Bing Crosby: Screen Legend Collection (Double or Nothing / East Side of Heaven / Here Come the Waves / If I Had My Way / Waikiki Wedding)

This set contains five movies. All starring the legendary Bing Crosby. I don't as a rule like musicals, but when you watch a movie with Bing, you know it's going to be a musical.*** Spoiler Alert***The first movie in this set is Waikiki Wedding, as the title suggests it takes place in Hawaii. If you are a fan of Hawaii Five-0 then you will be surprised to hear the word Haoli used in a picture as old as 1937. But, they do use the word very early on in the movie. Anyways, Bing plays the son of a Pineapple businessman who heads a large pineapple company. Bing comes up with the idea of a "Pineapple Girl" who receives an all expense paid trip to Hawaii. In turn her time in Hawaii is to be represented in a series of newspaper articles, that in turn would generate business for the company. The only problem, she is not having fun and wants to return home. She was told she would find romance in Hawaii and has found none. Now, Bing (Marvin) meets her accidentally, and when he finds out she is the Pineapple girl, he goes out of his way to entertain and romance her. All the time writing and sending phoney articles claiming to be from her to the newspapers. Bing(Marvin) sets up a phoney smuggling, he gets her involved with, including angry Hawaiian natives, an angry volcano and an escape. In the meantime her boyfriend from back home comes to Hawaii to find her and rescue her from her dismal time in Hawaii. Well, there is only one problem Bing has fallen in love with her. Who will she choose to be with, to marry? The fun, the laughs, and the songs it's a great movie. Don't forget the pig, the monkey and most importantly a costar that provides most of the laughs Martha Raye.This is a very good movie. I highly recommend it.The second movie is "Double or Nothing". This is a movie with just the right amount of music, comedy and suspense. The actors are superb, there is Martha Raye, William Frawley (from I Love Lucy fame) and of course others including one of my favorite actors Andy Devine. And who knew that Martha Raye or Bing Crosby could sing Scatt. There is also an ending that had me scratching my head. You will scratch yours too.The movie starts with a couple of gentlemen tossing wallets and purses with $100 bills in them onto different locations on the street. Bing is in what appears to be a lunch counter when a dog brings him one of these wallets. Bing immediately returns the wallet to the address inside. Upon doing so, he learns that three others have out of a total of 25 people who had picked up the wallets. Here, two things happen, he meets a beautiful woman, and learns that he is invited to a meeting in a mysterious place at 8pm. Said meeting is supposed to be beneficial to him as well as the other three honest people. The meeting turns out to be a reading of a will. The stipulations of the will are tied to an argument the deceased had with his brother. His brother felt that people were both dishonest and dumb. He felt that people were both honest and intelligent. To this end, he gave each of the four $5000 and a month to double it. Hence the title. The first to succeed would win his fortune over a million dollars. If none were to succeed, then the fortune would go to his brother. Each one creates their own means/business to double their money. The girl Bing met, is the daughter of the living brother. The four decide to pool their resources, and if any of them reached their goal, they would share the fortune. The living brother pretends to befriend them and even help them to reach their goal. All the time, trying to sabotage them. In turn, he manages to sabotage each of them in one way or another. But, sabotaged is not defeated or is it? Bing falls in love with the girl etc. This one has a great dance scene with a policeman and Bing that involves tap dancing and other great dance moves.The movie is really really good. Even if you don't buy the set, you should see this movie. Rent it if you can.The third movie "East Side of Heaven" finds Bing(Denny) a Singing telegram deliverer, usually by phone. When a drunken son of a millionaire requests that Denny deliver a birthday song to his father in person, things start to change for Denny. While singing the birthday song to the man, he becomes involved in a bitter battle for custody of the millionaires infant grandson. Denny is fired and gets a job as a singing cab driver. This causes him to postpone his wedding for the 4th time. Soon, the mother of the infant comes to Denny for help, eventually leaving the child with Denny. Leading to a series of comedic misunderstandings. First with his fiance, then with the police etc. This movie has it's funny parts, the story is good and Bing is in top form.The fourth movie "If I Had My Way" brought a tear to my eye at the end. That is not to say it had a sad ending, it had a very happy ending as do all of these movies. This movie finds Bing (Buzz Blackwell) as a member of three friends who build bridges. One of whom has a daughter named Patricia. When Pat's father is killed while working, it is up to Buzz and Axil to bring her to her rich uncle Jarvis in New York. When they get there Jarvis denies any relationship to the girl and sends them to a relative with the same name across town. This relative accepts Patricia with open arms. Meanwhile Axel has run into an old friend who owns a restaurant. Axel's friend invites them all to a Swedish dinner. While there, they find out that the restaurant is failing and Axil's friend is just looking for a sucker to unload the restaurant on so that he can return to Wisconsin. After everyone leaves the two old friends get drunk and Axil ends up buying the restaurant with the money that both he and Buzz had saved. Now, stuck with a failing restaurant, deep in debt with bill collectors knocking at the door, Buzz must find a way to get some money to save his investment. He tricks Jarvis into giving him the money for some worthless stock Patricia's father had left her. The rest you will have to see, to see what happens and how Patricia gets into the act of saving the restaurant. This one also has a very funny scene with a squirrel and a woman with a hat.The fifth movie "Here come the waves" is about two twins, one (Suzy) infatuated\crazy about the star that is Johnny Cabbott(Bing), the other(Rosemary) can't stand him. But then, all of the women seem to go crazy for the crooner. Johnny and the two girls enlist in the Navy. They meet several times, Rosemary starts to fall for Johnny as she gets to know the him that is not the star. Suzy learns that Johnny is being sent out to sea on a battleship, and writes a letter to the head of the Navy. In the letter she suggest's that Johnny not be put out to sea, but instead be made the head of creating an entertainment film that would encourage more women to join the Navy. Rosemary is lead to believe that Johnny wrote the letter to get out of combat. With Johnny's best friend vying for Rosemary all of the stops are pulled out as both men try to land the woman they love. In the meantime Suzy is still trying to land Johnny.This is a very funny movie.****Spoiler Alert Over*****This is a great set, well worth the money, and I see that Amazon has just reduced the price to $7 and change. I am not sure how long that will last. Grab em' while you can. If you like classics like I do you will love this set.Ralph

We have this set strictly for IF I HAD MY WAY, the 1940 musical co-starring Bing Crosby and Gloria Jean. Every version that has appeared on television and in theaters for six decades has been Universal's 1946 reissue, which is missing some Gloria Jean footage and almost all of the featured appearances by vaudeville stars.It is a pleasure to report that Universal consulted the original 1940 release for this sparkling DVD edition. The film is fully complete with all of its original (undoctored) titles. The entire score is on parade here, including Gloria Jean's charming "Little Grey Home in the West," seen and heard for the first time in 66 years. The guest-star specialties are intact: Blanche Ring and Eddie Leonard sing their signature numbers backed by Six Hits and a Miss; Paul Gordon does a trick-cycling act; Trixie Friganza, Julian Eltinge, and Grace La Rue appear as themselves.A fine ensemble cast (El Brendel, Allyn Joslyn, Charles Winninger, Nana Bryant, Claire Dodd, Moroni Olsen, Donald Woods) lends fine support to Bing and Gloria, who sing memorably. If you like Bing Crosby, this is very enjoyable and highly representative of his talents. The restoration job is excellent, with the long-lost deletions artfully fitted back into the standard vault print. Picture and sound are also excellent. The restored IF I HAD MY WAY is a major find for movie-musical fans, and the DVD is highly recommended.

Pretty good for the originals being so old! I was a bit disappointed that the movies weren't ones I recognized. (Why I gave only 4 Stars) They must be some of his first works. They are quite enjoyable, but I'd've appreciated at least one more known movie had been included.

I love Bing Crosby, he was such a natural, there has never been anyone since with as much talent except Fred Astaire, they are truly the best in what they did, This collection is great if you love Bing Crosby and appreaciate his talent the way I do, the acting is ok not terriffic, but it is entertainment and there were no special effects back then so they had to have actual talent and I for one so appreciate it, to hear Bing sing is always a wonderful treat!!! I love the old black and whites if it is not black and white and looks original, I am not interested, the quality of this collection is wonderful so clear and to have these good old movies preserved, is the best!! thanks for a great product and the shiiping was quick and I got it a day ahead of what was scheduled and I was ready to watch them that night!!!R

I was thrilled to find such a collection. I had never seen, or heard of these movies. The movies come in a nice box container. The discs were all in their hubs. I am pleased with my purchase.

Great classic. Bing is awesome!

generally speaking the films are of a good quality for the age of the material, a nice cross section of Bings films one notably starring the lovley Gloria Jean.If you like musicals and are a Bing Crosby fan you won't be disappointed.

Just received this, only watched Waikiki Wedding, lovely old film, well worth adding to anyone's collection. Why don't they make films like this anymore?

bing crosby the top of actors never dull Always agreabable to see

excellent