Ramsay, Remak

Truman

Harry S. Truman had a hard row to hoe as the 33rd president and he never enjoyed popularity while in office. Think about what occurred on Truman's watch: the bombing of Hiroshima, a nationwide railroad strike, the rise of the Southern States' Rights Party, integration of the armed forces, the ascendancy of McCarthyism, the early cold war, and finally the Korean Conflict and Truman's decision to fire General MacArthur. Few American presidents have been faced with more difficult and dangerous times than Truman. It wasn't until some 50 years later that Harry Truman, a farmer from Missouri, got his due appreciation in the history books. Truman follows the man from his beginnings as an artillery officer in WWI through his connections with Missouri's Pendergast political machine and onward to Washington. The always-excellent Gary Sinise is a perfect fit for the Truman character, having obviously studied the President's plainspoken Missouri twang and ramrod-straight bearing at great length. Diana Scarwid is also very good as Truman's long-suffering wife Bess; the film studies the relationship between the two in some depth, and also sheds light on the men who surrounded Truman in Washington. Truman's chief failing is that in its effort to detail 40 years of the man's life, certain historical events are given short shrift in order to fit them all in. Nonetheless, Sinise inhabits the character well; the scene where the President ruminates on dining alone in the White House (while Bess is back in Missouri) is a great, understated comment on the loneliness, isolation, and stress of the job. --Jerry Renshaw

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

Addicted to Love

Actor-director Griffin Dunne made his filmmaking debut with this ethically ambiguous and not-very-funny movie about a pair of jilted lovers (Meg Ryan and Matthew Broderick) who conspire to break up a relationship between their ex-sweethearts (Tchéky Karyo and Kelly Preston). Part classic screwball comedy, part nightmare along the lines of Martin Scorsese's After Hours (in which Dunne starred), part tribute to Hitchcock's Rear Window, Addicted to Love is all over the map and seriously hampered by the sheer, unwarranted nastiness aimed at the innocent characters played by Karyo and Preston. The DVD release includes production notes, original theatrical trailer, optional widescreen and standard formats, and optional French and Spanish soundtracks. --Tom Keogh

Class

As rites-of-passage films featuring a young man's sexual initiation in the arms of a beautiful woman go, Class (1983) has plenty going for it, not least its attractive cast: Andrew McCarthy as Jonathan, Rob Lowe as Gatsbyish best friend Skip, and Jacqueline Bisset as the beautiful woman who's old enough to know better and just happens to be Skip's mother.

Lewis John Carlino's film has moments of insight, taking a few well-aimed shots at the vaguely sinister network of private-school life. In the first reel it neatly subverts the bullying scenario that threatens when the geeky Jonathan arrives at the school, while offering the briefly intriguing sight of Lowe in scarlet bra and pants. And there's a subplot of deceit and complicity that both strengthens and threatens the friendship that rapidly forms between Skip and Jonathan. In many ways, though, the most interesting element of the picture--Skip's relationship with his dysfunctional family--is left unexplored. Jonathan's deflowering and subsequent interludes are merely titillating. And Bisset's Ellen, a desperately sad character, becomes superfluous once the revelation that she's the "teacher" sets the boys' friendship on the path to fraternal solidarity. --Piers Ford

Rob Lowe (Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me), John Cusack (Being John Malkovich) and Andrew McCarthy (St. Elmo's Fire) make their feature film debuts in this hilarious, sexy mixture of "fantasy and farce" (Boxoffice). Co-starring Jacqueline Bisset (Dangerous Beauty) and filled with lusty coeds, "wild times [and] outrageous scenes" (L.A. Movie Guide), this mother of all teen comedies is "pure fantasy for boys of all ages" (Boxoffice)!When wealthy prep-school senior Skip (Lowe) learns that his shy new roommate Jonathan (McCarthy) isa total loser at romance, he sends the aspiring young Romeo to the city to learn the ropesbeforehe ruins both their reputations. But when Jonathan is seduced by a sexy older woman named Ellen (Bisset), he begins a zany romantic miseducation that starts with a double major in lust and deceptionand ends with the uproarious discovery that not only is Ellen the woman of his dreams'she's also Skip's mom!

Mr. & Mrs. Bridge

Masters in depicting the superficial machinations of England's repressed upper classes, director James Ivory and his partners, screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and producer Ismail Merchant, take on the American middle class in Mr. and Mrs. Bridge. Paul Newman and wife Joanne Woodward play the eponymous main characters: a patriarch and wife of a well-to-do family, whose members are struggling to define themselves under their father's undefiable command and the changing times.

With one daughter who wants to become an actress in New York, another who chooses the "wrong" kind of man to marry, and a son who quits school to join the Air Force during World War II, Mr. Bridge finds that his control over his family is slipping. Spanning the 1930s and '40s, the film presents nuances in how both the dramatic and the smaller moments are woven together. Weddings and arguments are no more important to capturing the essence of the Bridge family then are their moments of daily reverie.

A quiet film that succeeds in establishing its characters' intimacy, with themselves and each other, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge owes much of that success to Woodward. While Newman doesn't always seem comfortable as the stern ruler of the Bridge household, Woodward steals the film as the long-suffering woman whose identity is precariously built on her ascribed roles as mother and wife, taken for granted and often overlooked by the family she truly loves. --Natasha Senjanovic

Screen favorites Paul Newman (ROAD TO PERDITION) and Joanne Woodward (PHILADELPHIA) star as a well-off couple who raise their children in the comfort of country club society only to find their control over the family's fate slipping away. Daughter Ruth (Kyra Sedgwick -- BEHIND THE RED DOOR), leaves for the artistic bohemia of New York, more conventional Carolyn marries the "wrong sort" of man, and brother Douglas (Robert Sean Leonard -- DRIVEN) joins the army. In an empty house, the Bridges' marriage shifts. Mr. Bridge grows more rigid. But Mrs. Bridge becomes more vulnerable and searching as she begins to wonder if her husband really loves her. Directed by James Ivory (A ROOM WITH A VIEW, HOWARDS END), MR. & MRS. BRIDGE offers a wryly emotional portrait of a marriage as it rides the tumultuous changes of 1930s and '40s America.

The Front

The Front is both a comic delight and perhaps the most graceful act of show business revenge in cinema history. Written by, directed by, and starring various talents blacklisted during the McCarthy-era witch hunts of the 1950s entertainment industry, the film stars Woody Allen as Howard, a cashier and bookie approached by blacklisted television-writer Alfred (Michael Murphy) to act as a "front," i.e., the alleged author of Alfred's works. The scam proves hugely successful. Soon Howard is fronting for several other banned writers, taking a cut from every sale to the networks, and basking in praise (and romantic attentions) for his prolific talent. It all unravels when congressional investigators dig into Howard's past for Communist ties and squeeze him to name others with supposed links to the Red Menace. The Front is charming, tragic, heroic, and briskly intelligent, featuring a heartbreaking performance by Zero Mostel and directed by Martin Ritt (Hud). --Tom Keogh

Woody Allen's dark comic send-up of Hollywood McCarthyism! Allen stars as a cashier posing as a writer who sells a script as his own, when it was actually written by a blacklisted pal. Stars Woody Allen, Zero Mostel, Danny Aiello and more. Nominated for an Oscar® - Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Walter Bernstein, 1977).

The Stepford Wives (Silver Anniversary Edition)

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

The House on Carroll Street

Kelly McGillis (The Accused) and Jeff Daniels (Speed) spark a fiery chemistry in this McCarthy-era romantic thriller that boasts "superb casting" (The Wall Street Journal) a "skillful and astute screenplay" (The Hollywood Reporter) by Walter Bernstein (The Train) and edge-of-your-seat direction by Peter Yates (Suspect)!When Emily Crane (McGillis) refuses to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee chairman Ray Salwen (Mandy Patinkin) she's blacklisted and immediately fired from her job. But when she stumbles upon Salwen's nefarious plot to smuggle Nazi war criminals into the US she and an FBI agent (Daniels) she's enlisted to help her must find a way to bring an end to Salwen's conspiracy before he brings an end to them!System Requirements:Running Time: 101 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: PG UPC: 027616886606 Manufacturer No: 1004619

Fever

Class / Youngblood