Product Description

The best-loved and most colorful performer from the canon of Fox musicals finally gets a collection all of her own. Carmen Miranda the singer/dancer/actress most famous for her outrageous Busby Berkeley banana hat and her trade-mark sarongs stars in 5 classics movies in one colorful collection.Disc 1: Doll FaceDisc 2: Greenwich VillageDisc 3: If I'm LuckyDisc 4: Something For the BoysDisc 5: The Gang's All Here RemasteredFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS Rating: NR UPC: 024543520115 Manufacturer No: 2252011

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3181 in DVD
• Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
• Released on: 2008-06-17
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 5
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds

Amazon.com
It is a testament to Carmen Miranda's status as a larger than life pop culture icon that she warrants a DVD box set for films in which she isn't even the star. Without her, though, they would be merely pleasant diversions. The best in the bunch, 1943's The Gang's All Here, is a splashy Technicolor riot directed by the legendary Busby Berkeley (this edition, also available separately, is a big improvement over the one included in The Alice Faye Collection). Never mind Alice Faye's showgirl or James Elison's smitten soldier. All eyes are on "The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat," who plays matchmaker when she isn't otherwise wowing audiences at a New York nightclub that judging by the spectacular production numbers must have a stage the size of the Roman Colosseum. There is no denying the camp value of a phalanx of showgirls manipulating massive bananas while Miranda sings, "Some people say I dress too gay/But every day I feel so gay/And when I'm gay I dress that way/Something wrong with that?" Suffice to say, they absolutely do not make 'em like this anymore. New to DVD, Something for the Boys (1944) is an entertaining "let's put on a show" musical starring the unlikely trio of Miranda, Vivian Blaine, and Phil Silvers (with hair!) as three cousins who decide to convert the dilapidated mansion they've inherited into a home for army wives. From the same year, and also making its DVD debut, is Greenwich Village, starring Don Ameche as a composer who enters the bohemian world of New York's Latin Quarter, where Miranda works as a fortune teller at William Bendix's "members only" club. Miranda adds exotic color to two black and white musicals, If I'm Lucky (1946), featuring an underwhelming Perry Como as a crooner who is recruited to run for governor, and the snappy Doll Face (1944), based on Gypsy Rose Lee's book about a "burley-q" dancer (Vivian Blaine) who writes a sensational autobiography to legitimize herself with Broadway producers. Miranda may not be the star of these films, but with her stylized outfits, signature crazy hats, hips-don't-lie dancing (on platform heels, no less), and comic malapropisms that make fruit salad out of the English language ("You're making a mountain out of mothballs"), she is definitely the main attraction. She's am earthy force of nature for whom one will suffer Como's sleepy rendition of "Red Hot and Beautiful" in Doll Face to see her perform "Chico Chico." This set contains a cornucopia of extras, the best of which is a documentary about Miranda's remarkable life and one-of-a-kind career. A clip from The Jimmy Durante Show says it all about this ultimate show business trouper. She is stricken during a musical number, but gamely dances offstage, waving and blowing kisses to the audience. She would die 12 hours later. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews

Beautiful Boxset of the Brazilian Bombshell!
These box set features 5 of Carmen Miranda's best films. The three in color are beautifully clear, the colors very lush and vibrant. She has never looked better! I remember seeing "The Gang's All Here" in college--the audience howled at its campiness, but this DVD version is so sharp and clear compared to the actual film I saw at the campus theater. If you love Carmen Miranda and musicals, this is a fabulous boxset, colorfully packaged like the lady herself.

The Tutti Frutti Girl
The Carmen Miranda Collection (The Gang's All Here / If I'm Lucky / Something for the Boys / Greenwich Village / Doll Face) Have not watched the movies but I just love any movie with Carmen in it. The original Tutti Frutti Girl, she puts the va-va into voom. The packaging is great. It is so colorful just like her. If you love old musicals you'll love this set. These movies are her earliest musicals, which I haven't seen but I have watched her later ones over and over again. It's time for a Carmen Miranda festival!!! Enjoy

Run and get it !
Finally, The Carmen Miranda Collection !!! A wonderful set of films starring the glamorous and talented Carmen Miranda. The set includes several titles not previously released on dvd. Another reviewer complained that some of these titles are not her best film work. But why include films in the set that was released over a year ago? Most Miranda fans already have these titles so why make a collection set with nothing new? I can not praise this collection highly enough. Restored in glorious color and black and white, with plenty of bonuses for everyone to enjoy. Also includes a great documentary film on Mirandas life, before and during her Hollywood days,presented with insight, by co-workers and film and music historians. I salute 20th Century Fox for making this available and to continue releasing other collection... why not Sonja Henie :-)
Again... enjoy The Carmen Miranda Collection. Alot of value for the money!