French, Victor

Spencer's Mountain

Long before Henry Fonda played an irascible patriarch in On Golden Pond, he played an equally crusty family man in this warmly rustic, 1963 drama Spencer's Mountain, based on an Earl Hamner Jr. novel that later inspired the television series The Waltons. Fonda plays Clay Spencer, a fiercely independent, hard-drinking, foul-mouthed Wyoming laborer who believes in God but rejects (to his tiny community's consternation) organized religion. Scraping together enough money to build a new house for his wife (Maureen O'Hara) and nine children, Spencer runs into an obstacle to both his plans and family pride when his college-bound son (James MacArthur) romances the daughter of Spencer's boss. Director Delmer Daves whips up a kind of morose schmaltz out of the earnest material, but it's Fonda's grit and heartland integrity that carry the day and establish some self-effacing wit. Some nice features here, including interviews with Fonda and a short documentary, "Spencer's Mountain: Grand Teton Premiere." --Tom Keogh

An Officer and a Gentleman (Special Collector's Edition)

Once in a great while a movie comes along that truly grips and uplifts its audiences. Such a movie is An Officer And A Gentleman a timeless tale of romance friendship and growth. Loner Zack Mayo (Richard Gere) enters Officer Candidate School to become a Navy pilot and in thirteen tortuous weeks he learns the importance of discipline love and friendship. Louis Gossett Jr. won an Academy Award* for his brilliant portrayal of the tough drill instructor who teaches Zack that no man can make it alone. And while Gossett tries to warn the young officer about the local girls who will do anything to catch themselves pilot husbands Zack eventually learns to love one (Debra Winger) while his fellow candidate a memorable character portrayed by David Keith struggles with a very different fate. An Officer And A Gentleman is a rich and satisfying story with moving performances that will stay with you long after the film has ended.System Requirements:Running Time: 124 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 097361207643 Manufacturer No: 120764

Richard Gere plays an enrollee at a Naval officers candidate school, and Debra Winger is the woman who wants him. That's pretty much it, story-wise, in this romantic drama, which is more effective in a moment-to-moment, scene-by-scene way, where the two stars and Oscar-winner Louis Gossett Jr.--as Gere's tough-as-nails drill instructor--are fun to watch. Sexy, syrupy, with occasional pitches of high drama (Gere having a near-breakdown during training is pretty strong), An Officer and a Gentleman proves to be a no-brainer date movie. --Tom Keogh

Little House on the Prairie - The Pilot

Discover the television movie that started it all! Based on the best-selling books by Laura Ingalls Wilder this classic produced and directed by Michael Landon launched the Emmy Award-winning series. This movie takes us from the woods of Wisconsin to the plains of Kansas where the Ingalls struggle to build a new life. With indomitable courage that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit the Ingalls face endless challenges and experience countless adventures as they pursue their dream of a new home. This premiere movie is a "must-have" for all Little House fans!Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 069458111737 Manufacturer No: A021427

Rio Lobo

The final film by the legendary director Howard Hawks, released in 1970, found him paired with longtime leading man John Wayne in a story slightly similar to their more familiar Rio Bravo and El Dorado. Set at the end of the Civil War, the story finds Wayne playing a Union army colonel who recovers some stolen gold and roots out a traitor. Though a little creaky (Hawks had been making films since 1926), Rio Lobo nevertheless has his trademark, crackling dialogue, appealing characters, and ensemble spirit among the cast. This was a worthy finish to a fantastic career by a first-rank filmmaker. --Tom Keogh

The Other

Like most 12-year-olds, Niles and Holland like to get into mischief. The only problem is when Holland gets into mischief, people have a funny way of "accidentally" dying. Niles knows that Holland is responsible for all the gruesome accidents happening in the neighborhood - the pitchfork hidden in the hay, the severed finger in the box, the baby in the wine barrel. He knows but dare not tell anyone, not even his beloved grandmother Ada (Uta Hagen), that Holland is the evil twin¿or is he?

Chato's Land

Charles Bronson (The Magnificent Seven) and Academy Award(r) winner* Jack Palance (City Slickers) star in a magnificent western as wild and untamed as the Old West itself. Bristling with dynamic action sequences and riveting performances, Chato's Land is a bold, sweeping tale of passion, vengeance and cold-blooded murder. Chato (Bronson) is a half-breed Apache Indian who treads the line between two cultures, balancing allegiance to his tribe with the allure of the white man's world. But when Chato kills a vicious sheriff in self-defense, he finds himselfhunted by a posse led by the ruthless Quincey Whitmore (Palance), a former Confederate soldier who is determined to see him hang. It's 13 men against one, but the odds shift in Chato's favor when he leads his pursuers into Apache territory, where the harsh, cruel countryside can kill as surely as agunman's bullet. *1991: Supporting Actor, City Slickers

The House on Skull Mountain / The Mephisto Waltz

Disc 1:House on Skull Mountain (1974) Disc 2:Mephisto Waltz (1971)

There Was a Crooked Man...

Arizona Territorial Prison inmate Paris Pittman is a schemer a charmer and quite popular among his fellow convicts - especially with $500000 in stolen loot hidden away and a plan to escape and recover it. New Warden Woodward Lopeman has other ideas about Pittman. Each man will have the tables turned on him. Academy Award winner* Joseph L. Mankiewicz cleverly lassoes a twisting turning Wild West tale of brawls chases shootouts and wry wit courtesy of a script by David Newman and Robert Benton (Bonnie and Clyde). Kirk Douglas as Pittman and Henry Fonda as Lopeman headline a sterling cast with Hume Cronyn Burgess Meredith Warren Oates and Lee Grant among the solid support. Boisterous yet blistering lighthearted yet lacerating There Was a Crooked Man is throughout all its moods delivishly entertaining.Running Time: 123 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 085391112075 Manufacturer No: 111207

Shelved for more than a year and released as an un-holiday-like afterthought at Christmas 1970, this sardonic comedy-cum-Western-cum-prison movie immediately dropped off the radar and has scarcely been heard of since. We can understand that. By their own admission, hotshot screenwriters David Newman and Robert Benton (just off Bonnie and Clyde) and veteran director Joe Mankiewicz (more typically associated with the likes of All About Eve) never found the right focus for their mix of sociopolitical satire, frontier bawdiness, and brutal Western action. Still, the very unevenness makes for fascinating tensions, and the myriad insights and moods created by a cast comprising Kirk Douglas, Henry Fonda, Hume Cronyn, John Randolph, Warren Oates, and Burgess Meredith more than repay a visit.

Douglas plays one of those charming bastards at which he excelled--here, Paris Pittman Jr., a bandit capable of seducing virtually anyone into doing his will. Pittman has a fortune in gold stashed somewhere. Inconveniently, he himself has been stashed in the territorial penitentiary in the middle of the desert, so he begins conniving to escape. This means betraying everyone in range, including the liberal-minded warden (Fonda) who's determined to redeem him. The stellar adversaries are ideally cast, with Fonda cannily subverting his own image (as he recently had in Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West). Cronyn and Randolph are priceless as "an old married couple," and Oates is heartbreaking as a congenital loner who thinks that, in Paris Pittman, he has at last found a friend. --Richard T. Jameson

Little House on the Prairie - Christmas

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE
Title: LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE CHRISTMAS
Street Release Date: 10/07/2003
Domestic
Genre: TELEVISION

Elvis - The Hollywood Collection (Charro / Girl Happy / Kissin' Cousins / Live a Little, Love a Little / Stay Away, Joe / Tickle Me)

Six movies featuring the king of rock & roll Elvis Presley are featured on this collection. The titles included are CHARRO; GIRL HAPPY; KISSIN' COUSINS; LIVE A LITTLE LOVE A LITTLE; STAY AWAY JOE; and TICKLE ME.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 085391148241 Manufacturer No: 114824