Rubin, Benny

That Funny Feeling

The Disorderly Orderly

No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: NR
Release Date: 12-OCT-2004
Media Type: DVD

The hugely successful collaboration between Jerry Lewis and director Frank Tashlin (including Artists and Models and The Geisha Boy) came to an end with this knockabout hospital comedy, which contains a raft of Tashlin's patented sight gags. Jerry plays an orderly with a strange fixation on a depressed patient (Susan Oliver), but the point of the movie is watching Lewis wrestle with laundry bags or contorting with agony as he empathizes with the intestinal maladies of patients. This is one of Lewis's funniest movies for babbling, too ("Oh, friction--burning"). Meanwhile, Tashlin brings his cartoon sensibility to freestanding bits, such as the montage of wind chimes that ends with a skeleton chattering in the breeze, or the inordinately loud crunch of an apple in a hospital quiet zone. All in all, a good laugh-per-minute ratio in the slapstick realm. Plus Sammy Davis Jr. sings the title song, a weirdly Rat Packish number. --Robert Horton

The Shaggy D.A.

When teenager Wilby Daniels became a part-time canine in THE SHAGGY DOG he didn't realize that this condition would come back and "hound" him again in his adult years. In this side-splitting sequel Wilby's all grown up now with a wife and son. Unfortunately he's still subject to a furry transformation every time the inscription on an ancient scarab ring is read aloud ... not a comforting prospect when you've bounded into the public eye as a candidate for District Attorney!System Requirements:Running Time 90 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: G UPC: 786936704426 Manufacturer No: 05058800

In this sequel to The Shaggy Dog, Wilby Daniels (Dean Jones) has grown up and married Suzanne Pleshette, and has a young son. When the family comes home to find the house cleaned out by "movers"--who Daniels knows are protected by the corrupt District Attorney John Slade (Keenan Wynn)--he decides to run against Slade in the next election. Meanwhile, hoodlums connected to the same crime syndicate get hold of the mystical ring that turns poor Daniels (via mid-'70s special effects) into Elwood, the dog owned by the local ice-cream vendor (Tim Conway). Lots of chase scenes, a little roller derby action, and some cherry pie throwing complicate both Daniels's bid for office and his quest to remain a human being. Kids will enjoy the last half of this 91-minute movie the most as Daniels spends most of the time in his dog persona and because his son becomes part of the plot to undo the bad guys. This G-rated feature is safe for all ages, but kids probably won't sit through it until age 4 or 5. --Kimberly Heinrichs

Mr. Magoo Show - The Complete DVD Collection (1960)

For the first time ever on DVD the Complete Mr Magoo Show. Includes 26 original epiosodes in their entirety for over 10 hours of fun and mishaps. Each DVD will also include an exclusive Mr. Magoo 1963 comic book replica. Plus collectible lenticular packaging designed in traditional Mr. Magoo fashion.

Here Comes Mr. Jordan

When a boxer (Robert Montgomery) is accidentally called to Heaven 50 years before his time it's up to celestial executive extraordinaire Mr. Jordan (Claude Rains) to straighten out the matter. When Columbia Pictures' financial advisors read the screenplay for the fantasy comedy Here Comes Mr. Jordan they had their doubts as to its box-office potential. Screenwriter Sidney Buchman went directly to studio president Harry Cohn in an effort to convince him to make the film. Cohn liked the script's uniqueness and saying that all his bankers wanted was "what sold last year" told Buchman he'd make the picture. To play the saxophone-playing boxer Joe Pendelton Cohn decided to borrow Robert Montgomery from MGM. Although Mongomery had some initial doubts about his part he delivered what was to become an Oscar -nominated performance. The film which received a total of seven 1941 nominations including Best Picture won two (Best Motion Picture Story Best Screenplay). Here Comes Mr. Jordan was so successful it inspired a semi-sequel (1947's Down To Earth which starred Rita Hayworth) and was eventually remade in 1978 as Heaven Can Wait.System Requirements:Run Time: 94 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 043396050181 Manufacturer No: 05018

Even after two remakes--one a classic (Heaven Can Wait), the other, not so much (Chris Rock's Down to Earth)--this 1941 fantasy, an Oscar-winner for Best Original Story and Screenplay, has lost none of its ethereal charms. Robert Montgomery gives a knockout performance as Joe Pendleton, a boxer "in the pink" and poised to be the next heavyweight champion until a celestial messenger (Edward Everett Horton at his fussy best) pulls him from an impending plane crash and sends him to heaven before his time. Courtesy of Mr. Jordan (Claude Rains), Joe resumes his training in the body of a wealthy, unscrupulous businessman whose wife and personal secretary are plotting to murder. James Gleason steals his scenes as Joe's understandably befuddled manager, with lovely Evelyn Keyes as Bette Logan, whose innocent father the real Farnsworth framed and sent to prison, and with whom Joe/Farnsworth falls in love. Though this DVD doesn't even feature a chapter menu, the film itself is, as advertised, "as fantastic a yarn as was ever spun" and will make you feel, as Bette does when she looks into Joe's eyes, "warm, alive, and happy." And they don't make too many like that anymore. --Donald Liebenson

Stills from Here Comes Mr. Jordan (click for larger image)

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The Remake: Heaven Can Wait

A Hole in the Head

A pair of Franks make an agreeable meal in A Hole in the Head, the movie that brought together messrs. Sinatra and Capra. While Sinatra was on his movie-star hot streak, Capra had been out of film for a few years, having conquered Hollywood in the 1930s and then fallen out of love with it. Capra found in Arnold Schulman's stage play a different kind of hero from his past Mr. Deeds and Mr. Smith: a Miami hotelier with big debts, young son, wayward eye, and, well, high hopes. The role fits Sinatra like a blue-eyed glove: he dodges creditors while hoping for a handout from his disapproving older brother (Edward G. Robinson), who in turn strongly wishes his younger sibling would settle down with a nice widow (Eleanor Parker) instead of a free-spirited, bongo-playing kook (Carolyn Jones). Meanwhile, kid (Eddie Hodges, from the stage version of The Music Man) believes in his old man, to a fault.

This easygoing tale shows Capra in a mellow, cooled-off mood; the propulsive rhythm of his 1930s pictures is nowhere to be seen, and the film does go on too long. He hits his stride when Sinatra approaches an old friend (Keenan Wynn) in search of backing for his big dream, a Florida resort modeled after Disneyland. (A Disney resort in Florida? Crazy.) Those scenes, which mash up excitement, disappointment, and humiliation, are the old sweet-sour Capra formula. Of Sinatra's two Sammy Cahn-Jimmy Van Heusen tunes, "All My Tomorrows" plays under the opening credits, but wasn't the song people whistled as they exited the theater. That was "High Hopes," the irresistibly catchy hymn to optimism, sung by Sinatra and Hodges in an appealingly loosey-goosey two-shot. It won the Best Song Oscar; the other nominees never had a chance. --Robert Horton

A Hole in the Head is a "genuinely entertaining" (Newsweek), OscarÂ(r)-winning* comedy, directed by the legendary Frank Capra at his uproarious best! Meet Tony (Frank Sinatra), a wannabe big shot who's constantly broke. And while the carefree widower may not have money, he is rich in one respect: he's got the unconditional love of his adoring young son, Ally (Eddie Hodges). But when Tony asks his wealthy brother, Mario (Edward G. Robinson), for a loan, Mario, who disapproves of Tony's swinging lifestyle, agrees to back his brother on one condition: settle down or give him custody of Ally! Tony may be desperate, but he'd have to have A Hole in the Head to agree to Mario's terms wouldn't he? *1959: Music (Song, "High Hopes")

Designing Woman

Romantic comedy about a marriage between two successful career achievers. She's a designer he's a sports journalist. But after the honeymoon wears off dear husband grows jealous of his wife's successes. Film won an Oscar for Best Story and Screenplay.Running Time: 118 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 012569545328

Anyone who thinks that Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus is a cutting-edge idea will be surprised by Designing Woman, a 1957 comedy starring Gregory Peck as a sports writer who falls madly in love with fashion designer Lauren Bacall. The twofold plot springs from a combination of Bacall's jealous efforts to learn the identity of Peck's previous lover and Peck's reckless exposé of a gangster who rigs boxing matches--but the movie's real enjoyment comes from its depiction of the athletic and arts worlds, each spun as a reflection of the male and female mind, respectively. While Peck and Bacall aren't noted for their comic chops, they acquit themselves respectably; Bacall has the more flamboyant role, but Peck draws low-key humor from his character's smug and blinkered perceptions. Designing Woman is directed by Vincente Minnelli (who also directed Meet Me in St. Louis, An American in Paris, and Gigi), so it's not surprising that the movie flares most to life during a few musical sequences--sneaked into the plot because Bacall has been commissioned to design a Broadway show, whose star just happens to be Peck's former paramour--culminating in a back-alley fight staged as a brawling ballet. --Bret Fetzer

The Dick Tracy Show: The Complete Animated Crime Series

Bashful Bachelor

Fighting Mad (1939)

Royal Canadian Mountie Renfrew (Newill) tangles with gangster Cardigan (Stone), with the help of his young sidekick Kelly (O'Brien) in the second of the "Renfrew Of The Mounties" series. Ann (Blaine) had witnessed a bank robbery, so the robbers kidnapped and took her with them, locking her in a trailer with the loot. The trailer's hitch loosens, and it plunges into the lake. Sergeant Refrew rescues Ann out of the water, but she gives him a false name, afraid he will send her back to the authorities, who want her as a material witness to the robbery. Renfrew and Ann are captured by the gang of robbers, headed by gangster Cardigan, who wants to know what Ann did with the money. It's up to Constable Kelly to concoct a plan to save the day.

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