Heisler, Stuart

Gary Cooper - The Signature Collection (Sergeant York / The Fountainhead / Dallas / Springfield Rifle / The Wreck of the Mary Deare)

Springfield Rifle, one of five films included in this set, may miss the bullseye as a true Gary Cooper classic, but there's a line that speaks to his enduring status as a screen icon and "American Legend." In this 1952 Western, his follow-up film to High Noon, Cooper's character has been drummed out of the army and branded a coward. Suffice to say that all is not what it seems, and an observer is asked how Coop will handle the pressure. The response: "He'll stand up." That is quintessential Cooper. He's a stand-up guy, and the "dang swangest hero," as he is hailed in Sergeant York, this collection's calling card. Directed by Howard Hawks and co-written by John Huston, Sergeant York earned Cooper an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Alvin York, a Tennessee mountain hellraiser who finds religion after surviving a lightning strike. His newfound pacifist beliefs are put to the supreme test when he is forced to enlist in WWI. Cooper also displays the (Frank Lloyd) Wright stuff as architect Harold Roark in The Fountainhead (1949), adapted for the screen by Ayn Rand from her towering and controversial bestselling novel about a "fool visionary" who refuses to compromise his principles or conform his work to popular taste. The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959), his penultimate film, finds Cooper desperately trying to clear his name before an inquiry determines what really happened aboard the mysteriously abandoned eponymous ship. Costar Charlton Heston gives him a run for Most Piercing Blue Eyes honors. Last, and least, but still entertaining, is Dallas (1950), in which Cooper stars as a Confederate outlaw who impersonates a sheriff to settle an old score. Cooper is not the most chameleon-esque of actors, but in these representative films, he displays intriguing shadings to his heroic persona. Roark in The Fountainhead has a definite dark side, while his "Reb" Hollister in Dallas is something of a rascal.

Of the DVD presentations, Sergeant York gets the two-disc "Special Edition" treatment, with dry, but informative commentary by film historian Jeanne Basinger, a made-for-cable TV special about Cooper hosted by Clint Eastwood, and a welcome Warner Bros. cartoon, Tex Avery's "Porky's Preview" and short subject, "Lions for Sale," that replicate an old fashioned night out at the movies. The Fountainhead DVD includes a featurette about the making of the film. Cooper stands alone among Hollywood's leading men, but beyond his formidable presence, classic film buffs will bask in the nostalgic pleasures of Max Steiner's music in four of the five films, and appearances by great character actors (Walter Brennan and George Tobias in Sergeant York, a young Richard Harris in Mary Deare). --Donald Liebenson

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 11/11/2008

Birth Of The Blues/Blue Skies - Double Feature

It's a flimsy excuse to romp through more than two dozen Irving Berlin songs, but Blue Skies is good fun nonetheless (and one of the top-grossing films of 1946). Bing Crosby is a restless nightclub entrepreneur, Fred Astaire his Broadway buddy, Joan Caulfield the woman they both want. Ignore the plot and enjoy the numbers, especially Astaire's marvelous "Puttin' on the Ritz," which is breathtaking even before multiple images of Fred are introduced dancing in a row (who needs CGI, anyway?). Bing and Fred flash great showbiz chutzpah in "A Couple of Song and Dance Men," which wonderfully captures the appeal of both stars: Fred's heavenly precision, and Bing's "can-you-believe-they're-payin'-me-for-this?" sense of play.

Bing Crosby founds the first white Dixieland band in Birth of the Blues, a tuneful turn-of-the-century tale--if highly suspect as musical history. Borrowing hot licks from black musicians (Eddie "Rochester" Anderson comments, "Our music sure has gone highbrow"), Bing and his players struggle to invade the straight-laced clubs, succeeding only after songbird Mary Martin joins the band. Martin, in one of her infrequent movie appearances, has fun with Der Bingle jazzing up "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie," a highlight of this breezily enjoyable nonsense. --Robert Horton

Along Came Jones

Along Came Jones is one of the most oddball artifacts from Hollywood's golden age. Gary Cooper (who doubled as producer) plays Melody Jones, a "common ordinary useless bronc-stomper" who moseys into the town of Payneville--or is it Painful?--just after legendary bad ass Monte Jarrad has held up the stagecoach. The townsfolk eyeball the "MJ" on Melody's stirrup, leap to hysterically wrong conclusions, and start giving him a wide berth--in some cases, the better to lie in ambush for "Jarrad" while planning how to spend the bounty money. Now, as it happens--and as his crusty sidekick George (the insuperably irreverent William Demarest) keeps reminding him--Melody can barely get his gun out of the holster without blowing his own kneecap off. All that stands between him and extinction is the quick-thinking intervention of a local maiden, one Cherry de Longpre (Loretta Young). Melody, of course, promptly becomes hogtied with love, not suspecting Cherry's the childhood sweetheart of the real Monte Jarrad (Dan Duryea)....

Stylistically the film is a wild mix, with director Stuart Heisler paying close attention to down-the-gun-barrel point of view in several scenes, yet also sitting still for floaty back-projection photography so egregious that it may bring on motion sickness. Still, Nunnally Johnson's script is droll; Cooper clearly relished the chance to poke fun at his strong-silent stereotype; and he and Preston Sturges stalwart Demarest establish a sardonic comic rapport. --Richard T. Jameson

Riding into payneville easy-going cowboy melody jones is mistaken by the townsfolk for notorious gunman monte jarrad.. Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 05/13/2008 Starring: Gary Cooper William Demarest Run time: 90 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Stuart Heisler

Tokyo Joe

It's hard to imagine nowadays that someone so innately bitter and cynical as Humphrey Bogart could be a major movie star--but he was, and the movies were richer for it. In Tokyo Joe, Bogart plays an Air Force colonel who returns to Tokyo after World War II to reclaim a nightclub he'd had to abandon. When he discovers that his former lover, a Russian refugee, is still alive and now married, he sets out to win her back--but in the process gets drawn into a fraudulent air freight scheme that may endanger the stability of post-war Japan, as well as a child he never knew he had. Tokyo Joe isn't a classic, but when the camera catches the lightning in Bogart's eyes or his calm voice twists into a snarl, it's a powerful jolt. His dark persona makes his virtuous acts all the more compelling. --Bret Fetzer

Beachhead

Oscar® nominee* Tony Curtis "blends hard-hitting toughness with humor" (Los Angeles Times) as a Marine who must battle Japanese soldiers private demons and fellow Marines in this "gripping" (Variety) World War II saga. "Bristling with suspense and rugged action" (The Hollywood Reporter) Beachhead is a classic war drama that delivers plenty of "emotion-stirring heroics" (Boxoffice).Four Marines embark on a hazardous island mission to verify reports about a secret Japanese minefield. The intelligence comes from a French planter who may or may not be an Allied spy and his beautiful daughter. If their story is true can the Marines outgun their enemies make it through the treacherous jungle and rendezvous with American forces in time to prevent disaster?*1958: Best Supporting Actor The Defiant OnesSystem Requirements:Running Time 90 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: NR UPC: 027616921680 Manufacturer No: 1008130

The Star

As Margaret Bette Davis got yet another good picture and earned her ninth Academy Award nomination. Davis's confident perceptive performance lends absolute authenticity as did a prop she provided. An Oscar stautette set noticeably on the car dashboard during Margaret's drunken spin through Beverly Hills was one of two Davis owned. Sterling Hayden and Natalie Wood co-star in this gripping story that has many moments of truth (Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide). The Star shines.Running Time: 90 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569683679

"Come on, Oscar--let's you and me get drunk." This caustic Bette Davis line is not aimed at a co-star but at the Academy Award itself, which down-on-her-luck actress Margaret Elliot cradles bitterly at the beginning of an inebriated evening. As you can guess, Davis is at full-throttle in his ripe melodrama, which came a couple of years after All About Eve and serves as a kind of less-classy companion piece to that classic. As the movie begins, Margaret has lost her career and family because of her own demanding nature. Rescued by a roughhewn boatbuilder (Sterling Hayden) she once befriended, she confronts what's most important--being a star, or being a (ahem) woman.

The rickety script and cut-rate production values betray The Star as a product of Davis's post-Warners wanderings. It does have some sunny location shots of San Pedro, plus a young Natalie Wood before she broke out of child-star roles. But the biggest draw, other than Davis, is the Hollywood behind-the-scenes juice, and the guessing game of how close the material was to Davis's own career (rumor has it the character, who wants to glamorize herself for a supporting part as a slatternly housemaid, was based more on Joan Crawford). It ain't art, but it's an artifact of a different era, skipping between backstage expose and camp. --Robert Horton

Smash-Up

Tulsa

Smash Up: Story Of A Woman

A nightclub singer, beset by emotional problems, seeks refuge in alcohol which drive away her husband and child. With the help of her husband, she overcomes her addiction. One of Hayward's best performances. This was her breakthrough role after a decade in Hollywood, and it deservedly earned her her first Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress.

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The Hurricane

The great John Ford directed this rousing 1937 adventure with such invigorating physicality that the movie is never compromised by its cornball plot. It's an island adventure from the old school of tall tales, and the title says it all--the tropical romance between native girl Dorothy Lamour and suntanned hunk Jon Hall is established simply so it can be tested by a meddlesome island governor (Raymond Massey) and a tropical storm that provides one of the most physically impressive climaxes ever filmed. The storm remains as awesome as ever simply because it triumphantly captures the power of nature in the throes of a raging tempest. Massive waves, driving wind, and expert use of miniatures make The Hurricane a marvel of late-1930s special effects, but the sheer spectacle is more than matched by Ford's efficient economy of story. The romance is lush and primitive, in keeping with the sun-drenched setting on the fictional island of Manikoora, and as Hall's heroic character must endure wrongful imprisonment and the rigors of escape, Ford maintains a constant atmosphere of foreboding. The director's masterful use of sound and picture is best captured in the lonely peal of a church bell--it's both a reaffirming sign of life and, when the bell finally goes silent, a dreaded signal that the hurricane has taken its ultimate toll. --Jeff Shannon