amazon