Nancy Goes to Rio & Two Weeks With Love [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

I play "Two Weeks With love", often...Janie's dream sequence where she sings "My Hero", is the best in my book...And her outfit, shows the world her beautiful figure...There will never be another great singer like Janie...God bless.
Budd Bergman

This 2 disc DVD release offers up two Jane Powell musical offerings for the year 1950,filmed and released in succession;Nancy goes to Rio released in March 0f 1950 and Two weeks with Love released later in November.Neither tend to light up the sky,so to speak,but are easy on the eyes and ears and generally a little above average musical fares;more showcases for the singing talents of its 21 year old star Jane Powell.
Nancy Goes to Rio concerns the story of a mother,Frances(Ann Southern) and her daughter Nancy(Jane Powell).Frances is an established stage star while Nancy is following in her mothers footsteps and paying her dues in lesser shows.They both live with Frances' father Gregory(Louis Calhern),an ex performer himself.When a producer from Brazil enters the picture he offers Frances a part in his play and Frances immediately decides to go to Brazil to soak up the atmosphere and learn her lines.However the producer has second thoughts about Frances' age(the part is really for a younger girl)and after watching Nancy during a performance offers HER the part instead of her mother.Of course Nancy doesn't realize her mother has the same part and goes down to Rio to meet her.On the ship she meets bachelor Paul Berten(Barry Sullivan)who gets the wrong idea when she is rehearsing lines out loud and mistakingly thinks she is pregnant.In fact in short order everyone from the ships captain to its' doctor think she is in the family way.She is oblivious to it all and rebuffs what she thinks is Berten's advances,when he is really just showing sympathy.Nancy arrives in Rio only to finally find out that her mother has got the same part as her.She is terribly upset and steps out of the play.She suddenly shifts gears and decides to get married and Berten is the object of her affections.Alot of embarrassing moments happen between the two but when Berten meets her mother he falls instantly for HER.But not before Frances and her father have gotten over the "fact" that they think HE is the father of Nancy's "baby";and he gets a sock from Gramps to drive home the point.Once the dust finally settles the situation corrects itself and Frances steps down to let Nancy take the part and Berten and Frances live happily ever after.
The less satisfying of the two offerings here,mainly due to the meandering plot,Powell has many musical moments to shine and stand out.While watching this film I hadn't seen in years I was immediately taken back 14 years previously to 1936 and a young 15 year old singing angel and sensation Deanna Durbin.Durbin was without peer and she spawned a hunt by every studio thereafter to find another Durbin;like Powell.Some were better than others but suddenly something else hit me like a bolt of lightning.I checked my sources and yes,this film was a remake of a 1940 Deanna Durbin picture called "It's a Date"! And I recalled another "coincidence";Deanna's smash/entry film was "Three Smart Girls" while one of Powell's earlier musical films was "Three Daring Daughters"!Watch for ex-Little Rascal Scotty Beckett(now 21 years old also) as Nancy's boyfriend back home.And I needn't tell you to look out for Carmen Miranda because she virtually steals every scene she is in,as usual.She is the reason I got this film which was her second last and as always she never fails to disappoint.Carmen had some more serious than usual lines here and she is an absolute pro in her delivery.It is a shame she was relegated by studios to such trivial and typecast parts because she would have shone with much superior scripts,I'm sure.Watch for Hans Conried in a bit part as Frances and her father's Brazilian butler!
Two Weeks with Love concerns the story of the Robinson family,the patriarch Horatio(Calhern) is the towns' famous bandmaster.He along with the rest of the family of two boys and two girls and wife are set for a trip to their favourite resort in the Catskill Mountains.Upon arrival daughter Patti(Powell) is not in the mood for gaiety.She is 17 trying to be 18 plus and going through much teenage angst.Much of it concerns what she thinks is her less than mature dress and especially her lack of a corset.A boy who works in the motel is smitten with Patti but Patti just can't reciprocate;while Patti's sister Melba(a young Debbie Reynolds) is the one who really digs him.In the midst of all this walks in a debonair Cuban(Ricardo Montalban) who sweeps Patti off her feet.However her friend(Phyllis Kirk) has designs of her own and constantly tries to trip her friend up to snare him for herself.There are alot of amusing mix ups during the course of the film until finally Mom and Dad realize that their little girl has grown up and her feelings for the Cuban are quite deep and sincere.In the end his intentions are made quite clear and Patti gets her man while finally blossoming into a woman.
I found this film had much more umphh to it than "Nancy",mainly due to the help of the light comedy throughout.Busby Berkeley choreographs the musical numbers in this film but it isn't the Berkeley of old.They are all competently done but anyone could have claimed credit for them.Debbie Reynold's is the stand out in this film as she literally steals many scenes away from the established star Powell.She is given alot of good comedic moments and her exuberance makes her shine in every one.In fact she gets to sing her first major song hit "Abba Dabba Honeymoon",and well done it is.Watch for a young Tommy Retig as one of Patti's younger brothers,soon to gain fame in "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T".Funny enough Calhern played Powell's grandfather in "Nancy" but in "Two Weeks" he is now her father!You have to love the casting logic!
The special features on these discs are quite nice as both have a wonderful "Pete Smith Specialty Comedy" short(about one reel) and a Tex Avery Cartoon.Also both have their original theatrical trailers.
Technically the transfers are quite good and the colour is bright,clear and crisp.
In conclusion while I found Two Weeks with Love to be the better of the two films here as Debbie Reynolds shines throughout while Nancy goes to Rio does have its' moments;the best of which are supplied by wonderful Carmen Miranda.They are a little more than average fare but those hilarious Pete Smith shorts and Tex Avery cartoons complement them nicely.

This may be a little long, but I have so much to say. I am a Jane Powell fan. I had never seen either film. The treasure is the Jane Powell interview with Robert Osborne after "Two Weeks with Love". Miss Powell goes into some interesting detail about M.G.M. and the studio system. People will find this fascinating, confusing, and I suppose a little sad. May I set the stage? All of the studio's worked in the same fashion. A talent discovered. A star is born. How much can we make? A star in decline. A star no longer! M.G.M. was so perverse in the way they used their stars. One could say that Marion Davies was replaced by Jean Harlow. After Miss Harlow died in 1937, the studio needed a new Harlow. Lana Turner! The seven year contract held the star in check for three years. If the studio picked up the option, the star got two more years, again the option for the last two years, to finish out the seven year deal.
By 1942, M.G.M. had dumped; Marion Davies, Louise Rainer, Garbo, Crawford, Norma Shearer, Jeannette Macdonald, to name a few. The famous, so called ladies director; George Cukor seems to be tied to the final films of so many female stars. One wonders how much he really helped. Well my point is; that M.G.M. needed a new Jeannette Macdonald. Enter Miss Powell.
This my idea, and a good one. M.G.M. would fashion a new Macdonald in Powell. The stars were designed to fit a certain mold, discard the star, and use the mold to make a new star! Here comes miss Powell. She was assigned to Lillian Burns, the drama coach who taught all of the M.G.M. ladies to try to sound alike. Powell had little education. By luck and by talent, Powell became a star. But! One can see how the studio is constantly at her "Look". The hair changes color. The brows are raised and heightened. They gave her the infamous Crawford marvelous mouth. The weight changes. In glorious color, Powell manages to survive and with the singing voice, she at once breaks my heart, and gives me joy and promise.
Ann Sothern was a marvelous actress. Best remembered perhaps for her role in; "A letter to three Wive's". Playing Powells mother In; "Nancy goes to Rio" at about fourty years of age, she completed her contract at M.G.M. Nine years earlier in the lead role in the charming, "Lady be Good" she played the side kick of a fading star; Eleanor Powell. Southern, occupied the fifties in her role as a very funny, very to the point, and always plucky secretary. "Nancy goes to Rio" gives Sothern some wonderful moments. Sothern and Powell and Louis Calhern do a heavenly number together; "Shine on, Harvest Moon". Louis Calhern brings the two ladies together in all the glamour that men and women share. Yes! Sothern could sing, all three put a smile on your face. I bring "outdated music and film" to my students, and they just listen, and say, "please play it again"! There is an interesting finale, with Powell doing a not bad, Ginger Rogers routine, yes the braids in the hair ala Rogers in; "The Barkleys of Broadway", flowing gown and a bunch of rather bored looking male dancers. I could not take my eyes off Powell as she danced. The movie seems fragmented, in bits and parts that don't mesh. We are not aware the finale is the finale,, until suddenly; " The End " slams on the breaks. For movie fans the barn set used in Judy Garlands last film at M.G.M. "Summer Stock", is easy to pick out.

I was prepared to dislike Two weeks with Love, but it is A+. The film was obviously a work of love. The color is refined and rich, subtle and sure. Watch Powell as she glides in a boat alone on a lake, in and out of the shadows. The color range is as beautiful as a Monet painting. The violet and mauve colors, the willows weeping adding to the shade, as well as the dappled sunlight. The story line is sincere, one believes it, one is able to experience gaslit rooms, a different way of life. The actors believe in what they are doing and it pays off. The times may have changed, and life may move too fast for some, but the theme of growing up, and fitting in; is timeless.
Louis Calhern is the father in the movie. He had a way of making it look so easy, and funny, and just a little elegant. Fun comparing his performance and his "look" in both films. Louis Calhern turns up in many important films of the late 1940's 1950's. Calhern was nominated for an Oscar for his role in "The Magnificent Yankee". Ann Harding portrays the mother. Hardings career is difficult to access. She was a star for a while in the early talkies. I suspect her films are sadly lost. She had this very soft silk and velvet voice, and never seemed to get upset or hysterical,,, even though one would. She played the wife of Frederic March in "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit".

There are opportunities galore to run amok in "Two weeks with love". But it just plays out in a natural and human way. After viewing the two films please run the Robert Osborne interview with Jane Powell. At one point she explains that she was planning to leave M.G.M.. Do the math. If she signed a seven year contract in 1947-48. It would have expired in 1954-55 with her last M.G.M. film "Hit the Deck" 1955. At 24-25 she was washed up? She made a few more films ,,,, some t.v. and then a slow fade? A clue; Debbie Reynolds is in "Two Weeks with Love", was she M.G.M.s new Jane Powell? This could very well be. Miss Reynolds had a budding career of her own on her hands and a very tough road ahead with M.G.M. In 1964 Jane Powell was thirty five years old. Was there nothing but revivals and t.v. for her? The answer is in the Osborne interview. Jane Powell lived as an average person would. Now and again the studio would call her with news of a film role, and she would go to work. I do not think the lady had an idea as to how really good she was. I have a feeling that she has come to accept her talent, as well as her place in film history. She is out and about and letting a curious public have a look at her. I highly encourage the "Ruggles of Red Gap" cd available through amazon, with the extra material featuring Jane Powell. Recordings made in the 1950's. The raw power of her voice, and the way she delivers a song will leave the listener breathless.

These films are in mint condition. All we need is one of the great movie houses, Radio City Music Hall in N.Y.C. or The Detroit Fox. Some popcorn, and the beautiful sound and color. Not long ago I was in Santa Barbara California, I was thinking of Miss Powell, hey! it hit me. "A Date with Judy" took place in Santa Barbara, I started to wonder where the Foster Fish Co. was,,,,,,,,,,,,, hey, I was having a "Most Unusual Day".