Customer Reviews
Beginners only need apply - By: Mr. David Halliday, 18 Dec 2007 
If you are interested in musicals but have never tried any Gene Kelly films then this is a great place to start. 4 of the 5 films here are of his best & 2 are classics that stand up to any competition. The most famous,and rightly so, is 'singin' in the rain', a classic that is far lighter than many of it's contemporaries & far funnier too,(the scene where the lip-sync. goes wrong is great stuff),. It contains one of the most well known scenes of any film,not just musicals, as kelly reaches sublime heights in the title song & dance routine, so charming & easy going it's alll too easy to miss just how skilled he was. In truth that reallly was his trademark,he never seemed to be working, Kelly was effortless & danced with a huge smile. Often forgotten is the brilliant Donald O'Conner himself dancing brilliantly & delivering the very funny 'make 'em laugh' with ease.
Anchors aweigh is a pleasant enough film & contains the inspired scene where Tom & Jerry dance & includes Frank Sinatra but in alll it's reallly just a light precursor to 'On the town' which has a great theme tune,sinatra again & a terrific turn from a feisty Alice pearce.
'An American in Paris',with minelli directing & Gershwin writing songs, is hard to categorize. The frankly irritating 'I got rythmn' with a room full of kids is alll but forgotten after Kellys excellent balllet against a backdrop of imitations of frances most famous artists & his singing 's'wonderful'.
I have never seen the 3 muskateers so cannot comment.
This collection is a fine one but it falters however in it's lack of extra's. Three of these titles are available in excellent 2 disc versions for very reasonable prices & contain a wealth of interesting features sadly missing here.
If you're after the basics then this boxset is a fine place to start but if you want to know more or already know you like the films here then go for the 2-disc sets.
