Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 28th, 2006
Synopsis
Dana Andrews was never an actor who radiated warmth, and here he is perfectly cast as a hardboiled con artist on the lookout for number one. He arrives in a small town and falls hard for sultry waitress Linda Darnell. She is holding out for marriage, but marriage with financial stability, which Andrew can’t offer. So he sets about seducing Alice Faye with the idea of fleecing her of her fortune.
Director Otto Preminger’s follow-up to Laura had Andrews doing fine work again, ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 28th, 2006
Synopsis
Valentina Cortesa plays a survivor of the Belsen concentration camp. She has lost everything in the war. Her best friend in the camp is a woman whose infant child is being looked after in the USA, and when this woman dies shortly before liberation, Cortesa decides to adopt her identity, since no one alive would remember what she looks like. Once in the States, she meets and falls in love with Richard Basehart, the guardian of her “son.” Moving into their home in San Francisco, she sense host...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 14th, 2006
Synopsis
Fred Astaire plays wealthy businessman and inveterate bachelor. On trip to France, his car goes into a ditch. Seeking help in a nearby orphanage, he catches sight of the vivacious Leslie Caron. Captivated by her joie de vivre, he arranges for her to receive a full scholarship and education in the states, and watches from the safety of anonymity as she flourishes. But then, whoops, he begins to fall in love with her.
Astaire was 55 at the time, and playing his age. Caron was 20, pla...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 13th, 2006
Synopsis
Jane Fonda plays Lilliam Hellman. She is living in a beach house with Dashiel Hammett (Jason Robards), struggling with a play (The Children’s Hour, though the film is ridiculously coy about mentioning its title). She is also worried about her childhood friend Julia (Vanessa Redgrave), who is caught up in the struggle with the rising tide of fascism in 1930s Europe. Hellman loses contact with Julia, but on a trip to Europe in the wake of her play’s success, she is contacted by friends ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 3rd, 2006
Harry Belafonte stars as an ambitious young politician, who refuses to fear the white majority that holds a foothold over his island home, in Island in the Sun. Along the way, he strikes up a romance with Joan Fontaine. Incidentally, we are supposed to believe Ms. Fontaine’s character is younger than Belafonte’s, despite the fact that she looks ten years older. Dorothy Dandridge also stars as a pharmacy clerk, who falls in love with the white aide to the island’s governor. If this seems like it’s all over the ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 18th, 2006
Disney continues to pull its disappearing acts on DVD with their limited time offers, this time using the new Toy Story 2 2-disc release as the proverbial carrot in front of the mule. While such marketing tactics may be a little annoying to those of us that don’t like to be told when we can or can’t see a movie, there should be no greater incentive to pick this up if you haven’t yet claimed a copy of the film. Toy Story 2 cemented Pixar’s name in quality animation and continued to prove the little studi...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 8th, 2006
Synopsis
Lenny Baker is a young Jewish lad (based on writer/director Paul Mazurksy himself) who dreams of being an actor. The time is the early 1950s, and Baker moves from Brooklyn to Greenwhich village to make a name for himself. Every conceivable element of Beat life in the Village is present, and Baker encounters all sorts of characters (including a young Christopher Walken and Jeff Goldblum). He must also deal with complications in his relationship with girlfriend Ellen Greene, and his domineerin...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 30th, 2005
Synopsis
David Carradine headlines yet another Roger Corman-produced action comedy. Here he’s the good seller of moonshine, up against the bad seller of same, who also happens to be the fater of Carradine’s girlfriend (Kate Jackson). Daddy is in bed with the mob, and is cheerfully selling rotgut on the streets (some of which as been fermenting in a tank with a car battery – blechhh). A battle for supremacy ensues, complete with many boat and car chases and plenty of fisticuffs.
Well, it ain...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 26th, 2005
Synopsis
There was a period in Francis Ford Coppola’s (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now) life where he went through a bit of a phase, where he was making films based on relatively obscure material. And he went through another smaller phase in the early ‘80s where he was making films from source material of author S.E. Hinton (The Outsiders). And Rumble Fish was one of those.
Based on Hinton’s novel, the film details the life in a small town, with a tough neighborhood kid n...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 4th, 2005
Old Yeller is a hard film to take if you're a child. I thought the same would be true as an adult, so needless to say, revisiting this family classic for the first time through an adult's eyes promised to be a harrowing experience. In fact, for the longest time, I hated Old Yeller and berrated its merits as a film. I realize now after years of maturity and a second visit to the Coates family ranch my belittling of this film masterpiece was a defense mechanism to build up my own sense of machismo. The re...
