Elsom, Isobel

My Fair Lady

Lerner and Loewe's musical version of 'Pygmalion' about a Covent Garden flower girl who becomes a lady.
Genre: Musicals
Rating: G
Release Date: 8-DEC-1998
Media Type: DVD

Hollywood's legendary "woman's director," George Cukor (The Women, The Philadelphia Story), transformed Audrey Hepburn into street-urchin-turned-proper-lady Eliza Doolittle in this film version of the Lerner and Loewe musical. Based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, My Fair Lady stars Rex Harrison as linguist Henry Higgins (Harrison also played the role, opposite Julie Andrews, on stage), who draws Eliza into a social experiment that works almost too well. The letterbox edition of this film on video certainly pays tribute to the pageantry of Cukor's set, but it also underscores a certain visual stiffness that can slow viewer enthusiasm just a tad. But it's really star wattage that keeps this film exciting, that and such great songs as "On the Street Where You Live" and "I Could Have Danced All Night." Actor Jeremy Brett, who gained a huge following later in life portraying Sherlock Holmes, is quite electric as Eliza's determined suitor. --Tom Keogh

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

Joseph Mankiewicz's moody classic is less ghost story than romantic fantasy, a handsome 1947 drama of impossible love set on the picturesque turn-of-the-century New England coast. Independent young widow Lucy Muir (the luminous Gene Tierney), desperate to escape her uptight in-laws, falls in love with a grand seaside house and moves in, only to discover the cantankerous ghost of the hot-tempered Captain Gregg (a histrionically flamboyant performance by Rex Harrison). Lucy refuses to let the bombastic captain frighten her away, earning his respect, his friendship, and later his love. They team up to turn the captain's salty memoirs into a bestseller, but as his affection grows he fades away, leaving Lucy free to undertake a more worldly suitor, notably a charismatic children's author (George Sanders at his smarmy smoothest) with his own guarded secret. Charles Lang's melancholy black-and-white photography and Bernard Herrmann's haunting score set the tone for this sublime adult drama, and Tierney delivers one of her most understated performances as the resolute Mrs. Muir. Mankiewicz turns this ghost story into a refreshingly mature and down-to-earth romance. --Sean Axmaker

A romance between a young widow and a sea captain's ghost weaves a magical tale of immortal love. Determined to live her life the way she wants, newly widowed Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney) declines her straitlaced in-laws demand that she live with them and moves with her daughter (a young Natalie Wood) to the seaside into a cottage haunted by the handsome, blustering Captain Gregg (Rex Harrison). A deal is struck between the two in the wee hours of the morning allowing Lucy to stay in the house and the captain to materalize only in the master bedroom. As they gradually get to know each other better, Lucy's spunk and stubborness gains first the captain's grudging respect, then his heart. But when another man woos Lucy, both must face that her future lies with the living, not in the spirit world.

My Fair Lady (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Lerner and Loewe's musical version of 'Pygmalion' about a Covent Garden flower girl who becomes a lady.
Genre: Musicals
Rating: NR
Release Date: 3-FEB-2004
Media Type: DVD

Hollywood's legendary "woman's director," George Cukor (The Women, The Philadelphia Story), transformed Audrey Hepburn into street-urchin-turned-proper-lady Eliza Doolittle in this film version of the Lerner and Loewe musical. Based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, My Fair Lady stars Rex Harrison as linguist Henry Higgins (Harrison also played the role, opposite Julie Andrews, on stage), who draws Eliza into a social experiment that works almost too well. The letterbox edition of this film on video certainly pays tribute to the pageantry of Cukor's set, but it also underscores a certain visual stiffness that can slow viewer enthusiasm just a tad. But it's really star wattage that keeps this film exciting, that and such great songs as "On the Street Where You Live" and "I Could Have Danced All Night." Actor Jeremy Brett, who gained a huge following later in life portraying Sherlock Holmes, is quite electric as Eliza's determined suitor. --Tom Keogh

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing

This love story made in 1955 and set against the backdrop of war is a many-splendored thing: it features a drop-dead gorgeous Eurasian doctor seeking meaning in her life (Jennifer Jones), a dashing but married American war correspondent who's macho yet not afraid to declare his love (William Holden), and a couple of murky subplots to give their relationship its oh-what's-going-to-happen-next edge (her Chinese heritage, his wife, the outbreak of the Korean War). One scene builds beautifully upon the next, accompanied by dialogue that often sounds like poetry: "I will make no mistakes in the name of loneliness," the doctor says near the beginning of their relationship. The movie also makes few mistakes as it combines thoughtful words with Oscar-winning costumes to tell its tale. It even leaves you with a hummable tune--the Academy Award-winning title song--as you reach for the Kleenex. --Valerie J. Nelson

Newsman Mark Elliott is an American war correspondent temporarily staying in Hong Kong during the Korean War. While there he meets and pursues a beautiful Eurasian Doctor. But when they begin to fall in love, their friends and families pressure them to stop the cross cultural relationship.

Lust for Life

Lust for Life is appropriately titled, for mere passion seems inadequate when describing this superb fictionalized biography (based on Irving Stone's popular novel) of Vincent Van Gogh. In a deservedly Oscar®- nominated performance, Kirk Douglas is physically and emotionally perfect as the tormented Dutch painter, whose life is chronicled from his ill-fated stint as a preacher to Belgian miners in 1878, to his Impressionist-inspired artistic awakening and psychological descent to suicide in 1890. Having triumphed with 1952's The Bad and the Beautiful, Douglas, producer John Houseman, and director Vincente Minnelli brought vigor and vitality to this blessed project, which centers on Van Gogh's stormy friendship with fellow artist Gaugin (Oscar-winner Anthony Quinn). Minnelli used an outmoded color film process and innovative camera techniques to vividly recreate Van Gogh's paintings, and he filmed on the actual Dutch and French locations where Van Gogh's mastery flourished. The artist's lust for life also fed his madness, and this film deeply understands the fine line in between. --Jeff Shannon

Vibrant orange sunflowers. Rippling yelow grain. Trees bursting with white bloom. "The pictures come to me as in a dream" Vincent Van Gogh said. A dream that too often turned to life-shattering nightmare. Winner of Golden Globe and New York Film Critics Best Actor Awards Kirk Douglas gives a fierce portrayal as the artist torn between the joyous inspiration of his genius and the dark desperation of his tormented mind. The obsessed Van Gogh painted the way other men breathe driving away family and friends including artist Paul Gauguin (1956 Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winner Anthony Quinn). Directed by Vincente Minnelli and saturated with the hues of Van Gogh's sea field and sky Lust for Lifecaptures the ecstasy of art. And the agony of one man's life.Running Time: 122 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/CLASSIC UPC: 012569698826 Manufacturer No: 66988

You Were Never Lovelier

A remake of an Argentine film The Gay Senorita You Were Never Lovelier was a follow-up to the 1942 hit You'll Never Get Rich and marked the last screen pairing of Astaire and Hayworth. In You Were Never Lovelier she proves once again to be a stunning dancer especially in shorty George and I'm Old Fashioned a sensuous moonlit duet with Astaire that is the high point of the film. Like Astaire Hayworth was a perfectionist and they spent days going over each number. It was difficult to find sufficient rehearsal space on Columbia's stages so the studio rented a funeral parlor at a nearby Hollywood cemetery. Every time a funeral came through rehearsals would stop until the last of the mourners had left! Their perfectionism paid off however in elegant and precise dance sequences. The score received an Academy Award® nomination along with nominations for Best Sound and BestSong (Dearly Beloved) by Jerome Kern and Johnny Mercer. Hayworth wanted to do her own singing but her voice was dubbed by Nan Wynna well-kept secret at the time. Nevertheless Hayworth has gone on record saying that You Were Never Lovelier was the favorite of all her films second only to You'll Never Get Rich.System Requirements:Running Time: 97 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 043396037038 Manufacturer No: 03703

The devil is in the details when it comes to this effervescent Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth musical. The slight storyline is a hook upon which to hang dance sequences, bits of humor, and songs by Jerome Kern and Johnny Mercer. Set in Buenos Aires, it's a remake of an Argentine feature from the previous year and followed You'll Never Get Rich. Astaire stars as a professional hoofer and Hayworth is Adolphe Menjou's second oldest daughter. The wealthy businessman won't let his youngest daughters marry until Maria (Hayworth) ties the knot. She couldn't care less--until a case of mistaken identity leads her to believe that Robert (Astaire) is in love with her (he's just looking for a job at her father's club). Highlights include a tap dance set to "Shorty George" and the Oscar®-nominated "Dearly Beloved," which is sung by both leads (with Hayworth dubbed by Nan Wynn). --Kathleen C. Fennessy

The Errand Boy

In THE ERRAND BOY, Morty is hired by Paramutual Pictures as a spy to find out where the company's money is being spent. Working in the mailroom, Morty has access to the production lot and discovers that wherever he goes, havoc ensues in his effort to provide his new boss, Mr. Sneak, with the information he has requested.

Monsieur Verdoux

This blistering little black comedy was well ahead of its time when released in 1947. Originally, Orson Welles had wanted Chaplin to star in his drama about a French mass murderer named Landru, but Chaplin was hesitant to act for another director, and used the idea himself. He plays a dapper gent named Henri Verdoux (who assumes a number of identities), a civilized monster who marries wealthy women, then murders them (as we meet him, he's gathering roses as an incinerator ominously bellows smoke in the background) and collects their money to support his real family. The Little Tramp is now a distant memory, though this was the first film not to feature Chaplin's beloved creation. Verdoux is largely viciously clever until it gets too heavy-handed, as evidenced when a woman he spares returns years later as the mistress of a munitions manufacturer. Ultimately, Chaplin breaks character (much as he did in The Great Dictator) to preach to the masses, declaring that against the machines of war that grip the planet, humble killer Verdoux is "an amateur by comparison." --David Kronke

Charles Chaplin turns his traditionally sunny sensibilities inside out with this sublime black comedy about a family man who secretly uses murder to support his beloved invalid wife and child. There's little of the immortal Tramp in Verdoux yet the fastidious dandy is not lacking in comic graces. Most hilarious of all are the always-foiled attempts to dispatch the raucous Annabella (Martha Raye). When this most atypical Chaplin film opened the world was not ready to look death in the face and walk away smiling. Today Monsieur Verdoux ranks among Chaplin's best works. It is killer comedy.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 085393765224

Casanova Brown

When he finds out his ex-wife has just had his child and plans to give her up for adoption a timid English instructor dashes to the child's rescue and attempts to care for her in a hotel room.Before too long however his new fiancee and his ex confront him and he must decide what he will do.This light comedy starring Gary Cooper Theresa Wright and Anita Louise garnered Oscar nominations for Sound and Art Direction and was previously filmed under the title Little Accident in 1930 and 1939.Runtime: 94 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 027616075215 Manufacturer No: M107523

Best Picture Collection - Musicals (An American in Paris/Gigi/My Fair Lady)

An American in Paris
A GI (Gene Kelly) stays in Paris after the war to become an artist and has to choose between the patronage of a rich American woman (Nina Foch) and a French gamine (Leslie Caron) engaged to an older man. The plot is mostly an excuse for director Vincente Minnelli to pool his own extraordinary talent with those of choreographer-dancer-actor Kelly and the artists behind the screenplay, art direction, cinematography, and score, creating a rapturous musical not quite like anything else in cinema. The final section of the film comprises a 17-minute dance sequence that took a month to film and is breathtaking. Songs include "'S Wonderful," "I Got Rhythm," and "Love Is Here to Stay."

Gigi
Vincente Minnelli's 1958 adaptation of Colette's story about a girl (Leslie Caron) groomed as a courtesan--but desired as a wife by a Parisian playboy (Louis Jordan)--won a lot of Oscars^®, but it also has the unusual distinction of being an MGM musical shot on location in the City of Lights. What a musical it is (by Lerner and Loewe): Maurice Chevalier and Hermione Gingold crooning "Ah, Yes, I Remember It Well," plus the songs "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," "Gigi," "I'm a Bore," and "She's Not Thinking of Me." Director Minnelli makes a sumptuous, dreamy, almost laid-back affair of it all, and the indispensable cast is forever etched into memory. Hollywood's long-running infatuation with Continental grace and manners, the memory of a much earlier time imported to American movies through such immigrant directors as Ernst Lubitsch, may have finally come to a gentle end with this film.

My Fair Lady
Hollywood's legendary "woman's director," George Cukor, transformed Audrey Hepburn into street-urchin-turned-proper-lady Eliza Doolittle in this film version of the Lerner and Loewe musical. Based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, My Fair Lady stars Rex Harrison as linguist Henry Higgins (Harrison also played the role, opposite Julie Andrews, on stage), who draws Eliza into a social experiment that works almost too well. The letterbox edition of this film on video certainly pays tribute to the pageantry of Cukor's set, but it also underscores a certain visual stiffness that can slow viewer enthusiasm just a tad. But it's really star wattage that keeps this film exciting, that and such great songs as "On the Street Where You Live" and "I Could Have Danced All Night." Actor Jeremy Brett, who gained a huge following later in life portraying Sherlock Holmes, is quite electric as Eliza's determined suitor. --Tom Keogh