Hunt, Martita

Becket

Made in 1964, but set in 12th-century England, this is the fact-based story of Henry II (Peter O'Toole) and his dear friend, the Archbishop of Canterbury (Richard Burton). When the king appoints his former drinking buddy to the high religious office, he believes he has placed an ally into power. Instead, he learns that Thomas very much takes his job to heart, prompting Henry to ask that fateful question--"Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"

This won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay, and it is a strong example of finely tuned performances--both leading men received Academy Award nominations for their roles. There is much passion and rage on the screen, but the beauty of their performances is that we always know that love is there as well. The film, shot on location in England, is also visually appealing. Trivia buffs may be interested to know that Peter O'Toole played Henry II four years later in The Lion in Winter. --Rochelle O'Gorman

The primary bonus feature is a treat: a feature-length commentary by Peter O'Toole, accompanied by a moderator. With only occasional gaps of silence, the still sharp and well-spoken O'Toole recalls the making of the film, how he didn't research the historical King Henry ("The author has made the character; that's his job. My job is to play it."), and his memories of Richard Burton, both personal ("We found that we both enjoyed rugby, we both enjoyed songs, and we both enjoyed drinking, and got along very well.") and professional ("he had an astonishing presence on the stage"). There are also two archival interviews with Burton from 1967 and 1977 (26 minutes total), in which he doesn't discuss Becket, but he does say a lot about his life on stage, he recites some lines, and speaks candidly about his drinking problem.

Don't skip over the interviews with the film's editor Anne Coates and composer Laurence Rosenthal. Coates (7 minutes) has some good stories, and Rosenthal (12 minutes) discusses the influences on his Oscar-nominated score and how he had to teach Gregorian chant to Burton ("He was one of these people whom you really can't teach anything. He had this characteristic that you can only remind him of something he already knows. But he didn't know how to sing Gregorian chant."). In addition to a photo gallery and the four-and-a-half-minute theatrical trailer, MPI's long-delayed DVD looks better than many major-studio classics. --David Horiuchi

Beyond Becket

Other Peter O'Toole Films

Other Richard Burton Films

More King Henrys on DVD

The Unsinkable Molly Brown

Not only was Molly Brown unsinkable, so is the musical based on her amazing life. Released in 1964, The Unsinkable Molly Brown gave Debbie Reynolds one of her most memorable roles and earned her an Academy Award nomination (she lost to Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins). Paired with Harve Presnell, fresh from the Broadway version, Reynolds and Presnell sparkle as Molly and Johnny Brown, well-meaning but gauche nouveau millionaires who take on stuffy Denver society (who are loathe to admit that they are nouveau riche as well). During their Molly-guided quest for "respectability," the pair learns that old adage--all the money in the world can't buy happiness or contentment.

From her beginnings as a foundling floating down the Colorado River to her fateful trip on the Titanic, Molly Brown aims upward, swearing "I Ain't Down Yet." Reynolds imbues her Molly with energy, determination, and poignancy. Molly feels every slight keenly and is convinced that more and bigger will make her place in society. Husband Johnny, who promised "I'll Never Say No," finds it harder and harder to keep his promise as he watches his wife's single-mindedness bury her effervescent personality. In the songs by Meredith Willson (The Music Man), Presnell's rich baritone soars on "Colorado, My Home" and begins a rousing "He's My Friend," while "Belly Up to the Bar, Boys" is a bawdy, catchy romp during which Reynolds shines--rollicking across the dance floor, she's a red-headed dynamo in a gauzy green dress. --Dana Van Nest

Anastasia

Ingrid Bergman gives one of her memorable, haunting, and haunted performances as an amnesiac chosen by a White Russian general (Yul Brynner) in 1928 to play the part of Anastasia, the long-rumored but missing survivor of the Bolsheviks' murderous attack on the czar's family. The twist is that Bergman's mystery woman seems to know more about the lost Anastasia than she is told. Based on the play by Marcelle Maurette and Guy Bolton, this film--directed by Anatole Litvak (Out of the Fog)--really does get under one's skin, not least of all because of its intriguing story but even more because of the strong chemistry between Bergman and Brynner. --Tom Keogh

An expatriate White Russian general sets in motion a grand hoax after he meets a destitute woman on the banks of the Seine River in Paris. He is amazed at her resemblance to Anastasia, the youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas of Russia, rumored to have somehow survived the Bolsheviks' execution of the Romanoff family in 1918. He trains her to impersonate the missing princess but soon begins to feel she may be the real Anastasia. Ultimately, the truth can only be decided by one person Anastasia's grandmother, the Dowager Empress.

Great Expectations (1946) (Criterion Collection Spine #31)

David Lean's handsome adaptation of Charles Dickens's classic novel captures the warm humor and richness of character that so many filmmakers miss in their reverent recreations of Victorian England. From the nightmarish opening sequence on the windswept graveyard where young orphan Pip (Anthony Wager) meets the desperate escaped criminal Magwitch (Finlay Currie) to the shadowy, musty mansion of the widow Miss Haversham (Martita Hunt) where he first meets the impertinent young beauty Estella (Jean Simmons), Lean captures a childlike exaggeration of reality with his elegant expressionism. When Pip's sudden change in fortune sends him to London as a burgeoning gentleman in high society, Lean sketches a beautiful, bustling city. John Mills's performance as the adult Pip charts his change from the wide-eyed wonder and generous spirit of the child he was to the class snob transformed by money and social standing, an ugly flaw that Pip confronts when his mysterious benefactor is finally revealed. The outstanding cast also features Valerie Hobson as the grown-up Estella, now a beguiling enchantress, a bright young Alec Guinness in his film debut as Pip's jovial London roommate Herbert Pocket, and the imposing Francis L. Sullivan as the decidedly humorless lawyer Jaggers. Exquisitely photographed by Guy Green (who won an Oscar for his work). Lean and his collaborators effectively maintain the heart of Dickens's epic drama while cutting it to its essentials in this vivid, compelling film. --Sean Axmaker

One of the great translations of literature into film, David Lean's Great Expectations brings Charles Dickens' masterpiece to robust onscreen life. Pip, Magwitch, Miss Havisham, and Estella populate Lean's magnificent miniature, beautifully photographed by Guy Green and designed by John Bryan.

Anna Karenina (1948)

Vivien Leigh is a "Scarlett" woman as tragic heroine Anna Karenina, unhappily married to "colossal bore" Alexei (Ralph Richardson), who neglects her to attend to affairs of state. When Anna meets the dashing Count Vronsky (Kieron Moore), she begins an affair of her own that scandalizes St. Petersburg and leads to her ostracization from high-society circles and, in a heartbreaking scene, her beloved son. Pepe Le Moko director Julien Duvivier's 1948 adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's oft-filmed book has stretches that make the film seem as long and cold as a Russian winter night, but the ravishing Leigh as the doomed Anna keeps the fires burning. The "thoughtless and selfish" Anna is a distant relation of the willfull Ms. O'Hara from Gone with the Wind, although her ultimate comeuppance leaves no hope for "another day." This is a high-minded prestige production (Tolstoy gets his name above the title), but it offers the more simple, old fashioned pleasures of a Hollywood melodrama. --Donald Liebenson

Vivien Leigh in the most magnificent love story every written ! Stefan and Dolly Oblonsky have had a little spat and Stefan has asked his sister Anna Karenina to come down to Moscow to help mend the rift. Anna's companion on the train from St. Petersburg is Countess Vronsky who is met at the Moscow station by her son. Col. Vronsky looks very dashing in his uniform and it's love at first sight when he looks at Anna and their eyes meet. Back in St. Petersburg they keep running into each other at parties. Since she has a husband and small son they must be very discreet if they are going to see each other alone.System Requirements:Run Time: 111 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 024543425717 Manufacturer No: 2242571

Bunny Lake Is Missing

When Ann Lake (Carol Lynley The Poseidon Adventure) goes to pick up four-year-old Bunny at her new preschool in London she s told that no child by that name is enrolled there! Superintendent Newhouse (Lawrence Olivier Hamlet Academy Award® Best Actor of 1948The Boys From Brazil) of Scotland Yard is assigned to the case. His suspects include: Steven Lake (Keir Dullea 2001: A Space Odyssey) the child s protective uncle; Horatio Wilson (Noel Coward The Italian Job 1969) the Lake s decadent landlord; and Aida Ford (Martita Hunt Anastasia) the school s eccentric ex-headmistress but he soon learns that no one has actually seen the child and there is absolutely no proof that Bunny ever existed! Ann maintains the child s been kidnapped but Newhouse begins to suspect that the hysterical young woman may just be insane.System Requirements:Running Time: 107 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: NR UPC: 043396094666 Manufacturer No: 09466

Sabotage

Bonjour Tristesse

Cool and introspective, Otto Preminger's sleek, stylish Bonjour Tristesse is one of his most understated films. Jean Seberg stars as a spoiled teenager who acts with a high-society sophistication beyond her years, and dapper David Niven is her playboy father, going through young female playmates like socks. Flitting through the French jet set and comparing conquests, they summer on the gorgeous French Riviera, where mature fashion designer Deborah Kerr enters their lives and wins Niven's heart. Seeing an end to her lifestyle, Seberg plots an end to the relationship with equal parts conniving ruthlessness and juvenile prankishness, too self-absorbed to even consider the brutal results of her actions. Told in flashback from a sleek but shadowy black-and-white Paris, the film melts into the vivid Technicolor of memory. Seberg's voiceover narration is arch, but her impish, often petulant performance is perfect, as is Niven's flippant, womanizing bachelor father (Preminger lets their curious, flirtatious intimacy hang like an unanswered question and a nervous subtext). Kerr's middle-aged working woman seems almost puritanical compared to the irrepressible travelers, but under her rules and limits lies an honest concern for a "child" who believes herself an adult. Preminger's camera prowls through the drama just removed enough to be respectful, and intimate enough to get under the characters' skin. Like the best of his dramas, there are no heroes or villains, only complex, flawed, achingly sympathetic characters. --Sean Axmaker

Song Without End

Anna Karenina (1948)

From back cover - Tolstoy's tragic love chornicle is brought to the screen with Vivien Leight playing a married Russian woman madly in love with a military officer.