DVD Movie Review: Astaire & Rogers Collection, Vol. 2
Classics never die.
 Synopsis:
The Astaire and Rogers Collection: Volume Two, completes the collection of films that starred by the magical couple formed by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
Last year’s release of Volume One featured the critically acclaimed Top Hat and Swing Time, along with Follow the Fleet, Shall We Dance and The Barkleys of Broadway, the couple’s final film together. This new release includes:
- Flying Down to Rio (1933)
- The Gay Divorcee (1934)
- Roberta (1935)
- Carefree (1938)
- The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)
All five films are new to DVD and have been newly remastered.
Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers
Astaire & Rogers Collection, Vol. 2 Pictures and Wallpapers:
Prices and where to buy it:
You can buy Astaire & Rogers Collection, Vol. 2, 6 Pack DVD at Amazon.com
Critic Quotes and Reviews:
-
DVD Information:
Format: Box set, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, NTSC
Genre: Musical / Romance / Hollywood Classics
Runtime: 115 minutes.
Screen Aspect: Original Aspect Ratio - 1.33:1
Sound Quality: English (Dolby Digital 1.0)
Subtitles: English, Spanish and French
Media Quantity: 6 DVD
Packaging Type: Slipcase
Other Information and Links:
Studio: Warner Bros.
Theatrical Release Date: -
DVD Release Date: October 24, 2006
Soundtrack / Song Theme:
Movie Trailer / Preview:
Book: -
The Astaire and Rogers Collection: Volume Two
DVD Pack Content and Additional Material:
- Carefree (1938)
Plot Synopsis: Carefree is “Fred and Ginger’s most comic outing, wacky and offbeat” (Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide). The score’s romantic classic is Irving Berlin’s Change Partners. The duo also shares the slow-motion dreamscape of I Used to Be Color Blind and jives through The Yam. And Fred tees off on Since They Turned Loch Lomond into Swing, a sequence that took two weeks and 600 golf balls to film. In dance, as on the links, practice makes perfect.
DVD Special Features:
- Vintage musical short Public Jitterbug No. 1
- Classic cartoon September in the Rain
- Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
- Flying Down To Rio (1933)
Plot Synopsis: “We’ll show them a thing or three,” Honey Hale (Ginger Rogers) says as she and Fred Ayres (Fred Astaire) take to the dance floor to do The Carioca. As events turned out, Astaire and Rogers showed us three times three, making nine more films together after their breakthrough first screen teaming in Flying down to Rio.
“Too big for the earth, so they staged it in the sky!” ads declared for this spirit-lifter with a swell Vincent Youmans score and built around a romantic triangle played by Dolores Del Rio, Gene Raymond and Raul Roulien. It also includes a dandy production number in which chorines soar on airplane wings. Rogers and Astaire are fourth- and fifth-billed, but their magic was undeniable. When the film ends, the last image we see isn't the leads. It’s Fred and Ginger.
DVD Special Features:
- Vintage comedy Short Beer and Pretzels with Ted Healy and His Stooges
- Classic cartoon I Like Mountain Music
- Theatrical trailer
- The Gay Divorcee (1934)
Plot Synopsis: After supporting roles in Flying down to Rio sent their movie careers soaring, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers enjoyed star billing for the first time in this delightful escapade about marriage, divorce and all the romantic comedy complications in between. The Gay Divorcee set the style, tone and behind-the-camera talents for Astaire/Rogers classics to come and captured five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.* Musical highlights here include the 17-minute marvel The Continental (the first Oscar â winner for Best Song) and Cole Porter’s haunting Night and Day. Indeed, “if Astaire and Rogers had never danced a lick after Night and Day, they still would have been screen immortals” (The Movie Guide).
DVD Special Features
- 2 vintage musical shorts:
- Show Kids
- Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove
- Classic cartoon Shake Your Powder Puff
- Audio-only bonus: Hollywood on the Air radio promo
- Theatrical trailer
- Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
- Roberta (1935)
Plot Synopsis: The third Astaire/Rogers film is a silky adaptation of the 1933 Broadway hit (whose original cast included Bob Hope, Sydney Greenstreet and Fred MacMurray). It features a jaunty romantic plot, fabulous sets (the three-level salon set required the world’s largest camera crane), memorable music (including Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach’s Smoke Gets in Your Eyes) and above all, incomparable dance magic to match the score. “The most pleasant moments in Roberta,”Time reported, “arrive when Astaire and Rogers turn the story upside down and dance on it.” Astaire may sing I Won’t Dance. But his feet betray him.
DVD Special Features
- Vintage musical short Starlit Days at the Lido
- Classic cartoon The Calico Dragon
- Audio-only bonus: Hollywood on the Air radio promo
- Theatrical trailer
- Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
- The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)
Plot Synopsis: “You could be a perfectly wonderful dancer if you wanted to,” Irene tells the vaudeville second banana who will someday be her husband. They were even more wonderful together. Vernon and Irene Castle became King and Queen of the Ballroom, creating the Castle Walk, Maxie , Texas Tommy and other sensations. The world followed their every move. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers close their fabulous run of ’30s films by portraying the popular dancers whose influence extended to pre-World War I lifestyles (Castle candies, shoes and beauty supplies were just a few of the duo’s product lines). Period tunes and the stars’ delightful stepping of Castle dances accent this film of goodbyes to a fond yesteryear and to the Astaire/Rogers RKO partnership. Apart, Fred and Ginger would make fine movies. But they were even more wonderful together.
DVD Special Features:
- Vintage musical short Happily Buried
- Classic cartoon Puss Gets the Boot
- Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
Official Information:
Dancing’s Dream Team is back Oct 17...
The Astaire and Rogers Collection: Volume 2
Carefree, Flying Down To Rio , The Gay Divorcee, Roberta, Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
All Stunningly Remastered and New to DVD
from Warner Home Video
Also, Astaire and Rogers Ultimate Collector’s Edition (The Complete Film Collection) with all 10 Films, New Documentary, Collectible Photo Cards, Replicas of Original Press Books and Soundtrack CD Sampler
Burbank, Calif. July 10, 2006 – On October 17, Warner Home Video (WHV) will release
The Astaire and Rogers Collection: Volume Two, completing the collection of films that starred Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Last year’s release of Volume One featured the critically acclaimed Top Hat and Swing Time, along with Follow the Fleet, Shall We Dance and The Barkleys of Broadway, the couple’s final film together. Included in the Collection are: Carefree, Flying Down To Rio , The Gay Divorcee, Roberta and Story of Vernon and Irene Castle. All five films are new to DVD and have been newly remastered. The five disc giftset will sell for $59.92 SRP. All titles will also be available individually for $19.97 SRP. Orders for all are due September 12.
Also being offered for the first time is the Astaire and Rogers Ultimate Collector’s Edition featuring all 10 of the dance duo’s films along with the documentary Astaire and Rogers: Partners in Rhythm, a glorious salute that includes candid photos, behind-the-scene tidbits and sidelights about famed collaborators Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and George Gershwin, among others. This edition includes an exclusive bonus audio CD with 10 soundtrack songs from the team’s movies, set of collectible behind-the-scenes photo cards, reproductions of the Shall We Dance and Roberta press books and a mail-in offer for four Astaire and Rogers movie posters. The 12-disc giftset is the definitive set to own, and will sell for $99.92 SRP.
For consumers who already own Volume One, a special Ultimate Collector’s Edition will be available at a price (not yet determined) which will contain empty sleeves for the five remastered and restored films released last year.
“We’re excited to be following up last year’s hugely successful Volume One, said George Feltenstein, WHV's Senior Vice President Theatrical Catalog Mark eting. “These films are some of the crown jewels of our peerless library and we went to great lengths to create the extras as well as to develop plentiful memorabilia and special material for the Ultimate Collectors Edition.”
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers had already built a career in Hollywood , starring in two dozen movies before first appearing with Fred Astaire in 1933’s Flying Down to Rio . In comparison, Astaire had yet to make his mark on the big screen, starring in only one film before his pairing with Rogers . (The legendary Paramount screen test report read simply, “Can’t sing. Can’t act. Slightly balding. Can dance a little.”).
Astaire would prove his detractors wrong in Flying Down to Rio . Though cast as supporting players, Astaire and Rogers ’s incredible energy turned “The Carioca” dance number into the highlight of the film. Movie executives saw the duo’s star potential and quickly gave them leading roles.
Their first was 1934’s, The Gay Divorcee, a huge hit nominated for three Academy Awards ® and winning one for Best Music. The film also established the highly successful Astaire-Rogers formula – a devil-may-care playboy and a sweet, spunky girl get into a tangle of mistaken identities, fall in love on the dance floor, resolve their misunderstandings in the nick of time and foxtrot their way to happily ever after.
Astaire and Rogers captivated audiences in eight more films, ending their partnership in 1939 with The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle. Rogers sought to prove herself as a dramatic actress and succeeded when she won a Best Actress Oscar in 1941 for her role in Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman. Astaire, while appearing in a variety of notable movie and television roles, never gave up the dancing bug and went on to partner with Eleanor Powell, Rita Hayworth, Cyd Charisse and Barrie Chase -- not to mention a few turns with Gene Kelly.
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers would reunite on screen for one last time in 1949’s The Barkleys of Broadway.
|
