My Sister Eileen |  | Director: Richard Quine
Actors: Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon, Betty Garrett, Bob Fosse, Kurt Kasznar
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.94
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Rating:  12 reviews
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), Portuguese (Original Language), Japanese (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 99
Aspect Ratio: 2.55:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 108 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: COLD07327D
ISBN: 1404963863
UPC: 043396073272
EAN: 9781404963863
Theatrical Release Date: September 22, 1955
Release Date: February 22, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Two ohio sisters move to greenwich village where one finds a publisher and the other one finds men. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 05/23/2006 Starring: Jack Lemmon Run time: 107 minutes Rating: Nr
Amazon.com
Two innocent sisters from Ohio hit Greenwich Village and must cope with wall-shaking subway construction, the neighborhood kooks, and a whopping $65 a month for an apartment. My Sister Eileen is one of those "Look out, world, we're conquering Manhattan!" movies, with Betty Garrett as a plain, would-be writer and Janet Leigh as her knockout sister, an aspiring actress who draws men like milk draws kittens. The 1955 movie's well-scrubbed Greenwich Village is a delightful fantasy playground. The city was never like this, but it probably should have been. In one of his early roles, Jack Lemmon (crooning one of the Jule Styne-Leo Robin songs quite charmingly) plays a magazine publisher, one of the many Young Men with Ideas he would play in the subsequent decade. Even more interesting is the presence of future director Bob Fosse, as a soda jerk who romances Leigh. Fosse also choreographed the film's musical numbers, and his dances include a delightful quartet at a bandstand and a sensational showdown with Tommy Rall. Fosse and Rall try to outdo each other in a male rivalry dance that will remind Fosse fans of his obsession with hats. The breezy direction is by Richard Quine, who cowrote the script with another future director, Blake Edwards. The original source material, stories by Ruth McKenney, formed the basis for a play and a nonmusical 1942 Rosalind Russell movie, also called My Sister Eileen (in which Quine played the Fosse role); there was a Broadway musical adaptation of the stories, Wonderful Town, which is not related to this film. --Robert Horton
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
 Mediocre musical August 14, 2009
WheelerQ
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The script and acting were less than stellar, but what the heck, it makes for an amusing 108 minutes. As far as being appropriate for perceptive kids goes, be advised it does have some thematic elements such as sexual harassment, a man kissing a woman against her will, and a woman being asked to strip when she auditions for an acting role.
I do recommend the musicals "Call Me Madam" and "Court Jester".
 A Delightful Musical February 27, 2009
Michael B. Druxman (Austin, TX)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
During the 1940s-50s, MGM may have led the way when it came to movie musicals, but Columbia certainly turned out a few classic tuners also, such as COVER GIRL, YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER, PAL JOEY and this delightful 1955 release, adapted from the popular stage play by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov.
Richard Quine directed the comedy about two Ohio girls who come to New York. Eileen (Janet Leigh), the beauty who is always attracting men, wants to become an actress, while Ruth (Betty Garrett), the more practical one, hopes to make it as a writer.
The girls move into a Greenwich Village basement apartment that has no curtains, no hot water and sits over a spot where they are blasting for the New York subway. Then, they go out to seek their fortunes.
Jack Lemmon, Bob Fosse, who choreographed the film, Tommy Rall and the Brazilian Navy play the men in the sisters' lives, while Dick York, Lucy Marlow and Kurt Kasznar are among their neighbors.
The Jule Styne-Leo Robin songs are charming, as is the cast, particularly Ms. Garrett, one of the most under-appreciated musical performers of her day. Her numbers are a high point in the picture, as is an energetic dance number performed by Mr. Fosse and Mr. Rall.
© Michael B. Druxman
This '55 Remake Is A Far Cry From the Original Russell Non-Musical January 17, 2009
Doug - Haydn Fan (California)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Thanks in part to this DVD musical hogging the title and the nature of marketing we are currently unable to enjoy a vastly better film - the original 1942 Columbia non-musical, with a superb Oscar nominated performance by Rosalind Russell and a far tighter, sharper directed film. (And how many actresses are nominated for their roles in a comedy - not that anyone including Katharine Cornell and the Duse herself could have won over Greer Garson as Mrs. Miniver in 1943!) Janet Leigh is beautiful, but Janet Blair as Elaine is far more natural as the seemingly oblivious but actually quite knowing small-town girl Eileen, and George Tobias as the Greek landlord is all one could hope for in a character actor. The rambling wreck from Georgia Tech was what everyone remembered during the war - in the musical his storyline never quite makes it. June Havoc can't be topped as the floozy Effie, the previous tenant whose hand-reading act didn't fool the local cop on the beat. And the original has a host of other small town touches which badly jar when crudely stiched together with the 1955 movie's over-fancy sophisticated Fosse dance numbers. America was no longer a rural world in 1955, as it was before World War II really got going when the original film came out, and much of the original stories nature seem unsuited to the glitzy widescreen world of fifties Hollywood.
Further, when Pioneer originally offered this musical "My Sister Eileen" on Laser disc in stunning Widescreen format (and in colors a bit better than this version), Pioneer also gave us both movies, the 1942 as well as the 1955, on one two disc set. This is not the first time DVD's haven't lived up to their potential. Moreover, why the current powers controlling Columbia's film library could not do this I don't know - it's not like the films came out from differing studios. It does speak volumes about corporate taste, and the perception of modern American taste, to release this above average but hardly great color musical first, before giving us a DVD of one of the top films of the War, featuring one of American film's premiere comedienne's greatest roles.
Finally - setting aside Hollywood's long standing penchant for wasting the better songs and music from most Broadway musicals, including this one with lyrics by the best team in the buiness and music by Leonard Bernstein (a Broadway musical also, incidentally, starring Rosalind Russell) - Could someone PLESE tell me: What's so special about Betty Garrett? A leading lady she ain't! In a supporting role she's a natural, but asking her to play Ruth after Russell's standard is a ridiculous strech. This sort of dumb casting reminds me of the fifties color musical version of The Women - did ANYONE in that glossy remake upstage the originals?
Enjoy this film, but please - demand the best - the 1942 smash hit needs releasing! Besides, how can you top a film that ends with a crashing cameo by the Three Stooges!
Fun to Watch August 10, 2008
NJD (TEXAS)
This is a fun movie that wears well and is still enjoyable over the years.
Great Fun June 7, 2008
Forever Student
A great Golden Oldie about New York.
Jack Lemon is outstanding as is Janet Leigh.
A DVD for those who like Classic Musicals.
Great for Collection Buffs.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
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