Alice Adams

Starring:Katharine Hepburn, Fred MacMurray, Fred Stone, Evelyn Venable, Frank Albertson, Ann Shoemaker, Charley Grapewin, Grady Sutton, Hedda Hopper, Jonathan Hale, Hattie McDaniel, Monte Carter, Zeffie Tilbury, George Warrington, Harry Bowen, Walter Brennan, Margaret Morris, Frank Ward (II), Brooks Benedict, Frank Yaconelli
Director: George Stevens
Studio: Turner Home Ent
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

The DVD era has unearthed another treasure. For the first time ever, Julie Andrews's performance in the title role of the original 1957 television production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella is available to the public on home video. Cinderella was created as a Broadway-style television production with an original score from the creators of Oklahoma! and Carousel, featuring such songs as "In My Own Little Corner," "Impossible," "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful," and "Stepsisters' Lament." Cast in the title role was the 21-year-old Andrews, at the time starring on Broadway in My Fair Lady (another Cinderella story of sorts), and the cast was filled out by a talented bunch of stage veterans (including Kaye Ballard, Edie Adams, Dorothy Stickney, and Stickney's husband, writer Howard Lindsay). On March 31, 1957, a then-record 120 million homes saw the program as it was broadcast, live and in color, but it was preserved only in black-and-white kinescope, i.e., by aiming a camera at a monitor during the broadcast. While this version probably looks better than we have any right to expect, the picture is still fuzzy black-and-white, which makes it a tougher sell for kids than the later color versions, 1965 with Lesley Anne Warren and the 1997 Disneyized version. But give older kids (say, 8 or so) credit for being able to look past the black-and-white picture and primitive effects and enjoy the charming songs, the excellent performances, and the prospect of seeing one of their favorite actresses play one of their favorite princesses.

Fortunately, the DVD has also received the attention it deserves, with a new introduction by Andrews, a 20-minute featurette about the production, including interviews with many of the principals; Rodgers and Hammerstein's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show a week before the broadcast; and a gallery of color photos of the production as well as promotional material, which included paper dolls of Andrews. --David Horiuchi

Description

In this enchanting musical delight from the legendary team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, beautiful young Cinderella (Julie Andrews) finds her life of drudgery at the hands of her stepmother and two wicked sisters changed forever in one evening, thanks to a fairy godmother and a handsome prince. Lost for years, this first television production of this enduring classic remains a rollicking, tune-filled delight for young and old alike! One of the most beloved entertainers of all time, Academy Award«-winner Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music) appeared in theaters this year in the smash hits Shrek 2 and The Princess Diaries 2. The much-revered musical team of Rodgers & Hammerstein produced such family favorites as The King and I, The Sound of Music, Carousel, South Pacific, State Fair and more! One of home video's most highly requested titles, Cinderella has been officially unavailable since its initial airing on March 31, 1957! This single performance spectacular was viewed by over 115 million people, a television milestone! Musical performances include beloved favorites "In My Own Little Corner," "Impossible" and "Do I Love You (Because You're Beautiful)!" In 1957, Broadway's reigning songwriters and Broadway's brightest new star joined forces to create a new musical version of Cinderella; it's one-night-only broadcast on CBS-TV was viewed by more than 115 million people - the largest audience in the history of the planet! - and an instant legend was born. Julie Andrews, the toast of Broadway for her performance in My Fair Lady, played the title role, joined by a stellar cast of Broadway and television all-stars. Providing a new take on the timeless tale as well as a bounty of beautiful ballads, comedy numbers and waltzes, was the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, already at the top of their game thanks to such musicals as Oklahoma, South Pacific and The King and I. Though Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella has gone through several TV remakes and hundreds of stage productions, the original, magical version vanished after its initial broadcast, never to be seen again. Until now.

Customer Reviews:

...A little disappointing. 1964 TV production was better........2007-06-02

Julie Andrews is wonderful but this TV production was very early and primitive and the supporting cast (stepsisters, prince in particular) is not as strong as the very funny 1964 production.

EXCELLENT.......2007-05-27

I ordered this to do a report on the various versions of Cinderella. This was a great movie.

Original Cinderella.......2007-04-02

A bit disappointed - I had never seen this version before, having grown up watching the 60's version in color which I love, and even though Julie Andrews is very good, the story line was somewhat different and I found I prefer the 60's version

Disappointing.......2007-03-28

I have another version of "Cinderella", but I bought this one because of Julie Andrews. However, I am disappointed in it. It lacks something. I think that "something" is a feeling of "make-believe". It felt to me as if it were produced for serious grown-ups. Not much fun in it. Almost boring, and I couldn't wait to get to the end. I prefer the other version, with Brandy, Bernadette Peters & Whoopi Goldberg above this one. With the Brandy version, you experience the joy & happiness, the humor, excitement, and the wide-eyed wonder of it all as seen through the eyes of an innocent, believing child. Perfect.

The Original Cinderella.......2007-02-19

I purchased this DVD because I had seen the version with
Leslie Ann Warren and desired to see the original broadcast with
Julie Andrews. My mother and I enjoyed this program although it was
obvious that the film was older(black and white)and the sound wasn't as clear as in the newer recording. The two films are basically the same, but in the 1957 production there are a few more dancing scenes and the endings are slightly different also. It's a wonderful family movie and the songs are done beautifully. It's amazing the see such famous actors
in their youth!!

Average customer rating:

Go Ask Alice Very tame
Reminds me of high school!
THE BOOK IS BETTER
not so much
GO ASK ALICE

Go Ask Alice
Starring: William Shatner , Ruth Roman , Wendell Burton , Julie Adams , and Andy Griffith
Director: John Korty
Manufacturer: Jef Films
ProductGroup: DVD
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It Happened to Nancy: By an Anonymous Teenager, A True Story from Her Diary

ASIN: B000FKP47Y
Release Date: 2006-07-18

Description

A teenage girl's downhill spiral into drug addiction. A move to a new school in a new city puts great pressure on Alice, a high school student. Hoping to be liked, she tries desperately to be friendly with the school's "popular" students. Eventually she is invited to a party and she is introduced to drugs. This is a true story based on the actual diary of a teenage girl caught in the vicious web of drug addiction and her desperate fight back to the real world. William Shatner plays a role light-years removed from that of Captain Kirk in Star Trek and Jamie Smith-Jackson is utterly convincing as the young girl trying to cope with the humiliation which drug abuse can

Customer Reviews:

Go Ask Alice Very tame.......2007-04-07

It had to be a made for TV movie. NO DOUBT AT ALL. While the movie was 0K in a 70's kind of way, to much 'meat' was chopped (read the book) to be a "scary" look at 60's teenage drug use. Course I could just be old and jaded. A strange little flick from a odd little decade.

Reminds me of high school!.......2007-03-24

I'm glad I finally found this. I read the book and first saw the movie when in high school. I totally forgot that William Shatner was the dad! I enjoyed watching it again. Now I have to find The Death of Ritchie (lol).

THE BOOK IS BETTER.......2007-03-04

I really was disappointed in the movie after reading the book. The book is much better. I guess it might have been different had I seen the movie before reading the book, but I really doubt it.

not so much.......2007-02-20

i was very disappointed with this movie, the book was so much better. it left out alot of parts, like where she was baby sitting in the end and got drugged by a 'friend'. it skipped the entire scene and went straight to the hospital, leaving you wondering what really happened. i guess if i had seen the movie first i might have liked it better though, but i recommend reading the book also

GO ASK ALICE.......2006-12-14

great movie about kids gone wrong, drugs etc.. a must see if you grew up in the 1970s

My Man Godfrey (Colorized / Black and White)

Average customer rating:

A Great Classic Comedy
Vintage Movie
Another Great Classic
A Classic
All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people.

My Man Godfrey (Colorized / Black and White)
Starring: William Powell , Carole Lombard , Alice Brady , Gail Patrick , and Eugene Pallette
Director: Gregory La Cava
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0007IO73G
Release Date: 2005-04-19

Amazon.com essential video

Director Gregory La Cava deftly balances satire, romance, and social comment in this 1936 classic, which echoes Frank Capra in its Depression-era subtext. The Bullocks are a well-heeled, harebrained Manhattan family genetically engineered for screwball collisions: father Alexander (Eugene Pallette, of the foghorn voice and thick-knit eyebrows) is the breadwinner at wit's end, thanks to his spoiled daughters, the sultry Cornelia (Gail Patrick) and the sweet but scatterbrained Irene (a luminous Carole Lombard), his dizzy and doting wife, Angelica (Alice Brady), and her "protégé," Italian freeloader Carlo (Mischa Auer). When Irene wins a society scavenger hunt (and atypically trumps her scheming sister) by producing a "lost man," a seeming tramp named Godfrey (William Powell), all their lives are transformed. With the always suave, effortlessly funny Powell in the title role, this mystery man provides the film's conscience and its model of decency; the giddy, passionate Lombard holds out its model for triumphant love. In a movie riddled with memorable comic highlights, the real miracle is the unapologetic romanticism that prevails. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews:

A Great Classic Comedy.......2007-07-03

I loved this movie. I really enjoyed watching William Powell. He was such a great actor. Even as a bum living in the dump pile he was still humorous and sophisticated, and kind of sexy. I felt that Powell and Gail Patrick were the greatest actors in the movie, although everyone else also did very well, especially Lombard as the scatterbrain love-sick young lady. I would love to watch this movie over and over again. I wish Hollywood still made movies like this.

Vintage Movie.......2007-04-02

My wife, Dee was the one instrumental in me purchasing & throughly enjoying this classic. She had seen it numerous times on afternoon TV movies when she was a little girl growing up in the 50's. William Powell & Carol Lombard were incredible together. The father & mother of Carol Lombard in the movie were equally amusing. I was pleaseantly surprised to find Lomard as a rather good comedian. Dick Powell, whom I faintly remember from the Thin Man movie series, was convincing as a rich man who hit rock bottom & became a street person. This 30's movie has struck an interest in me for more Dick Powell & Carol Lombard movies.

Another Great Classic.......2007-03-30

Why can't they make movies like this anymore. Funny, heartwarming, entertaining.

A Classic.......2007-03-11

I first got hooked on William Powell from watching the Thin Man Movies. His acting style and personality fit the "rich man posting as a butler" genre perfectly. His mannerisms, and speech would fit either role in life. Carol Lombard to me always seemed like a breath of fresh air. Eugene Pallette adds a little humerous touch to every role he plays. The entire cast play their roles perfectly, and make for some humerous as well as warm moments. I first saw this movie on a DVD I purchased in a "thrift bin" in a retail store. It was fuzzy and had the usual spots that most old movies have. Even so, it became one of my favorites. When it was released in a colorized version, and had been "cleaned up" and enhanced, I jumped at the chance to own it. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who a William Powell or Carol Lombard fan. And if they are not fans, they should be after watching this movie.

All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people........2007-03-11

The below-stairs people usually got ignored in old movies. But there's a very interesting twist in "My Man Godfrey," a fun screwball comedy about a rich little girl who adores her secretive homeless-turned-butler. The dialogue is snappy, the storyline is fun, but the relationship between the two leads is never quite convincing.

The list for a charity scavenger hunt includes "lost man." Scatterbrained Irene Bullock (Carole Lombard) is about to lose to her nasty sister, until "lost man" Godfrey (William Powell) volunteers to help her. As a reward, Irene makes Godfrey the new butler for her moneyed Park Avenue family, who turns out to be kind of crazy -- a long-suffering dad, cruel sister, and a mom who sees gnomes.

And it soon becomes clear that Irene has a massive crush on Godfrey, but not only does he reject her, but he keeps his past a secret. And her spiteful sister Cornelia (Gail Patrick) is planning to get back at Godfrey for humiliating her, by framing him for a theft...

Basically "My Man Godfrey" is just a cute little upper-crust storyline of the type that was popular in the 1930s, so people could ignore their Depression troubles for a few hours. And it succeeds at being a solid little comedy -- not quite screwball but occasionally verging on it.

For the first half, we're basically treated to the wacky antics of Irene's family (including a horse in the study), and Godfrey's mild disbelief at what a bunch of weirdos they are. And after that it gets more serious, with Cornelia's war on Godfrey, but the kooky comedy is kept up through witty dialogue and warped family encounters. ("Take a look at the dizzy old gal with the goat." "I've had to look at her for 20 years - that's MRS. Bullock!" "I'm terribly sorry!" "How do you think I feel?").

The only real problem is Godfrey and Irene. They make a cute couple, and ex-hubby-and-wife Powell and Lombard have some nice chemistry. Unfortunately the ending seems very contrived, since Godfrey never gives even the slightest indication that he even really likes Irene, let alone loves her. Not a word, not a gesture.

But taken apart, they do a brilliant job -- Lombard pouts, bubbles, cries and generally flakes around as the scatterbrained Irene, who doesn't recognize Godfrey after he shaves off "those nice whiskers." And Powell has his usual wry, brainy charm, but with a slightly sarcastic edge. Eugene Pallette and Alice Brady are also fun as Irene's longsuffering dad and flaky mom.

"My Man Godfrey" is a classic little comedy of flaky socialites and secretive butlers -- just on this side of screwball. Charming and quirky.

Young Mr. Lincoln - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

Young Mr. Lincoln
Beautiful film that aims to illustrate a life through a single episode
saint abe
A simple reticent man with a big heart for justice and community
John Ford myth-making about a young Illinois lawyer, but effective and beautiful to look at

Young Mr. Lincoln - Criterion Collection
Starring: Henry Fonda , Alice Brady , Marjorie Weaver , Arleen Whelan , and Eddie Collins
Director: John Ford
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000BR6QIM
Release Date: 2006-02-14

Amazon.com essential video

Has Young Mr. Lincoln--the first cardinal masterpiece of director John Ford's career, and the finest film of that epochal Hollywood year 1939--been neglected because people fear it's a stodgy history lesson? Even Henry Fonda, drafted to play the title role, was reluctant till Ford testily explained, "This isn't 'The Great Emancipator,' for God's sake--it's a movie about this jackleg lawyer...." And so it is: a small, slow-gathering village tale about a young man whose biggest moments--such as losing the love of his life--occur between scenes, and whose emergence as a historic figure is decades away. Yet the essential Lincoln is being forged in luminous scenes that unfold with the simplicity of fable, only no one knows it's a fable yet. The French title for the movie says it beautifully: Toward His Destiny.

The script, by Lamar Trotti, introduces Lincoln as a frontier storekeeper and drolly inadequate politician. In an early scene, we see Abe receiving his first books of law in a casual transaction with a pioneer family on their way to make a new home in the wilderness. But was it Trotti or the director who decided that this same family should circle back into Abe's life years later for the dramatic heart of the film, a murder trial in which his wit, ingenuity, and bedrock decency shape Lincoln's first public triumph--and that neither Lincoln nor the family recognize they have met before? That's typical of the movie, in which what is most important, most definitive, most valuable, is always outside the frame, out of reach, beyond naming. Even triumph is imbued with a heartbreaking sense of loss.

This transcendently beautiful film was a modest production, without the Pulitzer Prize cachet of Abe Lincoln in Illinois (not a Ford picture) the following year. Fonda, in his first of six collaborations with Ford, is the only marquee name in the cast, though Alice Brady is radiant as the pioneer matriarch (her final performance), and Ford stalwart Ward Bond has a key role. Sergei Eisenstein, no less, wrote a lucid and impassioned appreciation of the film, hailing it as "a movie I would like to have made"--and proved it by stealing a few visual tropes for his own Ivan the Terrible! This is a great, great motion picture, eminently deserving of the Criterion treatment on DVD. --Richard T. Jameson

Description

American master director John Ford crafts a fictionalized account of ten years in the life of Abraham Lincoln (magnificently portrayed by Henry Fonda), before he became known to the world

Customer Reviews:

Young Mr. Lincoln.......2007-06-21

Based on the Oscar-nominated screenplay by Lamar Trotti, and unspooling with the simplicity of a frontier parable, "Lincoln" teamed Fonda with Ford for the first time, resulting in an extraordinary collaboration. Fonda, who originally declined the role because of his awed reverence for Lincoln's legacy, embodies Abe with plainspoken assurance and gutsy idealism. Weaver, as the future Mrs. Lincoln, and Alice Brady, as the mother of two sons presumed guilty of murder, round out a luminous studio cast. Don't miss this stunning, mythic portrait of American greatness personified, by the legendary director of "Stagecoach."

Beautiful film that aims to illustrate a life through a single episode.......2007-01-19

While Ford's remarkably photographed film covers ten years in the life of young Abraham Lincoln, the focus is on a single episode of his life that only a master of nuance like Ford could use to tell effectively the whole story of his career. The first several scenes, are simply a series of moments that establish a mood and Lincoln's attitude: he is smart but uneducated, he was in love with a woman who believes in him and whose death motivates him to take up her challenge to "be somebody", he is simultaneously introspective and isolated and yet more at home with the "common people" than with elites, able to connect by not seeming to take himself all that seriously, he understands the law as a tool for overcoming wrongs and achieving rights rather than an end in itself. The story itself gets rolling when, after he's established himself as a new lawyer, a couple of country kids get in a fight with a local bully who also happens to be a deputy and accidentally kill him. His defense of the kids simultaneously illustrates: (1) Lincoln's capacity to appeal to simple intuitions of right and wrong, sometimes through humor and self-deprecation and simple story telling, that spoke to an American populace so far not entirely committed to lawfulness; (2) tied to that theme is the idea that the people's sense of justice was rooted in feeling -- as evidenced by their sense that a lynching performed in outrage would serve justice -- so Lincoln understood that for the people to commit themselves to the law required an appeal to the same level of feeling and intuition that drove them to be more or less neighborly for the most part and to group together in outrage and vengeance on occasion; (3) Lincoln's ambiguous sense of ambition: attracted to a higher life, and yet feeling a bit out of place within it; motivated in part by a desire for fairness, but in part by a longing to be respected and to demonstrate the condescension of the elite and educated to be misplaced. It is a compelling piece of filmmaking -- illustrative of the American style of mythmaking that aims to show the "ordinary" common man behind the legend rather than the legendary origins of a hero. Criterion has, as usual, done a remarkable job with the film -- that visually seems not to have aged at all.

saint abe.......2007-01-18

Roughly one half hour into Young Mr. Lincoln, our hero the Great Emancipator stands between a lynch mob and a jailhouse holding two young white men accused of murder. Vigilante justice, he tells them, is not something to be taken lightly. "The next thing you know...it gets to the place where a man can't pass a tree or look at a rope without feeling uneasy." Awfully prescient, Abe, though I doubt it's your fair-skinned defendants who will reflexively be touching their throats at the sight of a noose in the decades to come.

Later in the picture, a woman describes how her husband was killed by a "drunk Indian." We feel bad for her since she is a nice woman going through a lot - a lot being her sons on trial for murder (even though the boys are being defended by Abraham Lincoln so they'll probably get off, but she doesn't know that) - and nobody deserves to have their husband killed by a drunk Indian. Nobody.

Poor martyred Saint Abraham is about as mythical a figure as there is in American folklore. John Ford's much-admired (but highly fictionalized) portrait brings humanity to the legend. It does this chiefly by showing the young Mr. Lincoln as he was, not the legend but the man. And damned if this man wasn't the most perfect individual to ever walk the Earth since God's Own Son. There is a good chance actually that Abraham Lincoln may have been an angel masquerading in human form and not a man at all. You see, Young Mr. Lincoln is a film about truth, not facts.

If you believed Lincoln was conscious of race, or that race even existed in the world where he developed a moral conscience (outside of drunk Indians killing nice old lady's husbands), you sir would be mistaken. There is simply no room for race in Lincoln's complicated ethical quandary where he must choose between defending two innocent men accused of murdering an a-hole (who, truth be told, was in need of little killin') and...not defending them. Okay, Sophie's Choice it isn't, but we are reminded of a certain Meryl Streep picture when mom is asked in court to finger which son stuck a knife in the murdered man (setting one brother free and sending the other to the gallows). Fortunately, she's shielded from certain psychic harm when another character intervenes on her behalf, saving the proverbial day. And that character's name just happens to be included in the title of this very picture. Afterward, he spread his angel wings and took flight.

Overall, the film has the feel of a Star Wars: Episode I for Civil War reenactors, existing for the purpose of revisiting characters/people we know and love, but you know... they're younger this time around. Look, there's Stephen Douglas, Abe's future political rival. And there's Mary Todd Lincoln, except she's just Mary Todd because they haven't gotten married yet (and she's a hottie - Honest Abe, you sly dog). What, no chance meeting with John Wilkes Booth while hunting for beaver pelts? How about a rail-splitting contest between Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, bragging rights and a crumpled five-dollar bill to the winner?

I look forward to the sequel - the one with the guns, Pickett's Charge, and black people.

Interesting footnote: Film pioneer Sergei Eisenstein was a massive fan of Young Mr. Lincoln, so much in fact that he wrote a rather gushing essay about it. "Of all American films made up to now, Young Mr. Lincoln is the one I would wish, most all all, to have made." It's likely Eisenstein based much of his own Ivan the Terrible, Part I on Lincoln.

A simple reticent man with a big heart for justice and community.......2006-07-11

In John Ford's Directorial debut, Young Mr. Lincoln succeeds in every aspect of delivering a true poignant memorable and serene film about One of America's greatest Presidents. Mr. Lincoln played by Henry Fonda is a simple yet caring man capable of hiding his ambitious desires for natural law and community. Being a novice lawyer in a small minded town is not easy as Mr. Lincoln breaks up infuriated mobbs, and gives every bit of solace and tranquility to those in need. He is not stern or condescending in the least bit as he reaches out to anyone in need of assitance with pure sincerity. Within in each frame of exterior shots of the Ilinois landscape it only enhances Lincoln's bond with nature as he gazes and reflects onto his favorite river. Abraham Lincoln being long deceased and gone has not at all in any regards disrupted my bond with this great American president. It is as though you are viewing an historical figure that lives in our present time period. Mr. Lincoln even at the most strenous and tense moments (Court Room Scene) is able to contribute a calm and scerene atomsphere with his gleeful relaxed humor. As usual I am ever so grateful to the Criterion Collection for establishing such a presitgious and artful collection because this film derserves every bit of praise and recoginition. A true Gem for any Criterion or history Aficianado...

John Ford myth-making about a young Illinois lawyer, but effective and beautiful to look at.......2006-07-05

At one level I liked Young Mr. Lincoln a lot. The film is a black-and-white picture postcard to look at, with immaculate framing and carefully selected imagery to extend the visual idea of early America. It's also a remarkable example of Hollywood myth-making, laying on with a trowel the nobility, natural shrewdness, sensitivity and common-man origins of the man who became a myth. Plus it brings out all the John Ford sympathies for the honesty and goodness of hard-workin' folks. I found myself unmoved by the reverential attitude of the movie; I felt a hymn was always playing in the background, and, sure enough, a hymn, or something close enough, starts playing at the end. With all the research and excellent books about Lincoln around nowadays, with all that we've come to learn about the man, I can't help but think that Lincoln would be smiling if he saw this film.

Yet, it's effective as all get out in portraying a myth we want to believe about American life on the frontier and of the man who became our greatest president. There's not a scene in the movie where Ford doesn't fail to effectively stress a simple emotion, like love, humor, longing, honesty and doubt. He cleverly demonstrates in many scenes, particularly in the courtroom, Lincoln's shrewdness. Lincoln consistently outwits others, whether in a tug-o-war, with a man's name, selecting a juror, facing down a mob or trapping a murderer. He might use a request to sample some turnip greens because he's hungry, but he really wants a reason to ask a woman in private to tell him a secret she cannot say in front of others.

Henry Fonda, even with a false nose, gives a myth-making performance, himself. Lincoln's homespun nobility is emphasized by Ford with such an unrelenting consistency that I think only Fonda's innate likeabilty and skill make it interesting. Lincoln's ambition and ability to move a crowd his way are only alluded to, but Fonda shows us (and so does Ford) that there was iron in Lincoln's soul.

The movie is a beauty to look at. I don't know how many times we see someone, especially Lincoln, on a hill posed against a cloudy sky, with a tree framing the shot, but it works every time. The lengthy vignettes in the first half of the movie showing us the down-to-earth delights of the Fourth of July celebration -- the tug-o-war, the pie contest -- is pure corn, pure John Ford, and still purely effective in making us think there might really have been a time like this -- just like this -- in our history. Who knows, I'm sure there was.

The Criterion presentation is excellent. Included in the case is a 27-page booklet with essays on Lincoln and Ford. The extras on the second disc contain, among other items, a profile on Ford and a lengthy interview with Fonda.

I watched this movie on the Fourth of July, and was reminded that 180 years ago, also on the Fourth, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died...on the fiftieth anniversary of their signing the Declaration of Independence.

Average customer rating:

Classic Hepburn
Painful to Watch, for Various Reasons
Simply Darling!
Sweet and full of feeling
kate is great & so is most of the rest of the movie

Alice Adams
Starring: Katharine Hepburn , Fred MacMurray , Fred Stone , Evelyn Venable , and Frank Albertson
Director: George Stevens
Manufacturer: Turner Home Ent
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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State of the Union

ASIN: B000085OXY
Release Date: 2003-01-07

Amazon.com

Hollywood's ability to conjure up a bittersweet small town (on the studio back lot, to be sure) has rarely been on better display than in Alice Adams, a gentle adaptation of a Booth Tarkington novel. For that matter, Katharine Hepburn rarely had a better chance to radiate her early youthful glow. She plays the title character, a lonely misfit who tries--too hard--to fit in with the snooty debutantes in her class-conscious town. Fred MacMurray is the suitor who miraculously feels comfortable in the front-porch swing of the faded Adams home. In the exquisitely timed comedy of MacMurray's miserable dinner with Alice's family, director George Stevens displays the tools he learned directing Laurel and Hardy two-reelers, and the sequence becomes a funny-painful classic of social embarrassment. Hepburn's performance, whether Alice is chattering pretentiously or briefly lowering her guard and revealing her loneliness, is simply incandescent. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

Classic Hepburn.......2007-06-10

If you like old black and white movies, you will enjoy watching some of the greatest actors in this classic drama.

Painful to Watch, for Various Reasons.......2007-05-26

Hepburn at her youngest and most beautiful, but a film flawed by cliché, casting, and motive. The movie comes from a Tarkington book that had inexplicably won a Pulitzer prize and is a lame expose of small town class systems and social climbing - Tarkington's book became a screenplay with none of the bite or insight of Sinclair Lewis' work. As to the casting, everyone except Hepburn delivers a 2 dimensional 30's-ish performance except the father who falls perilously close to muggery and caricature. He is a cross between the cowardly lion and a Little Rascal's parent.

Hepburn herself plays a young woman who is increasingly hypocritical and a liar in pursuit of a young man. The dinner sequence, justly remembered in Hollywood, shows her as luminous, bright, and brittle. However, it's all like watching Jerry Lewis play the idiot doomed to fail - very, very painful. The final redemption, after Hepburn becomes an honest woman, is less than believable. We had no character development of the Fred MacMurray character, so when he does the right thing, its because it's a Hollywood ending.

Leonard Maltin rated this 3 ½ in his guide - shame on you Leonard!

Simply Darling!.......2007-04-07

A delightful movie from 1935 starring the late great Katherine Hepburn and Fred MacMurray. Katherine Hepburn plays a middle class girl trying to fit into an upper class society. Of course, she falls in love with a rich man who's totally smitten with her from the moment he sees her across a crowded room. Throughout the movie Alice tries to hide her embarrassment of her family's inappropriate etiquette and lack of funds. Fred MacMurray was just darling and full of charm and smiles as the smitten rich boy looking for true love. Hepburn and MacMurray provided excellent chemistry for this black and white film that still oozes with romantic feelings. I look forward to watching it again. Reviewed by M. E. Wood

Sweet and full of feeling.......2006-12-23

The success of Alice Adams hinges largely on Katharine Hepburn's performance, and she does a fine job bringing life and spirit to the part. Alice admires the beautiful and rich daughters of the wealthier families in her town; she longs for their life of privilege, fashionable clothes, and charming suitors. Her own family lives in a modest house; her father isn't a driven and ambitious type, and her brother doesn't behave respectably. Alice attends a social ball wearing an old dress, and puts on a brave face as hardly anyone looks her way. Then, miraculously, a wealthy and affable young man, Arthur Russell (Fred MacMurray), asks her to dance.

From that point, Alice tries to fool Arthur into thinking that her family is well-off. When he visits, she meets him out on the porch. She talks about all the language, dance, and music lessons she was supposedly gifted with as a child, and makes excuses for why her family's home doesn't look all that splendid. And among these rambling made-up stories are the real kernels of truth about Alice's character - her loneliness and naivete, her bold dreams and self-consciousness. While it's true that she's adopted some of the same values as the more genteel families, she's sympathetic in how she stands up for her family in the moments when it truly counts, and how she's kind and soothing to her parents as well, particularly her loving but often unassertive father (played wonderfully by Fred Stone).

Fred MacMurray, as Arthur, isn't given a role with great depth, but he brings to it what he can. His job is to be a dream, an ideal, and he plays Arthur with a certain inscrutability, so when the end of the movie comes, and Alice seems resigned to a life filled with more responsibility and less romance, his continued presence on her porch didn't strike me as particularly unrealistic (no more so than similar events in other romance movies).

As for Hepburn, she made me feel for her character, so that even while Alice was being foolishly pretentious, I felt kindly towards her (and at times embarrassed for her). I was moved towards the end, when - with her grand romance seemingly ended - she pushes aside her pain and stands up for her father. Hepburn renders a character who is naive, full of love and fancy, and refreshingly different in key ways from the more fashionable young ladies in town.

kate is great & so is most of the rest of the movie.......2006-12-05

one of katharine hepburns signature performances, and deserevedly so, she stars in this adaptation of a booth tarkington novel about a young working class woman trying to push her way into "high society" (or what passes for that in provincial indiana). the movie sadly has to sidestep on the social satire (if it had been made 2 years earlier, i bet the ending would have been truer to life), but it still manages quite a few stings. and the set piece of the adams family formal dinner is a briiliantly directed stevens tour-de-force, highlighted by a hilarious turn (oh! that not-quite-starched cap, lol) from the sadly under-utilized hattie mcdaniel. still it is hepburns film, and her range of emotions here clearly go beyond "A to B".

Average customer rating:

A Great Classic Comedy
Vintage Movie
Another Great Classic
A Classic
All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people.

My Man Godfrey - Criterion Collection
Starring: William Powell , Carole Lombard , Alice Brady , Gail Patrick , and Eugene Pallette
Director: Gregory La Cava
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B00005EBSE
Release Date: 2001-07-31

Amazon.com essential video

Description

The definitive screwball comedy, My Man Godfrey follows the madcap antics of a wealthy and eccentric family when they hire a down-and-out "forgotten man" as their butler. My Man Godfrey features brilliant performances by Carole Lombard and William Powell, and was the first film to receive Academy Award® nominations in all four acting categories.

Customer Reviews:

A Great Classic Comedy.......2007-07-03

Vintage Movie.......2007-04-02

Another Great Classic.......2007-03-30

Why can't they make movies like this anymore. Funny, heartwarming, entertaining.

A Classic.......2007-03-11

All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people........2007-03-11

Average customer rating:

Creepy, Weird, "A different type of Horror"
ALICE IN FUNGILAND
Be Careful of Growing Things Indoors
Intelligent Sci-Fi
For Sci Fi Lovers Only

Habitat
Starring: Balthazar Getty , Tchéky Karyo , Alice Krige , Kenneth Welsh , and Laura Harris (II)
Director: Rene Daalder
Manufacturer: Allumination
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

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The Faculty
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Where the Truth Lies (Unrated Theatrical Edition)
Gwendoline - Unrated Director's Cut (aka - The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak)

ASIN: B00008HCCB
Release Date: 2003-08-05

Description

Planet Earth's worst nightmares have come true. When a brilliant but obsessed scientist, Hank Symes moves to a new town, his radical biology experiments transform a suburban house into a terrifying living creature. His plans for accelerated evolution spiral out of control and Symes and his family mutate as their house begins breathing, oozing and threatening anyone who enters. Mother Nature has never been so lethal as she takes revenge on the people who abuse her. Welcome to their living hell.

Customer Reviews:

Creepy, Weird, "A different type of Horror".......2007-02-06

Very interesting, well written, sensual, and very well directed.
Gives a take on the environment and how nature can take control of humans.

Very enjoyable in very weird sort of way!

Enjoy!

John

ALICE IN FUNGILAND.......2004-09-04

It amazes me that so many reviewers rate a movie on how much T&A and/or nudity there is. If it's not relevant to the plot, it's merely padding for a usually dull movie. Alice Krige is a beautiful woman, and a mesmerizing actress. However, Alice is lost in this ludicrously staged movie. Also, why do they constantly get actors with thick accents (like Tcheky Karyo) to reveal important plot points. You need to turn on your subtitles just to see what they're saying.
Balthazar Getty is very ineffective in his leading role, not much better than a high school thespian in their first role; Laura Harris (The Calling) is okay in her first role, but she's not really given that much to do; Kenneth Welsh tries to act like Vincent Price in his role as the coach, but can't achieve the flashy overacting he so obviously intended; Brad Austin as the somewhat studly Blaine comes on like a young Travolta, but can't match the intensity; the special effects which basically consist of a bunch of flashing dots is mundane. The plot about the ultimate evolution is so incoherent, it doesn't truly make sense, and the ending is flat.
Not the classic some people suggest; merely a waste of time.

Be Careful of Growing Things Indoors.......2004-06-29

I had a pleasant surprise after seeing the video Habitat. The surprise was that it was quite well done (no pun intended) and rather uplifting. I have since had to add the DVD to my collection.

The Earth's ozone layer has been completely destroyed. People stay indoors and only dare to venture out at night. But one scientist is looking to bring back the greenery, but indoors. Combining fungi and various plants, the scientist hopes to create a new ecosystem. Runaway failures have forced him and his family to be on the run. At his latest location an underground pocket of water causes a disaster in the basement lab and the organisms mutate and spread through the house. The scientist becomes infected with the new organisms and dies (or so it seems).

As the new ecosystem gains more control of the house, it is learned that the scientist is not dead, but has been transformed into an energy-like state. In this state he is able to attack people and make them immune to the sun's burning rays. But eventually the authorities catch up and try to stop the ecosystem. While they manage to destroy quite a bit, they are unsuccessful at stopping this new hope for the world. Man will no longer have to huddle in the dark and rely on artificial foods.

I really enjoyed this one. I was expecting some fun schlock but found higher quality lurking in the cheesy box. The necessity of camera angles and visibility make the sun shades look rather inefficient but all in all quite well done.

Intelligent Sci-Fi.......2004-04-24

Okay, here's my theory of why so many people don't like this movie: Perhaps someone hears about the three nude scenes (don't forget the science lady who's clothes get ripped up just right)plus some nice see-through outfits. So they're thinking, Hey! there's no good T&A flicks on Cinemax tonight, so let's go get that movie! They go rent it, and lo and behold, it actually has this really deep story that lays on the science pretty heavily, where you have to be very alert and somewhat intelligent to understand everything the characters are talking about. Well, if you're just watching it for a few nude scenes, then you're going to be really upset and disappointed with the rest of it!
This movie is very well thought out, the special effects are very convincing (the house really does give you the creeps), the script is beautifully written,and the actors pull it off splendidly. I love some of the lines in this movie, such as when Clarissa (Alice Krige) tells the bully that comes into the plant-infested house, "Young man, you don't go barging into the animal den. You may end up on the wrong side of the food chain." Another favorite line is "Through the bonds of matrimony, copulation is no longer fornification. It's procreation." These aren't direct quotes-I'm going from memory. Anyway, this is indeed one of those forgotten gems in which a small budget was used to make a great piece of work, much like The Wraith or Sleepwalkers (another with Alice Klige at her best). Give this movie a try when you're in the movie for some serious, yet highly entertaining sci-fi that really makes you think.

For Sci Fi Lovers Only.......2003-11-08

Yep! It's me again. You must think all I do is sit around and watch movies. You're right. In a stressful job this is the best therapy. At work I earn every penny of my salary. At play (home) I indulge in my love for film.

So what did I think of the Science Fiction thriller "Habitat"? It's definitely for Sci Fi folks...only. It is a bizzarre tale of what happens when the ozone layer is destroyed and mankind must shield itself from the microwave effect of sunlight.

So why is it called "Habitat"? An obsessed scientist and his beautiful and sexy wife, create their own environment inside the confines of their home...a vegetation filled fantasyland of plants and flowers that literally ooze with life.

This one plays out like an expanded episode of "The Outer Limits"...but it is definitely "R" rated for the seductive passions of mom and girlfriend. Quite bizzarre. A definite 8 on my 10-scale for Sci Fi. Many people did not like this flick. I was intrigued and thoroughly entertained. A great Friday Night flick...in early November...alone in my own HABITAT. Paul

Average customer rating:

Vibrations/Fluctuations/Submission
Starring: Sue Beaudry , Jennifer Welles , Gloria , Gary Judin , and João Fernandes (II)
Director: Allen Savage , Joel Landwehr , and Joseph W. Sarno
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

( V ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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Deep Jaws/The Dicktator

ASIN: B0007WFY8Y
Release Date: 2005-05-31

Description

When sex-happy Julia moves in with her uptight young sister and becomes irresistibly drawn to a next-door storage room where mistress Georgia holds nightly orgies with an oddball sex cult. Armed with a giant joy buzzer, Georgia likes to turn herself on, turn her friends on and, ultimately, turn Julia and her sister on: "I specialize in pleasure. Pleasure so intense, it's akin to torment... exquisite torment...."An offbeat, psychologically twisted skinflick from the always excellent Joe Sarno! Plus: The kink-a-thon continues with Fluctuations, a bizarre don't-even-try-to-make-sense-of-it bombardment of sexual imagery that plays like stream of consciousness from a degenerate: threesomes, foursomes, lesbians, bondage, hair-whipping (!) and, believe it or not, even kung-fu. Avant-garde masterpiece or pure gutter trash? Perhaps both... And: A psycho sex-fiend keeps his infantile girlfriend Vicky (Jennifer Welles) in Submission with candy bars, toys and, yes, hot wax. But when they plan on killing a wealthy lesbian, Vicky discovers she likes a woman's touch and plans a nasty surprise for her boneheaded boyfriend! It's a triple bill of sexploitation skin and sin mixing Joe Sarno sophistication with sleaze and schlock, exactly as they played Times Square back in 1970!

A Storybook Classic: Alice in Wonderland (1988)

Average customer rating:

A Storybook Classic: Alice in Wonderland (1988)
Director: Alex Lovy
Manufacturer: Genius Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Animation | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B0007XG5OK
Release Date: 2005-03-15

Average customer rating:

EXCELLENT

Fallen Angel
Starring: James Patrick Keefe , Samantha Phillips , Thomas Adams , Ai Wan , and Kevin Wickham
Director: John Quinn (III)
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Suspense | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

Mystery | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

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( F ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: 6305871302
Release Date: 2000-06-27

Description

Caught in a seedy underworld of lies, lust and murder, Antonelli, the local mob boss, and his sultry young wife, Michelle, share a game of deception and jealousy that soon turns deadly. When Michelle begins an affair with the couple's chauffeur, Antonelli hires an unscrupulous assassin to rub him out. The bloodied event leaves Michelle angry, confused--and in the arms of a hot P.I., Robert Millus. After a night of passion, Robert and Michelle scheme to bring Antonelli down. But with ties from here to the old country, Antonelli takes his commitments seriously. And as Robert and Michelle soon find out, Antonelli is committed to Michelle until death do they part.

Customer Reviews:

EXCELLENT.......2002-03-05

An excellent soft core erotica film with high production vales and good acting. Samantha Phillips has never looked better than in this movie set in post WWII days. As a period piece it works well with all the right props, settings and costumes. The sex scenes are charged but not excessive. The producers and director did well by this one.

DVD:

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Die Baureihe 86