NANCY GOES TO RIO/TWO WEEKS WITH LOVE (MGM 1950) Warner Home Video
It is always something of a modest curiosity in
‘direct-to-video’ marketing – particularly of classic movies – to find sequels, remakes and/or particular installments of film franchises mark their
DVD debut outside of their natural continuity. Example; Love Finds Andy
Hardy (1938); the fourth film in the Andy Hardy series from MGM, was made
available since 2002, while the rest of the franchise – including 1937’s A
Family Affair – the movie that started it all, never appeared, except on MOD-DVD via Warner's Archive, and even then, some 4-years late to the party. Back in the day, before Warner Home Video effectively ceased to
market any and all of its vast back-catalog outside its own MOD archive, the company used to endeavor to pay tributes to such stars as Doris
Day, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, though again, ironically, with Volume One of
these retrospectives often including films from the latter half of their
careers first, leaving Volumes Two, Three and so on to shore up the dearth in their early
work. Presumably, such out of sequence video releases was predicated on which films had viable video masters to be prepped with minimal
expense and remastering. However, it is 2020 - not 1989. And the wait
has been long enough to have the bulk of most actors’ careers from Hollywood's golden age still MIA on disc in anything but shoddily turned out MOD-DVD format. In the waning years of Warner Home Video proper, the company came
around to releasing a mere trickle of movies from stars it considered ‘lesser’
in their formidable pantheon of all-time greats: of these, singer/dancer, Jane Powell,
whose entire body of work, save Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) is
still not out on Blu-ray!
Warner Home Video’s pairing of movies here, offers us Powell
in two of her most enjoyable movies from that initial spate of ‘teen romances’ –
Powell, slickly marketed back in the day as MGM’s response to Deanna Durbin, another winsome soprano, Metro let slip through its fingers, and, who went on to
have a megawatt movie career at Universal instead. Skipping over Powell’s MGM debut,
this double disc includes director, Roy Rowland’s contrite Two Weeks with
Love (1950) and Robert Leonard’s effervescent programmer, Nancy Goes To
Rio (1950). First to ‘Nancy’, which continues to hold up
remarkably well under today’s scrutiny as a jovial and escapist piece of fluff,
colorfully tricked out in amazing hues of vintage 3-strip Technicolor, and,
with the added appeal of seeing the ebullient Carmen Miranda in her final
appearance in a movie worthy of her inclusion and talents. In Nancy Goes To
Rio, Powell is a bit long in the tooth – though nevertheless engaging - as
frenetic teen, Nancy Barklay – with big dreams of following in her mother’s
footsteps as a great dramatic actress. Mama is Francis Elliot (Ann Sothern), a
glamorous Broadway star who has just wrapped up the last night of a successful
run and is preparing for a little badly needed R&R. Set to take a trip to
Rio, Francis throws a house party to kick off her bon voyage with her father,
Gregory (Louis Calhern) and Nancy’s beau, Scotty Sheridan (Scotty Beckett) in
attendance.
Arriving in Rio, Francis begins to bone up on a script
for her latest stage project. In one of those gracious whims of fate that can
only happen in the movies, playwright, Ricardo Domingos (Fortunio Bonanova)
meets Nancy after already having discussed the play with Francis and thereafter
decides for himself, Nancy, not Francis, would be a better fit for his heroine.
Fran’s manager, Arthur Barrett (Glenn Anders) agrees with Ricardo. However,
Arthur makes Nancy promise not to say a word to anyone about the project. Not
realizing the lead in the play has first been promised to her own mother, Nancy
accidentally stumbles upon Fran, rehearsing for the part, and thereafter
becomes heart-sore over the prospect of telling her the truth. Meanwhile, on
the cruise to Rio, Nancy accidentally meets Paul Berten (Barry Sullivan) – the
man who will eventually become her mother’s beau – and instantly falls in love.
Paul overhears Nancy rehearsing a passage from the play, about an unwanted
pregnancy, and mistakenly misinterprets the dialogue to mean our Nancy is with
child. Also, on board is Marina Rodrigues (Carmen Miranda) who further muddies
these waters when she erroneously concludes Nancy’s unwanted baby is Paul’s.
Miraculously, the script by Ralph Block, Jane Hall,
Frederick Kohner and Sidney Sheldon manages to keep all of these plot elements
in play throughout the film’s scant 99 min. while infusing an ample musical
repertoire into these proceedings. Powell sings several arias and pop standards.
Powell’s gorgeous rendition of La Boheme’s Musetta’s Waltz raises the
hairs on the back of the neck. ‘Shine on Harvest Moon’ and ‘Magic is
the Moonlight’ never test Powell’s pipes to their fullest, but the rousing
finale, ‘Love is Like This’ rattles the rafters with exceptional good
state; Powell, exotic in a lurid pink gown, flanked by white-tuxedo-clad male
dancers. The exuberant Carmen Miranda charms to distraction with two glossy
standout performances – said to be her favorites; Baião Ca-Room Pa Pa,
in which she wears a headdress of multicolored umbrellas and is engaged by
brightly colored clowns at the carnival, and, Yipsee-I-O; where she
inimitably fractures the English language with delicious resolve. “Give me a
place where the cows and the cantaloupes play” - indeed! In this, her finale
movie for MGM, Ann Sothern gracefully marks her exit from an illustrious career
on a high note. In the final analysis, Nancy Goes to Rio is a diverting
and dynamically structured entertainment; bright-eyed and enchanting.
As scripted by Dorothy Kingsley and John Larkin, Two
Weeks with Love plays much more like a stock company version of Meet Me
In St. Louis (1944) than a stand alone period piece. The film stars Powell
as Patti Robinson – a forlorn 17-year-old, bored and desperate for her first
great romance to start. A successful orchestra conductor and creature of habit,
Patti’s father, Horatio (Louis Calhern) takes his family to a summer retreat in
the Catskills for two weeks out of every concert season. Suffering from
harmless teen angst, Patti abhors the prospect of spending another summer
single, although she is mooned over incessantly by Billy Finlay (Carleton
Carpenter) – the awkward son of the hotel’s proprietor who, in turn, is ogled
to distraction by Patti’s younger sister, tomboy Melba (Debbie Reynolds).
However, with the arrival of handsome man about town, Demi Armendez (Ricardo
Montalban), Patti’s romantic prospects certainly perk up – that is, until
notorious man trap, Valerie Stressemann (Phyllis Kirk) delineates their
differences in age to Ricardo and suggests he needs a ‘real’ woman, not a child
as his new love interest.
The film’s optimism is infectious, treating its
subtext of ‘when does a girl become a woman’ with great humor and heart.
Reynolds and Carpenter perform the film’s most memorable number, ‘Abba-Dabba
Honeymoon’ – rumored to have convinced L.B. Mayer, Reynolds was right to
star opposite Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor in Singin’ in the Rain
(1952). Powell is given a few brief songs, the best of the lot – A Heart That’s
Free - plus, a garish dream sequence to contend with, though on the whole she
does not seem to make much of a splash one way or the other. She is in very fine voice, but
somehow muddles the operatic overtures to The Chocolate Soldier’s ‘My
Hero’. As a passing love interest, with dark and flashing eyes and all the sex appeal of a Latin Lothario, Montalban is just adequate, though much too elegant and refined
to be spending his vacation with these ‘commoners’ in the Catskills. In the
final analysis, Two Weeks with Love really does not have a whole lot to
contribute to MGM’s pantheon of great movie musicals. It’s cute and coy and cuddly,
in a way that used to sell tickets. But viewed today, it falters under the weight
of too much superficial attractiveness with precious little in its featherweight
story to fill in the details. Once seen,
it never entirely sticks to the memory.
Warner Home Video’s 2-disc offering is a mixed
blessing. Although Nancy Goes To Rio was the benefactor of some digital
clean-up, all the way back in 1995 for its LaserDisc release, Two Weeks With
Love appears to have been neglected these many long years, deriving its
master from one probably created in the ole VHS days. On ‘Nancy’
- colors are generally vibrant, bold and pronounced. Contrast is excellent and
fine details are revealed with considerable sparkle. On Two Weeks
things become dull. Colors are much less refined, even showing the first signs of
having begun to fade, while contrast is interminably dark. Flesh tones adopt a garish orange hue too. While
age-related artifacts are tempered, they are more prominently featured on ‘Two
Weeks’ than ‘Nancy’ though you’ll find them on both 720p
transfers herein. On each, the audio has been preserved in Dolby Digital 1.0
mono. If hardly earth-shattering, the results are nevertheless very true to the
theatrical releases. Extras are limited to several short subjects and badly worn
theatrical trailers for each film. Bottom line: Jane Powell was one of MGM’s
irrefutable post-war treasures. Her
movies warm the heart, even when nothing else will. To have her on home video
is a blessing, although Warner Archive should seriously consider making Powell
a priority for hi-def Blu-ray releases. We could certainly use her
morale-boosting flavor now!
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
Nancy Goes to Rio 4
Two Weeks with Love 3
VIDEO/AUDIO
Nancy Goes to Rio 4
Two Weeks with Love 2.5
EXTRAS
2
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