Two Weeks with Love Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Two Weeks with Love Blu-ray Movie Review

Meet Me in the Catskills.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III September 17, 2025

A decently popular musical from MGM loaded with star power, Roy Rowland's Two Weeks with Love is as fluffy and lightweight as its title suggests. That's not a bad thing in this case: though slim on song and dance (at least for a film with choreography by Busby Berkeley), it's breezy and entertaining from start to finish with winning lead performances from lovely Jane Powell and Ricardo Montalbán during a pivotal time in his career, releasing only a few months before he sustained a near-fatal back injury during the filming of William A. Wellman's Across the Wide Missouri.

Not surprisingly, the plot isn't exactly complicated, as Two Weeks with Love primarily concerns the Robinson family during their two-week resort vacation in the Catskills. Love is in the air for lovely daughter Patti (Powell), at least as far as the owner's son Billy (Carleton Carpenter) is concerned, but their staggering less-than-one-year age difference is a deal-breaker for her. (Patti's younger sister Melba [Debbie Reynolds] would gladly take him, but hungry Billy has only one Robinson in mind.) Instead, Patti's got her eyes on much older Cuban man Demi Armendez (Montalbán)... but so does Valerie (Phyllis Kirk), an actress who's closer to his age. Patti's secret weapon in the battle for Demi's affections might be a form-fitting corset, but naturally her fuddy-duddy parents Horatio and Katherine (Louis Calhern and Ann Harding) don't approve. (It's mostly Mom, surprisingly enough, but daddy dearest eventually gives in.)

A lightweight, mostly harmless, and only occasionally creepy confection that's more than a little derivative of Meet Me in St. Louis, Two Weeks with Love skates by comfortably enough thanks to the star power involved, not to mention the terrific Technicolor cinematography by Alfred Gilks (who lensed An American in Paris the following year) that perhaps peaks the highest during a third-act flight of fancy. The music surprisingly runs a close third: it offers several moments of emotional weight and comedy, but the song breaks and performances aren't as densely packed as new viewers may be expecting and several of them are public domain pieces. Even so, the end result is easily digestible if not slightly forgettable in the long run but, if nothing else, Two Weeks with Love keeps it short and sweet at just 92 minutes and this makes it more ripe for occasional rewatches than most from the musical era of Golden Age Hollywood.

It almost goes without saying that Warner Archive's recent Blu-ray edition of Two Weeks with Love plays to the film's technical strengths, thanks in full to a robust new 4K-sourced restoration that equally highlights both the production and costume design. Lossless audio likewise helps bring the script and songs to life, while a decent collection of era-specific and retrospective extras help round out the package to one that's greater than the sum of its parts.

Two Weeks with Love Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

When combined, the separate phrases "Warner Archive" and "original Technicolor negatives" typically translate to an easy five-star rating for Blu-ray visuals, and Two Weeks with Love is no different. Like countless Golden Age spectacles tackled by the reliable boutique label, the sterling source material was scanned in 4K and treated to a round of careful manual cleanup, removing any and all trace elements of damage while preserving its original film grain. The result is a clean and crisp presentation that visual purists are certain to enjoy and, as seen by these direct-from-disc screenshots, it's a consistent presentation indeed whose only occasional dips into softness are likely tied to the source elements. Not surprisingly, the production design was made to take advantage of Technicolor's visual strengths, so die-hard fans and newcomers alike can expect bold color that's well-saturated with no bleeding in sight. Disc encoding is solid too, with the film running at a supportive bit rate from start to finish on this dual-layered disc. As always: if your number one reason for upgrading is image quality, buy with confidence that this is a definitive Blu-ray presentation.

Two Weeks with Love Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track is similarly flawless, boasting exceptional clarity during this dialogue-driven production that occasionally opens up nicely during musical performances and song cues. (Though obviously not true stereo, occasional "width" is achieved since the original mono source is presented in a split 2.0 container as usual.) All elements are nicely prioritized and won't require volume changes to improve clarity, thanks of course to WAC's careful restoration that leaves its original dynamic range intact as much as possible. No obvious signs of hiss or other age-related damage could be heard along the day, earning another easy five-star audio rating for the boutique label.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature only, not the extras listed below.

Two Weeks with Love Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with vintage poster-themed cover art. The bonus features are ported over from earlier DVD releases including WB's 2008 boxed set Classic Musicals from the Dream Factory: Volume 3.

• Reel Memories with Jane Powell (43:30) - Actually a TCM broadcast of Robert Osborne's 1996 "Private Screenings" interview with the actress, this mid-length interview is more than a little fawning and gushy but certainly watchable and features a great number of interesting memories from Powell's long career.

• Pete Smith Specialties (7:52) - This lightweight 1950 short, titled "Crashing the Movies" and just one of many Pete Smith shorts in the WB vault, features unbelievable newsreel clips with narration including one highlighting Frank Richards, a very brave carnival performer who voluntarily took cannonballs to the stomach.

• Screen Actors (8:34) - Another all-purpose black-and-white short, "Screen Actors" offers a short and era-specific overview of the process used by movie studios searching for talented newcomers.

• Garden Gopher (6:12) - This Tex Avery cartoon has been given a facelift since the DVD days, now matching the remaster seen on WAC's indispensable Tex Avery Screwball Classics: Volume 1.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:08) - A glamorous vintage promotional piece that can also be seen here.

• Song Selection - Instant access to the film's modest 11 musical cues including "A Heart That's Free", "The Aba Daba Honeymoon", "Beautiful Lady", "By the Light of the Silvery Moon", "A Media Luz", and others.

Two Weeks with Love Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Roy Rowland's Two Weeks with Love isn't exactly deep or challenging, but it's still very watchable 75 years after its original theatrical release when it appealed to delighted audiences still hungry for big-screen musical entertainment. The performances are all on point when needed and the (surprisingly limited) song breaks pull their weight too, and of course the glorious Technicolor cinematographer doesn't hurt either. Warner Archive's Blu-ray offers plenty of support including a five-star restoration sourced from the original negatives, solid lossless audio, and a nice set of supplements ported over from earlier DVDs. It's a no-brainer for fans and genre enthusiasts and comes Recommended.