Emmett, Fern

Swing Time

It's Swing Time anytime Fred and Ginger slip on their dancing shoes. Here Fred's a gambler with a fiancee back home...but one look at Ginger and all bets are off! He pursues she resists and it's all tied together by a series of breathtaking dances. "Bojangles of Harlem" a tribute to hoofer Bill Robinson has Astaire tapping with three giant Astaire shadows. The sly "Pick Yourself Up" features Ginger teaching the supposedly flub-footed Fred how to dance. Other highlights from the splendid Jerome Kern-Dorothy Fields score include "A Fine Romance" "Waltz in Swing Time" and the Academy Award(R) winning "The Way You Look Tonight." George Stevens directs. Year: 1936 Director: George Stevens Starring: Fred Astaire Ginger Rogers Victor Moore Helen BroderickRunning Time: 103 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS UPC: 053939657128

If you only had one Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film to watch, this classic musical from 1936 would be your best bet. It was the dance duo's sixth film together, and director George Stevens handled the material with as much flair behind the camera as Fred and Ginger displayed in front of it. This time out, Fred plays a gambling hoofer who's engaged to marry a young socialite (Betty Furness), but when he's late for the wedding his prospective father-in-law sends him away, demanding that he earn $25,000 before he can earn his daughter's hand in marriage. When Fred meets Ginger in a local dance studio (where he pretends to be a klutz so she can be his instructor), he's instantly smitten and the $25,000 deal becomes a moot point. Featuring six songs by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields (including a splendid rendition of "The Way You Look Tonight") and some of the most elegant dance sequences ever filmed, this lightweight fluff epitomizes the jazz-age style of 1930s musicals, virtually defining the genre with graceful joie de vivre. --Jeff Shannon

In Old California

Picture, if you will, a regulation old-time Western saloon, teeming with colorful frontier types and about to be knocked into kindling by a galoot with a fearsome toothache. At this moment, through the swinging doors appears a pilgrim from the East--Boston, to be precise--outfitted with top hat, frock coat, a courtly manner, and a medical bag filled with the miracles of modern (i.e., 1849) pharmacology. He will cure the ruffian's toothache. He is a druggist. He is also John Wayne.

In Old California qualifies as one of Duke's quirkier assignments during his indentured servitude at Republic Pictures, and he makes a game stab at the sort of arch light-comedy heroism more typically left to his Reap the Wild Wind costar Ray Milland. Unfortunately, he has to do so without discernible assistance from director William McGann. Moreover, the script, which is incoherent even by Republic standards, absentmindedly omits any prospect for menace till half the running time has elapsed. Saloon songstress Binnie Barnes may or may not be kept by her employer, the loutish empire builder Albert Dekker, who resents her attraction to Wayne almost as much as he wants to hog California for himself. Fortunately, the gold rush comes along to provide opportunity for civic hysteria, an outbreak of fever, several varieties of unlikely heroism, and a climactic shootout of surpassing silliness. Edgar Kennedy and Patsy Kelly handle the comic relief... but where does it begin? --Richard T. Jameson

Made For Each Other

Produced in a time when films were both literally and figuratively black and white, Made for Each Other was unique in its effective blending of the comedic, the dramatic, and, as perhaps some would insensitively say, the melodramatic. Beautiful Carole Lombard and likeable James Stewart are Jane and John Mason, a couple who meet, fall madly in love, marry, and quickly have a baby. But while they--and the audience--are confident that they are meant for each other, life intercedes and the couple must meet with disapproving in-laws, job stress, financial challenges and, finally, a devastating illness.

Lombard and Stewart--and the genuinely good people they portray--are utterly compelling and charming. Say yawningly what you will about tradition, but the Masons' is a path many, if not most, go down. And unlike the wonderful but wholly fantasy world of peer Preston Sturges, director John Cromwell's universe is, like real life, full of ups and downs. It's an accessible, sensitive portrayal. He gives the audience characters they want to see succeed, and to see stay together in the process. It may be a tale of triumph of the human spirit, but its ultimate sentiment--one that celebrates the kindness of strangers--is thoroughly sweet, though in no way saccharine.

Look for a great supporting cast, including a blustery Charles Coburn as John Mason's boss, and Lucile Watson as Mason's interfering mother. --N.F. Mendoza

Oscar® winner* James Stewart earns himself a place among the screen s most notable actors (Hollywood Spectator) and Carole Lombard delivers the best performance of her career (Newsweek) in this humor-laced marital drama as refreshing as a breath of spring (Motion Picture Herald). Attorney John Mason (Stewart) marries Jane (Lombard) after a blissful one-day courtship. Life is wonderful until they are overwhelmed by the demands of John s hard-hearted boss a meddlesome mother-in-law and the birth of a baby. Just when the marriage is at the breaking point a crisis turns their world upside down. Will their newfound love falter or are the young newlyweds truly made for each other?System Requirements: Running Time 93 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 027616903839 Manufacturer No: 1006181

Assassin of Youth

The Vampire Bat

The Vampire Bat

Made For Each Other

Produced in a time when films were both literally and figuratively black and white, Made for Each Other was unique in its effective blending of the comedic, the dramatic, and, as perhaps some would insensitively say, the melodramatic. Beautiful Carole Lombard and likeable James Stewart are Jane and John Mason, a couple who meet, fall madly in love, marry, and quickly have a baby. But while they--and the audience--are confident that they are meant for each other, life intercedes and the couple must meet with disapproving in-laws, job stress, financial challenges and, finally, a devastating illness.

Lombard and Stewart--and the genuinely good people they portray--are utterly compelling and charming. Say yawningly what you will about tradition, but the Masons' is a path many, if not most, go down. And unlike the wonderful but wholly fantasy world of peer Preston Sturges, director John Cromwell's universe is, like real life, full of ups and downs. It's an accessible, sensitive portrayal. He gives the audience characters they want to see succeed, and to see stay together in the process. It may be a tale of triumph of the human spirit, but its ultimate sentiment--one that celebrates the kindness of strangers--is thoroughly sweet, though in no way saccharine.

Look for a great supporting cast, including a blustery Charles Coburn as John Mason's boss, and Lucile Watson as Mason's interfering mother. --N.F. Mendoza

Carole Lombard and James Stewart star in this full-tilt, comedy-drama that highlights the ups and downs of married life.

It Happened Tomorrow

John Wayne: Texas Terror/The Trail Beyond

Pot O' Gold/Made for Each Other