Erdman, Richard

Stalag 17 (Special Collector's Edition)

Set in a German POW Camp for enlisted American airmen a spy is discovered to be living in one of the prison barracks after an escape attempt fails resulting in the deaths of two inmates. The prisoners at once suspect Septon an unscrupulous inside dealer who trades almost anything with the Germans for extra privileges. After Septon is beaten up he himself determines to find the real spy and the result is a mixture of intrigue and betrayal leading to a surprise ending.System Requirements:Running Time: 120 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 097360412048 Manufacturer No: 041204

Black comedy and suspenseful action inside a German POW camp during World War II--a setting that was later borrowed for the TV sitcom Hogan's Heroes. The great director Billy Wilder adapted the hit stage play, applying his own wicked sense of humor to the apparently bleak subject matter. William Holden plays an antisocial grouse amid a gang of wisecracking though indomitable American prisoners. Because of his bitter cynicism, Holden is suspected by the others of being an informer to the Germans, an accusation he must deal with in his own crafty way. Holden, who had delivered a brilliant performance for Wilder in Sunset Boulevard, won the 1953 Best Actor Oscar for Stalag 17. Very much his equal, however, is Otto Preminger, an accomplished director himself, who plays the strict, sneering camp commandant. --Robert Horton

Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis Collection - Vol. 1 (The Caddy / Jumping Jacks / My Friend Irma / My Friend Irma Goes West / Sailor Beware / Scared Stiff / That's My Boy)

Includes: My Friend Irma My Friend Irma Goes WestThat's My BoySailor BewareJumping JacksThe StoogeScared StiffThe Caddy System Requirements:Run Time: 794 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 097360413748 Manufacturer No: 041374

A nightclub act with a handsome singer and an anarchic monkey-boy became a potent box-office force in the early 1950s. Although their wild live antics never translated intact to the screen, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were an instant movie hit; they had two films in the box-office top ten of 1951, and another two in the top ten of 1952. Paramount repays this effort with its Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis Collection, Volume One, which gathers most of their early efforts at the studio.

Martin and Lewis were introduced in 1949's My Friend Irma, a big-screen version of a popular radio show. The boys are in support, but their high jinks were the hit of the movie, and their portion of screen time ballooned in My Friend Irma Goes West, which they basically take over. Both movies are enjoyable comedies, and especially in the sequel Lewis's lunatic style of mugging, vocal calisthenics, and physical shtick makes him look like an animal uncaged.

Not included in this set is their first starring vehicle, At War with the Army. The next six consecutive films are here, beginning with one of their best, 1951's That's My Boy. Jerry plays the athletically hopeless son of a famous football hero (Eddie Mayehoff, a funny man). It's a measure of how much Lewis had grabbed the public's imagination that Dino doesn't show up until the film is 20 minutes old. (Lewis later wrote that he arranged for "That's Amore" to be included in The Caddy to bolster Martin's popularity.) Also from 1951, Sailor Beware is a service comedy with some hilarious sequences--Lewis conducting a male chorus, for instance, or undergoing a slightly surreal medical exam--and the team still has a freshness despite the movie formula. Their timing together in the punchdrunk-boxer routine shows some of the chemistry they must have had onstage.

Jumping Jacks (1952) is the least of Martin & Lewis's service comedies, with Lewis as a showbiz performer who pretends to be in the military as a favor to Dean. The Stooge, same year, is one of their best teamings, this time with a touch of pathos along with the laughs: Martin is a self-centered singer who can't acknowledge that his hired stooge is the reason his act is boffo. Along with the backstage stuff, the movie demonstrates how skilled Lewis's singing was, even in a comic purpose.

1953's Scared Stiff is a warmed-over remake of the Bob Hope comedy The Ghost Breakers, and shows that the boys were overworked; the story is lame and the clowning feels more desperate (although Lewis has a few moments imitating co-star Carmen Miranda). In The Caddy, from the same year, Martin indulges his real-life passion for golf, and Lewis plays the neglected caddy. It's a return to form, borrowing a Stooge vibe, and boasts an odd framing story with the boys playing a nightclub act very much like Martin & Lewis.

Unless you're already a fan, your enthusiasm for this set will depend on your tolerance for Jerry Lewis and his manic, childlike dementia. Either you'll laugh, resist, or become fascinated at the naked, look-at-me neediness of his act. Dean Martin can be appreciated for the difficult job of playing straight man to this craziness (notice, too, how his singing voice comes into its own, from imitation Bing Crosby in the first couple of pictures to the familiar, relaxed style of vintage Dino). The DVD set provides no supporting features, but this is the first chapter of a hugely profitable and popular showbiz phenomenon. Just one more thing: "Who's your little whoozis? Who's your toitle dove?" --Robert Horton

The Pagemaster

A blend of live-action and animation, this film centers on a fearful young boy (Macaulay Culkin) afraid to experience life because he's calculated the odds of an accident for every known activity. Chased by bullies, he winds up at the local library, where a bump on the head sends him into an animated universe, where his best friends are walking, talking books voiced by, among others, Patrick Stewart and Whoopi Goldberg. The Pagemaster (Christopher Lloyd) points the way to the exit, but the boy must first traverse the adventures of literary history, encountering everyone from Dr. Jekyll to Captain Ahab to Long John Silver. The animation is middling, but a worthy message makes this better children's entertainment than you'd expect. How can you fault a movie that encourages kids to pick up a book? --Marshall Fine

Richard is scared of just about everything but through magic, he takes on the toughest characters in some of the world's favorite books.
Genre: Feature Film Family
Rating: G
Release Date: 14-DEC-2004
Media Type: DVD

You're in the Navy Now

Gary Cooper stars in this broad naval farce directed by Henry Hathaway and based upon a John W. Hazard New Yorker magazine story. Cooper plays Lieutenant John Harkness a wet-behind-the ears naval lieutenant who is given command of his first ship. Unfortunately not only is Harkness new to commanding a naval vessel but the crew and his subordinate officers are also new at their jobs. Only two old deck hands know the score. And while Harkness is trying to figure out naval protocol he also has to deal with the contraption in the engine room which turns out to be an elaborate steam engine that powers the ship. Paul Brenner All Movie GuideSystem Requirements:Running Time: 93 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 024543239093 Manufacturer No: 2233909

Mr Majestyk

Vince Majestyk (Charles Bronson) absolutely has to get his watermelon crop in, come hell or high water, and nothing in the world is going to stop him. Trouble comes, however, in the form of Bobby Kopas (Paul Koslo), who tries to force Majestyk to use a crew of winos rather than Majestyk's hand-picked migrant crew. After Majestyk cleans his clock, Kopas swears out an assault complaint, and soon the melon grower finds himself in the county lockup. In jail he meets hit man Renda (Al Lettieri), and the two regard each other with hostility and suspicion. In a segment worthy of action director John Frankenheimer, Renda's pals try to break him out of a prison bus in a street shootout. Instead, Majestyk commandeers the bus and drives off with Renda, with the intention of using him as a pawn to get the charges dropped on himself…so he can get his melon crop in, of course. The script for Mr. Majestyk was written by none other than Elmore Leonard himself, and the rhythms of his hard-bitten prose are clear throughout. As expected with a Leonard story, there are plenty of plot flip-flops and more than a little tongue-in-cheek humor (the flinty Bronson even gets a few of the good lines). A word of warning: Vegetarians and those with sensitive temperaments may be disturbed by the machine-gun slaughter of hundreds of defenseless watermelons, in one of the movie's more sublime scenes. It's not great stuff, but Mr. Majestyk is a fast-moving '70s action flick that doesn't take itself too seriously and isn't above a blithely ridiculous plot device or two. --Jerry Renshaw

Cinema's most rugged tough guy, Charles Bronson, threads his uncompromising coolness through a tight weave of car chases, shootouts and bare-knuckle brawling in this gritty, forceful action film (LA Herald-Examiner)! Bronson stars as Majestyk, an ex-con and Vietnam vet whose efforts to run a farm are thwarted by narrow-minded locals and corrupt cops. But when a Mafia hitman (Al Lettieri) destroys Majestyk's crop, the farmer's fuse is finally blown. With his rifle in hand and his girlfriend (Linda Cristal) at the wheel, he goes after the syndicate assassin. And from high-speed back-road chases to an explosive backwoods confrontation, mobster and maverick stalk each other: two of a kind, antagonists to the death.

Anything Goes

This is the second film titled Anything Goes to star Bing Crosby (the first was a 1936 film). Both films change a lot of the original Cole Porter stage musical, but at least the later version keeps a few more Porter songs. Still, there is something odd about a Cole Porter film filled with "additional songs" by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen (perhaps Porter's work was not warm and cuddly enough for 1956 America, although it seemed to work well at MGM with High Society, released the same year). Crosby plays a Broadway star teamed up with young TV hotshot Donald O'Connor. Vacationing separately in Europe and needing a leading lady for their upcoming show, each signs a prospect--Crosby snaps up Mitzi Gaynor (at her perkiest) and O'Connor finds Jeanmaire, a French dancer. The show can only have one female star, so when the quartet crosses paths on the ocean liner back to the U.S., sparks will fly. Or not--this Paramount musical lacks any definable zip, from the sleepy dialogue to the listless camera. The capable Nick Castle staged the musical sequences, although Jeanmaire's numbers were choreographed by Roland Petit (also her husband). The Porter songs are half-heartedly rendered, although O'Connor and Gaynor get some oomph into "It's De-Lovely." Der Bingle was born to burble "Blow, Gabriel, Blow," but it's too little, too late. --Robert Horton

In ANYTHING GOES, Bill Benson and Ted Adams are to appear in a Broadway show together and, while in Paris, each 'discovers' the perfect leading lady for the star female role. Unfortunately, they each promise the role to the girl they selected without informing the other until they head back home - with their leading ladies!

Objective Burma

A paratroop captain (Errol Flynn) sets out with a platoon to attack a Japanese outpost in the jungle. The Americans reach their target, take out the enemy with almost balletic precision, then gear up to return home. This feels like the point when a conventional war movie would have reached its action-filled climax, but the journey has only begun. Ahead lies one of the most arduous and agonizing adventures any World War II film ever offered, brilliantly directed by that underrated old master Raoul Walsh and photographed with almost tactile realism by the great James Wong Howe.

The chief rap against Objective, Burma! (of concern mainly to British observers) is that it suggests that only U.S. forces contested the Japanese in the jungles of Burma. (OK, so it's not the most accurate history lesson.) But that's small beer in view of the movie's bone-chilling portrayal of pain, sacrifice, and endurance. The jungle atmosphere is so persuasive, you'd swear it was shot on the actual locations (though in fact Walsh effectively reworked many of the same situations in Distant Drums, a sort-of Western about the Seminole War, six years later). You'll never forget the terrifying last dark night on a mountainside--or the crocodiles.... Flynn is excellent (he had given his best performance ever in Walsh's Gentleman Jim three years earlier), and he's backed by a solid cast including Henry Hull (as an aging war correspondent), James Brown, William Prince, George Tobias, and Stephen Richards (soon to change his name to Mark Stevens). Incidentally, two of the writers, Alvah Bessie and Lester Cole, were later blacklisted; see if you can spot any Commie propaganda. --Richard T. Jameson

Mission accomplished! Errol Flynn who brought boyish bravado to The Adventures of Robin Hood Dodge City Gentleman Jim and other screen yarns turns in a mature acclaimed performance as the leader of a paratrooper patrol stranded in Burma. It's "one of the few features of which I am proud" Flynn later said. There's reason for pride. "This is one of the finest World War II films made during the war" The Movie Guide says. "One of the best war movies" Guide for the Film Fanatic's Danny Peary wrote "and among the grimmest." Raoul Walsh directs the hard-hitting action shot in rugged California locations so similar to Burma that veterans of that campaign refused to believe the crew hadn't somehow sneakedinto Asia.Running Time: 142 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE UPC: 012569525023 Manufacturer No: 65250

Saddle the Wind

SADDLE THE WIND (DVD MOVIE)

The Blue Gardenia

With its title inspired by the notorious Black Dahlia murder case, The Blue Gardenia throws a twist into the story by making the mystery woman not the victim but the suspect in a lurid murder case. Anne Baxter, playing a virginal blonde with almost breathless innocence, impulsively accepts a blind date after receiving a "Dear Jane" letter from her boyfriend in Korea. Raymond Burr oozes slime as the lothario who plots his seduction with cynical calculation ("For drinks, Polynesian Pearl Divers, and don't spare the rum!") and the naive Baxter is easy prey, until she fights back against his advances with a fireplace poker and stumbles home. Waking up the next morning with the past evening a veritable blank, she discovers herself the prime suspect in a murder case trumpeted into a sensationalistic headline story by calculating columnist Richard Conte. Fritz Lang transforms the rather conventional low-budget thriller into a paranoid nightmare, his cheap sets and flat backdrops creating a tawdry world peopled by cynics and opportunists preying on the guileless, and Baxter makes every guilt-ridden moment palpable. Like in many film noir thrillers, the pat conclusion seems wholly arbitrary, the product of the Hollywood happy-ending machine. However, Lang's film isn't about the mystery, but the experience of an innocent whose single, desperate transgression turns her world upside down. --Sean Axmaker

Fritz Lang's scathing critique of fifties America's hunger for bloodshed and scandal. Classic Hollywood film noir with a feminine twist "The Blue Gardenia" stars Anne Baxter (All About Eve) as Norah Larkin a working girl who wakes up a murderess after passing out in the apartment of brutish playboy Harry Prebble (Raymond Burr). Branded "The Blue Gardenia" by a sensational columnist (Richard Conte) Norah dodges dragnets informants and the cruel hand of fate as she struggles to conceal her involvement with Prebble and to remember the details of her ill fated night. As her hopes for justice fade she decides to gamble her future on the journalist who transformed her into such a notorious public figure. Enhancing the melancholy mood of the film is the haunting theme song arranged by Nelson Riddle and performed to perfection by Nat "King" Cole.System Requirements:Running Time 88 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 014381904222 Manufacturer No: ID9042AQDVD

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