Pyle, Denver

The Great Race

At the turn of the 20th century a host of colorful characters set out on a 20000-mile auto race from New York to Paris and hilarity ensues. (1965)Running Time: 164 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 085391109129 Manufacturer No: 11091

Director Blake Edwards, fresh from the success of the first two Pink Panther movies, indulged his love of classic slapstick comedy with this long free-for-all, which throws in everything but Laurel and Hardy's kitchen sink. The film reunites Some Like It Hot stars Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, ably aided by a spunky Natalie Wood. The subject is a New-York-to-Paris auto race in the early years of the 20th century, pitting the Great Leslie (Curtis), a goody-goody dressed all in white--even his teeth sparkle--against the malevolent Professor Fate (Lemmon), whose coal-black heart is reflected in his handlebar mustache. He looks like a bill collector from a silent- movie melodrama. Lemmon does double duty, also playing the pampered, drunken king of a small European country, whose laugh sounds like the wail of a cat in heat. The film may be too long for its own good, and you really have to love Jack Lemmon to put up with his over-the-top performance, but it's side-splitting in spots. It's one of those movies, if seen in childhood, that stays in your mind for years afterward. Some of the bigger routines, such as a pie fight of epic proportions, don't work as well as the simple chemistry between the perpetually exasperated Professor Fate and his much-abused assistant, Max (a terrific Peter Falk). Push the button, Max. --Robert Horton

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." That's more than the code of a newspaperman in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; it's practically the operating credo of director John Ford, the most honored of American filmmakers. In this late film from a long career, Ford looks at the civilizing of an Old West town, Shinbone, through the sad memories of settlers looking back. In the town's wide-open youth, two-fisted Westerner John Wayne and tenderfoot newcomer James Stewart clash over a woman (Vera Miles) but ultimately unite against the notorious outlaw Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). Ford's nostalgia for the past is tempered by his stark approach, unusual for the visual poet of Stagecoach and The Searchers. The two heavyweights, Wayne and Stewart, are good together, with Wayne the embodiment of rugged individualism and Stewart the idealistic prophet of the civilization that will eventually tame the Wild West. This may be the saddest Western ever made, closer to an elegy than an action movie, and as cleanly beautiful as its central symbol, the cactus rose. --Robert Horton

Stewart is a big-city lawyer who is determined to help a town get rid of its local bad guy. Wayne is the man who actually does it.
Genre: Westerns
Rating: NR
Release Date: 28-MAR-2006
Media Type: DVD

Maverick

Inspired by the 1960s TV series that starred James Garner in the title role, this lightweight Western from 1994 proved to be a surprising box-office hit. Well, maybe not such a big surprise, since it's from the star and director of the Lethal Weapon movies, and operates with a similar combination of mainstream plotting and easygoing humor. Mel Gibson stars as card-playing gunslinger Brett Maverick, who meets up with wily gambler Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster) and a marshal named Zane Cooper (James Garner, trading his old role to Gibson) on his way to the World Series of poker in St. Louis. Maverick's trying to raise the $5,000 needed to join the high-stakes contest, but that's easier said than done due to a lot of unscrupulous competition and a twisting plot of tricks and deceptions. It's all played for laughs and action, so the movie never wears out its welcome, despite a running time that could've used a good trimming. It's also fun to see the rapport between Gibson and Garner, as if the present and former Mavericks were a kind of surrogate son and father, bonded by their mutual skill in charming and conning their way through tight spots. Director Richard Donner also pays tribute to old Westerns by casting veterans of the genre in cameo roles (including Bert Remsen, Dub Taylor, and Denver Pyle), and Gibson's Lethal Weapon costar Danny Glover pops in for a surprise appearance. None of this really adds up to much since the movie makes no pretense about taking itself seriously, but that's precisely why audiences found it so entertaining. --Jeff Shannon

Bonnie and Clyde

One of the landmark films of the 1960s, Bonnie and Clyde changed the course of American cinema. Setting a milestone for screen violence that paved the way for Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, this exercise in mythologized biography should not be labeled as a bloodbath; as critic Pauline Kael wrote in her rave review, "it's the absence of sadism that throws the audience off balance." The film is more of a poetic ode to the Great Depression, starring the dream team of Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the titular antiheroes, who barrel across the South and Midwest robbing banks with Clyde's brother Buck (Gene Hackman), Buck's frantic wife Blanche (Estelle Parsons), and their faithful accomplice C.W. Moss (the inimitable Michael J. Pollard). Bonnie and Clyde is an unforgettable classic that has lost none of its power since the 1967 release. --Jeff Shannon

To Hell and Back

Audie Murphy, the most decorated American soldier in World War II, enjoyed a Hollywood acting career after the fight. In this 1955 autobiographical film, however, he plays himself re-creating his own actions and movements in key battles. As strange as this project might have seemed to him at the time, the results are pretty impressive. The film, despite a flat script, is really a pretty good war drama about Murphy and his buddies making their way from North Africa to Berlin. --Tom Keogh

Cahill - United States Marshal

After the late-career high of True Grit, only The Cowboys and The Shootist escaped the curse of half-baked scripts, recycled material, and lackadaisical filmmaking that characterized John Wayne's last half-dozen years in movies. Cahill is no exception, but it's more energetic than The Undefeated and Chisum (likewise nominally directed by Andrew V. McLaglen), with a certain Gothic tinge. Also, the theme of a dedicated professional who lets his job keep him from being part of his children's lives appears to have had some relevance for the producer-star. Marshal Cahill's two sons (Summer of '42's Gary Grimes and the preteen Clay O'Brien) are so unhinged by paternal "negligence" that they get caught up in a twisted bank-robbery scheme with a very bad guy, a veritable bogeyman (George Kennedy). Cahill has to sort his familial crisis and several outlaw crews, with the assistance of a sardonic half-breed scout (Neville Brand) who teases him mightily. --Richard T. Jameson

Lawman J.D. Cahill can stand alone against a bad-guy army. But as a widower father he's on insecure footing raising two sons. Particularly when he suspects his boys are involved in a bank robbery - and two killings. Filmed on location in the high desert of Durango New Mexico Cahill: United States Marshal offers a hearty helping of the stoic charisma that made John Wayne a lomg-time box-office champion. Summer of '42 discovery Gary Grimes - as Cahill's rebelllious older son - joins a cast of tough-guy favorites (Neville Brand Denver Pyle Harry Carey Jr. and George Kennedy) and such other Hollywood greats as Marie Windsor and Jackie Coogan in a deft blend of trigger-fast action and heroic sentiment.Running Time: 103 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: PG UPC: 085391158585 Manufacturer No: 115858

The Horse Soldiers

This latter-day sort-of Western from John Ford--falling midway between The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance--is a crisp retelling of a true-life episode from the Civil War. In 1863 a Union colonel named Grierson (Marlowe in the film, and John Wayne by any name) led his cavalry several hundred miles behind Confederate lines to cut the railroad between Newton Station and soon-to-be-embattled Vicksburg. Grierson's Raid was as successful as it was daring, and remarkably bloodless. Never fear that the screenplay makes up for that un-Hollywood lapse--as well as supplying amatory distraction for the colonel in the form of a feisty Southern belle (Constance Towers) who has to be dragged along to protect secrecy.

There's a certain amount of bombast in the running arguments about wartime ethics between Marlowe and the new regimental surgeon (William Holden), who don't take to each other at all. But Ford more than makes up for it with such tasty scenes as an encounter with a couple of redneck Rebel deserters (Denver Pyle and Strother Martin), an ethereal swamp crossing led by a cornpone deacon (Hank Worden), and above all the famous skirmish with a hillside full of grade-school cadets from a venerable military academy. The film ends rather abruptly because Ford abandoned a climactic battle scene--the veteran stunt man and bit player Fred Kennedy having been killed in a horse fall. Golden-age cowboy star Hoot Gibson, who acted in Ford's directorial debut, Straight Shooting, appears as Sergeant Brown. --Richard T. Jameson

John Wayne teams with William Holden and eminent western director John Ford for the frontier actioner "packed with laughter romance and thrills" (The Hollywood Reporter)! Written by John Lee Mahin and Martin Rackin this faithful representation of one of the most daring cavalry exploits in history is both a moving tribute to the men who fought and died in that bloody war and a powerful action-packed drama.Based on an actual Civil War incident The Horse Soldiers tells the rousing tale of a troop of Union Soldiers who force their way deep into Southern territory to destroy a rebel stronghold at Newton Station. In command is hardbitten Colonel Marlowe (Wayne) a man who is strikingly contrasted by the company's gentle surgeon (Holden) and the beautiful but crafty Southern belle (Constance Towers) who's forced to accompany the Union raiders on perhaps the most harrowing mission in the war.System Requirements:Starring: William Holden John Wayne Althea Gibson and Constance Towers. Directed By: John Ford. Running Time: 120 Min. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2002 MGM Studios.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 027616861054 Manufacturer No: 1001835

Shenandoah

Shenandoah, a film well-liked in its day, recalls Friendly Persuasion and foreshadows The Patriot as it tells of an American clan traumatized by war on native soil. Virginia farmer James Stewart has never owned slaves, owes allegiance to no one beyond his own kin, and adamantly disregards the North-South strife rumbling just over the hill: "This war is not mine and I take no note of it." That changes when youngest son Philip Alford (To Kill a Mockingbird's Jem) is carried off by Yankees, and the family must ride out to reclaim him. Shenandoah has several affecting moments--notably a homefront atrocity--but much of it is lit and played like a television show. Script and direction are formulaic, Stewart falls back on cozy shtick, and the supporting cast is a collection of bland studio contract players. As the closing credit says: "filmed entirely at Universal City." --Richard T. Jameson

Escape to Witch Mountain / Return From Witch Mountain

The ever present versatility of Walt Disney motion pictures is demonstrated in this film about two psychic orphans who head for Witch Mountain to escape evil and find their own identities. When their unusual psychic abilities attract the attention of a greedy industrialist he tries to capture them for his own profit. But the plucky duo soon escape intent on finding their real home and discovering the secret to their magical powers. This Disney film was adapted from a novel by Alexander Key.System Requirements:Running Time 97 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating: G UPC: 786936706031 Manufacturer No: 05072700

Bonnie and Clyde (Two-Disc Special Edition)

One of the landmark films of the 1960s, Bonnie and Clyde changed the course of American cinema. Setting a milestone for screen violence that paved the way for Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, this exercise in mythologized biography should not be labeled as a bloodbath; as critic Pauline Kael wrote in her rave review, "it's the absence of sadism that throws the audience off balance." The film is more of a poetic ode to the Great Depression, starring the dream team of Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the titular antiheroes, who barrel across the South and Midwest robbing banks with Clyde's brother Buck (Gene Hackman), Buck's frantic wife Blanche (Estelle Parsons), and their faithful accomplice C.W. Moss (the inimitable Michael J. Pollard). Bonnie and Clyde is an unforgettable classic that has lost none of its power since the 1967 release. --Jeff Shannon

Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway deliver pitch-perfect performances as the title characters Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker in this depression-era crime drama. Young beautiful Bonnie Parker is bored with life in her go-nowhere small town. When she meets the charming and ambitious fledgling criminal Clyde Barrow she sees her chance for a life of excitement. The two fall in love and gleefuly begin robbing small banks across Texas and Oklahoma making headlines and gaining noteriety along the way. But while the people see the gang as courageous rebels fighting the powers that be the law sees them as dangerous criminals who must be stopped.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/CRIME & CRIMINALS UPC: 085391167983 Manufacturer No: 116798