Tourneur, Jacques

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 2

Episodes: "Time Enough at Last" (Ep. 8, November 20, 1959) - A bookworm (Burgess Meredith) yearns for more time to read--then a nuclear holocaust leaves him alone in the world with lots of time, plenty to read, and one ironic twist! "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" (Ep. 22, March 4, 1960) - Inexplicable events cause the residents of quiet Maple Street to erupt into rioting. The residents suspect an alien invasion has occurred. If so, where are the alien monsters? "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (Ep. 123, October 11, 1963) - A salesman (William Shatner) recovering from a nervous breakdown spots a gremlin on the wing of his plane. When he attempts to alert the others, his nightmare truly begins! "The Odyssey of Flight 33" (Ep. 54, February 24, 1961) - Flight 33 picks up a peculiar tailwind and is blown off course. After apparently correcting the problem, the flight arrives at its destination--a billion years ahead of schedule!

Out of the Past

"Build my gallows high, baby"--just one of the quintessentially noir sentiments expressed by Robert Mitchum in this classic of the genre. Mitchum, in absolute prime, sleepy-eyed form, relates a complicated flashback about getting hired by gangster Kirk Douglas to find femme fatale Jane Greer. The chain of film noir elements--love, money, lies--drags Mitchum into the lower depths. Director Jacques Tourneur gets the edgy negotiations between men and women as exactly right as he gets the inky shadows of the noir landscape (even the sunlit exteriors are fraught with doubt). This is Mitchum in excelsis, with his usual laid-back cool laced with great dialogue and tragic foreshadowing. As for his co-star, James Agee immortally opined that Jane Greer "can best be described, in an ancient idiom, as a hot number." Remade in 1984, unhappily, as Against All Odds (with Greer in a supporting role). --Robert Horton

Former private detective Jeff Bailey is trying to live a quiet life but his past comes back to haunt him. He was once hired by a gambler to find his runaway girlfriend Kathy. Jeff traced her to Mexico and fell in love. She lured him into double-crossing the gambler but it was really Jeff who got double-crossed. Years later Jeff's quiet life is once again shattered as his old criminal associates descend on him. Now he's in deep trouble - someone is trying to frame him for murder.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 053939675924

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 1

Episodes: "Night of the Meek" (Ep. 47, December 23, 1960) - Christmas in the Twilight Zone. Art Carney is a forlorn department store Santa who takes to drinking--only to find himself experiencing the nicest Christmas ever! "The Invaders" (Ep. 51, January 27, 1961) - A flying saucer lands in the attic of an isolated house inhabited by an impoverished woman--who soon becomes panic-stricken as tiny spacemen begin to stalk her! "Nothing in the Dark" (Ep. 81, January 5, 1962) - An old woman has fought with death a thousand times and has always won. But now she finds herself afraid to let a wounded policeman (Robert Redford) in her door for fear he is Mr. Death. Is he?

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 3

Episodes: "Steel" (Ep. 122, October 4, 1963) - In the future, only androids are allowed to box. Desperate to raise money, penniless manager Steel Kelly (Lee Marvin) must fight disguised as his own broken-down robot. "A Game of Pool" (Ep. 70, October 13, 1961) - Jesse (Jack Klugman) is a brilliant pool player whose dream of a showdown with the legendary (and dead) Fats Brown (Jonathan Winters) comes true. The stakes: his life. "Walking Distance" (Ep. 5, October 30, 1959) - Martin Sloan (Gig Young) is a frazzled executive who learns that you can't go home again after he steps back in time and meets his mom, his dad--and himself! "Kick the Can" (Ep. 86, February 9, 1962) - Has an old man at Sunnyvale Rest Home discovered a secret to regaining youth? After playing a simple child's game, he and the other residents are rewarded with rejuvenating powers!

The Film Crew: The Giant of Marathon

GIANT OF MARATHON is a B-movie from 1960 about a muscular Greek hero who battles the invading Persian army. Here the Film Crew team--Mike Nelson Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett--offer some wry commentary as the film plays. Genre: COMEDY UPC: 826663103786 Manufacturer No: SF10378

Madame Curie

Perennial co-stars Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon followed their triumph in the Oscar-winning Mrs. Miniver with this memorable biographical classic. Garson portrays the young Polish physics student Marie who soon falls in love with and marries Dr. Pierre Curie (Walter Pidgeon) in whose lab she had worked. On their honeymoon they decide to investigate a strange effect Professor Becquerel (Reginald Owen) has noticed with the uranium/thorium stones for Marie's dissertation and they determine there must be additional radioactive elements causing it. After years of experimentation in a makeshift lab at the University they are finally able to isolate a few grains of a new element radium from 7 tons of raw material. Unfortunately at the height of their success tragedy strikes. The grand success of Madame Curie continued Garson's winning streak as one of the biggest box-office stars of the decade.Running Time: 124 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569795259 Manufacturer No: 79525

Based on the book by Ève Curie, Madame Curie is a tender tribute to the two-time Nobel Prize winner (and first female recipient). Narrated by screenwriter James Hilton (Mrs. Miniver), the biopic begins in the 1890s while Marie Sklodowska (Oscar winner Greer Garson, Mrs. Miniver) is enrolled at the Sorbonne. She's a poor Polish exchange student with a passion for physics and chemistry. When he finds out about her precarious financial situation, a professor recommends her for a position with the "nervous and impatient" Dr. Pierre Curie (Walter Pidgeon, Garson's Miniver co-star) and his assistant David (Robert Walker, Strangers on a Train). Curie believes that "women and science are incompatible." Marie, who will graduate at the top of her class, quickly proves him wrong. Just as quickly, he falls in love with her and introduces her to his parents (Henry Travers and Dame May Whitty). An engagement leads to a wedding, which leads to a partnership, which leads to the discovery of radium. Tragedy will eventually divide the couple, but Marie refuses to let their work die. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy (Little Women), Madame Curie may be heavier on the romance than the science, but charm is in abundant supply. With her regal bearing and breathy British accent, Garson isn't the most obvious choice for the famed physicist, but she effectively conveys the "stubborn, eager" woman's fervor for her field—-and for her husband. Margaret O'Brien (Meet Me in St. Louis) co-stars as future Nobel laureate Irene Curie. -- Kathleen C. Fennessy

Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon

After establishing his signature style with such moody classics as Cat People and I Walked with a Zombie, Jacques Tourneur returned to peak form with the first-rate supernatural thriller Curse of the Demon. It's a horror-noir set in England, adapted from the M.R. James story "Casting the Runes" and built around the ominous notion that black arts--particularly the use of ancient runic symbols--can summon a deadly beast from hell. Dana Andrews is the stubborn American skeptic, determined to debunk a genteel occultist (Niall MacGinnis) whose evil powers are ultimately incontestable. The briefly seen demon may be cheesy by latter-day standards, but its nightmarish appearance--and Tourneur's masterful use of subtle suggestion, threatening atmosphere, and eerie special effects--make Curse of the Demon one of the best horror films of the 1950s. This splendid DVD offers the longer British version Night of the Demon for film-buff comparison; it's essentially the same film with a few extended scenes. Both are highly recommended. --Jeff Shannon

War Gods of the Deep/At the Earth's Core

War-Gods of the DeepAn unusual science fiction adventure set not in the future but in the past. It is 1903 and just off the Cornish coast lives an undersea kingdom of humanlike creatures who never age. The ruler of this strange society sees a woman on land who looks like the reincarnation of the ruler's deceased wife. This sets off a chain of events that eventually bring the human world into battle against this underwater community of the past. Memorable for its creative sets and creepy gill man warriors this drive-in classic is based on a line from an Edgar Allen Poe work and is sprinkled with references to Poe throughout. Tab Hunter wearing gigantic scuba gear similar to a robot costume and Vincent Price star.At the Earth's CoreA Victorian scientist leads an expedition to the center of the Earth and there they find an incredible world populated by subhuman warriors and prehistoric monsters. Great special effects add to the adventure.System Requirements:Running Time: 175 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: PG UPC: 027616920591 Manufacturer No: 1008025

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 4

Episodes: "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" (Ep. 55, March 3, 1959) - A timid salesman (Burgess Meredith) is given super strength by a Martian experimenter. He eventually returns to normal--briefly. For the experiments have just begun! "Two" (Ep. 66, September 15, 1961) - Two lone survivors (Elizabeth Montgomery, Charles Bronson) of a nuclear holocaust must start the world anew--a difficult prospect since they are from opposing sides in the war! "A Passage for Trumpet" (Ep. 32, May 20, 1960) - After committing suicide, an unsuccessful trumpet player (Jack Klugman) is given a second chance at life. But first he must learn what it means to be dead in a world full of life. "The Four of Us are Dying" (Ep. 13, January 1, 1960) - Gifted with the ability to change his face, Arch Hammer devises a plan to elevate himself. The plan works perfectly until he's caught with the wrong face at the wrong time!

I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher

Literary classics become screen horror classics when given the Lewton touch. Take the gothic romance of Jane Eyre reset it in the West Indies add the direction of Jacques Tourneur (Cat People) and the overriding terror of the living dead and you have I Walked with a Zombie. Frances Dee plays the nurse who witnesses the strange power of voodoo. Boris Karloff plays the title role in the Lewton adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Body Snatcher directed with subtle calculation by versatile Robert Wise. A doctor (Henry Daniell) needs cadavers for medical studies and Karloff is willing to provide them one way or another. Don't miss his scene with fellow horror icon Bela Lugosi.Running Time: 147 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR UPC: 053939724325