The searing classic of paradise lost. The 24-year old idol-to-be James Dean plays Cal a wayward Salinas Valley youth who vies for the affection of his hardened father (Raymond Massey) with his favored brother Aron (Richard Davalos). Playing off the haunting sensitivity of Julie Harris Dean's performance earned one of the film's four Academy Award nominations. Among the movie's stellar performers Jo Van Fleet won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
Prepare for the chill of a lifetime as the master of suspense Rod Serling hosts this classic series featuring every spine-tingling episode from the complete first season of Night Gallery. Thrill to stories adapted from short stories by such legendary writers as H.P. Lovecraft and Conrad Aiken starring Hollywood greats including Diane Keaton Joan Crawford and Roddy McDowall and directed by cinematic masters like Steven Spielberg in this unforgettable series - now available on DVD for the first time! Episodes Comprise: 1. The Cemetery 2. Eyes 3. The Escape Route 4. The Dead Man 5. The Housekeeper 6. Room with a View 7. The Little Black Bag 8. The Nature of the Enemy 9. The House 10. Certain Shadows on the Wall 11. Make Me Laugh 12. Clean Kills and Other Trophies 13. Pamela's Voice 14. Lone Survivor 15. The Doll 16. The Last Laurel 17. They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar
Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp: Drama about the life of Clive Candy an English soldier who served in three wars (Boer World War I World War II) and had relationships with three women along the way (each played by Deborah Kerr). Despite Candy's tours-of-duty he harbors no ill will towards the Germans instead he believes they have been the pawns of military leaders. Colonel Blimp an old befuddled British military officer reminisces about his past glories in this witty w
A triple-bill of murder mysteries featuring the very best of celluloid detectives Sherlock Holmes and Sir James Blake.
A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive
The back reads: Flora Robson, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh star in this swashbuckling story set in an Elizabethan England under threat from Spain and the Inquisition. 1587. The court of Queen Elizabeth (Flora Robson) is alive with intrigue, espionage and danger. With Spain poised to launch its mighty Armada against England, traitors plot to kill or kidnap the Queen and destroy all opposition to the invasion force. Michael (Laurence Olivier) has just made a daring escape from Spain. Now, the Queen bids him to return once more as her spy to discover the names of those who plot against her. His love, the Lady Cynthia (Vivien Leigh) is desperate for him not to go, as his mission will take him into the Escurial itself King Philips palace. But duty calls and time is running out before the Armada is ready to sail . . . This fast paced, stirring and lavish British film production from 1936 was produced partly to celebrate the royal coronation year and also to act as a rallying cry against the forces of evil gathering in Nazi Germany.
Titles Comprise: Mildred Pierce: Joan Crawford delivers a critically acclaimed performance as Mildred Pierce a woman clawing her way to success to provide her daughter with everything she lacks. No sacrifice is too much - ending her middle class marriage climbing to the top of a male-dominated business world and marrying a man she doesn't love - but is murder a step too far? Grand Hotel: Oscar-winning drama with an all-star cast exploring the interwoven relationships of the residents of a plush Berlin hotel... Humoresque: Glamorous socialite Helen Wright (Joan Crawford) takes what she wants clothes alcohol men uses them up and tosses them aside. Then she meets brilliant young violinist Paul Boray (John Garfield). But this is one toy she can't break. Instead her love for Paul brings Helen to the breaking point. In this acclaimed and profound exploration of desire Crawford makes Helen a rich layered character torn between selfless love and selfish impulses. Garfield matches her as the driven genius. Possessed: She loves him when he goes away for months. She loves him when he refuses to marry her. But when callow David Sutton chooses to marry someone else Louise Howell's love for him takes a darker turn. Give her a gun and she'll love him to death. Joan Crawford reteams with producer Jerry Wald of her Academy Award winning 'Mildred Pierce' and claims a 1947 Best Actress Oscar nomination for her portrayal of tempestuous mentally unstable Louise. The Damned Don't Cry: It's a man's world. And Ethel Whitehead learns there's only one way for a woman to survive in it: be as tempting as a cupcake and as tough as a 75-cent steak. In the first of three collaborations with director Vincent Sherman Joan Crawford brings hard-boiled glamour and simmering passion to the role of Ethel who moves from the wrong side of the tracks to a mobster's mansion to high society one man at a time. Some of those men love her. Some use her. And one a high-rolling racketeer abuses her. When the racketeer murders his rival in Ethel's swanky living room she flees a sure murder rap right back to the poverty she thought she had escaped. And this time there may not be a man to pick up the pieces of her shattered life.
Two masterpieces of British cinema are paired here--Powell and Pressburger's first Technicolor triumph, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and their even more ambitious A Matter of Life and Death (1946). Both pictures are transcendent examples of the filmmakers' craft, and remain models of great cinema long after their original wartime propaganda brief has expired. Based on a famously satirical cartoon strip that mocked outmoded attitudes of fair play at a time of "total war", Blimp subsequently became notorious as the film Churchill tried to have banned. Because the War Office objected to the screenplay, they refused to allow P&P's first choice for the role, Laurence Olivier, and the duo cast unknown stage actor Roger Livesey in his place. It is Livesey's sympathetic performance that transforms Clive "Sugar" Candy from an object of satire to one of warm affection, effectively reversing the film's intended message about old-fashioned decency versus wartime pragmatism. Anton Walbrook is a profound presence in a role that mirrored the actor's own plight as a German in Britain, while Deborah Kerr is a living leitmotif in the film, playing no fewer than three distinct but deliberately related roles. Briefed by the Ministry of Information to make a film that would foster Anglo-American relations in the post-war period, the duo, known as "the Archers", came up with A Matter of Life and Death, an extravagant and extraordinary fantasy in which David Niven's downed pilot must justify his continuing existence to a heavenly panel because he has made the mistake of falling in love with an American girl (Kim Hunter) when he really should have been dead. National stereotypes are lampooned as the angelic judges squabble over his fate. In a neat reversal of expectations, the heaven sequences are black and white, while earth is seen in Technicolor. Daring cinematography mixes monochrome and colour, incorporates time-lapse images, and even toys with background "time freezes" 50 years before The Matrix. Roger Livesey and Raymond Massey lead the fine supporting cast. On the DVD: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and A Matter of Life and Death are presented in reasonably sharp 4:3 ratio with good mono sound. Blimp comes with a 25-minute documentary feature that tells us nothing revelatory about making the film, but has good new interviews with cinematographer Jack Cardiff (then an apprentice) and eloquent admirer Stephen Fry. Text biographies and stills are also included. Life and Death has no extras. --Mark Walker
The Woman In The Window
***WARNING***ALL DVD TITLES CONTAIN ENGLISH SUBTITLES EXCEPT FOR THE DVD TITLE - A CANTERBURY TALE*** Never in the history of British film have two figures become as iconic as those of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Reigning throughout the 40s and 50s these two magnificent filmmakers brought to life British films and continue to radiate immense critical acclaim and inspiration for all contemporary film making. Includes: 1. A Matter of Life & Death (1946) 2. The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) 3. A Canterbury Tale (1944) 4. I Know Where I am Going (1945) 5. 49th Parallel (1941) 6. The Battle of the River Plate (1956) 7. Ill Met By Moonlight (1957) 8. They're A Weird Mob (1966) 9. The Red Shoes (1948)
The most interesting--and entertaining--aspect of Battle Cry, a long, episodic World War II drama, is that it marked the debut of one Justus E McQueen, who subsequently took the name of the good ol' Arkansas boy he played in the movie: LQ Jones. He's only one of eight or nine marine recruits who divide the screen time with commanding officer Van Heflin and James Whitmore as a lifer sergeant named Mac, "just Mac", who ramrods their squad and also delivers the movie's overbearing narration. Unfortunately, the narration is necessary to maintain continuity as the CinemaScope production galumphs its way from rounding up the melting-pot cast to seeing them through basic training and sundry, mostly amatory misadventures in San Diego, to further training in New Zealand and finally to baptism of fire on Guadalcanal. Trouble is, among the recruits only McQueen/Jones (whose job is mostly comic relief) and Aldo Ray (as a brawling lumberjack who's never known family life) have any charisma or acting chops--and that's not forgetting Tab Hunter, whose matinee-idol status at the time does not speak well for the 50s. Battle Cry is also a cardinal example of Hollywood's penchant for buying big, lusty, profane bestsellers (by Leon Uris, in this case) and then bowdlerising all the lustiness and profanity to appease the censors. Raoul Walsh, the poet laureate of lowdown gusto, does what he can in the circumstances, and as one of the first guys ever to direct a widescreen movie (1930's The Big Trail), he makes the battle scenes roar. --Richard T. Jameson
A Biblical tale of love tragedy loss and redemption. Gregory Peck stars in this gripping retelling of the beloved Old Testament story. Although he has killed Goliath and prevailed in countless battles there is one force that Israel's King David (Peck) cannot vanquish: love. Smitten with the beautiful Bathsheba (Susan Hayward) David sends her soldier husband Uriah (Kieron Moore) into a hopeless battle setting into motion his own downward spiral. Neglecting kingdom and faith David incurs the wrath of God the destruction of his country and the ill will of his people who expect Bathsheba to pay the ultimate price for adultery. Gorgeously filmed rapturously acted and deeply moving David And Bathsheba's tale of romantic obsession is as beautiful as it is timeless.
Mildred Pierce:Joan Crawford delivers a critically acclaimed performance as Mildred Pierce a woman clawing her way to success to provide her daughter with everything she lacks. No sacrifice is too much - ending her middle class marriage climbing to the top of a male-dominated business world and marrying a man she doesn't love - but is murder a step too far? Grand Hotel:Oscar-winning drama with an all-star cast exploring the interwoven relationships of the residents of a plush Berlin hotel... Humoresque:Glamorous socialite Helen Wright (Joan Crawford) takes what she wants clothes alcohol men uses them up and tosses them aside. Then she meets brilliant young violinist Paul Boray (John Garfield). But this is one toy she can't break. Instead her love for Paul brings Helen to the breaking point. In this acclaimed and profound exploration of desire Crawford makes Helen a rich layered character torn between selfless love and selfish impulses. Garfield matches her as the driven genius. Possessed:She loves him when he goes away for months. She loves him when he refuses to marry her. But when callow David Sutton chooses to marry someone else Louise Howell's love for him takes a darker turn. Give her a gun and she'll love him to death. Joan Crawford reteams with producer Jerry Wald of her Academy Award winning 'Mildred Pierce' and claims a 1947 Best Actress Oscar nomination for her portrayal of tempestuous mentally unstable Louise. The Damned Don't Cry:It's a man's world. And Ethel Whitehead learns there's only one way for a woman to survive in it: be as tempting as a cupcake and as tough as a 75-cent steak. In the first of three collaborations with director Vincent Sherman Joan Crawford brings hard-boiled glamour and simmering passion to the role of Ethel who moves from the wrong side of the tracks to a mobster's mansion to high society one man at a time. Some of those men love her. Some use her. And one a high-rolling racketeer abuses her. When the racketeer murders his rival in Ethel's swanky living room she flees a sure murder rap right back to the poverty she thought she had escaped. And this time there may not be a man to pick up the pieces of her shattered life.
The double Oscar nominated Abe Lincoln in Illinois portrays the story of Abraham Lincoln, from his early days in backwoods Kentucky to his election as the 16th President of the United States. A stellar performance in the title role from Raymond Massey saw him nominated for the Best Actor award alongside James Wong Howe for Best black and white cinematography. After running livestock to New Orleans, Abe Lincoln settles in New Salem where he falls in love with Ann Rutledge (Mary Howard) and eventually becomes the postmaster. His popularity with the locals leads to him running for and being successfully elected to the State legislature but his victory is overshadowed by Ann's death. Overcome by a sense of doom and a lack of ambition, Lincoln leaves the legislature after his first term and returns to practising law. However, a fateful meeting with Mary Todd (Ruth Gordon), an extremely ambitious woman, changes the course of Abe's life and of America's destiny. By entering politics again Lincoln knows that his taking of a stand on slavery will mean the dissolution of the Union. In a series of electrifying debates with Stephen Douglas (Gene Lockhart), Lincoln is catapulted into the national consciousness of political America and leaves Illinois for Washington, never to return.
History and Hollywood have always made strange bedfellows. And there's no better example of that than Santa Fe Trail (1940) from director Michael Curtiz. Historical accuracy is never allowed to interfere with setting up a great action sequence. Errol Flynn is Jeb Stuart. Ronald Reagan is George Armstrong Custer (a part Flynn would play in 'They Died With Their Boots On'). Raymond Massey makes a flamboyant John Brown. And rounding out the cast are Oliveia de Haviland Alan Hale Van
Things To Come
The Outlaw (Dir. Howard Hughes 1943): Jane Russell plays a busty siren who steals the heart of Billy the Kid in this Howard Hughes/Howard Hawks-directed story which centres on the rivalrous tentative friendships between Billy Doc Holiday and Pat Garrett. Vengeance Valley (Dir. Richard Thorpe 1941): An unusually adult Western for its time Vengeance Valley (1951) gave Burt Lancaster his first Western role. His athletic prowess made him perfect for the genre and he'd
In 1940 the world is plunged into a seemingly perpetual war. A devastating air raid practically destroys Everytown, reducing its previously grand buildings to rubble. Almost 30 years later, over half the remaining population is wiped out by the chilling Wandering Sickness. Victims are shot on sight as a bewildered humanity struggles to survive in a barbarous wasteland. In 1970 a futuristic flying machine brings a saviour to the remnants of Everytown. John Cabel (Raymond Massey) represents the visionary brotherhood Wings Over the World. Cabel faces opposition from local warlord the Boss (Ralph Richardson) but he and his colleagues pledge to create a utopia from the ashes of the old world. Nothing, it seems, will be allowed to get in their way
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