The Betty Grable Collection Vol. 1 (2006)

Betty Grable's dual status during World War II America as the essential pinup girl and lead in several lavish Technicolor musicals was an impeccable formula for stardom. The four films in The Betty Grable Collection Vol. 1 boxed set span the first crucial decade of Grable's career, marked by gloriously photographed theatrical set pieces that hinged on her polished grin as a pathway to pristine fantasies, where any given moment leads to a Pollyanish eruption of song and dance. But the histrionics are matched by romantic double entendres and Grable's virulently independent femininity lends her performances an edge. Down Argentine Way (1940) and Moon Over Miami (1941) slyly suggest that money can buy love, and the evocative visual storytelling in The Dolly Sisters (1945) and My Blue Heaven (1950) uses their feckless heroine's ethereal charm as a springboard for elegant melodrama. EXTRAS Commentary tracks from film historians Sylvia Stoddard (on Argentine ) and Drew Casper (on The Dolly Sisters and My Blue Heaven ) point out the profitability of Fox marquee musicals during the 1940s. In an A&E documentary included on Argentine the narrator claims that Grable was ''the movie star every G.I. wanted for a best girl, and every woman wanted for a best friend,'' which makes this side of the Paris Hilton era look a tad unbalanced.

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