Search - There's No Business Like Show Business on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Suitable for Children Movie Release: 1954 DVD Release: 05/29/2001 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 58 mins Studio: 20th Century Fox Members Wishing: 5 Genres: Musical, Musical Comedy, Backstage Musical

Like Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), 20th Century-Fox's There's No Business Like Show Business is a "catalogue" film, its thinnish plot held together by an itinerary of Irving Berlin tunes. The story chronicles some twenty years in the lives of a showbiz family, headed by Dan Dailey and Ethel Merman. Two of the couple's three grown children -- Donald O'Connor and Mitzi Gaynor -- carry on the family tradition, while the third, Johnny Ray, decides to become a priest. There are a few tense moments when O'Connor falls in love with ambitious chorine Marilyn Monroe and loses all sense of perspective, but the family reunites during a splashy production-number finale. Highlights include Dailey and Merman's Play a Simple Melody duet, O'Connor's A Man Chases a Girl solo, and Monroe's tempestuous rendition of Heat Wave (her delivery and stage presence both compensate for her unflattering bare-midriff costume). Of historical interest, There's No Business Like Show Business was Fox's first CinemaScope musical; as such, it is best viewed on TV in "letterbox" format. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ethel Merman - Molly Donahue
Donald O'Connor - Tim Donahue
Marilyn Monroe - Vicky
Dan Dailey - Terrance Donahue
Johnnie Ray - Steve Donahue

Walter Lang directs Marilyn Monroe and Ethel Merman in There's No Business Like Show Business, which comes to DVD as part of the Marilyn Monroe Diamond Collection. The disc boasts a widescreen anamorphic transfer that preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Closed-captioned English soundtracks are rendered in both Dolby Digital 4.0 and Dolby Digital Stereo. English and Spanish subtitles are accessible. Supplemental materials include a pair of theatrical trailers, and, most humorously, a Portuguese trailer. This is an excellent disc for any Monroe enthusiast. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide