Bogart, Paul

Get Smart - Season 1

Torch Song Trilogy

Harvey Fierstein had a smash hit on Broadway with the stage version of this story about a drag queen, but whatever the magic there was doesn't show up in this film adaptation. (Fierstein allegedly couldn't line up an A-list or even B-list director in 1988 to tackle the gay story line, so he agreed to work with Paul Bogart, a ubiquitous television director but an undistinguished feature filmmaker.) Fierstein's performance is fine, but likely a shadow of his live work, while Anne Bancroft is very strong in the role of his character's mother. Matthew Broderick went against the tide of fear shared by most Hollywood actors at the time about playing gay characters. The times have certainly changed since then. --Tom Keogh

An on-screen adaptation of the Tony- award-winning play about a Jewish homosexual who, except for a different sexual preference, goes through the same struggles of love, jealousy and self-doubt that affect us all.

Mark Twain Tonight

Come meet Mark Twain. OK, true, the humorist has been dead for more years than we care to remember, and not many of us around today were alive to hear what he sounded like. But Hal Holbrook is so spectacular in his one-man performance that you could swear you were listening to Twain himself. The gravelly voice, the lined face, the slow shuffle, and cigar-induced throat clearings seem so natural that you'll have difficulty recognizing Holbrook beneath the white suit, the gray hair, and the handlebar mustache.

Mark Twain Tonight! began as a Broadway show in the 1960s and was filmed as a CBS special in 1967. Yet you'd never know it, because the humor, which is more than a century old, is still laugh-out-loud funny today. Twain--I mean, Holbrook--gives a monologue that is rambling, intelligent, and humorous as he culls together commentary from a variety of Twain sources. From dachshund hounds, politics, and patriotism to cigar smoking, memory loss, and religion, this 90-minute video leaps from subject to subject as we're entertained by material that's as fresh today as it was when it was written in the 1800s. --Jenny Brown

The House Without a Christmas Tree

The loss of a loved one is never easy and memories often make the holiday season especially difficult. Addie (Lisa Lucas) lost her mother when she was very young and, while she sometimes yearns for her mother, she is a happy well-adjusted ten-year old who wants nothing more than to have a Christmas tree in the living room. Addie's father (Jason Robards) absolutely refuses to have a Christmas tree in the house, but offers no explanation for his stubborn resolve which leads Addie to question his motives and his love for her. It falls to Addie's Grandmother (Mildred Natwick) to explain that her father is still immersed in grief over the loss of his wife and that the memories of Christmases past are simply too painful for him to endure. When Addie wins a tree at school, her father is enraged by both the presence of the tree in his home and the idea of his family accepting charity. Only by opening a line of communication and sharing their feelings and memories with one another can Addie and her father reconcile their differences and begin to understand one another. Set in 1964, this 1972 made-for-television special feels like a stage play with sets and scenery that evoke the essence of an age-gone-by. The message, of course, is timeless. (Ages 5 and older) --Tami Horiuchi

After a mother dies her family appears destined to spend the rest of its days picking up the pieces. In 1940's Nebraska a sweet and intelligent 10-year-old girl raises the ire of her bitter widower father who has never forgotten that his wife died while giving birth to their daughter. To illustrate for the girl that life does not come easy the father bars the family which also includes his mother from having a traditional Christmas tree. This yuletide though has a happy surprise for this home so desperately in need of holiday cheer.System Requirements:Running Time: 75 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating: NR UPC: 097368433144 Manufacturer No: 843314

Oh, God! You Devil

An Enemy of the People (Broadway Theatre Archive)

Fire and passion infuse Arthur Miller's earnest adaptation of master playwright Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. A small town in Norway is just seeing its first hint of prosperity, thanks to the burgeoning popularity of its healing springs. But Dr. Thomas Stockman discovers that the springs are polluted so badly that they will poison the town's first big wave of tourists. Shutting down the springs for renovation will cripple the town; keeping them open could spread an epidemic across Europe. It seems like a simple black-and-white situation, but it soon spirals out of control. No character is safe from Ibsen's scourge--the motivations of wealthy conservatives, the liberal press, and even the Doctor himself are mercilessly laid bare. The play has obvious resonance with current political issues and is performed with such feeling and skill that it is sure to spark discussion, if not an argument or two. Though certainly satisfying for adults, anyone with children who are beginning to become politically aware should make this one a must-see. --Ali Davis

Adapted by master playwright Arthur Miller from Henrik Ibsen's groundbreaking 1882 play, An Enemy of the People is a scathing indictment of a corrupt society. An idealistic doctor, played by 1966 Emmy-winner James Daly, discovers that the medicinal springs- source of a small Norwegian town's wealth and fame--are in fact poisoned. "Few dramas... clamor with as much present-day social relevance," declared Variety. Veteran Broadway, screen, and television actress Kate Reid plays the doctor's indomitable wife who stands by him in the face of the town's hostility to his findings, as he becomes "an enemy of the people." "Few dramas...clamor with as much present-day social relevance." --Variety

A Memory of Two Mondays (Broadway Theatre Archive)

Dramatizing a compacted group of memories passing over several years, Arthur Miller's vivid comedy-drama portrays the nature of life during America's Great Depression. The emphasis is on mood and characterization as Miller draws on his own personal experience to evoke what the 1930s were like for workers to whom a job--any job--was everything. "...a beautiful play superbly performed." --The New York Daily News. With Jack Warden, Harvey Keitel, Dick Van Patten, Estelle Parsons, and Jerry Stiller.

Power, Passion and Murder

Set in a frenetic shallow Hollywood of the '30's this is the story of a rising young starlet whose affair with a powerful studio boss ruins her and forces him to make the most difficult choice of his life.System Requirements:Running Time 104 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 787364477197 Manufacturer No: 44771-9

Wendy Wassertein's 'Kiss, Kiss, Dahlings' / Terrence McNally's 'The Last Mile' (Broadway Theatre Archive)

Kiss, Kiss, Dahlings is Wendy Wasserstein's humorous love letter to the theater, starring Tony Award-winner Blythe Danner and 4-time Emmy-winner Nancy Marchand (Lou Grant, The Sopranos) together with Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City) as three generations of actresses in three different eras. Also featuring talk-show host Charlie Rose. Terrence McNally's The Last Mile captures both the comic and the poignant minutes in an opera diva's life just before the curtain rises on her Metropolitan Opera debut in "Tosca". Starring two-time Tony Award winners Bernadette Peters (Annie) and Nathan Lane (The Birdcage). Also starring Paul Sorvino and Bill Irwin.

The Shady Hill Kidnapping (Broadway Theatre Archive)

In this finely crafted comedy of errors, the life of upper-middle-class suburbanites is portrayed with humor and poignancy. John Cheever's The Shady Hill Kidnapping revolves around the alleged abduction of young Toby Wooster; an event that jolts the complacent and well-fed suburb of Shady Hill into surprising action. A fake kidnappers' note, a community fundraising campaign to raise the ransom money, a police stakeout at the railroad station, and George Wooster's reluctant decision to build the town's 34th kidney-shaped swimming pool are some of the outlandish events found in this "hilarious and touching satire" (Time Magazine). A superb cast includes Emmy®-winners George Grizzard (Wonder Boys) and Polly Holliday ("Alice") and Oscar®-winner Celeste Holm (All About Eve).