Busby Berkeley Collections

[Jeff]

March 21, 2006
Six-Disc Set
MSRP $59.92

* Gold Diggers of 1933
* 42nd Street
* Gold Diggers of 1935
* Footlight Parade
* Dames
* Bonus disc "featuring three hours of highlights of Berkeley's production numbers from the films featured in the set and others, which was originally compiled for laserdisc"

More details to follow. Article with Feltenstein comments here.

[Derek Estes]

Thank God! I've been waiting SO impatiently for this release for years! I wonder if 42nd Street will be a SE? The original was quite fine though.

[htdm]

It's all good!

[Jeff]

Specs courtesy of DVD Times. 42nd Street is the original disc repackaged in an Amaray case, and is the only title to be available separately.

[quote]42nd Street (1933)
This unforgettable musical classic represents Berkeley's first major cinematic masterpiece. Warner Baxter stars as stage director Julian Marsh, pressured by the threat of an impending early demise, to create one last great Broadway hit. The quintessential ‘put-on-a-show' plot spins merrily, full of snappy banter with then-newcomers Ruby Keeler (her film debut), Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers. Shuffle off to Buffalo, You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me and the title tune still dazzle. This is the film where Baxter uttered the immortal line to understudy Keeler, (stepping in at the last minute for star Bebe Daniels, who has just broken her leg)…“You're going out there a youngster…but you've got to come back a star!â€

[Gigi M.]

Artwork

[Lino]

Wow! That is hands down the best looking boxset artwork Warner has produced 'til now. Seems like they have learned a few things about simple and effective imagery - though I still have problems with the spines. Why do they feel the need to display the covers in there? They could have done that in the back cover and be away with it. The only example where it does work is in the first Kubrick boxset (the white one) but only because the original posters were great.

Seems like a great set, though!

[htdm]

That new cover for 42nd Street is much better than the current one.

[Lino]

Back cover:

[Lino]

Some info I dug up about the bonus disc:

http://www.dvdlaser.com/search/detail.cfm?ID=14961

The Busby Berkeley Disc

(LaserDisc Review)
The disc is a three-sided, three-hour collection of the greatest Busby Berkeley routines created during his stay at Warner Bros. from 1933 to 1937, and is a surprisingly coherent piece of entertainment. Because virtually all of the songs on the disc were written by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, the numbers are very cohesive--not only chord progressions, but also rhymes and phrases are repeated with slight variations and advancements throughout the show. Berkeley also strove repeatedly to top himself, so that his stagings on the somewhat chronologically organized disc become more sophisticated as it advances--you can see him return to a previously explored idea with a bigger budget and a smoother, more confident execution. Equally fascinating are the endless close-ups of otherwise anonymous chorus girls, encouraging the viewer to ponder, if only momentarily, what sort of life each one ended up having.

Without the personalities of the characters at the forefront of the viewer's mind, the numbers are approached from a different perspective. Even if a fan is fanatical enough to have collected Gold Diggers of 1935, for example, The Busby Berkeley Disc is still a must, for it removes that film's musical numbers from their dramatic context and makes them part of the anthology's climax instead. Ultimately, however, it is Berkeley's unstoppable vision, assuaged by the music, which makes the disc so entertaining. The disc is both a sampler and a celebration, and will appeal to anyone who loves the articulation of imagination on film. There are twenty-two numbers, including the major sequences from 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1933, Footlight Parade, and Dames, along with a pair of excerpts from Gold Diggers of 1935 and Wonder Bar (part of The Al Jolson Collection ) and single excerpts from Fashions of 1934 , In Caliente , and Gold Diggers of 1937 . Every number is a legitimate highlight, but a consensus probably would identify the innovative "42nd Street" number, the campy "By a Waterfall," the blasphemous "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule," and the cumulative "Lullaby of Broadway" as the pinnacles of the pinnacles. The picture and monaural sound quality is manageable throughout the disc, though there seem to be more weak moments than exceptional ones in the transfers. The audio track on the clips from Footlight Parade is unusually scratchy and the contrasts are so out of balance on the "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" number that facial details, such as they are, blend into the backgrounds.

[alandau]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great review at BEAVER. Can't wait to see this one. Contender for DVD of the year at this moment.

[Lino]

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReview ... Review.htm

[alandau]

May I disagree with Gary Tooze. IMHO "Dames" is the most stupendous, and by far, the most surreal of all the Berkeleys. It contaims "I Only Have Eyes for You" for God's sake.

[Ashirg]

May I disagree with Gary Tooze.

It's one person's opinion - it's not gospel.

[Lino]

Savant gets down on this yummy set:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1934busb.html?___rd=1

[Lino]

I take it you've already gone through the whole set, huh? I'm waiting for next month's pocket money to do the same. So, David, give us your run-down of the whole shebang, mate!

[BWilson]

Can someone clarify? Is "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" on the bonus DVD or not?

[carax09]

No, I don't see it on there.

42nd Street: Young And Healthy/Shuffle Off To Buffalo/42nd Street

Gold Diggers '33: We're In The Money/Pettin' In The Park/Shadow Waltz/
Remember My Forgotten Man

Footlight Parade: Sittin' On A Backyard Fence/Ah, The Moon Is Here/
Honeymoon Hotel/Shanghai Lil/By A Waterfall

Fashions of 1934: Spin A Little Web Of Dreams

Wonder Bar: Don't Say Goodnight

Dames: The Girl At The Ironing Board/I only Have Eyes For You/Dames

Gold Diggers of '35: The Words Are In My Heart/Lullaby Of Broadway

In Caliente: The Lady In Red

Gold Diggers of '37: All Is Fair In Love And War

[Ashirg]

Too bad they couldn't include this. Maybe, for volume 2

[Matt]

I hope they eventually release Wonder Bar - it's the first non "backstage" plot driven Berkeley, and as a verge of code pic it includes the scene with Jolson cackling "boys will be boys - whoopee!" as two fey looking guys in tuxedos go off and dance together.

I would hope that Wonder Bar, the film from which "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" is taken, will be released in a package supplementing the eventual release of The Jazz Singer. If it's not released then, it surely never will be.

[cafeman]

That`s the scene which opens "The Celluloid Closet," isn`t it?

[Brian Oblivious]

I hope they eventually release Wonder Bar - it's the first non "backstage" plot driven Berkeley

I haven't seen Wonder Bar but Roman Scandals was originally released a few months earlier, and it's definitely a non-"backstage" Berkeley.

I saw the latter at the Castro theatre's Berkeley mini-fest last December. It was the only pre-code film in the series not contained in this box set. A very nice-looking print, perhaps it will be in an upcoming box.

[Matt]

Alas, Roman Scandals is a Samuel Goldwyn film. We'll probably never see it on DVD.

[htdm]

I wonder. I thought the same thing until several years ago when nearly all of Eddie Cantor's films were released on Laserdisc.
I was hopeful when Sony announced Kid Millions last year but then it got delayed...so at least there seems to be some interest in the films. I wouldn't be surprised if Whoopee was the first one to get a DVD release.

[Lino]

Fantastic review over at DVDTimes:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=61179

[Lino]

Go watch some Busby trailers here:

http://tcmdb.com/participant/participan ... ameId=null