The Bing Crosby Collection

The Bing Crosby Collection is a three disc release that features two feature films per disc. All three discs come in a fold out style housing that sits inside of a cardboard case. The collection is part of the “Universal Backlot Series” which takes somewhat overlooked gems and polishes them with a digital remaster and puts them on DVD, possibly for the time, for the world to revisit. 

 

My only other experience with seeing a Bing Crosby film was when I reviewed Paramount’s release for White Christmas on Blu-Ray, though certainly not the first time I’d heard Crosby’s voice which is peppered through Hollywood history. Still, I was a little thrown off when one minute I’m watching a film about some slightly unbelievable college kids (most looked to be in they’re mid-thirties) preparing for football who suddenly break out in song, but whose song and dance number prepared me for the entire run of The Bing Crosby Collection. 

 

While I found College Humor (1933) to be a bit of a dull film with no point I found the rest of the series to be pretty wonderful as Crosby crooned his way through this collection of romantic comedies featuring beautiful leading ladies and a slew of celebrity faces such as George Burns (Oh God, You Devil), W.C. Fields (The Bank Dick), William Frawley (I Love Lucy), and Barry Fitzgerald (The Naked City).

 

Stand out’s in the set include Mississippi, in which Crosby plays a singing gentleman whose marriage to a southern woman is interrupted when a duel happy bully pushes him out. Bing takes to the Mississippi with a drunk boat captain and learns to be more aggressive, eventually returning to face his enemies. 

 

Here Is My Heart finds Crosby, a rich bachelor star, on a cruise ship trying to put together a bucket list of sorts. The only thing he needs is to find an antique pistol to put together a set he wishes to donate to a museum. Unfortunately the pistol is owned by an icy Russian Princess Crosby tries to scam by pretending to be a waiter. 

 

The entire collection is great, minus College Humor, but these two films were my favorite and I can honestly say stand the test of time and remain relevant today. Definitely a collection worth checking out. Enjoy.