How Green Was My Valley
by John Ford
from 20th Century Fox
John Ford's beautiful, heartfelt drama about a close-knit family of Welsh coal miners is one of the greatest films of Hollywood's golden age--a gentle masterpiece that beat Citizen Kane in the Best Picture race for the 1941 Academy Awards. The picture also won Oscars for Best Director (Ford), Best Supporting Actor (Donald Crisp), Best Art Direction, and Best Cinematography; all of those awards were richly deserved, even if they came at the expense of Kane and Orson Welles. Based on the novel by Richard Llewellyn, the film focuses its eventful story on 10-year-old Huw (Roddy McDowall), youngest of seven children to Mr. and Mrs. Morgan (Donald Crisp, Sarah Allgood), a hardy couple who've seen the best and worst of times in their South Wales mining town. They're facing one of the worst times as Mr. Morgan refuses to join a miners union whose members have begun a long-term strike. Family tensions grow and Huw must learn many of life's harsher lessons under the tutelage of the local preacher (Walter Pidgeon), who has fallen in love with Huw's sister (Maureen O'Hara). As various crises are confronted and devastating losses endured, How Green Was My Valley unfolds as a rich, moving portrait of family strength and integrity. It's also a nod to a simpler, more innocent time--and to the preciousness of memory and the inevitable passage from youth to adulthood. An all-time classic, not to be missed. --Jeff Shannon
Sixty year-old Huw Morgan looks back on his life as a boy (Roddy McDowall) in a small Welsh mining town. His reminiscences reveal the disintegration of the closely knit Morgans, and his devoted parents (Donald Crisp, Sara Allgood), while capturing the sentiments and issues of their time. Maureen O'Hara and Walter Pidgeon co-star in this acclaimed screen classic, the story of one family's dreams, struggles and triumphs.
Isle of the Dead / Bedlam
by Mark Robson
from Turner Home Ent
The most celebrated star in the history of screen horror headlines these two atmospheric works filled with producer Val Lewton's trademark mix of mood, madness and premeditated dread. Boris Karloff shares a quarantined house with other strangers on a plague-infested perhaps spirit-haunted Isle of the Dead. St. Mary's of Bethlehem Asylum in 1761 London is the setting for Bedlam. Karloff gives an uncanny performance as the doomed overseer who fawns on high-society benefactors while ruling the mentally disturbed inmates with an iron fist. Mark Robson, who edited three films for Lewton and directed five, guides both films.
A Yank in the RAF
by Henry King
from 20th Century Fox
Tyrone Power is the quintessential American abroad, a brash, smart-talking flyboy with a roving eye and a mercenary heart--in other words, a part made for him. "I know, I'm a worm," he smiles as he plants a kiss on Betty Grable, the American showgirl who can't seem to stay mad at the charming cad who enlists in the RAF just to impress her. The marvelous special-effects model work delivers two excellent airborne sequences (a harrowing bombing run over Germany and a swarming dogfight over the evacuation of Dunkirk), but as military melodrama it's ultimately pure Hollywood fluff and only halfhearted propaganda. A Yank in the RAF is less about the war in Europe than about Power's rakish grin and future GI pin-up Grable's oft-displayed legs, and they display their charms for all they're worth. --Sean Axmaker
Tyrone Power pursues Betty Grable and becomes A YANK IN THE R.A.F., in this romantic drama set in the early days of WWII. For smooth-talking daredevil pilot Tim Baker (Power), flying is a game and the war is simply an opportunity to make some quick money. When a high-paying job ferrying bombers across the Atlantic lands him in London, he runs into Carol (Grable), an old flame, and joins the R.A.F. just to be near her. But problems arise when Carol is pursued by another pilot (John Sutton), who treats her better and happens to be Baker's superior officer! When both men start flying bombing missions over Europe, Carol finds that choosing between them is suprisingly hard, and Baker learns that not everyone takes life as lightly as he does.
How Green Was My Valley
by John Ford
from 20th Century Fox
John Ford's beautiful, heartfelt drama about a close-knit family of Welsh coal miners is one of the greatest films of Hollywood's golden age--a gentle masterpiece that beat Citizen Kane in the Best Picture race for the 1941 Academy Awards. The picture also won Oscars for Best Director (Ford), Best Supporting Actor (Donald Crisp), Best Art Direction, and Best Cinematography; all of those awards were richly deserved, even if they came at the expense of Kane and Orson Welles. Based on the novel by Richard Llewellyn, the film focuses its eventful story on 10-year-old Huw (Roddy McDowall), youngest of seven children to Mr. and Mrs. Morgan (Donald Crisp, Sarah Allgood), a hardy couple who've seen the best and worst of times in their South Wales mining town. They're facing one of the worst times as Mr. Morgan refuses to join a miners union whose members have begun a long-term strike. Family tensions grow and Huw must learn many of life's harsher lessons under the tutelage of the local preacher (Walter Pidgeon), who has fallen in love with Huw's sister (Maureen O'Hara). As various crises are confronted and devastating losses endured, How Green Was My Valley unfolds as a rich, moving portrait of family strength and integrity. It's also a nod to a simpler, more innocent time--and to the preciousness of memory and the inevitable passage from youth to adulthood. An all-time classic, not to be missed. --Jeff Shannon
A Yank in the R.A.F.
by Henry King
from 20th Century Fox
Tyrone Power is the quintessential American abroad, a brash, smart-talking flyboy with a roving eye and a mercenary heart--in other words, a part made for him. "I know, I'm a worm," he smiles as he plants a kiss on Betty Grable, the American showgirl who can't seem to stay mad at the charming cad who enlists in the RAF just to impress her. The marvelous special-effects model work delivers two excellent airborne sequences (a harrowing bombing run over Germany and a swarming dogfight over the evacuation of Dunkirk), but as military melodrama it's ultimately pure Hollywood fluff and only halfhearted propaganda. A Yank in the RAF is less about the war in Europe than about Power's rakish grin and future GI pin-up Grable's oft-displayed legs, and they display their charms for all they're worth. --Sean Axmaker
Tyrone Power pursues Betty Grable and becomes A YANK IN THE R.A.F., in this romantic drama set in the early days of WWII. For smooth-talking daredevil pilot Tim Baker (Power), flying is a game and the war is simply an opportunity to make some quick money. When a high-paying job ferrying bombers across the Atlantic lands him in London, he runs into Carol (Grable), an old flame, and joins the R.A.F. just to be near her. But problems arise when Carol is pursued by another pilot (John Sutton), who treats her better and happens to be Baker's superior officer! When both men start flying bombing missions over Europe, Carol finds that choosing between them is suprisingly hard, and Baker learns that not everyone takes life as lightly as he does.
White Pongo (1945)
by Sam Newfield
from Synergy Ent
How Green Was My Valley [Region 2]
John Ford's beautiful, heartfelt drama about a close-knit family of Welsh coal miners is one of the greatest films of Hollywood's golden age--a gentle masterpiece that beat Citizen Kane in the Best Picture race for the 1941 Academy Awards. The picture also won Oscars for Best Director (Ford), Best Supporting Actor (Donald Crisp), Best Art Direction, and Best Cinematography; all of those awards were richly deserved, even if they came at the expense of Kane and Orson Welles. Based on the novel by Richard Llewellyn, the film focuses its eventful story on 10-year-old Huw (Roddy McDowall), youngest of seven children to Mr. and Mrs. Morgan (Donald Crisp, Sarah Allgood), a hardy couple who've seen the best and worst of times in their South Wales mining town. They're facing one of the worst times as Mr. Morgan refuses to join a miners union whose members have begun a long-term strike. Family tensions grow and Huw must learn many of life's harsher lessons under the tutelage of the local preacher (Walter Pidgeon), who has fallen in love with Huw's sister (Maureen O'Hara). As various crises are confronted and devastating losses endured, How Green Was My Valley unfolds as a rich, moving portrait of family strength and integrity. It's also a nod to a simpler, more innocent time--and to the preciousness of memory and the inevitable passage from youth to adulthood. An all-time classic, not to be missed. --Jeff Shannon
White Pongo (1945)
by Sam Newfield
from Reel Classic Films
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