Hutton, Jim

Where the Boys Are

The movie that put the Break into Spring, Where the Boys Are inspired thousands of college kids to seek sun, surf, and even s-e-x on the beaches of Florida. A bevy of co-eds (including foxy Yvette Mimieux and delightful Paula Prentiss, in her film debut) make for Fort Lauderdale, finding fun but also quite a bit of heavy-breathing drama. It's a little like a dressier, glossed-up version of the Problems with Today's Youth movies that were filling up the drive-ins of the era. The movie's actually pretty frank for 1960, although these days the lightweight stuff with Prentiss and Jim Hutton holds up best. There's also Connie Francis, who plays one of the college girls and croons the great title tune (which belongs on anybody's mix tape of classic teen-beach music). The film was remade, with vague Orwellian overtones, as Where the Boys Are 84, a truly dismal effort. --Robert Horton

A group of Midwest girls head down to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for spring break.

Hellfighters

Fans of Armageddon might see one or two resemblances between that 1998 box office hit and Hellfighters, a 1968 action film by Andrew V. McLaglen, one of John Wayne's favorite directors in his late career. (Their joint ventures included Chisum, Cahill: United States Marshal, and McLintock!) Wayne plays an oil well firefighter in the mold of Red Adair, turning up anywhere in the world where a geyser of fire is shooting up from a once-profitable gusher. His right-hand man (Jim Hutton) has questionable judgment about safety matters and is a scoundrel with the ladies--and neither fact is lost on Wayne when Hutton's character marries his long-lost daughter (Katharine Ross, a mere year after The Graduate). The film is an early entry in the disaster-meets-soap-opera genre that flourished in the '70s with such titles as The Towering Infernoand The Poseidon Adventure. McClaglen gets a lot of crackle out of his action scenes (many of the firefighting sequences are still startling in their intensity) and turns twin love stories (Hutton and Ross, Wayne and Vera Miles) into frothy studies of adult manners, with equal hints of Howard Hawks and Sidney Sheldon. The widescreen image on DVD offers viewers a chance to see what was then a developing vogue for gratuitous breadth and scope in all its goofy, self-congratulatory glory. (Is it necessary to look at a golf course the way one might look at an African veldt? Hellfighters says yes!) The DVD also includes production notes and written bios on the stars, plus optional French and Spanish subtitles and an optional Spanish soundtrack. The cast and sundry thrills make this film highly enjoyable, and easily forgivable for indulging in such inanities as a subplot concerning--hold on--Venezuelan terrorists! The Duke lives! --Tom Keogh

The Hallelujah Trail

Acclaimed director John Sturges (The Magnificent Seven, Bad Day at Black Rock, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral) turns the legends of the West upside down in this rip-roaring western comedy about the year Denver was nearly devastated by a droughtof whiskeyand had to have fortywagonloads imported through very harshand very thirstyterritory! Academy AwardÂ(r) winners* Burt Lancaster and Martin Landau team with OscarÂ(r) nominee** Lee Remick inthis beautifully filmed epic adventure that "wins both laughs and thrills" (The Hollywood Reporter)! Also starring Jim Hutton, Brian Keith and Donald Pleasence, this irreverent and literally dry look at frontier life is "possibly the funniest western ever made" (Los Angeles Times)!

The Green Berets

Anyone who fought in Vietnam can tell you that the war bore little resemblance to this propagandistic action film starring and codirected by John Wayne. But the film itself is not nearly as bad as its reputation would suggest; critics roasted its gung-ho politics while ignoring its merits as an exciting (if rather conventional and idealistic) war movie. Some notorious mistakes were made--in the final shot, the sun sets in the east!--and it's an awkward attempt to graft WWII heroics onto the Vietnam experience. But as the Duke's attempt to acknowledge the men who were fighting and dying overseas, it's a rousing film in which Wayne commands a regiment on a mission to kidnap a Viet Cong general. David Janssen plays a journalist who learns to understand Wayne's commitment to battling Communism, and Jim Hutton (Timothy's dad) plays an ill-fated soldier who adopts a Vietnamese orphan. In addition to its widescreen image, the digital video disc includes a promotional featurette and seven different theatrical trailers. --Jeff Shannon

John Wayne leads his special forces troops against the enemy in this first Hollywood treatment of the Vietnam War. It's rugged battle action all the way. David Janssen and Jim Hutton co-star.Running Time: 141 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: G UPC: 085391158608 Manufacturer No: 115860

Major Dundee (The Extended Version)

Sam Peckinpah's first big-budget film was also the first to be taken away and released in a shortened version. But now 40 years later most of the missing footage has been located and reinserted with the entire soundtrack remixed in 5.1 Dolby Digital and a completely new score composed. The new scenes complete the electrifying depiction of an oppressive Union officer who leads a squad of Rebel prisoners ex-slaves and criminals into Mexico to hunt down a band of murdering Apaches which raises the question: who represents a greater threat?System Requirements:Running Time: 136 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396049437 Manufacturer No: 04943

This restoration of Sam Peckinpah's 1965 western Major Dundee is nothing short of magnificent, a noble attempt at restoring a famously wrecked masterpiece. When Peckinpah went over budget and over schedule during the Mexico shoot, unshot scenes were canceled and the footage rudely cut by the studio. The director disowned the results. In 2005, surviving footage was patched back in, and a new musical soundtrack commissioned to replace the score Peckinpah hated. This raises some legitimate questions about interpreting a director's intentions, and about messing with film history, but Major Dundee--The Extended Version is such a rousing, mysterious experience, one feels grateful.

Major Dundee (Charlton Heston) is a vainglorious officer busted to the decidedly inglorious job of overseeing prisoners in a fort in New Mexico. An abduction gives him the excuse to mount an expedition into Mexico, chasing the perpetrators and perhaps a shot at greatness. His ragtag posse includes Confederate POWs, notably one Captain Ben Tyreen (Richard Harris), whose intense former friendship with Dundee is tainted with a sense of betrayal on both sides. (Heston and Harris, two actors not known for subtlety, are splendid.) Part Ahab, part Alexander the Great, Dundee leads the expedition away from its purpose and into a near-mythic kind of wandering.

Peckinpah gets everything right--the landscapes, the sneaky humor, the code of men. He also takes time to distinguish the supporting characters, such as Jim Hutton's awkward young officer and Senta Berger's stranded widow. The Peckinpah stock company of amazing character actors is in place, too, including James Coburn, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, L.Q. Jones, and Slim Pickens. It will never be exactly what Peckinpah envisioned, but now Major Dundee rides suspiciously close to greatness. --Robert Horton

Walk Don't Run

This extraordinarily sweet--but thankfully not sappy--film proves once and for all that Cary Grant was devastating, period. Young, mature, or in his golden years. The reason Ian Fleming modeled James Bond after Grant is startlingly clear. Grant was 62 when this film, set during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, was made. Grant plays Sir William Rutland, who is caught in the crowded rush--without a place to stay. He finds himself subletting an apartment along with Christine Easton (Samantha Eggar), who's in town to be near her fiancé, a British diplomat. Also sharing their tight quarters is Olympic competitor Steve Davis (Jim Hutton), who's evasive about his sport. Soon Sir William, a distinguished businessman, finds himself playing Cupid to his young housemates.

The movie is a comedy of clever words, of misunderstandings, and, surprisingly, of physical humor. Grant, stripping down to boxers and a T-shirt, takes to the Tokyo streets, participating in "the event" to the incredulity of those around him and to the amusement of the audience. It's a priceless and very funny scene--and the film is full of such joys. Grant lived another 20 years, but this was his final film and a fine cheerio it is indeed. --N.F. Mendoza

During the housing shortage of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, two men and a woman share a single apartment and the older man plays Cupid to the other two. Stars Academy Award winner Cary Grant in his last film role.

The Green Berets

Anyone who fought in Vietnam can tell you that the war bore little resemblance to this propagandistic action film starring and codirected by John Wayne. But the film itself is not nearly as bad as its reputation would suggest; critics roasted its gung-ho politics while ignoring its merits as an exciting (if rather conventional and idealistic) war movie. Some notorious mistakes were made--in the final shot, the sun sets in the east!--and it's an awkward attempt to graft WWII heroics onto the Vietnam experience. But as the Duke's attempt to acknowledge the men who were fighting and dying overseas, it's a rousing film in which Wayne commands a regiment on a mission to kidnap a Viet Cong general. David Janssen plays a journalist who learns to understand Wayne's commitment to battling Communism, and Jim Hutton (Timothy's dad) plays an ill-fated soldier who adopts a Vietnamese orphan. In addition to its widescreen image, the digital video disc includes a promotional featurette and seven different theatrical trailers. --Jeff Shannon

They Call It Murder (1971)

A small-town district attorney is saddled with several major investigations, including a gambler's murder and a possible insurance scam.

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Psychic Killer

Great Detective Movies (They Call It Murder / Murder Once Removed / A Tattered Web)

3 Great Movies on 1 DVD. Star Power, Exciting Genre with Extras on each DVD.