Ryan, Tim

From Here to Eternity

In this landmark film passion and tragedy collide on a military base as a fateful day in December 1941 draws near. Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) is a soldier and former boxer being manipulated by his superior and peers. His friend Maggio (Frank Sinatra) tries to help him but has his own troubles. Sergeant Warden (Burt Lancaster) and Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr) tread on dangerous ground as lovers in an illicit affair. Each of their lives will be changed when their stories culminate in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Winner of eight Oscars® including Best Picture Best Director and Best Supporting awards for Sinatra in a career-defining role and for Donna Reed as a not-so-wholesome club hostess.System Requirements:Running Time: 117 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 043396053199 Manufacturer No: 05319

Here's a model for adapting a novel into a movie. The bestseller by James Jones, a frank and hard-hitting look at military life, could not possibly be made into a film in 1953 without considerably altering its length and bold subject matter. Yet screenwriter Daniel Taradash and director Fred Zinnemann (both of whom won Oscars for their work) pared it down and cleaned it up, without losing the essential texture of Jones's tapestry. The setting is an army base in Hawaii in 1941. Montgomery Clift, in a superb performance, plays a bugler who refuses to fight for the company boxing team; he has reasons for giving up the sport. His refusal results in harsh treatment from the company commander, whose bored wife (Deborah Kerr) is having an affair with the tough-but-fair sergeant (Burt Lancaster). You remember--the scene with the two of them embracing on the beach, as the surf crashes in. The supporting players are as good as the leads: Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed won Oscars (and Sinatra revitalized his entire career), and Ernest Borgnine entered the gallery of all-time movie villains, as the stockade sergeant who makes Sinatra miserable. Zinnemann's work is efficient but also evocative, capturing the time and place beautifully, the tropical breezes as well as the lazy prewar indulgence. This one is deservedly a classic. --Robert Horton

I Wake Up Screaming (Fox Film Noir)

Promoter Frankie Christopher being grilled by police in the murder of model Vicky Lynn recalls in flashback: First meeting her as a waitress Frankie decides to parlay her beauty into social acceptance and a lucrative career. He succeeds only too well: she's on the eve of deserting him for Hollywood...when someone kills her. Now Frankie gets the feeling that Inspector Ed Cornell is determined to pin the killing on him and only him. He's right. And the only one he can turn to for help is Jill the victim's sister who's been cool toward him...System Requirements:Running Time: 82 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE UPC: 024543244547 Manufacturer No: 2234454

Force of Evil

Based on an obscure crime novel titled Tucker's People, Abraham Polonsky's Force of Evil has attained classic status since its release in 1948, when film noir was thriving on the fringes of the Hollywood studio system, where the shadowy attributes of noir were allowed their fullest expression. Which is to say, this gritty drama is drenched in greed, cynicism, and corruption of the soul, as embodied by John Garfield in one of his most memorable roles. He's perfectly cast as Joe Morse, a lawyer whose connection to a ruthless racketeer has nearly destroyed his sense of morality. His participation in a rigged numbers racket could prove disastrous for his high-strung older brother (superbly played by Thomas Gomez), whose small-time policy bank stands to go broke when the rigged numbers pay off--a financial windfall for Joe's powerful boss at everyone else's expense.

Joe's corruption is tempered only by remnants of guilt and his redeeming attraction to Edna (Marie Windsor), his brother's secretary, whose common decency gnaws at Joe's rotten conscience. But before Joe can rise from his self-made hell, Force of Evil takes him to the darkest pit of tragic humanity--a downward spiral perfectly expressed through George Barnes's exquisitely stark cinematography. In style and substance, this is quintessential noir, its plot unfolding with uncompromising toughness and intelligence. More's the pity, then, that director Polonsky was later victimized by the Hollywood blacklist, curtailing a promising career for two decades until Polonsky directed Robert Redford in 1969's Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here. It seems only fitting, then, that Polonsky's remarkable debut is now recognized as one of the finest dramas of its kind. --Jeff Shannon

The Asphalt Jungle

Oscar-winning director John Huston's comprehensive and widely-acclaimed Film Noir "The Asphalt Jungle" featured an extensive cast including Sterling Hayden (later of Dr. Strangelove fame) and an early film performance by Marilyn Monroe. In this Film Noir classic now on DVD a group of professional criminals put together an elaborate jewel heist only to have it unravel disastrously (per Film Noir convention) when a crooked cop gets wind of their scheme. The film itself was well-received during its release and nominated for several Academy Awards (including Best Director) as well as 3 Golden Globes. John Huston also directed another crime classic the "Maltese Falcon" as well as "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" so it is no surprise that "The Asphalt Jungle" was such a ground-shaking feature. Make your collection complete buy "The Asphalt Jungle" DVD today!Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/CLASSIC UPC: 012569590328

The dark urban world of The Asphalt Jungle is one of the essential destinations in film noir, but be warned: despite tough guy Sterling Hayden's dreams of bucolic escape, there is no way out. John Huston directed this superbly calibrated crime classic, which displays his usual wry appreciation of fringies and down-and-outers. This time the task for Huston's eccentric ensemble is a jewel robbery, which--this being a Huston film--can't possibly work out as well as its plan. The cast includes Sam Jaffee, indelible as a criminal mastermind, and the pre-stardom Marilyn Monroe. Hayden plays the kind of mug he would revisit in Stanley Kubrick's The Killing, which is an informal homage to this film. And the film's look is definitive: both artful and gritty, it creates a noir landscape that traps its people just as surely as the tar pits trapped the dinosaurs. No wonder they call it noir. --Robert Horton

You'll Never Get Rich

An eccentric New York theater owner has his eye on the beautiful chorus girl Sheila Winthrop (Rita Hayworth). His wife has her eye on him. Sheila has her eye on the show's choreographer Robert Curtis (Fred Astaire). Having been discovered the boss throws Robert into the middle of a comedic cover-up that eventually forces Robert to flee into the Army. Robert will never get rich as a private but at least he's out of his predicament - or is he? When Rita Hayworth was paired to star opposite Fred Astaire in the musical comedy YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH the press speculated that the two might be mismatched. Then Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohen insisted on the pairing and correctly so. All skeptics were silenced as Hayworth more than proved her dancing abilities establishing her as one of the best partners Astaire ever had - Ginger Rodgers notwithstanding. She quite literally became Columbia's hottest property of the '40s with LIFE magazine quickly dubbing her the "Love Goddess" of Hollywood. The film's many accolades include Academy Award® nominations for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture and the featured hit song "Since I Kissed My Baby Goodbye" by Cole Porter.System Requirements:Running Time: 88 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 043396103696 Manufacturer No: 10369

They don't make the most obvious screen couple--if you squint, you might think Stan Laurel had gotten together with Lauren Bacall--but their differences only serve to make this effervescent musical all the more entertaining. You'll Never Get Rich is the first of two that Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth made together (followed by You Were Never Lovelier). Astaire, who stars as choreographer-turned-soldier Robert Curtis, has rarely been looser, and Hayworth, as dancer Sheila Winthrop, has rarely been more graceful. As in Royal Wedding, Astaire also engages in some fancy solo footwork. Robert Benchley and Frieda Inescort provide priceless support as Robert's philandering boss and his clever wife, and Cole Porter composed the music, including "So Near and Yet So Far," "Dream Dancing," and the Oscar®-nominated "Since I Kissed My Baby Goodbye." You'll Never Get Rich is timeless, escapist fun that also serves to prove that sometimes opposites don't just attract--they can make beautiful music together. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Champion

From Here to Eternity (Superbit Collection)

It's 1941. Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) has requested Army transfer and has ended up at Schofield in Hawaii. His new captain Dana Holmes has heard of his boxing prowess and is keen to get him to represent the company. However 'Prew' is adamant that he doesn't box anymore so Captain Holmes gets his subordinates to make his life a living hell. Meanwhile Sergeant Warden (Burt Lancaster Academy Award winner Best Actor in a Leading Role Elmer Gantry 1961) start's seeing the captain's wife who has a history of seeking external relief from a troubled marriage. Prew's friend Maggio has a few altercations with the sadistic stockade sergeant 'Fatso' Judson and Prew begins falling in love with social club employee Lorene. Unbeknownst to anyone the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor looms in the distance.System Requirements:Running Time: 118 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/CLASSIC Rating: NR UPC: 043396008687 Manufacturer No: 00868

Here's a model for adapting a novel into a movie. The bestseller by James Jones, a frank and hard-hitting look at military life, could not possibly be made into a film in 1953 without considerably altering its length and bold subject matter. Yet screenwriter Daniel Taradash and director Fred Zinnemann (both of whom won Oscars for their work) pared it down and cleaned it up, without losing the essential texture of Jones's tapestry. The setting is an army base in Hawaii in 1941. Montgomery Clift, in a superb performance, plays a bugler who refuses to fight for the company boxing team; he has reasons for giving up the sport. His refusal results in harsh treatment from the company commander, whose bored wife (Deborah Kerr) is having an affair with the tough-but-fair sergeant (Burt Lancaster). You remember--the scene with the two of them embracing on the beach, as the surf crashes in. The supporting players are as good as the leads: Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed won Oscars (and Sinatra revitalized his entire career), and Ernest Borgnine entered the gallery of all-time movie villains, as the stockade sergeant who makes Sinatra miserable. Zinnemann's work is efficient but also evocative, capturing the time and place beautifully, the tropical breezes as well as the lazy prewar indulgence. This one is deservedly a classic. --Robert Horton

WWII 60th Anniversary Collection (The Guns of Navarone/From Here to Eternity/The Bridge on the River Kwai) (Includes Collectible Scrapbook)

Detour

To Please A Lady / Jeopardy