Athena Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Athena Blu-ray Movie Review

Health nuts.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III May 2, 2022

Musicals are rarely "story first"... and even with that handicap, I've seen some questionable tales told partially through song, from Popeye to Xanadu. But few musical scripts feel as thrown-together as the one for Richard Thorpe's Athena, which combines physical fitness, vague mysticism, sexual harassment, and lukewarm romantic drama with limp results. A mild hit for MGM in 1954, Athena certainly has its moments: most can be traced back to either the original tunes (by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane) or the titular performance by lovely Jane Powell, who plays an early prototype of what film fans might now call a "Manic Pixie Dream Girl". And Miss Athena's got six sisters, too! Wotta dame!

But don't get your hopes up, young simps, because the Mulvain girls are part of a family cult. Things start off innocently enough when Athena meets lawyer Adam Shaw (Edmund Purdom), who's engaged to Beth Hallson (Linda Christian), at a garden center and offers advice on how to bring his dying peach trees back to life. So far so good, right? But Athena's got answers for everything, often citing numerology and astrology (the first red flags) before just showing later up to do all of Adam's gardening... as well as to give him a passionate kiss and insist they'll be married soon. Naturally, Beth isn't happy and Adam's put off too, but their new gardener just won't take no for an answer. If that weren't enough, Athena basically offers her beautiful sister Minerva (Debbie Reynolds) to Adam's old military pal Johnny (Vic Damone), who's already got himself a legion of adoring female fans as a successful crooner.

But the real red flags fly when we meet the rest of Athena's family, both at their health food store and the picturesque Mulvain compound... er, house. It's quite a group and includes five more sisters -- also named after Greek and Roman goddesses -- along with their beefy bodyguards and, of course, the fearless leaders: grandma Salome (Evelyn Varden) and grandpa Ulysses (Louis Calhern), who's training two young studs for an upcoming Mr. Universe competition (one of whom is Steve Reeves, the real-life 1950 Mr. Universe who would star in Hercules later that decade).

It really does sound like the kind of story you'd write while high and, combined with the home-wrecker mentality of our flirtatious, domineering lead, means that Athena hasn't necessarily aged like wine -- I'm sure that most audiences back then didn't know what to make of it either. The songs are good to great, sure, and as a whole this odd production is at least worth a run-through, but at best it's much closer to a kitschy relic than buried treasure. As usual, though, Warner Archive treats Athena with the same level of respect as a five-star film with yet another beautifully remastered A/V presentation and several bonus features mostly ported over from their own 2011 DVD release.

Athena Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Vaguely advertised as "newly remastered" on Warner Archive's original press release (which usually indicates a 2K scan of the interpositive), Athena looks quite fetching on Blu-ray. The boutique label's track record with any source material (let alone from the Technicolor era) is second to none and, as seen in the accompanying screenshots, they have once again worked their magic with another highly detailed transfer that's clean as a whistle but still retains a comfortable amount of film grain. Although some of Athena's production design is lacking (the Mulvain compound, for example, is probably the least convincing "location" I've seen in a mainstream musical), it's still a very attractive and colorful production overall due to its wide variety of locales and palettes. Warner Archive's Blu-ray runs at a very high bit rate on this dual-layered disc, and no obvious compression or encoding-related issues could be detected aside from trace levels of posterization during some of the darker scenes. But this is still a mighty impressive disc as-is, and I'd image that long-time fans of the film will be pleased to finally have a copy this carefully cleaned and polished.

Last year, Warner Archive's now-quiet YouTube channel uploaded a few clips showing off the new restoration including the three-minute opening clip and sexual assault that's OK because a woman does it. Gorgeous work indeed!

Athena Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The restored DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix sounds great too; it splits the different between true stereo (the original score and soundtrack by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane) and split mono for everything else. The overall effect is quite as jarring as similar films from this era -- even if some left-right channel panning would have obviously opening up some of the larger scenes, including the Mr. Universe contest, Athena is a mostly front-and-center experience so mono gets the job done just fine. Dialogue remains crisp and clear throughout, with well-balanced background effects and only the bare minimum of hissing or other age-related issues. The songs, of course, sound terrific with a decently full-bodied dynamic range more that suits the material perfectly. No sync issues could be detected, save for bit of dodgy lip-syncing here and there. Overall, a fantastic mix that also likely rivals original theatrical showings.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature only.

Athena Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a standard keepcase with poster-themed cover artwork and no inserts of any kind. Its bonus features are minimal but appreciated; most are ported over from Warner Archive's own 2011 remastered DVD (the film's only release on that format), although a few upgrades have been made.

• Outtake Musical Numbers - Three excised musical performances from the film presented in raw format. These have also been newly scanned in HD and are given a courtesy bump to DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio.

• "Competition Dance" (3:36) - Multiple takes of a group ballet dance performed on stage.
• "Imagine (Second Reprise)" (4:38) - With Vic Damone and Debbie Reynolds.
• "Love Can Change the Stars (Duet Reprise)" (5:12) - With Jane Powell and Edmund Purdum.

• Theatrical Trailer (3:31) - This rousing promotional piece can also be seen here.

• Song Selection - Instant access to Athena's 15 main musical numbers, listed below.

• Main Title
• "The Girl Next Door"
• "Vocalize"
• "Imagine"
• "Harmonize"
• "Imagine" (Reprise)
• "Love Can Change the Stars"
• "I Never Felt Better" (Part One)
• "I Never Felt Better" (Part Two)
• "Chacun Le Sait"
• "Venezia"
• "Jalousie" (Mr. Universe Contest)
• "Love Can Change the Stars" (Reprise)
• "Harmonize" (Final Reprise)
• End Cast

Athena Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Richard Thorpe's Athena just might be the oddest musical I've seen in recent memory... but while odd is usually a good thing in my book, it never quite gels as anything more than a loose collection of good-to-great songs held together by a truly harebrained story. Not exactly an essential genre entry from this era, but I'm sure it has its fans. They'll certainly love Warner Archive's new Blu-ray, which features a gorgeous A/V presentation and a few lightweight but appropriate extras... some of which feature additional restoration work, which is a nice touch. So while it's not necessarily blind buy material (unless you're a big fan of the cast, of course), this is still a fine package for the right audience.