Reviews (27)

Doris Day: Greatest Pop Vocalist, Great Actress & Person !
In the annals of pop music, musical films and outstanding entertainment careers few can match that of Doris Day, either in longevity or quality.Her naturally superb vocal talents were honed at a very early age (17) singing with top territorial big bands and ultimately with the great Les Brown Band of Renown with whom she had her first hit record, "Sentimental Journey", in 1945.That experience helped her develop the power, depth, phrasing and lyrical vocal style that made her the finest pop vocalist of all time.Nowhere is that talent more evident than in this Academy Award nominated film on the life of songstress Ruth Etting.Music wise the songs are incomparable as are the orchestrations and Doris' renditions.One need only to listen to the emotion and purity of "Never Look Back", "It All Depends On You" and "I'll Never Stop Loving You" with just piano accompaniment to hear how she had no rivals then, and especially now, in the vocal arena.

The film takes some liberties with facts and characterizations as all bio films do but who cares?The acting is first rate with Jimmy Cagney as the controlling minor league thug, Marty Snyder, Cameron Michell as her real love and musical director, Johnny, and veteran character actor, Robert Keith, as the faithful supporting booking agent.It is said that Cagney, who was nominated for his third Oscar as Snyder, had no qualms about getting second billing to the much younger Day.

As film bios go, this one is hard to beat.Outstnding talent, a great script, incredible music and outstanding musical performances puts "Love Me Or Leave Me" at the top of all music biographies.I first viewed this film in 1955 as a very young and impressionable kid.It has not lost a thing over time, especially when weighed against the tripe and fluff that eminates from Hollywood now.I recently got the soundtrack CD and it is outstanding in sound quality.Miss Day recently turned 81 and is still beautiful and active in Carmel California.This performance and her equally great 1951 performance in "Young Man With A Horn" remain my favorite Doris Day films.

No Tacky Virgin in This One!
I'd seen clips of Doris' more "known" movies and never thought I'd be purchasing a Doris Day flick.Then, I saw Doris' interpretation of "Shakin' the Blues Away" on "That's Entertainment III."Amazing.Had to buy the DVD "Love Me or Leave Me."

The film showcases an awesome vocal performer and surprisingly good acting on the part of Ms. Day. It made me feel that most of the other films of her career were a waste of her obvious talent. Let's put it this way--at many points of the film, she convinced me to be more sympathetic to her gangster husband than her.She was that convincing.James Cagney turns in a blistering performance with great subtlety.His obsession and misguided love for Ruth Etting (Ms. Day) are convincingly portrayed.

The DVD is in gorgeous Dolby Surround that will blow you away if you have a good system.The print is clear and clean--dripping in saturated Eastmancolor.Add this one to your collection of treasured DVDs and turn a friend on to Doris in a role suitable to her talent--if you can part with it!

DVD extras
DVD special features include: Soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1, Three vintage shorts, the first two with Ruth Etting (A Modern Cinderella, Roseland, A Salute to the Theatres)

"Love Me or Leave Me" is a great movie!
I can't wait to see this movie on DVD.I first saw it about 15 years ago after taping it on TNT.This movie contains what I think is Doris Day's greatest performance---and what a shame she didn't get an Oscar nomination for it.This role showcases all of her talents and hints at the truly great acting ability she had and rarely had the opportunity to show.So many of her roles were lightweight.Nevertheless, she was one of the greats of her generation.I hope the Academy rewards her with an Honorary Oscar one of these days.If you're on the Board of Governors, think about it.

"Love Me or Leave Me" is one ofDay's crowning achievements
Doris Day can do ANYTHING!And in this film, she is cast against type as a woman who "makes a pact with the devil" to get the career she so strongly desires.Well, it isn't "Faust",
but our Doris certainly makes you think it is. Doris Day and James Cagney both give complex performances that enrich this
film so much, and Doris Sings a wonderful batch of standards
that rival ANYTHING she has ever done.If all you got was the songs, you would have more than your money's worth...but you get a fascinating movie about a real woman and the mistakes she made.And for those of you who think Doris can only play the coy virgin...I assure you...our beloved Doris is neither coy nor virginal in this film.SHE will knock your socks off!!!
THANK YOU DORIS...for ALL your wonderful performances...you can do anything and everything...and if proof were needed this is it. ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Hans Christian Andersen not quite, but very entertaining
Hans Christian Andersen (1805-75) was an Ugly Duckling. He lived in the third largest town Odense, in Denmark. The son of a cobbler he was poverty ridden and a failure as an actor and it wasn't until he moved to Copenhagen and won the patronage of Frederick VI, through his poetry, that he wrote his fairy tales and developed into a swan. Like many artists he wasn't particularly happy, and never did marry, although he was very fond of Jenny Lind (1820-87) the Swedish Nightingale a soprano given the name by P.T. Barnum during her tour of the United States between 1850-52.) Charles Vidor's film does state at the beginning, This is not the story of Hans Christian Andersen but a fairy tale about the great spinner of fairy tales. The Danes objected to the way Hans Christian Andersen was portrayed even though Goldwyn had rejected 21 previous manuscripts, so the film company inserted this statement in the credits.

Danny Kaye with his chiselled features does resemble H.C.Andersen when looking at his profile, but apart from this facial feature that's where it stops. Kaye had dark hair but Hollywood soon changed that and he became a blonde, Andersen also had dark hair but he kept it that way.

Unlike some earlier musicals, this film does have a strong story line with loads of songs written by "Baby, It's Cold Outside", Frank Loessen, such as Thumbelina, Ugly Duckling, No Two People, and of course Wonderful Copenhagen. The scenery is very clever, the backgrounds look like illustrations from fairy tale books, but as the camera zooms in to the foreground the buildings and props become three dimensional similar to a pop-up-book.

There are four ballet scenes that I probably found boring back in '52, but revisiting them now, they are visually very interesting, technically I wouldn't know if they are good or mediocre but for a Hollywood musical film, four ballets must of taken an enormous amount of consideration seeing as the film is really for kids. Once again the backdrops for the ballets also resemble fairy tale illustrations and pop-up-books.

Instead of a soprano, Andersen falls in love with a ballet dancer and here's a musical that doesn't have a very happy ending because poor Hans gets mixed up with a married woman. The ballet dancer Doro, is played by Zizi Jeanmaire, and is married to Niels played by Farley Granger. During the last part of the film, the audience is taken behind the scenes of the ballet company playing at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen, but this isn't a film of a show included in a show, similar to earlier musicals, but an uplifting musical film with lots of music with catchy tunes helped by a ton of children.

The last ballet scene takes 17 minutes, quite long for a popular movie. In the film Hans writes a story especially for his love Doro, unfortunately Niels locks him in a cupboard so Andersen never sees her perform but has to use his imagination.

The ballet takes place on land and under the ocean. The surface waves are pop-up so that the dancers can be seen dancing in between the swells, it's really very clever visually, and there's no trickery here. Under the sea filled with monsters and witches, the heroine is probably attached to a pulley so that she can be seen swimming for the surface. There are no blue screens in this film, all effects are up-front and work perfectly similar to a staged ballet. Once again the technicolor process is used and this enhances the fairy tale effect with vivid colors.

Hans Christian Andersen fairy stories are not violent when compared to the Grimm brothers, but the themes usually have a lesson, and in the story written for Doro's ballet, "The Little Mermaid," it is saying that aiming for the stars does not always bring happiness, but then of course Walt Disney hadn't yet arrived on the scene and he soon changed that philosophy.

A good kid's movie
HAns Christian andersen is a good movie. Andersen (Danny Kaye) is a cobbler who can't stop telling stories for the little kiddies. This gets him in trouble with the top bananas in town, who vote to have him run out for making kids miss school. Andersen moves to Copenhagen, falls in love with a beautiful french ballerina, and gets himself famous for his stories, all the while going from song to song with true Kaye spirit. It was a good movie, but not one to be overly thrilled about.

Delicious performer, wonderful introduction to ballet!
I fell hopelessly in love with Danny Kaye when I was 8 years old, and I'm still crazy about him many years later. . . no other performer of whom I'm aware has ever shown his unique combination of comic virtuousity, tenderness, silliness, physical bravado and dramatic depth.

He could also really sing, not just comically but straightforwardly, in his naturally rich, sweet lyric-tenor voice. If you really listen to the "Inchworm" song, you will hear just how fine his voice really was.

The ballet sequences in the movie transfixed me as an eight-year-old ballerina wannabe. Maybe they look hokey to present-day grownups, but I bet most kids would immediately understand.

One of the best movies ever!!!!

Correction
I'd just like to make a correction on another customer review that I read of this movie. This was not Danny Kaye's last movie. I don't know what was, but in 1954, he did "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby, Vera Ellen and Rosemary Clooney. It's not a really important thing, I suppose, but I just wanted to make sure that the information was correct.

Delightful Children's Musical
Danny Kaye plays the Danish cobbler-storyteller, Hans Christian Andersen. At the beginning he is said by the schoolmaster of the village of Odense he is causing trouble. The trouble is he tells stories to the village children, and they learn things like numbers falling in love and marrying each other. One town person said of his stories: They asked their daughter what time it was? She said "the minute and hour hands weren't speaking to each other. They were in love with the second hand. So they wouldn't make up until they met at 12 o' clock." After all the commotion with the village officials, Hans goes back to his cobbler shop. There his apprentice friend, Peter talks him into getting away from the village and going to Copenhagen.

Reluctant at first Hans agrees to go to Copenhagen with Peter. There Hans meets and falls in love with Doro (Jeanmarie), a beautiful French ballerina. But later learns that she is married to the demanding Niels (Farley Granger). Overwhelmed by his love for her, he is inspired to write, 'The Little Mermaid' for Doro. The story of the Little Mermaid, like Doro goes-that she looked for love from the wrong man. Hans becomes popular with the people of Copenhagen and his gift in telling stories to the children. So Andersen's fame grew out of his plays and stories. Some of the musical scores that stand out are the most known of Andersen's best loved works. Those most memorable numbers are from 'Inchworm,' 'Thumbelina' and 'The Ugly Duckling.' Hans later finds that the ballerina truly loves her husband, so Hans returns home to his village of Odense. There he tells his stories to the children who loves to hear his fairy tales. You may not find Kaye's usual comic flair here. He extends his more poignant side of the famous storyteller. This was Kaye's final film of his career beofre embarking on his life's love of working with Unicef. If you like to read about Andersen, he wrote his auto-bio, 'The Fairy Tale of My Life.' The film itself is a delightful children's story that the whole family can love. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

All film noirs need deceit, betrayal, dialogue hard as diamonds--and dames even harder than that. But Gilda is the only one with the dame front and center, and for good reason. Rita Hayworth shimmers in the 1946 classic, which spins on a tortured plot involving the title character (Hayworth); her imperious husband (George Macready), a ruthless casino owner and head of an Argentine tungsten cartel (!); and Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford), Gilda's ex-lover and now her husband's go-fer. But no one watches Gilda for the plot, except to learn that all the characters have secrets--perhaps even ones they would kill for. Hayworth captures Gilda's vulnerability beneath her devil-may-care front ("If I'd been a ranch, they would have named me the Bar Nothing"). Not to be missed: Hayworth's slinky striptease to "Put the Blame on Mame." --Anne Hurley ... Read more

Reviews (37)

Worth seeing 100 times!
They don't make them like this anymore! An exciting film noir with the beautiful Rita Hayworth and the handsome Glenn Ford. They were the most popular movie couple of the 1940s/1950s and seeing GILDA you're caught in this love triangle of a women torn by love/hate and two men falling into her trap. Rita does the unforgettable "Put the Blame on Mame." A MUST SEE for fans of these two classic mega-stars!

"There never was a woman like Gilda!"
This artificial melodrama is only redeemed by the absorbing performances of its lead actors. Set in the Argentine, along a backdrop of gambling casinos, illicit trade and international intrigue, it portrays an American gambler (Glenn Ford) who is enlisted to become the right-hand-man of a powerful casino owner. He is struck by the fact that his new boss's wife, Gilda, is an old flame of his, a sensuous, enigmatic and manupulative "femme fatale", played by the sex bomb of the 1940s, Rita Hayworth. The story develops along a pattern of a love triangle sustained by reciprocal hate, love and domination as the trio dramatically pit their wits against each other. The dialogue sparkles once managed by these actors and in this style. Hayworth is captivating as Gilda, perhaps her most accomplished performance. Ford is also good as the gambler promoted by the boss to casino top-dog, though the honours also have to go to George Macready as the the husband and boss, the ice-cold, self-possessed, aristocratic type. The character actors, particularly Joseph Calleia and Stevan Geray, provide excellent support. The digitally remastered version of the film restores the crisp quality of the black-and-white phtography.

"I make my own luck."
In Charles Vidor's classic film "Gilda" Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford) plays a down-on-his luck drifter in Argentina. One night, he meets mysterious casino owner Ballin Mundson (George Macready), and soon Johnny is working in the casino--and rapidly rises to become Ballin's right-hand man. Johnny has a rosy future until Ballin leaves for a short period and returns with a juicy new bride--Gilda (Rita Hayworth).

Johnny and Gilda had a relationship in the past that turned sour. Ballin quickly guesses the true state of affairs and a rather bizarre love triangle ensues....

Ballin attempts to control Gilda by giving her a very long leash. He has some rather dirty business in his past, and that keeps him occupied. Ballin assigns the role of watchdog to Johnny. Johnny finds this role excruciatingly painful, and he's caught between fealty to his employer and suppressed lust for Gilda. Johnny attempts to control Gilda by locking her up--neither man's plan works. Gilda remains an exotic, reckless creature who endangers herself in order to make a point. Gilda's wild attitude towards life, and her sarcasm--loaded with suggestive meaning--is brilliant. When describing herself, Gilda says, "If I'd been a ranch, they'd have named me the Bar Nothing." All men want to possess her, and yet possession is the one thing she won't allow.

Rita Hayworth as Gilda is simply stunning. There's no other word that I can use. When she's in a scene, she takes over--with her body, her movements, and her reckless approach to life. When she enters Ballin's sharply controlled existence, chaos rules, and she sends out shock waves of desire to all who see her. Hayworth performs a semi-striptease during a song, and she removes one item of clothing. The crowd roars with delight, and the men in the audience have to be physically restrained from ravishing her on the spot. Amazing stuff. For film noir buffs, I recommend this film. It's highly entertaining, full of great-one liners, and Rita Hayworth is nothing less that magnificent. The DVD was marvelous quality and well worth the purchase--displacedhuman.

Rita Hayworth stars as GILDA, with her 2 GAY boyfriends!
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I remember the first time I saw this noir classic as a teenager and thinking how wonderful it was that a film had been made in the mid-1940's that actually featured a plot about two gay men and their diva girlfriend.

Years later, I read an interview with Glenn Ford in which he said that everyone who worked on the film knew there was an obvious gay storyline, but that due to the film being made in the 1940's, they had to be very subtle in their interpretations of gay lovers on-screen. It's still obviously clear that George Macready is Glenn Ford's rich and not-so-charming sugar daddy. Both leading men wear so much product in their hair and are so well dressed and manicured, you just KNOW they can't be straight!

It doesn't take a genious to figure out that the two leading men are more than just good buddies. When Mundson first presents his new wife Gilda to his male lover Johnny, he says "Quite a surprise to hear a woman's voice in my house, isn't it Johnny?" Well, you can tell by the look on Johnny's (Glenn Ford) face just how surprised he is!

Gilda is the perfect trophy-wife for any gay man in the 1940's who's running a gambling casino and who needs the perfect "beard" to keep up a straight appearance. Gilda is just so fabulous that any gay man would love her... except of course for Glenn Ford, whose insanely jealous of his boyfriend's new diva; for reasons that are never made quite clear in the film. (Probably due to heavy post-production censoring, of which much was done by the notorious Hayes Office that censored all films of this era.)

In fact, Gilda is so fabulous, that not only does Mundson marry her, but when he "dies" in the film, Gilda is then married by Mundson's lover Johnny! (Of course neither marriage is ever consummated - a fact made quite clear in the film.)

Gilda is so diva-esque, she's almost a drag queen! The gowns, the shoes, the hair! FAB-u-lous! The ad-line for the film stated: "There never was a woman like Gilda". Of course there never was a woman like Gilda. Gilda wasn't supposed to be like any real woman, she was a fabulous cartoon. While there may never have been a woman like Gilda, we had the closest thing: Rita Hayworth.

Of her own real-life problems with men, Rita was quoted as saying "All the men I knew went to bed with Gilda and woke up with ME." Who could live up to the reputation of Gilda, the character of whom "there never was a woman like"? Poor Rita!

Watch this film with a "queer eye" and you won't see any "straight guy" in the storyline. Snaps for good gay cinema of the forties!

P.S. If they ever decide to remake this film, I would recommend that they cast TV's "Will & Grace" lead stars Deborah Messing as Rita Hayworth and Eric McCormick as Glenn Ford. They would be PERFECT cast in these immortal roles! (Deborah Messing is SO Rita Hayworth, and she plays off McCormick just as Rita played off Glenn Ford. The casting would be ingenious!

"Maybe That Stands for Something"
Rita Hayworth went down in Hollywood history as the Love Goddess. Her title role in *Gilda* (Columbia Pictures, 1946) leaves no doubt why. Yet here she is much more than a sex symbol. For one thing, Rita was a seriously talented actress. For another, she was one of the best dancers in films. To this day her performance in *Gilda* remains unrivaled as a combo of skill, sensuality, sensitivity, and sheer drop-dead pulchritude. Columbia's catchy ad-phrase for the film was, "There never was a woman like Gilda." You'd better believe it. Glenn Ford perfectly fills out the character of Johnny Farrel, the young gambler who hates to love femme fatale Gilda. In return, Gilda loves to hate Johnny. George MacReady offers an outstanding performance as murderous Ballin Mundson, the man Gilda fears.

If you like movies that challenge the viewer to figure out hidden meanings, then *Gilda* is for you. "Maybe that stands for something," Rita-as-Gilda says near the beginning; "Maybe that means something," she says near the end. Halfway through she says, "Any psychiatrist would say that means something." The question of interpretation hangs over the entire film, loaded as it is with symbolism and double-entendres.

On the other hand, you can ignore the subtext and enjoy *Gilda* as a noirish romantic mystery-thriller. It's a beautiful flick to look at in black and white, and it's never boring, even all the decades since it was made. Some reviewers say the plot is difficult to follow. I don't agree; the story is both logical and economical. But that may be because I understand *Gilda* to be a dramatized introduction to the psychological concepts of C.G. Jung. Never mind. If you like your movies to be just movies, *Gilda* tastefully blends ingredients from *Casablanca*, *The Maltese Falcon*, *Notorious* and *The Big Sleep*, then stirs in its own original sauce. In my opinion, it's an improvement upon those classics, as fine as they are by themselves.

I wouldn't call *Gilda* a true film noir, for the reason that at the end the male and female leads are triumphant instead of tormented. Great films of the 1940s that had real "noir" (black) denouements are *Criss Cross*, *Detour*, *Double Indemnity*, *Scarlet Street*, *The Killers* and *The Postman Always Rings Twice*. Still, on their way to a happy ending Johnny and Gilda pass through a landscape that is darker and more suggestive of spiritual abandonment than most '40s film noirs dared explore. At the same time, because of the intense chemistry between the leads, *Gilda* sizzles hotter than any film of that period I can think of.

Love the music too. Five stars. They just don't make 'em like this any more. ... Read more

Description

When Cheyenne Rogers (Glenn Ford), a hunted gunman, rides into Red Valley, he meets and falls in love with Allison MacLeod (Evelyn Keyes). Trying to go straight, Cheyenne is enmeshed in a web of intrigue and killing that leads him to the brink of a lynching. Escaping with Sheriff Upton's (Randolph Scott) help, he returns to Red Valley long enough to learn about the underhanded dealings of some of the town's supposedly respectable citizens. With the sheriff jailed for his part in Cheyenne's escape, the gunman returns amid the thunderings of a wild horse stampede to free him and clean up the lawlessness of Red Valley. The Deperadoes was Columbia Pictures' first technicolor feature film. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A Pleasant, But Not Great Western
This is one of those early films where they just seemed to throw in a little bit of everything in hopes that they would draw large audiences.

Briefly, Glenn Ford is a young outlaw who is supposed to ride into a town and rob a bank. He gets delayed, and by the time he gets there, the bank has already been robbed by his gang members. The local sheriff, Randolph Scott is an old friend of his, and they get reacquainted while Ford tries to figure out what to do next. Edgar Buchanan is an avuncular town mainstay who befriends Ford. And from there, it gets even more complicated.

The Desperadoes isn't a bad film. It's not unpleasant. It's just not up to the best of either Scott or Ford, who were two of our greatest Westrn movie heroes.

Blockbuster from Columbia....
THE DESPERADOES was Columiba Pictures first technicolor production, and the studio spared no expense to make this a truly signal event. Randolph Scott, a young Glenn Ford, Claire Trevor, and Edgar Buchanan head afabulous cast. THE DESPERADOES, in a sense, was Columbia's answer to Foxstudio's JESSE JAMES, another epic western. The results are veryenjoyable--the dialogue crisp, the action fast, and the acting well aboveaverage. And the technicolor print is superb; THE DESPERADOES is one of thebest shot pics of its time. A classic. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Wonderful, charming, sweet story!
I can't help but love this movie. Every time I feel blue, I can pop it in the VCR and feel wonderful by the time it's over. Rita Hayworth has never been more beautiful than in this picture. Her dancing talents are showcased beautifully, though as usual, not enough. Gene Kelly sparkles brilliantly as her nightclub-owner boyfriend who wants her to work hard to get to the top, not go the easy road as a "Cover Girl". Gene's "Alter-Ego" dance in this picture was at the time technically revolutionary.

Also featured is Phil Silvers is a crackup as Gene's wisecracking friend, and the always wonderful Eve Arden gets her witty two cents in as well with a big cast of colorful characters to back it all up. Also, it is said that a very young Shelley Winters can be seen as one of the chorines, though I haven't found her yet! :o)

Shakespeare it's not, but Cover Girl is what it is: a lighthearted, romantic musical and a really fun ride the whole way!!

Watch it and enjoy!

ravishing, enchanting musical dream
Rita Hayworth has never looked better than in the charming musical COVER GIRL, where she displays her astute dancing and singing skills.

Also starring, Gene Kelly, Phil Silvers and Eve Arden, COVER GIRL tells the story of nightclub hoofer Rusty Parker (Hayworth) and her rise to stardom after being made the cover girl of a magazine's 50th anniversary issue. The editor of the magazine (Louis Calhern) is taken with her, she reminds him of a girl he fell in love with long ago, who turns out to be her grandmother!

Hayworth plays the grandmother in several well-costumed flashback scenes, and she is very fetching .

Featuring the song "Long Ago And Far Away" and Kelly's bravura "Alter Ego" dance number, COVER GIRL is a bright, bouncy, musical delight.

GREAT MUSICAL WOTH THE MONEY
I don't know what the other neg. reviewers are talking about. This is a great film. It's very entertaining and wonderful to look at. Your DVD collection is incomplete without this film.

LOVELY RITA.....
If you can get past the zany (and tiresome) antics of Phil Silvers and the corny, cliched script, there's a wonderful Technicolor musical here called "Cover Girl". Gorgeous Rita Hayworth is Rusty Parker, a nite club chorine who becomes the toast of Broadway overnite when she's chosen to be the cover girl of Vanity magazine---albeit to the chagrin of the club's owner Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly) who's her boyfriend and her catty co-workers. Hayworth is absolutely beautiful and dances with the most natural grace and elegance ever captured on screen as far as I'm concerned. Gene Kelly's acting is stiff but HIS dancing is what you're watching here as well. Boy, could he dance! He has a great solo number on an empty street where he dances with his reflection from an empty store window. Absolute artistry in motion. Eve Arden, as a talent scout, brings much needed relief to the tired script with her right-on-the-money delivery of brittle comebacks and one liners. She's also outfitted in the most outre' chic costumes and hats Hollywood ever laid out. All the costumes (by the great Travis Banton) are something to behold. But it's the Technicolor that brings things to life and Hayworth who brings the Technicolor to life. In her Broadway debut, she comes running down a seemingly endless elevated platform in a flowing gold gown like a goddess descending from the heavens---her long red hair cascading behind her. Then, after a dance number with chorus guys, she runs back up the platform through a downpour of shimmering sparkles and into a cloud of pink smoke. Sheer Technicolor movie magic. "Cover Girl" isn't the best musical ever made, but as a showcase for one of the most beautiful actresses ever photographed in Technicolor and a very nice song called "Long Ago and Far Away" it gets 5 stars from me. When you watch this, you can see there was only ONE Rita Hayworth and her grace, talent and beauty are captured in splendor on this DVD print.

VERY NICE LOOKING TRANSFER FROM COLUMBIA - HOW UNUSUAL!
"Cover Girl" is a star vehicle for Rita Hayworth. Having stated the obvious, its quick paced and elegant good fun, bookended by Gene Kelly's superb dancing and Eve Arden's "hotter than fire" one-liners. Rita is cast as a nobody who gets her face plastered on one magazine and overnight becomes the toast of Broadway. Her duet with Kelly, "Long Ago and Far Away" is the real highlight in this nimble minded programmer that really took audiences by storm. - people used to be so easy to please!
TRANSFER: Well, what do you know? After a slew of bargain basement trasfers (though by no means was Columbia's pricing what this reviewer would consider a bargain) we at last get a transfer that's worthy of the digital format. Colors are vibrant and well balanced. Contrast and black levels are bang on. Film grain and age related artifacts are present but they don't terribly distract. There are no digital compression artifacts. The audio is MONO but nicely balanced.
EXTRAS: Forget it! Columbia remains on their penny-pinching kick, but hey - at least the film looks good.
BOTTOM LINE: This is not an outstanding example of the Hollywood musical. However, it is adept at poking fun at itself and having a good time doing it. For a night of light fluff that will put a smile on your face, I recommend "Cover Girl". ... Read more

Reviews (4)

OVERLONG MISCAST MISHMASH
When David O. Selznick undertook to remake "A Farewell to Arms" he was hoping to top Gone With the Wind.Needless to say, every movie he made after GWTW would be compared to it and deemed inferior.Most of his films have merit.However, "A Farewell to Arms" is a bona-fide disaster on most counts.David O. Selznick, who broke up Jennifer Jones and Robert Walker, was only concerned with Jones and her portrayal.Unfortunately, Jennifer Jones with her distracting facial contortions (which the director should have kept in check) is terrible in this film right down to the last reel where we have to endure an interminable child birth scene and her subsequent death."A Farewell to Arms" could have been a superb film.Instead, it is an overlong, talky, mishmash of romanticism between two characters who are portrayed by good actors who have no chemistry between them.Hudson was perfect.He did the best he could under less than ideal circumstances.But Jones is the flaw in this film.A fine actress if directed properly and that twisted mouth and deep voice inflection distracting kept in check, Jones is horribly miscast.At the age of 38 she is certainly too old to be playing Catherine, a 23 year old nurse.She is supposed to be british but her playing is stilted and forced, not to mention over-intense.Even the musical score is unmemorable.No wonder this film failed at the box office.And no wonder David O. Selznick never made another film.He was an anachronism by this time.Skip this one folks unless you are a die hard JOnes and Hudson fan.I recommend "Song of Bernadette", "Portait of Jennie" or "Love Letters" if you want to see Jones at her best!

Why isn't this on DVD?
This was "GONE WITH THE WIND"'s producer David O. Selznick's last movie.This awful pan-and-scan VHS doesn't do it justice.Sure, Jones and Hudson are too old for their roles, but it's a beautiful production, right down to the "GONE WITH WIND"esque credits set against beautiful Italian locations and even the title "A Farwell to Arms" sweeps across the screen like in GWTW.Come on, Fox, you've done us well with your "Classics Collection" in 2004; let's do the same for 1957's "A Farewell to Arms."

OVER AGE JENNIFER
...Hemingway would have nothing to do with this adaption from his novel but the main criticism levied at Selznick is his wife at 38 was too old to play a young British nurse in Italy during WW1 opposite Rock Hudson as the American male nurse.The landscape and battle scenes were good but he was not being realistic casting his wife in this role.Selznick was still lookong for a sequel to "Gone with the Wind" which he had previously just failed with in "Duel in the Sun", but this film drags and the birth scene despite edits, remains too long.So much of the plot seems to have been truncated and reduced to a mere orthodox love story so there is not enough in the plot to sustain the time it runs.Incidentally the year "1932" that hangs as a title above is incorrect.This filmed version was made in 1957.I believe the Gary Cooper version was made in 1932 and in B&W not in colour as here.

"A beautiful love story among the perils of war."
This is a beautifully shot movie set in Italy during WWI.It is based on Ernest Hemmingway's novel "A farewell to arms", as well as on the play, also named "A farewell to arms".Rock Hudson's performanceis spectacular, he portray life-like realistic emotion which ranges frompure joy to pain and frustration.This story is about love that overcameall possible boundries and survived until death.Rock Hudson is gorgeousand I found myself having to bite my lips at times!! wow what a looker..!!forget renting this one...buy it, trust me YOU WILL LOVE IT!!but just ahint.. get a box of kleenex for the ending, I BAWLED!! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Astonishing Rita and DVD; silly movie
Rita Hayworth was never more captivatingly beautiful and sensuous than in "The Loves of Carmen". Fortunately, this lushly restored digital transfer is breathtaking in color and clarity and a fitting medium for Rita's screen presence and the film's fantastic cinematography.

The movie, however, is beyond melodramatic and turgid. The dialogue is often hysterical. While Rita (a Latina whose real name was Cansino) is actually pretty impressive as the gypsy Carmen, the otherwise reliable Glenn Ford is hopelessly miscast as the naive Spanish don who falls under her spell.

But if you love simply to behold Rita (and I do!), this is the ultimate feast for you. She is beyond stunning in this film. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Of all the Danny Kaye movies, this musical biography of the legendary vagabond storyteller is definitely the most poignant, extending the performer's range far beyond his usual comic shtick. It may not be as funny as Wonder Man, but it has so much more going for it. In fact, the film is really more about Kaye than Andersen, providing rare insight into his humanitarian ideals and rapport with children. The Frank Loesser score is beautiful, as is the Technicolor cinematography. Among the songs performed, "Inchworm," "Thumbelina," and "Ugly Duckling" are the standout favorites. --Bill Desowitz ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Hans Christian Andersen not quite, but very entertaining
Hans Christian Andersen (1805-75) was an Ugly Duckling. He lived in the third largest town Odense, in Denmark. The son of a cobbler he was poverty ridden and a failure as an actor and it wasn't until he moved to Copenhagen and won the patronage of Frederick VI, through his poetry, that he wrote his fairy tales and developed into a swan. Like many artists he wasn't particularly happy, and never did marry, although he was very fond of Jenny Lind (1820-87) the Swedish Nightingale a soprano given the name by P.T. Barnum during her tour of the United States between 1850-52.) Charles Vidor's film does state at the beginning, This is not the story of Hans Christian Andersen but a fairy tale about the great spinner of fairy tales. The Danes objected to the way Hans Christian Andersen was portrayed even though Goldwyn had rejected 21 previous manuscripts, so the film company inserted this statement in the credits.

Danny Kaye with his chiselled features does resemble H.C.Andersen when looking at his profile, but apart from this facial feature that's where it stops. Kaye had dark hair but Hollywood soon changed that and he became a blonde, Andersen also had dark hair but he kept it that way.

Unlike some earlier musicals, this film does have a strong story line with loads of songs written by "Baby, It's Cold Outside", Frank Loessen, such as Thumbelina, Ugly Duckling, No Two People, and of course Wonderful Copenhagen. The scenery is very clever, the backgrounds look like illustrations from fairy tale books, but as the camera zooms in to the foreground the buildings and props become three dimensional similar to a pop-up-book.

There are four ballet scenes that I probably found boring back in '52, but revisiting them now, they are visually very interesting, technically I wouldn't know if they are good or mediocre but for a Hollywood musical film, four ballets must of taken an enormous amount of consideration seeing as the film is really for kids. Once again the backdrops for the ballets also resemble fairy tale illustrations and pop-up-books.

Instead of a soprano, Andersen falls in love with a ballet dancer and here's a musical that doesn't have a very happy ending because poor Hans gets mixed up with a married woman. The ballet dancer Doro, is played by Zizi Jeanmaire, and is married to Niels played by Farley Granger. During the last part of the film, the audience is taken behind the scenes of the ballet company playing at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen, but this isn't a film of a show included in a show, similar to earlier musicals, but an uplifting musical film with lots of music with catchy tunes helped by a ton of children.

The last ballet scene takes 17 minutes, quite long for a popular movie. In the film Hans writes a story especially for his love Doro, unfortunately Niels locks him in a cupboard so Andersen never sees her perform but has to use his imagination.

The ballet takes place on land and under the ocean. The surface waves are pop-up so that the dancers can be seen dancing in between the swells, it's really very clever visually, and there's no trickery here. Under the sea filled with monsters and witches, the heroine is probably attached to a pulley so that she can be seen swimming for the surface. There are no blue screens in this film, all effects are up-front and work perfectly similar to a staged ballet. Once again the technicolor process is used and this enhances the fairy tale effect with vivid colors.

Hans Christian Andersen fairy stories are not violent when compared to the Grimm brothers, but the themes usually have a lesson, and in the story written for Doro's ballet, "The Little Mermaid," it is saying that aiming for the stars does not always bring happiness, but then of course Walt Disney hadn't yet arrived on the scene and he soon changed that philosophy.

A good kid's movie
HAns Christian andersen is a good movie. Andersen (Danny Kaye) is a cobbler who can't stop telling stories for the little kiddies. This gets him in trouble with the top bananas in town, who vote to have him run out for making kids miss school. Andersen moves to Copenhagen, falls in love with a beautiful french ballerina, and gets himself famous for his stories, all the while going from song to song with true Kaye spirit. It was a good movie, but not one to be overly thrilled about.

Delicious performer, wonderful introduction to ballet!
I fell hopelessly in love with Danny Kaye when I was 8 years old, and I'm still crazy about him many years later. . . no other performer of whom I'm aware has ever shown his unique combination of comic virtuousity, tenderness, silliness, physical bravado and dramatic depth.

He could also really sing, not just comically but straightforwardly, in his naturally rich, sweet lyric-tenor voice. If you really listen to the "Inchworm" song, you will hear just how fine his voice really was.

The ballet sequences in the movie transfixed me as an eight-year-old ballerina wannabe. Maybe they look hokey to present-day grownups, but I bet most kids would immediately understand.

One of the best movies ever!!!!

Correction
I'd just like to make a correction on another customer review that I read of this movie. This was not Danny Kaye's last movie. I don't know what was, but in 1954, he did "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby, Vera Ellen and Rosemary Clooney. It's not a really important thing, I suppose, but I just wanted to make sure that the information was correct.

Delightful Children's Musical
Danny Kaye plays the Danish cobbler-storyteller, Hans Christian Andersen. At the beginning he is said by the schoolmaster of the village of Odense he is causing trouble. The trouble is he tells stories to the village children, and they learn things like numbers falling in love and marrying each other. One town person said of his stories: They asked their daughter what time it was? She said "the minute and hour hands weren't speaking to each other. They were in love with the second hand. So they wouldn't make up until they met at 12 o' clock." After all the commotion with the village officials, Hans goes back to his cobbler shop. There his apprentice friend, Peter talks him into getting away from the village and going to Copenhagen.

Reluctant at first Hans agrees to go to Copenhagen with Peter. There Hans meets and falls in love with Doro (Jeanmarie), a beautiful French ballerina. But later learns that she is married to the demanding Niels (Farley Granger). Overwhelmed by his love for her, he is inspired to write, 'The Little Mermaid' for Doro. The story of the Little Mermaid, like Doro goes-that she looked for love from the wrong man. Hans becomes popular with the people of Copenhagen and his gift in telling stories to the children. So Andersen's fame grew out of his plays and stories. Some of the musical scores that stand out are the most known of Andersen's best loved works. Those most memorable numbers are from 'Inchworm,' 'Thumbelina' and 'The Ugly Duckling.' Hans later finds that the ballerina truly loves her husband, so Hans returns home to his village of Odense. There he tells his stories to the children who loves to hear his fairy tales. You may not find Kaye's usual comic flair here. He extends his more poignant side of the famous storyteller. This was Kaye's final film of his career beofre embarking on his life's love of working with Unicef. If you like to read about Andersen, he wrote his auto-bio, 'The Fairy Tale of My Life.' The film itself is a delightful children's story that the whole family can love. ... Read more