Musicals Collection [1953] (DVD)

Musicals Collection [1953] (DVD) Description

Collection of ten classic musicals featuring stars such as Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Doris Day, Howard Keel and Natalie Wood. In 42nd Street (1933) Dorothy (Bebe Daniels), the leading lady of a Broadway show, injures her ankle before the first night and is replaced by chorus girl Peggy (Ruby Keeler) at the last minute. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) follows the middle-class Smith family in the lead up to the 1904 Worlds Fair hosted in St. Louis. Esther (Garland), the second eldest daughter of Alonzo (Leon Ames) and Anna Smith (Mary Astor), falls for her new next door neighbour, John Truitt (Tom Drake). When their romance begins to blossom Esther learns that Alonzos employer is transferring him to New York where he plans to move the family. In Easter Parade (1948) Don Hewes (Astaire) is one half of a dance team who is ditched by his partner. Deciding he can make a star out of anyone he wants, he chooses lowly chorus girl Hannah Brown (Garland) as his new partner. In Annie Get Your Gun (1950) the rough-edged, backwoods sharpshooter Annie (Betty Hutton) is plucked out of obscurity by Buffalo Bill (Louis Calhern) and groomed for a leading role in Bills world-famous Wild West show. However, Annie has a rival in the form of rifleman Frank Butler (Keel), a man she soon falls in love with. In Singin in the Rain (1952), in 1927, Don Lockwood (Kelly, who co-directs) has worked his way up from being a song-and-dance man with partner Cosmo Brown (Donald OConnor) to become a top movie star. Actress Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) finds herself the object of Dons affections when she is hired to overdub the awful voice of his co-star with the arrival of talkies. In The Band Wagon (1953) a has-been star of movie musicals (Astaire) agrees to take part in a Broadway show, playing opposite a ballerina (Cyd Charisse).