Gene Kelly: Signature Collection DVD | Comedy

Film Description

Collection of five films starring the great dancer, singer and actor, Gene Kelly. Features The Three Musketeers, On the Town, Anchors Aweigh, An American In Paris and Singin' in the Rain.

In the 1948 adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' 'The Three Musketeers', D'Artagnan (Kelly) goes to Paris to join the musketeers, who are involved in the protection of King Louis XIII from the threats of the scheming Prime Minister. Lana Turner and Vincent Price supply the villainy.

In 'On the Town' (1949), three sailors (Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin) hit New York City for a 24-hour shore leave. The first order of business is to find some women to spend it with and the boys hook up with Ivy (Vera-Ellen), an aspiring dancer, Hildy (Betty Garrett), a lady cab-driver, and Claire (Ann Miller), a paleontology student, causing mayhem across Manhattan. This was the first musical to make extensive use of location shooting rather than studio bound sets and includes the song-and-dance numbers 'New York, New York' and 'Miss Turnstiles Ballet'.

In the Oscar-winning, 'Anchors Aweigh' (1945), Sinatra and Kelly star as two sailors looking for female companionship while on a four-day pass in Los Angeles. They meet a Hollywood extra (Kathryn Grayson) and try to help her realise her dream of being a star. The film features a famous sequence where Kelly dances with Jerry, the cartoon mouse of 'Tom and Jerry' fame.

'An American In Paris' (1951) is the story of Jerry Mulligan (Kelly), an American G.I. who stays in Paris after the war to become a painter. There he falls in love with Lise Bouvier (Leslie Caron), only to discover that she is engaged to his friend Henri Baurel (Georges Guetary). With music by George Gershwin, including 'I Got Rhythm' and 'Embraceable You', the film won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

In 'Singin' in the Rain' (1952), set in 1927, Don Lockwood (Kelly, who co-directs) has worked his way up from being a song-and-dance man with partner Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor) to become a top movie star. His on-screen partner, Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), who believes that Don loves her for real, needs to have her awful singing voice dubbed with the arrival of talkies. The girl selected is 'serious' actress Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), for whom Don soon falls. Musical numbers include the famous title song and 'Make 'Em Laugh', 'Good Morning' and 'You Were Meant for Me'.