Jones, Henry

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

This 1969 film has never lost its popularity or its unusual appeal as a star-driven Western that tinkers with the genre's conventions and comes up with something both terrifically entertaining and--typical of its period--a tad paranoid. Paul Newman plays the legendary outlaw Butch Cassidy as an eternal optimist and self-styled visionary, conjuring dreams of banks just ripe for the picking all over the world. Robert Redford is his more levelheaded partner, the sharpshooting Sundance Kid. The film, written by William Goldman (The Princess Bride) and directed by George Roy Hill (The Sting), basically begins as a freewheeling story about robbing trains but soon becomes a chase as a relentless posse--always seen at a great distance like some remote authority--forces Butch and Sundance into the hills and, finally, Bolivia. Weakened a little by feel-good inclinations (a scene involving bicycle tricks and the song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" is sort of Hollywood flower power), the movie maintains an interesting tautness, and the chemistry between Redford and Newman is rare. (A factoid: Newman first offered the Sundance part to Jack Lemmon.) --Tom Keogh

Paul Newman and Robert Redford set the standard for the "buddy film" with this box office smash set in the Old West. The Sundance Kid (Redford) is the frontier's fastest gun. His sidekick Butch Cassidy (Newman) is always dreaming up new ways to get rich fast. If only they could blow open a baggage car without also blowing up the money-filled safe inside... Or remember that Sundance can't swim before they escape a posse by leaping off a cliff into rushing rapids... Times are changing in the west and life is getting tougher. So Butch and Sundance pack their guns don new duds and with Sundance's girlfriend (Katharine Ross) head down to Bolivia. Never mind that they don't speak Spanish - they'll manage somehow. A winner of four Academy Awards (including best screenplay and best song) here is a thoroughly enjoyable blend of fact and fancy done with true affection for a bygone era and featuring the two flashiest friendliest funniest outlaws who ever called out "hands up!"System Requirements:Features: Disc 1: Widescreen Feature Commentary #1 by George Roy Hill Lyricist Hal David Associate Producer Robert Crawford and Cinematographer Conrad Hall. Commentary #2 by Screenwriter William Goldman. Disc 2: 2005 documentary ALL OF WHAT FOLLOWS IS TRUE: The Making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The Wild Bunch: The True Tale of Butch & Sundance. History through the lens: "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: Outlaws Out of Time" 1994 documentary: THE MAKING OF BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUDANCE KID" 1994 Interviews Production Notes Alternate Credit Roll Theatrical Trailer #1 Theatrical Trailer #2 Theatrical Trailer #3 The Films of Paul Newman From the Terrace Hombre The Hustler The Long Hot Summer Quintet The Towering Inferno The Verdict What a Way to Go! Running Time: 330 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: PG UPC: 024543244578 Manufacturer No: 2234458

Support Your Local Gunfighter/Support Your Local Sheriff

9 to 5 - Sexist, Egotistical, Lying Hypocritical Bigot Edition - Widescreen

With a nod to Preston Sturges's classic dark comedy Unfaithfully Yours (about a man who fantasizes about murdering his possibly philandering wife), this 1980 cotton-candy-feminist-vendetta film concerns a monstrous boss (Dabney Coleman) whose more capable underlings dream of ways of punishing him. That much of the film is particularly fun, but the rest of it descends into silliness when the women stumble onto a real-life opportunity to teach him a lesson. Fonda, the biggest star in the film at the time, takes a back seat to Parton's and Tomlin's showier roles. Written and directed by the late Colin Higgins (who made a lot of people happy in the '70s with his script for the beloved Harold and Maude). --Tom Keogh

On the DVD
What's on the "Sexist, Egotistical, Lying Hypocritical Bigot Edition" DVD of one of the more enduring comedies of the 1980s? The cast were obviously delighted for the opportunity to travel down memory lane, providing a commentary. Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin recorded their bits in one city while Jane Fonda recorded hers simultaneously in another city, as they watched the movie again together. The three leads--one, Parton, a rookie actress--made for a well-balanced comedic team whose friendship has endured off-screen for 25 years, a friendship that comes across in their banter. A "Nine At 25" featurette finds the cast and producer dishing such tidbits as the fact Parton came to the set having memorized the entire script, everyone else's parts included. A "9 to 5" karaoke feature may entertain depending on how many drinks one has had at the office party, but the words don't always seem in sync with the music.

To celebrate the release of this edition of 9 to 5, the cast, sans Dabney Coleman, reunited in Los Angeles for a party in which Dolly sang the theme song, memories were shared, and actresses dressed as '80s office workers acted busy in cubicles and reception desks.

The Cast of 9 to 5 Celebrate 25 Years of Sticking It to the Boss (click for larger image)

In this witty satirical farce secretaries Dolly Parton Jane Fonda and office manager Lily Tomlin live every female worker's dream after discovering they share the same resentment towards their egotistical sexist boss (Dabney Coleman). When they get an unexpected chance to take revenge they turn their male controlled workplace into a modle office - even as their scheme spins wildly out of control.Episodes-Bonus Features:Feature - Pan Scan and Widescreen format available.Inside LookCommentary by Producer Bruce Gilbert and actors Jane Fonda Dolly Parton and Dabney ColemanNine @ 25 Featurette10 Deleted ScenesRemembering Collin HigginsGag ReelSinging Nine to Five KaraokeOriginal Theatrical TrailerSystem Requirements:Running Time 110 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG UPC: 024543231523 Manufacturer No: 2233152

The Bad Seed

"A basket full of kisses for a basket full of hugs." Those are chilling words, at least when uttered by that ice princess, Patty McCormack. As Rhoda Penmark, she is as pretty as a porcelain doll but drips venom with each curtsey and polite response. Little Rhoda's mother is terrified she has passed on her own mother's corruption. Oops, turns out she's right. This passes the test of time, as it still gets under your skin. The character development is tight and the story very involving. Not even Freddy Krueger had the ability to scare like tiny McCormack, looking just like a little adult while she literally beats out the competition for a penmanship award. However, director Mervyn LeRoy's hands were tied over the ending, which was changed from the source material--Maxwell Anderson's hit Broadway play. A supposedly more appropriate, and moral, ending was demanded by the studio. This was remade (badly) in 1985. --Rochelle O'Gorman

Vertigo (Universal Legacy Series)

Although it wasn't a box-office success when originally released in 1958, Vertigo has since taken its deserved place as Alfred Hitchcock's greatest, most spellbinding, most deeply personal achievement. In fact, it consistently ranks among the top 10 movies ever made in the once-a-decade Sight & Sound international critics poll, placing at number 4 in the most recent survey. (Universal Pictures' spectacularly gorgeous 1996 restoration and rerelease of this 1958 Paramount production was a tremendous success with the public, too.) James Stewart plays a retired police detective who is hired by an old friend to follow his wife (a superb Kim Novak, in what becomes a double role), whom he suspects of being possessed by the spirit of a dead madwoman. The detective and the disturbed woman fall ("fall" is indeed the operative word) in love and...well, to give away any more of the story would be criminal. Shot around San Francisco (the Golden Gate Bridge and the Palace of the Legion of Honor are significant locations) and elsewhere in Northern California (the redwoods, Mission San Juan Batista) in rapturous Technicolor, Vertigo is as lovely as it is haunting. --Jim Emerson

One of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest cinematic achievements, Vertigo, celebrates its 50th anniversary with an all-new 2-disc Special Edition DVD! Set in San Francisco, Vertigo creates a dizzying web of mistaken identity, passion and murder after an acrophobic detective (James Stewart) rescues a mysterious blonde (Kim Novak) from the bay. Recognized for excellence in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies, this dreamlike thriller from the Master of Suspense is as entertaining today as it was 50 years ago. Featuring revealing bonus features and a digitally remastered picture, Vertigo is a “great motion picture that demands multiple viewings” (Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide).

Vertigo (Collector's Edition)

Although it wasn't a box-office success when originally released in 1958, Vertigo has since taken its deserved place as Alfred Hitchcock's greatest, most spellbinding, most deeply personal achievement. In fact, it consistently ranks among the top 10 movies ever made in the once-a-decade Sight & Sound international critics poll, placing at number 4 in the most recent survey. (Universal Pictures' spectacularly gorgeous 1996 restoration and rerelease of this 1958 Paramount production was a tremendous success with the public, too.) James Stewart plays a retired police detective who is hired by an old friend to follow his wife (a superb Kim Novak, in what becomes a double role), whom he suspects of being possessed by the spirit of a dead madwoman. The detective and the disturbed woman fall ("fall" is indeed the operative word) in love and...well, to give away any more of the story would be criminal. Shot around San Francisco (the Golden Gate Bridge and the Palace of the Legion of Honor are significant locations) and elsewhere in Northern California (the redwoods, Mission San Juan Batista) in rapturous Technicolor, Vertigo is as lovely as it is haunting. --Jim Emerson

Arachnophobia

Most horror movies depend on giant monsters; Arachnophobia gets just as many thrills out of creatures only a few inches long. A scientist (Julian Sands, Warlock, A Room with a View) who's hunting a vicious new species of spider in Venezuela unknowingly ships one back to the U.S. It ends up in a small town where a new doctor (Jeff Daniels, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Something Wild) is trying to establish a practice. When his patients start suddenly dying, Daniels suspects spiders--but no one takes him seriously because he's had a phobia about spiders since childhood. Arachnophobia builds a slow but relentless sense of menace and creepiness, mixed with a sneaky satire of small town life. If you're squeamish about spiders, this will get under your skin. Also featuring the ever-dependable John Goodman (The Big Lebowski, Barton Fink) as a comically zealous exterminator. --Bret Fetzer

Hollywood Pictures and Amblin Entertainment deliver the year's most electrifying big-screen roller coaster ride of a movie! Everyone is afraid of something ... for Dr. Ross Jennings (Jeff Daniels), his phobia is downright embarrassing. But when he moves his family to a small town, the one thing that bugs him most is now harming the townspeople at an alarming rate. For this unlikely hero, overcoming a childhood fear of spiders might just save the community, but it may already be too late! Directed by Frank Marshall (Executive Producer, BACK TO THE FUTURE, Producer, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK) and also starring John Goodman, this critically acclaimed breathtaking hit entertains with its terrific mix of thrills, chills, and laughter!

3:10 to Yuma (Special Edition)

Struggling rancher and family man Van Heflin sneaks captured outlaw Glenn Ford out from under the eyes of his gang and nervously awaits the prison train in this tight, taut Western in the High Noon tradition. Adapted from an Elmore Leonard story, this tense Western thriller is boiled down to its essential elements: a charming and cunning criminal, an initially reluctant hero whose courage and resolution hardens along the way, and a waiting game that pits them in a battle of wills and wits. Glenn Ford practically steals the film in one of his best performances ever: calm, cool, and confident, he's a ruthless killer with polite manners and an honorable streak. Director Delmer Daves (Broken Arrow) sets it all in a harsh, parched frontier of empty landscapes, deserted towns, and dust, creating a brittle quiet that threatens to snap into violence at any moment. --Sean Axmaker

This fine western opens with Van Heflin as a rancher whose family is suffering from the devastatingeffects of a long drought. Heflin needs $200 to build a well then learns he can obtain the money as a reward for delivering Glenn Ford a notorious outlaw now in the hands of the law to the state prison in Yuma Arizona. Though this will put Heflin in great personal danger the peaceful man accepts the assignment knowing what the money will mean to his family. Heflin and Ford hole up in a small hotel in another town while waiting for the train to Yuma. The outlaw begins toying with Heflin's mind talking in a friendly manner about Heflin's job and financial situation. Playing psychologicalgames Ford tries to convince Heflin to take $100000 to look the other way while he escapes. Heflin finds himself in a quandary desperately needing the money yet being bound by his word to carry out the job. Ford's gang led by Jaeckel discovers where their leader is hidden and sets out to rescue him. The town officials abandon Heflin rather than put themselves in danger leaving the troubled rancher alone to face off with the outlaws. Ford ends up assisting Heflin helping his captor on the3:10 to Yuma explaining 'I owed you that.' Heflin has come through the ordeal body and integrityintact and as if in answer to this baptism by fire the skies burst forth with rain putting an end to the drought.System Requirements:Run Time: 92 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 043396212251 Manufacturer No: 21225

The Grifters (Miramax Collector's Series)

Annette Bening twists like a mink on a leash through Stephen Frears's adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel. This may be the perfect trope for the moral hysteria that coils around a mother, her son, and his girlfriend in this slender but highly pleasurable neo-noir. Small in effect and local in scope, the film is about small-fry, attractive, bloodless con artists who view the world as neatly split between ropers and suckers, grifters and squares. "Grifter's got an irresistible urge to beat a guy that's wise," an old-timer tells Roy (John Cusack). And yet the three characters here--played by Angelica Huston, Cusack, and Bening--only beat the innocent: Lilly (Huston) gigs at the track for a mobster named Bobo, putting wads of cash on long-shot horses to even out the odds. Roy, her son, swindles citizens by dimes and degrees, flashing twenties at bars then paying for his beer with tens. His girlfriend, Myra (Bening), is hustling herself, her salad days as a long-con roper behind her. Theirs is a world of gut punches and smart lines, and the adrenaline these cheats and chiselers live by is palpable onscreen. But a larger canvas? Maybe it's there as a parallel universe. "What do you sell again?" Myra asks Roy, the matchbook salesman. "Self-confidence," he says, a wry allusion to the confidence game all three of them are playing. The movie boasts dazzling turns by Bening, Cusack, and especially Huston, whose mère fatale breaks new ground for noir. --Lyall Bush

A con man, his mother, and his girlfriend all become involved in a game of deception, in which they prey on each other.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 10-JAN-2006
Media Type: DVD

Support Your Local Sheriff

While hardly the first Western spoof to ride out of Hollywood, Support Your Local Sheriff is easily one of the best. James Garner plays the confident, cool-headed cowboy who strolls into a wild gold rush town on the way to Australia and takes the job as sheriff. Like a parody of My Darling Clementine by way of Rio Bravo, he arrests the hotheaded but hopelessly confused son (Bruce Dern) of a ruthless ranching magnate (Walter Brennan). Stuck with a half-built jail (where he keeps his prisoner penned up with pure psychology and a few spatters of red paint), a rummy sidekick (google-eyed Jack Elam in one of his first comic turns), and a disaster-prone tomboy (Joan Hackett), he takes on a succession of gunfighters with increasing exasperation. "Sure is a childish way for a grown man to make a living," he laments before chasing one gunman out of Dodge by pelting him with rocks. Directed with laconic ease by veteran Western director Burt Kennedy, it's a clever spoof of familiar conventions in a lighthearted vein, more understated and affectionate than Mel Brooks's outrageous farce Blazing Saddles. It inspired a slew of imitators, including a decade of silly Disney Westerns that sank the genre in slapstick shenanigans, and was followed in 1971 by Kennedy's pseudosequel Support Your Local Gunfighter, which reteamed Garner and Elam in a more mercenary story of con artists and gunslingers. --Sean Axmaker

Armed with a wry sense of humor and a straight-shooting sidearm, James Garner (Maverick, My Fellow Americans) fights for peace, justice and fun in this outrageous, irreverent and "very funny" (Los Angeles Times) farce co-starring Joan Hackett, Walter Brennan, Harry Morgan and Jack Elam. Support Your Local Sheriff is "sheer entertainment from start to finish" (Boxoffice)! On his way to Australia, frontier opportunist Jason McCullough (Garner) stumbles into a small gold-rush town and decides to earn a little extra pocket money by accepting a temporary assignment as its sheriff. Happily applying himself to his new position, McCullough manages to turn the town derelict (Elam) into his deputy, outsmart the dreaded Danby clan (led by Brennan in a hilarious comic performance), and fend off the lusty advances of the mayor's daughter (Hackett) all without breaking a sweat or dirtying his shiny black boots!