Theatrical Release Date:November 7, 1941 Release Date:May 6, 2003 Availability:Usually ships in 1-2 business days Shipping:Expedited shipping available Shipping:International shipping available Condition:BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com It's a flimsy excuse to romp through more than two dozen Irving Berlin songs, but Blue Skies is good fun nonetheless (and one of the top-grossing films of 1946). Bing Crosby is a restless nightclub entrepreneur, Fred Astaire his Broadway buddy, Joan Caulfield the woman they both want. Ignore the plot and enjoy the numbers, especially Astaire's marvelous "Puttin' on the Ritz," which is breathtaking even before multiple images of Fred are introduced dancing in a row (who needs CGI, anyway?). Bing and Fred flash great showbiz chutzpah in "A Couple of Song and Dance Men," which wonderfully captures the appeal of both stars: Fred's heavenly precision, and Bing's "can-you-believe-they're-payin'-me-for-this?" sense of play.
Bing Crosby founds the first white Dixieland band in Birth of the Blues, a tuneful turn-of-the-century tale--if highly suspect as musical history. Borrowing hot licks from black musicians (Eddie "Rochester" Anderson comments, "Our music sure has gone highbrow"), Bing and his players struggle to invade the straight-laced clubs, succeeding only after songbird Mary Martin joins the band. Martin, in one of her infrequent movie appearances, has fun with Der Bingle jazzing up "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie," a highlight of this breezily enjoyable nonsense. --Robert Horton
Blue Skies is a tragedy.May 2, 2008 If you like the idea of seeing Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby co-starring in a tragedy, then you should get "Blue Skies."
Otherwise, you probably shouldn't.
nostalgic double feature--even if it is embarrassingly dated at times... (3 1/2 stars)April 3, 2008 11 out of 12 found this review helpful
This DVD gives us two musicals starring Bing Crosby; although there are no extras many Crosby fans will want this in their collections! Some of the material is embarrassingly dated; but still musical fans and Bing Crosby fans will like this anyway. Fred Astaire fans get to see him work with Bing in Blue Skies.
Birth Of The Blues is a musical vehicle for the great Bing Crosby. This plot may be fictionalized but you watch this film for the song and dance numbers. The convincing acting held my attention all the way; and the plot moves along at a good pace.
When the action starts, a young Jeff Lambert is getting the spanking of his life from his father--for being caught playing jazz. However, this has little effect on Jeff--he grows up to want to have the first all white Dixieland jazz band. He and his musician buddies soon meet a sharp coronet player named Memphis (Brian Donlevy) and by chance they bump into a young lady named Betty Lou Cobb (Mary Martin) who has a great singing voice.
Memphis and Betty Lou join the band and after a few flops things begin to take off for Jeff and his crew. They get their first big break at a club run by a thug boss named Blackie (J. Carrol Naish) who doesn't feel like letting them go to a more profitable job. Blackie has his "boys" trying as hard as they can to keep Jeff, Betty Lou and the gang all playing at his nightclub and his nightclub only.
Will Jeff and the gang ever get away from Blackie? What about Betty Lou--both Jeff and Memphis want her hand in marriage; but of course she can only marry one of them. Which man will Betty Lou choose?
The cinematography and choreography work well in crowd scenes like the nightclubs and the fight scenes.
Overall, Birth Of The Blues is good but far from the best from the golden age of Hollywood--the dialogue weighs it down a bit and there are offensive references to African-Americans.
Blue Skies is a fantastic cavalcade of song and dance numbers--even if it is held together by the thinnest plot I've ever seen in any movie! The musical numbers are sublime! We get Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire singing and dancing up a storm. The plot (or action, since the plot is so thin) moves along at a good pace.
The action when Jed Potter (Fred Astaire) has his eyes on a beautiful chorus girl named Mary O'Hara (Joan Caulfield). However, Joan isn't truly all that interested in Jed--she much prefers the company the Jed's buddy Johnny Adams (Bing Crosby). The two men vie for Joan's attention and her hand in marriage; and along the way we are treated to upwards of two dozen magnificent musical numbers.
Over time, Mary and Johnny do finally wed--much to the chagrin of Jed Potter. Nevertheless, there's still one major fly in the ointment for Johnny and Mary: Johnny isn't very "stabile;" he likes to bet on the horses and he always winds up having to sell his nightclub business to pay debts and then he starts over in a new city--dragging Mary along with him. Mary tolerates this until a child is born. Now their marriage is in considerable trouble.
What happens between Mary and Johnny--will they be able to stay together or will they divorce? Even if they split up, will it be forever--or will Mary finally break down and marry Jed who still loves her after all?
Blue Skies is one movie you watch for the musical numbers. It's fantastic to see Fred Astaire dance--especially in the scene that has miniature Fred Astaires on the screen dancing behind him! Bing sings beautiful number after number.
Blue Skies is best viewed as a musical with just enough of a plot to get the musical numbers on the screen. I highly recommend this classic movie musical; and people who like Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire will never be disappointed.
A movie from my pastJune 12, 2007 i was looking for a comedic sketch by Billy DeWolfe and the movie Blue Skies contained just what I was looking for.
So-So Pair of Bing Crosby MusicalsFebruary 15, 2006 7 out of 10 found this review helpful
These two Bing Crosby musicals are enjoyable, but none of them is particularly memorable or stand multiple viewings. The most amusing aspect of "Birth of the Blues" is its distortion of musical history and the Hollywood studio lot version of New Orleans. Mary Martin and Bing Crosby are in good voice and Brian Donlevy is serviceable as Crosby's friend and rival, but there's an annoying little girl rounding up the cast of leads and the stereotypes of the black community can make you cringe. As for "Blue Skies", I think this is one of the (if not the) worst films showcasing Irving Berlin songs. It is also far inferior to "Holiday Inn" (the previous teaming of Astaire and Crosby). Watching this movie makes you really appreciative of the far superior "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and especially "Easter Parade" (both available on excellent DVD editions, and much better options to purchase). Despite the big budget, the staging of the numbers is generally uninspired. The main highlight is Fred Astaire's "Puttin' on the Ritz", but even that number pales in comparison to his numbers on RKO and MGM films. His duet with Bing Crosby is a huge disappointment. Oddly, even though plot-wise Joan Caulfield is the leading lady, musically the real leading lady is Olga San Juan (however, she really doesn't have anything to do in the plot). She actually gets to duet with both Crosby and Astaire (in my estimation, the film's two best numbers after "Puttin' on the Ritz"). The film also has a dreadful comedy skit performed in drag by Billy DeWolfe. Its quite painful to watch nowadays, but I guess that was considered funny back in the 1940s. The best thing about this DVD is the low price and that the two films are included on a single-sided DVD. They're not painfully bad films, but they're just average musicals, and Astaire, Berlin and Crosby have been much better served in other films.
Blue Skies OK, but not as good as you might think.August 21, 2004 3 out of 4 found this review helpful
BLUE SKIES: It wasn't absolutely horrible, but there are other ways to waste your time. Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire are some of the greatest performers we've ever had; they lead you through the musical singing and dancing to the wonderful Irving Berlin scores. The plot, however, was a soap-opery, over long story, frought with tragedy and sentimental moments, that somehow failed to touch me, because, let's face it, the characters weren't terribly likeable.
