Mister Roberts

Starring:Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell, Jack Lemmon, Betsy Palmer, Ward Bond, Philip Carey, Nick Adams, Perry Lopez, Ken Curtis, Robert Roark, Harry Carey Jr., Patrick Wayne, Frank Aletter, Tige Andrews, Fritz Ford, Jim Moloney, Buck Kartalian, Denny Niles, William Henry
Director: Joshua Logan, John Ford, Mervyn LeRoy
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com essential video

Henry Fonda re-created his Broadway hit for this 1955 film that was mostly directed by Fonda's frequent collaborator, John Ford (Young Mr. Lincoln, My Darling Clementine)--an ailing Ford was replaced at some point by Mervyn LeRoy--and the results are exceptionally fine. A perfect cast, including James Cagney's irascible captain, William Powell's thoughtful physician, and Jack Lemmon's Oscar-winning Ensign Pulver, give Fonda the right boost to portray his ennui-burdened officer with dignity, self-effacing humor, and not a trace of self-pity. A wonderful film. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

Mister Roberts.......2007-06-26

Returning to the big screen after an eight-year absence, Fonda successfully recreated his indelible stage role in "Mister Roberts" under the superb direction of Ford (along with Mervyn LeRoy), though Ford and Fonda literally came to blows just weeks into shooting! Young Lemmon must have been humbled by the cast line-up for this film: Fonda, Cagney, and the legendary William Powell (as a philosophical ship doctor) all on the same boat! Yet his manic energy was ideal for Pulver, and Lemmon held his own with Hollywood's best, winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Also notable as Powell's last screen appearance.

Mister Roberts is great!.......2007-05-23

I use a scene from the play version in my high school Theatre Arts 1 classes. The boys enjoy watching their scene because they have nothing to relate to in their lives. It is such a kick to hear them laugh at the innocent humor that they don't get in this day and time. This movie has a great cast of characters and actors in their early years. It's wonderful!

1 OF THE BEST FILMS EVER.......2007-05-07

I PERSONALY HAVE LOVED THIS FILM FOR YEARS THE CAST JUST SEEM TO CLICK ITS FUNNY WELL SCRIPTED & ACTED IF YOURE LOOKING FOR A COMEDY WAR FILM THEY DONT COME ANY BETTER THAN THIS ITS WELL WORTH A LOOK.

I HAVE A BETTER ENDING!.......2007-04-05

Of course this is an outstanding film. This may be the movie that displays Jack Lemon's talents at his best, for the first time. However, I have a much better ending. When Lemon goes into the caption's quarters hopping mad, he should have showed the letter to him. The caption would just stare at Lemon, then go out and throw the plant POT overboard. It would show that, even though he is a mean person, he still has feelings. But they didn't; too bad!

War Time.......2007-03-19

I consider this a must in my collection with many named stars. Good story set in WW2 behind the main fighting lines. James Cagney is the quirky captain and Jack Lemmon's comedy is great.

Average customer rating:

Mister Roberts
Mister Roberts is great!
1 OF THE BEST FILMS EVER
I HAVE A BETTER ENDING!
War Time

Mister Roberts (Keepcase)
Starring: Henry Fonda , James Cagney , William Powell , Jack Lemmon , and Betsy Palmer
Director: Mervyn LeRoy , Joshua Logan , and John Ford
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Comedy | Military & War | Genres | DVD | Video

( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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The Wackiest Ship in the Army

ASIN: B000FZETR0
Release Date: 2006-09-19

Amazon.com essential video

Description

Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell and Academy Award(R) winner Jack Lemmon steer a ramshackle Navy cargo ship into the wartime comedy hall of fame. An all-time classic. Year: 1955

Customer Reviews:

Mister Roberts.......2007-06-26

Mister Roberts is great!.......2007-05-23

1 OF THE BEST FILMS EVER.......2007-05-07

I HAVE A BETTER ENDING!.......2007-04-05

War Time.......2007-03-19

I consider this a must in my collection with many named stars. Good story set in WW2 behind the main fighting lines. James Cagney is the quirky captain and Jack Lemmon's comedy is great.

Henry Fonda - The Signature Collection (Advise and Consent / Battle of the Bulge / Mister Roberts / The Wrong Man)

Average customer rating:

More of a discount bundle than a signature collection
Great bunch of movies!
misguided fans
Limited selection
Waste of Time

Henry Fonda - The Signature Collection (Advise and Consent / Battle of the Bulge / Mister Roberts / The Wrong Man)
Starring: Henry Fonda
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Signature Collections | Classics | Genres | DVD | Video

( H ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Drama | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

James Stewart - The Signature Collection (The Cheyenne Social Club / Firecreek / The FBI Story / The Naked Spur / The Spirit of St. Louis / The Stratton Story)
Humphrey Bogart - The Signature Collection, Vol. 2 (The Maltese Falcon Three-Disc Special Edition / Across the Pacific / Action in the North Atlantic / All Through the Night / Passage to Marseille)
Gary Cooper - The Signature Collection (Sergeant York / The Fountainhead / Dallas / Springfield Rifle / The Wreck of the Mary Deare)
Motion Picture Masterpieces Collection (David Copperfield 1935 / Marie Antoinette 1938 / Pride and Prejudice 1940 / A Tale of Two Cities 1935 / Treasure Island 1934)
The Errol Flynn Signature Collection, Vol. 2 (The Charge of the Light Brigade / Gentleman Jim / The Adventures of Don Juan / The Dawn Patrol / Dive Bomber)

ASIN: B000FZETSY
Release Date: 2006-09-19

Amazon.com

Otto Preminger expanded his vision in the 1960s with a whole series of ambitious, expansive dramas with huge casts and big themes. Advise and Consent, an examination of deal making, party politics, and congressional diplomacy in Washington's legislative halls (based on the novel by Allen Drury), is one of his best. Preminger broke the blacklist with his previous film, Exodus, and it rings through in this drama about a controversial nominee for secretary of state (a confident, stately Henry Fonda) accused of being a Communist. The nomination process becomes the center ring of the political circus, with fidgety accuser Burgess Meredith in the spotlight; devious, silver-tongued Charles Laughton cracking the whip as a southern senator with a grudge against Fonda; and party whip Walter Pidgeon lining up votes behind the scenes. Arm twisting and diplomatic hardball turns to perjury and blackmail, and a melodramatic twist gives this lesson in party politics a salacious soap opera dimension.

The German offensive in December 1944 became the basis for the all-star Hollywood Battle of the Bulge. Henry Fonda is an officer who predicts the assault, Robert Ryan and Dana Andrews are Army brass skeptical of his intuitions, and Robert Shaw is a German officer leading the tank attack. Shaw is certainly the most compelling thing about the film, especially in his philosophical debates with ambivalent underling Hans Christian Blech. Elsewhere, the movie jumps around to sidebar stories (cowardly James MacArthur becomes a leader, wheeler-dealer Telly Savalas falls in love) while messing around with the historical facts of the battle. There are interesting episodes, such as the Malmedy massacre of American POWs and the Germans' use of English-speaking spies, but overall Battle of the Bulge has the feeling of having been patched together from different scripts. On the physical level the movie comes up short, with the Spanish locations rarely suggesting the wintry misery of the battle, and the use of models and studio sets highly inadequate. A number of war films from this era are compelling on their own terms, but in the wake of Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, this one looks antique.

Henry Fonda re-created his Broadway hit Mister Roberts for the 1955 film that was mostly directed by Fonda's frequent collaborator, John Ford (Young Mr. Lincoln, My Darling Clementine)--an ailing Ford was replaced at some point by Mervyn LeRoy--and the results are exceptionally fine. A perfect cast, including James Cagney's irascible captain, William Powell's thoughtful physician, and Jack Lemmon's Oscar-winning Ensign Pulver, give Fonda the right boost to portray his ennui-burdened officer with dignity, self-effacing humor, and not a trace of self-pity. A wonderful film.

Alfred Hitchcock was fond of telling the story about how his father discouraged his son from even the slightest criminal impulse by having young Alfred locked in a police holding cell for a brief period--a terrifying experience Hitchcock never forgot. Much of the fear from that childhood incident resonates through The Wrong Man, which is unique among Hitchcock's films in that it is based entirely on a factual case that occurred in New York City in January 1953. As Hitchcock states in a shadowy prologue, authenticity was his primary goal--including the use of actual names and locations from the case--and the film gains considerable power from Hitchcock's semi-documentary approach (a film noir style that was still in vogue when Hitchcock shot this film in 1957). Henry Fonda is perfectly cast as the financially struggling nightclub musician who is mistakenly identified as a robber when he attempts to cash in his wife's life-insurance policy to pay for her much-needed dental work. Vera Miles is equally superb as the suffering wife, who ultimately cracks under the pressure of her husband's wrongful accusation and the drawn-out process of proving his innocence. Through all of this, Hitchcock pays close attention to the mundane details of police procedure, intensifying Fonda's desperation and the narrative tension that was Hitchcock's directorial trademark. As it happens, the strict adherence to factual detail--no matter how absurd or incredible--also renders The Wrong Man somewhat weaker than Hitchcock's classic plots, since in this case truth is decidedly stranger than fiction. Nevertheless, this is still a riveting film that fits quite nicely alongside Hitchcock's better-known films of the 1950s.

Customer Reviews:

More of a discount bundle than a signature collection.......2007-06-03

This entire collection was probably a bad idea for several reasons, but not because these aren't good movies.

1. All of these movies are available individually on DVD and were for some time before this collection was released. Thus, this set really only works as a discount collection because you are buying all four DVDs together versus the individual price.

2. Three of the four movies are in other Warner Home Video DVD collections. "Advise and Consent" is in the "Controversial Classics" collection. It is an excellent set, and if you are a collector of classic movies you are probably going to eventually want that one. Also, if you are a fan of Alfred Hitchcock, "The Wrong Man" is also included in the "Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection", which is also a very good set. "Battle of the Bulge" is in the "World War II Collection - Battlefront Europe", also an excellent set. This leaves you with "Mr. Roberts" as the only DVD that isn't already in some other Warner Home Video collection. It is notable not only for Fonda's excellent performance but for the fact that it was the beloved William Powell's last appearance in a motion picture and one of Jack Lemmon's first.

3. Finally, let's face it, Fonda's best work was probably done in films under the control of 20th Century Fox, not in the films controlled by Warner Home Video. However, I have to wonder, with all of the duplication going on in this set, why didn't Warners include two excellent films starring Fonda that were made for Warner Brothers - 1963's "Spencer's Mountain", which was the basis for the TV series "The Waltons", and 1966's "Big Hand for the Little Lady", which is not even on DVD yet.

Nobody else has mentioned the extras on the individual DVD's, so I do that next:

Advise and Consent - There is a commentary track by Drew Casper who seems to really love everything Otto Preminger ever did. There is also a theatrical trailer that runs four minutes that has "making-of" footage. Unfortunately that footage acts as a spoiler for the plot.

Battle of the Bulge - There are two featurettes included. "The Filming of Battle of the Bulge" runs nine minutes and is narrated by Henry Fonda. "History Re-Created" is an eight minute program with short interviews with producer Milton Sperling and star Robert Shaw. There is also a theatrical trailer.

Mr. Roberts - Includes an excerpt of an Ed Sullivan Toast of the Town tribute episode with comments from producer Leland Hayward and scenes acted by James Cagney, Henry Fonda, and Jack Lemmon. You also get a clip from a documentary (Fonda on Fonda) which covers Henry Fonda's involvement with both the play and the movie, as well as a moment from a tribute at the Kennedy Center Honors. Jack Lemmon provides partial commentary on the movie.

The Wrong Man - Includes a 20-minute documentary featurette from Laurent Bouzereau that is pretty interesting. Also included is the theatrical trailer.

I would say that if you want all four of these films and know for a fact you will never want any of the three DVD Collections that contain three of the four included films, this set acts as a good discount bundle. Otherwise, just get "Mr. Roberts".

Great bunch of movies!.......2007-03-05

I bought this set because it had two of my favorite Henry Fonda movies included - Mister Roberts and Battle of the Bulge. I already owned Advise and Consent from another movie collection, but The Wrong Man was a new one for me. An excellent way to spend a weekend!

misguided fans.......2006-12-31

I don't understand all of these negitive reviews. Are not the films in this box set all good? The answer is yes and 5 stars if you are a Henry Fonda fan. I'm so sick of people giving poor ratings to a box. It's the movies that you should rate in the box. Stop being mad at a company that releases a few films in a bundle. If you already have the movies then don't buy the damn box set, but at least give these good movies from a fine actor the reviews that they deserve.

And liezl (the connoisseur) You should pay attention to what you are reviewing!

E. Where is his work with John Ford? Answer- MISTER ROBERTS is a John Ford movie.

Limited selection.......2006-09-15

I do agree with other reviews - there's not much here and it's all already available. But I do have to comment on something I see over and over in these reviews - Warner Brothers doesn't own the rights to every movie ever made. The reason they can't include his great Western "Once Upon a Time in the West" is because the rights are owned by Paramount Pictures, and "Grapes of Wrath" is owned by 20th Century Fox, just to name two.

Waste of Time.......2006-09-12

Henry Fonda is one of Hollywood's icons and one of my favorite actors. Mr. Fonda has such a prolific film career that one can easily put together a sizable box set e.g. John Wayne's.
The films selected in this collection makes no sense and didn't do Mr. Fonda justice. Very few people will be interested in ordering it. 1 star is for Mr. Fonda.

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