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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: 20th Century Fox
Salesrank: 8068
Released: May 14, 2002 |
| Our Price: $7.34 |
| Used Price: $4.02 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
An all-star cast that includes Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Marilyn Monroe, Donald O'Connor, Johnnie Ray and Mitzi Gaynor sparks this tuneful Irving Berlin musical that depicts the trials and triumphs of a veteran vaudeville family. Molly (Merman) and Terry (Dailey) Donahue start out as a duo and keep adding kids to the act until they finally become The 5 Donahues. Their busy, sometimes tumultuous lives aren't always easy, but the Donahues have plenty of love to get them through the hard times and more than enough talent to keep them on top. Highlighted by one classic Irving Berlin song after another and an array of dazzling production numbers, this upbeat, utterly delightful tale of life on the stage proves, beyond and doubt, that There's No Business Like Show Business!
Description of There's No Business Like Show Business:
This 1954 dinosaur brings together two giants of Broadway, Ethel Merman and Irving Berlin, just as their moment was passing forever, to create one last hurrah: a celebration of the glories that were vaudeville. Still, it's hard to imagine that Broadway--or nightclub entertaining, for that matter--was ever quite this lavish and satisfying. The story centers on a married couple, the Donahues (Dan Dailey and Merman), who live on the road as vaudeville entertainers, and since they have children, begin incorporating the kids into the act. Eventually, the kids grow up to be Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, and Johnny Ray, and they begin having interests of their own. Donald's is an ambitious showgirl (Marilyn Monroe), whose standoffish response to his romantic overtures drives him to drink. Best for its lavish, splashy production numbers built around some of the best of the Berlin songbook, including the title tune and "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody." --Marshall Fine
There's No Business Like Show Business Reviews:
Cinematic Brilliance! 
2009-08-29 - I never realised how cinematically beautiful this film was until I watched it on DVD. The quality is amazing, it's so hard to believe it isn't a modern day film!
Donald O'Connor's talent does not go unnoticed: dancing, singing and 'making us laugh' with his wonderful comic timing. I love Mitzi Gaynor: she is such an energy in this film and you'll really notice this when you watch it. Johnnie Ray, ah now he just takes my breath away whenever I hear him sing (I am 22 so don't make any assumptions as to whether this is aimed only at the older crowd!). Marilyn Monroe never really had a fair go in the media and following her death but people seem to forget due to her iconic status that she was actually quite a good actress and performer. Of course, she plays a bombshell but she does it with such innocence that even I would love to have her as a sister-in-law if I were in their shoes! But to me, it is Ethel Merman that steals the show. Nobody does it better, her emotion as an actress, as a musical performer, everything. She's the real deal and her finale performance always brings me to tears.
WONDERFUL choreography, amazing costumes, great dialogue and storyline. A real gem. Timeless!!!
10/10.
missing content 
2009-04-06 - This is a perfect cd with a few minor issues. The songs sung by Marilyn Monroe, are not her. I'm not sure who is singing them, but it's not her. If you want the songs that she sings in "There's no business like show business", then find Marilyn Monroe's cd: Anthology on i-tunes. You will be satisfied with the songs from that album.
Marilyn was deliciously charming, seducing and very appealing... 
2009-02-11 - The film was, perhaps, the splashiest of the year's musicals... It dealt with the joys, loves and heartaches experienced by a vaudeville family called the Donahues (spending their lives singing and dancing and touring) with Merman and Dailey as mother and father, and Ray, Gaynor and O'Connor as their talented offspring...
All of them get to perform a large catalog of new and old songs by Irving Berlin in sumptuous arrangements, beautiful settings and on a big Hippodrome extravaganza...
Daily and Merman hit the top; O'Connor--who had liked to build a barbed-wire fence around Marilyn--did it Scottish and came with some fine dances; Gaynor's love was dancing... and she was really cute; and while Ray got some thinking to do, he sells a very beautiful song ("If You Believe").
Marilyn (appearing after 29 minutes screening) was deliciously charming, seducing and very appealing... She sang "After You Get What You Want" and "Lazy," and did that tropical version of 'Heat Wave.'
Twentieth Century Fox made great musicals
2009-01-22 - A classic. Great musical numbers that always don't make much sense to the script, but who cares. One of Monroe's best musical numbers, "Heat Wave", is just that. A true show business film about how the show must go on. Ethel Merman leading a cast of hundreds in the finale, There's No Business Like Show Business, is worth the price alone. Beautiful restoration of the film. Brilliant colors.
Fabulous
2008-08-01 - In this production, it is a feast to watch and listen! Music is playing and people are dancing from the very beginning and it does not stop until the movie does. The actors are phenominal, including the comical Donald O Connor, the robust Ethel Merman, and the seductive Marilyn Monroe, as charming as ever. If you enjoy musicals, this is a must. There is all different types of music, and an array of performers. Marilyn portrays her role fantastically and she offers a few chuckles, too. She sings some great songs, one of my favorite being "Heat Wave", and there's plenty of dancing in there too. Bright, colorful, and fun, this is a movie for everyone.
