Curtiz, Michael

Casablanca

The story of a struggle among individuals who have sought refuge in Casablanca after fleeing Nazi occupied Europe.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG
Release Date: 7-JUN-2005
Media Type: DVD

A truly perfect movie, the 1942 Casablanca still wows viewers today, and for good reason. Its unique story of a love triangle set against terribly high stakes in the war against a monster is sophisticated instead of outlandish, intriguing instead of garish. Humphrey Bogart plays the allegedly apolitical club owner in unoccupied French territory that is nevertheless crawling with Nazis; Ingrid Bergman is the lover who mysteriously deserted him in Paris; and Paul Heinreid is her heroic, slightly bewildered husband. Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Conrad Veidt are among what may be the best supporting cast in the history of Hollywood films. This is certainly among the most spirited and ennobling movies ever made. --Tom Keogh

Yankee Doodle Dandy (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Musical about composer, actor, dancer, singer, George M. Cohan.
Genre: Musicals
Rating: NR
Release Date: 30-SEP-2003
Media Type: DVD

James Cagney thrills in a rare (and limber) song-and-dance performance as composer-entertainer George M. Cohan. This nostalgic biography is told in flashbacks, covering Cohan's formative years becoming Broadway's brightest star and touching upon his loves, musicals, and artistic triumphs. Director Michael Curtiz (The Adventures of Robin Hood) offers Cagney ample opportunities to invent an utterly charming performance in what is practically a one-man show. If you've never seen Cagney as a hoofer, you're in for a treat: his dancing is as dynamic as anything else he's ever done on screen. --Tom Keogh

The Adventures of Robin Hood (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Dashing Errol Flynn is the definitive Robin Hood in the most gloriously swashbuckling version of the legendary story. Warner Brothers reunited Michael Curtiz, their top-action director, with the winning team of Flynn and Olivia de Havilland (Maid Marian) and perennial villain Basil Rathbone as the aristocratic Sir Guy of Gisbourne, and pulled out all stops for the production. It became their costliest film to date, a grandly handsome, glowing Technicolor adventure set to a stirring, Oscar-winning score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The decadent Prince John (a smoothly conniving Claude Rains) takes advantage of King Richard's absence to tax the country into poverty but meets his match in the medieval guerrilla rebel Robin Hood and his Merry Men of Sherwood Forest, who rise up and, to quote a cliché coined by the film, "steal from the rich and give to the poor." Stocky Alan Hale Sr. plays Robin's loyal friend Little John (a part he played in Douglas Fairbanks's silent version), Eugene Palette the portly Friar Tuck, and Melville Cooper the bumbling Sheriff of Nottingham. Flynn's confidence and cocky charm makes for a perfect Robin Hood, and his easygoing manner is a marvelous counterpoint to Rathbone's regal bearing and courtly diction. The film climaxes in their rousing battle-to-the-finish sword fight, a magnificently choreographed scene highlighted by Curtiz's inventive use of shadows cast upon the castle walls. --Sean Axmaker

Errol Flynn is eternally charming as Robin, defender of the poor, in this rousing family adventure that co-stars Olivia de Havilland and Claude Rains. Year: 1938 Director: Michael Curtiz, William Keighley Starring: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Alan Hale

Casablanca (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Casablanca: easy to enter but much harder to leave especially if you're wanted by the Nazis. Such a man is Resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) whose only hope is Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) a cynical American who sticks his neck out for no one - especially Victor's wife Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) the ex-lover who broke his heart. Ilsa offers herself in exchange for Laszlo's transport out of the country and bitter Rick must decide what counts more - personal happiness or countless lives hanging in the balance. Winner of three Academy Awards including Best Picture Casablanca marks 60 years as a beloved favorite with a new digital transfer and so many bonuses that no matter how often you've seen it this Deluxe 2-Disc DVD looks like yet another beginning of a beautiful friendship with an unforgettable classic.Running Time: 102 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569568129 Manufacturer No: 65681

A truly perfect movie, the 1942 Casablanca still wows viewers today, and for good reason. Its unique story of a love triangle set against terribly high stakes in the war against a monster is sophisticated instead of outlandish, intriguing instead of garish. Humphrey Bogart plays the allegedly apolitical club owner in unoccupied French territory that is nevertheless crawling with Nazis; Ingrid Bergman is the lover who mysteriously deserted him in Paris; and Paul Heinreid is her heroic, slightly bewildered husband. Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Conrad Veidt are among what may be the best supporting cast in the history of Hollywood films. This is certainly among the most spirited and ennobling movies ever made. --Tom Keogh

Errol Flynn Westerns Collection (Montana / Rocky Mountain / San Antonio / Virginia City)

Errol Flynn Tames the West in these Four Classic Westerns!MONTANA - Big Sky Country is cattle country! But sheep rancher Flynn has other ideas in this gun-blazing range-war saga. Alexis Smith co-stars.ROCKY MOUNTAIN - The Civil War comes to California and rebel leader Flynn finds that marauding Shoshones may be fiercer foes than the Union Army. With future Mrs. Flynn Patrice Wymore.SAN ANTONIO - A man is only as good as his aim when Flynn rides into ol' San Antone to hunt cattle rustlers. A landmark of Western excitement with an amazing saloon shoot-'em-up...and lovely Alexis Smith.VIRGINIA CITY - Union officer Flynn goes undercover to stop a gold-laden Nevada wagon train rolling to Dixie. With Randolph Scott and yes Humphrey Bogart as a pencil-mustached desperado.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/CLASSICS UPC: 085391188216 Manufacturer No: 1000027305

Captain Blood

This is the story of Dr. Peter Blood and english surgeon who is sold into slavery in the West Indies after treating the leader of the rebellion against King James II. Bought by the beautiful Arabella Blood leads a revolt with his fellow prisoners and escapes. Seeking retribution he turns his fellow escapees into a private crew with himself as the elader - Captain Blood. Thrilling sea battles and exhilarating scenery highlights this Best Picture Oscar(R) nominee that made stars out of Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. Year: 1935 Director: Michael Curtiz Starring: Errol Flynn Olivia de Havilland Lionel Atwill Basil RathboneRunning Time: 119 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/CLASSIC UPC: 012569591424

The swashbuckler had been around long before Errol Flynn drew a cutlass, but the Tasmanian-born bit player reinvigorated the genre with his mix of dashing good looks, haughty insolence, and alluring confidence. Adapted from the novel by Rafael Sabatini (who also penned The Sea Hawk), this rousing adventure chronicles the travails of Peter Blood (Flynn), a righteous doctor unjustly sold into slavery for treating the wounds of rebels, a kind of British Dr. Mudd. Sent to a Jamaican plantation where he toils under the brutal whip of Lionel Atwill and seethes with passion for his fair niece (the astonishingly beautiful Olivia de Havilland), he escapes from bondage with his fellow prisoners and becomes the gentleman rogue pirate of the Caribbean. Director Michael Curtiz builds from one set piece to another, including a nimble beachside sword fight with pirate nemesis Basil Rathbone and climaxing with a grand sea battle that belies the film's modest budget. Flynn's bravado and charisma are apparent from his entrance, but once he leaps into action he takes command of the picture, overcoming his still-green dramatic skills with sheer personality. Captain Blood made stars of Flynn and de Havilland and catapulted Curtiz to the top ranks of Warner directors. The three reunited for some of the studio's best-loved adventures: The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and Dodge City. --Sean Axmaker

Humphrey Bogart - The Signature Collection, Vol. 2 (The Maltese Falcon Three-Disc Special Edition / Across the Pacific / Action in the North Atlantic / All Through the Night / Passage to Marseille)

Humphrey Bogart stars as detective Sam Spade, a U.S. spy, an anti-Nazi gangster, a World War I merchant marine officer, and a World War II French patriot.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: NR
Release Date: 3-OCT-2006
Media Type: DVD

The movie that made Humphrey Bogart Humphrey Bogart anchors this second DVD box devoted to the mighty star. The Maltese Falcon gets--and merits--the deluxe three-disc treatment, and the other Bogie movies collected here are solid vehicles from his early 1940s Warner Bros. heyday. The essence of Bogart's world-weary yet mysteriously romantic aura is on luscious display, even if most of these films fall just short of classic status.

Bogart's letter-perfect incarnation as Sam Spade, the anti-hero of John Huston's debut film as a director, grounds The Maltese Falcon in a smart, sardonic groove. Even if Spade is one of Bogart's finest turns, it's hard to single out the film's best performance: Mary Astor as the mystery dame who trips off the case, Peter Lorre as the fey Joel Cairo, or Sydney Greenstreet as the massively erudite Kasper Gutman (the latter making one of the great debuts in film history). Dashiell Hammett's best-selling story had been filmed twice before, and both versions are included in the extras here: the 1931 Maltese Falcon, which has a fair amount of cheek and some near-identical snatches of Hammett dialogue as the 1941 film--but without the magic--and the 1936 Satan Met a Lady, which puts the story squarely in the realm of screwball comedy, with Warren William and Bette Davis acting as though they'd wandered into a Thin Man movie. Other extras include a commentary with Bogart biography Eric Lax, three radio versions of the tale, and a short documentary about the Falcon.

Huston also directed Across the Pacific, a fun and somewhat tongue-in-cheek picture that brought Bogart, Astor, and Greenstreet back together. After being drummed out of the military, Bogie finds himself aboard a ship sailing toward the Panama Canal--and as the date of Dec. 7, 1941, looms on the horizon, we suspect intrigue. Also from 1942 is the wisecracking All Through the Night, which is set entirely in a Damon Runyon NYC but nevertheless unearths a nest of Nazis (Conrad Veidt among them) planning a homeland attack.

WWII figures in the other two features. Michael Curtiz's Passage to Marseille (1944) burdens itself with too many flashbacks, but otherwise presents a nicely atmospheric tale of Devil's Island escapees trying to get home to fight for France. Lorre and Greenstreet are back, with Michele Morgan snuggling Bogart in the Casablanca-inspired love story. Action in the North Atlantic (1943) is a more conventional picture, with Bogart and Raymond Massey fighting the war in the Merchant Marines; the topnotch action sequences and crusty supporting cast keep it going. Bogart's covert socking of a loose-lipped bar patron gives us the vintage Bogie. Bartender: "Did you hurt your hand?" Bogie: "Never do." --Robert Horton

We're No Angels

After a prison escape, three convicts attempt to steal from a local store, only to find themselves befriending the store owner's family and attractive daughter.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: NR
Release Date: 27-SEP-2005
Media Type: DVD

Audiences have always loved the spectacle of tough guys going soft and gooey, and We're No Angels adds the extra sweetener of Yuletide to its mix. The action takes place on Devil's Island, the tropical backwater where the notorious French prison was located. Three convicts, played by Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, and Peter Ustinov, have escaped, and wait only for a ship to leave the next day. In the meantime, they become involved in the financial woes of an island shopkeeper (Leo G. Carroll) and his wife (Joan Bennett) and daughter, whose business is in danger from a rich, nasty relative (Basil Rathbone). Despite the threat of black comedy, especially in the form of a poisonous viper (which Ray carries around in a demure bamboo case), broad cuteness tends to rule the day. While it's not on the list of essential Bogart performances, Bogie does seem to be enjoying himself, and the puckish Ustinov savors his lines like a cow chewing grass. The stage origins of the scenario are all too obvious, and probably contribute to the pokey pacing (Michael Curtiz, who guided Bogart in Casablanca, was perhaps not the ideal choice for this kind of winsome comedy). This 1955 film looks good in comparison to the loose, labored 1989 remake with Robert De Niro and Sean Penn. --Robert Horton

The Cary Grant Signature Collection (Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House / Destination Tokyo / The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer / My Favorite Wife / Night and Day)

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House The Bachelor and The Bobby-Soxer My Favorite Wife Destination Tokyo Night and DayFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 085393498221

Greatest movie star ever? How can you argue against Cary Grant, the graceful clown, the ironic romantic? Equally at home in an Alfred Hitchcock suspense piece or a Howard Hawks screwball comedy, the superb Mr. Grant (born Archie Leach) could handle just about anything. And it's a testament to his appeal that this boxed set, which contains not a single great movie, is nevertheless an entertaining catalog of Grant's splendid run during the 1940s.

The earliest picture, and a sheer delight, is 1940's My Favorite Wife, one of Grant's blissful pairings with the wonderful Irene Dunne. He's about to remarry when his first wife washes up again after having been lost on a desert island (with he-man Randolph Scott) for seven years. Destination Tokyo is a WWII submarine picture, with Grant as the stalwart skipper--slightly odd casting, but he brings it off with admirable professionalism. (The film's propagandistic jabs at demonizing the Japanese enemy have not aged well.)

Night and Day is one of those composer biographies that veers rather radically from reality, with Grant playing Cole Porter. A ton of great songs and the canny casting of Cary as the champagne-sophisticate Porter make it passably de-lovely, despite the whitewash of the composer's real-life story. The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer puts Grant in deliciously antic mode, mooned over by teenager Shirley Temple but preferring the company of her older sister, Myrna Loy. He re-teams with Loy in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, an artless but regularly hilarious tale of Manhattanites whose Connecticut fixer-upper becomes a money pit. --Robert Horton

Mildred Pierce (Keepcase)

What Veda wants her mother Mildred Pierce provides. Even if Mildred must end her middle-class marriage climb atop the male-dominated business world and marry a wealthy man she doesn't love. "I'll do anything" Mildred says in explaining her love for her daughter. But does anything include murder? Just when you think you got this nominee for five other Oscarsincluding Best Picture figured out along comes a shocking twist ending! Director: Michael Curtiz Starring: Joan Crawford Jack Carson Zachary Scott Eve Arden Ann BlythRunning Time: 109 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569675384

For a full dose of pure, unfiltered Joan Crawford, look no further than this slab of scorching film noir. Crawford is in her element as the heroine of James M. Cain's pulp-fiction classic, a ditched wife and mother who is forced to become a waitress. On the strength of Crawford's steely willpower (and maybe those intimidating wide-wing shoulder pads), she constructs an empire of eateries, only to be disappointed by her rotten daughter (Ann Blyth) and a ferret-faced new husband (Zachary Scott). Director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) whips up a storm of atmosphere, and the script is a series of tartly written exchanges. The best lines go to perennial wisecracker Eve Arden, as Crawford's acid-tongued pal--she earned her only Oscar nomination for the role. Commenting on the ungrateful daughter, Arden says, "Alligators have the right idea. They eat their young." Crawford herself took home the best actress Oscar, and the film was a triumphant personal comeback: her longtime studio MGM had released her from her contract before Mildred Pierce came along. Is this great acting? (Pauline Kael called it "heavy breathing.") Whatever Joan Crawford is doing in this movie, it's movie presence at its most formidable. --Robert Horton