Customer Reviews

There's No Business Like Show Business [VHS]

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I love musicals and this one has been a favorite since it first came out in 1954. I was thrilled to receive the DVD and even more thrilled to find that the songs and dances were still as wonderful as I remembered, the production numbers still as splendid, and the total show as remarkable as ever.

Dan Dailey and Ethel Merman are Terry and Molly Donahue, vaudeville performers circa 1919 when the movie opens. They quickly add children Steve (Johnnie Ray) Katy (Mitzi Gaynor) and Tim (Donald O'Connor) to the act as each child is old enough to wobble on stage. They become the successful act known as The Five Donahues and tour constantly even as vaudeville dies away. When their paths cross with an ambitious blonde named Vicky (Marilyn Monroe) things are never the same. She breaks Tim's heart and he spirals downward into an alcoholic haze, son Steve leaves the act when he decides to become a priest, and Broadway replaces vaudeville as the elder Donahues spend less time on stage and more time in their New Jersey home. The ending always leaves me dissolved in tears, but it is the lavish production numbers that make this a favorite. From the catchy opening of Merman and Dailey performing "When That Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam'" (later reprised by Gaynor and O'Connor) to the lavish staging of "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and the uplifting closing of the title song, this movie is a feast for fans of music and dance. Even though Marilyn Monroe shines in her sexy "Heat Wave" number, the long-legged Dailey makes dancing an effortless joy throughout and Merman's voice is uncommonly rich, it is Donald O'Connor and Mitzi Gaynor who enthusiastically dance their way into your heart and steal every scene they are in.

A plot that has Johnny Ray playing a priest torn between his vows and his bows--and it only gets worse from there. But some of the production numbers are deliciously extravagant even by Hollywood standards. The "Alexander's Ragtime Band" montage--a musical workout that incorporates a variety of musical styles and ethnic costumery and dance--is easily worth the price of admission all by itself. It alone testifies to Berlin's importance to American music and consequently to the universe. (But as a fan of Marilyn Monroe, I must say her performance is not indispensable viewing.) For a more aesthetically satisfying tribute to Irvin Berlin, check out the movie entitled "Alexander's Ragtime Band," starring Tyrone Power and Alice Faye--or, for that matter, "Top Hat" with Fred and Ginger.

This is a great movie with Marilyn Monroe and Ethel Merman.
However the real star of this movie is the vivacious Mitzi Gaynor! She steals every scene she is in. She is beautiful, talented, and hard to take your eyes off of!
I recommend this movie ! I also recommend " Anything Goes"
with Mitzi Gaynor. It has just been restored and the look of it is probably the best color of any DVD I own.

i am not a marilyn monroe fan, and honestly, i love this movie in spite of her being in, not because of her being in it. dan dailey, donald o'connor, mitzi gaynor, and ethel merman were all wonderful in this movie. johnnie ray was not much of a dancer, but he had a good voice. i thought the musical numbers were all great-everyone was in top form in this film. you cannot go wrong in getting this one.

This movie stars Ethel Merman and Dan Dailey as vaudevillians Molly and Terry Donahue, who are trying to raise their three children(Steve, Katie, and Tim)as normally as they can. Molly and Terry narrate throughout the story, so the movie actually spans 20 years of their lives. The film starts out with a little song and dance number, and the introduction of Donahue kid #1, then it moves through #2 and #3 and their childhoods with some great comic scenes between Ethel Merman and Dan Dailey. Finally, with the kids all grown up, the family becomes an act called the Five Donahues. The first time you get to see the grown up Donahue children is in a big number called "Alexander's Ragtime Band" in which all the family members get to spotlight their individual talents. That night, after the show of course, Steve (the oldest) gets his true calling and Vicky Parker (Marilyn Monroe)enters as Tim's (Donald O'Connor)love interest, both events conspiring to break the act up. This film is filled with plenty of song and dance numbers, almost all of which were written specifically for the movie by Irving Berlin, plenty of talent, and plenty of fun. Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, and Donald O'Connor are great comedic talents who deliver quite a few laughs throughout, as well as doing a great job with the singing and dancing. I highly recommend this movie to everyone out there who needs a good laugh! If you find that you like this one, try "Singing in the Rain," also co-starring Donald O'Connor, "Wonder Man," and "The Court Jester," starring Danny Kaye.

According to Webster's, eclectic is "selecting what appears to be the best in various doctrines, methods or styles." That's what this movie does. If you're expecting a showcase for your favorite star -- whichever one it is -- you'll probably be disappointed, because all five of them shine brilliantly in this movie. If you're expecting every star to provide another version of their usual persona, you'll also be disappointed. And those are the very reasons this is one of my favorite movies of all time. There are serious spoilers in the next paragraph!

The other reviews have described the characters and plot, so I won't repeat that. At first blush, this seems like a standard potboiler movie from when they cranked out movies by the hundreds. But there are oddly modern twists in it and thought-provoking role reversals. Vaudeville performers had a reputation for being wild and immoral, but these two (Ethyl Merman & Dan Dailey) are focused on raising their kids right. They're scandalized when one of those kids wants to live a life (the priesthood) that's unheard of in their family -- but after parental agonizing, they accept that this child is "different" and finally decide to love him anyway, just as he is. (Substitute homosexuality for priesthood, the parental discussions will sound familiar.) Donald O'Connor is the romantic male lead in the major love story instead of the sidekick, and shows his dance/choreography chops in a number that is surreal and brilliantly imaginative. He gets to play a complicated character who has no goals and makes stupid decisions, someone you might have met (or been) in real life. He's the romantic who's focused on finding someone he can build his life around (a traditional feminine ambition at the time), and the object of his affections is almost totally career-driven and hardly notices him (a traditional male role, ditto). Marilyn Monroe's character is an undeclared feminist -- she doesn't campaign for it, but she stands Donald up on a date because she's got a career crisis going on and gets irritated when he doesn't understand. That's consistent with her character, who also struggles with the role society demands of her. Years later, in real life, Marilyn took her career seriously enough to study acting with Lee Strasburg and was criticised for it -- a sex kitten trying to act? Deja vu...

There's a lot of stuff going on in this movie that would be startling now, and they get away with it because the musical numbers are great and the plot is superficially standard. It's as if they collected musicians from different genres -- say, country/western, opera, rap, pop and jazz -- and let each one do their own thing to the max. If you can put your expectations aside and see it as it is -- adventurous ideas and letting the stars use their talents without being restricted by typecasting -- you might love it as much as I do.

One of the great musicals of the 50`s. All star cast and great numbers. Ethel Merman at her finest singing the title song. Worth buying the DVD just for that. Marilyns Heatwave number makes the mercury jump to 93. Dan Dailey always one of my favorites overshadowed by Astaire and Kelly. Donald O Connors finest hour was of course Make Em Laugh from Singing In The Rain but this is close second.The lovely Mitzi Gaynor and of course a man sadly forgotten by some nowadays. The Prince of Wails himself. Johnny Ray proving that he was better that most pop singers who turn to acting.I remember seeing this at a young age in our local theatre and thinking it was great all these years later i still feel the same...The question now is when will Call Me Madam appear on DVD also starring Ethel and Donald. A treat indeed for anyone who enjoy`s a good musical.

After only being available as a mono recording, this restored stereo soundtrack CD is just great. Plus you get a couple of tracks that were never available on the original...including Monroe's original tracks, a couple of bonus tracks with Merman and the full track of "A Sailor's Just A Sailor." This was Merman's last film musical as well as the last film musical from Irving Berlin. Great songs with great performances by the above as well as dazzling Mitzi Gaynor along with Donald O'Connor and Dan Dailey. I give it 4 stars rather than 5 due to one track which sounds, to my ear, out of sync. Johnny Ray's "If You Believe" seems to place the vocal a split second off from the musical track. The plot of the film is just a framework for the music and it's the music that's front and center. Kudos to Varese Sarabande for doing the tech work to make this available.

The film was, perhaps, the splashiest of the year's musicals... It dealt with the joys, loves and heartaches experienced by a vaudeville family called the Donahues (spending their lives singing and dancing and touring) with Merman and Dailey as mother and father, and Ray, Gaynor and O'Connor as their talented offspring...

All of them get to perform a large catalog of new and old songs by Irving Berlin in sumptuous arrangements, beautiful settings and on a big Hippodrome extravaganza...

Daily and Merman hit the top; O'Connor--who had liked to build a barbed-wire fence around Marilyn--did it Scottish and came with some fine dances; Gaynor's love was dancing... and she was really cute; and while Ray got some thinking to do, he sells a very beautiful song ("If You Believe").

Marilyn (appearing after 29 minutes screening) was deliciously charming, seducing and very appealing... She sang "After You Get What You Want" and "Lazy," and did that tropical version of 'Heat Wave.'

You cannot beat this album even with a stick. Music at its best. Performances at their very best. This is what movie and/or Broadway music is susposed to be. We don't have wonderful talent like this anymore and we are all the poorer for it. So buy this album and share these songs with every generation around you and they will thank you for it.