Guilfoyle, Paul

White Heat

In his last role as a heartless gangster, James Cagney embarks on the prison break of a lifetime in this chilling tale that features one of the most riveting finales in movie history.

What Price Glory?

James Cagney and Dan Dailey are soldiers during World War I, fighting for the same lovely French woman. Phoebe and Henry Ephron wrote the script.

Mighty Joe Young

He may only come up to King Kong's shin, but Joe makes up in heart what he lacks in size. This sweet tale of a girl and her pet/best friend, an African gorilla with the soul of a kitten, pulls on a different set of heartstrings than the giant ape classic. Robert Armstrong practically repeats his role from King Kong as a Broadway producer who lures Jill Young (Terry Moore) and Joe, an ape she raised from baby (a splendidly realized stop-motion character created by Willis O'Brien, the creator behind Kong), to New York as the star attraction at his new nightclub. Caged in a cramped basement holding cell, the unhappy Joe finally goes berserk after a trio of drunks ply him with alcohol, and the city rules him a menace. In a desperate attempt to save Joe from execution, Jill rounds up her friends and confidants (including beefy love interest Ben Johnson) for a jailbreak. This human-scale drama is more subdued than its inspiration, but the nightclub rampage remains a terrifying scene in its mad destruction; and the climax, involving a raging fire at an orphanage (have these filmmakers no shame?!), still impresses. --Sean Axmaker

A slick nightclub owner (King Kong veteran Robert Armstrong) discovers the giant ape frolicking in Africa as the beloved pet of a young girl (Terry Moore). He brings both to Hollywood as a floor-show sensation until some no-goods ply Joe with booze and the blitzed behemoth goes bonkers. Highlights such as Armstrong's henchmen trying to lasso Joe cowpoke style Joe playing tug-of-war with musclemen and plenty of Joe-to-the-rescue action make Mighty Joe Young mighty fine entertainment.Running Time: 94 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 053939725322

Brother Orchid

Racket Boss John Sarto tired of gang violence quits and goes to Europe for "culture." His fortune soon dissipated by European swindlers he returns to the old mob; but new boss Jack Burns finds him strictly superfluous. Narrowly escaping being rubbed out Sarto is taken in by the monastery of the "Little Brothers of the Flower." His unique talents prove very useful to the monks...especially when Sarto's old mob forces them out of the flower market.Running Time: 128 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/CLASSICS UPC: 883929002702 Manufacturer No: 1000035744

Carefree

Steve Arden is frustrated with his fiancee singer Amanda Cooper when she breaks off their engagement for the third time. He enlists the aid of his friend psychologist/hypnotist Dr. Tony Flagg. Although Amanda falls in love with Tony he hypnotizes her and convinces her to love Steve. After the treatment it is Tony who is mesmerized.Running Time: 83 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS UPC: 053939756722 Manufacturer No: T7567

Perhaps because it was Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers's penultimate picture together for RKO, or perhaps because it is more romantic comedy than musical, Carefree tends to be a neglected entry in the series. This is unfortunate, because it retains many of the elements that made the duo so popular while also breaking new ground. Fred plays Tony Flagg, a psychoanalyst who is asked by his friend Steve (Ralph Bellamy) to try to figure out why his fiancée, Amanda Cooper (Ginger), keeps breaking off their engagement. During the course of treatment, and in a reversal of the usual pattern, Ginger falls for Fred and begins to pursue him. The emotionally repressed doctor resists, leading to a number of comic encounters, as well as a moment of genuine heartbreak. Other innovations include Fred's dance on a driving range, a slow-motion dream sequence (which was going to be shot in color until budget concerns won out), Fred and Ginger's first screen kiss, and some of Ginger's best turns as a comic actress. More familiar elements include Ginger fronting the band at the start of a large company dance number ("The Yam," which failed to catch on as a dance craze), an expert if skimpy Irving Berlin score including the lovely ballad "Change Partners," and of course fabulous, high-flying dancing. Fred and Ginger fans can't afford to miss Carefree. --David Horiuchi

Apache

Burt Lancaster was cock of the walk in 1954. The Lancaster-starred From Here to Eternity had just swept the Oscars®, his personal production company Hecht-Lancaster could do no wrong, and he had marquee magic in two back-to-back Westerns directed by Robert Aldrich, Vera Cruz and this one. There are moments in his performance as Massai, the Apache warrior who wouldn't surrender with Geronimo, that seem choreographed to express the actor's exultation. Massai has hard going all the way--starting with having to recross half the continent on foot after escaping from a prison train bound for Florida--but Lancaster the ex-circus athlete who insisted on doing his own stunts fairly sings with the ecstasy of movement as he scampers over rocks, rolls unscathed between the wheels of racing wagons, and generally makes the screen look like his private gym.

Apache wasn't the first Western to sympathize with Native Americans done wrong, but it's among the liveliest--although, ironically, it was destined to be outshone in power and complexity by Aldrich and Lancaster's masterpiece Ulzana's Raid nearly two decades later. Typically of its time, Apache features non-Indians in all the Indian roles, including Jean Peters as Massai's beloved Nalinle and Charles Buchinsky (later Bronson) as her other suitor, Hondo, one of the tribesmen who has donned U.S. Cavalry blue. John McIntire contributes his crusty moral authority as Al Sieber, the real-life scout who helped defeat Geronimo and then Massai, and respected both. John Dehner is, as usual, a real bastard. --Richard T. Jameson

It Happened Tomorrow

Winterset

When The West Was Young

Land thieves and bandits battle pioneer settlers in the Old West.

Big Time