Site created 12/15/97. |
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reviews added: 5/24/01
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DVD
Fanboy reviews Fox's Marilyn Monroe:
The Diamond Collection
reviews by Todd Doogan
of The Digital Bits
(a.k.a. DVD Fanboy)
todddoogan@thedigitalbits.com |
She
was a candle in the wind, a beloved screen icon and a woman men
loved and other women wanted to protect. She's Marilyn Monroe, and
Fox is honoring her with a DVD box set featuring five and a half of
her films, along with a documentary about her Final
Days. To be sure, the Marilyn
Monroe: The Diamond Collection is a set every fan will
want. So let's go through it film by film, disc by disc...
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Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes
1953 (2001) - 20th Century Fox
Film Rating: A
Disc Ratings (Video/Audio/Extras): A/A/B+
Specs and Features:
97 mins, NR, full frame (1.33:1), Amaray keep case packaging,
single-sided, RSDL dual-layered (layer switch at 1:06:30, in chapter
23), Movietone newsreel: Mann's Chinese
Theater - Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell in Cement, Diamond
Collection promo, theatrical trailers (for
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,
Bus Stop,
There's No Business Like Show Business
and Seven Year Itch),
restoration comparison, postcard and one-sheet poster art,
film-themed menu screens, scene access (30 chapters), languages:
English (DD 2.0 & mono) and French (DD mono), subtitles: English
and Spanish, Closed Captioned
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Marilyn and Jane
Russell are two showgirls who are looking for love. Marilyn thinks
she's found it in the form of a young nerdy millionaire, who'll buy
her anything she wants as long as daddy approves. And he doesn't.
Russell would rather find love in the form of someone who loves her
back, money of not. So, on a cruise to Europe, Marilyn and Jane find
themselves surrounded by temptation and opportunity. Marilyn finds
an old man who owns a diamond mine and falls head over heels in love
with his wife's tiara. Russell, on the other hand, falls for a
private dick that trailing Monroe for her fiancé's father (to
prove she's a tramp). Through a series of misadventures and
misunderstandings, Russell and Marilyn find love, loose love and
find it all over again. Oh... and the song and dance numbers are fit
nicely into the action of the film, rather than simply being
nonsensical riffs.
I liked this film. I liked it a lot actually. Monroe is at the top
of her game here. My favorite stuff is her scenes with the young
millionaire on the boat that she's set Russell up with. The scheme
blows up in her face, but the pay-off is wonderful.
The DVD gives us the film in its original full frame aspect ratio,
with nice bright colors and a cleaned up print. You should find no
source or digital artifacts. It looks really, really great. The
audio is also nice, with a remastered Dolby Digital 2.0 and the
original mono mix. They both sound good and are free of the analog
pops and hissing on the original tracks.
The extras on this disc are going to be pretty standard for all the
discs in this collection. You get the trailers for all the other
films (except How to Marry a Millionaire
oddly enough), a restoration comparison (which explains the work
that went into cleaning up the picture) and the Diamond
Collection promo. Exclusive to this disc is a Movietone
newsreel of Russell and Monroe leaving their mark at Mann's Chinese
Theater in Hollywood and a galley of poster and postcard art used to
market the film. |
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Marilyn Monroe: The Diamond
Collection (6 films)
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How
to Marry a Millionaire
1953 (2001) - 20th Century Fox
Film Rating: B-
Disc Ratings (Video/Audio/Extras):
A-/A/B+
Specs and Features:
105 mins, NR, letterboxed widescreen (2.55:1), 16x9 enhanced,
Amaray keep case packaging, single-sided, RSDL dual-layered (layer
switch at 1:09:28, in chapter 16), Movietone newsreel:
How to Marry a Millionaire in Cinemascope,
Diamond Collection promo,
theatrical trailers (for How to Marry a
Millionaire in English, Italian and German,
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,
Bus Stop,
There's No Business Like Show Business
and The Seven Year Itch),
restoration comparison, film-themed menu screens, scene access (24
chapters), languages: English (DD 4.0 & 2.0) and French (DD
mono), subtitles: English and Spanish, Closed Captioned
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Marilyn, Lauren Bacall
and WWII pin-up queen Betty Grable are three models who want to nab
a millionaire. So how do they do it? They rent a New York high-rise
and throw out bait. Hoping to find love, each of the girls is shown
in their pursuit, with the main focus being Bacall, who plays the
ringleader of the group. Shockingly, there's very little Monroe to
be seen in the film, which disappointed me a bit. In the end, each
finds true love, but only one finds it with a millionaire. Betcha
can't guess which one...
This was one of the first Cinemascope features, and, as such,
there's a certain novelty to the film. The extended opening features
the Fox orchestra playing the "street theme" from the
film, conducted by Alfred Newman, and I don't think I've ever seen
this before. It's a treat. The screen fits in the entire... well it
has to be 100 people... and it doesn't end there. Showing how much
room can be fit into the frame, most of the shots in the film are
set up with tiny people talking across to each other. There's maybe
one shot of Monroe in close-up and only a handful of medium shots in
the film. There's also a few jarring novelty shots, like an airplane
landing and a cityscape or two, that feel out of place. But Fox had
to show the public their new toy, and this was one of the first
films to do it with.
How to Marry a Millionaire is
not as sharp as I would have liked it to be. Even on a large
monitor, just because of the wider aspect ratio, some detail is lost
(even with anamorphic enhancement). It's not that it's a bad
transfer or anything like that. It's just that this film was meant
to be shown BIG. So it doesn't look as wonderful in the home as it
would in a theater, or in that rich guy down the street's home
theater, with the 70-foot screen. Color is nice and the source is
clean. Sound is also good, with Dolby Digital 4.0 and 2.0 mixes that
serve the film well. The extras are the standard trailers,
restoration info, Diamond Collection
promo and a Movietone newsreel announcing Cinemascope. |
How to Marry a Millionaire
Marilyn Monroe: The Diamond
Collection (6 films)
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There's
No Business Like Show Business
1954 (2001) - 20th Century Fox
Film Rating: B+
Disc Ratings (Video/Audio/Extras): A/A/B
Specs and Features:
118 mins, NR, letterboxed widescreen (2.35:1), 16x9 enhanced,
Amaray keep case packaging, single-sided, RSDL dual-layered (layer
switch at 55:47, in chapter 14), Diamond
Collection promo, theatrical trailers (for
There's No Business Like Show Business
in English trailers and Portuguese, Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes, Bus Stop,
How to Marry a Millionaire and
The Seven Year Itch),
restoration comparison, one-sheet poster art, film-themed menu
screens, scene access (28 chapters), languages: English (DD 4.0 &
2.0), subtitles: English and Spanish, Closed Captioned
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This is the story of
the Donahue family, a grand vaudeville troupe who went from billing
themselves as "The Donahues" to "The Three Donahues"
to "The Four Donahues", on to "The Five Donahues"...
and then back down to "The Four Donahues" some point
later. Ethel Merman (in her first screen appearance) is mama and Dan
Dailey is pop. Their three kids are Donald O'Conner, Mitzi Gaynor
and Johnnie Ray. We see their ups. We see their downs. But, best of
all, we see the Donahues in action. Some of the best Irving Berlin
songs EVER are featured here, and that's about all you'll find worth
watching in the film. Cinema-wise, TNBLSB
is an utter disaster. The acting is pretty bad throughout. The
pacing is up and down. And if you believe any of the actors are
sons, daughters, brothers and sisters age-wise, you're on crack. As
a musical fan, I'm not a big fan of this film. But, then again,
musically it has its charms and it's worth watching just for the
production numbers. Check it out and fast forward through anything
that doesn't look like there's singing and dancing in it. Oh... and
Monroe plays the beautiful object of Donald O'Conner's character's
desire, who gets to belt out a grand rendition of
Heat Wave.
This is another Cinemascope picture, but the frame is bigger and
the filmmakers went the less novel route. Everything is nicely
detailed and the color palette is quite rich. It's another
spectacular transfer for this collection. The audio is also very
nice, with Dolby Digital 4.0 and 2.0 painting the soundscape nicely
for this film.
There are no newsreels this time out, but we get trailers, the Diamond
Collection promo, the restoration demo and one-sheet
poster art by way of extras. Not bad for a flick that's 47 years
old. |
There's No Business Like Show
Business
Marilyn Monroe: The Diamond
Collection (6 films)
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The
Seven Year Itch
1955 (2001) - 20th Century Fox
Film Rating: A
Disc Ratings (Video/Audio/Extras): A/A/A
Specs and Features:
110 mins, NR, letterboxed widescreen (2.55:1), 16x9 enhanced,
Amaray keep case packaging, single-sided, RSDL dual-layered (layer
switch at 55:22, in chapter 12), Movietone newsreel:
The Seven Year Itch has Sneak Preview,
2 deleted scenes, AMC Backstory: The
Seven Year Itch, Diamond
Collection promo, theatrical trailers (for
The Seven Year Itch in English
and Spanish, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,
Bus Stop,
How to Marry a Millionaire and
There's No Business Like Show Business),
restoration comparison, one-sheet poster art, film-themed menu
screens, scene access (22 chapters), languages: English (DD 3.0 &
2.0) and French (DD mono), subtitles: English and Spanish, Closed
Captioned
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The
Seven Year Itch - this is the one many of you fans are
going to want. It's got everything. It features Marilyn at quite
possibly her funniest, sexist and most iconic. I mean, who hasn't
seen the image of Marilyn with her skirt blown up about her knees?
The Seven Year Itch is the
story of Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell), a happily married dime novel
editor living in New York City. He's just sent his family away for
the summer, and is settling into a three-month bachelor hood, while
also observing the rules his wife has left. No smoking, no drinking
and (the unspoken one) no ogling hot-to-trot girls. That last one is
the hardest one to follow, especially when Richard finds that the
apartment above his has been sublet to a gorgeous Girl played by
Marilyn Monroe. Things go from warm to hot, as Richard and The Girl
dance around the ancient question: to do it or not to do it. As
Richard has his fantasies, complete with horrifying aftermaths, he
must also deal with his wife hanging out with an old flame on her
vacation. Will he dance over the edge and let his urges get the best
of him, or will his overactive imagination save the day?
The Seven Year Itch is
brilliant. It's based on a successful Broadway play, with minor
changes (which make the film a little more tame). But
writer/director Billy Wilder makes the tame version work in many a
wicked way. Monroe is as sexy as ever, and also proves she can
actually act here. It's a funny as hell film, that still plays well
all these years later.
On DVD we get a glorious Cinemascope transfer, with bold colors,
sharp detail and a very nice looking source. I have nothing bad to
say about this transfer - it's that good. The audio is available in
either Dolby Digital 3.0 or 2.0, and both sound generally the same,
with the 3.0 being slightly more active.
The extras for this disc are a much better lot. There are two
hilarious deleted scenes, a well made AMC documentary on the making
of the film, a newsreel on the "skirt scene" and the
standard trailers, restoration demo, Diamond
Collection promo and poster art gallery. Pretty sweet. |
The Seven Year Itch
Marilyn Monroe: The Diamond
Collection (6 films)
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Bus
Stop
1956 (2001) - 20th Century Fox
Film Rating: C+
Disc Ratings (Video/Audio/Extras): A/A/B
Specs and Features:
105 mins, NR, letterboxed widescreen (1.85:1), 16x9 enhanced,
Amaray keep case packaging, single-sided, RSDL dual-layered (layer
switch at 34:38, in chapter 9), Diamond
Collection promo, theatrical trailers (for
Bus Stop,
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,
There's No Business Like Show Business,
How to Marry a Millionaire and
The Seven Year Itch),
restoration comparison, lobby cards and post card art, film-themed
menu screens, scene access (24 chapters), languages: English (DD 4.0
& 2.0) and French (DD mono), subtitles: English and Spanish,
Closed Captioned
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Beau Decker is a human
hurricane. Fresh off the horse ranch, he's heading to Phoenix for a
tournament to prove he's the best at bucking broncos, chasing
doggies and tying up arrant cattle. On the bus ride out, he confides
to his guardian Virgil (and anyone else who'll listen for that
matter) that he's going to find his Angel - a woman that he can
sweep off her feet, marry and take back home to be his wife. Beau
plans on accomplishing this in the few days he's away from home,
because he knows how to get what he wants. Virgil shrugs it off, but
what he doesn't realize is, Beau might just know what he's talking
about.
Enter Marilyn Monroe, as Cheri (Beau pronounces it Cherry), a
cabaret chanteuse who Beau sees one night performing at a club. When
the patrons won't shush for her, Beau gets everyone to keep quiet
and proceeds to follow her to her dressing room and propose
marriage. Cheri has no idea what to do, so she says she'll think
about it. We find out that Cheri is a lost little girl on her own in
the world, and she's looking to head to Hollywood to become a star.
But that road might take another route when Beau literally sweeps
her off her feet and essentially kidnaps her to take her back to the
ranch.
Do opposites attract? That's the major question being asked here.
And if they do, can there be love at first sight? Maybe. Like Kevin
Smith's Chasing Amy, another
theme in this film is: how much does a person's past effects a
relationship. The answer here is a lot better than the one Smith
came up with in his film: if you love a person for who they are, how
can criticize the things that made them that way? Bus
Stop is an interesting film, and a well made one, but I
think it worked much better as a play. I liked all the performances
here, but the structure of the thing isn't too far removed from the
source, therefore a great majority of the film feels a bit too
theatrical and staged. That's not too bad a thing, but it keeps you
from investing yourself in it too much.
Once again, Fox nails the DVD, giving us a beautiful looking
transfer. Color density is strong, detail is sharp and the film
looks almost as new as a film released this year. Good work, Fox!
The audio is available in strong Dolby Digital 4.0 and 2.0 choices,
both of which sound rich and well-centered.
Once again, the extras are your standard lot for this collection,
with a marketing art gallery thrown in for good measure. |
Bus Stop
Marilyn Monroe: The Diamond
Collection (6 films)
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Marilyn
Monroe: The Final Days
2001 (2001) - 20th Century Fox
Program Rating: A
Disc Ratings (Video/Audio/Extras): B/A/B+
Specs and Features:
117 mins, NR, full frame (1.33:1) and letterboxed widescreen
(2.35:1), Amaray keep case packaging, single-sided, RSDL
dual-layered (layer switch at 52:51, in chapter 8),
Cleopatra promotional
theatrical trailer, Movietone newsreel: Cinemascope,
film-themed menu screens, scene access (16 chapters), languages:
English (DD 2.0), subtitles: none, Closed Captioned
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Before Marilyn died,
she was fired from the Fox film Something's
Got to Give. The making of the film was a nightmare for
everyone involved. But Hollywood nightmares make great stories, so
bad for Fox and good for us. The Final
Days is a story told two-fold. We get the "making of"
story, with behind-the-scenes information told through documentation
and interviews, along with a historical look at what was going on
during Marilyn's last few months on Earth. It's a very well made
documentary that deserves to be seen, and I'm glad it's on DVD.
Also here, which I consider to be an extra feature, are the
restored scenes from Something's Got to
Give, put together like a short film, complete with
opening credits and a score. It's pretty cool to see, but I felt it
was a bit of a wasted effort in the form it's in, because you don't
have any idea what the heck is going on. Title cards, explaining
what should have been seen in-between scenes, would have helped
guide the viewer through the film better. As it stands, if this film
were presented all by itself, it would be awful. I know that the
film was never finished, but that's why I think some text would have
helped make sense of it all. Even a commentary track from a
historian would have been nice. Monroe was great here, as were her
co-stars. It IS a shame this film wasn't finished, because it could
have been a gem.
The DVD represents the TV quality of the documentary with nice
detail and no artifacts whatsoever. Audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 and
is also very nice. The Something's Got to
Give portion is letterboxed, but not anamorphic (but
doesn't suffer for it). Other extras include the trailer for
Cleopatra (the film which
helped kill this project, politically at least) and a newsreel on
Cinemascope.
Marilyn Monroe will live forever, thanks to her body of work (kudos
to her body as well). And thanks to Fox's restoration of these films
on DVD, her legacy will live a little while longer. Every one of the
films in Marilyn Monroe: The Diamond
Collection is a gem, worth seeing in its own way. Some
are better than others, but they're all classic, and they all look
and sound wonderful in this collection. Hey - it's never a bad idea
to invite Marilyn into you home, right? Even if it's just for a
little while. Recommended. |
Marilyn Monroe: The Diamond
Collection (6 films)
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