Rossen, Robert

The Hustler (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

Newman stars as an arrogant hustler determined to beat Minnesota Fats at his own game, no matter what the cost.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: NR
Release Date: 12-JUN-2007
Media Type: DVD

Paul Newman shines as cocky poolroom hustler "Fast" Eddie Felson in Robert Rossen's atmospheric adaptation of the Walter Tevis novel. Newman's Felson is a swaggering pool shark punk who takes on the king of the poolroom, Minnesota Fats (a cool, assured Jackie Gleason in his most understated performance). After losing big and crashing into a void of self-pity, Eddie meets down-and-out Sarah (Piper Laurie in a delicate performance), an alcoholic blue blood who's dropped into Eddie's world of dingy bars and seedy poolrooms. Eddie regains his confidence and attracts the attention of a shifty, calculating promoter, Bert Gordon (George C. Scott at his most heartless), who offers to bring Eddie into the big money--but at what cost? Rossen brings his film to life with the easy pace of a pool game, giving his actors room to explore their characters and develop into a razor-sharp ensemble. Eugen Schüfftan earned an Academy Award for his shadowing black-and-white cinematography, as did art directors Harry Horner and Gene Callahan for their deceivingly simple set designs. Even in the daylight this film seems to be smothered by night, lit by the dim glow of a bar lamp or the overhead glare of a pool-table light, an appropriate environment for this tale of one man's struggle with his soul and his self-esteem. Newman returned as an older, wiser, cagier Felson 25 years later in Martin Scorsese's Color of Money. --Sean Axmaker

Alexander the Great

Richard Burton Fredric March Claire Bloom and a castof thousands bring history to life with this spectacular (The New York Times ) and unusually beautiful movie (New York Herald Tribune ) about the legendary conqueror.SPECIAL FEATURE:Original Theatrical TrailerSystem Requirements: Running Time 136 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 027616911995 Manufacturer No: 1007058

Richard Burton stars in Alexander the Great, a middling entry in the 1950s CinemaScope epic cycle. The film boasts excellent production values and a fine cast--including Frederic March, Claire Bloom, Harry Andrews, Stanley Baker, Peter Cushing, Michael Hordern--but rarely comes to life other than as a big fat ancient Greek wedding of the talents of Burton and Bloom. They strike real dramatic sparks together, so much so they would be reunited in Look Back in Anger (1958) and The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965). Otherwise the blame must be laid at the feet of writer-director-producer Robert Rossen, who never before or after helmed anything remotely on this scale; his best work would follow with the intimate The Hustler (1961). Rossen simply shows little sensibility for the epic, staging lavish but brief and rather pedestrian battles, and somehow drawing from the usually mesmerizing Burton a performance lacking the charisma essential to a great military commander. Burton fans can enjoy him at his epic best as Marc Anthony in Cleopatra (1963). --Gary S. Dalkin

The Films of Paul Newman (The Verdict/The Hustler/Butch Cassidy)

No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 11-MAY-2004
Media Type: DVD

All the King's Men

Writer-director Robert Rossen and character actors Broderick Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge (in her film debut) took home Oscars (for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actress, respectively) for this excellent adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Crawford stars as Willie Stark, a charismatic populist Southern politician (inspired by the real Louisiana Governor Huey Long) who belies his "man of the people" roots as he ruthlessly maneuvers, lies, and deals his way into the halls of power. John Ireland is his right-hand man, Jack Burden, a newsman turned political flack who hangs on to Stark's early idealism even in the face of Stark's most reprehensible acts of corruption. McCambridge is Stark's cool mistress come calculating assistant. The immediacy of the drama is due in part to a documentary-like style, notably in the scenes on the campaign trail where Stark sways crowds with his folksy rhetoric and estimable charm. Joanne Dru and John Derek also costar. Rossen's savage screenplay and firm direction give the film a powerful punch, but it's Crawford's blustery charm and oversized performance that carry the picture. --Sean Axmaker

The Hustler

Paul Newman shines as cocky poolroom hustler "Fast" Eddie Felson in Robert Rossen's atmospheric adaptation of the Walter Tevis novel. Newman's Felson is a swaggering pool shark punk who takes on the king of the poolroom, Minnesota Fats (a cool, assured Jackie Gleason in his most understated performance). After losing big and crashing into a void of self-pity, Eddie meets down-and-out Sarah (Piper Laurie in a delicate performance), an alcoholic blue blood who's dropped into Eddie's world of dingy bars and seedy poolrooms. Eddie regains his confidence and attracts the attention of a shifty, calculating promoter, Bert Gordon (George C. Scott at his most heartless), who offers to bring Eddie into the big money--but at what cost? Rossen brings his film to life with the easy pace of a pool game, giving his actors room to explore their characters and develop into a razor-sharp ensemble. Eugen Schüfftan earned an Academy Award for his shadowing black-and-white cinematography, as did art directors Harry Horner and Gene Callahan for their deceivingly simple set designs. Even in the daylight this film seems to be smothered by night, lit by the dim glow of a bar lamp or the overhead glare of a pool-table light, an appropriate environment for this tale of one man's struggle with his soul and his self-esteem. Newman returned as an older, wiser, cagier Felson 25 years later in Martin Scorsese's Color of Money. --Sean Axmaker

Paul Newman heads a superb cast featuring Jackie Gleason, George C. Scott and Piper Laurie in the riveting film that received an Academy AwardÂ(r) nomination as Best Picture of 1961 and brought all four of its OscarÂ(r) nomination. Newman (Best Actor nom

Island in the Sun

This race-relations film from 1957, based on a novel by Alec Waugh and set on a West Indies island, stars James Mason as a wealthy man who runs against a local union leader (Harry Belafonte). The rest of the players, one way or another, deal with the consequences of their rivalry. Mason and Belafonte leave a strong impression, but the film overall doesn't live up to its own sense of significance. Joan Collins is good as Mason's sister, who worries that the contest will cost her an engagement to the governor's son. --Tom Keogh

Four different love affairs simultaneously wreak havoc in the lives of the inhabitants of a tropical paradise. A wealthy plantation owner plots murder when he suspects his wife of having an adulterous relationship. At the same time, his sister-in-law is drawn to his enemy, a dedicated black labor leader, and a governor's aide is torn over his scandalous affair with a native woman. Darling and exquisitely filmed on location, this rich romantic story with it's focus on race, passion and politics, was one of the most talked about films of its day.

Body and Soul

They Came to Cordura

Called "an impressive and important film" by Variety THEY CAME TO CORDURA was hailed by critics as "the most disturbing war picture since The Bridge on the River Kwai." A Timeless story of courage and cowardice set against the backdrop of the 1916 war against Pancho Villa. The film stars Gary Cooper as Thomas Thorn a career Army officer given the humiliating task of leading five Medal of Honor candidates to the military base of Cordura Texas. Branded a coward during the battle Thorn hopes to learn what these men each of whom performed heroically under fire possess which he lacks. But as the grueling journey through the desert progresses the "heroes" panic attempting murder mutiny and rape as the quest for survival reveals their true characters. Rita Hayworth in a dramatic departure from her glamour-girl roles co-stars as the seventh member of the group an American expatriate accused of aiding the Mexicans. At first contemptuous of Thorn she gradually comes to appreciate his quiet integrity as he leads his mutinous charges through a desperate action-packed odyssey. Filled with both exciting battle scenes and finely-tuned drama their treacherous trek to the town of Cordura (which is also the Spanish word for courage) is a rugged and riveting tale of bravery far more enduring than the fleeting heroics of battle.System Requirements: Running Time 123 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 043396078765 Manufacturer No: 07876

Gary Cooper's forte--the searching, lone figure beleaguered by conflicts over conscience, truth, and ethics--followed him all the way to the ambitious They Came to Cordura, his third-to-last feature. Cooper plays Thomas Thorn, a career officer in America's fading horse Army of the early 20th century. Thorn's alleged cowardice in battle has been papered over by superiors: He is to identify acts of bravery during an attack on Pancho Villa's troops and lead those designated heroes to a Medal of Honor ceremony in Cordura, Texas. Though Thorn tries to extract the secret behind courage from each man, he discovers a battle-hardened, bestial side to them as well. The Cordura journey becomes fraught with mutiny and near-assaults on a Yankee expatriate (Rita Hayworth). Thorn, reputation aside, redefines courage on his own terms. This widescreen drama (the DVD offers full-screen format as well) is suspenseful, morally complex, and visually rich, but Cooper's performance carries the day. --Tom Keogh

Lilith

Warren Beatty and Jean Seberg co-star in this haunting drama about the obsessive love between a therapist and his patient. Vincent (Beatty) a war veteran returns to his bleak Maryland hometown and takes a job as an occupational therapist at Poplar Lodge a private mental institution for the wealthy. There Vincent meets a young schizophrenic Lilith (Seberg) an enchanting patient whose fragile beauty bewitches all those with whom she comes in contact -- especially Stephen (Peter Fonda) a troubled young man. As Vincent is drawn even deeper into her private world he too becomes captivated by Lilith and will lie betray and even destroy to keep her. Soon Vincent himself can no longer determine which of the two world -- his or Lilith's -- is the sane one.System Requirements:Run Time: 114 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 043396048003 Manufacturer No: 04800

Few actresses are adored by the camera as much as Jean Seberg is in the brooding, 1964 psychodrama Lilith. The legendary American and European star (Godard's Breathless), playing Lilith Arthur, fixes one's attention on her every nuance in Robert Rossen's tale of a beautiful, sexual omnivore and psychotic patient at a New England mental hospital. Withdrawn into her small world of dolls and fantasies, Lilith responds to the attention of a laconic, Korean War veteran, Vincent Bruce (Warren Beatty), who is trying to find himself by working as an occupational therapist. Burdened by a murky, guilt-ridden past (involving his mentally ill mother), Vincent gradually falls into an unnervingly passionate affair with Lilith--much less a romance than a shared journey toward mutual implosion. Rossen's severe, sincere, stark black-and-white drama is sometimes lost in a muddle of undefined character motivations, but it's quite a ride toward the film's last-minute epiphany. Watch for Gene Hackman in a small role. --Tom Keogh

Prizefighter: DVD Collector's Pack ('Body and Soul' & 'Champion')