Pure nostalgia, and good tunes too

Fox’s Marquee Musicals

(Fox, $20)

FOX introduces its Marquee Musicals franchise with the rollicking “Week-End in Havana,” “Pin Up Girl” and “Daddy Long Legs.”

Week-End in Havana

This underrated 1941 Technicolor musical is sprightly fun, thanks to an attractive cast, bouncy songs and lovely choreography. Alice Faye, who was the studio’s top female musical star, plays a Macy’s salesgirl who threatens to cause trouble after the cruise ship on which she is a passenger runs aground and ruins her vacation.

To ease her “suffering” and to persuade her to sign a waiver stating that the cruise line isn’t to blame, Faye is given a free first-class holiday in Havana on the arm of the shipowner’s soon-to-be-son-in-law (a buff and tanned John Payne). Carmen Miranda is on hand as a club performer; Cesar Romero is a slick gambler who thinks Faye is wealthy.

Walter Lang, who is best known for helming “The King and I,” directed with a light, deft touch.

Extras: The trailer and commentary from film historian Jeanine Basinger, who discusses the craftsmanship of the 1940s Fox musical and the talent involved in “Week-End in Havana.”

*

Pin Up Girl

By the time Fox released this Technicolor bauble in 1944, Betty Grable, one of the top pinup girls of American fighting men during World War II, had supplanted Faye as Fox’s top musical blond. Grable was ubiquitous in the famed photo that has her dressed in a one-piece bathing suit and high heels, back to the camera, looking over her right shoulder with a come-hither smile on her face. And that image gets plenty of screen time in the film.

Grable plays a stenographer from the Midwest who performs at the local USO. She becomes “engaged” to all the servicemen she meets, but one soldier believes the act is for real and follows her to Washington, D.C., when she gets a government service job. Grable, meanwhile, has set her sights on a naval hero (John Harvey).

Joe E. Brown and Martha Raye also star in this silly but nostalgic entertainment. Ironically, Grable was seven months pregnant by the time she finished the movie.

Extras: Solid commentary from critic Richard Schickel, who discusses the rise of Grable in the 1940s and the pinup girl phenomenon.

*

Daddy Long Legs

This charming 1955 musical was the first and only film Fred Astaire made for Fox and marked the only time he costarred with the gamine actress-dancer Leslie Caron on screen. “Daddy” was also Astaire’s first CinemaScope picture.

Known for supplying the lyrics to countless classic and Oscar-winning tunes, Johnny Mercer composed the music for this film, receiving an Oscar nomination for “Something’s Gotta Give.”

Astaire plays a multimillionaire who, in France on a goodwill tour, sees an 18-year-old orphan (Caron) who lost her family during World War II. He decides to bring her to America and send her to a respected college. Astaire never reveals himself to her -- she knows him simply as Daddy Long Legs.

When they meet cute at a college dance -- they perform the catchy “Sluefoot” number -- the two fall in love. Of course, she doesn’t know he’s her Daddy Long Legs.

Terry Moore, Fred Clark and Thelma Ritter also star in the film, which features Astaire’s favorite Mercer tune, “Dream,” a pop hit in the 1940s. France’s Roland Petit created the film’s two lavish ballet numbers for Caron.

Extras: Footage of the New York and London premieres, a photo gallery and affectionate, informative commentary from the actor’s daughter, Ava Astaire McKenzie, and film historian Ken Barnes, with archival comments from the late composer Mercer.

-- Susan King