Cole Porter Collection (High Society / Kiss Me Kate / Les Girls / Broadway Melody of 1940 / Silk Stockings)
The Cole Porter Collectionprovides an overview of the swellegant songwriter's witty lyrics and well-known melodies through five MGM musicals. The black-and-whiteBroadway Melody of 1940features the brilliant dancing of Fred Astaire (in his MGM debut) and Eleanor Powell (in her fourthBroadway Melodypicture).  By the 1950s, we recognize the splashy colors that would become MGM's distinctive style in four pictures inspired by familiar sources.Kiss Me Kate(1953) is the adaptation of the Broadway musical, starring Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson as the couple whose offstage feud mirrors their roles in Shakespeare'sThe Taming of the Shrew.  The best of the batch,High Society(1956), stars Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra in a musical update ofThe Philadelphia Story, while the 1957 filmsLes Girls(with Gene Kelly, Kay Kendall, Tania Elg, and Mitzi Gaynor) andSilk Stockings(with Astaire and Cyd Charisse) retellRashomonandNinotchka, respectively. Favorite songs in the set include "Begin the Beguine," "I Concentrate on You," "Wunderbar," "So in Love," "Brush Up Your Shakespeare," "Well, Did You Evah?", "You're Sensational," and "All of You."  The films boast sharp transfers, making-of segments hosted by legends such as Cyd Charisse and Ann Miller, vintage shorts and cartoons, and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound (exceptBroadway Melody, which is in satisfactory mono).--David Horiuchi