Customer Reviews

TCM Spotlight: Doris Day Collection (It's a Great Feeling / Tea for Two / April in Paris / The Tunnel of Love / Starlift)

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THIS THIRD DORIS DAY COLLECTION CONTAINS FIVE OF HER FINEST FILMS INCLUDING ONE TITLE -STARLIFT- THAT I HAVE BEEN HOPING DESPERATELY FOR.
STARLIFT HAS BEEN LOST FOR YEARS AND HAS BARELY EVER BEEN SHOWN ON TV. I OWN A HORRIBLE BOOTLEG VHS COPY AND THIS RELEASE IS ALMOST TO GOOD TO BE TRUE. ALTHOUGH SHE ONLY APPEARS IN THE FIRST FIFTEEN MINUTES OF THE FILM PLAYING HERSELF, SHE DOES GET TO SING ONE DUET WITH GORDON MACRAE,(YOU'RE GONNA LOSE YOUR GIRL,) THAT HAS NEVER BEEN RELEASED IN ANY FORM AND 3 SOLO NUMBERS,('SWONDERFUL-YOU OUGHTA BE IN PICTURE-YOU DO SOMETHING TO ME.) THIS WILL BE THE GEM OF MY DORIS DAY COLLECTION. THE OTHER FOUR FILMS ARE GEMS AS WELL. I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY TCM DIDN'T INCLUDE JULIE & WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT AS TCM MUST OWN BOTH OF THESE FILMS. HOPEFULLY,THEY ARE PLANNING TO RELEASE THEM IN THE FUTURE. ALSO,I WOULD LIKE UNIVERSAL TO RELEASE MIDNIGHT LACE & BALLAD OF JOSIE. THIS WAY DORIS DAY'S ENTIRE 39 FILMS WOULD BE AVAILABLE ON DVD. THEY SHOULD BE!!!!!!

A huge thank you for this box set! Starlift is the only Doris Day movie missing from my collection (and I don't have Tunnel of Love on DVD) and to be able to get it at last is a dream come true. I'll just have to gift the duplicates of the other three to deserving friends or charity. Sorry but happiness really is Doris Day shaped for me.

This is the third of three box sets of films from Warner Home Video dedicated to Doris Day. The first two are Doris Day Collection 1 (Billy Rose's Jumbo / Calamity Jane / The Glass Bottom Boat / Love Me or Leave Me / Lullaby of Broadway / The Pajama Game / Please Don't Eat the Daisies / Young Man with a Horn) and The Doris Day Collection, Vol. 2 (Romance on the High Seas / My Dream Is Yours / On Moonlight Bay / I'll See You in My Dreams / By the Light of the Silvery Moon / Lucky Me).

This set contains five films, yet no extra features on Doris Day herself. She has a very interesting personal story, so I'm surprised at the lack of such details in any of her boxed sets. She basically had a double set of problems that could have ended her career in 1968 - her husband died and she was left with a mountain of debts. She rebounded with her successful TV career and is today quite active in animal rights issues. The following is taken from the press release for the set, which contains cartoons, shorts and trailers as extra features.

April in Paris (1952)
The State Department wants Ethel Barrymore to represent the American theater at an arts exposition in Paris. But Miss Barrymore's invitation is sent by mistake to Miss Ethel "Dynamite" Jackson, a blonde brassy chorus girl. Ray Bolger plays the stuffy bureaucrat who mismailed the Barrymore missive - and now has a stateroom full of explosives on his hands for a Paris-bound ocean voyage. Plus there's a little matter of a marriage performed on the high seas that isn't quite legal.

DVD Special Features:
· Vintage short So You Want To Wear The Pants
· Classic cartoon Terrier Stricken
· Theatrical trailer
· Subtitles: English & French (Main feature. Bonus material/trailer may not be subtitled)

It's a Great Feeling (1949)
No one will work with actor Jack Carson (who plays himself), so he just puts his own movie together. Good buddy Dennis Morgan is hoodwinked into co-starring. And there's a talented kid in the studio commissary (Day) eager for her big break.

In her third film (and third with Carson), Doris Day plays that up-and-comer in a musical spoof featuring real Hollywood and Warner Bros. back lot locales, star cameos (Gary Cooper, Joan Crawford, Edward G. Robinson, among others) and a surprise comedy finale.

Starlift (1951)
The charming tale of a serviceman with a crush on a movie ingenue is the backdrop for this film featuring Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, James Cagney, Gary Cooper, Ruth Roman, Gene Nelson, Virginia Mayo, Jane Wyman, Randolph Scott and more Hollywood celebrities performing for flyboys in uniform. Songs by the Gershwins and Cole Porter plus a hilarious Western production number with Gary Cooper as a Texas Ranger add to the fun.

DVD Special Features:
· Vintage short Musical Memories
· Classic cartoon Sleepy Time Possum
· Theatrical trailer
· Subtitles: English & French (Main feature. bonus material/trailer may not be subtitled)

Tea for Two (1950)
Wealthy, stagestruck Nan Carter strikes a bet that she can say "no" to everything for 48 hours. If she wins, she gets the $25,000 to back a Broadway musical vehicle for herself. She's determined, even if it means saying "no" when the guy she loves pops the question. Nan doesn't know it yet, but her fortune has been wiped out in the Crash of '29.

Costars Gordon MacRae and Gene Nelson on hand to help provide songs, dance and romance. Eve Arden, Billy DeWolfe and S.Z "Cuddles" Sakall deliver lots of laughs, and the Gershwins, Vincent Youmans, Harry Warren and other Tin Pan Alley greats supply the songs which include the title tune, Do, Do, Do, I Only Have Eyes for You, I Want to Be Happy and lots more.

DVD Special Features:
· Vintage short So You Want to Hold Your Husband
· Classic cartoon Tee for Two
· No, No Nanette Radio Show - From the 1949 "Railroad Hour" series, with Doris Day and Gordon MacRae
· No, No Nanette Overture - From the surviving Vitaphone disc from lost 1930 Warner Bros. film
· Theatrical trailer
· Subtitles: English & French (Main feature. Bonus material/trailer may not be subtitled)


The Tunnel of Love (1958)
Isolde (Doris Day) and Augie (Richard Widmark) Poole are trying to adopt a baby. Dick (Gig Young), the Poole's neighbor, has advice for Augie during these challenging times: have an affair. No way, says Augie. Then he wakes up in a motel room with no memory of the night before - and finds a thank-you note from the caseworker who's handling the Poole adoption. Gene Kelly directs this musical comedy.

DVD special features include:
· Classic cartoon Tot Watchers
· Theatrical trailer
· Subtitles: English & French (Main feature. Bonus material/trailer may not be subtitled)

Just received the new boxset "TCM Spotlight" on Doris Day" and I must say I was a little disappointed. I completely agree with Henri F. Wolfe that the quality especially on "Tea for Two" is not what you might expect from a movie that is "Remastered". Same goes for "April in Paris". I knew that "Young man with a horn" has been available on Laserdisc but I didn't know that "Tea for Two" also was available on Laserdisc. And according to Mr. Wolfe that quality was very good. Why then didn't Warner Bros use that Laserdisc version for making the DVD? I had luck that I already owned "Tea for Two" from the british release on region 2, and allthough that version was not Remastered and that showed, it still was better than the Spotlight version. I think that Warner Bros should make a really Remastered version available for a movie that was, according to Mr. Clive Hirschhorn "The most delightful and succesful of Warner Bros. Doris Day musicals". Besides that all I never could understand why filmcompanies don't make films on DVD available from the 30's, 40's and 50's and release them "Regionfree", because it is quite obvious these movies will never been seen in moviehouses anymore. I do have a player made regionfree and one that is destined for region 2. But most of the older WB movies are regionfree allthough it says on the cover it is region 1. But the other companies keep their older releases exclusively on region 1. I can,t understand why. One other aspect that I regret is that the movies aren't sold separately because then we would have gotten the beautiful filmposters on the cover in full while they are now very small and you could store them in right order and I would have bought them all anyhow (except "Tunnel of love"). I furthermore was very lucky that the one film I was looking for very much was in fine Remastered edition "It's a Great Feeling" and I completely agree with Paul Brogan that the song "Blame My Absent-minded Heart" for me also is the highlight from the film as sung by Doris Day as she goes back to her hometown at the end of the film. It is indeed for me the most beautiful song she has recorded for Warner Bros.

There have been some so-called critics who have carped about this third Warner Brothers video box-set of Doris Day films. They have intimated that they may be going one too many times to the "well" and that the best pictures were contained in the first and second sets. They couldn't be more wrong.
While some of the titles contained in this TCM Spotlight collection may be lesser known, except to Day's huge fan base, they all contain a plethora of treats to delight everyone and only reinforce Day's reputation as the best female comic, singer, dancer and most natural actress in film history.
The oldest title is 1949's "It's a Great Feeling", a lush technicolor morsel about a waitress working in the Warner Brother's commisssary and waiting for a big break. She gets's one when Jack Carson, playing himself takes an interest in her. This backstage look at the studio has some side-splitting cameos from stars including Joan Crawford (matchless), Sydney Greenstreet, Edward G. Robinson, Gary Cooper, Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman (and daughter Maureen)and one of the funniest wrap-ups to any film. Dennis Morgan lends his manly tenor to several numbers but the highlight for me is Day's rendition of "Blame My Absent-minded Heart", possibly the most beautiful song she ever sang at Warners.
"Tea for Two" is another technicolor treat and the first of five appearances of Miss Day and Gordon MacRae. It's a variation of the Broadway musical, "No, No Nanette" with some other tunes thrown in and has to do with a gal (Miss Day) who has to say no in order to secure funding for her Broadway debut. "Cuddles" Sakall is her Uncle, Eve Arden is a knockout, Billy DeWolfe is "Billy",always a good thing for any film, Gene Nelson dances up a storm and you'll hear a classic rendition of the title tune by Day and MacRae. This was Miss Day's screen dancing debut (about a dozen years after shattering her leg after being hit by a train). Suffice it to say she dances as well as she does everything else. It's easy to see why "Tea" was one of the biggest hits of 1950.
"Starlift" is the weakest title if only because Miss Day only guest stars in about twenty minutes of the film but she turns this black and white story about stars entertaining the troops into something special. It's not up to the standard of all those great 1940's star-filled romps about stars entertaining the soldiers that every studio turned out but there are nice turns from Ruth Roman, James Cagney, MacRae, and others. The film has not been widely seen in decades so it is worth a good look.
"April in Paris" was released in 1952, right about the time that Miss Day was voted the top female star in Hollywood in the Motion Picture Herald annual poll. She has rarely been more radiant in a Warners film. She plays a chorus girl who gets invited to a festival in Paris when an invitation intended for Ethel Barrymore comes to her instead. It's fluff but lushly mounted in technicolor and full of amusing comedy and great production numbers. Day's co-star is Ray Bolger who is likeable and performs with his usual energy. They don't have a lot of chemistry together but that hardly spoils this fast-paced film that features the best version of the title tune you will ever hear as rendered by Miss Day. Miss Day has a good chance to continue to hone her comic skills and I guarantee you'll be grinning throughout the whole confection.
The last title is 1958's"The Tunnel of Love" directed by Gene Kelly who does not appear in the film version of a popular Broadway comedy hit. It's also in black and white and wide screen and was not one of MGM's biggest hits at the time of its release. It's still worth a look, however, since how often do you see Richard Widmark playing comedy? Glenn Ford was the first choice for the role but Widmark acquits himself well and supporting players Gig Young, Gia Scala and Elisabeth Fraser are all pros. It's about a couple who want to have a baby and can't, so they decide to adopt. It's the usual comedy of that era filled with marital and other mix-ups and further proof of Miss Day's skill to make everything she does believable. Look at her eyes when she talks and you'll see the sincerity and realness she brings to everything she does. There have been few actresses more natural and real in film history. She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in this film.
This five film package is well worth the price of "admission".

I've not seen any of these films. If I still had TCM and cable, perhaps I would have by now. What I'm writing against is Robert Horton's Amazon review. If he can't write about classic films without a sneer in his voice, let him go write about something else. There's plenty of TV I'd never watch, from Sex and the City to Desperate Housewives. This is why I got rid of cable, and I only miss it for the loss of TCM and a few other channels, like EWTN.
Let Robert Horton write about the junk on TV today. Get Robert Osborne or someone who knows about classic movies to talk about Doris Day.

If you're a fan or collector, you won't be reading reviews, you'll be selecting "Buy Now", and so you should.

This is a great little package of some of the films she was involved in during her Warner Bros. period. Steeped in nostalgia for the age that spawned the song titles used for a couple of these films, they play to audiences looking for light fun and frivolity. The prints are pretty good, not pristine, but then, that adds somewhat to their charm. Other reviewers have gone into depth about DVD quality, so there's no use doubling up.

Having not seen any of these films previously, I found them, for the most part, very entertaining. Doris' acting and singing talents are simply a joy to watch, and in scenes with Jack Carson in "It's A Great Feeling" they're like a veteran double act. Could've done without the excessive Ray Bolger doing everything he could to steal every scene he was in, in "April In Paris" (Astaire he wasn't).

Given the quality of the genuinely scripted films, I'm surprised at how effusive the reviews for "Starlift" here have been. This is not a genuine Doris Day film. She hardly appears in at all, and the scenes in which she appears seem more like unscripted home movies than a real Hollywood film. The plot is threadbare, with cameos supposedly filling in for storyline. Still, many reviewers here seem happy to have it released, as it goes toward completing collections. Fair enough too, as Doris brightens any scene she's in.

If you like Doris day, musicals, or films from the golden age of film, you'll enjoy this offering.

I received my box set in the mail yesterday, and I'm so happy to finally have it (I pre-ordered it some time ago)! :)

I am not a movie critic, nor do I ever watch a Doris Day movie for the purpose of analyzing it. I have always been a huge Doris Day fan, and I am just happy to have her movies/music at my fingertips whenever I want to have a little visit with her :)

I am hoping that "Julie", "The Ballad of Josie", "Midnight Lace", and "Where Were You When the Lights Went Out" will be released on DVD soon. These are the only titles that I need to complete my collection!

It seems that Miss Day just gets more popular as time goes by; I hope the powers-that-be recognize this and let us have ALL of her movies on DVD! Maybe we could petition someone...?!? :)

I love the packaging of this box set; the picture of Miss Day on the front of the package is just BEAUTIFUL, and the DVD's are bright and colorful.

Just Purchsed the Doris Day collection containing Tea for Two and April in Paris. I was totally disappointed in the quality of the color prints of Tea for Two and April in Paris. Whoever supervised the color timings of these prints must have been asleep at the switch. Both prints are terribly contrasty with no color saturation. I own the laser print of Tea for Two that is so much better in terms of picture and color quality. I recently taped off the air April in Paris from a PBS broadcast on my DVD recorder. The print is far superior from that broadcast. The other 3 films, It's a Great Feeling, The Tunnel of Love and Starlift are fine in terms of quality.

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