Customer Reviews

Silk Stockings (1957 Film Soundtrack)

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Rhino Record's deserves a round of applause for continuing it's release of Hollywood's historical musical soundtracks and film scores. SILK STOCKINGS may not be the best from Cole Porters catalog - but it provides a pleasant reminder of 1950's film entertainment. The orchestration's have the lush, detailed sparkling arrangements that only the film studio knew how to produce. And yes, the CD is mastered completely in glorious "Stereophonic Sound" Bravo.

"Silk Stockings" was a minor Broadway show that became an excellent movie, and, thanks to the geniuses at Rhino (honestly, those people deserve awards for what they do), the most beautiful MGM score. From its opening bars to the fabulous Silk Stockings ballet to the closing, this soundtrack is chock-full of the orchestral bridges and instrumentals that make this movie great. If you're a fan of lyrics, though, don't despair. As always, the great Cole Porter comes through. Stereophonic Sound is hilarious, as is Josephine and Satin and Silk. Fred's singing is better than it usually is (even though it's always great); the only downfall is that they dubbed Cyd Charisse. Of course, the woman singing is excellent, but it would have been nice to hear Cyd's real voice. However, that is where the people at Rhino come through, to a degree. In one of the bonus tracks, there's an early recording of Cyd singing one of the songs.

Bottom Line: This soundtrack is worth the full retail price, let alone the Get It Used cost. Get it used, get it new--just get it now! You'll be thanking yourself. The only downfall is you'll be wanting the DVD for Cyd's gorgeous Silk Stockings dance.

On Broadway SILK STOCKINGS was a minor hit, running a little over a year. Then M-g-M turned it into movie and actually improved it in the translation. They staretd off on the right track by retaining most of the original score. Two minor songs ("Hail Bibinski" and "As on Through the Seasons We Sail") were dropped and Porter wrote two new songs for the picture: "Fated to be Mated" and "The Ritz Roll and Rock." The title song was changed from a solo for the male lead into a beautiful, sensual dance for female lead Cyd Charisse. The tightening of the script to pare the film's running time to under two hours worked also helped improve the piece. The only (minor) disappointment is that some of Porter's saucy lyrics had to be altered.

The original M-g-M Records release contained only 14 tracks. This new CD restores the entire score and allows the listener to sample the wonderful underscoring. As usual Rhino has done wonders to make the sound quality very good indeed.

As for complaints that Porter was "not up to his usual standard" - well, it isn't ANYTHING GOES or KISS ME KATE, but it's still Porter and as both a composer and lyricist he was in fine form on this, his final Broadway score.

The incredible series of Turner/Rhino soundtrack releases from their library of incomparable MGM musicals just added another winner to their line. Fred Astaire's last big Metro musical, the Cole Porter classic SILK STOCKINGS has gotten the deluxe treatment from Turner and Rhino, and fans of these great films should rejoice. The songs are terrific, the perforrmances sensational, and the sound quality is nothing short of AMAZING. You can hardly believe what you're hearing is 45 years old. Not only do you get the great songs from the picture such as ALL OF YOU and PARIS LOVES LOVERS, but there are also many previously unreleased instrumental tracks with luscious performances by the MGM orchestra. A special treat are some outtakes, including Cyd Charisse's own vocal of "IT'S A CHEMICAL REACTION, THAT'S ALL". This is a MUST-HAVE. Highly recommended!

Well... Fred Astaire is getting older (57 y) and those great tap dances are passé but "Silk Stockings" is still a great entertaining MGM Musical.

One of my most favorite songs in this movie are "Stereophonic Sound", "The Red Blues" and it stills rocks: "The Ritz Roll and Rock". The music are composed by the great Cole Porter.

This Rhino Movie Music Release contains 30 Tracks with 79 minutes entertaining and fascinating music. Track 28 - 30 are 3 Bonus Cues: "It's A Chemical Reaction, thats all" a unused Demo and a unused alternate Orchestration, and "In the Still of the Night (Poodle Cafe)" (Outtake).

The film itself was filmed in glorius stereophonic sound, Cinemascope and in Metrocolor in 1957 and has a stunning cast: Fred Astaire, Janis Page, Cyd Carisse and Peter Lorre and Jules Munshin. Sure we know the story already. Its a remake of Ernst Lubitsch's "Ninotchka".

This CD-Release contains a 24-Page-Booklet.

Fazit: its a must have it when you like those Classic MGM-Musical.

Cole Porter's SILK STOCKINGS was a modest hit on Broadway in 1955, starring Hildegarde Kneff, Don Ameche and Gretchen Wyler; received favourable notices from most critics and was applauded for 478 performances at the Imperial Theatre. Based around the Melchior Lengyel story "Ninotchka" (which became a screen vehicle for Greta Garbo in 1939), the story concerns the adventures of a frosty Russian emissary in Paris, and what happens when her repressed mindset is thrust into a new, decadent, and romantic world. The story was full of comedy and wit, which was perfectly translated to the musical theatre stage in 1955. Because M-G-M already owned the rights to the "Ninotchka" story, they decided to adapt the musical for the screen as a vehicle for Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse.

Because the film would be headlined by two bankable stars, Broadway's Gretchen Wyler was initially cast to reprise her role for the movie. But fate dealt her a cruel hand when the producers attended a nightclub act from Janis Paige, and signed her for the role instead. The irony of this story is that in the same year, Paige was replaced by Doris Day in the film version of Broadway hit "The Pajama Game", in which she originated the role of leading lady Babe.

Cyd Charisse, a non-singer, had her vocals dubbed here by Carole Richards. The role of Ninotchka was significantly re-written for the film version, allowing for Astaire and Paige to take the bulk of the musical numbers and leaving Charisse the dance solos in "Silk Stockings" and "The Red Blues".

Fred Astaire makes hay with his numbers. "Too Good to Be True" is a fun number that features a hot cha-cha dance break; "The Ritz Roll and Rock" (written especially for the film) is another great excuse for Astaire to cut loose both physically and vocally. Janis Paige is a comical cutup with the flirty "Satin and Silk" and the syncopated rhythm of "Josephine", an hilarious paen to the virtues of Napoleon's ill-fated sweetheart. The score of SILK STOCKINGS is probably best-remembered for "Stereophonic Sound", a witty number about the various visual gimmicks used by the Hollywood studios, an irony not lost in the film version; the number is performed winningly by Astaire and Paige.

Rhino/TCM Soundtracks have done their usual stellar job in restoring this soundtrack album, complete with extensive bonus tracks and incidental music. There is a demo track of Cyd Charisse attempting her own rendition of "It's a Chemical Reaction...", and another take of Carole Richards recording of it, featuring a different orchestration. The original M-G-M Records LP cover art is reproduced in the CD inlay tray. Well worth getting for fans of the film.

[Rhino/Warner Music 812274368-2]

I have this CD and that is not the correct track listing. Of course it has Sterophonic Sound (with Janis Paige). I don't see Easy to Love, Without Love or Siberia listed there either. Amazon's track list repeats tracks 16-21 as 24-30, so that explains the missing ones while having the correct track count.

A great score and excellant job by Rhino with many extra treats.

where is the song "stereophonic sound?" wasn't that from this picture? and wasn't janis paige the second female lead in this picture? or was that "funny face." can somebody straigthen this out for me?