The
Grace Kelly Collection
(1953 - 56/Paramount/Warner DVD Set w/Dial
M For Murder (2D only),
Mogambo,
Bridges At Toko-Ri,
Country Girl,
To Catch A Thief,
High Society)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B Films: B
Despite
a limited run of a movie career time-wise, Grace Kelly is remembered
for as much as being a great movie star as a Princess, humanitarian
or someone who fell to an untimely death. With Warner Home Video
having licensed some key later Paramount feature film titles, The
Grace Kelly Collection
combines 6 of her most popular, famous films in one set with plenty
of extras in a gift set for fans on DVD. The films are still talked
about today and always worth revisiting.
John
Ford's Mogambo
(1953) was made by MGM and has Kelly supporting a torrid pairing of
Clark Gable and Ava Gardner in a tale set in the rugged jungle with
an affair between the leads as savage as the environment. A film
with mixed results, Kelly more than holds her own and they are backed
by some solid British actors. C+
Mark
Robson's Bridges At Toko-Ri (1954, Paramount) is part of a
cycle of post-WWII war films that sometimes pat the viewers (and
Allies) on the back for success telling the many tales of how the
side that needed to win won. William Holden is the lead with Kelly
as their romance starts as the mission kicks in, supported by
performances by Mickey Rooney, Fredric March and Charles McGraw among
a fine cast. The film looks good and is well made for its time, but
can get a little more melodramatic than it needs to be. C+
Alfred
Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder (2D only; 1953/4, Warner Bros.)
is one of the now-unforgettable pairing of The Master of Suspense
with Kelly, a cool blonde who he would eventually become obsessed
with as her husband (a terrific performance by Ray Milland in peak
form) who plots to have her killed when she is distracted by a call
from him. Too bad things do not go for him as planned. John
Williams is great as the detective and Robert Cummings is the man she
is seeing because her husband has become so loveless. This DVD was
issued long before the Blu-ray 3D edition was issued and has a nice
set of extras. B+
George
Seaton's The Country Girl (1954, Paramount) is a melodrama
with backstage musical backing as an alcoholic singer (Bing Crosby)
gets one last chance to make money on stage singing and cashing in on
his name thanks to a producer (William Holden again) with new songs
written just for this film and Kelly won an Academy ward for her work
here. B-
Alfred
Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief (1955, B) is now on Blu-ray in a
decent, if not spectacular transfer (time to go 4K on this one
Paramount/Warner) and we have reviewed the film twice on DVD:
Special
Collector's Edition
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5515/Alfred+Hitchcock+3-Disc+Collector
Centennial
Collection
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8370/To+Catch+A+Thief
This
DVD is the Centennial Collection version with all the same
extras, but looking a little color-weaker than the older release.
Otherwise, a great film with nice extras, but the first DVD has some
the second one is missing. Shot in large-frame VistaVision.
Finally
we have Kelly's last film, Charles Walter's High Society
(1956) was made at MGM, was also shot in large-frame VistaVision and
is a musical remake of The Philadelphia Story now set in
Newport, Rhode Island. Under a remarkable set of circumstances,
Frank Sinatra landed the Jimmy Stewart role and just ending his
nearly quarter-century contract at Paramount, Bing Crosby landed the
Cary Grant role in this comedy (based on the hit stage play) as
Kelly's ex-husband who lives near her.
Celeste
Holm, Louis Calhern, Sidney Blackmer and Louis Armstrong & His
Band are in strong supporting positions in what was a big critical
and commercial hit, but Kelly was about to marry royalty in Monaco
and this was her swan song on the big screen, but what a big way to
go out and retire. This is a decent film, if sometimes labored, but
it has also been a more recent target of being snobby and worse by
certain writers who see it as a blueprint for post-WWII power
elitists. No matter than, it is a big all-out musical of the kind
that was peaking at this time. Paramount (who made Funny Face
the same year, a film originally set up at MGM) did one of their rare
loaning-outs of their VistaVision format to another studio and all
involved used it to the greatest effect. B-
The
1.33 X 1 black & white image on Girl, 1.33 X 1 Technicolor
image Mogambo, Murder and Bridges and
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 Technicolor image on Thief
and Society are about even, though they all look like slightly
older transfers and Thief is off a bit versus the previous
DVDs as noted above. The color films can look like Technicolor, but
sadly not all the time, but that in part is from the limits of the
DVD format and the age of these transfers. As for sound, all the
films have lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono except Thief in lossy
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic surrounds and lossy Dolby
Digital 5.1 on Society, based off of its original Perspecta
Sound mix and other audio sources. They all sound as good as they
are going to in this format, but the lossless Dolby TrueHD mix on the
Thief Blu-ray (unreviewed, but it will do for now until it is
upgraded) proves all could sound better because this one does on
Blu-ray. All of Kelly's films deserve the upgrades, but as far as
DVDs go, I would not expect much better than we get here.
Extras
in this great slipcase packaging include an envelope with a letter
from Bing Crosby, plus poster art and accompanying stills for all six
films, while the discs add Original Theatrical Trailers in all cases
except Girl,
Thief
adds
the extras from the previous Centennial
DVD (see link for more details above as noted), Murder
has two featurettes in Hitchcock
& Dial M
and 3D:
A Brief History
and Society
adds the MGM animated CinemaScope (letterboxed) short Millionaire
Droopy,
audio-only radio adds (4 of them) by the co-stars, original
Philadelphia
Story
trailer, Production Notes, Premiere Newsreel and co-star Celeste Holm
hosting the featurette Cole
Porter In Hollywood: True Love.
And finally, there is a 7th
DVD, Kelly being interviewed in Monaco by Pierre Salinger on location
in Monaco. Shot on analog videotape and entitled Princess
Grace De Monaco: A Moment In Time,
it would be her last interview as she had her unfortunate car
accident fatally only days later.
-
Nicholas Sheffo