Nancy Gates

Average customer rating:

The best September 11 movie made (forget World Trade Centre)
riveting
Really made 9/11 hit home for me
United They Fought Back
Sad but great move

United 93 (Widescreen Edition)
Starring: J.J. Johnson , Gary Commock , Polly Adams (II) , Opal Alladin , and Starla Benford
Director: Paul Greengrass
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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World Trade Center (Widescreen Edition)
The Sentinel (Widescreen Edition)
The Departed (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Flags of Our Fathers (Widescreen Edition)
The Da Vinci Code (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) [Region 99]

ASIN: B000GH3CR0
Release Date: 2006-09-05

Amazon.com

One of the most shocking events in modern American history gets a skilled and respectful treatment in United 93. The movie begins by following the four terrorists who hijacked the plane that never reached its target on 9/11/2001, tracking them as they enter the airport and wait for their flight, surrounded by the people who will die from their actions. From there, it cuts to and fro among air traffic controllers and the military as, gradually, it becomes clear that planes are being hijacked and crashed into buildings. As the focus turns to the captive United Flight 93, the passengers discover, due to cell phone connections with family, that they're on a suicide mission and--almost paralyzed by stress and anxiety--decide to fight back. Most movies create tension by implying what might happen, but with United 93 the audience knows exactly what happened: Every person on that plane died. As a result, the movie is more relentlessly gut-wrenching than suspenseful (though the dawning realization of the air traffic controllers has an effective creeping dread). But writer/director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy) manages to keep the scale of the events human; there are no glamorous heroics, only terrifying confusion and desperate, hopeless bravery. One can only hope the movie brings some peace to the families of the passengers, as United 93 is the cinematic equivalent of a war memorial, commemorating lives lost in a moment of horrible, harrowing conflict. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

The best September 11 movie made (forget World Trade Centre).......2007-06-21

Went and saw the movie 'United 93' which was about the third plane that was supposed to crash into the Pentagon after the other two went into the World Trade Centre, but instead crashed into a field with no survivors.

I actually liked this movie for the emotion, drama and reality portrayed within it. The usual movies I end up seeing are fluffy love stories with happy endings (unless a really excellent horror movie is on) so it was interesting and yet disturbing to see a real life situation reinacted in front of our eyes. The bad parts first: The movie has far too many scenes of the flight control centre which drains the emotional connection of what this movie is really about. They lack empathy and sadness and maintain too much of their professionalism when they learn of the planes, but make extra speedy runarounds trying to locate all the other planes in the sky. You don't really get to know the characters. They are all merely passengers you'd see on an everyday flight (which I'm sure they were) but it looks like no research really went into their personalities. Far too many useless conversations with no meaning up until the point of when the plane is about to crash and everyone is telling their families how much they love them. The footage of the World Trade Centres with smoke all around only shows the actual buildings and not the people around. There were many below who were devastated, scared, confused... why are they not shown?

The good points? Incredible acting. Yes, the actors and actresses are very convincing. My heart was thudding all the way through from when the terrorists were sitting in their assigned seats to when they started stabbing passengers and threatening to blow up the plane. This movie actually made me cry (which is rare), the end music of the children singing added to the impact of how devastating, frightening and above all saddening the plot and how each one of us felt whilst watching. Definately a movie to see if you can handle the truth about 9/11.

On a complete random note, one of the terrorists looks much like Pete Wentz from the band 'Fall Out Boy'. I definately recommend this instead of the pathetic 'World Trade Centre' movie.

riveting.......2007-06-18

absolutely engrossing and brilliant, had me glued to the edge of my seat, biting my nails, even though we all knew the awful outcome. Truly remarkable on using the non-professionals in the roles, and even better some of the real people taking the part of themselves, was totally refreshing and absolutely a splendid kudo on the right side cheek of director Paul Greengrass. The amount of countless hours of research and interviews he must have gone through, is totally present in every minute of the film, richly detailed and totally mesmorizing.

Certainly not a five star movie, but five star in his writing and directing, without question.

BUY this for your collection, the wide screen certainly brings more to the eye, methinks.

Really made 9/11 hit home for me.......2007-05-31

Having never been to New York and being somewhat young when 9/11 occurred, I didn't feel like I really understood the impact of the event--until I saw this movie. It was very powerful and not obnoxiously patriotic in any way. I cried for a long time afterwards--though its characters are very heroic, this is not a happy movie.

United They Fought Back.......2007-05-21

Everybody remembers exactly where he was on September 11, 2001. I was taking a photojournalism course at the Defense Information School at Fort Meade, Maryland, and--ironically--taking part in an exercise on how military reporters should cover terrorist attacks. In fact, we were discussing the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and how, by the time the bombers came to trial, its significance had been buried because Americans' attention was diverted by the O. J. Simpson "trial of the century." At that moment, a Navy petty officer burst into the classroom and told our Air Force instructor to turn on the television--that the World Trade Center had just been struck by an airplane.

We laughed in disbelief. As Army soldiers, being suddenly thrust by cadre into "live" training scenarios was old hat. We thought we were going to cover a "terrorist event" as a practical writing exercise. But, when the projector switched from the PowerPoint slideshow to the live "Today" show broadcast, we knew from the ominous visual of smoke pouring from the North Tower that this was no exercise.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, rumors abounded that Fort Meade was next, because the National Security Agency is located there. By day's end, I was standing outside our barracks, rifle in hand. I will never forget the emotions and thoughts that poured through me that day--revulsion, nausea, fear, anger, hatred. And finally, relief, because I had been spared the hell so cruelly inflicted on so many of my fellow Americans. As long as I live, I never want to relive that day. None of us do.

Thus, when trailers for United 93 began screening in Los Angeles theaters shortly before its release, some in the audience wailed, "Too soon! Too soon!" Too soon? From the morning Imperial Japan attacked the U.S. at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, until she surrendered in ignominious defeat on August 15, 1945, 1,348 days had passed. On April 28, 2006, United 93's opening day, 1,689 days of the War on Terror had gone by--almost a full year longer than America's involvement in World War II. Surely time enough has passed to allow us to reflect upon and honor those who died that day.

Although Americans were generally familiar with the events that took place on United Airlines Flight 93, most of what we knew had been the subject of dry news reportage and "what if" conjecture. Now, culling transcripts of cockpit flight recorders, 9-1-1 emergency calls, interviews with surviving family members, and eyewitness accounts, writer and director Paul Greengrass has taken the threads of innumerable and seemingly random facts, and woven them into a powerful visual narrative.

In United 93,Greengrass's masterful direction gives us the feeling that we are reliving September 11 all over again. He takes us from the flight's takeover by Muslim terrorists to the events on the ground as the World Trade Center and Pentagon are hit by the three other hijacked planes. He follows United 93's doomed course, in scenes inter-cutting between the airplane and the various air traffic control towers on the East Coast; he ends with the passengers retaking control of the plane from the hijackers, and its tragic crash in a field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

By transforming my theater seat into a cramped seat in coach, as the forty-first passenger alongside those who would soon die on that hijacked flight from Newark, Flight 93 thrust the events in my face with visual and aural brutality, compelling me to relive that day--and to recall its lessons.

Filming in "real time," much like Fox TV's popular action series "24," cinematographer Barry Ackroyd and his crew skillfully captured the action with handheld cameras. It's a method I usually eschew for its forced "realism," but Ackroyd made it work by avoiding show-offish, unnecessary camera movement. By shooting mostly with telephoto lenses, he instills in viewers a sense of claustrophobia that heightens the emotional anxiety. John Powell's dark, percussion-laden soundtrack pummels the ears at rapid-fire tempo, ratcheting up the tension to cardiac arrest levels. Throughout the film, my own heart was racing, my brow was sweaty, and I got that same nauseous feeling in my gut that I so vividly remember from that day.

When the end credits rolled, there was nothing but dead silence in the theater where I saw it. United 93 masterfully achieved its objective of re-creating onscreen the nightmare that Americans went through on September 11th.

However, despite the fact that United 93 totally connected with me emotionally as a viewer, it suffers from the primary flaw of telling much of the story from the hijackers' point of view. The viewer learns more about what motivated them to take over the plane than he will ever find out about the private motives of the passengers, whose dialogue is rather threadbare. We know that through AirFone conversations with relatives, the passengers found out that hijacked planes had already hit New York and Washington, that their own flight therefore was doomed, and that this knowledge motivated them to wrest back control of the plane. But we never really find outwhat personally inspired each of them to their valorous actions. We never really get to know the Jeremy Glicks or Todd Beamers. I agree with those critics who have pointed that their dialogue should have been beefed up, and that these heroes should have been more clearly drawn.

Yet I don't think Greengrass himself fully understands what compelled the onboard rebellion. In a recent interview, he explained his film's depiction of the American passengers:

I suppose what I most wanted it to explore was the relationship between individual moments and collective will...You can't lead if the group's not there with the will, and vice versa. Where does leadership come from? It comes from the desire to be led...The order of the airplane was completely subverted...They seized control of the plane, pinned everybody in the back and they were in charge, and something happened in the course of 20-25 minutes...but you've always got that challenge of: what do you do when a bunch of people take over an airplane? You can't just sit there!
While acknowledging and accurately depicting the American passengers' courage, the British director, it seems, hasn't begun to grasp the spirit of independence that most Americans still regard as their birthright. What induced these men and women to action could hardly be reduced simply to some group dynamic of a "desire to be led"--remember, these were American, not German, passengers--but rather, embodied the individualistic, "don't tread on me" streak that fires us up when push comes to shove.

Fortunately, Greengrass's detachment does not undermine the movie's strengths. One scene in particular captures what makes the American spirit so unique and indomitable. As the passengers start attacking the hijackers to take back the plane, a frightened Swedish passenger tries to block them, standing astride the aisle like a lunch hall monitor. "Just do what they say," he lectures. "Give in to their demands...co-operate, and we will be safe." The Americans must shove the Swedish weenie aside in order to reach their attackers and regain control of the cockpit. I have yet to see a more succinct metaphor for European dithering and condescension as obstacles to righteous American action.

Another critique--that United 93 is Politically Correct--is, I think, mostly unfounded. The movie makes no bones about distinguishing its villains from its heroes; it just does so without heavy-handed sloganeering, which would have wreckedthe taut, montage narrative structure. Composer Powell's menacing and foreboding passages, especially while the terrorists are praying, underscore their vicious brutality, just as upbeat, martial music accompanies scenes of Americans fighting back. Nor does the film disguise the facts that the hijackers were motivated by Islamism, or that the passengers took back the airplane to prevent its striking the U.S. Capitol, and, they hoped, to allow them to return safely to their loved ones.

A year after September 11, I spotted a bumper sticker on a passing car while driving the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Next to an image of the American flag were printed these words: "9/11: Remember. Rebuild. Recover." I could not help but think that there was one "R" missing in that slogan. United 93 does a brilliant job in reminding us that on a Boeing 757, a group of heroic citizens taughtus the response befitting a free people in the face of wanton savagery--Revenge. And the film left me experiencing another "R" as well: Reverence for the memories of those heroes.

Every American ought to invest two hours of his life in watching United 93, because it graphically depicts the inspiring acts, courage, and hope that helped spark the flames of direct action against Islamofascism. David Beamer, father of slain hero Todd Beamer, said of United 93: "This film is a wake-up call. And although we abhor terrorism as a tactic, we are at war with a real enemy and it is personal."

No, it is not too soon for this movie. Rather, let us hope that it is not too late.

Sad but great move.......2007-05-16

Your tape DVD was in great condition. And I will buy more DVD's soon Thank you

Average customer rating:

The best September 11 movie made (forget World Trade Centre)
riveting
Really made 9/11 hit home for me
United They Fought Back
Sad but great move

United 93 (Full Screen Edition)
Starring: J.J. Johnson , Gary Commock , Polly Adams (II) , Opal Alladin , and Starla Benford
Director: Paul Greengrass
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( U ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

World Trade Center (Widescreen Edition)
The Sentinel (Widescreen Edition)
The Departed (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Flags of Our Fathers (Widescreen Edition)
The Da Vinci Code (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) [Region 99]

ASIN: B000GH3CRA
Release Date: 2006-09-05

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

The best September 11 movie made (forget World Trade Centre).......2007-06-21

riveting.......2007-06-18

Really made 9/11 hit home for me.......2007-05-31

United They Fought Back.......2007-05-21

Sad but great move.......2007-05-16

Your tape DVD was in great condition. And I will buy more DVD's soon Thank you

Average customer rating:

An Emotional Outcry
Great Film
"I dunno what it is about them pigs....but they allllwayyys look better at night..."
Entertaining
SOME CAME RUNNING

Some Came Running
Starring: Frank Sinatra , Dean Martin , Shirley MacLaine , Martha Hyer , and Arthur Kennedy
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Manufacturer: MGM (Warner)
ProductGroup: Video
Binding: VHS Tape

Gates, Larry | ( G ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Gates, Nancy | ( G ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Gilchrist, Connie | ( G ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Hyer, Martha | ( H ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Kennedy, Arthur | ( K ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Sinatra, Frank | ( S ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Stone, George E | ( S ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Minnelli, Vincente | ( M ) | Directors | VHS | Video

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Marriage on the Rocks
Robin and the Seven Hoods
Pal Joey
The Young Lions
From Here to Eternity [Region 99]

ASIN: 6302682630
Release Date: 1998-09-01

Amazon.com essential video

The first time Frank Sinatra acted in an adaptation of a James Jones novel, he won an Oscar--it was in From Here to Eternity. The resurgent Sinatra found one of his best subsequent roles as a bitter, boozy failed writer, the hero of Jones's Some Came Running. Returning to his hometown in the Midwest, he runs into the rampant hypocrisy of the "good" life, as embodied by his insincere brother (Arthur Kennedy). Sinatra the cynic plumps for the company of a floozy (Shirley MacLaine) and a misogynist gambler (Dean Martin), while making a desperate bid for the affection of a strait-laced teacher (Martha Hyer). Director Vincente Minnelli (Meet Me in St. Louis) infuses the material with a slow-burning tension, and the climax at a carnival is an eye-filling piece of orchestrated chaos. Elmer Bernstein's moody score is another plus. Footnote to film history: the hero of Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt says he wears his hat in the bathtub as an hommage to Dean Martin in Some Came Running. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

An Emotional Outcry.......2007-03-07

SOME CAME RUNNING. Frank Sinatra's showed that he was much more than just good voice with his pensive performance as Dave Hirsh. And Dean Martin as Bama Dillert his buddy mirrors the worldly side of Hirsh as self-destructs. This film contains a much overlooked Elmer Bernstein score. What a film.

Great Film.......2006-10-26

This film contains great performances. The story and script are very good. The direction is so natural. I love Elmer Bernstein's score. Where is the DVD?

"I dunno what it is about them pigs....but they allllwayyys look better at night...".......2006-07-21

If you go for movies depicting 1948 America, especially films with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin as hard drinkin', foul mouthed (for the time)gamblin' ramblers, THIS IS THE ULTIMATE! Try to drink like Dean-O in this film and you might reach a place where you don't belong...like jail or an early grave.

Vincente Minnelli's best film, from a James Jones story - check out the intricate camera movements, eye-dazzling set design, and great Bernstein score. Shirley MacLaine is adorable and wonderful in her role along with "the boys". This was a great period for American movies, especially for ones like this in amazing color. SCREAMING for a high quality DVD release as of this date - July 06.

Here's to booze in the morning coffee and wearin' yer hat to bed.

Entertaining.......2006-04-26

At 1200+ pages the James Jones novel "Some Came Running" deals with family divisions, drinking, gambling, sexual repression, adultery and other small town USA vices. All this is embedded in a general theme about the hypocrisy so pervasive in 1948 Middle America.

Jones was most famous for his explorations of WWII and its aftermath. "Some Came Running" is somewhat autobiographical as Jones was one of those returning soldiers from WWII whose long absence gave them a new perspective on details in the social fabric that they had not really noticed before. He was from a small town in Illinois and served in the 25th Infantry Division. He was present during the attack on Pearl Harbor and the battle of Guadalcanal. Basing "From Here to Eternity" and "The Thin Red Line on his experiences.

The film adaptation of "Some Came Running" is long but entertaining, especially if you like seeing a lot of big-name stars. Despite its setting in a small town (it was filmed in Madison, Indiana) this was a big budget epic picture.

The Jones character is named Dave Hirsch and played by Frank Sinatra. He is a successful writer but has not written anything for several years. The film begins inside a bus on its way to Dave's hometown of Parkman, Indiana. He has just been discharged from the army and is wearing his uniform (no rank insignia is visible).

His brother Frank (Arthur Kennedy) has become a big shot in the town and introduces him to Gwen French (Martha Hyer), a college literature teacher who is impressed with his writing but put off by his wild life style. Dave has been followed to Parkton by Ginny (Shirley MacLaine), an airhead he met in a Chicago bar. This sets up the film's love triangle.

Dave becomes friends with a local gambler named Bama Dillert (Dean Martin), moves into his house, and pairs up with him on the regional poker circuit where they are very successful.

While Dave tries to come to terms with his roots and with his future, his brother Frank begins an affair with his secretary.

Generally speaking, adopting a 1200 page book to the screen is ill advised and "Some Came Running" is no exception, if only because the screenwriter incorporated too much of the story for a feature length film to handle effectively.

But the producers compounded this problem with the hiring Vincente Minnelli as director and by casting for box office draw instead of acting talent. This resulted in a film with slick production values, an extremely thin plot, lots of characters (but none with any depth), and a too long running time. Can you say flat, lifeless, prosaic, and unconvincing?

Minnelli was a freak about visual details. He was more interested in whether an actress' dress coordinated well with the wallpaper in the set than how the actress handled her character. The inexperienced MacLaine has commented on how the only guidance she received during filming was from her male co-stars. In fact it was Sinatra who insisted the film end differently than the book as a way to make MacLaine's character more memorable. Minnelli's lack of interest in acting for the camera made him an especially poor choice for an overloaded film that needed subtle and nuanced elements in each scene to flesh out the characterization.

For the same reason, a non-actor like "one-take" Sinatra was completely over-matched by the demands of playing his character. Sinatra was comfortable playing himself in front of the camera and in most of his roles this was more than satisfactory, as it is during the early stages of "Some Came Running". But things start to crash and burn with the start of his scenes with Hyer, and the film essentially collapses the first time he reveals that he loves her.

Because of time constraints this romance had to be compressed, requiring a really skilled performance to set up things for the declaration of love, if it is to be at all convincing. Even if Sinatra took direction well (he didn't) and even if Minnelli was a master of acting for the camera (few were worse), the sudden transformation from Sinatra to lovesick puppy would have been a difficult sell.

A very interesting element of this film is Minnelli's obsession with the sets and the moving camera. There are no close-ups and relatively few medium shots. Almost everything is a wide shot or the master shot itself. This could reflect Minnelli's overriding interest in showcasing his sets, or indicate that Sinatra's work habits made changing camera setups difficult, or that the editor found that many of the performances could not withstand close scrutiny. Whatever the cause, it makes it much more difficult to identify and connect with characters who are always so distant from the camera. This is a detail you may want to watch for the next time you see the film.

This was Dean Martin's signature performance and he is truly excellent. Arthur Kennedy won an Oscar for his portrayal of Frank Hirsh but I think the best performance of all was by Leora Dane as his wife Agnes. Their scenes together have real energy, and almost creepy believability.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

SOME CAME RUNNING.......2005-09-12

I wathed the video just last night.....it worked perfectly! Thanks for the great service.

Average customer rating:

JOAN CRAWFORD'S "HIGH CAMP" CLASSIC!!
Jenny Dearest.... !!!NOW IN (lots of) GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOR!!!
"Who Would Pay Money To See This?"
Joan Crawford's Return "Home" To MGM After 10 Years
It's Fun, But...

Torch Song (1953)
Starring: Peter Chong , Joan Crawford , Adolph Deutsch , Nancy Gates , and Paul Guilfoyle
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: Video
Binding: VHS Tape

Crawford, Joan | ( C ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Gates, Nancy | ( G ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Guilfoyle, Paul | ( G ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Loring, Eugene | ( L ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Norman, Maidie | ( N ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Patrick, Dorothy | ( P ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Rambeau, Marjorie | ( R ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Rubin, Benny | ( R ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Warfield, Chris | ( W ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Wilding, Michael | ( W ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Young, Gig | ( Y ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

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Autumn Leaves
Mannequin (1938)
They All Kissed the Bride
Queen Bee [Region 99]
Sadie Mckee

ASIN: 6301976177
Release Date: 1998-09-01

Customer Reviews:

JOAN CRAWFORD'S "HIGH CAMP" CLASSIC!!.......2007-05-17

Jenny Stewart (Joan Crawford) is a tough Broadway musical star who doesn't take criticism from anyone. Yet there is one individual, Tye Graham (Michael Wilding), a blind pianist who may be able to break through her tough exterior. Joan puts the "C" in CAMP with one of her most outrageous performances ever! With flaming "orange" hair (yes ORANGE hair!) she's once again the tough broad that love's done wrong. The "camp" meter goes from low to over-the-top with the "Two Faced Woman" musical number, which has Joan in "brown face" and some really ridiculous routines! Thanks to a close friend, I finally got to see this Joan Crawford "camp" classic! Loads of fun! Joan's "Torch Song" belongs on every "Camp Collector's" DVD library shelf and is long overdue for a proper DVD release! Viva la Joan!

Jenny Dearest.... !!!NOW IN (lots of) GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOR!!!.......2006-11-03

If ever proof positive of the genius talent of Joan Crawford were needed to, say, save children from a burning building, all the fire department need do is look no further than this horrifying shambles of a movie. Yes, boys and girls, such is the strength of Crawford's performance as heartless tuneless theatre virago Jenny Stewart, that it propels this dull little movie from the lowly ranks of Pointlessness, right into the glorious lap of You Have Got To See This Right Now.

Put simply, Joan's an Atlas, carrying the combined weight of a pointless screenplay and an even more uninspiring supporting cast on her bullish, fabulous shoulders, and before God, she makes this otherwise-awful mess into an enjoyable laugh-a-minute tale of hate, love and redemption.

Swaddled in !!!GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOR!!! (honestly, there's a peignoir so !!!YELLOW!!! draped around Ms. Crawford in one of the earlier scenes that it's wont to give you shingles), Jenny Stewart begins to fall in love with her new blind piano accompanist Tye Graham (artless Michael Wilding, delivering his lines with about as much passion as a dead rock), but, since the teensy little pinprick of despair that used to be her heart won't let her have any feelings, Jenny tries her hand at reverse psychology, and does her level best to make Tye think that she, in fact, HATES him. Trotting out every single cliche from insulting his education to inferring bestiality (with his seeing-eye dog, a BULLDOG, yet! Metaphorical, perhaps?), Tye Graham, that brave little soldier, remains undeterred, and dauntlessly marches on, secure in the knowlege that one day the shrieking, glowering, generally hateful Ms. Stewart will belong to him. Brave man...

Okay, so firstly, there's nothing to write home about as regards the performances of the supporting cast, screenplay or direction. Bog-standard post-Busby-Berkley fare, and quite disjointed in places. This, lest ye be mistook, was ONLY ever going to be Joan's show, and, rather than simply chew the scenery, La Crawford merely parts her VERY BRIGHT RED LIPS and points to her mouth, and the scenery jumps down her throat all of its own accord. It's THRILLED to be along for the ride!

As should we all be.

Secondly, I can't really put into words how very wrong the use of colour is in this picture. The whole production seems to be deliberately designed in shades of off-grey and drab sludge, with the express purpose of throwing Joan Crawford's hair, makeup and de rigeur preposterous wardrobe into even higher relief. The !!!YELLOW!!! nightie is but one offender: other Gowns Of Note (And Mistake) include the Two-Faced Woman blue spangled extraveganza, and the tie-on flouncy skirt (with bejewelled waist-spikes, attached). Joan's hair colour deserves a special mention here, too: whatever Sidney Guilaroff mixed to create that flaming crown of doom, he obviously had to wear protective lens. It's not just orange, it's !!!HUGE BIG ORANGE!!! and by God, Joan's got the moxy to wear it, see?!?

However, nowhere in this all-singing, all-dancing, all-laughing catastrophe is the use of colour more pronounced (and inappropriate!!) than in the 'Two-Faced Woman' musical number. Joan does it, and she does it in blackface. When she tears off her black pageboy wig at the number's end, the shocking contrast between her chocolate-brown face paint, !!!HUGE BIG ORANGE!!! hair, bleeding red lips and (and this is my favourite part) blue forhead-sequins (no, I am not making this up!) is not just shocking: it IS how it feels when doves cry.

And finally, just to add to the despair/comedy value of the picture, India Adams' voice (Joan was dubbed: watch that clip of her "singing" a song called 'Got a feelin' for you' in the documentary on the flipside of the 'Mildred Pierce' DVD and you'll understand why this was necessary) is a hoot. Literally. Actually, not so much a Hoot as a Primal Bellow. Watch Joan !!!EMOTE!!! during the plainly dubbed rehearsal scenes and I promise you, even the Almighty Faye Dunaway screeching about wire and hatchets and box-office poison in 'Mommie Dearest' will lose some of its sparkle.

Joan Crawford is my favourite actress of all time. In 'Humoresque', 'Rain', 'Mildred Pierce', 'Possessed 1947', 'The Women', 'Grand Hotel', 'Baby Jane' and so, so many others, she's a luminous, magnetic, enthralling powerhouse of talent, and a genuine delight to watch.

In 'Torch Song', she's better than she's ever been before, but sadly, for all the wrong reasons.

And if nothing else, you HAVE to give the woman credit for beating seven shades of merry hell out of this dreadful, dreadful film.

Watch it, and laugh every ounce of water out of your body. But for heaven's sake, do it with protective goggles on.

"Who Would Pay Money To See This?".......2005-01-23

"WHO WOULD PAY MONEY TO SEE THIS?"

Now, don't get us wrong - we're not talking about the actual movies. This is about performances within performances - when, within the context of a movie, an actor or actress playing a performer gets to perform onstage. We're not talking about musicals, in which the songs move the story along, but "staged" performances that occur within the story. Nightclub or theatre scenes, for instance, in which we get to see what's happening onstage. Let's take *I'll Cry Tomorrow* (1956) starring Susan Hayward as an example. Susan plays Lillian Roth, a nightclub singer on the skids. Over the course of the movie, we see her perform onstage repeatedly, including Lillian's signature number, "When The Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along." Now, frankly, it's hard to imagine a time when a song like that could have been a major hit on the charts, but this is, indeed, what the movie would have us believe. As we are subjected to Susan as Lillian whirling around in a big fluffy skirt, singing her sincere little heart out, with this stupid song and it's ludicrous words, and, yet, the audience is screaming for more, and the movie viewer is left, slack-jawed, wondering, "What are these people screaming for? Who would pay money to see that?"

Who Would Pay Money To See That (WWPMTST)? is a question that my illustrious sister Margaret and I ask frequently while viewing many of our favorite movies. And they *are* our favorite movies, in spite of (or often *because* of) these hideous performances. *Mildred Pierce* (1945), an otherwise superior movie, contains a truly repellant performance of Ann Blyth, magnificently playing the treacherous daughter, Veda. Veda gets thrown out of the house and becomes a singer in a waterfront dive. When her mother, played by Joan Crawford, of course, goes to find her, we enter the scene just as Veda is performing her big number - some unnamed atrocity about a guy named Billy McCoy. As she hulas around the stage in some sort of South Seas (via Hollywood) sarong and lei, the effect is supposed to be tawdry. It's not. It's ridiculous, and it sorely tests the imagination to watch the nightclub patrons in the movie actually sit through the entire song. Thank God, Joan shows up just in time and puts a stop to it. But, Joan, herself, has turned in some pretty horrible performances-within-performances. *Torch Song* (1953) has an aging Joan playing Jenny Stewart - an entertainer of some sort. But the experience of watching Jenny "entertain" asks more questions than it answers - we see her rehearse a lot, and be mean to Michael Wilding, but when the big "Two-Faced Woman" number happens, watch out. Joan, as Jenny, is pure drag queen as she glares and flounces her way through the song, also with a big skirt. She and her sleazy backup dancers (sort of a Fifties version of the Solid Gold dancers) all appear to be wearing something that looks suspiciously like blackface, as they try to drape themselves seductively on café tables - the performance defies even the possibility that the number might have been good, even when the movie first came out.

The big skirt is often an important aspect of "WWPMTST?" *The Opposite Sex* (1956) starring June Allyson, requires several viewings to fully appreciate the sheer badness of the musical numbers. June, playing a retired radio singer, Kay Ashley, isn't responsible for *all* of them, but she has a real lulu, "Young Man With A Horn," performed with (and in homage to) trumpeter Harry James. She mugs her way through the song, wearing a demure little sweater and a great big chiffon skirt that she works mercilessly, spinning and flipping the skirt so much, like frothy waves on the beach, that it becomes the focus of the scene. This is known as "skirt-dancing" and, employed in many movies, is often a last resort to keep the viewer's mind from wandering, and asking the obvious question, "WWPMTST?" *The Opposite Sex* provides several other numbers that beg that same question. Part of the plot (a musical remake of *The Women*) revolves around a Broadway show that's being produced, called "Yellow Gold," about, naturally, the banana-growing industry. Sounds delightful already, right? We are "treated" to the splashy title tune from the show-within-a-show, in which some queen in tight toreador pants is singing "There's yellow gold in the trees *de banana*..." while Joan Collins and Joan Blondell, among others, conga around the stage in nightmarish neon outfits that make them look like jungle mermaids. Truly horrendous, and almost unwatchable. Almost. But stick with it - the very question of "WWPMTST?" occurs with such alarming regularity, that you *know* you're witnessing greatness.

Often, the most difficult-to-fathom aspects has to do with entertainment that modern audiences would be mystified by - the propensity towards finding singing hobos, newsboys and clowns entertaining would escape today's sophisticated viewers over the age of six. *A Star Is Born* (1954) is loaded with opportunities that beg the question, "WWPMTST?" Not that it's Judy Garland's fault - she sings like an angel whether she's dressed as a hobo, newsboy or clown, but perhaps, again, the problem dates back what was considered entertaining at that particular time. The era of vaudeville is often conjured up in movies, such as this one, and is sentimentally portrayed as a simpler era catering to simpler tastes. Simple-minded is more like it, if we are to believe that hats and canes and happy darkies are necessary accoutrements for entertainment. Of course, the "WWPMTST?" question does not apply to scenes that are awful by intention - the Iris, the Hand-Walking Queer routine from *Beaches* (1988) is so repulsive that the director achieved exactly what he wanted. On the other hand, *Dirty Dancing* (1987) gives us Jane Brucker as Baby's sister Lisa, who performs her own rather South Seas "Billy McCoy"-ish number in a talent show. A few bars of it would have sufficed, but the director makes us wince and squirm through the entire interminable song, and it seems particularly evil of him, since, while the audience on the screen might have conceivably enjoyed the performance, the audience in the theatres paid dearly, and not just in dollars.

The "WWPMTST?" Hall of Fame award goes to *Valley of the Dolls* (1967) in which every single staged performance in the film is abysmal. When Patty Duke, as Neely O'Hara, performs a song called, "It's Impossible" on a telethon within the movie, it is not only impossible, it is painful. The song is schlock, and Neely, in a silly sweater and skirt, is completely upstaged by the double strand of beads she is wearing. As she tosses herself side-to-side to convey emotion, her beads first loop themselves over one breast, and then over the other, and finally, over both at the same time - an unintentionally hypnotic moment, that manages to take your mind off the ever-present question, "WWPMTST?" One of the most unbearable scenes is the torturous and treacly "Come Live With Me" nightclub number performed by the completely talent-free Tony Scotti as that hot new singing sensation Tony Polar. The sole redeeming factor is getting to see him reprise the song on drugs in a wheelchair. Then there's the girdled-to-the-gills Susan Hayward as the vicious stage star Helen Lawson, singing some dreadfulness called "I Plant My Own Tree" as an Alexander Calder mobile swirls around her. The Helen Lawson character was based upon Ethel Merman, who was responsible for *many* "WWPMTST?" performances, herself. It's extremely difficult to imagine her becoming a star now, and equally hard to watch her perform. As if the song itself weren't enough to make you wonder "WWPMTST?" the hair and dress that Susan, as Helen/Ethel wears makes you wonder "Did she pay someone money to make her look like this?" It is a low point in film history, as you watch a great actress playing a dreadful actress, singing an awful song from a bad show within a truly horrible movie. Truly horrible, and exquisite in its trashiness. *I'd* pay money for *that*.

Joan Crawford's Return "Home" To MGM After 10 Years.......2004-06-09

The less flattering views on Joan Crawford would be that the role of hard as nails musical star Jenny Stewart was a role that was no stretch for her, so closely did it resemble the real actress. While certainly the character of Jenny has few redeeming qualities, it is hardly typical of Joan Crawford's working relationship with her own crews and a large proportion of her costars in countless films over the decades. Here she has a role which has gone down into "camp" folklore because of its over the top viciousness and neurotic perfectionism. Jenny Stewart indeed is one of the harder and meaner roles that Joan Crawford took on in her later years and ironically came by at a very happy time in her professional life as it marked her return with great fanfare to MGM which had been her "home", for 18 glorious and mainly happy years in the 1920's and 30's.

Joan Crawford plays this forceful star as a cold and hard woman who believes in perfectionism in all things. The opening sequence finds Jenny in the middle of rehearsals for a new show. Her dancing partner ironically is played by the real life director of "Torch Song", dance legend Charles Walters. He misses one of the steps which sends Jenny into a rage and she shoots off a threat that unless the steps are perfected Ralph, (Walters), will be out of the show. The cast and crew alike live in constant terror of Jenny with the exception of stage assistant Joe Dennar (Harry Morgan) who has learnt to turn the other cheek to Jenny's manical quest for perfection. When her resident pianist has had enough of Jenny's controlling nature and quits Jenny finds herself with an unexpected replacement in the form of reserved blind pianist Tye Graham (Michael Wilding). Tye is not afraid of Jenny and very soon the pair are clashing as he is not slow in pointing out her wrong singing tempo or when she has over stepped the mark in her treatment of her cast and crew. Jenny finds herself perplexed by Tye's manner as she is used to getting her way in all things. She attempts to have him replaced but underneath her confident and ruthless exterior beats the heart of a woman who is alone and desperately in need of love. Her current relationship with vapid stagedoor leech Cliff Willard (Gig Young) is unfulfilling and slowly Jenny begins to realise that Tye's honest straight talk is what she is actually looking for in life. Visiting her mother (Marjorie Rambeau), Jenny happens to look through one of the old scrap books her mother has compiled about her career and in it she sees an old review written by Tye when he was a second string music reviewer. He writes in a glowing manner about Jenny's talent and likens her to a "gypsy madonna". After her cruel dismissal of his musical judgement and her action in getting Tye fired Jenny begins to realise how much she now misses him. She visits his apartment and finds that she has a rival for Tye's affections in Martha(Dorothy Patrick). Unbeknown to Jenny however Tye cannot commit to Martha as he has never actually seen her whereas he will always love Jenny as he saw her perform before he lost his sight in the war. Finding out that Tye still carries a torch for her Jenny finally realises that she has found someone to love her for the person she actually is and she goes to him and in a touching scene Dorothy exits the apartment with Jenny taking her place in the room as Tye is playing the piano. When he discovers who his audience actually is he takes Jenny in his arms and she confesses her total need for him in her otherwise empty life.

"Torch Song", gives Joan Crawford a very meaty role to sink her teeth into and it was her first full technicolour production. She dominates the proceedings from start to finish and Crawford handles the demands of playing a dancing star very well. The rehearsal scenes show an agile and capable Crawford keeping right up with veteran Charles Walters in the dance steps. With her flattering dance costumes created by MGM designer Helen Rose it can be seen that Crawford still possessed some of the best legs in the business. For her singing numbers Joan was dubbed by India Adams who performed the same service for numerous non singing actresses in musical roles. Her big production number "Two faced Woman", done in black face is amazing and in its garish colour and dated musical compostion is perfect as one of the highlights earning the film its "camp", appeal. The other performances pale into the background in front of the Crawford onslaught but Michael Wilding does a good job in the quite difficult role of Jenny's blind pianist. His handling of the characters blind status is convincing and his even playing beside the much more frantic Jenny makes a nice contrast. Also pleasing is the great chemistry between Jenny and the two characters of her mother and her black personal assistant respectively. Crawford displays an easy rapport with both actresses and in those scenes you can almost see a little extra dimension revealed in Jenny's character. The production has a handsome if slightly gaudy look to it with the bright Metro colour but the backstage atmosphere is recreated well with one very autobiographical scene inserted when Jenny greets her young fans at the stage door enquiring about their families etc. It is almost a snap shot of how Crawford related to her own real life fans on such occasions.

Campy, hilariously awful, and great nostaglia value are all labels that have a place in describing this film. It is overall great fun and shows Joan Crawford still in total command of the screen in the type of glamourous and no holds barred role that suited her to perfection. Not a great success at the time of it's release despite the publicity of Crawford returning to MGM after 10 years, it now seems to have a whole second life as a "camp", curio piece . Sit back and enjoy as Joan Crawford dominates the screen as the ruthless, domineering star of stars who finds love in the most unexpected place in MGM's "Torch Song".

It's Fun, But..........2004-05-15

"Torch Song" is fun to watch, but not as much so as I'd expected. Parts of it are downright dull, and one really has to pay attention to have any clue what's going on.
I still don't know why everyone seems to practically worship Jenny Stewart( Joan Crawford), especially when she's such a pill. The only reason that Jenny falls for Tye( Michael Wilding) is that he WON"T take her abuse. She respects him, I guess. But she seems very confident that he'll melt like everybody else when she decides to beckon. Yeah, sure.
My favorite part is when, in a typical hissy after the "Two-Faced Woman" number( calls to mind Meredith Brooks' "I'm a B****")Jenny rips off her black wig, revealing orange hair that is rather jarring combined with her fake-mulatto makeup. Yuck.
And she's even grouchy with Michael Wilding's guide dog.Carol Burnett's parody, "Torchy Song", is lots better than the original.Devout Joan Crawford fans( and there are bound to be some) should opt for "Mildred Pierce" instead.

Average customer rating:

The best September 11 movie made (forget World Trade Centre)
riveting
Really made 9/11 hit home for me
United They Fought Back
Sad but great move

United 93 (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Starring: J.J. Johnson , Gary Commock , Polly Adams (II) , Opal Alladin , and Starla Benford
Director: Paul Greengrass
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Special Editions | Fully Loaded DVDs | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

World Trade Center (Widescreen Edition)
The Sentinel (Widescreen Edition)
The Departed (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Flags of Our Fathers (Widescreen Edition)
The Da Vinci Code (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) [Region 99]

ASIN: B000H5U6HA
Release Date: 2006-09-05

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

The best September 11 movie made (forget World Trade Centre).......2007-06-21

riveting.......2007-06-18

Really made 9/11 hit home for me.......2007-05-31

United They Fought Back.......2007-05-21

Sad but great move.......2007-05-16

Your tape DVD was in great condition. And I will buy more DVD's soon Thank you

Average customer rating:

Entertaining rubbish
Not for Suddenly Susans.
Meat 'n' Potatoes with Tommy Guns
Suddenly
Short, Tight Post-War Thriller Driven by Frank Sinatra's Intensity.

Suddenly
Starring: Frank Sinatra , Sterling Hayden , James Gleason , Nancy Gates , and Kim Charney
Director: Lewis Allen
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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The Man with the Golden Arm (50th Anniversary Edition)
I Wake Up Screaming (Fox Film Noir)
The Manchurian Candidate (Special Edition)
Kiss of Death (Fox Film Noir)
Where the Sidewalk Ends (Fox Film Noir)

ASIN: B0001UZZPY
Release Date: 2004-05-18

Amazon.com

Directly in the wake of his Oscar-winning comeback in From Here to Eternity, Frank Sinatra took on the role of a psychopathic hit man in this taut, low-budget film noir. The choice shows how interested Sinatra was in serious acting during the mid- to late '50s; there's nothing remotely likable about this angular, neurotic assassin. He's in the small town of Suddenly to kill the president, who is passing through on a quick train stop. Sinatra makes hostages of a local family and sheriff Sterling Hayden, and the film is basically a countdown to the president's arrival, with Sinatra's patter getting loonier as the day goes on. Aside from the interest of Sinatra's performance (very focused and downright perverse at times), and the film's place in the American noir tradition, Suddenly is uncannily prophetic on the subject of assassination. It's clear that the killer is doing it for the fame as well as the money, a theme that would crop up in later confessions of real-life killers or would-be killers. Perhaps the 1954 film was too prophetic; like Sinatra's Manchurian Candidate, this movie was pulled from circulation for years after the JFK assassination. According to Kitty Kelley's bio of Sinatra, Lee Harvey Oswald saw this film a few days before he took rifle in hand. Now in the public domain, Suddenly is generally available in cheap, scratchy prints. --Robert Horton

Description

See the legendary Frank Sinatra as you've never seen him before in this taut, terrifying thriller that was suppressed for decades! When the President is slated to pass through a small town, murderous John Baron (Sinatra) decides to take over the tranquil Benson household as part of chilling assassination plot. Can this madman be stopped before the country is thrown into turmoil?

Customer Reviews:

Entertaining rubbish.......2006-07-02

Predictable ending to a typical post-war script. They are hitting you over the head without any subtlety. The theme is that pacifism doesn't work, sort of like preaching to the converted, since it is a POST-war film, not a pre-war film.

A war widow spurns the advances of the town sheriff and doesn't allow her 8 year old son to play with guns. There's your pacifist, the war widow. By the end, she's ready to kill the bad guy herself. As I said, there's no subtlety to the script. It is obvious, unoriginal, completely predictable, and therefore juvenile and uncreative.

Sinatra's acting is no big deal. It's laughable the way people rave about it. It just shows that any silly old nonsense can impress people. He's not terrible. He's just a non-actor doing a more or less decent enough job in a silly script. You can't compare his acting to his singing. He was an exceptional stylist as a singer, and a hack as an actor, as you should be able to see in this movie. To compare his acting to a singer, you might say he is the Freddy Cannon of actors. You remember the guy who sang that silly song Palisades Park. Maybe you don't. You shouldn't. It's nothing, like Sinatra's acting.

This film is nothing but stereotypes. I'd be ashamed of it if I had directed it. There are no real people in it. There are no believable lines in it. It's just one of those stupid stories of the early fifties to make a point, that Americans are this or that way, that we gotta shoot some bad guys. Okay, whatever. Sure we have to shoot some bad guys. You don't need to convince me. I'm not a pacifist. But I know a dopy script when I see one.

I'm giving it three stars for entertainment value. Even though the movie is dopy and completely predictable, it's kind of fun to watch. That's worth a few stars. The writing gets an F, the acting gets a D, but the entertainment value gets a C plus or B minus, and it isn't hard to sit through.

There's one part that is so stupid it cracked me up. Sinatra sends one of his bad guy assistants outside to check things out, when what he really wants is to keep his presence secret. So he sends out one of his bad guys to become very visible. Hahaha. And of course the bad guy is spotted and blows Sinatra's cover. That is the funniest part of this dopy movie.

Not for Suddenly Susans........2006-05-13

A long, withheld movie of historical and musicological interest,that has taken on increasing interest. Why? Frank Sinatra, the star, the Voice, withdrew the film following the assassination of JFK, because of the mob ties. Nevertheless, this B noir movie is better than you expect.Among the supporting cast lies a real WWII hero,Sterling Hayden, who gives a restrained performance, playing the sheriff in the small town with the responsibility to see that the president's train gets through without incident. However, Frank Sinatra and his gang of co-conspirators plan to remove the responsibility, by using his girlfriend's lofty house above the railroad tracks.
No one since the first screening has given this film digital enhancement in any way, which makes it play out like you'd see it in your town theatre. Although this begs for a modern re-doing, it stands on its own as a look at Sinatra the actor, playing a creepy thug with a chip on his shoulders. He plays it very well, as if the producer told him he would be getting back at all his detractors. Sinatra pulls it off convincingly, making everyone uncomfortable in his presence, as if he's going to explode like a bomb with a short fuse,emotionally threatening and leering at the same time.And he's not "Maggio" here either, the same punk "From Here to Eternity." Even Sterling Hayden admires him as he ranges like a captive lion in confinement. Psychotic, unbalanced and self-assured around his weapons or just handling them, it is one of Sinatra's most realistic portrayals. Just when the script slows, a glare or scowl from Sinatra and your pulse takes off. Sinatra made a lot of toss-off films, this is not one of them.For him, the part was probably like himself between rained-out gigs, holed up in Palookaville, as Gay Talese indicated in his short story,"Sinatra Has A Cold." If it is ever re-made, and I doubt that it will be, it is one film that is nothing without Frank.

Meat 'n' Potatoes with Tommy Guns.......2006-02-01

This is a great slice of Americana, a true "Period Piece." Sinatra was a competent actor and probably could have paid the bills this way even if he hadn't been a remarkably talented singer. It's not everybody who can pull off a menacing tough-guy when he weighs 118 soaking wet. This film presents itself in stark tones both visually and thematically. Patriotism, courage, honor, sacrifice. The words necessary to make that into a sentence would only sully the higher meaning; and that's the feeling you get as you watch this film. It is sparse, but self-assured. Think of it as the lost episode of "The Andy Griffith Show."

Suddenly.......2005-09-26

Oddly enough I had never seen this show.. and I found it to be very good.

Short, Tight Post-War Thriller Driven by Frank Sinatra's Intensity........2005-09-24

The Western town of Suddenly was once bustling with gold prospectors, but "things happen so slow now, the Town Council is figuring to change the name to Gradually." That is until one day when the President of the United States schedules a stop in Suddenly and professional assassins aim for it to be his last. Town Sheriff Tod Shaw (Sterling Hayden) is notified that the President will be arriving on the 5 o'clock train. A team of Secret Service men arrive to make sure the town is secure. But 3 assassins led by John Baron (Frank Sinatra) are a step ahead of them. They take over the Benson house that sits on a hill overlooking the train station and hold the family hostage, terrorizing and threatening retired Secret Service man "Pop" Benson (James Gleason), his widowed daughter-in-law Ellen (Nancy Gates), and her young son Pidge (Kim Charney), waiting for the train carrying the President to arrive.

Frank Sinatra's cold-blooded, loquacious assassin John Baron is "Suddenly"'s driving force. He's amoral, self-absorbed, and only in it for the money... and the self-respect. Baron mocks even his clients who paid him so much money to shoot a President who will be replaced in a matter of minutes. John Baron is an interesting enough guy to listen to -thanks to Frank Sinatra's intensity, but the character is striking because this film was released in 1954, when a World War II hero was in the White House and the nation was enjoying the prosperity that war had brought. Yet John Baron attributes his killer instincts to his experience as a soldier, for which he was awarded a Silver Star. He says of killing in the Army, " They taught me how, and I liked it." "After the show I hooked up with an outfit for good dough." Screenwriter Richard Sale emphasized the irony in a presidential assassin who learned to kill by fighting for his country. On top of that, John Baron is played by a draft evader.

Frank Sinatra makes "Suddenly" tick, but he has a nice foil in tall, handsome Sterling Hayden, whose Sheriff exudes warmth in contrast to Sinatra's assassin. Nancy Gates' primary role as Ellen is to be overprotective of her son Pidge, which she does convincingly and with great conviction. Actor Jim Lilburn, playing television repairman Jud Hobson, provides a little accidental comedy when his Irish accent comes through at moments of high emotion. Lilburn was Maureen O'Hara's brother and also went by the stage name James O'Hara. "Suddenly" is a tight, entertaining little thriller driven by Frank Sinatra's star power. Its violent, cynical veteran is considered by some critics to place the film within the definition of film noir.

The DVD (Refers to the Master Movies/Parade 1998 disc only.): This is not a restored print of the film. There are specks and fine lines, and the picture flickers a few times around the 1 hour mark. Bonus features are: "Critical Comment", which is test excerpts from a few reviews. There are short text bios for director Lewis Allen, composer David Raksin, writer Richard Sale, cameraman C.G. Clarke, James Gleason, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Gates, Sterling Hayden. Subtitles are available for the film in Japanese.

Famous Rat Pack Movies (Little Moon & Judd McGraw / At War With The Army / Suddenly)

Average customer rating:

Good old movies
Famous Rat Pack Movies
this is a waste of time!!!
One classic, two duds

Famous Rat Pack Movies (Little Moon & Judd McGraw / At War With The Army / Suddenly)
Starring: Frank Sinatra , Sterling Hayden , James Gleason , Nancy Gates , and Kim Charney
Director: Lewis Allen , Hal Walker , and Bernard Girard
Manufacturer: Bfs Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
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4-for-3 Action & Adventure | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

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( F ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Classic Kung-Fu Fighting Movies - Bruce Lee: Fist Of Fear, Touch Of Death / Fists Of Bruce Lee / Bruce Lee Fights Back From The Grave
Great Mystery Movies (The Stranger / D.O.A. / Lady Of Burlesque)
Ocean's 11
Shirley Temple The Early Years (Black and White)
The Dick Van Dyke Show - 6 Classic Episodes

ASIN: B00005N5S0
Release Date: 2001-10-09

Description

3 Great Movies on 1 DVD. Star Power, Exciting Genre with Extras on each DVD.

Customer Reviews:

Good old movies.......2007-06-12

I enjoyed the movies and even though they are old it was a good buy.

Famous Rat Pack Movies.......2006-08-03

Judd and Little Moon was an incredibly bad movies with the poorest acting I have seen.

The Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis movie was marginally better

this is a waste of time!!!.......2006-06-24

the movies on this disc might be good,but from the very poor transfers here(droped audio,picture drop-out and freese pictures ,and all the movies were very very dark almost not watchable)you would never know. skip this mess and look for these movies elsewere!!!

One classic, two duds.......2005-01-02

I picked this up when I was first building my DVD collection. I wanted a copy of SUDDENLY but this was the only DVD issue of it I could find at the time. Being somewhat of a Rat Pack fan, I thought I was getting a great three-for-one bargain. While SUDDENLY is a classic film noir (and one of Frank Sinatra's best films), the Sammy Davis western comedy and the Dean & Jerry films are dogs. I'm gonna replace it with one of the bargain priced reissues of SUDDENLY that are now available.

Average customer rating:

See Bob Mitchum's first starring role!
Mitchum's first starring role.

Nevada
Starring: Robert Mitchum , Anne Jeffreys , Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams , Nancy Gates , and Richard Martin (II)
Director: Edward Killy
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

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West of the Pecos
Wagon Wheels
Yellow Sky
Seven Men From Now (Special Collector's Edition)
The Stranger Wore a Gun [Region 99]

ASIN: B000A6T244
Release Date: 2005-09-06

Description

Robert Mitchum gives a remarkable performance as a hard bitten loner who must confront a gang of vicious outlaws who are terrorizing the countryside. The victim of a cross and double cross, Nevada is found with $7,000 yellowbacks just as his the same amount is robbed from the innocent Ide! Will the vigilantes go free and the townspeople convince a mob to lynch the innocent Nevada or will the cowboy and his bankroll get out of town alive?

Customer Reviews:

See Bob Mitchum's first starring role!.......2006-07-20

This review refers to the DVD "Nevada" from the Zane Grey series. "Nevada" is the first starring role of Robert Mitchum after he was promoted from playing the heavy in Hopalong Cassidy Westerns. He would make another B-western, "West of the Pecos" before he was promoted to "A" features.

Although Nevada looks like a B-Western (it even has Richard Martin in the role of Chito Gonzales Bustamante Rafferty, the role he would play alongside Tim Holt in the popular Tim Holt series, the plot line of "Nevada" has some elements that are not normally found in B-Westerns like those of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, or Hopalong Cassidy.

Robert Mitchum plays 'Nevada', a cowboy who isn't proud of being a "twenty-dollar-a-month cowboy". He goes to a mining town and resorts to gambling to improve his lot, and that's how he comes by his troubles. He gets framed for a murder he did not commit and while he clears his name he also helps develop the Comstock Lode. Excellent supporting role from Guinn "Big Boy" Williams and Anne Jeffreys.

Three stars.

Mitchum's first starring role........2005-08-27

This Robert Mitchum's first feature film. RKO hired Mitch, the original king of cool, for its Cowboy freatures when Tim Holt went into the service. Interesting to Tim Holt fans will be the appearence of Richard Martin in the role that made him almost famous. Richard Martin first played Chito Jose Bustamante Gonzales Rafferty in the World War 2 movie Bombardier. He would go on to play that same character 32 times, mostly in Tim Holt Westerns. This film is his first western, however, under that character's name. He would play it one other film along side Mitchum in the West of the Pecos. The Chito Rafferty character also appeared alongside James Warren in Wanderer of the Wasteland. One wonders how a character that first appeared in a modern war flick ended up being a longtime sidekick in Westerns. It would not be until 1947 that the Rafferty character appeared alongside cowboy star Tim Holt in Wild Horse Mesa. This is not a great film but it is a fun film. It is interesting to see Mitchum in his first feature.

Average customer rating:

one of my favorite movies
"His Eye is on the Sparrow"
Great film; Wonderful cast...
This movie should be on DVD!!
Quietly Brilliant

Member of the Wedding
Starring: Ethel Waters , Julie Harris , Brandon De Wilde , Arthur Franz , and Nancy Gates
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: Video
Binding: VHS Tape

Beaumont, Hugh | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Edwards, James | ( E ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Franz, Arthur | ( F ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Gates, Nancy | ( G ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Hansen, William | ( H ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Harris, Julie | ( H ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Waters, Ethel | ( W ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Wilde, Brandon De | ( W ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Zinnemann, Fred | ( Z ) | Directors | VHS | Video

General | Drama | Genres | VHS | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | VHS | Video

Member of the Wedding
Summer & Smoke
Reflections in a Golden Eye
Pinky
East of Eden (Two-Disc Special Edition)

ASIN: 6302874912
Release Date: 1996-06-25

Customer Reviews:

one of my favorite movies.......2007-03-06

When I first saw this film I couldn't believe Julie Harris was in her twenties. Her performance is incredible and heart stopping at times. I loved the book, where every page has a quotable line that is alive with summer, youth and heartache, and the movie does a fine job with adapting McCuller's vision.
When you are watching it, you feel like you're sitting in their balmy kitchen and listening to the frenetic outcries of Frankie and her longing to be a member of her brother Jarvis's wedding, in person. This film to me is better than Casablanca and Citizen Kane put together.

"His Eye is on the Sparrow".......2007-01-22

This is where Ethel Waters sang her famous "His Eye is on the Sparrow." The movie just aired on TCM, and I loved it all over again. I will buy it for Ethel Waters' performance alone. And I echo a previous reviewer... THIS FILM SHOULD BE ON DVD! Please!

Great film; Wonderful cast..........2006-05-24

Perhaps Julie Harris was a bit old to play this role, but she has definitely channeled her remarkable resources to create one of the finest interpretations ever immortalized on film. An established stage personality, Julie re-created her Broadway role (as did Brandon de Wilde & Ethel Waters), and the ensemble re-creation is mystifying and powerful.Fred Zinnemann's direction kept pace, genuine care and generous close-ups of the constant intimacy of the bittersweet procedings. Ms. Harris received an Oscar nomination for this, her first film. The next year she made "I Am a Camera" (the basis for "Cabaret") where she played Sally Bowles with vigor and aplomb. Wow! In '55 she played Abra in Elia Kazan's "East of Eden", which was James Dean's film debut. Everyone said she was too old to play that role. Julie plays well in black & white, transcending any semblence of age. "Eden" was in color, and it just wasn't the same. This was also Brandon de Wilde's film debut, and the following year he received a nomination for "Shane". Those were the only nominations Julie & Brandon ever received. No question they were great performers. Mr. de Wilde couldn't seem to go on to adult roles, and the result was unfortunate. Knowing all this, and watching "The Member of the Wedding" tonite on TCM, I'm craving a DVD of this wonderful, heart-felt film. It was remade in 1997 with the wonderful Jena Malone, but the gut-reaction simply wasn't the same. There's so much garbage on DVD, I wish someone would realize that there's a serious waiting public craving quality. Anyone else agree?

This movie should be on DVD!!.......2005-05-19

This film adaptation of Carson McCullers' coming of age story features a fine performance by Julie Harris, and an excellent supporting cast. Instead of summarizing the plot scenario, as other reviews here have done, I'll just say that this is a poignant and excellent film that depicts a portion of everyone's life that we need not to forget, if not for ourselves, for those in the throes of it, now and to come. And if you like the film, read the novel, too. McCullers was a fine, fine writer.

Someone, PLEASE, remaster this excellent film and release it on DVD!

Quietly Brilliant.......2002-02-19

I don't even know where to begin - this film is just plain brilliant in so many ways...
1) The story: Remember when you were a child, you were caught in that awkward stage where you are too old to be a child, and too young to be an adult. You want desperately to fit in, but you don't. That is the focal point of the story, and it is told honestly and sadly thru the eyes of Frankie. That is the plight of Frankie Adams, played brilliantly by Julie Harris - one of the truly great performances I've seen.
2) The cast: Julie Harris I mentioned, and Ethel Waters as Bernice. I start to call her the maid, but that would be a huge dis-service. This is the first movie to portray a black character as more than just a maid in the background with one or 2 lines. She is a lead character in every sense, and her performance is perfect.
3) The direction: Most all the action takes place in one room, yet the closeups at just the right moment, and the magnificent music score add so many textures, it is a clinic on how to direct and film in Black and white.
4) The south: If you ever wanted to visit a small Georgia town in the 50's to see what it was like - this movie will take you there. The race relations of the time, the awful sticky heat, the small town attitudes, all are captured here with honesty and subtlety just below the surface of the main story.
Rarely have I ever seen such an honest film, this is especially remarkable given when it was made and the subject matter it tackled.
Some people think it is a sad movie, and perhaps it is in ways, but it is dealing with the rite of passage that all of us must make, and very few of us make it easily.
Best of all, it leaves you with a feeling of sadness and joy at the same time - the final scene sees the various characters take the paths which they must take - And they can be sad or happy depending on how the character chooses to live their role in life !

R.I.P.: Rest in Pieces: A Portrait of Joe Coleman

Average customer rating:

Era respiration-byte:
Masterworks of a Victim Artist
Like "Crumb" but with Joe Coleman!
Disjointed Documentary

R.I.P.: Rest in Pieces: A Portrait of Joe Coleman
Starring: Jim Jarmusch , Hasil Adkins , Joe Coleman , Harold Schechter , and Katharine Gates
Director: Robert-Adrian Pejo
Manufacturer: The Disinformation Company
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Indie & Art House | Stores | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( R ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

The Book of Joe
Original Sin: The Visionary Art of Joe Coleman
Muzzlers, Guzzlers, and Good Yeggs
Disinformation: The Complete Series
Charles Manson: Superstar

ASIN: B0001A79P8
Release Date: 2004-02-24

Description

R.I.P Rest in Piecesis director Robert-Adrian Pejo's intimate portrait of painter Joe Coleman, who is known around the world as a shamanic, moral voice diagnosing the ills of 21st century America. Coleman holds nothing back, telling us of a world wracked with tumorous cities, perversion, divorce, violence, atomic bombs, and a human race destroying itself "simply because we are born.

Customer Reviews:

Era respiration-byte:.......2006-01-30

"Abnormal living body-Joe Coleman controlls the drug fetus's guerrilla=sex brain and thinks about the psychedelic anus of a chemical=anthropoid with the era respiration-byte." - Kenji Siratori, author of Blood Electric

Masterworks of a Victim Artist.......2004-07-07

R.I.P.
Rest in Pieces: A Portrait of Joe Coleman
DVD review by
Jaye Beldo

Back in the 1980's, I devoted much time and energy criticizing/denouncing Victim Art via such publications as Art Paper, New North Artscape and Art Muscle. My beef was that so called artists with little or no technical skills, dedication to craft or a willingness to actually create a work of art with any hint of lasting merit were really destroying culture and not contributing anything worthwhile at all. These talentless, spineless sycophants, who bitched about how oppressed they were (mostly by the so called patriarchy), intimidated art critics, with their sleight of hand tactics, into actually advocating their mediocrity. All the while, more authentic and dedicated artists who still adhered to integrity of craftsmanship and actually made an effort to create worthwhile things were being snubbed all across the board by the welfare agencies disguising as grants organizations. I had forgotten all about this futile crusade I went on until I received the Joe Coleman Rest in Pieces DVD from Disinformation Company.

It would be impossible to classify Joe Coleman as a prototypical Victim Artist because of his extraordinary technical skills, especially revealed in his consummate mastery of the one hair paint brush. His excruciating devotion to detail, nearly rivaling that of Ivan Albright, not to mention the vivid and astonishingly effective way he renders his subject matter, from Ed Gein to Edward Teller to teenaged murderers calls for a more thorough, well deserved scrutiny and even respect. In the Joe Coleman Opera section of the DVD, the camera pans over Joe's paintings were a bit too fast at times and I had to repeatedly hit the pause button so I could examine and appreciate Joe's devotion to microscopic detail. It really is staggering to partake of. The pain that the resulting images convey runs so incredibly deep that I had to step back from the role I've assumed as art critic and actually experience what Coleman so effectively paints. This has happened only one other time really, when I recently took in a German Expressionist exhibit in Milwaukee. The images (especially those of WWI and WWII) could only be critiqued with tears and not words. I could barely breathe when confronted with these images. Same goes with Joe's work. I found myself asking, between the gasps, if his painful articulations were liberating or imprisoning something within myself. The answer I got was that Mr. Coleman has made an obviously Herculean effort not only to reveal the darkness of our very own psyches, individually and collectively, but to actually FEEL it, something most commendable during a time when we are so anesthetized, Paxil-lated and Zolofted into an oblivion of indifference and dissociation.

While highly impressed with Coleman's Three Ring Circus of Horror kind of paintings vividly depicted on the DVD, I thought the exchanges between the artist himself and the filmmaker Jim Jarmusch were rather lame, especially their so called dialogue shot in some church, full of uncomfortable pauses/dead space, indicating that neither are very good at ad hoc improvising (nor should they be). Joe's performance art attempts also fell a little short in my critical book as well. He comes off as being somewhat self conscious and a bit stiff, not accessing the depths within him like he does so effectively in his paintings. Perhaps he needs a good acting coach of the caliber of a Grotowski if he wants to theatrically rival his own 2-D work and break through some residual character armor that shows when he is on camera. Biting the heads off of live mice surely will leave sanskaric imprints on his soul that he'll have to deal with in a future incarnation, in my karmic opinion. (Yet, on the other hand, look at what head biting has done for Ozzy Osbourne's career). The morbid bit of bravado he shows in the autopsy segment of the DVD also comes off as something contrived and pointless (although he would qualify for becoming an Aghori Yogi I suppose). In spite of these off- the- canvas shortcomings, Joe did have some very compelling observations to share such as parallels between Freud's Id, Ego and Super Ego and the Father, Son and Holy Ghost for starters, something I wish he would have expounded more in depth/length upon.

Joe should be awarded an artist's version of the Purple Heart medal for enduring the front lines of the pathological horror war of his own past and surviving to share his experiences of it with us. The R.I.P. DVD is really quite a paint stripping tease however, causing me to want to see Coleman's work in real time and real space. With his name now on the map and with stars such as Leonardo de Caprio buying his works, I suggest stepping right up and taking a peek at this mostly wonderful docu-DVD before his Coleman's works all disappear into various celebrity cloisters.

Like "Crumb" but with Joe Coleman!.......2004-05-27

If you like Joe Coleman, you are gonna LOVE getting your grubby mitts on this DVD! It's fantastic! It's obvious the director was hewing a little close to the "Crumb" line when this was made, but SO WHAT? It's awesomely funny, cool, insightful and yes, it has a cast of the weirdos surrounding Joe Coleman (similar to "Crumb" I mean to say). With Hasil Adkins, Jim Jarmusch and extras with foxy mama Asia Aregento. I loved this DVD, it's excellent quality, too, you can really see his paintings. Shot on 35mm for a high class package all around.

Disjointed Documentary.......2004-03-20

Being a fan of Joe Coleman's paintings I was looking forward to this DVD release of R.I.P. which originally came out in 1996. I came away knowing a little more about Joe Coleman's work, but in the end, this documentary lacked focus and was too disjointed for my tastes. Most of the film is Coleman talking about his world views, his views on art, and his views on his own paintings. There's also old footage of his performance art and interviews with friends of Coleman's. There's very little footage of Coleman at work showing how a painting develops over time which would have been interesting. Throughout the entirety of the film you see him working on a small area of a nearly completed painting. You also get glimpses of Coleman's "Odditorium" but overall the film gives you many bits and pieces without making a cohesive whole. The most interesting parts were the interviews with his ex-wives/girlfriends and with his current wife who is shown in a short segment as a DVD extra. For a documentary about such a wonderful painter, there wasn't enough focus on the art. Coleman fans will still find something to like in this DVD but overall it's a disappointment.

Actress:

Actress

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