“Who cares what a lot of females wear on the beach, as long as I can keep you in a one-piece bathing suit? Baby, you’re a swimmer. You belong in the water. Wet, you’re terrific. Dry, you’re just a nice girl who ought to settle down and get married.”
Esther Williams in MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID (1952) is available on Blu-ray From Warner Archive. Ordering information can be found HERE
James Sullivan works the carny circuit, promoting the likes of a boxing kangaroo or grappling bear. Then the wheeler-dealer meets a million-dollar idea: beautiful swimming champ Annette Kellerman. She’ll churn through a River Thames PR stunt. Cause a bathing-suit scandal among Boston bluebloods. Headline New York’s Hippodrome. And become a Hollywood swimsation as cameras roll and Rin Tin Tin looks on. Glamorous, amphibious Esther Williams portrays the real-life aquatic star in a splashy biopic costarring Victor Mature and loaded with stunning spectacle (including a must-see Busby Berkeley masterwork). Is this lovely Esther’s signature film? Well, she called her 1999 autobiography The Million Dollar Mermaid.
“Don’t worry. Some of the best movies are made by people working together who hate each other’s guts.”
Lana Turner and Kirk Douglas in THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (1952) is available on Blu-ray from Warner Archives. It can be ordered HERE
Appearances are everything in Hollywood. So when conniving moviemaker Jonathan Shields realizes few mourners will show up for the funeral of his equally conniving father, he knows what to do: hire extras. Kirk Douglas gives a magnetic, Oscar®-nominated performance as Shields, who turns talent, charisma and ruthlessness into film success, stomping on careers and creating enemies along the way. Vincente Minnelli directs this winner of five Academy Awards® that’s more than a compelling insider’s look at Tinseltown: It’s an opportunity for buffs to guess which real-life stars and moguls inspired the roles played by Douglas, Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Best Supporting Actress Gloria Grahame and more.
An all-star assembly of talents, both in front of (Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon, Barry Sullivan, Gloria Grahame, Leo G. Carroll) and behind (John Houseman, Charles Schnee, Cedric Gibbons, Helen Rose, Robert Surtees) the camera for maestro Vincente Minnelli’s cynical and charming backstage look at business and shenanigans of commercial cinema. Deploying guile and glamor in equal measure, the tale of a true Hollywood hustler unspools with panache and pathos. Douglas stars as Jonathan Shields, a striving studio mogul, desperate for a hit, who arranges a meeting with a top star (Lana Turner), screenwriter (Dick Powell) and director (Barry Sullivan). But before he can give the greenlight, it’s time for all his sins to be revisited. This five-time Academy Award winner (Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Gloria Grahame, Best Writing, Screenplay – Charles Schnee, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black & White – Cedric Gibbons, Edward Carfagno, Edwin B. Willis, Keogh Gleason, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White – Robert Surtees, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White – Helen Rose) gets the A-list treatment it so richly deserves on this sumptuous new HD master created from scan of the original negatives and painstaking restored, all in glorious, silver screen sheen Black and White. Special Features: Feature Length Documentary “Lana Turner…A Daughter’s Memoir”; Scoring Session Music Cues; Theatrical Trailer (HD)
