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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Action > Jungle > Romance > Thriller > WWII > Comedy > Mystery > Murder > Stage Play > Backstage Music > 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)

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


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