Verdon, Gwen

Damn Yankees

America's pastime gets a Faustian twist in this 1958 studio musical, which recounts the ballpark bargain struck by an aging Washington Senators fan obsessed with helping his team trump the Yanks. With echoes of the real-life 1919 Shoeless Joe Jackson scandal, and tart observations on the tradeoffs between youth and experience, Damn Yankees fuses a classic dramatic dilemma with musical comedy to often charming effect.

In transferring George Abbott's Broadway hit to the screen, codirectors Abbott and Stanley Donen are smart enough to retain Richard Adler and Jerry Ross's clever songs, Bob Fosse's sizzling choreography (with Fosse himself on camera for the sultry mambo number), and stars Ray Walston and Gwen Verdon, reprising their devilish turns as the Horned One himself, Mr. Applegate, and his temptress, Lola. Where the team strikes out, unfortunately, is in their concession to marquee politics, handing the pivotal role of Joe Hardy to handsome, vapid, celluloid heartthrob Tab Hunter, whose thin voice and unsteady screen presence argue that he should have stayed in the dugout.

Walston is reliably spry and acerbic as the canny archangel, and Verdon, in one of her rare starring screen turns, confirms the comedic timing and sexy, muscular grace that made her a deserved draw in subsequent stage hits including another Fosse triumph, Sweet Charity. With her combination of feline grace and alternately steely, flirtatious femininity, Verdon makes you believe her when she sings, "Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets." --Sam Sutherland

Starring the original Broadway cast this is the musical adaptation of the novel "The Year The Yankees Won The Pennant" with a score by Adler & Ross ("The Pajama Game") and choreography by Bob Fosse. Washington Senators fan Joe Boyd sells his soul to the devil Mr. Applegate to become the greatest baseball player ever and to help his favorite team win the pennant. However doing this means Joe must leave his beloved wife Meg and it's not easy on him. Whenever he poses as a boarder to get closer to her Applegate must enlist the help of his favorite seductive helper Lola. But not even Lola's charms can woo Joe. Soon she finds herself falling for him but pledges to be his friend. Joe and Applegate make a contract allowing him out of the deal at a certain time but the devil makes sure that Joe doesn't get out. When Lola finds out about this she slips him four sleeping pills so he can sleep through the game the next day allowing Joe to help the Senators win the pennant. However Satan awakes and after turning Lola into an old hag turns Joe back into an old man on the field who returns to his wife.Running Time: 110 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 085393197025

The Cotton Club

The Cotton Club is routinely eclipsed by the controversies that surrounded its tumultuous production, but the film itself offers abundant pleasures that should not be overlooked. If Apocalypse Now represents the triumph of director Francis Coppola's perilous ambition, then The Cotton Club represents the ungainly glory of uncontrolled genius, as brilliant as it is out of its depth. As an upscale homage to classic gangster films it's frequently astonishing, cramming a thick novel's worth of plot and characters into 129 minutes, gloriously serviced by impeccable production design, elegant cinematography, and stylistic flourishes that show Coppola at the top of his game.

What The Cotton Club lacks is cohesion. As written by Coppola and novelist William Kennedy (then enjoying the peak of his critical acclaim), the movie struggles to exceed the narrative scope of The Godfather, but its multiple early-'30s plot lines fail to form any strong connective tissue. It's three (or four) movies in one, with cornet player Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere, playing his own jazzy solos) drifting from one story to the next--loving a young, ambitious vamp (Diane Lane, with whom Gere shares precious little chemistry), enjoying the success of a hotshot hoofer (Gregory Hines), and protecting his brazen bother (Coppola's then-newcomer nephew, Nicolas Cage) from the deadly temper of mob boss Dutch Schultz (James Remar). Bob Hoskins and Fred Gwynne also score big in grand supporting roles, but The Cotton Club is perhaps best appreciated for its meticulous re-creation of Harlem's Cotton Club heyday, and the brilliant music (Ellington, Calloway, etc.) that brought rhythm to gangland's rat-a-tat-tat. --Jeff Shannon

Oscar®-winners* Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo rejoin forces to create a mesmerizing (L.A. Weekly) homage to 1930s gangster films and musicals. Nominated** for three Oscars® The Cotton Club is a genuine vision (Newsweek) of the golden age of jazz you won t soon forget!1928 New York. Spirits are high and sultry jazz lively dancing and ruthless gangsters rule supreme. In the center of it all is Harlem s Cotton Club. Playing on stage is cornet player Dixie Dwyer (Gere) who dreams of the big time but he s too mixed up with the club s owner (Hoskins) -- and his sexy moll (Lane) -- to get anywhere fast. Add the frustration of tap sensation Sandman Williams (Hines) who can t touch his girl the lovely lounge singer Lea Rose Oliver (Lonette McKee) and you ve got a short fuse ready to go. As tensions rise so do tempers and the legendary nightclub becomes a pressure cooker of jilted loves and mob jobs that blows the lid off one of the most shocking showdowns ever staged.System Requirements: Running Time 129 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 027616864369 Manufacturer No: 1002205

Cocoon / Cocoon - The Return

On the Riviera

Jack Martin (Danny Kaye) an American entertainer working cabarets on the French Riviera does an impersonation of philandering industrialist Henri Duran (Kaye again) so convincingly that even Duran's beautiful wife (Gene Tierney) is fooled by it. When Duran's business interests compel him to be in London when he should be hosting a large soiree at his home Martin is persuaded to impersonate Duran at the party. But matters threaten to get out of hand when Martin (as Duran) is confronted by several of the philanderer's women and by Duran's ruthless business rival M. Periton (Jean Murat).System Requirements:Run Time: 89 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS Rating: NR UPC: 024543438885 Manufacturer No: 2243888

Just as Love Affair inspired An Affair to Remember and Sleepless in Seattle, Folies Bergère inspired That Night in Rio and On the Riviera. In Walter Lang's Technicolor version, Danny Kaye takes on a dual role previously assumed by Maurice Chevalier and Don Ameche. A master of mistaken identity, Kaye makes it his own. His Jack Martin is an American song and dance man based in Monte Carlo. When playboy aviator Henri Duran (Kaye with French accent) returns from his latest adventure, Martin notices a resemblance. He also notices Duran's neglected wife, Lili (Gene Tierney). After Duran is called away on business, Martin is enlisted to impersonate him for an important function. That gives him the chance to cozy up to Lili--and infuriate dance partner Colette (Corinne Calvet). Duran pays him back with an impersonation of his own. It isn't Twelfth Night, but On the Riviera is an enjoyable diversion. It also represents a family affair, since designer Oleg Cassini outfitted wife Tierney and Sylvia Fine penned tunes for husband Kaye (except for the standard "Ballin' the Jack"). Though considered a minor effort in the canons of Lang and Kaye--the musical was more of an audience favorite than a critical darling--Fox has done right by this long-unavailable title with an interactive press book, featurettes, lobby cards, and a pristine print (heavy on the brilliant blues). Look sharp for future Fosse hoofer (and wife) Gwen Verdon as a dancer and Tierney's famous Laura portrait above Duran's fireplace. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Walking Across Egypt

Oscar-nominated actress Ellen Burstyn appears in this drama alongside Jonathan Taylor Thomas as a spirited older woman who decides to befriend and adopt an orphan (Thomas) to keep him out of trouble. Based on the clever novel by Clyde Edgerton WALKING ACROSS EGYPT brings the story of an unlikely but ultimately healing friendship to life through lively dialogue strong performances and realistically flawed characters.System Requirements:Running Time: 100 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 084296407798 Manufacturer No: 40779

Cocoon

A group of senior citizens are given a second chance at being young when the Antareans arrive from another planet. They must face the crucial decision about life and death for themselves and those they love.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 7-JUN-2005
Media Type: DVD

An offbeat and charming comedy with elements of science fiction thrown in, director Ron Howard's (Ransom, Apollo 13) unlikely fantasy ponders the price of immortality and the power of everlasting love. A group of aliens travel to a Florida retirement community to rescue some long-stranded colleagues cocooned and buried beneath the sea. But as the aliens take on human form and stash their counterparts in a swimming pool, a group of elderly retirees discover the pool and after swimming in the water find themselves rejuvenated, with boundless energy and insatiable appetites. Soon the retirees are forced to choose between living out their lives on earth with their families, or leaving with the aliens and attaining immortality. More character driven than dependent on the incredible plot, the film's charm comes from its characters and the wonderful cast, including Don Ameche, who won an Academy Award for his role as one of the randy retirees. --Robert Lane

Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All

This heartwarming drama uses an interview/ flashback structure to chronicle the life of a Confederate captain's wife from their early courtship through the present day. Based on the novel by Alan Gurganus.System Requirements:Run Time: 170 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 084296407071 Manufacturer No: 40707

Cocoon - The Return

A group of senior citizens who had been given a second chance at being young by going to the utopian planet Antarea return home five years later.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 7-JUN-2005
Media Type: DVD

Alice

Alice is one of Woody Allen's more grounded whimsies, though viewers with a low tolerance for feyness might miss it. Here goes Mia Farrow again as a nattering Manhattanite with a girlie-girlie voice and a well-to-do husband of 16 years (a stockbroker played by William Hurt) who doesn't always notice whether she's in the room. One day a back pain sends her up a dim staircase in Chinatown to see an acupuncturist (the valedictory role of the beloved Keye Luke). He has quite a bag of tricks--including hypnosis and a versatile assortment of herbal teas--and enough insight to recognize that Alice's troubles lie somewhere other than her sacroiliac. Under Dr. Yang's ministrations, Alice goes on a Wonderland voyage through her own life, fantasizing about having an affair with a dusky stranger (Joe Mantegna), flitting about Manhattan as an invisible spirit, and--most unlikely of all--talking straight with her various relatives, past and present.

Like so many Allen films, Alice wavers between scenes imagined with deftness and precision (like Farrow and Mantegna's astonished mutual seduction) and other scenes and notions that are merely touched upon and then abandoned before they can develop any rhythm and complexity, persuade you they were worth including, and justify the presence of so many nifty performers--Judy Davis, Judith Ivey, Gwen Verdon, Robin Bartlett, Alec Baldwin, Holland Taylor, Cybill Shepherd, Blythe Danner, Julie Kavner, Caroline Aaron--who mostly wink in and out again as cameos. Nevertheless, almost all Woody's looking glasses are worth passing through at least once. --Richard T. Jameson

For 16 years, Alice Tate (Farrow) has been ignored by her husband (Hurt), spoiled by wealth, and tranquilized by boredom. But when she unexpectedly falls for a sexy musician (Mantegna) and impulsively consults a mysterious Chinese herbalist for advice, Alice begins a madcap journey into a strange new world of possibilities. But as she begins to realize who she is and what she values, Alice must also confront her deepest fears and decide how far she'll go for love and what she'll risk to change her destiny.

Marvin's Room

Scott McPherson's off-Broadway hit made a strong transition to the screen in this 1996 film by director Jerry Zaks. Diane Keaton stars as a woman who, while taking care of her vegetating father in Florida, discovers that she has leukemia. Only her long-estranged sister (Meryl Streep) or the sister's children can provide a possible match for a bone-marrow transplant. But the reunion is a rocky one, marked both by Streep's guilt at having abandoned her sister to take care of their father, and by the explosive dynamic between Streep and her rebellious, pyromaniac oldest son (Leonardo DiCaprio). As grim as this all sounds, there is a strong vein of black humor running through it that has the viewer laughing at unlikely moments (particularly Keaton's visits to her distracted doctor, a surprisingly funny Robert De Niro). But rest assured: tears will flow, even as the film makes you reassess all of your own family relationships. --Marshall Fine

Leonardo DiCaprio (TITANIC, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN) drives an electrifying performance as the criminally rebellious son in this funny and stirring tale of one family's humor and heartache. Seventeen years ago, fiercely independent Lee (Meryl Streep -- ADAPTATION) left home ... and left behind her kindhearted sister Bessie (Diane Keaton -- THE FIRST WIVES CLUB) to care for their father, Marvin (Hume Cronyn). But now Lee is returning with her teenage son (DiCaprio), for a homecoming that's sure to turn the entire household upside down! Also starring Robert DeNiro (CASINO), this entertaining motion picture proves that people you know the least may be the ones you need the most!