The Cole Porter Collection

"If she says your behavior is heinous/kick her right in the Coriolanus." That would be Keenan Wynn and James Whitmore singing the somewhat politically incorrect "Brush Up Your Shakespeare," one of Cole Porter's characteristically witty song-and-dance numbers--this one from Kiss Me Kate (1953), one of five classic MGM musicals bundled together in The Cole Porter Collection. In Kiss Me Kate, Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson star as feuding exes thrown together in a stage adaptation of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew (musical highlights include Ann Miller's tap dance number "Too Darn Hot," Grayson's tableware-clanging "I Hate Men," and the excellent dance number "From This Moment On," featuring Bob Fosse). Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell, the King and Queen of tap, cut the rug (on a mirror glass floor, no less) in Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940), in which--thanks to a name mix-up--Astaire's character is forced to the hoofer sidelines while his less-than-surefooted and somewhat tipsy partner (George Murphy) gets the girl (musical highlights include Astaire's solo "I've Got My Eyes on You," and the "greatest tap duet ever filmed"--Astaire and Powell's "Begin the Beguine"). Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra star (along with non-musical scene stealer Celeste Holm) in High Society (1956), a musical remake of The Philadelphia Story, with Kelly (in her last film) as the divorced rich girl on the verge of her second marriage, Crosby as the still-in-love ex, and Sinatra as a tabloid reporter who falls under Kelly's spell (musical highlights include the Crosby/Kelly hit "True Love," the Crosby/Louis Armstrong number "Now You Has Jazz," and the Crosby/Sinatra duet "Well, Did You Evah"). Gene Kelly runs and stars in a cabaret act featuring Mitzi Gaynor, Kay Kendall, and Taina Elg in the Rashomon-like courtroom-flashback musical Les Girls (1957), in which everyone has a different recollection of the dance hall days (the coolest looking of the entries, set decoration-wise, musical highlights include the saucy "Ladies in Waiting" performed by les girls, and Kelly's emulation of Marlon Brando from The Wild One in "Why Am I So Gone About That Gal?"). Finally, Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse star in Silk Stockings (1957), the musical remake of the Greta Garbo classic Ninotchka, with Astaire as an American filmmaker trying to win the heart of culturally repressed Russian beauty Charisse (musical highlights include Astaire and Janis Paige singing "Stereophonic Sound," the Astaire/Charisse song and dance combo "Fated to Be Mated"/"All of You," and the Russian-flavored extravaganza "The Red Blues"). All of the discs feature pristine color-saturated transfers (except for Broadway Melody of 1940 which is in pristine black and white) and sparkling Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, and each includes extras--most notable of which are the new 10-minute Cole Porter tributes hosted by Miller, Charisse, Holm, and Elg. A truly "classic" collection spotlighting the work of one of the 20th century's most notable American composers, this is highly recommended. (R. Pitman)