MacMahon, Aline

Cimarron

The 1960 remake of Cimarron manages a slight improvement on the worst Best Picture (1931) in Academy Award history. Not that Edna Ferber's novel of pioneer Oklahoma was ever a movie natural. There's a plethora of themes--several species of prejudice, capitalism vs. charity, sons unhappily following in fathers' footsteps, and the irreconcilable tensions between a stability-craving wife and her footloose hero-husband--but the action is front-loaded and the husband (Glenn Ford) is offscreen for years at a time. Anthony Mann gets solo directorial credit, yet the movie seems more typical of his replacement, Charles Walters, a maker of pastel musicals. Most of the large cast comes and goes without establishing identities; Maria Schell's Sabra Cravat is tiresome as both ditz and pill. Photographed in CinemaScope and Metrocolor by Robert L. Surtees, the Oklahoma land rush is properly spectacular--though less impressive than John Ford's in Three Bad Men. --Richard T. Jameson

et in Oklahoma from 1890-1915. A quarter century of change is seen through experiences of a pioneering couple determined to succeed in America. Based on a novel by Edna Ferber.

Diamond Head

The Man From Laramie

Only John Ford excelled Anthony Mann as a purveyor of eye-filling Western imagery, and Mann's best films are second to no one's when it comes to the fusion of dynamic action, rugged landscapes, and fierce psychological intensity. The Man from Laramie is the last of five remarkable Westerns the director made with James Stewart (starting with Winchester '73 and peaking with The Naked Spur). This collaboration marked virtually a whole new career for Stewart, whose characters are all haunted by the past and driven by obsession--here, to find whoever set his cavalry-officer brother in the path of warlike Indians.

The Man from Laramie aspires to an epic grandeur beyond its predecessors. It's the only one in CinemaScope, and Stewart's personal quest is subsumed in a larger drama--nothing less than a sagebrush version of King Lear, with a range baron on the verge of blindness (Donald Crisp), his weak and therefore vicious son (Alex Nicol), and another, apparently more solid "son," his Edmund-like foreman (Arthur Kennedy). There are a few too many subsidiary characters, and the reach for thematic complexity occasionally diminishes the impact. But no one will ever forget the scene on the salt flats between Nicol and Stewart--climaxing in the single most shocking act of violence in '50s cinema--or the final, mountaintop confrontation.

For decades, the film has been seen only in washed-out, pan-and-scan videos, with the characters playing visual hopscotch from one panel of the original composition to another. It's great to have this glorious DVD--razor-sharp, fully saturated (or as saturated as '50s Eastmancolor could be), and breathtaking in its CinemaScope sweep. --Richard T. Jameson

The Flame and the Arrow

Still in his first flush of muscular stardom, Burt Lancaster romps through this costume adventure in full awareness of his movie-star dazzle. The story is a Robin Hood-tinged yarn set in 12-century Lombardy, where ace archer Lancaster finds himself an unlikely rebel leader against the evil lord (Frank Allenby)--actually, our hero just wants to get his kidnapped son back. Oh, and maybe win the hand of the fair Virginia Mayo. Nobody from director Jacques Tourneur on down seems to have taken the story very seriously, which leaves plenty of room for the odd strolling minstrel (Norman Lloyd in puckish form), good-bad romantic rival (Robert Douglas), or mute sidekick. The latter is played by Nick Cravat, the stumpy and swarthy acrobat who had performed alongside Lancaster in their circus careers (he would return in The Crimson Pirate, the best-known of Lancaster's swashbucklers). Here, the two men execute a series of glorious physical stunts, showing off their crack timing and willingness to risk life and limb. That's really the appeal of the picture, along with Ernest Haller's Oscar-nominated Technicolor photography and the lavish Italy-by-way-of-Burbank studio sets. --Robert Horton

Lighthearted adventure about an overlord, Count Ulrich - who takes it one step too far. It was bad enough when he kidnapped the pretty wife of the young archer Dardo. But when Ulrich takes the man's son - a rebel leader is born.

I Could Go On Singing

In her final film Judy Garland lights up the screen with a vibrant vital performance (New York Herald Tribune) as a singer torn between her career and motherhood. Co-starring Dirk Bogarde this powerful and touching film boasts excellent direction winning vocal numbers (The Film Daily) and the incandescent magic (The Hollywood Reporter) of one of Hollywood s brightest stars at her sensational best.When celebrated singer Jenny Bowman (Garland) asks her ex-lover David (Bogarde) to let her see their son Matt she is unprepared for the emotional consequences. Though Matt doesn t even know Jenny is his mother their growing bond will force Jenny to make the most difficult choice of her life: between the rewards of motherhood and the glamorous life of the stage.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 027616903976 Manufacturer No: 1006195

Antigone (Broadway Theatre Archive)

French playwright Jean Anouilh's modernized version of the classic Greek tragedy Antigone sets the story in the sleek palace of a fascist state ruled by Creon (veteran stage actor Fritz Weaver). His niece Antigone (Geneviève Bujold, Dead Ringers) is horrified by Creon's order that the body of her brother--who led a rebellion against the state--be left on the battlefield to rot. When she violates the edict, guards haul her before Creon, who struggles to convince her that his reasons are honorable, despite the ugly consequences, but Antigone remains steadfast, even though her death will result. The great strength of Antigone is that there is no easy solution to the conflict, which leads to disaster for everyone involved. Bujold glows as the obsessed, martyrlike Antigone; Weaver brings passion to Creon's mixture of reason and tyranny; and Stacy Keach (Fat City) plays the narrating Chorus with a weary, ironic detachment. --Bret Fetzer

With fierce originality, this powerful adaptation of the Sophocles tragedy presents a world of honor, treachery and fateful consequences. Acclaimed actress Genevieve Bujold skillfully combines elements of zealotry and idealism in her affecting portrait of Antigone. Jean Anouilh's retelling of "Antigone" stages the inescapably wrenching central confrontation between Antigone and Creon by presenting Bujold and Fritz Weaver seated at a long, executive-suite table--a hallmark of Anouilh's play. The New York Times critic, John J. O'Connor, lauded this "Antigone" as "well acted, well directed and beautifully staged."

Gold Diggers of 1933

Guest in the House

For the Use of the Hall (Broadway Theatre Archive)

This madcap, yet heartfelt comedy about success and failure is built on wonderfully ridiculous situations and uproarious dialogue. Stars Aline MacMahon (Dragon Seed)and Barbara Barrie (Breaking Away), as well as David Hedison (The Fly, "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea")and Susan Anspach (Five Easy Pieces). By Oliver Halley

Back Door to Heaven