Alice Faye Collections

[Lino]

From www.alicefaye.com:

News date: October 23, 2006

ALICE FAYE DVD BOX SET COMING FROM FOX VIDEO.

Fox Video plans to release four more of Alice's films on DVD. They are "On the Avenue", "Lillian Russell", "That Night In Rio", and "The Gang's All Here"

Finally! Now all we need is a street date! Matt, Hare and Tom Peeping -- start rubbing your hands and polishing those credit cards!

[Matt]

Of all the ways to release The Gang's All Here, an Alice Faye collection would have been the last one I expected.

[Lino]

Well, it was pretty much predictable. Miranda was almost always the co-star in the majority of films she played in. That's why Betty Grable and Alice Faye are both getting the boxset treatment and not Miranda.

But I agree that the "Marquee" value of Miranda is now much greater than those two combined. Oh, well -- just as long as they keep coming, I'm not the one complaining.

[alandau]

Should please the legion of Faye fans, and if the Grable boxset is anything to go by, this will be another quality release by FOX.

I am especially looking forward to ON THE AVENUE and LILLIAN RUSSELL, to complement my prints of RIO and GANGS ALL HERE.

[Lino]

The only way that a Carmen Miranda dedicated collection could happen is when Fox eventually releases Something for the Boys and Greenwich Village. She was top-billed in those two so there's reason enough to name a set after her.

Add Springtime in the Rockies (with Betty Grable) and either Four Jills in a Jeep or If I'm Lucky and you have a killer set.

[Lino]

It has already been mentioned elsewhere on the forum that The Gang's All Here is out on DVD in France.

Next month, and also in french territory, one of the upcoming titles in the Alice Faye Collection -- On the Avenue -- gets a DVD release as well.

[Lino]

Coming out February, 20. All the 4 titles will also be available separately.

[Lino]

Well, the official announcement is here and it seems that On the Avenue was dropped from the set. You can still buy them all individually, though.

edit: on the boxset spine, I can still read 4 titles, one of them being On the Avenue. I wonder if the press release is incorrect.

[htdm]

On the Avenue is listed in the updated announcement but appears to be exclusive to the box set.

"...part of a 4-disc collection ($49.98 SRP) which boasts an exclusive fourth film On The Avenue. Details on the individual titles follow, with specs for the box-set exclusive title On The Avenue to be confirmed..."

[Lino]

Lovely!

[alandau]

Can't wait to get this boxset.
Congratulations on Fox for:

- a great price
- beautiful cover art
- bountiful extras (and all first rate)
- the pure superb quality of this boxset

Cinema is a multi-faceted phenomenon, where myopic thinking pays no dividends. That is, cinema is not only an auterist, pure artistic exposition. Entertainment is art too.

[Lino]

DVDBeaver

Screencap from the french disc:



At least the skin tones seem to be more natural on the R1. And the colors brighter. All around winner and with special features galore to boot.

[Matt]

At least the skin tones seem to be more natural on the R1. And the colors brighter. All around winner and with special features galore to boot.

You really can't tell unless you compare the same shot. I took a quick look at the R1 today and I don't think it looks nearly as good as it ought to. Awfully dark and way too muted. Compare it to the DVD Beaver caps for That Night in Rio in which the colors really pop.

EDIT: Sorry to have edited your post, Lino. I'm trying to help Gary with his bandwidth issues by reducing hotlinking to his images here. To compensate, here is the same frame (or as close as I can get to it) from the R1 disc:

[Lino]

Hmm, the R1 really looks awfully similar to the french disc, after all. Same transfers, I guess?

Well, at least it's out there and in decent conditions. Great job, Fox and keep them coming.

[souvenir]

Useful information from Dave Kehr at the NY Times:

[quote]But something has gone horribly wrong with “The Alice Faye Collection,â€

[Matt]

That's really too bad. I plan to watch the disc once since I've never seen the film all the way through, but I don't plan to keep it around. It's too depressing. I understand Fox's desire to use the best elements available, but even a transfer from a speckled, torn Tech print (and you know there's at least one collector out there with one) would have been preferable to this.

[htdm]

Maybe this has been discussed elsewhere, but is the DVD using a different source than the Laserdisc? I have the LD and the bananas in the Tutti-Frutti Hat sequence didn't look tan to me.

[htdm]

Thanks, David.
I'll still pick up the set but what a shame.

[Matt]

I'm sure it would be pissing in the wind, but perhaps we can all express our dismay to Fox via their customer support e-mail address: [email protected]

[Matt]

Yes, they were doing masterful transfers of Technicolor films long before Warner Bros. invented Ultra Resolution (An Affair to Remember was the first great Technicolor DVD transfer I remember seeing), which makes this rare misstep all the more shocking. I sent them a very politely worded e-mail and emphasized that this film is famous for its use of Technicolor and that most fans would be very understanding if Fox had to sacrifice definition for color accuracy in this case.

[htdm]

Thanks for the address matt, I just sent a carefully worded request.

[alandau]

Waiting to see how THAT NIGHT IN RIO compares to the excellent print I obtained from AMC.
Very good film, with amazing production values, and Carmen starts the whole thing rolling with fireworks.

[Lino]

DVDSavant reviews this set.

[Matt]

I'm glad I didn't spring for the whole set. I find Alice Faye to be utterly charmless (with a singing voice like a foghorn) and that dope she's supposed to fall for in The Gang's All Here is even worse. The only things that saved this movie for me were Charlotte Greenwood picking up her cat (thinking it was the telephone receiver) and shrieking at it and then, at the very end, the floating head of Eugene Pallette. The off nature of the color didn't distract me as much as I thought it would, but the transfer on the whole is very dark.

Fox musicals stink. I've never seen one that didn't bore me senseless.

[Lino]

I'm glad I didn't spring for the whole set.

I also reconsidered and only got the two Miranda features. In fact, I'm only getting her movies out of Fox's Marquee Musicals line. Not saying that the other movies or DVDs aren't as exciting but let's just say that I can only see myself revisiting Carmen's antics over and over again in the future and that's what DVD collecting should be about, right?

Fox musicals stink. I've never seen one that didn't bore me senseless.

Well, of course you can't compare them to the MGM ones. And I don't think Fox was trying to compete with them either. How could they? But as I see it, Fox musicals were shameless fun and they wore that badge proudly on their sleeves and while I'm not trying to disrespect Kelly's or Freed's or Minnelli's efforts and talents, sometimes MGM musicals tried too hard to be the best shows around and it kind of felt too serious to me, at times.

Ok, call me spoiled but there's enough room in my heart to appreciate both Fox's and MGM's musical movie shows.