*** DVD CORNER ***

[brownie]

Yes, it just came out here along with other Warner goodies: Coffrets Prestiges Warner

You know we take cinema seriously here!

[Kalo]

Can't imagine a Cary Grant best of box that does not include 'Bringing Up Baby'.

A near-perfect Hawks film with a fully perfect Cary Grant-Katharine Hepburn chemistry!

One of my Mom's all time fav's! Somehow, the film lost something like $800,000 when it was first released!

In fact, is one of the films that led to Hepburn being labeled "box office poison."

She didn't come back until The Philadelphia Story a few years later, a film that was specifically written to take her snooty character down a few pegs.

[ghost of miles]

Review of the DVD edition of Lady and the Tramp, a Disney film that continues to interest me because of Peggy Lee's involvement--and it is a sweetheart of a film:

Lady and the Tramp (Disney DVD, $29.99, G)

by Dave Kehr

New York Times, February 28, 2006

One of the most tender moments in movie history involves a pair of

cartoon dogs, a strand of spaghetti and a stray meatball, and no one

who has seen Walt Disney's 1955 "Lady and the Tramp" is likely to

forget it.

The most beautifully rendered and emotionally resonant of the

postwar Disney features, "Lady and the Tramp" arrives on DVD in

a "50th Anniversary Edition" that does full justice to this classic

of hand-drawn animation. Today, this kind of animation -- as opposed

to the computer-driven, 3-D variety -- is rapidly on its way to

joining frescoes and tapestries in the gallery of antique art forms,

but when "Lady and the Tramp" was first released, it embodied the

most advanced entertainment technology of its time.

The film was, in fact, the first Disney feature to be presented in

CinemaScope, a widescreen process that nearly doubled the size of

the canvas available to Disney's artists. The elongated image lends

itself perfectly to the film's panoramic view of small-town America

at the turn of the century, a sweetly nostalgic vision said to be

based on Walt Disney's own childhood hometown of Marceline, Mo.

"Lady and the Tramp" contains what may be the most piercing of

Disney's repeated invocations of childhood trauma, vividly evoking

the pain of a child (Lady, the purebred cocker spaniel) who finds

the love and attention of her parents abruptly and inexplicably

withdrawn when a younger (and alarmingly human) sibling arrives.

But the film is also the most hopeful and emotionally mature of

Disney's fables. The answer to childhood pain lies in adult

affection, as Lady discovers a romantic partner in the figure of the

homeless mutt Tramp. Almost imperceptibly, the film shifts gears

from children's fantasy to grown-up romance, building not just to

that transcendent moment behind Tony's Italian Restaurant, when

Tramp nudges the precious meatball toward his Lady-love, but also to

a graceful suggestion of physical intimacy, when the sun rises and

the two dogs are discovered waking up together.

The double-disc edition is overloaded with extras, some intended for

children (games and suchlike) and some for adults. Among the latter

is a nearly hourlong documentary that, among other things, restores

credit for most of the original story to an animator and idea man

named Joe Grant, who began developing the outline in the late

1930's. Twelve minutes of "deleted scenes" feature storyboard images

synchronized with unused soundtrack material, including an extended

rendition of Peggy Lee's lullaby "La La Lu." (Lee provided the

voices of four characters in the film: Lady's mistress, a pair of

menacing Siamese cats and, unforgettably, a sultry pooch named Peg,

who performs the torch song "He's a Tramp.")

[BruceH]

Funny, we were just talking about Only Angels have Wings on the 1939 films thread, but unless I missed it, there wasn'ta mention of it being out on DVD! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CEV3L...hedigitalbit-20

Nice review of the set near the bottom of this page(The Awful Truth was a pretty crappy copy when it first came out, this version is supposed to be a bit better, and much cheaper to get all these films in a box set)

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/bar...well021506.html

Throw in The Philadelphia Story, Notorious, and North By Northwest and you've really got a box there.

The Philadelphia Story is available in a two-disc Special Edition as part of another bargain DVD box, Classic Comedies Collection(Warner Home Video) along with Howard Hawks's Bringing Up Baby also with Grant and Hepburn, Gregory La Cava's Stage Door with Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, Libeled Lady, with Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, and Walter Connolly, George Cukor's Dinner at Eight, starring Harlow, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, and John and Lionel Barrymore, and Ernst Lubitsch's amazing To Be or Not To Be with Jack Benny and Carole Lombard. Not bad.

There's a nice Criterion of Notorious, and North by Northwest is available as both a single disc and as part of the recent mammoth Paramount Hitchcock set.

But you probably knew that.

Yep.

But isn't the Criterion of Notorious out of print now?

[Kalo]

...isn't the Criterion of Notorious out of print now?

I think so, but I seem to see it around anyway.

[rostasi]

[BruceH]

...isn't the Criterion of Notorious out of print now?

I think so, but I seem to see it around anyway.

I don't.

[BERIGAN]

I may have to get this! I remember the show Wendy O. Williams was on.

The review from Amazon....

Amazon.com

"May I say, Kim," Tom Snyder says to a heavily made-up Kim Fowley, "You look ridiculous tonight." So begins one of late night television's more bizarre interviews. Spanning the musically volatile years from 1977-1981, these eight Tomorrow Show episodes all focus on the burgeoning punk/new wave movement. To his credit, Snyder doesn't pretend to like or even understand it, but nor does he criticize (although he does chuckle on occasion). Mostly, he lets the musicians speak for themselves and play a few tunes. All the while, he looks thoroughly bemused, comfortably enveloped in a nimbus cloud of cigarette smoke--along with a few of his guests, like a soft-spoken Paul Weller (the Jam) and surly John Lydon (Public Image Limited). Other participants include Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, the Plasmatics, the Ramones, Patti Smith, and Joan Jett (circa the Runaways, who were produced by Fowley). Smith, Jett, and Lydon, joined by PiL band mate Keith Levene, do not perform. The rest do. The Plasmatics make the most of the opportunity with "Master Plan," during which Wendy O. Williams spray-paints, smashes the windows, and then blows up a car. Other notable numbers include Pop's "Five Foot One" and the Jam's "Pretty Green." Because these programs are shown in their entirety, several non-musical guests, like Frank Capra and Ricky Schroeder, also put in appearances (and to Joey Ramone's chagrin, Kelly Lang is the fill-in for Snyder during the Ramones segment). --Kathleen C. Fennessy

[ejp626]

Hmm, that reminds me that Season 1 or 2 of SCTV has a song or two by the Plasmatics. If I remember correctly, in the commentary they mention how Wendy O. Williams wasn't wearing an outfit acceptable to the network censors, so they had to add some tape.

[rostasi]

Nat Adderley/Woody Shaw/Joe Henderson/Nathan Davis/Curtis Fuller/

Kenny Drew/Walter Bishop/Jimmy Woode/Idris Muhammad:

[Chuck Nessa]

Nat Adderley/Woody Shaw/Joe Henderson/Nathan Davis/Curtis Fuller/

Kenny Drew/Walter Bishop/Jimmy Woode/Idris Muhammad:

Nothing I've encountered by this band lived up to the billing. In fact I've dumped everything.

[sal]

Two of the best American movies of 2005 are out on DVD today.

A History of Violence

Good Night, and Good Luck

[BERIGAN]

Coming out March 21st! Lots o' extras as usual, even a Don Redman Short!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E0OE1...0-9667929?n=130

[Kalo]

Coming out March 21st! Lots o' extras as usual, even a Don Redman Short!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E0OE1...0-9667929?n=130

Yeah, that Don Redman short caught my eye. There's a sensational Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra short on the recent Astaire/Rogers DVD Follow The Fleet.

This Berkeley Box should be great. I saw Footlight Parade at the Harvard Film Archive last year for the first time. An incredibly snappy, pre-code musical with lots of risque jokes and James Cagney at his most caffienated. And featuring those sublimely ridiculous numbers (in one of them a bunch of synchronized swimmers form a giant zipper that unzips!).

[rostasi]

[rostasi]

I may have to get this! I remember the show Wendy O. Williams was on.

It's a great slice of the past!

The only one that I saw previously was the infamous

John Lydon/Keith Levene/P.I.L. episode with Tom getting all bent.

R~

[Kalo]

I may have to get this! I remember the show Wendy O. Williams was on.

It's a great slice of the past!

The only one that I saw previously was the infamous

John Lydon/Keith Levene/P.I.L. episode with Tom getting all bent.

R~

I vividly recall watching that Lydon show. The only other one I saw back then was Costello, supporting his album Trust, I believe. At least I remember him doing a pretty nice verson of "Watch Your Step."

I'll be checking these out sooner or later.

[rostasi]

The line-up:

[Kalo]

The line-up:

I forgot that Costello played "New Lace Sleeves." Either that, or I tuned in late.

I'm definitely going to check these out.

[Quincy]

The line-up:

I forgot that Costello played "New Lace Sleeves." Either that, or I tuned in late.

I'm definitely going to check these out.

I wish they could have swapped in The Clash for the The Plasmatics. I have a cassette of both The Clash's appearance (during their Bonds Casino run) and The Jam. "Funeral Pyre" gets cut of during the credits with "hotel accommodations provided by..." Hell, I'm amazed I can't remember the hotel! If I remember right Tom interviewed Charlie Manson within a week of The Clash. Quite a week!

[BruceH]

The line-up:

I remember the Costello appearence. Would like to get these, just as a blast from (my) past.

[rostasi]

I think the Plasmatics performance was included

for it's over-the-top value - maybe helps sell the set.

I'm hoping for future volumes in the future.

Not sure what to think about including complete

shows- coulda fit more music -

but maybe there was some kind of contractual reason

for doing it this way.

I have to admit that there's some non-music moments

that are funny reminders of that time.

Just before the Patti Smith interview (I think),

there's the introduction of the "never before seen"

game Simon. Anyone remember this big round

game with flashing lights and sound that was an electronic version

of "Simple Simon"?

[Free For All]

I remember Simon. There was also a variation of that game which would play a sequence of random tones that you had to remember and input in the same way. Just like with Simon the sequence would get longer each time until you made a mistake.

What the hell was the name of that? Was it called "Wizard" maybe?

[Kalo]

Actually, the Plasmatics are an anti-selling point for me. Their appearance on SCTV is my least favorite thing on that entire series of boxed sets.

Maybe they're saving the Clash as bait for another Snyder set.

[BERIGAN]

I remember Simon. There was also a variation of that game which would play a sequence of random tones that you had to remember and input in the same way. Just like with Simon the sequence would get longer each time until you made a mistake.

What the hell was the name of that? Was it called "Wizard" maybe?

I remember Simon as well! Funny thing is, I'd swear I had a handheld game called Wizard that was red, and shaped more like a phone...but I found this on ebay instead.

I'll dig up that other old game, and perhaps y'all can tell me what it's called...