Prince, William

Sybil (Two-Disc Special Edition)

The word "landmark" is fairly used in the case of Sybil: this 1976 TV movie brought new frankness to television, it raised the quality bar for the made-for-television movie, and it utterly changed the career of a future Oscar-winning actress. The film was based on the bestselling nonfiction book about a multiple-personality patient and her exhaustive therapy. It opens with a brilliant series of scenes that suggest how a young woman named Sybil (Sally Field) experiences unexplained blackouts, which brings her to the attention of a psychiatrist, Dr. Wilbur (Joanne Woodward). The film unfolds around the searching therapy sessions, laced with flashbacks to Sybil's toxic childhood. There's also a tentative romance between the lonely Sybil and a manchild (Brad Davis) who lives across the alley. Most notably, of course, there are the appearances of Sybil's alternate personalities, who express her strangled emotional life. Stewart Stern's sensitive script seems to flow organically from one scene to the next, and director Daniel Petrie frequently allows the camera to observe the acting acrobatics in long, challenging takes.

Woodward, who won an Oscar for playing a multiple-personality patient in The Three Faces of Eve, is all nurturing warmth as the steadfast doctor. But really this film was a sober coming-out party for Sally Field, who astonished viewers at the time by erasing all memories of Gidget and The Flying Nun, the bubblegum roles she'd mostly been known for. Field's work is anguished but non-actor-y, and despite the character's hidden personalities, she seems as clear as day in her performance. The production won four Emmys, not surprisingly including nods for Field, Stern, and Outstanding Special (Drama).

The 187-minute movie takes up one disc; the second disc has informative featurettes about the making of the film. Examining Sybil is an absorbing hour-long documentary with comments from Field and Woodward, as well as executive producer Peter Dunne. It is dominated by the spellbinding storytelling of Stewart Stern, who developed the screenplay by spending time with the real Dr. Wilbur and listening to tapes of her sessions with Sybil. His tale of Sally Field's unlikely audition triumph is a small movie in itself. The Paintings of Sybil presents a generous selection of paintings by the real Sybil (who became a professor of art), along with recollections by one of her friends. Something listed on the DVD cover as "Sybil Therapy Session" is misleadingly titled, suggesting some kind of actual footage or transcript of the real Sybil and her treatment; in fact, it's Stewart Stern describing the harrowing process of listening to the doctor's tapes. The real Sybil (now deceased) remains protected, as she should. --Robert Horton

Based on a true story this telefilm debut in 1976 to extraordinary response. Sally Field - in an Emmy Award winning and career-turning performance - portrays Sybil a woman suffering from multiple personality disorder who develops over 16 distinct personalities in order to cope and escape haunting memories of her harrowing childhood. Joanne Woodward plays the understanding and compassionate psychiatrist that helps Sybil confront her horrific past and eliminate her demons.Running Time: 186 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS UPC: 012569701458 Manufacturer No: 70145

Spies Like Us

Yet another bad movie in a lengthy string of losers for all three of the principals involved here: director John Landis and stars Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase. Chase and Aykroyd play a pair of bumbling would-be CIA agents who are spotted cheating on the entrance exam. So the CIA decides to use them as bait in a mission to flummox the Russians. Lots of pointless slapstick and mugging, but Landis hasn't made a genuinely funny film since Trading Places. Aykroyd and Chase seem smug and self-satisfied (don't they always?), as though they can rest forever on laurels earned during the 1975 season of Saturday Night Live. Look for a gaggle of film directors (Terry Gilliam, Joel Coen, Costa-Gavras) in cameo roles: that's the closest this film comes to cleverness. --Marshall Fine

The Cat From Outer Space

Here's today's trivia question: What Disney movie costars both colonels from television's M*A*S*H--that is, Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson) and Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan)? Heck, that's easy: 1978's The Cat from Outer Space, a family comedy about a feline extraterrestrial named Jake (voiced by actor Ronnie Schell, who also plays Sergeant Duffy). Eerily similar to the plot of Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, released four years later, Cat finds Jake stuck on Earth and in danger of being trapped here forever if his fellow space kitties can't rendezvous with him soon.

While a gruff Army general (Morgan) tries to scare up some answers about the whereabouts and agenda of the purring alien, Jake allies himself with an unorthodox scientist (Ken Berry), plus the latter's friend (Stevenson)--a compulsive gambler--and mathematician girlfriend (Sandy Duncan). Together, they try to raise the scratch to purchase expensive materials to make Jake's ship run again, and in short order. Norman Tokar, an old Disney hand (The Happiest Millionaire) directing his final film before he died the following year, gets the comic machinery going with his slick cast of character actors (Roddy McDowall, Jesse White, Hans Conried), sly one-liners, and lots of enjoyable suspense. A kid-pleaser for sure. --Tom Keogh

There's magic in the memories as great Disney moments are captured right here for you and your family to enjoy. Cosmic comedy is on the prowl when an extraterrestrial cat named Jake is forced to crash-land his spaceship on Earth. Jake then proceeds to lead a physicist, his girlfriend, the Army, and a team of baffled scientists on endless escapades during his unscheduled and hilarious visit!

Destination Tokyo

World War II submarine the U.S.S. Copperfin must complete a secret mission in Japanese waters. Film is as much about the relationship between the naval men as it is about their heroic mission. John Forsythe's film debut.Running Time: 135 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE UPC: 012569573222 Manufacturer No: 65732

The offbeat casting of Cary Grant as a submarine captain pays off in this tense WWII underwater picture; he ably trades in his sophistication for the sweaty close quarters of an action movie. The mission? Infiltrate the mined harbor of Tokyo itself, a feat bookended by a brief confrontation in the Aleutians and a depth-charge chase through the open sea. Skipper Grant is supported by the usual stock crew of Navy melting-pot types, with John Garfield drawing duty as the resident dame-crazy fantasist. (Somebody forgot to put the saltpeter in his chow, apparently.) The solid action alternates with dialogue that tends toward the schmaltzy or jingoistic (the movie's become somewhat notorious for its unusually nasty propagandistic jabs at the Japanese enemy). Destination Tokyo was the directing debut of Delmer Daves, who would later excel in smart Westerns such as 3:10 to Yuma. --Robert Horton

Kiss Me Goodbye

This is a surprisingly winning little comedy, though hardly a hit. Extrapolated from Bruno Barreto's Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, the film stars Sally Field as a woman about to embark on her second marriage after her first husband, a charismatic Broadway director and choreographer (James Caan), has died. But as she plans her wedding to the likable but unexciting Jeff Bridges, Caan returns from the dead. Though only she can see him, it's a formula for disaster: She begins to doubt her plans and wonders whether she'd be happier with Caan's ghost than with Bridges's live body. Meanwhile, everyone else begins to doubt her sanity because she's talking to a dead man. Better than critics gave it credit for being, although you'll probably enjoy it more if you've never seen the original. --Marshall Fine

James Caan is tap-dancing ghost. Jeff Bridges is the very much alive stuffed shirt. Together, they make the perfect match for Sally Field, the woman caught between both men in this uproarious romp through the supernatural. The spooky fun begins when Kay Villano is one week away from marrying the serious Dr. Rupert Baines, and an uninvited guest appears on the scene; the ghost of Kay's dead, but oh-so-debonair husband Jolly. Kay's predicament is made worse because no one else can see or hear Jolly but her. The celestial shenanigans are non-stop as the three superstars hysterically battle out an odd eternal triangle with deliciously new dimensions.

The Stepford Wives

Ira Levin's scary novel about forced conformity in a small Connecticut town made for this compelling 1975 thriller. Katharine Ross stars as a city woman who moves with her husband to Stepford and is startled by how perpetually happy many of the local women seem to be. Her search for an answer reveals a plot to replace troublesome real wives with more accommodating fake ones (not unlike the alien takeover in Invasion of the Body Snatchers). The closer she gets to the truth, the more danger she faces--not to mention the likelihood that the men in town intend to replace her as well. Screenwriter William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and director Bryan Forbes (King Rat) made this a taut, tense semiclassic with a healthy dose of satiric wit. --Tom Keogh

Nuts

Barbra Streisand is a mad high-priced "escort" accused of murder, but whether she's mad as hell or mad as a hatter is the question in this courtroom drama, adapted from the play by Tom Topor. While her doting, willfully uncomprehending mother (Maureen Stapleton) and stepdad with a secret (Karl Malden) try to have her judged incompetent and sent to an asylum, she fights for her day in court with the help of a hapless legal aid attorney (a refreshingly understated Richard Dreyfuss). James Whitmore presides over the hearing with a compassion and sense of justice that gives one faith in a system and la Streisand (who developed and produced the project) sinks her teeth into the tempestuous role like a starving actress. The plot holds few surprised, but the drama lies in the characters and veteran director Martin Ritt (Hud) brings out the best in a top-flight cast. --Sean Axmaker

A strong-willed woman launches a fierce battle to prove her mental competence to stand trial for manslaughter.

Gideon's Trumpet

Anyone who's ever been arrested--or maybe just watched a cop show--knows that the right to representation by counsel is guaranteed by the Constitution, codified in the Miranda warning. But it wasn't until the early 1960s, when the events chronicled in Gideon's Trumpet unfolded, that this fundamental prerogative became law. As portrayed by Henry Fonda in this Emmy-nominated 1980 TV movie, Clarence Earl Gideon was neither a hero nor a crusader out to re-write history. He was in fact, a criminal recidivist, a poor drifter with four broken marriages and multiple prison terms in his past. Busted for breaking and entering and petty larceny in Panama City, Florida in 1961, Gideon proclaimed his innocence; but when his demand for a lawyer was rejected at trial (only defendants in capital cases were given court-appointed attorneys in Florida), he was forced to defend himself, resulting in a conviction and a five-year jail sentence. What followed was a matter of luck as well as persistence, as his appeal became one of the few that the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear. Chief Justice Earl Warren (John Houseman, who also executive-produced) assigned Abe Fortas (Jose Ferrer), himself a future Supreme Court justice, to handle the case, and Fortas' skillful work led to the overturning of Betts v. Brady, a 1942 decision in which the high court had ruled that even indigent defendants weren't entitled to counsel when prosecuted by a state; Gideon's second trial (his claim that double jeopardy applied was rejected), this time with proper representation, is depicted in the final sequences of the film. As befitting the decidedly un-glamorous details of the story, Fonda, who was 75 at the time (the real Gideon was 51) and nearing the end of his storied career, delivers a laconic, low-key performance, effectively depicting a crusty, world-weary, but dignified man who got a raw deal, saw a flaw in the legal system, and fought to correct it. The film, too, is remarkably matter-of-fact: no melodrama, no music to manipulate the viewer's emotions at key moments, just a top-notch cast and a straightforward depiction of the case as described in Anthony Lewis' book of the same name. --Sam Graham

Henry Fonda stars in a Hallmark Hall of Fame classic seen on CBS

In one of the finest and final performances of his distinguished career, Henry Fonda portrays Clarence Gideon, the destitute prisoner whose handwritten plea for justice changed the course of American legal history. Based on the book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Anthony Lewis, Gideon's Trumpet tells the remarkable human story behind the landmark "right to counsel" Supreme Court case.

Nominated for three Emmys® and winner of the prestigious Peabody Award, this powerful Hallmark Hall of Fame drama also features Oscar®- and Tony®-winner José Ferrer (Cyrano de Bergerac, The Caine Mutiny) as Abe Fortas, Oscar®-winner John Houseman (The Paper Chase, Rollerball) as Chief Justice Earl Warren, and Fay Wray (King Kong) in her final screen performance.

"Ranks with the best films of the early 1980s" -- All Movie Guide.

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE insert with production notes by Anthony Lewis and cast filmographies.

Cyrano de Bergerac

Edmond Rostand's ineffably romantic play about the big-nosed soldier and swordsman with a poet's soul looks stagey in this 1950 film adaptation. But, thanks to a heartfelt performance by Jose Ferrer (who won an Oscar for the role), the beauty of Rostand's words shines through. Ferrer plays Cyrano, who is in love with the beautiful Roxanne but is unable to tell her so for fear that she will reject him because of his extremely prominent nose. In a heart-breaking turn, she confesses her love to him--but it is love for another man, a soldier under his command named Christian. Christian, however, is a good-hearted but tongue-tied youngster, and so the older Cyrano woos Roxanne vicariously by supplying Christian with his own words of love, most famously in a balcony scene in which Cyrano speaks for himself while pretending to be Christian. Ferrer is tender, tough, and funny and single-handedly pulls this film to near-greatness. --Marshall Fine

Dead Reckoning

The shadow of World War II falls over this stateside film noir thriller about a GI paratrooper (Humphrey Bogart) who trails his AWOL war buddy to a treacherous city populated by gamblers, goons, pug cops, and the smoky, suspicious Lizabeth Scott, a seductive femme who may be fatale. Bogie's tight lipped, war hardened intensity dominates the B roster of supporting actors (Morris Carnovsky as a finicky nightclub owner with a gambling sideline, Marvin Miller as his brutal baby-faced thug) and the plot echoes with elements of earlier Bogie classics The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon recast on a low budget. Scott is, for all her fog-voiced sultriness, no Lauren Bacall, but her mannered performance is appropriately ambiguous and the film's cynical edge, ruthless desperation, and tarnished view of small-time hoodlums with big dreams casts a darker shadow unique to Hollywood's postwar funk. --Sean Axmaker

Bogart stars as a GI who becomes involved with his murdered buddy's girlfriend when he sets out to prove his friend's innocence in a frame-up.
Genre: Mystery
Rating: UN
Release Date: 14-JAN-2003
Media Type: DVD