Annie Get Your Gun

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Never before available on home video and unseen on television since 1973, the 1950 production of Annie Get Your Gun has achieved somewhat legendary status, most notably for who would inherit the role Ethel Merman had made famous on Broadway in 1946. MGM originally cast Judy Garland, but her ongoing drug and alcohol problems led to her being fired and replaced by Betty Hutton. Fortunately, the bright and brassy Hutton sparkles in this highly fictionalized story of Annie Oakley, the sharpshooter who wins fame in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and wins the heart of fellow sharpshooter Frank Butler (Howard Keel). Dashing baritone Keel was beginning his career as one of MGM's favorite leading men in the 1950s (including Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Kiss Me, Kate). Together they make gold of the many Irving Berlin hits--"Doin' What Comes Naturally," "Anything You Can Do," "They Say It's Wonderful," "I Got the Sun in the Morning," and the classic anthem "There's No Business Like Show Business."

Annie Get Your Gun is unquestionably a product of the 1950s. Keel's relentless chauvinism and Hutton's constant fawning over him grow tiresome (though she does stand up to him in a battle of the sexes), and the Indians wear full headdresses and face paint, say "Ugh," and destroy modern conveniences. (In the name of political correctness, the 1999 Broadway revival starring Bernadette Peters removed "I'm an Indian Too" and received its own share of criticism from purists.) Quibbles aside, the excellent cast and immortal score make Annie Get Your Gun a classic musical. It's great to have it back. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews:

Great Musical.......2007-08-23

Betty Hutton does a great job as Annie. Good songs. Fun story. Really enjoyed it. Glad I own a copy so I can see it over and over again.

Annie Get Your Dog.......2007-08-02

This is one of the worst film adaptations of a musical I have ever seen. Most of the musical numbers, especially "I'm an Indian Too", are awful. Two of the show's best songs, "Moonshine Lullabye" and "I Got Lost in His Arms" are cut. There were all sorts of production problems with this film and it shows in the choppiness and amateurish way the numbers are choreographed and staged.

The only saving graces are performances by Howard Keel and Keenan Wynn, who were reunited a few years later in MGM's "Kiss Me Kate and the superb digital transfer. The technicolor is glorious. I love the show but I couldn't wait for this movie to end.

... and the winner is ... BETTY HUTTON!.......2007-05-17

I am as big a Judy Garland fan as ANYBODY, believe me. But #1 - she didn't want to do the movie in the first place; #2 - she was lack luster and fatigued looking at best in the few scenes that were completed. Sure her vocals were great, but we're rating the movie here, not the soundtrack. Betty Hutton is a different kind of singer, performer, actor than Judy ... apples and oranges. This movie called for someone of Betty's energy and her voice is perfect for the role. Those who say she can't sing as great as Judy are making an unfair comparison. It's like comparing Fred Astaire with Gene Kelly; BOTH ARE GREAT, but very different in style.

Betty wanted to make this movie desparately, Judy did not. Hutton was fantastic in the role, period. Too bad the studio, cast and crew (especially Howard Keel - who I really like in other movies and in Dallas) were so hateful to her just because they wanted Judy in the role. That wasn't Betty Hutton's fault. Actually, MGM tested their own contract players before approaching Hutton (June Allyson, Betty Garrett, etc.) but ended up requesting Hutton from Paramount. Paramount got Fred Astaire on loan for "Let's Dance" with Hutton so that MGM could have Betty for Annie.

This is a wonderful musical and we should all just accept that Betty Hutton IS ANNIE OAKLEY!

P.S. If you want to hear some GREAT singing from Hutton, order "The Stork Club" ... Betty will knock your socks off singing, "Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief", "I'm Just a Square in a Social Circle" and others!

GREAT MUSIC, GREAT CAST, GREAT MOVIE.......2007-05-09

BEING A MUSICAL FAN, WHAT A DELIGHT THIS MOVIE IS. SOMETIMES A LITTLE OVER ACTED AS THE OLDER MOVIES TEND TO BE, BUT ON THE WHOLE A DELIGHT FROM BEGINNING TO END. THIS MOVIE GOES TO SHOW THAT "THERE IS NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS" AND THE ENTERTAINMENT VALUE OF A MOVIE LIKE THIS IS PRICELESS. THE COLOURS AND COSTUMES ARE SPECTACULAR AND IT BRINGS BACK THE MEMORIES OF WHAT A GOOD LOOKING FELLOW HOWARD KEEL WAS BACK THEN.
I ENJOYED EVERY MINUTE.

Movie Great Disc Dodgy.......2007-04-04

The movie is as bold and brassy as I remembered it from seeing it as a Kid. I enjoyed Betty Hutton enormously. However I am from Australia and the disc is zoned incorrectly for me so that I have to reset the zone on my computer to view it. My DVD player counts down each time I do this so I am assuming that I can only view this disc a limited number of times. Also the disc box is a strange cheap plastic which does not close properly once it has been opened the first time.

Average customer rating:

Grab the Amtrak
A Beautiful "Day-in-the-life" Character Study
Excellent character study
We Love "Day In Life" Character Driven Film
Good offbeat drama

Judy Berlin
Starring: Barbara Barrie , Bob Dishy , Edie Falco , Carlin Glynn , and Aaron Harnick
Director: Eric Mendelsohn
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005NFZM
Release Date: 2001-09-04

Description

A lingering solar eclipse casts a strange spell on a dead-end New Jersey town and unleashes hidden passions, frustrated dreams and lonely yearnings in this quirky, bittersweet portrait of small-town life. Full of wonder and wit, this award-winning, critically-acclaimed film, shot in luminous black and white, transforms the familiar terrain of suburbia into an eccentric landscape suffused with a dark and unexpected beauty.

Customer Reviews:

Grab the Amtrak.......2007-08-13

This film is too special to me to review it. I will only say that I bought a ticket to New York via Amtrak, took the Long Island Railroad to Ronkonkoma, and had a friend drive me to Old Beth Page to see some of the places at which "Judy Berlin" were shot. I live in South Carolina. Oh! I found out about the movie from Amazon.com, so thanks, everyone.

A Beautiful "Day-in-the-life" Character Study.......2003-06-08

"Judy Berlin" is one of those tiny films you stumble upon and from which you come away with a whole new respect for acting, the power of good films and...hell...humanity! Everything about this film is small, and all the more powerful for its smallness: the setting, the plot, the time that passes, even the actors. This was made before Edie Falco (Judy) gained fame on "The Sopranos", so she doesn't project the over-confidence many stars do in little "vanity" projects. No, everyone here is real and pitch-perfect, especially the wonderful actress Madeline Kahn in her final role, filmed during her losing fight against ovarian cancer. If you have patience for films you won't find at your local movie theatre, and you appreciate real acting, "Judy Berlin" won't disappoint.

Excellent character study.......2002-12-28

Eric Mendelsohn's Judy Berlin is, aside from being a Sundance Film Festival award winner, an intelligently observed portrayal of middle class foibles. Set in Babylon, Long Island (not New Jersey as the Description indicates), it views a day in the life of several of its residents as a midday solar eclipse plunges them into an unnatural darkness.

As a mismatched couple, Bob Dishy and Madeline Kahn are superb. He is an elementary school principal; she is his chatty dependent wife who needs, needs, needs. This was, very sadly, Kahn's last film role--she died of cancer shortly after the film finished shooting. She captures this character to a tee. You watch her and realize nobody else could have performed this role. Dishy, normally a comic actor, here gives a touching performance as a man lost in a half childlike state, as is his wife, although in a subtly different way.

In fact, many of the characters are associated with the elementary school. This is Mendelsohn's clever way of aligning their inability to express mature emotionality with their daily routine. Julie Kavner and Anne Meara, in small roles, work in the school nurse's office. Barbara Barrie is a teacher in the school whose somewhat supercilious attitude gives way, ultimately, to an attraction to her principal, who is having a hard time relating to his wife.

The title character is well played by Edie Falco, currently of The Sopranos, a struggling actress planning to make it big in Hollywood. She has a casual relationship with her mother, the schoolteacher played by Barbara Barrie--so much so that she calls her mother by her first name. On the day she is scheduled to leave for California, she runs into David, son of the Golds (Kahn and Dishy). David is a struggling filmmaker with his own agenda that excludes much of life. The two of them hit it off, but Judy has to leave....

What makes this film so resonant and memorable is the writer-director's mature emotional intelligence. He understands that the dreams we all have of how we want to live our lives are almost never fully realized in reality. The eclipse is a potent metaphor for the gap between what we dream of and what we live. And, he says, it is our lack of understanding how to realistically achieve what we want that plunges us into this gap.

The only sticking point in the film is David's (the filmmaker's) overly self-conscious remarks to Judy about filmmaking itself, which do tend to bog things down somewhat. But aside from that, this is a wonderful, beautiful film with heart and intelligence. Note that the DVD includes Mendelsohn's excellent short (23 minute) film Through an Open Window with a great performance by Anne Meara as an aging woman who feels trapped in her house by the presence of a bird that's flown inside on a summer day. She leaves, only to be confronted by others who make her realize just how trapped she really is...

Highly recommended.

We Love "Day In Life" Character Driven Film.......2002-05-30

Hubby and I both love slice of life filmmaking so giving us a totally character driven film involving only one day in these people's lives, minimal plot and minimal conclusions doesn't trouble us at all. I know many viewers, however, who require more of a plot than this movie has and/or a higher level of tension. The soundtrack is primarily harpsicord music and we enjoyed that too but if you like state of the art avant garde soundtracks, this also isn't for you. This is a very quiet, art house type film with excellent actors. I loved the chance to see the late Madeline Kahn in one last role. She is absolutely luminous here as the wife of the town's principal whose 30 year old son has moved back home and whose husband may be leaving her for another woman. That other woman's daughter and the Kahn character's son are the other couple in the film. Edie Falco plays the title role as that daughter and gets to show a whole other side of her acting talent outside of her role on the "Sopranos." She is leaving for California that night to try to be an actress there. David Gold, the 30 year old, has just returned from California, having failed in the movie business. After seeing Judy Berlin act at a local theme park it is obvious she is never going to make it as an actress. David is at first discouraging of her going and then starts swinging the other way as he catches hold of her dream. Another character is an old woman who used to teach in the school and is now coming down with Alzheimer's but it is just beginning to dawn on her friends and neighbors that she is failing. This is all set against a total eclipse which darkens the town for the day. The film is shot on such glorious black and white that at times I wondered if I were looking at infrared film, known for its otherworldly blacks and whites. You will probably either love this or hate it with not much inbetween.

Good offbeat drama.......2002-04-25

I read an interview with John Sayles recently where he noted that Edie Falco's performance in this film(not the SOPRANOS) is what made him decide to cast her in his new film SUNSHINE STATE. She really is quite good in this film. I just wanted to see more of her. The rest of the cast is also good-Barbara Barrie(BREAKING AWAY), Bob Dishy and Madeline Kahn. It's pretty easy to feel some Woody Allen influence here, but it's welcome. Eric Mendelsohn's short-THROUGH AND OPEN WINDOW is also included and I liked that too(stars Ben Stiller's mom Anne Meara).

Charlie Rose with David Murphy & Sergei Kondrashev; Steven Tyler & Joe Perry; Judy Wieder (September 12, 1997)

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Charlie Rose with David Murphy & Sergei Kondrashev; Steven Tyler & Joe Perry; Judy Wieder (September 12, 1997)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000IU34ZA
Release Date: 2006-09-18

Description

Former chief of the CIA's Berlin base David Murphy & former chief of the KGB's German department Sergei Kondrashev talk about serving as enemies in the U. S. -Soviet intelligence war between 1945 and 1961. The two men also discuss their collaboration on a book entitled, Battleground Berlin. Also, band mates Steven Tyler and Joe Perry from the rock group Aerosmith tell Charlie about their struggles in the music business and their new album, Nine Lives. Finally, Charlie talks to Editor-In-Chief of The Advocate Judy Wieder about gays and lesbians under 30, otherwise known as Generation Q.

Judy Berlin / Babylon USA [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - France ]

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Judy Berlin / Babylon USA [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - France ]
Director: Eric Mendelsohn
Manufacturer: Films Sans Frontiers
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000FTHX1K

Product Description

France released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: English (Dolby Digital 2.0), French (Subtitles), WIDESCREEN, SYNOPSIS: Mannered, unassuming, and ultimately moving, writer-director Eric Mendelsohn's feature debut imbues a comic, bittersweet American character study with an almost European sense of weight and gravity. For Mendelsohn, the lives of dissatisfied Long Islanders can be downright mystical in their mundaneness -- a theory echoed not only by the dreamlike cinematography of Jeffrey Seckendorf, but also by the characters themselves. Over the course of a lengthy eclipse (subtly rendered through clever lighting tricks), the film reveals the tenuous bonds between its various families, and our hero, David Gold (Aaron Harnick), sheds his initial, off-putting solipsism and embraces his suburban roots. It's the performers who make this transformation so satisfying: Barbara Barrie is the perfect model of an uptight schoolmarm; as her daughter, Edie Falco brings genuine compassion to a role which could have devolved into grotesque parody; and in her final film role, Madeline Kahn lends the proceedings a funny, infectious sense of wonder as David's loopy mom. Much of this territory has been mined by other independent filmmakers -- Hal Hartley, most memorably -- but by finding poetry in the most innocuous of places, Mendelsohn makes the material his own.
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