For this year's last DVD extra column, a round-up of recent titles, including some with holiday themes, that any classic movie buff would like to find under their tree:
"The Bells of St. Mary's" (1945)
Once nearly as inescapable as "It's a Wonderful Life," this comedy-drama was the second highest-grossing film of the 1940s, selling more tickets than "The Dark Knight Rises" nearly 60 years later and lines stretching for four blocks beyond Radio City Music Hall (where it's seen on the marquee in "The Godfather," as well as on the Bijou in "Wonderful Life"). Bing Crosby reprising his Oscar-winning role as a priest from director Leo McCarey's "Going My Way" (1944), but this is a much better movie. That's thanks to Ingrid Bergman (fresh off her Oscar win from "Spellbound") as the mother superior who locks horns with Crosby — with an odd, repressed romantic subtext. With an essay by film historian R. Emmet Sweeney. (Olive Films Blu-ray)
"The Bishop's Wife" (1947)
"It's a Wonderful Life" was originally developed as a vehicle for Cary Grant by writer-director Clifford Odets, but Grant opted instead to play an angel in this Samuel Goldwyn-produced holiday bauble (with an uncredited script polish by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett). Grant's old "Born to Be Bad" star Loretta Young has the title role, with David Niven cast as a Protestant bishop, possibly in response to complaints by exhibitors that Catholics were dominating the screen thanks to the McCarey movies (not to mention the unfortunate "Miracle of the Bells," which RKO released that same season). Remade with Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston. (Warner Home Video Blu-ray).
"Stella Dallas" (1937)
King Vidor's four-handkerchief remake of the mother-daughter love classic showcases exemplary performances by Barbara Stanwyck as a woman who makes great sacrifices for her daughter (Anne Shirley, also terrific). This beautiful remaster includes a surprising extra: what's billed on the package as a "vintage featurette" turns out to be Henry King's very good silent 1925 version (in an old-looking but acceptable transfer with no music). This one features Ronald Colman and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in the male leads, played in the remake by the inferior John Boles and Tim Holt. (Warner Home Video DVD)
"Jane Eyre" (1944)
Boutique label Twilight Time, which specializes in limited editions of 3000, offers a sharp-looking Blu-ray upgrade for the late Joan Fontaine's companion to "Rebecca," which may actually be a better movie than the one she won the Best Picture actress one. Thank Orson Welles, a splendid Rochester in this rip-roaring Bronte adaptation, who is often credited with giving a directorial assist to the credited helmer Robert Stevenson (whose role in directing "Mary Poppins" goes sadly unmentioned in "Saving Mr. Banks"). Extraordinary child performances by Peggy Ann Garner, Margaret O'Brien and Elizabeth Taylor. (Twilight Time Blu-ray)
"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (1947)
Humorist James Thurber wasn't thrilled with Goldwyn's expansion of his very short story, but this musical fantasy is still a good deal closer (and far better) than the Ben Stiller version coming up on Christmas Day. Danny Kaye is well cast as the daydreaming hero, with Virginia Mayo (who else?) as his girlfriend and Boris Karloff prominently featured during his late '40s respite from low-budget horror as a character actor in A pictures like "Lured," "Tap Roots" and "Unconquered." Excellent transfer, but why isn't this on Blu-ray? (Warner Home Video DVD)
"Danny Kaye: The Goldwyn Years" (1944-1947)
Kaye's debut, "Up in Arms" (1944) as well as "Wonder Man" (1945) make their DVD debuts in the pressed-disc set, which also includes the out-of-print "The Kid From Brooklyn" (1946) and Howard Hawks' "A Song is Born" (1947). After making shorts in Brooklyn from 1937, Kaye became shot a hot property on Broadway that he was signed up by Goldwyn to become his first musical star since Eddie Cantor (Goldwyn reportedly kept calling Danny "Eddie'). "Up in Arms" is actually derived from the same source material as Cantor's "Whoopee!" (updated to World War II and with different songs), while "The Kid From Brooklyn" is a remake of Harold Lloyd's "The Milky Way" and "A Song is Born" is a remake of Hawks' "Ball of Fire" with Kaye in Gary Cooper's old part. The best of these is H. Bruce Humberstone's "Wonder Man," which casts Danny in a dual role as a shy bookworm and his murdered nightclub-entertainer brother (who comes back as a ghost in Prospect Park). All but the first co-star Virginia Mayo, who appears in "Up in Arms" as one of the Goldwyn Girls. DVD from Warner Archive Collection, which has also released a double feature of Kaye's Paramount features, "The Court Jester" (his absolute peak, which cries out for a Blu-ray) and the musical tearjerker "The Five Pennies" (which, like "A Song is Born," includes a terrific Louis Armstrong cameo).
"The Call of the Wild" (1935)
20th Century Fox Home Video borrowed an old gimmick from WHV and polled the public on which films they listed were most requested on Blu-ray. Six top vote-getters (two apiece) from the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s have just been released. My favorite is the stunning new transfer of William Wellman's lusty adaptation of the Jack London adventure classic with the sizzling duo of Clark Gable and Loretta Young (who conceived a child she later adopted during the shoot). Not only does the location shooting look fantastic, this is apparently the first time the 92-minute original cut has been seen in nearly 80 years. The previous video and TV iterations are the version that was prepared for a 1945 reissue; among the thing restored is the appearance of Katherine De Mille as a prostitute who somehow managed to squeak by just after enforcement of the Production Code began. The other choice from that decade is Henry King's location-shot Technicolor super-western "Jesse James" starring Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda and Randolph Scott. (Fox Blu-ray)
"The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" (1947)
Rex Harrison and the preternaturally beautiful Gene Tierney have the title roles in Joseph L. Mankiewicz' charming supernatural romance as a widow and a deceased sea captain in a film that inspired a much later TV series with Hope Lange and Edward Mulhall. The other '40s winner is King's "The Black Swan" (1942), a lavish Technicolor swashbuckler with Power, Maureen O'Hara, the great Laird Cregar and Thomas Mitchell — but surprisingly little action at sea. (Fox Blu-ray).
"The Desk Set" (1955)
Nora Ephron's parents, Henry and Phoebe, adapted a Broadway play for one of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn's best vehicles. He's a computer expert hired by a TV network to update Hepburn's research department. There's an extremely funny Christmas party sequence in a film that holds up quite well, even if the CinemaScope frame emphasizes the film's stage origins. At one point, longtime single gals Hepburn and Joan Blondell joke about moving in together and getting "a couple of cats." The other '50s choice is Otto Preminger's "Carmen Jones," which showcases a steamy Dorothy Dandridge (Preminger's then-mistress, Oscar nominated) and a barechested Harry Belafonte in Oscar Hammerstein's World War II update of Bizet (with opera singers dubbing the stars, both of whom were singers themselves). In mouth-watering DeLuxe Color and CInemascope). (Fox Blu-ray).
"Cinerama Holiday" (1955)
The followup to the phenomenally popular "This is Cinerama" is another travelogue designed for the three-screen projection process — this one sending an American couple and a Swiss couple on tours of each others' countries (with Paris thrown in for the American's itineraries). They meet up in New York for a screening of .. "Cinerama Holiday" at the Broadway Theatre! A fascinating and often campy look at mid-century tourism, with some mind-boggling footage taken on ski and slalom slopes. Dave Stroheimer's latest exemplary restoration of this long-obsolete format — presented with a simulation of the original's deeply curved screen — includes great extras, including interviews with the "stars" and crew members. The simultaneously-released "South Seas Adventure" (1958, the fifth and last of the CInerama travelogues) looks even better, but is somewhat less entertaining. (Flicker Alley, DVD-Blu-ray combo).
"Intolerance" (1916)
D.W. Griffith's epic followup to (but not really an apologia for) the controversial "Birth of a Nation" gets a spectacular digital restoration — the longest (168 minutes) and by far the best-looking version yet available of this much-abused public-domain warhorse. Included are two features that Griffith extracted from two of the film's four strands and augmented with additional footage, as well as a highly-informative half-hour lecture by Kevin Brownlow. The main feature has a score by Carl Davis; the others have new scores by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. (Cohen Media Group Blu-ray)
"The Vivien Leigh Anniversary Collection" (1936-1937)
Like Danny Kaye, Leigh was born 100 years ago and is celebrated here with a quartet of films she made in her native country before leaving for Hollywood and "Gone With the Wind." The best is the last, "St. Martin's Lane" (known stateside as "Sidewalks of London") in which Leigh shines as the protégée of busker Charles Laughton (who co-produced with Erich Pommer for the ill-fated Mayflower Productions). Just before that, she shot "A Yank at Oxford" on loan at MGM's British studios from Alexandra Korda's London Films, which made the others in the set: the historical drama "Fire Over England" with future husband Laurence Olivier and Flora Robson as Elizabeth I; "Dark Journey" (1937), a World War I spy yarn with Conrad Veidt; and the comedy "Storm in a Teacup" with Rex Harrison, who also appears in "St. Martin's Lane." These are nice transfers of films that circulated for years in the public domain in the United States. The set also includes a video interview with one Leigh biographer, Anne Edwards, and a written essay on the films by another, Kendra Bean. (Cohen Media Group Blu-ray).
"The Three Faces of Eve" (1957)
Joanne Woodward's career has tended to be overshadowed by her longtime husband and frequent collaborator, Paul Newman. She won a Best Picture Oscar (she was nominated three more times) for her fourth film — a role she landed partly because Fox's other divas, like Jennifer Jones, were afraid to play a woman with multiple personalties. Woodward turns it into a tour de force, even if writer-director Nunnally Johnson takes some liberties with the facts of this fact-based story (like that Eve was actually cured at this point). With Lee J. Cobb as her psychiatrist, a miscast David Wayne as her befuddled husband, and Alistair Cooke as the on-screen narrator. Gleaming black-and-white CInemaScope transfer. (Fox Blu-ray).
"Stalag 17″ (1953)
William Holden won a Best Actor Oscar playing a con artist in Billy Wilder's pungent and very funny adaptation of a Broadway play about a spy in World War II German prisoner of war camp. Exemplary cast for the film that inspired "Hogan's Heroes" includes Otto Preminger, Don Taylor, Harvey Lembeck, Robert Strauss, Peter Graves and the scene-stealing Sig Ruman(n). (Warner Home Video Blu-ray).
"The Way We Were" (1973)
A big Blu year for Barbra Streisand fans (following "Funny Girl" and "Hello, Dolly" ends with this decades-spanning romantic classic opposite Robert Redford (playing an apolitical character that writer Arthur Laurents supposedly based on ex-boyfriend Farley Granger). Critics have never shared the public's enthusiasm for this Sydney Pollack schmaltzfest, but the Twilight Time team of Nick Redman and Julie Kirgo make a case for its political daring in a new commentary track that supplements the one the late Pollack recorded for the earlier DVD. (Twilight Time Blu-ray)
"All The President's Men" (1976)
This second Blu-ray edition of Alan Pakula's classic is justified by the inclusion of a Robert Redford-produced, feature-length documentary on the film's making and the Watergate scandal featuring Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and Ben Bradlee. (Warner Home Video Blu-ray).
"The Nuisance" (1933)
Fast-talking Pre-Code icon Lee Tracy ("Bombshell") is at his crooked best in Jack Conway's fast-paced comedy about an ambulance-chasing lawyer who meet his match when his latest client (Madge Evans) turns out to be a secret investigator working for a streetcar comedy he's been bilking. Great support from fellow con artists Charles Butterworth and Frank Morgan. Tracy is also very much in his element as a high-pressure press agent promoting Lupe Velez in the racy "The Half Naked Truth" (1932), directed by the incomparable Gregory La Cava during David O. Selznick's brief production reign at RKO — with Morgan again in support, along with Eugene Pallette. Back at MGM Tracy excels in a change-of-pace role in "Turn Back the Clock" (1933), a fantasy processor to "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Peggy Sue Got Married," where Tracy plays a poor regular Joe who gets a chance to go back in time and improve his lot in life. Director Edgar Selwyn ("Skyscraper Souls'"), co-founder of MGM predecessor Goldwyn Pictures, wrote the intriguing script with Ben Hecht. (Warner Archive Collection DVDs).
"The Horn Blows at Midnight" (1945)
A New Year's Eve staple on TV for many years, Jack Benny's last screen vehicle was such a flop that he joked about it for decades. It's actually a quite entertaining 78-minute fantasy slapstick comedy, breezily directed by Raoul Walsh with a memorable score by Frank Waxman (with an uncredited assist from Looney Tunes maestro Carl Stalling) and some still-impressive special effects depicting "Heaven, 1945-1946" (as the title card puts it). Benny plays a hapless angel sent to destroy Earth, and what a supporting cast: Alexis Smith, Reginald Gardiner, Margaret Dumont, Franklin Pangborn, Allyn Joslyn, John Alexander, Mike Mazurki and Robert Blake, plus Guy Kibbee back for a last stand at Warners. It's actually a lot funnier than Benny's other WB vehicle that's received a spiffy new transfer: "George Washington Slept Here," a William Keighley-directed adaptation of a George S. Kaufman-Moss Hart stage play that was later ripped off for the superior "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House." Benny observed, quite rightly, that Percy Kilbride steals the picture. (Warner Archive Collection DVDs).
"Red Garters" (1953)
George Marshall is the credited director, but the real auteur here appears to be Mitchell Leisen ("Lady in the Dark") who worked for three weeks on this musical western spoof that's so out there there are disclaimers both before and after the opening credits. Originally announced for 3-D production, it was shot on highly stylized sets in stunningly psychedelic Techicolor that really has to be seen to be believed. Starring Rosemary Clooney, Jack Carson and Gene Barry, this is one of numerous Paramount DVD reissues from the Warner Archive Collection.
Coming attractions
CBS has set three films from its long-defunct Cinema Center Films for DVD debuts on Jan. 28: "Who is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?" starring Dustin Hoffman; "The War Between Men and Women" with Jack Lemmon and Barbara Harris; and "The April Fools" starring Lemmon and Catherine Deneuve.
On the Blu-ray front, Fox will start things off with the upgrade of F.W. Murnau's "Sunrise" on Jan. 14, and Kino will upgrade the John Barrymore version of "Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1920) on the 28th.
For February, Fox will be releasing "Inn of the Sixth Happiness" starring Ingrid Bergman on Blu-ray on the 4th, Criterion will be bowing the highly-anticipated high-def upgrade of Alfred Hitchcock's "Foreign Correspondent" on the 11th and Fox has the previously announced Blu of "300 Spartans" rescheduled for the 25th. Twilight Time will release a quartet of Blu-ray upgrades on Feb. 11: Martin Ritt's "The Front" starring Woody Allen; Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors,"Michael Cimino's "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" (Clint Eastwood, Cliff Bridges), and John Guillerman's World War I adventure "The Blue Max" starring George Peppard.
Paramount will be offering a Blu-ray upgrade of Cecil B. DeMille's "Samson and Delilah" (1949) starring Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr on March 11, while on that same date licensee WHV will put out three more Paramount Blu bows: "Gunfight at the OK Corral" starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas and the Howard Hawks-John Wayne duo of "El Dorado" and "Hatari!"
Warner Home VIdeo will release Billy Wilder's "Sabrina" (1954) starring Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart for the first time on Blu-ray on April 8 — and for the time time in its original theatrical aspect ratio, 1:78. On that same date, WHV will finally bow the long-awaited Blu-ray of Stanley Donen's "Funny Face" (1957) with Hepburn, Fred Astaire and Kay Thompson — and based on the DCP I saw from the same high-def master last year, this is going to be one VistaVision-Technicolor stunner.
For April 15, Olive Films is promising Douglas Sirk's "Sleep My Love" (1948) starring Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche and Anthony Mann's "Men in War" (1957) with Robert Ryan and Aldo Ray, followed by a restoration of Sidney Lumet's "The Pawnbroker" (1964) with Rod Steiger, third volume of Betty Boop cartoons and Joseph Losey's uber-obscure Italian co-production "Stranger on the Prowl" (1952) with Paul Muni on April 22. Olive has also announced a long list of new acquisitions it plans to release in 2014.
George Feltenstein has confirmed on Warner Archive Collection's Facebook page that George Pal's "The Time Machine" (1960, with Rod Taylor) will be getting a Blu-ray upgrade via Warner Home Video sometime in 2014.
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