Gene Kelly Collection (1942-1952, Warner Archive Collection, 4 Blu-rays, 1 G, 3 NR, 420 min.). This set contains two of the greatest musicals of all time in “Singin’ in the Rain” and “An American in Paris,” plus the rom-com musical “For Me and My Gal” and the adventure “The Pirate.” It comes highly recommended.

Gene Kelly wore many hats in Hollywood. He was a director, actor, producer, dancer, choreographer and singer. Kelly joined MGM in 1941, after appearing in the 1940 Broadway production of “Pal Joey” (another favorite musical of mine). Kelly had intended to return to the stage after he finished filming his film debut in “For Me and My Gal” with Judy Garland. Due to the success of the picture, Kelly decided to stay in Hollywood.

Kelly starred with some of Hollywood’s most famous leading ladies, including Lucille Ball, Rita Hayworth, Cyd Charisse, Debbie Reynolds and the afore-mentioned Garland. He co-starred with Frank Sinatra in a number of films, including “Take Me out the Ball Game,” “On the Town” and “Anchors Aweigh,” earning a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for the latter. Nowhere was Kelly more engaging than in 1952’s “Singin’ in the Rain,” the film most associated with Kelly.

Kelly’s many awards include a 1952 Honorary Academy Award; Life Achievement Awards from the American Film Institute and the Screen Actors Guild; and the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. His star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame is at 6161 Hollywood Boulevard.

For Me and My Gal (1942, NR, 104 min.). Kelly made his film debut in this Busby Berkeley directed film, which stars Garland as Jo Hayden, part of a struggling vaudeville team with Jimmy Metcalf (George Murphy of “Broadway Melody of 1940,” “This Is the Army”). The new show headliner is Harry Palmer (Kelly). While Jo is immediately put off by Harry, who has a clown persona on stage, one evening they perform the title song in a coffee shop, sparking instant chemistry.

As Jo and Harry struggle in small theaters with the ultimate goal to play the Palace Theatre in New York and get married after their first matinee, World War I intrudes and the film shifts focus, becoming more of a military recruitment film (much like “Captain of the Clouds”). Harry gets in trouble for trying to delay induction due to their wedding plans, which also causes a rift with Jo, as her studying-to-be-a-doctor brother Danny (Richard Quine) had gone and served in the Army.

The film also stars Martha Eggerth as singer Even Minard, who takes an interest in Harry. Songs include the title track, “Ballin’ the Jack,” “By the Beautiful Sea” and other popular songs of the time.

Extras include audio commentary by John Fricke from 2004; two musical outtakes with photo recreations; the Screen Guild Players audio version with Garland, Kelly and Dick Powell (29:37); two vintage musical shorts, both featuring Garland; and a musical Leo is on the Air radio promo (13:19). Film 3.5 stars; extras 3.75 stars

The Pirate (1948, NR, 101 min.). This Technicolor musical romance, released my birth year, was directed by the great Vincente Minnelli (“Gigi,” “An American in Paris”) and starred his wife, Garland, and dancer-choreographer Kelly. It features music by Cole Porter. Despite all that, the film was a bit of a flop, as many thought it was too stylized. In fact, it is very stylized, with some amazing costumes and three dynamic musical-dancing set pieces.

Based on a 1911 play and a more recent 1942 play that featured Alfred Lunt, the thin story has Manuela (Garland of “The Wizard of Oz,” “A Star is Born”) engaged to her small town’s richest man Don Pedro Vargas (a middle-aged Walter Slezak of “Lifeboat,” “The Inspector General”) through action by her Aunt Inez (Gladys Cooper of “My Fair Lady,” “Rebecca”). Manuela would much rather have adventure, see the Caribbean and perhaps have romance with famed pirate Mack the Black (who the opening song is about).

Well, Manuela finally gets to see the Caribbean, only to encounter traveling actor Serafin of Madrid (Kelly), who falls instantly for her and, at his show that night, puts her under hypnosis such that she does a big singing and dance number (“Voodoo”). Eventually, Serafin pretends to be Mack the Black to win Manuela’s heart.

The film features Minnelli’s vivid production design and an ahead-of-its-time pirate ballet by Kelly that is very athletic in nature, as is, even more so, his “Be a Clown” dance with the Nicholas Brothers. A nice reprise of the latter has Kelly and Garland’s characters dressed as clowns, doing an old vaudeville routine. Offscreen, the production was plagued by delays due to Garland’s many illnesses, as well as the fact that her marriage to Minnelli was ending.

Much of this is detailed in the very good making-of featurette (19 min.) that includes interviews with Garland’s daughter, Liza Minnelli, as well as Kelly’s widow, Patricia Ward Kelly, and historian John Fricke. Fricke also does audio commentary on the film. Additionally, there are three audio outtakes, sung by Garland: a longer “Love of My Life” (4:43); an unused version of “Mack the Black”; and a long “Voodoo.” Roger Edens is heard in five piano-and-voice guide versions, and there are two radio interviews, one with Kelly about his “On the Town” (4:18) and one with Garland about “The Pirate” (4:37). The release is rounded out by a vintage featurette, Pete Smith’s “You Can’t Win” (7:53), and a humorous Tom & Jerry cartoon, “Cat Fishin’.” Grade: film 3.5 stars; extras 3 stars

An American in Paris (1951, NR, 114 min.). Legendary producer Arthur Freed developed the film based on George Gershwin’s celebrated 1928 orchestral work, and assembled a stellar team of talents to bring forth what became a landmark film. With Alan Jay Lerner crafting an original screenplay around the songs of George and Ira Gershwin, Minnelli again directing Kelly, who also choreographed, and newcomer Leslie Caron, then known as a teenage French dancer, the results were unforgettable.

More than two dozen Gershwin songs are used throughout the film, including such favorites as “Love Is Here to Stay,” “I Got Rhythm,” “‘S Wonderful” and “Embraceable You.” Added to this are lavish sets and costumes, tremendous Technicolor cinematography, a romantic love story and a climactic 18-minute, show-stopping ballet. The film unexpectedly won six of the eight Academy Awards it was nominated for. The wins including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Music. Freed and Kelly both got special Oscars. It also the first musical to win a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical).

The story centers around ex-GI Jerry Mulligan (Kelly), a struggling American painter in Paris, who is discovered by an influential heiress (Nina Foch), who has an interest in more than Jerry’s art. Jerry in turn falls for Lise (Caron), a young French girl who already is engaged to cabaret singer Henri Baurel (Georges Guétary of “Loves of Casanova”). Jerry jokes, sings and dances with his best friend, an acerbic would-be concert pianist Adam Cook (Oscar Levant of “The Band Wagon”), and romantic complications abound.

Extras include audio commentary by widow Patricia Ward Kelly, Freed, Kelly, Minnelli, Lerner and others, as well as an excellent making-of feature (42:26; 2008) with many of the same participants. It points out that Kelly was trained in ballet and includes two of the now-grownup former kids used in the delightful “I’ve Got Rhythm” scene. There is Kelly singing “I’ve Gota Crush on You,” the ballad scene cut from the film. The making-of also goes into detail on the creation of the closing title ballet, including how the sets were designed in the styles of painters Raoul Dufy (the Place De La Concorde), Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Maurice Utrillo, Vincent van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Other extras include a “Loved Walked In” outtake sung by Guétary (2:44); seven audio outtakes (14:33); three radio interviews by the film’s musical director Johnny Green, Kelly, and Kelly with Caron (13:54 total); an excellent 2002 PBS American Masters documentary “Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer” (84 min.); a “Paris on Parade” travelogue (8:53); and the MGM cartoon “Symphony in Slang” (6:44). Grade: film 5 stars; extras 4 stars

Singin’ in the Rain (1952, G, 103 min.). The musical is set at the time when movies were first becoming "talkies." Kelly plays Don Lockwood, a hoofer-turned-matinee idol who is trying to make a non-silent film. Debbie Reynolds (“The Unsinkable Molly Brown”) plays Cathy Selden, a possible love interest, while Donald O'Connor (“Call Me Madam”) plays Cosmo Brown, Don’s dancing buddy. His shrewish co-star Lina Lamont is played by Jean Hagen (“Adam’s Rib,” “The Asphalt Jungle,” TV’s “The Danny Thomas Show”). Dancers Cyd Charisse and Rita Moreno also co-star. Directed by Kelly and Stanley Donen, the film was nominated for two Oscars and often is called the best movie musical ever.

Writers Adolph Green and Betty Comden had discovered that MGM had a cache of many wonderful but unheralded songs featured in the studio’s films from the early sound era. This inspired them to use these tunes as the basis of a screenplay about the trials and tribulations endured by people in the film industry when sound was introduced, a process that made plenty of new stars, while destroying many established ones. Cathy’s lovely voice wins her a place opposite Don in the new “talkie” film, pushing aside the screechy-toned leading lady Lina.

The film has some of the most memorable and exuberant musical and comedy sequences ever filmed, including a dance number that travels through several rooms. Kelly found a way to include a now legendary extended-fantasy dance number with Charisse. O’Connor’s gymnastics in the famed “Make ’Em Laugh” number are so stunning that today they resemble computer-generated effects. The most unforgettable sequence is Kelly’s performance of the title song, with him swinging from a lamppost in the rain, delighted at falling in love.

Only the score and Hagen received Oscar nominations, though.

Bonus features include audio commentary by Reynolds, O'Connor, Charisse, Kathleen Freeman, Donen, writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Baz Luhrmann and Rudy Behlmer; a feature on how the film influenced many of today’s performers, including Paula Abdul and cast members of “High School Musical” (50:48); and a 17-number musical jukebox, to play all in order or randomly or individual tracks. Grade: film 5 stars; extras 3 stars

Rating guide: 5 stars = classic; 4 stars = excellent; 3 stars = good; 2 stars = fair; dog = skip it

Zaza (1939, Universal, Blu-ray, NR, 85 min.). Claudette Colbert plays the title character, a bubbly vaudeville singer who falls in love with Dufresne (Herbert Marshall of “Trouble in Paradise,” “The Little Foxes,” “The Fly”), not knowing until late in the relationship that he is married, with a wife and young daughter back in Paris. They initially meet when Zaza’s stepmother Muddy (Dorothy Tree of “The Asphalt Jungle”), leaving the train, stumbles into Dufresne’s arms at the Saint-Mery, France station. Zaza has a brief conversation with Dufresne and invites him to see her perform at the local music hall.

While Dufresne declines, saying he must travel to Paris, he actually does go to the show and every performance for months, but he never comes backstage to meet her, which she very much wants. The other half of Zaza’s act is Cascart (Bert Lahr of “The Wizard of Oz”). Songwriter Bussy (Rex O’Malley of “Camille,” “Midnight”) wants Zaza to perform his new song, which she agrees to, if he gets Dufresne to come to her dressing room for five minutes, as she figures she can hook him into dinner and staying overnight.

Although she overdoes the flirting, her plan works. The film then jumps forward six months, when Dufresne and Zaza are basically a couple, and Zaza is having renewed conflict with rival singer Florianne (Genevieve Tobin of “The Petrified Forest,” “One Hour with You”) and Zaza is being pursued by wealthy Marchand (Ernest Cossart of “Tom Brown’s School Days”). It also is when she learns of Dufresne’s marriage.

Finally, the film jumps forward almost four years, to when Zaza finally is a famous performer in Paris, and old wounds resurface.

The film, directed by George Cukor (“My Fair Lady,” “The Philadelphia Story”), is based on a stage play on the same name. Its four songs are by Frederick Hollander (also the score) and Frank Loesser. The story was filmed by Paramount in 1915 with Pauline Frederick and was previously remade in 1923 with Gloria Swanson. Grade: film 3.25 stars

Skylark (1941, Universal, Blu-ray, NR, 94 min.). This time, Claudette Colbert plays Lydia Kenyon, whose husband Tony (Ray Milland of “The Lost Weekend,” “Dial M for Murder”) is a work-driven advertising salesman, more interested in a dog food account deal than her. Tony even asks his friend George (Walter Abel of “Holiday Inn,” “Mr. Skeffington”) to buy his fifth wedding anniversary present for Lydia. Neither knows Lydia was in the store when George stopped by and she heard everything and then changed the present so Tony could not describe it.

At their anniversary party, after a run-in with Myrtle Vantine (Binnie Barnes of “The Times of Their Lives,” “The Private Life of Henry VIII”), the wife of the dog food company owner, to whom Tony gives away their cook, Lydia meets lawyer Jim Blake (Brian Aherne of “Merrily We Live,” “A Night to Remember”) and drives off with him for a couple of hours.

After another argument with Tony the next morning, Lydia decides to divorce Tony and seeks Jim’s help.

A highlight of the film, directed by Mark Sandrich (“Shall We Dance,” “Top Hat,” “Holiday Inn”), comes after Lydia encounters Tony outside Jim’s work building, they board a crowded subway car and continue arguing, leading to a half-dozen of their fellow passengers butting into the conversation. Three women support Tony’s view, while three men support Lydia’s.

After Tony lies about quitting his job, which momentarily made Lydia happy, she starts an affair with Jim. Another good comic moment is when Lydia and Jim go sailing and she tries to make coffee while being tossed around below decks. The scene is sort of separate from the rest of the film, but it is very funny. Grade: film 3 stars

Maid of Salem (1937, Universal, Blu-ray, NR, 86 min.). Directed by Frank Lloyd (“Mutiny on the Bounty”), the film recreates the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 in Massachusetts, when hysteria and fear led to the hanging of 15 women as witches. Here, Claudette Colbert plays Barbara Clarke, part of a strict puritan family, run by her Aunt Ellen (Louise Dresser of “The Scarlet Empress,” “The Blind Goddess”). They make candles for the community, which leads her to encounter Roger Coverton (an unusual role for Fred MacMurray, also of “The Caine Mutiny,” “Double Indemnity” and TV’s “My Three Sons”), who is a fugitive from Virginia because he spoke against the English Crown.

Their encounters develop into Barbara’s first love affair, but since Roger is hiding, glimpses lead others to believe he is a demon. There also is a slave cook (Madame Sul-Te-Wan as Tituba) who has been entertaining others with dark, mysterious stories. Both become subject to the witch hunt, thanks to one particular family.

The story is a bit too dull for my taste and having a thunderstorm start during a town warning speech about witches and demons is way too much. Grade: film 2.25 stars

House on Haunted Hill (1959, Film Masters Archive Collection, Blu-ray, NR. 74 min.). This ghostly mystery from producer-director William Castle (“Mr. Sardonicus,” “13 Ghosts,” “The Tingler,” producer of “Rosemary’s Baby”) has enough scares when seven people spend a night in a supposedly haunted house. The house, by the way, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1924.

The host is the house’s new owner, Frederick Loren (Vincent Price of “The Abominable Dr. Phibes,” ‘Laura,” “Edward Scissorhands”), who is throwing a ghost party for his wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart of “The Scarlet Hour”). The viewer soon learns their marriage is not a happy one.

Frederick has invited five guests, with each hoping to collect the $10,000 he promised if they spend the evening locked in the house, which supposedly has seven ghosts. The guests are test pilot Lance Schroeder (Richard Long of TV’s “The Big Valley”); newspaper columnist Ruth Bridges (Julie Mitchum of “The High and Mighty”); previous house owner/drunk Watson Pritchard (Elisha Cook Jr. of “The Maltese Falcon,” The Big Sleep,” “Rosemary’s Baby”), whose brother and sister-in-law were killed in the house; psychiatrist Dr. David Trent (Alan Marshal of “The White Cliffs of Dover”), who specializes in hysteria; and secretary Nora Manning (Carolyn Craig of “Giant”), who works for one of Frederick’s companies, but has never met him. Manning is the one prone to seeing creepy things and hysteria.

The script is clever and the pacing is good. One amusing touch is the skeleton is listed in the cast credits as performed by Skeleton. The film comes with audio commentary by Heath Holland and a 12-page booklet with an essay on Castle’s career by Jason A. Ney and replicas of vintage Castle movie ads. Grade: film 3.5 stars; extras 2.5 stars

Tom and Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology 1940-1958 (1940-1958, Warner Archive Collection, 6 Blu-rays, NR, 20 hours). This excellent collection contains all 114 cartoon shorts, the entire series as released in theaters by MGM. The cartoons, uncut, have been restored for this release. There also are hours of extras, including these new featurettes: “Lady of the House: The Story of Mammy Two Shoes,” their beloved caretaker in her untold story and that of actress Lillian Randolph who provided her voice; and “Animal Hijinks: The Friends and Foes of Tom and Jerry,” from the bulldogs Spike and Tyke to the alley cats Butch and Toodles Galore. There also are nine vintage featurettes, including excerpts from MGM’s “Anchors Away” with Gene Kelly and “Dangerous When Wet” with Esther Williams. Additionally, there are 20 audio commentaries by animation experts and the bonus shorts: “Good Will to Men” (1955); “Give and Tyke” (1957); and “Scat Cats” (1957). Grade: set 4 stars; extras 3.75 stars

Two and a Half Men: The Complete Series (2003-2015, Warner Bros., 25 Blu-rays, NR, 5,576 min.). The TV comedy takes place in a Malibu beach house. The series was one of the longest running live-action sitcoms in TV history. The basic plot is a hedonistic jingle writer's free-wheeling life comes to an abrupt halt when his brother and 10-year-old nephew move into his beach-front house. The cast includes brothers Charlie Harper (Charlie Sheen through 2011) and Alan Harper (Jon Cryer, all 262 episodes); their estranged (and strange) children, Jenny (Amber Tamblyn) and Jake (Angus T. Jones); gazillionaire Walden Schmidt (Ashton Kutcher, 2011-2015); and housekeeper Berta (Conchata Ferrel). The series ran 12 seasons with high jinks involving bad boys, funny men, gorgeous girls, celebrity neighbors, sexy stalkers and eccentric parents. Grade: set 3.25 stars