Words and Music
by Norman Taurog
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Judy Garland, June Allyson, Mickey Rooney, Perry Como, Tom DrakeDirector: Norman Taurog
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Charles Rosher
Cinematographer: Harry Stradling Sr.
Producer: Arthur Freed
Writer: Ben Feiner Jr.
Writer: Fred F. Finklehoffe
Writer: Guy Bolton
Writer: Jean Holloway
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 120 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-07-24
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 79532
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Words and Music
Movie Review: MGM Musical Stars in Top Form
Summary: 5 Stars
This film has taken a beating over the years for its hokey plot. However, the studio never made any great claims that they were trying to make a gritty and fact-filled biography; "Words and Music" and "Till the Clouds Roll By" were nothing but excuses to link a number of top-notch musical numbers together with a pleasing plotline to string them together (compare to "Ziegfeld Follies" which didn't even bother with a plot and didn't fare as well). Just look at the roster of talent: Garland, June Allyson, Perry Como, Gene Kelly, Vera Ellen, and Lena Horne! Garland and Horne steal the show with 2 numbers apiece. The technicolor is eye-popping as are the dazzling costumes and choreography. "Slaughter" number by Kelly and Vera Ellen is a masterpiece, both for the choreography and the camera angles. Yes, Mickey Rooney is annoying in this role, but no different from any other movie he was in, and he doesn't really detract from the movie. Don't let the naysayers steer you away from this gem that was made at the peak of the MGM Musical. Extras are awesome: making of documentary, deleted scenes, and shorts.
Summary of Words and Music
WORDS AND MUSIC - DVD MovieThe plot is a hokey whitewash of the careers of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, with characters talking in stilted phrases ("Gee, Larry, that's marvelous, really and truly") and complexities reduced to ground zero. But Rodgers and Hart comprised one of the greatest song-writing teams of the 20th century, and Words and Music (1948) is an excuse for a gang of Hollywood's top performers to have their way with the tunes. Mel Tormé croons a melancholy "Blue Moon," June Allyson twinkles through "Thou Swell," and a climactic ballet to "Slaughter on 10th Avenue" features Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen in slinky, kicky form. As is often the case in MGM musicals of this period, Lena Horne steals the show with a self-contained sequence (so it could be snipped out in theaters in the U.S. South), here contributing stunning versions of "The Lady Is a Tramp" and that most mysterious of American pop songs, "Where or When."
The film's sense of time is deranged: Perry Como plays an early friend of R&H, then decades later, himself; Garbo's Camille is shown as a silent film, although it was released 10 years after sound came in; and the grown-up Judy Garland plays herself in a period when she would have been a child. The upside is that Garland romps through "Johnny One Note," one of many examples of Lorenz Hart's lyrical dexterity. Tom Drake is a dull Rodgers, but Mickey Rooney's buzz-saw energy and crazed appetite might have made a brilliant Larry Hart. In a better movie, that is. --Robert Horton
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