Kulp, Nancy

The Parent Trap (1961) and The Parent Trap II (1986): 2-Movie Collection (2-Disc Set)

Two identical twins, separated since their parents' divorce, scheme to switch places in order to get their parents back together; As grownups, a niece convinces one of the twins to help match up her divorced sister with the niece's friend's widowed father
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: G
Release Date: 27-SEP-2005
Media Type: DVD

The Aristocats (Special Edition)

Disney's irresistible classic THE ARISTOCATS is all jazzed up in a spectacular Special Edition complete with a new digital transfer. In the heart of Paris a kind and eccentric millionairess wills her entire estate to Duchess her high-society cat and her three little kittens. Laughs and adventure ensue as the greedy bumbling butler pulls off the ultimate catnap caper. Now it's up to the rough-and-tumble alley cat Thomas O'Malley and his band of swingin' jazz cats to save the day. Loaded with fun bonus features including a new Virtual Kitten game a heartwarming deleted song and more THE ARISTOCATS is purr-fect for the whole family.System Requirements:Running Time: 79 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating: G UPC: 786936723229 Manufacturer No: 05331100

Duchess and her three kittens are enjoying the high life with their devoted human mistress until the wicked butler Edgar, with his eyes on a big inheritance, decides to dope them and get them out of the picture. How can these fragile creatures cope in the unfamiliar countryside and the meaner streets of Paris? Only by meeting the irrepressible alley cat O'Malley, a rough diamond with romance in his heart. After they get a taste of the wide dangerous world, he guides them home, and Edgar gets his just desserts at the wrong end of a horse. As always, it's really the voices rather than the animation that are the heart of the Disney magic: Phil Harris is brilliant as O'Malley, Eva Gabor as Duchess is... well... Eva Gabor; but perhaps the most memorable turns are by Pat Buttram and George Lindsay, who turn the old hounds Napoleon and Lafayette into a couple of bumbling Southern-fried rednecks. Their scenes with Edgar, and the musical numbers with Scat Cat and his cool-dude band, are classic. Most striking about seeing The Aristocats now is how deeply Disney's style of animation has changed since this was at the cutting edge in 1970. Perhaps the nostalgic, dated feel are just a result of being plonked down in Belle Epoque Paris, but the illustrations are fussier (a pity) and the animation and overall pace much less frenetic (sometimes a relief) than in more recent efforts such as Aladdin. --Richard Farr

Sabrina

Audrey Hepburn is the delightful young Sabrina, the daughter of a chauffeur who is hopelessly in love with David Larrabee (William Holden), the playboy younger son in the rich Long Island household her father works for. In order to help her forget her woes, Sabrina is shipped off to cooking school in Paris. While there, she befriends a baron who provides a bit of culture--and the encouragement to snip off her childlike ponytail. Upon her return to New York, Sabrina is transformed into a sophisticated woman, and David is entranced by her. However, his older brother Linus (Humphrey Bogart) has arranged David's marriage to Elizabeth Tyson in order to seal a business merger and thus must steer David away from Sabrina. To do this, Linus takes on the task of wooing her for himself. Full of great dialogue ("A woman happy in love, she burns the soufflé; a woman unhappy in love, she forgets to turn on the oven") and wonderful performances, this film is a romantic masterpiece. Also enjoyable is the 1995 remake, starring Julia Ormond and Harrison Ford. --Jenny Brown

Modern-day Cinderella story in which the daughter of a wealthy family's chauffeur is transformed into a graceful woman, capturing the attention of the sons of the family.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: NR
Release Date: 29-DEC-2004
Media Type: DVD

The Three Faces of Eve

Eve White, a mousy, withdrawn housewife startles her husband (David Wayne) when she claims she did not buy the flashy, provocative clothes he finds in their bedroom. After she complains of blackouts, he takes her to a psychiatrist (Lee J. Cobb) who soon encounters her second personality, Eve Black, a sexy, uninhibited woman. As Eve's therapy continues, her third self, the sensible, intelligent Jane appears to help resolve her rare multiple personality condition. Based on a true story, this acclaimed psychological drama brilliantly explores the dimensions of the human mind.

Anything Goes

This is the second film titled Anything Goes to star Bing Crosby (the first was a 1936 film). Both films change a lot of the original Cole Porter stage musical, but at least the later version keeps a few more Porter songs. Still, there is something odd about a Cole Porter film filled with "additional songs" by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen (perhaps Porter's work was not warm and cuddly enough for 1956 America, although it seemed to work well at MGM with High Society, released the same year). Crosby plays a Broadway star teamed up with young TV hotshot Donald O'Connor. Vacationing separately in Europe and needing a leading lady for their upcoming show, each signs a prospect--Crosby snaps up Mitzi Gaynor (at her perkiest) and O'Connor finds Jeanmaire, a French dancer. The show can only have one female star, so when the quartet crosses paths on the ocean liner back to the U.S., sparks will fly. Or not--this Paramount musical lacks any definable zip, from the sleepy dialogue to the listless camera. The capable Nick Castle staged the musical sequences, although Jeanmaire's numbers were choreographed by Roland Petit (also her husband). The Porter songs are half-heartedly rendered, although O'Connor and Gaynor get some oomph into "It's De-Lovely." Der Bingle was born to burble "Blow, Gabriel, Blow," but it's too little, too late. --Robert Horton

In ANYTHING GOES, Bill Benson and Ted Adams are to appear in a Broadway show together and, while in Paris, each 'discovers' the perfect leading lady for the star female role. Unfortunately, they each promise the role to the girl they selected without informing the other until they head back home - with their leading ladies!

The Aristocats (Disney Gold Classic Collection)

Duchess and her three kittens are enjoying the high life with their devoted human mistress until the wicked butler Edgar, with his eyes on a big inheritance, decides to dope them and get them out of the picture. How can these fragile creatures cope in the unfamiliar countryside and the meaner streets of Paris? Only by meeting the irrepressible alley cat O'Malley, a rough diamond with romance in his heart. After they get a taste of the wide dangerous world, he guides them home, and Edgar gets his just desserts at the wrong end of a horse. As always, it's really the voices rather than the animation that are the heart of the Disney magic: Phil Harris is brilliant as O'Malley, Eva Gabor as Duchess is... well... Eva Gabor; but perhaps the most memorable turns are by Pat Buttram and George Lindsay, who turn the old hounds Napoleon and Lafayette into a couple of bumbling Southern-fried rednecks. Their scenes with Edgar, and the musical numbers with Scat Cat and his cool-dude band, are classic. Most striking about seeing The Aristocats now is how deeply Disney's style of animation has changed since this was at the cutting edge in 1970. Perhaps the nostalgic, dated feel are just a result of being plonked down in Belle Epoque Paris, but the illustrations are fussier (a pity) and the animation and overall pace much less frenetic (sometimes a relief) than in more recent efforts such as Aladdin. --Richard Farr

Disney's 20th full-length animated masterpiece, THE ARISTOCATS is an unforgettable mix of wild adventure, colorful characters, and jazzy music your family will find absolutely irresistible! This enchanting tale begins in Paris, when a kind and eccentric millionairess wills her entire estate to her family -- a family of adorable high-society cats. But when Edgar, the greedy butler, overhears her plan, he catnaps Duchess, the elegant, soft-spoken mother, and her three mischievous kittens and abandons them in the French countryside. Soon, they're being escorted home by the charming Thomas O'Malley, a rough-and-tumble alley cat, who takes them to his "pad" along the way, where Scat Cat and his band of swingin' jazz cats perform the memorable "Ev'rybody Wants To Be A Cat." Enriched by "high-style Disney animation" (The New Yorker) and toe-tapping music by Academy Award(R)-winning songwriters the Sherman brothers (MARY POPPINS), THE ARISTOCATS is a timeless treasure and the last animated feature to get the nod from Walt Disney himself.

The Parent Trap (Vault Disney Collection)

The daughter of legendary British actor John Mills and novelist Mary Hayley Bell (as well as the sister of actress Juliet Mills), young Hayley Mills broke the surface of fame at the tender age of 12, starring opposite her father in the thriller Tiger Bay. That film, along with a Berlin Film Festival award, was enough to attract the attention of Walt Disney, who promptly signed her to a five-year contract and put her in the starring role of Pollyanna. After wringing hearts and nabbing a special Oscar, Mills segued into the comedy thing--for double the fun--in The Parent Trap, the 1961 farce in which she played twins, separated at birth, who scheme to reunite their biological parents (Maureen O'Hara and Brian Keith, both surprisingly sexy for a Disney movie). On the brink of adolescence, Mills was a saucy role model for children of the Kennedy era: cute, endearing and, above all, wholesome despite her sneaky ways--everyone's meddlesome sister. Easily stepping into the Disney child-star gap as the original Mouseketeers were (literally) outgrowing their uniforms, Mills was the studio's live-action bread and butter for a brief moment in time, and The Parent Trap still remains her best vehicle, a classic now to adults who came of age during the early '60s. It also pioneered the processed split-screen technique, which while not seamless was revolutionary and exciting enough that, upon seeing the initial results, Uncle Walt asked the filmmakers to shoot more scenes in which Mills played opposite herself. --Mark Englehart

Strange Bedfellows

Forever Darling

The hardworking Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball star in the urbane and witty Forever Darling, a 1956 romantic comedy, made at the height of the couple's popularity as co-stars of I Love Lucy, about the difficulty of forging marital harmony. Arnaz plays unpretentious, visionary chemist Lorenzo "Larry" Vega, whose passion for working on a powerful chemical insecticide for the benefit of humankind means little to his wife, Susan (Ball). A creature of high society, Susan is conflicted about her destiny. Should she be concerned with acquiring a bigger house and socializing with the right people, or should she follow Larry as he takes his insecticide on a two-year field study in tropical jungles? Attempting to guide her toward the right decision is a dapper, guardian angel, who happens to take the form of James Mason because Mason is Susan's fantasy man. The script by Helen Deutsch (I'll Cry Tomorrow) indulges I Love Lucy fans with plenty of slapstick set pieces plugged into an extended camping scene. But there's also some flashy banter--Arnaz is very convincing putting well-heeled snobs in their place--and a very clever sequence in which Susan imagines herself as the heroine in a movie she happens to be watching. (A movie starring, yes, James Mason.) There's a fun, special feature in which Arnaz and Ball take time out from production on their television show to plug Forever Darling and reveal the secret of a truly happy marriage--and then get into a beef. --Tom Keogh

A lot of things can test a marriage but Lorenzo and Susan Vega have unwittingly put their five-year union to the ultimate test: they go camping. And Susan's guardian angel seen only by Susan joins them. TV's I Love Lucy was in its fifth season when this romp gave fans more reasons to love its stars. Desi Arnaz plays Lorenzo who heads for wide-open spaces to test his chemical company's new product. Wife Susan (Lucille Ball) goes too. And soon we're all headed for comedy chaos built on tent-raising forest critters inflatable rafts and other typical elements of roughing it. There's one atypical element: the angel (James Mason) who wants to rescue their troubled union. Marriages may be made in heaven. But the details are worked out here belowRunning Time: 91 min.System Requirements:Run Time: 91 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 012569679740 Manufacturer No: 67974

The Patsy

In THE PATSY, after a star comedian dies his handlers are resolved to find a replacement to take the deceased star's place so their gravy train will continue. They decide to hire a total unknown and find the ultimate Patsy in hotel bellboy Stanley Belt. After realizing that Stanley can't do anything right, the team begins to think they've made a mistake, but the television show's air date approaches and it's too late to hire someone else.