Hollywood's best-loved star teams up with America's favourite director to create one of the world's most popular films.
Against All Flags (Dir. George Sherman 1952): In 1700 the pirates of Madagascar menace the India trade; British officer Brian Hawke has himself cashiered flogged and set adrift to infiltrate the pirate ""republic."" There Hawke meets lovely Spitfire Stevens a pirate captain in her own right and the sparks begin to fly; but wooing a pirate poses unique problems. Especially after he rescues adoring young Princess Patma from a captured ship. Meanwhile Hawke's secret mission proceeds to an action-packed climax. The Rare Breed (Dir. Andrew V. McLaglen 1966): In the 1880s Englishwoman Martha Price (Maureen O'Hara) and her daughter Hilary (Juliet Mills) come to America to sell their prize Hereford bull at an auction. When he is purchased by Bowen a wild Scotsman (Brian Keith) the women hire a footloose cowhand named Burnett (James Stewart) to help them transport the animal to its new owner. So begins an adventure that tests the mettle of all involved as they battle killers cattle stampedes and each other. But when they reach Bowen's ranch even greater obstacles force them to summon up extraordinary courage if they and the prize bull are to survive...
With the integrity and depth of an epic, Shenandoah tells the dramatic story of a man caught in a dilemma. James Stewart stars as a Virginia farmer during the Civil War. He refuses to support the Confederacy because he is opposed to slavery, yet he will not support the Union because he is deeply opposed to war. When his son is taken prisoner, Stewart goes to search for the boy. Seeing first-hand the horrors of war, he is at last forced to take his stand.
The ultimate must-have Doris Day Collection celebrates one of films most influential and cultural icons. Doris Day - The Collection contains 9 film classics, including Pillow Talk, That Touch of Mink, The Ballad of Josie, Lover Come Back, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Midnight Lace, Send Me No Flowers, The Thrill of it All and Young at Heart.
Veteran western director Andrew V. McLaglen puts his brand on this exciting story, based on America’s acquisition of English Hereford cattle (which would phase out Texas longhorns). In the 1880s, Englishwoman Martha Price (Maureen O’Hara) and her daughter Hilary (Juliet Mills) come to America to sell their prize Hereford bull at an auction. When he is purchased by Bowen, a wild Scotsman (Brian Keith), the women hire a footloose cowhand named Burnett (James Stewart) to help them transport the animal to its new owner. So begins an adventure that tests the mettle of all involved as they battle killers, cattle stampedes and each other. But when they reach Bowen’s ranch, even greater obstacles force them to summon up extraordinary courage if they, and the prize bull, are to survive.
The Quiet Man (Dir. John Ford 1952): John Ford's The Quiet Man celebrates one of Hollywood's most romantic and enduring epics. The first American feature to be filmed in Ireland's picturesque countryside Ford richly imbued this masterpiece with his love of Ireland and its people. Sean Thornton is an American who swears off boxing after accidentally killing an opponent. Returning to the Irish town of his birth he finds happiness when he falls in love with the fiery Mary Kate. Though he is sorely tempted to pick up the gloves against her brother the town bully Sean is determined not to use his fists. Mary Kate and Sean wed but her brother refuses to pay the dowry. Sean would rather walk away than accept this challenge. Even when his new wife accuses him of cowardice Sean stands firm. But when she boards a train to leave he is finally ready to take matters into his own hands. Rio Grande (Dir. John Ford 1950): John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara are embroiled in an epic battle with the Apaches and each other in this John Ford classic. Lt Col. Yorke (Wayne) heads to the Rio Grande to fight a warring tribe. But Yorke faces his toughest battle when his unorthodox plan to outwit the elusive Apaches leads to possible court-martial. Locked in a bloody war he must fight to redeem his honour and save his family. Against All Flags (Dir. George Sherman 1952): In 1700 the pirates of Madagascar menace the India trade; British officer Brian Hawke has himself cashiered flogged and set adrift to infiltrate the pirate ""republic."" There Hawke meets lovely Spitfire Stevens a pirate captain in her own right and the sparks begin to fly; but wooing a pirate poses unique problems. Especially after he rescues adoring young Princess Patma from a captured ship. Meanwhile Hawke's secret mission proceeds to an action-packed climax. Rare Breed (Dir. Andrew V. McLaglen 1966): In the 1880s Englishwoman Martha Price (Maureen O'Hara) and her daughter Hilary (Juliet Mills) come to America to sell their prize Hereford bull at an auction. When he is purchased by Bowen a wild Scotsman (Brian Keith) the women hire a footloose cowhand named Burnett (James Stewart) to help them transport the animal to its new owner. So begins an adventure that tests the mettle of all involved as they battle killers cattle stampedes and each other. But when they reach Bowen's ranch even greater obstacles force them to summon up extraordinary courage if they and the prize bull are to survive... Our Man In Havana (Dir. Carol Reed 1959): Jim Wormold (Alec Guinness) a vacuum cleaner salesman in Havana is recruited by the British Intelligence Services. As he has nothing to report he invents facts and pretends to discover secret operations...with disastrous consequences. Carol Reed directs this adaptation of the Graham Greene story. Lady Godiva Of Coventry (Dir Arthur Lubin 1955): Fictionalized account of events leading up the famous nude ride (alas her hair covers everything) of the militant Saxon lady
Tom Jeffords tries to make peace between settlers and Apaches.
Man-with-a-past James Stewart guides aband of pioneers from Missouri over the Oregon Trail to a new life in the ColumbiaRiver Basin in this western adventure directed by Anthony Mann. When the settlersare cheated out of their supplies and cattle, Stewart crosses rivers, climbs mountainsand out-guns greedy hijackers to ensure their survival through the first winter. Alongthe way, he is double-crossed by ally Arthur Kennedy and assisted by handsomeSan Francisco gambler Rock Hudson and beautiful farmer’s daughter Julia Adams.Veteran entertainer Stepin’ Fetchit is featured as the riverboat cabin boy.
This seven-disc box set includes the following titles: The Trouble with Harry: the 1955 black comedy concerning a pesky corpse that becomes a problem for a quiet, Vermont neighbourhood. The Man Who Knew Too Much: the 1956 remake of Hitchcock's own 1934 spy thriller. James Stewart and Doris Day play American tourists who discover more than they wanted to know about an assassination plot. Rear Window: the 1954 film in which the story and visual perspective are dictated by its protagonist's (Jimmy Stewart) imprisonment in his apartment. Stewart's convalescence in a wheelchair provides the revolutionary perspective from which both he and the audience observe the lives of his neighbours. Rope: the 1948 experimental film masquerading as a Hollywood thriller, the plot is simple and based on a successful stage play: two young men commit murder as an intellectual exercise. Shadow of a Doubt: the 1943 thriller which sets a tone of menace and fear by introducing a psychotic killer into the quite suburban town of Santa Rosa, California. Hitchcock claimed it to be his personal favourite. Saboteur: the 1942 film, set during the initial stages of World War II, concerning a ring of Nazi fifth columnists who plot to weaken American military defences and cause a falsely accused man being forced on the run. Bonus disc: Psycho: the 1960 film which contains one of the most famous scenes in movie history. Anthony Perkins is unforgettable as Norman Bates (a role he could never seem to leave behind) the mama's-boy proprietor of the Bates Motel. On the DVD: with the wealth of writing and documentation surrounding the great master and his work, it would be a great loss to find this collection lacking in special features. Thankfully this box set does not disappoint. The special features are not only laid out clearly but they offer an outstanding range of information that will please any Hitchcock fan. Each disc varies in content but many include original storyboards and sketches from art directors and even, on one occasion, Hitchcock himself. They contain beautifully edited interviews or "Making Of" features, plus there's a trailer compilation with a voice-over from the great Jimmy Stewart. All discs come with a scene selection and choice of languages and subtitles. The DVD picture and sound is almost perfect, making each classic feel like new. The box set offers a small booklet with details of each film along with original poster. The Psycho bonus disc, includes cast biographies and a theatrical trailer and the lavish package design makes it a great coffee-table accessory --Nikki Disney
Sid James plays Sid Abbott - Mr Average Married Man. A representative for a stationery firm. Sid's interest in life are the three C's: Chelsea Courage bitter and Crumpet and not necessarily in that order. In common with most married men however he finds these ambitions constatnly thwarted by his wife son and daughter also not necessarily in that order. Sid likes to think he is with it but in actual fact he would not know it if he saw it. Diana Coupland plays his attractive sensible level-headed wife. Sally Geeson is his 16-year old daughter Sally. She's in her last year at Grammar School and is the apple of Sid's eye. Robin Stewart plays Mike who is 19 and just left college. He is far too busy straightening out the affairs of the world to bother about a job. Episodes Comprise: 1. Money Is the Root Of... 2. And They Will Come Home 3. Who's Minding the Baby? 4. A Beef in His Bonnet 5. The Bells Are Ringing 6. The First 25 Years Are the Worst
A new Scottish comedy about three friends whose unfulfilled lives look set to change when, through less thasn legal means, they come across a lump of gold.
While 'Born To Dance' is the movie musical most associated with James Stewart the largely forgotten Pot o' Gold is the one in which he is most involved with music. The plot has Stewart as Jimmy Haskell a music-loving harmonica-playing man who comes across a poor but excellent band (led by Horace Heidt) that rehearses on a boarding-house roof. Jimmy becomes interested in the people who own the boarding-house Ma McCorkle (Mary Gordon) and her lovely daughter Molly (Paulette Goddard). Jimmy and Molly combine forces to promote the career of Horace and the lads but that task is made difficult by Jimmy's wealthy Uncle Charley. This is a rare opportunity to hear Stewart sing with surprisingly pleasant results. Songs from a group of writers include: Do You Believe In Fairy tales? (Mack David Vee Lawnhurst) When Johnny Toots His Horn (Hy Heath Fred Rose) Slap happy Band Hi Cy What's Cookin'? Pete The Piper Broadway Cabellero (Henry Sullivan Lou Forbes). The movie was produced by James Roosevelt son of FDR.
The first of what would be a series, 1985's American Ninja is a martial-arts thriller. Michael Dudikoff plays Joe, a sullen young GI who turns up at American airbase Fort Sonora and immediately makes himself unpopular. Even when he single-handedly saves the Commanding Officer's daughter (Judie Aronson, whose function is to scream a lot and get her clothes very wet), from a ninja ambush, he's still ostracised. It turns out that Joe is actually a highly skilled ninja warrior, but he's an amnesiac with no idea how he acquired his abilities. Eventually, having bonded with fellow GI Steve James, he helps foil criminal arms-dealer Ortega, whose morals are as dubious as his accent, which veers from French to Hispanic. American Ninja is essentially an excuse for a series of martial arts set pieces, though these seem a little lumbering by the standards later set by Jackie Chan and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The soundtrack and overall feel is clearly influenced by the classic A-Team. The plot is well signposted at every turn and the dialogue makes you think of an American film that has been badly dubbed. However, the film will work as kitsch, for idle comfort-viewing or for small boys. On the DVD: The cheapness of the original has been immaculately preserved--however, the only extra is the original trailer.--David Stubbs
The Lady Is Willing (Dir. Mitchell Leisen 1942): Bold eccentric Broadway performer Lisa Madden befuddles her handlers by coming home with a baby she picked up on the street. She wants to keep the baby but has to find a husband to make adoption viable. Why not her new obstetrician Dr. McBain? She offers him help with his research on rabbits in exchange for marriage - and he accepts. The marriage of convenience turns into a marriage of real love but when Dr. McBain's ex-wife comes looking for money matters get complicated... Shanghai Express (Dir. Josef von Sternberg 1932): Many passengers on the Shanghai Express are more concerned that the notorious Shanghai Lil is on board than the fact that a civil war is going on that may make the trip take more than three days. The British Army doctor Donald Harvey knew Lil before she became a famous ""coaster."" A fellow passenger defines a coaster as ""a woman who lives by her wits along the China coast."" When Chinese guerillas stop the train Dr. Harvey is selected as the hostage. Lil saves him but can she make him believe that she really hasn't changed from the woman he loved five years before? Destry Rides Again (Dir. George Marshall 1939): Kent the unscrupulous boss of Bottleneck has Sheriff Keogh killed when he asks one too many questions about a rigged poker game that gives Kent a stranglehold over the local cattle rangers. The mayor who is in cahoots with Kent appoints the town drunk Washington Dimsdale as the new sheriff assuming that he'll be easy to control. But what the mayor doesn't know is that Dimsdale was a deputy under famous lawman Tom Destry and is able to call upon the equally formidable Tom Destry Jr to be his deputy. Foreign Affair (Dir. Billy Wilder 1948): In occupied Berlin an army captain is torn between an ex-Nazi cafe singer and the U.S. congresswoman investigating her. Blonde Venus (Dir. Josef von Sternberg): American chemist Ned Faraday marries a German entertainer and starts a family. However he becomes poisoned with Radium and needs an expensive treatment in Germany to have any chance of being cured. Wife Helen returns to night club work to attempt to raise the money and becomes popular as the Blonde Venus. In an effort to get enough money sooner she prostitutes herself to millionaire Nick Townsend. While Ned is away in Europe she continues with Nick but when Ned returns cured he discovers her infidelity. Now Ned despises Helen but she grabs son Johnny and lives on the run just one step ahead of the Missing Persons Bureau. When they do finally catch her she loses her son to Ned. Once again she returns to entertaining this time in Paris and her fame once again brings her and Townsend together. Helen and Nick return to America engaged but she is irresistibly drawn back to her son and Ned. In which life does she truly belong? Devil Is A Woman (Dir. Josef von Sternberg 1935): Told in flashbacks Devil Is A Woman is a tale of an older man's obsession for a woman who can belong to no-one but can frustrate everyone. The backdrop is Sternbergs surreal and fantastic Carnaval in Spain. In a cafe the older man details his encounters with the heartbreaker that his younger friend has only just met at the parade. Forewarned the young man swears he will avoid the fate of his friend but rushes all the same to his evening rendevous. A dreamlike story of frustrated lost romance spoken in the past tense never really resolved.
For his second animated feature as director Hayao Miyazaki adapted his own best-selling Manga to make this epic masterpiece. A huge success when released in Japan back in 1984 Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind helped launch Studio Ghibli and bears all the hallmarks of Miyazaki's later successes: fantastical worlds great characters and stunning animation. A thousand years after a great war a seaside kingdom known as the Valley of the Wind is one of the only areas which remains populated. Led by the courageous Princess Nausicaä the people of the Valley are engaged in a constant struggle with powerful insects called ohmu who guard a poisonous jungle that is spreading across the Earth. Nausicaä and her brave companions together with the people of the Valley strive to restore the bond between humanity and the earth. Special Features: Complete Storyboards - Get an Insider's Look at the Film's Artistry The Birth Story of Studio Ghibli Featurette Original Japanese Theatrical Trailer Studio Ghibli Trailer Reel Audio commentary by Hideaki Anno and Kazuyoshi Katayama Interview with Toshio Suzuki and Hideaki Anno Behind the Microphone
When grumpy grandpa Roger Hobbs (James Stewart) suggests a quiet vacation to his lovely wife Peggy (Maureen O'Hara) he's thinking of a romantic break for just the two of them. What he gets however is something quite different! Before he knows what's happening Peggy has organised a full family reunion - in the oldest ugliest and most dangerous beach house ever! Now Roger's life has become a living nightmare as he struggles to cope with delinquent toddlers TV-obsessed teenagers a pair of very odd sons-in-law and a young daughter falling for a local heartthrob (Fabian). Returning to work will seem like a dream after this vacation!
Although the superhero comic book has been a duopoly since the early 1960s, only DC's flagship characters, Superman and Batman (who originated in the late 1930s) have established themselves as big-screen franchises. Until now--this is the first runaway hit film version of the alternative superhero X-Men universe created for Marvel Comics by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and others. It's a rare comic-book movie that doesn't fall over its cape introducing all the characters, and this is the exception. X-Men drops us into a world that is closer to our own than Batman's Gotham City, but it's still home to super-powered goodies and baddies. Opening in high seriousness with paranormal activity in a WW2 concentration camp and a senatorial inquiry into the growing "mutant problem", Bryan Singer's film sets up a complex background with economy and establishes vivid, strange characters well before we get to the fun. There's Halle Berry flying and summoning snowstorms, James Marsden zapping people with his "optic beams", Rebecca Romijn-Stamos shape-shifting her blue naked form, and Ray Park lashing out with his Toad-tongue. The big conflict is between Patrick Stewart's Professor X and Ian McKellen's Magneto, super-powerful mutants who disagree about their relationship with ordinary humans, but the characters we're meant to identify with are Hugh Jackman's Wolverine (who has retractable claws and amnesia), and Anna Paquin's Rogue (who sucks the life and superpowers out of anyone she touches). The plot has to do with a big gizmo that will wreak havoc at a gathering of world leaders, but the film is more interested in setting up a tangle of bizarre relationships between even more bizarre people, with solid pros such as Stewart and McKellen relishing their sly dialogue and the newcomers strutting their stuff in cool leather outfits. There are in-jokes enough to keep comics' fans engaged, but it feels more like a science fiction movie than a superhero picture. --Kim Newman
James Stewart and Doris Day in a rare dramatic role are superb in this brilliant suspense thriller from the undisputed master. Stewart and Day play Ben and Jo MacKenna innocent Americans vacationing in Morocco with their son Hank. After a French spy dies in Ben's arms in the Marrakech market the couple discovers their son has been kidnapped and taken to England. Not knowing who they can trust the McKennas are caught up in a nightmare of international espionage assassinations and terror. Soon all of their lives hang in the balance as they draw closer to the truth and a chilling climatic moment in London's famous Royal Albert Hall. Special Features: The Making of the Man Who Knew Too Much Production Photographs Trailers
Thanks to ultracrisp Technirama photography of great mountainside and river gorge locations in Colorado, Night Passage is often terrific to look at; you can almost feel the autumn sun and brisk air. This should have been another classic Western pairing James Stewart with director Anthony Mann. But after choosing the locations, cast, and crew, and directing the precredit sequence, Mann abruptly resigned. He found Borden Chase's screenplay an "incoherent" rehash of relationships and setups from their previous films, nor was he encouraged by Stewart's determination to play the accordion and sing. Stewart's an ex-railroad cop who became a pariah by letting a prisoner--Audie Murphy's "The Utica Kid"--escape. The two cross paths again in a ghost town where Dan Duryea, doing a zany version of his loony outlaw from Winchester '73, has holed up with his gang. Replacement director James Neilson, a newcomer destined for bland Disney servitude, fosters a lot of flatfooted standing-around.
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