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Although hardly the first Mel Tormé album anyone should buy,
At the Movies does reflect the singer's unsinkable aplomb: whether vying with hopelessly hapless production-number fodder such as "Mrs. Whiffen" (cut from 1943's
Higher and Higher) and "Lucky in Love" (the 1947
Good News) or delivering ace renditions of "On
Green Dolphin Street" and "The Lady's in Love with You" (both cribbed from the
Comin' Home Baby album), Tormé is all there. Two late-life prizes--a "Monsters Lead Such Interesting Lives" (from a
Daffy Duck flick) that recalls the straight-faced reading Tormé gave Was (Not Was)'s "
Zaz Turned Blue," along with
Sondheim's philosophical gem "Live Alone and Like It" (from
Dick Tracy)--close the disc with a
zing that reminds us how much this guy loved his work.
--Rickey Wright
