m-g-m

I've never been a Mario Lanza fan. His personal story, however, is epic. Born in Philadelphia, with a desire to be the greatest opera singer, lured to Hollywood, and made his breakthrough as a star in 1951's The Great Caruso, one of the box-office champs of the year. In 1954, his career fell...

Warner Archive is doing it again. Readers continue to complain that they don't go back and release enough old, black & white films. And this is the result. They've gone back to 1943 for a Tommy Dorsey musical, directed by Norman Taurog, with a musical number (I Got Rhythm) directed by Busby...

Robert Z. Leonard's 1940 take on Jane Austen's 1813 novel, is a magnificent M-G-M production, for which they apparently spared no expense. Photographed by the great Karl Freund, and with a cast of M-G-M's top players - Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier, Edna May Oliver, Maureen O'Sullivan, Ann...

Million Dollar Mermaid, a 1952 production, directed by Mervyn LeRoy, and starring Esther Wiliams, Victor Mature and Walter Pidgeon, used to be a breathtakingly gorgeous three-strip show, and now, as released by Warner Archive, it looks better than it has, with the exception of original dye...

Strike Up the Band, directed by Busby Berkeley, is a wonderfully entertaining 1940 Paul Whiteman musical, from WB's M-G-M catalog. As a Warner Archive release, it's also a perfect Blu-ray representation of the film. It's also a musical oddly stuck in a very strange time period. It went into...

Between 1937 and 1955, Fred Quimby produced over 240 animated shorts, ie Cartoons. You'll see his name as producer on this set. The Tex Avery shorts included - 19 of them - are some of his finest work at the studio. But let's get numbers out of the way. He started his career working for...

Robert Harris submitted a new blog post A few words about...™ The Bad and the Beautiful - in Blu-ray Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

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Richard Benjamin's first foray into direction, was a relatively low-budget affair, shot on both coasts - location in various parts of New York, and studio work at M-G-M in Culver City. It was photographed by one of my favorite cinematographers, who would work equally well in black & white, as...

Robert Harris submitted a new blog post A few words about...™ The Thin Man - in Blu-ray Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

As is usually the case, Warner Archive's new Blu-ray of the 1966 M-G-M film, The Glass Bottom Boat, is a stunner. What it has going for it, is some beautifully photographed scenery around Catalina Island. Other than that, the Frank Tashlin "comedy," really isn't much of one. The gags never...

Peck Bacall Minnelli If you're either a completist, or simply a fan of any of the above, you'll need this one, especially as it's a magnificently produced Blu-ray, from Warner Archive. The story, which is strangely credited to an "idea" by the studio fashion guru, harkens back to Tracy /...

This one is simple. Classic M-G-M musical from the Freed unit, with a superb cast, and directed by Vincente Minnelli. Relatively early CinemaScope (2.55:1), original stereo, photographed in AnscoColor, with all those Minnelli dupes. Perfect grain, black levels, color, stability... For those...

Back in December of 1960, when it was released, Henry Levin's Where the Boys Are, was the perfect teen date film. One of the reasons that it worked, may have been that all of the leads weren't far from college age. They ranged from the youngest (Yvette Mimieux - 18) to the "eldest," Jim...

As part of their on-going license agreement with Warner Bros., Criterion has given us George Steven's Woman of the Year, written by Ring Lardner, Jr. and Michael Kanin. I cannot imagine anyone viewing the first five minutes of this film, and not falling in love with it. The hat at the baseball...

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George Seaton's 36 Hours, has been a favorite of mine since it was released in 1964. It is based upon the short story, Beware the Dog, by Roald Dahl. The film is essentially a thriller / fantasy, that hinges upon the tiniest detail. The less said in that regard, the better. But those...

Based upon the Broadway musical, Vincente Minnelli's Bells are Ringing, is the last of those wonderful confections that came out of the Arthur Freed unit at M-G-M. Comden, Green, Styne. Judy Holliday, Dean Martin, Fred Clark, Eddie Foy, Jr., Jean Stapleton. Another production with an image...

If you've ever Amtrak'd across America, you'll recognize the tiny almost non-town of Black Rock, as one of those places that almost isn't. A handful of buildings, just off the tracks, that could be a ghost town, or something still functioning, that's at the very edge of society. From a credit...

The Warner Archive is picking up steam. Four new releases. Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, and a superb cast in the western thriller Bad Day at Black Rock, Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna, and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. in Wait Until Dark, the incomparable Judy Holliday and Dean Martin in...