Tonight's Movie: Athena (1954) - A Warner Archive Blu-ray Review

The MGM musical ATHENA (1954) was released on Blu-ray last week by the Warner Archive Collection.

ATHENA is a goofy yet very enjoyable musical which I first had the good fortune to see on a big screen as a teenager, circa the late '70s. Like so many other movies in that era, I saw it at the Vagabond Theater in Los Angeles.

It had been many years since I last saw it, and revisiting it on the new Blu-ray was quite a treat. The movie's pastel colors look absolutely lovely, and the sound is also excellent.

The story for this film about a family of "health nuts" was originally created by Esther Williams and director-choreographer Charles Walters, intended as a vehicle for Williams, but as is clear from the cast names on the pictured Blu-ray cover, that didn't happen. In fact, MGM didn't even give them a story credit.

Instead the screenplay by Leonard Spigelgass and William Ludwig stars Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds as two of the seven Mulvain sisters, who live in a nifty indoor-outdoor style home and run a health food store.

Athena (Powell) falls for seemingly stuffy lawyer Adam Calhorn Shaw (Edmund Purdom), the scion of a Massachusetts political family (with an inexplicable British accent).

Adam's client, popular crooner Johnny (Vic Damone), immediately falls for Athena's younger sister Minerva (Reynolds).

Athena's oddball way of life, which includes belief in numerology and mystical pronouncements from her grandmother (Evelyn Varden), threatens to derail Adam's burgeoning political career. Can true love and vegetarian eating conquer all?

There's really not a great deal of conflict in this easy-going 95-minute film, which is pure silly fun with an agreeable cast who are all very familiar to fans of MGM musicals.

Powell and Reynolds had previously costarred with Louis Calhern, who plays their grandfather here, in TWO WEEKS WITH LOVE (1950); Powell and Damone had costarred in RICH, YOUNG AND PRETTY (1951). The following year the two ladies would reteam with Damone for HIT THE DECK (1955).

The movie was also a reunion for Powell and two of her fellow brides from SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1954), Virginia Gibson and Nancy Kilgas. (A bit of trivia: In 1957 Gibson and Kilgas both also appeared together in FUNNY FACE along with fellow "bride" Ruta Lee.) The other sisters in ATHENA are played by Jane Fischer, Cecile Rogers, and Dolores Starr.

The original score by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane is bright and cheerful, including catchy tunes like "Vocalize" and "I Never Felt Better." Damone gets to sing Martin and Blane's "The Boy Next Door" from MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944), here reworked as "The Girl Next Door."

The leads are all charming, particularly Reynolds and Damone, with their relatively angst-free courtship; they take one look at each other and it's all over but the wedding bells!  They're cute as the proverbial buttons.

The cast includes Linda Christian as Adam's uptight fiancee.  Christian was then Mrs. Tyrone Power; it's interesting to note that she was briefly married to ATHENA's leading man, Purdom, in the early '60s.

Henry Nakamura of WESTWARD THE WOMEN (1951) is engaging as Adam's butler. Nakamura had a relatively brief film career, 1951-58, but he always did a nice job, and I wish his career had been longer.

The supporting cast also includes Ray Collins, Carl Benton Reid, Steve Reeves, and Kathleen Freeman. Look for "dress extra" Bess Flowers who has a rare speaking role in a party scene.

ATHENA was directed by Richard Thorpe. It was filmed in CinemaScope and Eastmancolor by Robert Planck.

Blu-ray extras imported from the Warner Archive's previously released remastered DVD are the trailer and three musical outtakes. The Blu-ray also has a song selection menu.

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. Warner Archive Blu-rays may be ordered from the Warner Archive Amazon Store or any online retailers where Blu-rays are sold.

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