Freeman, Howard

Scaramouche

As first lines go, Scaramouche's is irresistible: "He was born with a gift of laughter, and a sense that the world was mad." This exuberant period adventure is pretty irresistible itself--even more than Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk, likewise derived from Rafael Sabatini novels. Within more or less one day in pre-revolutionary France, devil-may-care Stewart Granger learns he's the bastard offspring of a nobleman, gets orphaned, realizes he's fallen in love with his sister (Janet Leigh), swears to avenge his best friend's murder, becomes a hunted traitor, and breaks into show business. George Sidney directs as if making an MGM musical, only with swashbuckling instead of song-and-dance. The unlikely casting of Granger and Mel Ferrer as overripe nemeses proves delightful, cameraman Charles (Sunrise) Rosher's Technicolor palette alternates commedia dell'arte garishness and misty, Watteau-like imagery, and the climactic six-and-a-half-minute duel all over a Parisian theater is a tour de force. --Richard T. Jameson

Let danger befall him. Let the winds of fate blow where they may. Andre Moreau will strike a blow for vengeance and the French Revolution. First he must hone his skill with the blade. By day Andre secretly perfects his parries and lunges - and hides his true identity at night behind the mask of stage clown Scaramouche. A climactic duel that's one of the greatest sequences ever to lay steel to foe caps this bravura adaptation of the Rafael Sabatini (Captain Blood The Sea Hawk) novel. George Sidney (1948's The Three Musketeers) nimbly directs all the swordplay wordplay and horseplay. And Stewart Granger brings dash and deviltry to his portrayal of a hero "born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad." En garde!Running Time: 115 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE UPC: 012569571020

The Snake Pit

Virginia Cunningham (de havilland) appeared to have had an idyllic life - a nice home, a loving husband and prospects for a sriting career. But, something just wasn't right. Confusion, doubts about her husband's love, even violent outbursts led Virginia to be confined in a mental institution. She is put through a series of brutal treatments, including being forced into close quarters with patients whose disorders far exceed her own. The belief - the shock of the experience will return her to sanity.

Frank Sinatra - The Early Years Collection (It Happened in Brooklyn / Step Lively / The Kissing Bandit / Double Dynamite / Higher and Higher)

The young, skinny Frank Sinatra was a big-band singer and the heartthrob of the bobby-soxers when he launched his movie career--a moment in time memorably captured by Frank Sinatra: The Early Years Collection. Five movies take the gangly kid from Hoboken through his hesitant first forays into the Hollywood game; everything here is in the minor-but-tuneful category, before he re-launched his career with From Here to Eternity. It's a fun set for Sinatra fans, not so essential for the casual viewer (and no extra features for vintage-movie mavens). Frankie's first feature, in 1943, was Higher and Higher, in which he plays--hmm--a young singer named Frank Sinatra. All right, it's not much of a stretch, but the kid fits quite comfortably into a madcap ensemble that includes Jack Haley, Mary Wickes, Dooley Wilson, and a youthful (practically unformed) Mel Torme. This is the kind of wacky universe in which a scullery maid has a French accent (it's Michele Morgan) and a British nobleman has a Danish accent (it's piano comedian Victor Borge). The film is completely insane, but fun. Step Lively (1944) has the same director, Tim Whelan, and a similarly over-heated farce in play: a theatrical producer (obnoxious George Murphy) tries to whip together a show while dodging hotel managers (Adolphe Menjou, deadpan Walter Slezak). Frankie's in there as a playwright who also sings. It's a version of the Broadway play that also served the Marx Brothers in Room Service, but the whole thing is really too labored to pay off. It Happened in Brooklyn (1947) doesn't offer much in the way of substance (Sinatra is a WWII vet returning to his beloved, but now less friendly, Brooklyn), but at least Frank is teamed with Jimmy Durante. Oh, and Kathryn Grayson and Gloria Grahame are in there too, even if the real love match is Sinatra and Durante singing together. Tunes are by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, including "Time After Time."

1948's The Kissing Bandit became for Sinatra what The Silver Chalice would be for Paul Newman: a source of self-mockery in later years. A truly bizarre concoction about the son of a Zorro-like bandit settling in Boston, the film has one specialty number featuring Cyd Charisse, Ann Miller, and Ricardo Montalban, and a lot of filler. Sinatra's career was sliding by the time Double Dynamite (1951) was released, and the movie did little to help. Frankie's a poor bank clerk who scores on a horse-racing bet but can't prove he didn't actually rob the bank. It isn't great, although Groucho Marx at least has one of his better solo roles, while Jane Russell is stuck in a dizzy-dame part (rather than her preferred sassy mode). For Sinatra, career resurgence would have to wait a while--this box set gives you the superstar-in-waiting. --Robert Horton

Includes Double Dynamite It Happened in Brooklyn Step Lively Higher and Higher and The Kissing Bandit.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/CLASSICS Rating: NR UPC: 883929011520 Manufacturer No: 1000037360

Laurel & Hardy - Air Raid Wardens / Nothing but Trouble

Whether serving their country in wartime or serving multicourse mealtime mayhem Laurel and Hardy serve up laughs in this classic twofer. First the nation calls out in its hour of need Stan and Ollie answer...and Uncle Sam changes his mind. Rejected by the military our heroes become Air Raid Wardens. Lights-out laughs include a donnybrook with slow-burn comic Edgar Kennedy and a run-in with a nest of spies. In Nothing but Trouble the boys fuss and finagle as World War II-era domestics who rally 'round an exiled boy king when danger arises. Sam Taylor co-director of Harold Lloyd's famed hanging-from-the-clock-high-above-city-traffic movie Safety Last! guides this romp that includes a gem of a ledge-hanging sequence. Hold tight for fall-down funny fun.Running Time: 136 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 012569794597 Manufacturer No: 79459

Double Dynamite

Bank teller Johnny Dalton too poor to marry his sweetheart 'Mibs' Goodhug saves a big-time bookie from a beating and receives a munificent reward...which just happens to match a mysterious shortage at the bank! Will Johnny's pal eccentric waiter Emile get him out of trouble...or in so deep he'll never get out?Running Time: 80 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/CLASSICS UPC: 883929010271 Manufacturer No: 1000037098

Just For You/Here Comes the Groom

Film Noir - The Dark Side of Hollywood (Sudden Fear / The Long Night / Hangmen Also Die / Railroaded / Behind Locked Doors)

Randolph Scott Double Feature, Vol. 1: Abilene Town/Fighting Westerner

The Time of Your Life

Time Of Your Life, The

This blockbuster hit which made its debut as a Pulitzer Prize winning play, will warm your heart and tickle your funny bone as it is a delightful treat that focuses on average folks for a refreshing change.