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The World of Suzie Wong

A prim young Chinese woman on the Kowloon ferry accuses a middle-aged American of stealing her purse--thus begins a culture-clash romance. Seeking to escape his stifled life, Robert (William Holden, Stalag 17, Sunset Boulevard) has come to Hong Kong to become an artist. He rediscovers the girl from the ferry and learns she is not what she seemed; she's a prostitute named Suzie Wong (Nancy Kwan, Flower Drum Song). Though Robert resists her charms, she becomes his model, and their relationship grows surprisingly complex. While The World of Suzie Wong can be patronizing and has some dubious interpretations of Chinese manners and mores, it's also sophisticated (in a censored sort of way) about love, sex, and social pressure. A viewer may scoff at the child-like hookers, yet find the movie accumulates an unexpected emotional force, particularly through its exploration of how the characters maintain their illusions. --Bret Fetzer

Bell, Book and Candle

Staid, secure publisher James Stewart leads a quiet life until he meets his bewitching downstairs neighbor, Kim Novak. John Van Druten's lighthearted Broadway comedy becomes a lush if lightweight romantic vehicle for Stewart and Novak, who would reunite for Hitchcock's Vertigo the next year. Novak is at her best as a Greenwich witch halfway between the worlds of magic and mortals, looking after her dotty aunt (Elsa Lanchester) and mischievous warlock brother (Jack Lemmon) as they keep their skills in practice. Novak's specialty is making men fall for her, but it's a one-way street: when a witch falls in love, she loses her powers. Director Richard Quine gives the witches an almost beatnik sensibility, a real Greenwich Village subculture hanging out in underground clubs and smart curio shops. Elegantly photographed in rich, glowing colors by James Wong Howe, Bell, Book and Candle is a fantasy world in New York set to a funky bongo-laced jazz score by George Duning. Quine's gliding camera is somewhat marred by abrupt editing, but his handling of actors is superb, in particular Novak, whose mysterious beauty masks inner turmoil and romantic yearnings. Ernie Kovacs appears as a wry author whose specialty is the supernatural, and Hermione Gingold is suitably florid as a witch elder with a penchant for theatricality. For once in his life Stewart is actually upstaged by the slyly comic performances around him. --Sean Axmaker

Paris When It Sizzles

Paris When It Sizzles is an unusual screwball comedy to say the least. Whether it works is another matter, but the premise and humor are interesting enough to make it enjoyable. The basic problem with the film is its two stars: William Holden and Audrey Hepburn hardly sizzle with onscreen chemistry, and Hepburn's character, Miss Simpson, falls far too easily into the hands of Holden's drunken screen writer. However, the story is an interesting play on the typical Hollywood romance, with two plotlines running in parallel to each other. Holden's Richard Benson has only two days to finish a script for an enigmatic producer (Noel Coward). Hepburn's Miss Simpson is drafted in as the typist and as the script is dictated it manifests itself on the screen, allowing the two lead characters to play out any number of romantic stories. It's the cameo appearances in the imaginary world that really steal the show, with the blink-and-you'll-miss-it last screen appearance by Marlene Dietrich, as well as Tony Curtis having fun with his own screen persona. Not one of Hepburn or Holden's best, but worth a look purely for the interesting slant on the mechanical nature of Hollywood's romances. --Nikki Disney

How to Murder Your Wife

"Being married is the normal way to live... isn't it?" The note of doubt at the end of that statement is fully exploited in How to Murder Your Wife (1965), a barbed piece of war-between-the-sexes comedy. Cartoonist Jack Lemmon, an exponent of the Playboy philosophy, lives in the ultimate swinging bachelor townhouse ("Everything masculine and perfect," manservant Terry-Thomas says approvingly) until a drunken evening leads to marriage with an Italian bombshell (Virna Lisi). What to do? The whole movie seems to exist in order to arrive at Lemmon's clever courtroom oration in the final half-hour, which is tartly funny if datedly misogynistic: he unleashes a male fantasy of trashing the gray-flannel suit and late-model station wagon for Hefneresque freedom. The wheel-spinning of the early reels is curious coming from screenwriter George Axelrod, usually a reliable satirist. He had better hours than this, notably in Breakfast at Tiffany's and Lord Love a Duck. --Robert Horton

He had what every man wanted then she came along! Legendary funnyman Jack Lemmon stars in this hilarious farce of almost unremitting fun (The Hollywood Reporter) with the breathtakingly beautiful (L. A. Herald Examiner) Virna Lisi.Bachelorhood is bliss for cartoonist Stanley Ford (Lemmon) complete with an English butler (Terry-Thomas) delectable dames and extra-dry martinis. But when he attends a bachelor party and meets an Italian beauty (Lisi) who pops out of a cake his fate is sealed. The next morning he discovers he s married to her even though she can barely speak English and now the consummate bachelor will go to any lengths to untie the knot!System Requirements: Running Time 119 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 027616880178 Manufacturer No: 1003899

It Happened to Jane

Doris Day was nearing her popular zenith, and Jack Lemmon just hitting his stride, when they teamed up for It Happened to Jane, a small-town comedy in the Capra vein. Doris is a widowed mom whose Maine lobster business is snarled by railroad tycoon Ernie Kovacs (hiding behind a skullcap and a huge cigar), the "meanest man in America." Her lawsuit against him, aided by lawyer-suitor Lemmon, gains national headlines. This is a curious movie: crucial scenes seem to have been left unwritten, while sequences involving Cub Scouts and an oddly impassioned Town Hall Meeting go on endlessly. Director Richard Quine was making some fun movies around this time (Bell, Book, and Candle), but the fizz is only intermittent here, mostly provided by Lemmon's jack-in-the-box youthfulness. Doris sings a couple of tunes and brings her downhome tomboy routine to New York City, where the movie employs some of the quaint TV personalities of the day. --Robert Horton

In this classic romantic comedy Jane Osgood (Doris Day) a single mom with two children is in the live lobster business. But when her first big order for the Marshall Town Country Club turns up dead through no fault of her own it kills her chances for a successful season. Discovering budget cuts at the railroad are to blame she turns to George Denham (Jack Lemmon) her longtime admirer and an attorney to seek compensation from the railroad s tyrannical owner Harry Foster Malone (Ernie Kovacs). Jane wins in her local courthouse but Malone agrees to pay only for the lobsters not damages. She refuses his offer on principle and the battle is on. The press has a field day with this modern-day David and Goliath story. And the whole country turns to Cape Anne Maine to watch as one woman stands up to "the meanest man in the world." It could happen to anyone but IT HAPPENED TO JANE.System Requirements:Running Time: 97 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 043396075450 Manufacturer No: 07545

Crime Story - Season Two

When the first season of Crime Story ended spectacularly in the Nevada desert, it was anyone's guess what season 2 would do for an encore. With low first-season ratings and conservative watchdogs complaining about its violence, the show received a surprise renewal that necessitated the "miraculous" return of mob-boss Ray Luca (Anthony Denison) and his dimwit sidekick Pauli Taglia (played by former Chicago burglar John Santucci). Moving from 10:00 p.m. Fridays to a new 10:00 p.m. Tuesday-night timeslot on NBC, the Michael Mann-produced series continued its ratings decline, and this lent the series a giddy, go-for-broke quality that held plenty of surprises. The year is 1966, and Chicago Police Lt. Mike Torello (Dennis Farina) and his close-knit Major Crimes Unit continues to track Luca's criminal activities in Las Vegas, where additional complications fueled a number of dynamic, stand-alone episodes, beginning with season opener "The Senator, the Movie Star and the Mob," guest-starring Kevin Spacey (in his first major TV role) and Jenny Wright (Near Dark) in a sordid, mob-connected plot with obvious parallels to Bobby Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. This established the neon-lit, casino-and-nightclub milieu of the season, and Luca's reappearance set the season in volatile motion.

The series' daring, pulp-fictional style attracted an impressive array of guests stars and newcomers, some of whom (like 24's Dennis Haysbert) would later appear in Michael Mann's films. Ted Levine (The Silence of the Lambs) reprises his role as burglar-turned-rocker Frank Holman; Margaret Avery (The Color Purple) and NYPD Blue's James McDaniel are superb in the racial-tension plot of "Seize the Time"; Laura San Giacomo (sex, lies, and videotape) aces her role as Luca's former flame in "Protected Witness"; and Elias Koteas delivers a fine performance in "Roadrunner," an exciting road-thriller episode that showcases Farina's skill with hardboiled comedy. (For the record, other noteworthy guest stars include Pam Grier, David Hyde Pierce, Billy Zane, David Soul, Steven Weber, Michael Jeter, and recurring performances by Andrew Dice Clay and Rolling Stone editor Jann S. Wenner.) "Pauli Taglia's Dream" is an outrageous experiment in all-out delirium, focusing on Santucci's scene-stealing character and providing a wacky lead-up to the season's climactic story arc, which leads Luca and Torello to their ultimate showdown in an unspecified Latin American country full of corruptible drug-trade politicians.

Of course, any innovative series has a few drawbacks: The violent shootouts turn somewhat redundant as the season progresses, and while Torello's gun-toting crew is brought to life by a perfect supporting cast (Bill Smitrovich, Ray Butler, Steve Ryan, and a young Bill Campbell), there was never enough time (or episodes) to properly develop their characters. The turncoat betrayal of lawyer David Abrams (superbly played by Stephen Lang) is never fully convincing (you just know he's not a bad guy), and when Crime Story's cancellation inevitably came to pass, the final-episode cliffhanger of "Going Home" (broadcast May 10, 1988) left frustrated fans with unanswered questions and nowhere else to go. It's especially regrettable, then, that this four-DVD set offers no extras whatsoever. The fact that Farina, Denison, Mann, and series cocreators Chuck Adamson and Gustave Reininger were not invited to do audio commentaries represents a missed opportunity of epic proportions. We can be grateful, however, that the series' pop-music soundtrack (chosen by the great Al Kooper, credited as "Guy Who Picks Music for the Show") remains intact and unchanged as an essential ingredient to one of the best TV shows of the 1980s. --Jeff Shannon

It was hailed for its realism, condemned for its violence and ended with a climax that shocked millions. Though it lasted only two seasons, fans and critics still consider CRIME STORY to be one of the most uncompromising and influential action dramas in television history. In this stunning final season, obsessed lawman Mike Torello and his street tough strike force pursue mob kingpin Ray Luca from the neon battleground of Las Vegas to the corrupt killing fields of Latin America. Experience the explosive closing chapters of the acclaimed crime epic that New York Newsday calls "A genuine work of art... a masterpiece in a classic genre"

Strangers When We Meet

STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET features an all-star cast including Kirk Douglas Kim Novak Ernie Kovacs Barbara Rush and Walter Matthau. Douglas stars as Larry Coe a gifted architect who unhappily married falls in love with his beautiful neighbor Maggie (Novak) whose marriage is also on the rocks. The two meet secretly while Larry is at work building a dream house for the eccentric writer and playboy Roger Altar (Kovacs). These clandestine trysts are known only to one other person their mutual friend Felix Anders (Matthau). But when Larry is offered a tremendous career opportunity in Hawaii he is suddenly torn between his home his career and his love for Maggie. And when Felix starts making passes at Larry s wife (Rush) the foundations of his entire life starts to crumble. Based on Evan Hunter s novel STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET is a film in the tradition of classics such as Peyton Place and No Down Payment. System Requirements:Running Time: 117 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 043396050389 Manufacturer No: 05038

National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1

Two trigger-happy cops try to stop the distribution of mind-rotting Wilderness Girl cookies. Starring Emilio Estevez, Kathy Ireland and Samuel L. Jackson.

My Sister Eileen

Two innocent sisters from Ohio hit Greenwich Village and must cope with wall-shaking subway construction, the neighborhood kooks, and a whopping $65 a month for an apartment. My Sister Eileen is one of those "Look out, world, we're conquering Manhattan!" movies, with Betty Garrett as a plain, would-be writer and Janet Leigh as her knockout sister, an aspiring actress who draws men like milk draws kittens. The 1955 movie's well-scrubbed Greenwich Village is a delightful fantasy playground. The city was never like this, but it probably should have been. In one of his early roles, Jack Lemmon (crooning one of the Jule Styne-Leo Robin songs quite charmingly) plays a magazine publisher, one of the many Young Men with Ideas he would play in the subsequent decade. Even more interesting is the presence of future director Bob Fosse, as a soda jerk who romances Leigh. Fosse also choreographed the film's musical numbers, and his dances include a delightful quartet at a bandstand and a sensational showdown with Tommy Rall. Fosse and Rall try to outdo each other in a male rivalry dance that will remind Fosse fans of his obsession with hats. The breezy direction is by Richard Quine, who cowrote the script with another future director, Blake Edwards. The original source material, stories by Ruth McKenney, formed the basis for a play and a nonmusical 1942 Rosalind Russell movie, also called My Sister Eileen (in which Quine played the Fosse role); there was a Broadway musical adaptation of the stories, Wonderful Town, which is not related to this film. --Robert Horton

The Sherwood sisters get off the train in Manhattan looking for fame and fortune. Eileen (Janet Leigh Academy Award® nominee 1960 Best Supporting Actress Psycho) a beautiful aspiring actress and Ruth (Betty Garrett TV s Laverne & Shirley ) a loveless would-be writer move to New York to realize their dreams. After suave magazine editor Rober Baker (Jack Lemmon 1973 Academy Award® winner Best Actor Save The Tiger; It Happened to Jane)insultingly rejects Ruth s corny romantic tragedies Ruth takes his advice to write about something she really knows? Her belle-of-the-ball sister s power over men. Ruth s secret jealousy of Eileen leads to a web of lies that only an international incident with the Brazilian Navy and a jail-bound conga line can untangle. The optimistic humor of Blake Edwards screenplay and the lively fun of Robert Fosse s choreography make for full-scale enjoyment in this charming big time or bust success story.System Requirements:Running Time: 107 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS Rating: NR UPC: 043396073272 Manufacturer No: 7327

Law & Order - Special Victims Unit - The Premiere Episode

Originally called Sex Crimes, executive producer Dick Wolf wisely opted for something less lurid when the second in the inexhaustible Law & Order franchise hit the air in 1999. Still, as the opening voiceover makes clear, the "sexually based offenses" investigated by New York's Special Victims Unit can be "especially heinous." Wolf penned series premier "Payback," which sets the scene, but not the tone. It's a lively, if uneasy mix between horror (rape) and comedy (risqué banter). As the first season progressed, humor would be written out altogether (leaving Richard Belzer's Homicide-derived John Munch with increasingly less to do), and less emphasis would be placed on the home lives of this "elite squad of dedicated detectives." Mostly, "Payback" introduces us to the unit, centering around partners Olivia Benton (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni). For two people with so little in common, they make a terrific team--arguably one of TV's best. Stabler is married with four children; Benton is single and her closest relationship is with her mother (Elizabeth Ashley). While Stabler can get a little rough with suspects, Benton tends to over-empathize with the victims. They report to the no-nonsense Captain Cragen (Law & Order vet Dann Florek). Like the parent program's Lenny Briscoe, he's a recovering alcoholic. Dean Winters and Michelle Hurd round out the rock-solid cast. --Kathleen C. Fennessy