Drama Triple Feature - Volume 2 (DVD) @ discount dvd online store
Drama Triple Feature - Volume 2 (DVD)
A collection of early dramatic films from yesteryear are combined in this program. The triple feature stars Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. in THE IRON MASK (1929) and in the swashbuckling classic, THE BLACK PIRATE (1926). Also included is THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (1934) starring Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon. See individual titles for descriptions.NR"
ACTORS: Douglas Fairbanks, Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon
Being There (DVD)
BEING THERE is based on Jerzy Kosinskis short comic novel about a simpleton, Chance (Peter Sellers), raised in isolation whose only education came from watching TV. When hes forced out of the house where he worked as a gardener by the death of the wealthy recluse who raised him from infancy, hes fortuitously struck by a limousine carrying Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine), the wife of a wealthy industrialist. Hes mistaken, because of his well-tailored suits, for a man of means and taken to dinner with her husband, Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas). There, as Chauncy Gardner, his blank affect is taken for seriousness and his literal pronouncements about gardening for metaphoric economic predictions. Soon hes meeting the president (Jack Warden) and becoming a star on TV--where hes a natural.
Kosinski was well known to be personally fascinated by the power of television. In BEING THERE, which he adapted for the screen himself, he presents a comic fable about a man whose entire sense of reality came from watching television. Sellers is marvelous as the always-deadpan cipher in whom everyone he meets sees whatever it is they need to see. Shirley MacLaine, Jack Warden, and Melvyn Douglas give outstanding performances in this biting satire directed by Hal Ashby.PG"
Director: Hal Ashby
ACTORS: Peter Sellers, Melvyn Douglas, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Warden, Richard Dysart
One, Two, Three (DVD)
Billy Wilder`s Cold War satire, derived from an energetic Molnar comedy the director had seen in 1929, probably owes as much to NINOTCHKA, perhaps the best known film of his idol Ernst Lubitsch. It stars James Cagney as C.J. MacNamara, a Coca-Cola executive who comes to West Berlin to promote the sugary brew on the other side of the Iron Curtain, hoping, in the process, to be promoted to the post of director of West European operations. He soon learns that his real job is babysitting his boss`s 17-year-old daughter Scarlett (Pamela Tiffin), who has secretly married volatile Communist Otto Piffl (Horst Bucholz) during her soujourn. By the time McNamara learns this small detail, his boss (Howard St. John) is about to arrive in Berlin. After he gets Piffl arrested by the East German police, who torture him by forcing him to listen to Itsy-Bitsy-Teeny-Weeny Yellow Polka-dot Bikini repeatedly, C.J. finds out that Scarlett is pregnant, and realizes he has only twelve hours to get Piffl released and turn him into an acceptable son-in-law for his boss. Wilder`s anarchic satire targets Communism, Coca-Cola, rock n` roll, bureaucratic inefficiency, teenage lust, middle-aged lust, and everything else which wanders into range in this briskly paced farce, which features a vigorous James Cagney in his last leading screen role.NR"
Director: Billy Wilder
ACTORS: James Cagney, Horst Buchholz, Arlene Francis, Pamela Tiffin, Lilo Pulver
Road to Perdition (DVD) Widescreen Directed by Sam Mendes and based on the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner, the Depression-era crime epic ROAD TO PERDITION stars Tom Hanks as Michael Sullivan, a quiet hit man who is duty bound to M...
Directed by Sam Mendes and based on the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner, the Depression-era crime epic ROAD TO PERDITION stars Tom Hanks as Michael Sullivan, a quiet hit man who is duty bound to Mafia boss John Rooney (Paul Newman). The mobster`s close bond with Sullivan, however, leads Rooney`s jealous blood son, Connor (Daniel Craig), to orchestrate a tragic series of events that results in Sullivan on the run with his 12-year-old son, Michael Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin). Soon an unscrupulous crime photographer/assassin named Maguire (Jude Law) is sent after Sullivan and his son, and Sullivan must decide on a course of action as young Michael comes to terms with his father`s violent way of life.
Meticulously directed by Mendes and brilliantly photographed by Conrad Hall, each scene of ROAD TO PERDITION has the composition of an expertly crafted painting. Making effective use of rain, snow, and shadows, the filmmakers create a cinematic world that`s as dark, cold, and unforgiving as many of its inhabitants. But the film also allows for glimpses of emotional warmth, particularly in Sullivan`s relationships with his son and Rooney, his surrogate father. In these roles, the respective actors create complex characters that resonate even in their restraint; Hanks is outstanding as a man of action with little time for words, while newcomer Hoechlin creates an unsentimental portrait of a confused boy, and Newman once again proves why he`s a screen legend. And, in a strikingly unflattering role, Law makes the most out of his screen time as a creepy, parasitic hit man. Even in its harshest moments, however, Mendes never fails to remind the audience that ROAD TO PERDITION is a film about fathers and sons; and this is what elevates it from an atmospheric gangster movie to a truly astonishing work of art.
R"
Director: Sam Mendes
ACTORS: Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, Tyler Hoechlin, Daniel Craig
Federal Protection (DVD)
Longtime gangster Frank Carbone (Armand Assante) changes his tune when the mob puts a hit out on him and he enters the witness protection program. Moving from Chicago to Little Rock, Arkansas, he suddenly finds himself to be a big fish in a small pond. Despite his new surroundings, Frank has trouble saying goodbye to gunfights and blackmail.R"
Director: Anthony Hickox
ACTORS: Armand Assante, Angela Featherstone, Dina Meyer, David Lipper, Tony Calabretta
