One of the top five screwball comedies of the 1930s, this helped to cement a genre that waxed golden until the end of the Second World War. Director Leo McCarey won an Oscar for Best Director for this 1937 romantic comedy--one of the most successful films of his career. Irene Dunne and Cary Grant are a squabbling couple who separates because of supposed infidelities on both sides. They part, but cannot really keep away from each other. Grant finds himself hooked up with a socialite, Dunne becomes engaged to a millionaire hick played by the hapless Ralph Bellamy (as if he ever stood a chance as the "other" man!). When not dating others or baiting one another in a verbal war, Grant and Dunne wage a custody battle over their pathetic pooch. Gags, double entendre, witty remarks, snide comments, and fast-paced dialogue helped this to garner six Academy Award nominations. The Awful Truth was awfully good to Dunne and Grant, as both were breaking out of much more serious moulds and this secured their positions. --Rochelle O'Gorman
If Interiors was Woody Allen's Bergman movie, and Stardust Memories was his Fellini movie, then you could say that Sleeper is his Buster Keaton movie. Relying more on visual/conceptual/slapstick gags than his trademark verbal wit, Sleeper is probably the funniest of what would become known as Allen's "early, funny films" and a milestone in his development as a director. Allen plays Miles Monroe, cryogenically frozen in 1973 (he went into the hospital for an ulcer operation) and thawed 200 years later. Society has become a sterile, Big Brother-controlled dystopia, and Miles joins the underground resistance--joined by a pampered rich woman (Diane Keaton at her bubbliest). Among the most famous gags are Miles' attempt to impersonate a domestic-servant robot; the Orgasmatron, a futuristic home appliance that provides instant pleasure; a McDonald's sign boasting how many trillions the chain has served; and an inflatable suit that provides the means for a quick getaway. The kooky thawing scenes were later blatantly (and admittedly) ripped off by Mike Myers in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. --Jim Emerson
Welcome to Cornwall England's westernmost county. The year is 1780 and the political and social atmosphere is as stormy as the sea that pounds the rocky shores. Into this landscape Captain Ross Poldark (Robin Ellis) returns from the American war to take up his inheritance and take up with his beloved Elizabeth (Jill Townsend). But with false reports of his death having reached Cornwall ahead of him what will he find? And what of the young urchin Demelza (Angharad Rees) the new ho
Welcome to Cornwall England's westernmost county. The year is 1780 and the political and social atmosphere is as stormy as the sea that pounds the rocky shores. Into this landscape Captain Ross Poldark (Robin Ellis) returns from the American war to take up his inheritance and take up with his beloved Elizabeth (Jill Townsend).
A film biography with a difference, Sir John Mills' Moving Memories charts the life of one of Britain's most distinguished actors. Compiled from interviews with the man himself and with his family and friends, it traces his career from humble beginnings to all-time great of British cinema. The many film clips reveal an electric screen presence and a willingness to undertake a range of difficult, challenging roles. The package creates major interest with its excerpts from hundreds of hours of home movies shot by Mills during the 1950s and 1960s. These not only capture his young family but many of the period's biggest stars at their most candid: there cannot be many films showing Sir Laurence Olivier belly-flopping into a swimming pool. This is a fascinating document of a bygone age and a fine tribute to a genuine legend. On the DVD: Sir John Mills' Moving Memories is a short main feature and there has been little attempt to make use of the additional disc space. Extras are limited to text-only biographies and filmographies, plus a selection of movie stills. The quality of the picture and sound betrays the film's television origins, although the home movie footage is blessed with a rich, vibrant colour. --Phil Udell
Ernest Hemingway's tragic wartime romance comes to vivid life in this classic 1932 film starring Oscar winners Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes. The cataclysm of WW1 sets the stage for an impassioned story of star-crossed love between a daring American ambulance driver (Cooper) and an English nurse (Hayes) in an army hospital. The tumult of war conspires to push the pair together and then wrench them apart in what becomes an ultimate test of love. Boasting beautiful cinematogrpahy and poe
This dense adaption of Ernest Hemmingway's novel features Gary Cooper as American soldier Lt. Henry and his illfated love affair with British Nurse Catherine portrayed by Hellen Hayes during World War I. Filmed in beautiful Italy the two lovers will stop at nothing to be together but Lt. Henry's internal struggles ultimately threaten the relationship. Hemmingway's theme of questioning the nature of war and fighting is fully recognised under Frank Borzage's direction.
A precious jewel 'The Star Of Rhodesia' is stolen from a train. The master detective is forced to use all his powers of deduction with the help of his trusty aid Dr. Watson in this fast paced thriller.
The 1932 version of A Farewell to Arms owes as much to the shimmering house style of Paramount Pictures as it does the novel by Ernest Hemingway. If Hemingway purists can get past the romanticising of the book, however, this film offers its own glossy appeal. On the Italian front in World War I an American ambulance driver (Gary Cooper) falls in love with a nurse (Helen Hayes). Cooper was a Hemingway friend in real life, and later played the hero of Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls; his boyish simplicity is just right for director Frank Borzage's heartfelt approach. The Oscar-winning cinematography of ace cameraman Charles Lang is the kind of lush black and white that can capture the glow from a cigarette as it plays across Cooper's darkened face--a breathtaking touch. The jaded battle scenes show the influence of the hit film version of All Quiet on the Western Front, especially in a gripping montage depicting Cooper's progress alone through the war zone. Hemingway would have none of it, of course; he once disdainfully wrote that "in the first picture version Lt. Henry deserted because he didn't get any mail and then the whole Italian Army went along, it seems, to keep him company". This is first and foremost a love story, however, and as such it succeeds beautifully, right through to the remarkably intense ending. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com
This dense adaption of Ernest Hemmingway's novel features Gary Cooper as American soldier Lt. Henry and his ill-fated love affair with British Nurse Catherine portrayed by Hellen Hayes during World War I. Filmed in beautiful Italy the two lovers will stop at nothing to be together but Lt. Henry's internal struggles ultimately threaten the relationship. Hemmingway's theme of questioning the nature of war and fighting is fully recognised under Frank Borzage's direction.
The Secret Weapon (Dir. Roy William Neill 1942): The inventor of a secret weapon and its prototype are abducted leaving the wartime Allies in dire need of assistance. Sherlock Holmes is called and begins to do battle with Professor Moriarty who will later become his arch-enemy... Dressed To Kill (Dir. Roy William Neill 1946): A beautiful woman and her gang of criminals attempt to match their wits with Sherlock Holmes in this murder/mystery set in Dartmoor and London
Dressed To KillDressed to Kill is the last of the fourteen Sherlock Holmes movies starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. The story revolves around three music boxes that contain printing plates for counterfeiting money and the race between Holmes and the criminals who want these plates. It has all the atmosphere and banter between Holmes and Watson that we love to see again and again. There is also a beautiful woman and all the other plot twists we expect from a Sherlock Holm
A wartime modernisation of Arthur Conan Doyle's urbane sleuth once again essayed by Basil Rathbone in which Holmes and Watson (Nigel Bruce) are called in to unravel the mystery behind mysterious wireless transmissions apparently from Nazi Germany being broadcast over the BBC...
Farewell To Arms (Dir. Frank Borzage 1932): Ernest Hemingway's tragic wartime romance comes to vivid life in this classic 1932 film starring Oscar winners Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes. The cataclysm of WW1 sets the stage for an impassioned story of star-crossed love between a daring American ambulance driver (Cooper) and an English nurse (Hayes) in an army hospital. The tumult of war conspires to push the pair together and then wrench them apart in what becomes an ultimate tes
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