| | |  | Big Dance Bands | Home » » » The Fabulous Dorseys | | | | | | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Janet Blair, Paul Whiteman | | Director:
| Alfred E. Green | | Format:
| Black & White, NTSC | | Language:
| English | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| Reel Enterprises | | Run Time:
| 88 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| November 13, 2006 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 14 reviews |
| | | | Used and New: | | | |
| All | |
| $7.96 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | Used
- Good | | | $9.95 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | New | | | $14.95 | New | |
| New | |
| $9.95 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | New | | | $14.95 | New | |
| Used | |
| $7.96 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | Used
- Good | |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 14 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 found the following review helpful:
NostalgiaSep 01, 2004
By Susan Emert
I remember watching this movie as a child at my grandparent's house.
I loved the music. The acting was so-so but let's face it. The Dorsey's are not known as actors.
The premise of the movie is quite believable and the music is so typical of the 40's. I love all the movies from that decade.
It's just a good film. Enjoyable and will leave you with a smile on your face. A far cry from today's horrible and violent films. They don't make them like this any more and they should.
If you get to see it, just sit back and enjoy.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Good movie but I wish the story went furtherMar 10, 2007
By Music Lover
This is a great movie that actually features the Dorsey's themselves. The movie tells the story of Jimmie and Tommy Dorsey growing up and their start to the music business. The story is good and the music is, of course, great. My only complaint is that I wish the story would have featured more about their career and less about how the two couldn't get along and so they went their separate ways until their father died when they made up. It's still a good movie and I do recommend it but if you're like me in wanting to learn more about the career you might actually prefer The Glenn Miller story.
5 of 6 found the following review helpful:
 Quality of picture a negativeApr 17, 2009
By Alan D. Shaffer
I am a collector of the early movies. The stories and music and acting usually are so much better than the average movie today.
This story of the Dorseys was good. The quality of the picture, however, was as if a Dvd was made off of a VHS. This should not be.
Alan D. Shaffer
Creve Coeur, MO
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
The struggle, rise, fall and reunion of the DorseysSep 16, 2010
By Annie Van Auken
Standard kicks against THE FABULOUS DORSEYS are the non-acting skill of its leads, a lack of personal detail (such as the two youngest siblings not getting a mention) and its episodic story. True enough on all three counts, yet I saw this movie recently for the first time and found it thoroughly entertaining.
As depicted here, after years of feuding the Dorsey boys permanently split during a live performance at the Glen Island Casino, when Tommy stormed out due to a beef over tempo. Jimmy kept the Dorsey band, Tommy molded the Joe Haymes unit into his own orchestra (this last detail isn't explained).
After his acrimonous parting with Tommy in 1942 it's no surprise that Frank Sinatra's not included nor is his existence even acknowleged, but why the brothers' mid-20's stint in the California Ramblers gets no mention is curious. Their association with this renowned group of NY studio musicans led to the formation of their own recording outfit, with some of the Ramblers (like legendary bass saxist Adrian Rollini) joining them. Others who worked in-studio with the Dorseys between 1928 and '33: Jack Teagarden (trombone), Mildred Bailey (vocals), Frank Signorelli (piano), Glenn Miller (trombone), Bob Crosby (vocal), Bunny Berigan (trumpet), Johnny Mercer (vocals), Phil Napoleon (trumpet), Joe Venuti (violin) and Stan King (drums).
Regardless of how accurate a bio this is or how unpolished Jimmy and Tommy are as actors, musical performances are what the picture's really about. Jimmy's "Green Eyes," with vocals by Bob Eberly and Helen O'Connell, and Tommy's "Marie," with Stuart Foster taking over for Jack Leonard and everyone shouting refrains behind him, are delightful. Tommy also solos on his signature number, "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You."
Other highlights: amazing pianist Art Tatum does his own "Turquoise," then Tommy, Jimmy, Ziggy Elman, Ray Bauduc and Charlie Barnet join Tatum for a late-night jam on "Art's Blues." In an earlier scene, the still struggling Dorseys are hired by Paul Whiteman; his band performs "At Sundown."
Bottom line: if you're a fan of Swing Era sounds, don't miss this one. You're gonna love it!
Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.
(5.5) The Fabulous Dorseys (1947) - Tommy Dorsey/Jimmy Dorsey/Janet Blair/Paul Whiteman/William Lundigan/Sarah Allgood/Arthur Shields/Dave Willock/William Bakewell/James Flavin
4 of 5 found the following review helpful:
 The Dorsey music, what there is of it, is fine, but it keeps being interrupted by the actingApr 10, 2008
By C. O. DeRiemer
Why spend a moment slogging through this awkward and self-conscious movie? Every now and then, after an hour of tedious plot and amateur acting, we start getting bits and pieces of the big band swing that made Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, separately and together, the great musicians they were. Occasionally -- in a jam session with Art Tatum, with Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra doing "Marie" and, a standout, Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra fronting Bob Eberle and Helen O'Connell singing "Green Eyes" -- we get a complete song.
Unfortunately, the movie is in the public domain and the DVD transfer is just as bad as the acting. My copy has only four chapter stops. That means you can get arthritis in your fast-forward finger trying to speed through to where the good stuff is. The swamp you're moving through is Hollywood's version of the life and battles of the two Dorseys. Tommy, superb on trombone, and Jimmy, superb on saxophone, usually couldn't stand each other. In 1935 they finally split, with Tommy starting his own orchestra. Each had greater success alone than they had achieved together. They reconciled when their father died in the Forties, which is where the movie ends. They later managed to tolerate each other in the orchestra led by Tommy as the big band era faded out in the Fifties. Tommy died in 1956 at age 51, vomiting in his sleep after booze, pills and a big meal. Jimmy died of cancer at 53 in 1957. Jimmy was hugely talented and, from all accounts, a reasonably easy-going guy. Tommy was hugely talented and, from all accounts, often an overbearing jerk. But good music makes up for a lot of faults, and the Big Band sounds the two created helped define the swing era.
They play themselves in the movie, and we see them develop from tussling tykes (with child actors) to grown men battling and yammering at each other. The movie is lumbered with not just their two parents, played by those Hollywood Irish clichés, Sara Allgood and Arthur Shields, who just want their boys to get along with each other, but also with a major sub-story involving a romance between Janet Blair, as a childhood friend of the Dorseys who becomes a vocalist with them and serves as a nearly full-time mediator and enabler, and William Lundigan, as a piano player. Blair is not bad at all. However, if you want to see why she never became the star she quite probably should have become, just look at the films, like this one, that her studio put her in. No wonder she left Hollywood. Lundigan simply takes up space.
How bad is this movie, other than when we can actually hear the Dorseys play? Well, here's a song written especially for the movie and given to Blair to warble. It's called "To Me."
To me...you're the rose of a rosary
The rise of a rising sea
The glow of a star
The rose of a rosary? The movie doesn't get any better than this, and it can't get worse. Still, if you like the Dorseys and if the price is right...well, in hindsight I'd still not buy it. The highlight, for me, is Eberle and O'Connell singing "Green Eyes." You can watch them on You Tube for free. You'll also find there quite a bit of each of the Dorseys. I wish I'd known.
See all 14 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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