This CinemaScope treatment of Frank Loesser's hit Broadway musical Guys and Dolls is a deeply rewarding visual and musical experience. Frank Sinatra turns in one of his best screen performances running a close second to Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons, looking adorable and singing sweetly. In essence this is a piece of photographed theatre mounted on a handsome scale. The striking set designs and a brilliantly executed soundtrack are courtesy of two Broadway craftsmen Oliver Smith and conductor Jay Blackton. Photographer Harry Stradling brings a meticulous eye for detail when his camera stationed on the auditorium side of the frame, peers into Miss Adelaide's bathroom cupboard as she views the lines of medicine bottles in her celebrated "lament". Sinatra, in his vocal prime, sings a new number to Adelaide (Vivian Blaine)--arranged by Nelson Riddle--and Brando and Simmons strike chords in all their scenes from their opening duet "I'll Know" through to their evening out at a Havana bistro where she gets pie-eyed on a Bacardi milk-shake, tipsily wondering "If I were a Bell". Stubby Kaye also from the Broadway cast recreates the show-stopping "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat". Michael Kidd's choreography for "Luck Be a Lady" is razor-sharp and superbly captured in the CinemaScope format, though the formalised staging of the opening ought to have been rethought for this medium. The biggest pity is that Loesser amended some of his lyrics and replaced several tunes from his original score with inferior material. On the DVD: The DVD trailer hosted by Ed Sullivan makes much of the $1,000,000 cheque producer Samuel Goldwyn paid for the rights and the previews of the picture he obtained for his weekly television show. There's no denying that the remastered stereophonic soundtrack captures the Broadway sound to thrilling effect without it being overglamorised. The picture looks splendid too--never settle for the compromise version we've endured all these years on television! --Adrian Edwards
Von Ryan's Express (1965): Colonel Joseph Ryan of the US Army Air Forces is shot down in Italy and taken to a prison camp populated by the Royal Army's 9th Fusiliers and run by sadistic commandant Battaglia. With the recent passing of their commanding colonel the 9th Fusiliers under Major Eric Fincham must now answer to the new senior officer of the prisoners Ryan. Also in the camp are several American prisoners who don't cotton to Major Fincham's stubborn passive resistance
Hollywood legends Marlon Brando Frank Sinatra Jean Simmons and Vivian Blaine (from the original Broadway cast) are dazzling in this masterpiece unleashing a spectacular song-and-dance show that's loaded with entertainment. The slickest big-time New York City gamblers Sky Masterson (Brando) and Nathan Detroit (Sinatra) can't resist making or taking a bet on anything. So when a pretty missionary (Simmons) sets up shop in the neighbourhood Nathan stakes a grand that Sky can't sed
West Side Story (Dir. Robert Wise Jerome Robbins 1961): Garnering a total of ten Academy Awards - including Best Picture of 1961 - West Side Story set a brilliant standard for movie musicals that remains unsurpassed to this day. Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins from Ernest Lehman's spectacular screenplay the film combines the unforgettable score of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim with Robbins' exuberant choreography to create a transcendent fusion of realism and fantasy that will forever be a feast for the eye the ear and ultimately the heart. A triumph on every level this electrifying musical sets the ageless tragedy of Romeo and Juliet against a backdrop of gang warfare in the slums of 1950's New York. Guys And Dolls (Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz 1955): Hollywood legends Marlon Brando Frank Sinatra Jean Simmons and Vivian Blaine (from the original Broadway cast) are dazzling in this masterpiece unleashing a spectacular song-and-dance show that's loaded with entertainment. The slickest big-time New York City gamblers Sky Masterson (Brando) and Nathan Detroit (Sinatra) can't resist making or taking a bet on anything. So when a pretty missionary (Simmons) sets up shop in the neighbourhood Nathan stakes a grand that Sky can't seduce her. But all bets are off when Sky falls madly in love in this romantic musical spectacular that sets the Big Apple afire with excitement. Featuring hits like ""Luck Be A Lady"" and ""A Woman In Love"" this smash film version of one of Broadway's most popular musicals is guaranteed rip-roaring five-star entertainment. Fiddler On The Roof (Dir. Norman Jewison 1971): An outstanding accomplishment in every way this lavishly produced and critically acclaimed screen adaptation of the international stage sensation tells the life-affirming story of Tevye (Topol) a poor milkman whose love pride and faith help him face the oppression of turn-of-the-century Tsarist Russia. Nominated eight Academy Awards (1971) including Best Picture and Best Director and featuring such classic songs as ""If I were a rich man"" ""Matchmaker"" and ""Sunrise Sunset"" 'Fiddler On The Roof' is a universal story of hope love and acceptance: a musical masterpiece!
Titles Comprise: 20 Million Miles To Earth (1957): A US army rocket ship returning from an exploratory flight to Venus crashes into the sea of Sicily freeing a small native Venusian creature called the Ymir. Eventually growing to enormous size it threatens the city of Rome. Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (1956): Aliens travel to Earth to seek help for their dying planet. However when they arrive at a U.S Army base the Army mistakenly greet them with gunfire... It Came From Beneath The Sea (1955): Submarine commander Pete Mathews (Kenneth Tobey) and scientists Lesley Joyce (Faith Domergue) and John Carter (Donald Curtis) battle an angry sea monster driven from the depths of the ocean by an H-bomb explosion. In search of non-contaminated food this tentacled tyrant counts among its victims a fishing trawler and its passengers a family sunning at the beach several San Francisco skyscrapers and even the Golden Gate Bridge!
Frustrated with the stuffy Midwest four college girls go on the road to seek fun in the sun of Fort Lauderdale during their spring vacation. But can they find happiness and romance while avoiding the pitfalls that await young ladies travelling alone?
Frank Sinatra stars with Kim Novak and Eleanor Parker in this riveting drama about a poker dealer/jazz musician who descends to skid row after becoming addicted to heroin. Will he make it back into the spotlight -- or even survive? Based upon the classic American novel by Nelson Algren The Man With The Golden Arm was far ahead of its time with its depiction of what drugs can do to even an ambitious person. Its cautionary tale still holds up today as heroin has come back to haunt not
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