Silk Stockings
by Rouben Mamoulian, Roy Mack
List Price:
Our Price: $14.20
You Save: $5.78 (29%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $7.77 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Cyd Charisse, Fred Astaire, George Tobias, Janis Paige, Peter LorreDirector: Rouben Mamoulian, Roy Mack
Brand: ASTAIRE,FRED
Writer: Abe Burrows
Writer: Cyrus Wood
Writer: E. Ray Goetz
Writer: George S. Kaufman
Writer: Herbert Fields
Writer: Leonard Gershe
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 117 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-04-22
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 65629
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of Silk Stockings
DVD Review: By no means a miss, but not exactly a smash hit. Fred Astaire's last leading man role in a movie musical
Summary: 4 Stars
There are a number of good things about Silk Stockings, but there also is a professional finality about the movie that makes it easier to observe than to be delighted by it. It was one of the last of the big MGM musicals coming from Arthur Freed's production unit. It was the last musical Fred Astaire made as the lead. It was the last film directed by Rouben Mamoulian. It was based on the last Broadway musical Cole Porter wrote. Silk Stockings also was used to make a statement about the excesses some thought were ruining films and music...the advent of rock and roll and the technological changes in films with wide screen and stereo sound. It even takes a crack at the fashion for ballet in many musicals. You've got to be very clever and original to successfully parody things which are already self-parodies. Silk Stockings, even with its many entertaining moments, isn't that clever.
The story is based on Ninotchka, the female Soviet commissar who comes to Paris and finds romance reluctantly...and then enthusiastically. Paris is presented as a place where decadence was never more innocent and persuasive. Steve Canfield (Fred Astaire) is a Hollywood producer in Paris who plans to make a film starring a famous film star (Janis Paige), using the music of a famous Soviet composer who isn't thrilled at returning to Moscow. Three Soviet bureaucrats (Peter Lorre, Jules Munshin and Joseph Buloff), bumblers all, have been sent to retrieve him...but they fall prey to the charms of Paris, too. So one of the toughest, most dedicated commissars is sent to bring them all back. She is Nina Yoshenko (Cyd Charisse), and she is as humorless as a training manual. Canfield piles on the charm, Ninotchka finally softens, romance blossoms. And then, of course, a misunderstanding arises. Ninotchka returns to Moscow, but a bit of sly dealing by Steve gets her back to Paris. The misunderstanding is solved, love blossoms anew, and East-West relations, at least for Steve and Ninotchka, warm up considerably. Marriage is just a kiss and a dance away.
One of the things that seems so odd is that, for a Fred Astaire film, Astaire spends a good deal of time doing knee drops, full-length on-the-floor sprawls and athletic dance moves that limit the sophisticated and smooth Astaire style. He was 59 when he made the picture, and this might explain the relative shortness of some of the sequences. Still, while he is assured and immensely watchable (and while he can still do wonders with a cane), three major dance productions he is in just seem choppy.
Most of the songs from the Broadway show were retained and Porter wrote a couple of new ones. It's become routine with Porter to say that whatever his latest show was, the score was never one of his best. In this case, it's true. The romantic songs are great, but the topical speciality numbers just seem tired.
--"Too Bad" is a raucous song and dance involving the three Soviet flunkies, Steve and three ladies Steve brought to convince the flunkies they don't need to hurry to go back to Moscow. There's a nice sequence involving Astaire dancing with each of the women. Watching Peter Lorre gamely taking part, however, I didn't find very funny. He had health problems, was over-weight and it showed.
--"Paris Loves Lovers" is a charming song Astaire sings to Charisse, and then she counterpoints in the reprise.
--"Stereophonic Sound," for me, just isn't particularly clever or funny. Janis Paige plays a character who has no subtlety, and she delivers the song the same way. This is the first of the production numbers that have Astaire sliding under desks and dropping onto the floor.
--"It's a Chemical Reaction, That's All." This clever little throw away is used by Ninotchka to explain to Steve that love is nothing more than predictable chemistry.
When the electro-magnetic of the hemale
Meets the electro-magnetic of the female,
If right away she should say, 'This is the male,'
It's a chemical reaction, that's all.
And though you fascists may answer with kisses
The same applies when you're mister and missus.
Hey diddle diddle with middle class kisses.
It's a chemical reaction that's all.
--Which leads immediately to one of Porter's first-class songs, "All of You," which includes the naughty line that sends schoolboys to sniggering every time they hear it. The song is sung by Astaire to a skeptical Charisse.
I love the looks of you, the lure of you.
I'd love to make a tour of you,
The arms, the eyes, the mouth of you,
The east, west, north, and the south of you.
I'd love to gain complete control of you
And handle even the heart and soul of you.
So love at least a small percent of me, do.
'Cause I love all of you.
--"Satin and Silk," a speciality number for Paige.
--"Silk Stockings." This is one of Porter's great brooding, throbbing latin melodies, danced by Cyd Charisse.
--"Without Love" is such a paean to the wholesome hetero love of a woman for a man that Porter must have had a great time writing the lyrics.
--"Fated to Mated" is a jaunty song sung by Astaire to Charisse which leads into an extended dance routine for them. The dance is the second number that winds up more athletic than we're used to.
--"Josephine," another speciality number for Paige, much abbreviated from the Broadway version.
--"Siberia," a not-too-funny specialty number for Lorre, Munshin and Buloff.
--"The Red Blues." This is probably the second least inspired number by Porter. It's redeemed by a driving arrangement, vivid choreography and a knock-out performance by Charisse. She was a skilled, precise dancer who could handle any steps they gave her. She does a great job here.
--"The Ritz Roll and Rock." Astaire is said to have asked Porter to come up with a big finale number that would poke fun at all the changes in the musical scene that had been happening in the Fifties. This was the result and, to my view, it simply isn't very good. The song lacks cleverness and wit. Astaire was always expert, but this has him starting out in a classic white tie and tails pose, then sends him spinning on the floor and finishing by smashing his top hat with his fist. As Cyd Charisse said years later in one of the extras on the DVD, "Though Fred was wonderful, it was clear that the age he had come to emulate was over." This number just doesn't do the job.
Astaire, as always, is first class. Charisse is easy to look at and a fine dancer. George Tobias, as a commissar in Moscow and Ninotchka's boss, gives a sly and dead-pan performance. Some of Porter's songs are very good. Mamoulian brought the film in on time and under budget. And Silk Stockings was a success with ticket buyers.
The DVD transfer is excellent. There are several light-weight extras, the best of which is a 1934 musical short based on Porter's Fifty Million Frenchman. It stars Bob Hope and a singer-dancer named Dorothy Stone. It only runs 21 minutes but it features four fine Porter songs from the show, including Hope singing "You Do Something to Me." At any excuse for a cue, a group of chorus girls and boys prance in to dance with that endearingly clunky style of early musicals.
Description of Silk Stockings
A stern Communist envoy comes to Paris to retreive three wayward comrades and a Russian composer. Instead she warms up to capitalist attractions like champagne, silk stockings, and an American man who convinces her that they were fated to be married.Genre: Musicals
Rating: NR
Release Date: 22-APR-2003
Media Type: DVD
Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Easter Parade (Two Disc Special Edition)Warner; Release date: 2005-03-15; DVD
Best price: $5.94
Price in other shops:
Ziegfeld FolliesWarner Brothers; Release date: 2006-04-25; DVD
Best price: $4.77
Price in other shops:
Royal Wedding / The Belle of New YorkWarner Brothers; Release date: 2007-07-24; DVD
Best price: $13.70
Price in other shops:
A Damsel In DistressRelease date: 2011-11-02; Published: 2011; DVD
Best price: $16.94
Price in other shops:
Broadway Melody of 1940Broadway; Release date: 2003-04-22; DVD
Best price: $13.46
Price in other shops:
Daddy Long LegsFox; Release date: 2006-02-21; DVD
Best price: $10.39
Price in other shops:
You Were Never LovelierSony; Release date: 2004-05-25; DVD
Best price: $7.70
Price in other shops:
Three Little WordsWarner Brothers; Release date: 2006-04-25; DVD
Best price: $4.40
Price in other shops:
You'll Never Get RichSony; Release date: 2003-10-21; DVD
Best price: $7.85
Price in other shops:
The Band Wagon (Two-Disc Special Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2005-03-15; DVD
Best price: $6.58
Price in other shops: