Lynn, Jeffrey

A Letter to Three Wives

Before he made the classic All About Eve, writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz made this clever story about three wives who spend an afternoon at a children's picnic mulling over a letter all three had just received, from a woman who says she's just run off with one of their husbands. As the wives--a former farm girl (Jeanne Crain), a radio soap opera writer (Ann Sothern), and a social climber from the wrong side of the tracks (Linda Darnell)--mull over the troubles of their marriages, each begins to think that she's the one left behind. A Letter to Three Wives doesn't have the crackling show-biz milieu of Eve, but it has the same mix of snappy dialogue and topnotch performances. The tone ranges from florid sentiment to unblinking cynicism, yet Mankiewicz holds it all together with smooth, witty direction. Also featuring Kirk Douglas and the great character actress Thelma Ritter. --Bret Fetzer

Just as they are departing for a picnic, a letter arrives telling three women that another woman has run off with one of their husbands, and they all spend the day convincing themselves that they are the wronged woman.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: NR
Release Date: 22-FEB-2005
Media Type: DVD

Tony Rome

The beautiful daughter of a wealthy industrialist turns up drunk and unconscious in a hotel room. To avoid a scandal the hotel house detective hires his former partner, private detective Tony Rome, to sober her up and escort her home. The next day, the girl's diamond pin is mysteriously missing. Arriving back at his houseboat, Tony is greeted by a pair of thugs who knock him out and tear his boat apart, desperate to find the pin. Tony's problems are just beginning, When he gets to his office he's in for a grisly surprise. His ex-partner is waiting for him with a bullet through his head.

The Roaring Twenties

Three doughboys--played by James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, and Jeffrey Lynn--meet in a foxhole in Europe just as World War I is ending. When they return to the States, they are forgotten men, and after Eddie (Cagney) tries in vain to get his old job back, his pal Danny (Frank McHugh) lets him drive his cab at night. A fare asks unwitting Eddie to deliver bootleg liquor, but Prohibition is in full swing and Eddie is arrested and thrown in the slammer. Gallant Eddie won't rat out the woman to whom he delivered the hooch, speakeasy owner Panama Smith, (whiskey-voiced Gladys George). She bails him out and carries a torch for him for the rest of the movie, but he only has eyes for sweet little Jean (Priscilla Lane). Panama introduces Eddie to a life of crime, staking him in the bootleg business. Eddie's grit and bluster suit him perfectly for this existence, and he's soon a success, so he hires Army buddy Lloyd (Lynn) as consigliere, then teams up with George (Bogart), a liquor smuggler who plays a much dirtier game. Racketeering and murder are his methods, and he drags Eddie down with him. When Prohibition ends and the stock market crashes, Eddie loses everything and takes to the bottle himself.

The film is a bit schematic. The three stars are archetypes: Cagney the good boy gone bad, Bogart the bad boy who stays bad, and Lynn the good boy who stays good. Still, it packs quite an emotional wallop--Cagney shows extraordinary range, going from green boy to swaggering gangster to broken man, and Bogart has rarely seemed more purely evil than he does here. He kills for the sheer pleasure of it; it's truly frightening to see. The final scene is a stunning shootout between Cagney and Bogart. With lesser actors this film could be pure hokum. With Cagney and Bogart, it attains catharsis. Laura Mirsky

Three World War I buddies clash in a vicious bootlegging racket. Based on a Mark Hellinger story.Running Time: 107 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569690820

The Fighting 69th

You'd have to be the world's biggest grouch to dislike a movie like The Fighting 69th. For starters it's got James Cagney as a smart-aleck from Brooklyn--can't go wrong there, can you?--and then you've got Pat O'Brien second-billed in a sentimentally iconic role as Father Duffy, the beloved and much-decorated real-life chaplain of the legendary Irish-American army regiment of World War I. The time is 1918, on the battlefields of France, but this is a 1940 Warner Brothers production, so you can bet there's plenty of blarney, bravery, and roughneck action as the Fighting 69th prepares to engage German forces in WWI's final offensive, the Battle of the Argonne. Up to that point, Jimmy Plunkett (Cagney) has proven less than worthy of fighting in the fearsome 69th. He's a Brooklyn punk with plenty of false bravado, but when bullets are flying and grenades are falling, he's nothin' but a yellow-bellied crybaby, making the kind of mistakes that get people killed--in this case, many of his closest comrades. He's eventually forced to find his courage, and does so with honor to spare. In classic Warner Bros. fashion, the wartime sentiment is ladled on so heavily that cynics may gag or burst out laughing, but the supporting cast is fantastic (especially Alan Hale Sr. and George Brent as quintessential Fightin' Irish heroes), and William Keighley directs with such energetic enthusiasm toward the material that you can't help but be swept up in the action. It's flag-waving fun, and Cagney's a constant pleasure, even as he's quivering in his boots.

Available separately or as part of the James Cagney Signature Collection, The Fighting 69th has been given the red-carpet treatment by Warner Bros., with a bevy of "Warner Night at the Movies" DVD bonus features from 1940, including a vintage newsreel, short subjects, two cartoons (including "The Fighting 69½th"), movie trailers and an audio-only radio adaptation of The Fighting 69th starring Pat O'Brien, Robert Preston and Ralph Bellamy. With all this stuff on one DVD, what's not to like? --Jeff Shannon

A cocky recruit in the 69th Regiment during WWI becomes a hero and loses his life in the process.Running Time: 90 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE UPC: 012569796584 Manufacturer No: 79658

BUtterfield 8

"I was the slut of all time!" declares Elizabeth Taylor in the role for which she won her first Academy Award®. Taylor plays Gloria, a model of loose morals who discovers a last chance at love and redemption when she spends a week with Weston Ligget (Laurence Harvey), a man who married into money and hates himself for it. They fall in love, but before they can find happiness they have to overcome their own worst natures. BUtterfield 8 (named after Gloria's answering service) is a big boozy melodrama, full of gorgeous clothes, catty comments, and emotional showdowns--but along the way it plumbs some genuine sadness. No one can be simultaneously overblown and utterly sincere like Elizabeth Taylor; the movie is mired in the morality of the time, but her performance makes Gloria's mixture of grief and anger seem immediate and genuine. --Bret Fetzer

Underground

- Set during the early days of World War II, Underground is an intriguing tale of danger and suspense set in Nazi Germany starring Jeffrey Lynn (Butterfield 8) and Philip Dorn (Spy Hunt).- Celebrated director Vincent Sherman (Backfire, The Adventures of Don Juan, All Through the Night, Mr. Skeffington) lives up to his reputation for directing some of the most memorable films made in the 40's, 50's and even 60's with this story of the anti-Nazi underground and its attempts to usurp the Nazi regime and put an end to its war machine through the broadcast of an outlawed radio program. - Released almost six months before the United States entered WWII, Underground provides an interesting historical perspective of the American take on Germany's Nazi Occupation before the fighting hit home. - Vincent Sherman at 98 years old, is the oldest living Hollywood director.

DVD Features
Available for the first time ever on DVD!

Features two fascinating interviews by Lloyd Kaufman with legendary Hollywood director Vincent Sherman at 98 years young!

Includes insightful production notes on the Underground production and star bios.

DVD Bonus: Theatrical trailer for Samuel Fuller's classic Shark starring Burt Reynolds!

Film introduced with classic PSA: "Radiation March"

Home Town Story

A radical young reporter taints a village and local politicians with his vitriolic criticism of small town ethics. Contains one of Marilyn Monroe's earliest screen appearances.

Marilyn Monroe Collection Hometown Story

Features a stunning young Marilyn Monroe on the brink of stardom. See Monroe as her star just begins to twinkle. Also included: "Hollywood Remembers Marilyn" - a documentary, an intro by Tony Curtis and bonus press footage of Marilyn Monroe.

Menus: English • Spanish • Chinese
Subtitles: Spanish • Chinese

B&W/Color/91 min.

Butterfield 8/Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Home Town Story: Marilyn Monroe

Features a stunning young Marilyn Monroe on the brink of stardom. See Monroe as her star just begins to twinkle.

Also included: Hollywood Remembers Marilyn - a documentary and an introduction by Tony Curtis and bonus press footage of Marilyn Monroe.

Menus: English • Spanish • Chinese • Japanese
Subtitles: Spanish • Chinese • Japanese

B&W
Running Time: 91 min.