Burt Lancaster

The Train

This tense 1964 action drama from John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate) stars Burt Lancaster as a member of the French Resistance trying to prevent Nazi looters from taking valuable art treasures out of the country. A great ride all the way with Frankenheimer at his inimitable best. This is a true human-scale action movie of the sort we used to think of before "action" meant blowing up asteroids in space. Kinetic but almost rueful in tone the films chases and fights are not just eye candy but rather encourage audience involvement in moral stakes. Crisp and serious performances all around from Lancaster and 1960s icons Paul Scofield and Jeanne Moreau. System Requirements:Starring: Burt Lancaster et al. Director: John Frankenheimer Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating:  UPC: 027616753922 Manufacturer No: M110330

This is one of John Frankenheimer's breathless gems--all marvelous action that never lets up. Burt Lancaster plays a French train engineer during the waning days of the German occupation who tries to prevent Nazi colonel Paul Scofield from transporting a precious art collection back to Germany. Utilizing sabotage and cunning deception, Lancaster and his Resistance colleagues stall for time with the Allies on their way. It's a brilliantly made film, showing off Lancaster's acrobatic skills (he performed all of his own stunts) and Frankenheimer's sense of pacing and brilliant use of space. It's choreographed with the utmost precision (those are real explosions during the pivotal strafing sequence) and extremely authentic in its details. Lancaster is in rare minimalist form, and Scofield manages to extract intelligence and sympathy. A firecracker action film shot in crisp black and white, with yet another telling audio commentary by the always instructive director. --Bill Desowitz

Zulu Dawn

Cy Endfield co-wrote the epic prequel Zulu Dawn 15 years after his enormously popular Zulu. Set in 1879, this film depicts the catastrophic Battle of Isandhlwana, which remains the worst defeat of the British army by natives, with the British contingent outnumbered 16-to-1 by the Zulu tribesmen. The film's opinion of events is made immediately clear in its title sequence: ebullient African village life presided over by King Cetshwayo is contrasted with aristocratic artifice under the arrogant eye of General Lord Chelmsford (Peter O'Toole). Chelmsford is at the heart of all that goes wrong, initiating the catastrophic battle with an ultimatum made seemingly for the sake of giving his troops something to do. His detached manner leads to one mistake after another, and this is wryly illustrated in a moment when neither he nor his officers can be bothered to pronounce the name of the land they're in. That it's a beautiful land nonetheless is made clear by the superb cinematography, which drinks in the massive open spaces that shrink the British army to a line of red ants. Splendidly stiff-upper-lipped support comes from a heroic Burt Lancaster and a fluffy, yet gruff, Bob Hoskins. Although the story is less focused and inevitably more diffuse than the concentrated events of Rorke's Drift which followed soon after, Zulu Dawn is an unflinchingly honest depiction of British Imperial diplomacy. --Paul Tonks

A prequel to the war epic "Zulu", this dramatic story recounts the breathtaking defeat of British forces at the hands of a 25,000 strong and relentlessly determined Zulu army in 1870. The all-star cast, and extravagant production quality make Zulu Dawn a spectacular film with a guaranteed place in the list of Hollywood Greats.

Run Silent, Run Deep

A movie's lasting value can often be measured by its influence in the years and decades following its original release, and on that basis Run Silent, Run Deep is certainly a classic of sorts. It remains one of the seminal World War II submarine pictures, and its intelligent script and tautly executed action are clearly echoed in such later submarine dramas as Das Boot and especially Crimson Tide, which borrows liberally from this 1958 film.

In one of his best and final roles (he appeared in only four films after this), Clark Gable plays a submarine captain without a command, having been saddled with a desk job after his previous ship was destroyed due to his overzealous pursuit of the enemy in dangerous Japanese waters. He finally gets another boat--this time with a vigilant first officer (Burt Lancaster), who stands poised to assume command if Gable puts his crew in unnecessary danger. The tension and mutual respect between these two principled men is superbly written and directed (Robert Wise was just two years away from his triumph with West Side Story), and the crucial inclusion of a strong supporting cast (including Jack Warden and Don Rickles) enhances the movie's compelling authenticity. Based on a novel by former submarine commander Edward L. Beach, Run Silent, Run Deep is rousing entertainment with the added benefit of paying honorable tribute to the men who navigated through the most frightening and claustrophobic channels of the Pacific theater. --Jeff Shannon

"Rich" Richardson (Clark Gable) is a hard-driving, dedicated submarine officer with a single-mindedpurposeto seek out and smash the Japanese destroyer he believes sank his former ship. Given a new command, Richardson drills his men to the point of mutiny as he relentlessly trains them for the battle ahead. At last, word comes of the destroyer's position, and, disobeying orders, Richardson finally confronts his foe, unaware that an even greater enemy lurks nearby...one who's been targeting him for a watery grave. Co-starring Burt Lancaster as Gable's executive officer, this gripping WWII adventure-thriller set a new standard for submarine pictures. "Severely, nail-bitingly tense" (The New York Times), Run Silent, Run Deep is the most exciting film about the "silent service" ever made.

The Professionals (Special Edition)

Before The Wild Bunch, there was The Professionals, Richard Brooks's marvelous ode to friendship, loyalty, and disillusionment. It may not have the stylistic bravado or fatalistic doom of the legendary Sam Peckinpah film, but Brooks's storytelling is simple and steady and just as insightful. The difference is Brooks is a lot more optimistic. Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster are buddies who have drifted into oblivion after fighting together in the Mexican Revolution. Marvin, the principled loyalist and munitions expert, lost his wife and his heart. Lancaster, the dynamite expert and unprincipled adventurer, keeps losing his pants. They team up with wrangler Robert Ryan and archer Woody Strode to rescue the beguiling Claudia Cardinale, who has been kidnapped by their old revolutionary buddie Jack Palance. So it's back into bloody Mexico they go on a "mission of mercy" for railroad tycoon Ralph Bellamy, who's paying handsomely for the return of his wife.

But nothing is what it seems in this exciting, existential adventure, which was beautifully shot by Conrad Hall. Sarcastic quips, philosophical musings, and heart-rending reversals underlie Brooks's humanistic sentiments. These are tired, world-weary men who somehow find the strength and the will to pull together for the sake of love and commitment. Through it all, Brooks seems to be lamenting a decline in professionalism much deeper than his story. He's decrying Hollywood and the society at large, anticipating Peckinpah's later strategy. --Bill Desowitz

Go Tell the Spartans

Academy Award-winner Burt Lancaster delivers the finest performances of his illustrious career as a hard-boiled major in command of a grubby Vietnam outpost in this classic film of wartime confrontation. The war was still a "conflict" and American soldiers were merely "advisors" yet the ambushes the betrayals and the brutality were all very real. While the riveting action concentrates on a single obscure incident this excellent understated and sharply intelligent film illuminates the vast landscape of an era.Running Time: 113 min.System Requirements:Running Time 114 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 026359061523

Executive Action

As JFK-conspiracy movies go, Executive Action is distinguished by being one of the earliest and one of the best. This speculative drama draws together some of the theories floating around in 1973 and lay them out in dry, unadorned fashion. At the center of the conspiracy is a group of right-wing muckymucks who quietly plan the assassination of the president (thanks to their fears about Vietnam, civil rights, and whatever else might be handy). Burt Lancaster is the most prominent name in the cast, although the film gets much of its gravity from the weathered presence of Robert Ryan, the superb character actor who died not long after completing the project. Will Geer and John Anderson are also in on the plot. Scripted by Hollywood pro (and former blacklistee) Dalton Trumbo, the film is unrelentingly grim, but there's something about its very flatness that makes it that much eerier. Oliver Stone would take the opposite approach in his pinwheeling JFK, but this simple accounting is just as creepy. --Robert Horton

Predecessor to Oliver Stone's 'JFK' this film was one of the first to present an alternative to the Warren Report version of events. Mixing narriative segments with newsreel footage, the film tells the story of a group of powerful men who plot the assasination. First they must recruit and train a shooter, then frame Lee Harvey Oswald. A must-see for history buffs and conspiracy theorists, some credit this film with re-opening the debate about Kennedy's assasination.

The Crimson Pirate

Released well after Douglas Fairbanks's and Errol Flynn's heydays, this good-natured Burt Lancaster vehicle is, nevertheless, a superior example of the classic swashbuckler: set in the 16th century, along the Spanish Main, this lusty adventure both expands on and explodes genre conventions. Lancaster, a circus acrobat before turning to movies in the '40s, gives what may be his most physical performance as sword-for-hire Captain Vallo, a.k.a. the Crimson Pirate.

Nick Cravat, Lancaster's real-life circus buddy, matches the star leap for leap, somersault for somersault as Vallo's mute sidekick. The fetching Eva Bartok causes Vallo to throw over the Spanish for rebel forces, and a young Christopher Lee demonstrates the swordsmanship that would later make him a natural in Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers.

Director Robert Siodmak, known for his claustrophobic noir thrillers (1946's The Killers), handled most of the interiors, while Lancaster coordinated the tongue-in-cheek humor and macho derring-do. The broadly played action scenes, including the climactic 18-minute battle aboard a frigate, wouldn't be improved on for another three decades--by Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark. The big difference: Harrison Ford needed a stunt double, Lancaster didn't. --Glenn Lovell

Notorious raider of the eighteenth century sea lanes, Captain Vallo, a.k.a. The Crimson Pirate, and his band of buccaneers overtake a Spanish galleon filled with guns and ammunition. When he decides to sell the stolen arsenal to rebel leader El Libre on the island of Cobra, the representative of Spain, Baron Gruda, offers Vallo 50,000 florins if he will deliver El Libre instead. Vallo is soon caught between the Spanish, the rebellion, and even the mutiny of his own men. But having allen in love with El Libre's daughter Consuelo, Vallo gains back his crew's trust and leads the island of Cobra to freedom.

The Flame and the Arrow

Still in his first flush of muscular stardom, Burt Lancaster romps through this costume adventure in full awareness of his movie-star dazzle. The story is a Robin Hood-tinged yarn set in 12-century Lombardy, where ace archer Lancaster finds himself an unlikely rebel leader against the evil lord (Frank Allenby)--actually, our hero just wants to get his kidnapped son back. Oh, and maybe win the hand of the fair Virginia Mayo. Nobody from director Jacques Tourneur on down seems to have taken the story very seriously, which leaves plenty of room for the odd strolling minstrel (Norman Lloyd in puckish form), good-bad romantic rival (Robert Douglas), or mute sidekick. The latter is played by Nick Cravat, the stumpy and swarthy acrobat who had performed alongside Lancaster in their circus careers (he would return in The Crimson Pirate, the best-known of Lancaster's swashbucklers). Here, the two men execute a series of glorious physical stunts, showing off their crack timing and willingness to risk life and limb. That's really the appeal of the picture, along with Ernest Haller's Oscar-nominated Technicolor photography and the lavish Italy-by-way-of-Burbank studio sets. --Robert Horton

Lighthearted adventure about an overlord, Count Ulrich - who takes it one step too far. It was bad enough when he kidnapped the pretty wife of the young archer Dardo. But when Ulrich takes the man's son - a rebel leader is born.

The Cassandra Crossing

The Gypsy Warrior

An action-packed World War II drama about two fearless U.S. Army Captains instructed to infiltrate Nazi-occupied France to retrieve a deadly toxin. While carrying out their mission, they are befriended and aided by a compassionate gypsy family.