Fred Astaire plays a fashion photographer based on real-life cameraman Richard Avedon, in this entertaining musical directed by Stanley Donen (Singin' in the Rain). The story finds Astaire's character turning Audrey Hepburn into a chic Paris model-not a tough premise to buy, especially within this film's air of enchantment and surrounded by a great Gershwin score. Based on an unproduced play, this is one of the best films from the latter part of Astaire's career. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.

A Musical Television Production.

The People's Passion is a BBC/NVC Arts co-production, originally shown on BBC in short instalments, but presented here as a single 50-minute programme. This is a musical version of the story of Holy Week, the narrator sung by the leading American opera star Jessye Norman, commenting on the action played-out by a very familiar British television cast. The use of modern dress and readily identifiable faces such as Robert Hardy (Pilate), Patricia Hodge (Procula), Ron Moody (The Donkey Minder) and Kevin Whatley (Judas) is an excellent device to stress the contemporary relevance of the story. Though if this is the aim, it is a brave move to refuse to "dumb down" musically, Donald Fraser's score being more in the English classical tradition of Vaughan-Williams' Pilgrim's Progress, than a populist Jesus Christ, Superstar musical. Rather old-fashioned, too, is the portrayal of Jesus, who does not speak but is danced in Spirit by Jonathan Cope, and given voice by the boys of St Paul's Cathedral Choir. With Thomas Allen also appearing as The Centurion-in rather more dignified style than John Wayne in The Greatest Story Ever Told-this is a direct, uncluttered and highly effective version of The Passion. -Gary S. Dalkin.

Of the nine films Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers completed for RKO Pictures, Follow the Fleet falls short of the top echelon. Coming between series peaks Top Hat and Swing Time, Fleet repeats the mistake (à la Flying Down to Rio and Roberta) of casting Fred and Ginger as the comic couple, while the romantic roles went to Randolph Scott and Harriet Hilliard (before she went on to fame with her husband, Ozzie Nelson, in Ozzie and Harriet). Fred puts down his top hat to become sailor Bake Baker (yet another of his alliterative screen names), while Ginger plays old flame Sherry Martin. The two are reunited when Fred takes shore leave in San Francisco, and soon their efforts turn to helping Ginger's sister Connie (Hilliard) land Fred's shipmate Bilge (Scott). (Look for Lucille Ball and Betty Grable in small roles. ) Too much screen time is spent on Hilliard and Scott, but Fred and Ginger make up for it with plenty of laughs and some classic musical numbers, and Irving Berlin's score is one of the best of the series, with cunning lyrics and melodies that linger in the memory. Highlights include Fred and Ginger in a dance contest, a Ginger solo tap number, and "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket," their best comic dance. The pièce de résistance is "Let's Face the Music and Dance," a show within a show in which Fred and Ginger don their customary evening formals. Effortlessly flowing from pantomime to song to dance, this sublime piece of storytelling is one of Fred and Ginger's defining moments. -David Horiuchi.

This semi-remake of Holiday Inn (the first movie in which Irving Berlin's perennial, Oscar-winning holiday anthem was featured) doesn't have much of a story, but what it does have is choice: Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, an all-Irving Berlin song score, classy direction by Hollywood vet Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood), VistaVision (the very first feature ever shot in that widescreen format), and ultrafestive Technicolor! Crosby and Kaye are song-and-dance men who hook up, romantically and professionally, with a "sister" act (Clooney and Vera-Ellen) to put on a Big Show to benefit the struggling ski-resort lodge run by the beloved old retired general (Dean Jagger) of their WWII Army outfit. Crosby is cool, Clooney is warm, Kaye is goofy, and Vera-Ellen is leggy. Songs include: "Sisters" (Crosby and Kaye do their own drag version, too), "Snow", "We'll Follow the Old Man", "Mandy", "Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep" and more. Christmas would be unthinkable without White Christmas. -Jim Emerson.

Set in the late fifties of brothel creeper shoes, drainpipe trousers and greased-back hair, 'That'll be the day' is a nostalgic trip for everyone who was part of the teenage revolution, led by Elvis Presley and James Dean; A reminder of what it was like to be young and filled with energy to rock around the clock.

A real archaeological artefact from 1967, Good Times will be mostly of interest to anyone who wants to see a parade of fashions that Austin Powers would reject as too garish to be seen on the street in. The nothingy plot concerns then-married Sonny and Cher playing themselves as a one-note bickering sit-com couple, signing up with sinister film tycoon Mordicus (an impeccable George Sanders) to make a movie but not wanting to do the mouldy rags-to-riches hillbilly script on offer. Cher is supposed to be less interested than Sonny in making a movie-which might well have been the truth since she mostly lies around doodling outrageous fashion designs or contributing her strange sung-through-the-nose vocals as poor, goofy Sonny does all the hard work flogging life into skits that had been squeezed dry by the Monkees before being passed to him. The finale finds Sonny and Cher standing up for integrity and refusing to make a bad film even if it means they gets blacklisted all over town-a lesson it's a shame that they (especially Cher) didn't take to heart in their later careers. Astonishingly, this was the feature directorial debut of The Exorcist's William Friedkin, who fills the screen with colour, action and gaggery after the manner of the then-hip Batman TV show while focusing on screaming outfits that remain among the darnedest things you ever saw. Aside from a reprise of "I Got You, Babe", the score is a little light on the slim canon of S&C hits; the songs included are "It's the Little Things", "Good Times", "Trust Me", "Don't Talk to Strangers", "I'm Gonna Love You" and "Just a Name". The DVD extras include a few sketchy bios and a jump-to-a-song feature. -Kim Newman.

Holiday Inn is a perennial, Christmas-season favourite from 1942 teamed Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire as entertainers (and rival suitors of Marjorie Reynolds) running an inn that is only open on holidays. It's a great excuse for lots of singing and dancing, seamlessly wrapped in a catchy story, and Astaire's frequent director Mark Sandrich (Top Hat, Shall We Dance?) doesn't let us down. The Irving Berlin numbers (each one connected to a different holiday) are winners. Crosby's warm performance of "White Christmas" is a movie touchstone. -Tom Keogh "A Couple of Song and Dance Men" is a 45-minute conversation between author-historian Ken Barnes and Ava Astaire McKenzie, Fred's daughter, recapping the careers of Astaire and Crosby. It's a bit wooden, but not without charm, and has some interesting early footage, chiefly of Crosby (presumably because of studio rights issues). There's also a seven-minute discussion of how sound has been recorded for movie musicals, and specifically how it was done for Holiday Inn's "I'll Capture Her Heart. " Barnes's commentary track offers bits of trivia (they had originally wanted Ginger Rogers for one of the roles, and yes, the title inspired the hotel chain) and incorporates some archival quotes by Astaire and Crosby. The remastered picture is a noticeable improvement over the earlier double-feature DVD, which paired Holiday Inn with Crosby's Going My Way. -David Horiuchi.