The Song of Bernadette
by Henry King
from 20th Century Fox
Jennifer Jones plays the legendary French peasant who claimed to have dialogues with the Virgin Mary at a Lourdes grotto in 1858. The script handles the visitations as an article of truth (Linda Darnell plays the Virgin), which helps move the drama forward, though much of the story concerns the conflicts that arise in the community after Jones is told the grotto contains healing waters. Made by Henry King (The Snows of Kilimanjaro), the film is gorgeous to look at and sensitively directed; and Jones (who won an Oscar for Best Actress) is radiant in the lead. Whatever one's religious persuasion, this is a strikingly handsome Hollywood production to be enjoyed. The film also earned Academy Awards for cinematography and score. --Tom Keogh
The story of a peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous, a poverty-stricken, pure hearted adolescent, who saw a vision, of a "Beautiful Lady" near her home town of Lourdes in 1858. The wondrous news spreads rapidly throughout France, leaving in its wake a variety of consequences: adoration, suspicion and greed among the people of Lourdes skepticism from the town doctor (Lee J. Cobb) charges of insanity from the town prosecutor (Vincent Price) threats of physical punishment, then support and guidance from the Dean of Lourdes (Charles Bickford), who finally becomes convinced that the miracle has, indeed, taken place. Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Actress and Best Score, this true story is both first-rate filmmaking and an inspiring tribute to faith, courage and the human spirit.
Love is a Many-Splendored Thing
by Henry King
from 20th Century Fox
This love story made in 1955 and set against the backdrop of war is a many-splendored thing: it features a drop-dead gorgeous Eurasian doctor seeking meaning in her life (Jennifer Jones), a dashing but married American war correspondent who's macho yet not afraid to declare his love (William Holden), and a couple of murky subplots to give their relationship its oh-what's-going-to-happen-next edge (her Chinese heritage, his wife, the outbreak of the Korean War). One scene builds beautifully upon the next, accompanied by dialogue that often sounds like poetry: "I will make no mistakes in the name of loneliness," the doctor says near the beginning of their relationship. The movie also makes few mistakes as it combines thoughtful words with Oscar-winning costumes to tell its tale. It even leaves you with a hummable tune--the Academy Award-winning title song--as you reach for the Kleenex. --Valerie J. Nelson
Newsman Mark Elliott is an American war correspondent temporarily staying in Hong Kong during the Korean War. While there he meets and pursues a beautiful Eurasian Doctor. But when they begin to fall in love, their friends and families pressure them to stop the cross cultural relationship.
Since You Went Away
by John Cromwell
from MGM (Video & DVD)
A three-hour weepy extraordinaire, this 1944 offering from producer David O. Selznick (who also wrote the screenplay) was a tribute to all the families who stayed behind while their men went off to fight in World War II. Claudette Colbert is the mother of daughters Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple; first seen coming home after dropping her war-bound husband at the train, she becomes the model of courage and strength on the homefront. The plot has a Saturday Evening Post feel today, as it follows the family's day-to-day life and struggles, whether with a crotchety boarder (a delightfully starchy Monty Woolley) or oldest daughter Jones's doomed romance with departing serviceman Robert Walker. They don't make them like this anymore and it's too bad. Nominated for a fistful of Oscars, it took only one, for its shadow-drenched black-and-white cinematography. --Marshall Fine
Nominated* for nine Academy Awards® this heart-warming soul-stirring (Variety) portrait of life on the homefront during World War II is a magnificent picture rich in humor and poignant with heartbreak (The Hollywood Reporter). Claudette Colbert heads an all-star cast including Jennifer Jones Joseph Cotten and Shirley Temple in this beautifully produced picture that gets into your heart (Los Angeles Examiner). With her husband Tim off at war Anne Hilton (Colbert) struggles to be a pillar of strength for her daughters Jane (Jones) and Bridget (Temple). During America s darkest hours she bravely steers her girls through heartbreak and hardships as she eagerly awaits news from overseas and wonders if life will ever be the same.System Requirements: Running Time 177 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 027616912022 Manufacturer No: 1007060
Duel in the Sun
by William Dieterle
from MGM (Video & DVD)
From the acclaimed producer of Gone With the Wind comes a torrid tale of passion and romance that s loaded with all the sweep and panache of a giant American action movie (The New Yorker)! Flawlessly cast (The Film Daily) with a bevy of film legends including Jennifer Jones Gregory Peck Joseph Cotten Lionel Barrymore and Lillian Gish this salacious saga is virtually impossible not to love (The Hollywood Reporter)!When her father is hanged for murdering his wife the stunning beauty Pearl (Jones) is taken in by a wealthy Texan his wife and their two grown sons (Peck and Cotten). But Pearl soon becomes trapped in an emotional tug-of-war between her love for one son and her lust for the other igniting the most tempestuous triangle the West has ever seen!System Requirements: Running Time 146 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 027616905741 Manufacturer No: 1006373
Legendary producer David O. Selznick dreamed of another magnum opus like his 1939 production of Gone with the Wind; he also purposed to make Jennifer Jones, his ladylove and eventually second Mrs. Selznick, a megastar. Accordingly, he micromanaged the making of Duel in the Sun (Lust in the Dust to some), an extravagant Technicolor epic about the collision of the old West with the new, wide-open spaces with railroads and barbed wire, and hot-blooded outlaws with civilized folk, often wimpy or unwell. Beginning among giant rocks drenched in a blood-red sunset, with velvet-voiced Orson Welles intoning the leibestod legend of doomed Pearl Chavez and her demon lover, Duel never strays far from lush romanticism, spiced with a dash of S/M. Orphaned Pearl (Jones) comes to live at Spanish Bit Ranch, where frail Laura Belle McCanles (Lillian Gish) tries to make a lady of her, despite her questionable origins and insistent voluptuousness. Sexual license versus law--Pearl's choices--are symbolized by the McCanles brothers: dark, undisciplined Lewt (a lubriciously wicked Gregory Peck) and reasonable, forward-looking, repressed Jesse (Joseph Cotten). The cast is huge (Lionel Barrymore, Walter Huston, Harry Carey, Herbert Marshall, Charles Bickford, Butterfly McQueen) and there are unforgettable set pieces: summoned by a cacophony of bells, the gathering of McCanles cowboys from the four corners of the earth; Pearl in heat, clutching Lewt's leg and being dragged across the floor as he makes his getaway to Mexico; and the lovers' final shootout among those red rocks, as orgiastic a finale as you could ask for. --Kathleen Murphy
The Towering Inferno (Special Edition)
by Irwin Allen
from 20th Century Fox
A dedication ceremony at the world's tallest skyscraper turns into a high-rise catastrophe when a defective wire in its systems-control panel causes an electrical flare-up. Within minutes the gala event turns into a hellish inferno as a raging fire traps society's most prominent citizens on the top floor. Winner of three Academy Awards this sepctacular suspense thriller features dazzling special effects and a star studded cast including Paul Newman Steve McQueen William Holden and Faye Dunaway.System Requirements:Running Time: 335 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG UPC: 024543231707 Manufacturer No: 2233171
Disaster movies used to work because there was little certainty as to who would survive. Not so in this film, really an amalgam of two original stories, about a group of well-to-do celebrants at the top floor of a skyscraper. Cheapo electrical wiring and bad construction management cause an enormous blaze at the lower floors, steadily rising to consume the revelers. Newman's an architect, McQueen a firefighter, and Fred Astaire a kind old gentleman, for which he was Oscar-nominated. O.J. Simpson plays a security guard who rescues a cat. Now that's a disaster. --Keith Simanton
Portrait of Jennie
by William Dieterle
from MGM (Video & DVD)
One of the most unusual romances ever filmed Portrait of Jennie is the picture of sumptuous perfection. Starring Joseph Cotten (Citizen Kane) and Oscar® winner* Jennifer Jones (A Farewell to Arms) in a sensitive appealing performance (The Hollywood Reporter) this tender [and] poetic (Variety) tale is enthralling from its touching beginning to its haunting conclusion.When struggling artist Eben Adams (Cotten) meets the beautiful and mysterious Jennie (Jones) he is instantly captivated. Before long Jennie has become his great muse and he is enjoying success and bliss beyond his dreams. But there is a price to pay for such elation and soon Eben must face the truth about who Jennie really is.System Requirements: Running Time 86 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 027616903846 Manufacturer No: 1006182
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
by Nunnally Johnson
from 20th Century Fox
Gregory Peck plays a young New York executive who defies the wisdom of the corporate class by deciding his family is more important than the offer of a new job. Lots of melodrama, guilt, and a revelation about a wartime affair (told in flashback), but this well-oiled, good-looking 1956 film still holds up pretty well. Based on a novel by Sloan Wilson, the script and direction are by Nunnally Johnson (The Three Faces of Eve). --Tom Keogh
Based on the novel by Sloan Wilson, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit stars Gregory Peck as a haunted New York executive whp defies convention and decides his family is more important than his career in this post-war melodrama scripted and directed by the celebrated Nunnally Johnson (The Three Faces of Eve).
A Farewell to Arms
by John Huston
from 20th Century Fox
Set against the backdrop of the Italian front during World War I, an American Army volunteer (Rock Hudson) meets a British nurse (Jennifer Jones) on the eve of the big offensive in the Alps and they fall passionately in love. Torn apart, then reunited, they escape to Switzerland to await the birth of their child - and the tragic conclusion to their once-in-a-lifetime romance. "Moving and realistic" (The Hollywood Reporter), this sweeping epic remains a powerful and emotional experience.
Madame Bovary (1949)
from Warner Home Video
Lovely Emma Bovary longs for romance glamour possessions. Wed to a country doctor she instead gets routine motherhood and penny-pinching. So when she catches the eye of a handsome aristocrat Emma risks all to reach for what she thinks will be happiness. Jennifer Jones stars in this lush adaptation of the Gustave Flaubert novel that scandalized 19th-century France. The film's capstone is the stunning ballroom scene contrasting Emma's social success with her husband's failure culminating in his drunken arrival on the dance floor. In the famed sequence director Vincente Minnelli skillfully combines dissolves cross-cuts pans long takes - a library of techniques - into a seamless triumph of head-spinning gaiety heart-breaking despair and moviemaking artistry.Running Time: 114 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569795068 Manufacturer No: 79506
Carrie
by William Wyler
from Paramount
A respectable married man throws away everything for his love of a showgirl.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: NR
Release Date: 18-JAN-2005
Media Type: DVD
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