​Blu-ray potpourri for the holidays

Although the commercial celebration began the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve is this Saturday night (coincidentally this year, also the first night of Hanukkah). The holiday season of a week or so features religious observances, sharing of traditional activities, memories, food, and fun. It is also typically a vacation time for relaxing with family and friends, often watching movies together.

The various cable TV channels are rife with repeated showings of favorite Christmas movies, from “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “A Christmas Carol,” and “White Christmas” to “A Christmas Story,” “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” and “The Santa Clause,” among numerous others.

These classics may be fun to revisit, but it’s also fun to watch or re-watch films that can provide entertaining escapism any time of the year. Here are four 1950s romantic comedy-dramas released to Blu-ray earlier this year (April, July, and September) suitable for winter holiday viewing. Only one of them takes place on Christmas Eve, two are Fred Astaire musicals, and one is a tropical melodrama with musical interludes.

“Susan Slept Here” (1954) is a cute and often very funny romantic comedy directed by former cartoon director Frank Tashlin. Dick Powell heads a great cast as a middle-aged screenwriter who has never been able to recapture the success he had after he won an Oscar.

He’s on his way to a Christmas Eve party thrown by his society girlfriend (Anne Francis) when a police officer persuades him to take in a teenage delinquent (a radiantly confident Debbie Reynolds) so she won’t have to spend the holidays in jail. Of course they can’t stand each other at first but gradually warm up to the situation.

Snappy and cynical dialogue from his old Navy buddy (Alvy Moore) and long-time secretary (Glenda Farrell) add to the fun and keep things lively.

Picture and sound on Warner Archives’ Blu-ray are both excellent with the rich Christmasy Technicolor popping off the screen. The only bonus feature is a standard-definition trailer.

SUSAN SLEPT HERE on Blu-ray – Movie: A- / Video: A / Audio: A / Extras: D

“Silk Stockings” (1957) is a musical reworking of the classic 1939 Ernst Lubitch Greta Garbo comedy “Ninotchka,” updated to the 1950s Cold War era with still-timely political gags and a wonderful score by Cole Porter. Veteran director Rouben Mamoulian’s final film, it’s one of the rare cases the remake is more fun than the original.

Fred Astaire stars as a movie producer trying to get a Russian composer touring in Paris to score his new version of “War and Peace.” Cyd Charisse is the beautiful but stern Soviet commissar who shows up to bring back the three Soviet agents who were supposed to bring back the composer to Russia but were seduced by the decadent Parisian life. Of course she too soon cannot resist the pleasures of a free economy, or the charms of Astaire.

Peter Lorre is a delight in a rare comic role, even singing and dancing, as one of the corrupted Soviet agents. Singer Janis Paige delivers Porter’s show-stopping song satirizing late 1950s Hollywood filmmaking with “glorious Technicolor, breathtaking CinemaScope, and stereo-phonic sound!”

The Warner Archives Blu-ray has generally good picture quality but is sometimes soft and grainy due to the aging of the problematic film stock it was photographed on. The original stereo recordings have been preserved and remixed for a fuller and richer 5.1 sound than the Perspecta “fake” stereo heard on its theatrical release.

For bonus features there is a featurette on the film (in standard-definition), a fun 1934 Bob Hope short “Paree, Paree” based on another Cole Porter musical, a 1954 short of the MGM orchestra playing “The Poet and Peasant Overture,” and a trailer, all in high-definition.

SILK STOCKINGS on Blu-ray – Movie: A / Video: B+ / Audio: A- / Extras: A-

“Daddy Long Legs” (1955) is another musical re-envisioning of a non-musical source, previously made into pleasant films starring Mary Pickford in 1919 and Janet Gaynor in 1931.

This version, directed by Jean Negulesco, stars Leslie Caron as a French orphan girl that traveling millionaire Fred Astaire happens to see and instantly decides he should provide her with an education, but anonymously to avoid talk of scandal. Of course she’s gratified but frustrated not to know her benefactor, pining to meet this mysterious distant father figure.

He decides to see her progress in her last year of college, they meet, and not knowing who he really is she confides her frustrations and falls in love with him. Naturally there are plenty of colorful dance numbers and everything works out as expected in a classic musical romance.

The HD CinemaScope picture and stereo sound on Kino’s Blu-ray are both excellent. Bonus features include a commentary with Fred Astaire’s daughter, two newsreels with optional commentaries, and two trailers (all in standard-definition).

DADDY LONG LEGS on Blu-ray – Movie: A / Video: A / Audio: A / Extras: B-

“Miss Sadie Thompson” (1953) is is a vivacious retelling of Somerset Maugham’s infamous “Rain” (filmed by Gloria Swanson in 1928 and Joan Crawford in 1932), this time in Technicolor, widescreen, and 3-D, with several songs by Rita Hayworth.

Hayworth gives one of the most compelling dramatic performances of her career as the prostitute-on-the-run who is temporarily marooned on a south seas island with a marine base and a meddling, self-righteous fundamentalist preacher (Jose Ferrer). Aldo Ray is the soldier who falls for her and must learn to live with her past.

Twilight Time’s Blu-ray has a good picture with excellent 3-D, but for whatever reason the 2-D version on the disc seems slightly sharper with richer color saturation. Sadly the original stereo soundtrack is lost but the mono audio is fine. Bonus features include a booklet, an audio commentary, an isolated music and effects track, an introduction by Patricia Clarkson, and a trailer.

MISS SADIE THOMPSON on Blu-ray – Movie: A- / Video: A- / 3-D: A / Audio: A- / Extras: B+