Robert Bolt's successful play, A Man for All Seasons, was not considered a hot commercial property by Columbia Pictures--a period piece about a moral issue without a star, without even a love story. Perhaps that's why Columbia left director Fred Zinnemann alone to make the film as long as he stuck to a relatively small budget. The results took everyone by surprise, as the talky morality play became a box-office hit and collected the top Oscars for 1966. At the play's heart is the standoff between King Henry VIII (Robert Shaw, in young lion form) and Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield, in an Oscar-winning performance). Henry wants More's official approval of divorce, but More's strict ethical and religious code will not let him waffle. More's rectitude is a source of exasperation to Cardinal Wolsey (Orson Welles in a cameo), who chides, "If you could just see facts flat on without that horrible moral squint". Zinnemann's approach is all simplicity, and indeed the somewhat prosaic staging doesn't create a great deal of cinematic excitement. But the language is worth savouring, and the ethical politics are debated with all the calm and majesty of an absorbing chess game. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com
Rodgers and Hammerstein's charming and vigorous tale of romance and adventure set in the Wild West. Songs include 'People Will Say We're In Love' 'Oh What A Beautiful Morning' and the title song 'Oklahoma!'
South Pacific (Dir. Joshua Logan 1958): Blessed with a treasure of timeless songs South Pacific combines the passionate heartwarming romance of a naive young Navy nurse (Mitzi Gaynor) and an older French plantation owner (Rossano Brazzi) with South Seas splendour and a world at war while the breathtaking score is highlighted by some of the most romantic songs ever written. Oklahoma (Dir. Fred Zimmermann 1955): Rodgers and Hammerstein's charming and vigorous tale of romance and adventure set in the Wild West. Songs include 'People Will Say We're In Love' 'Oh What A Beautiful Morning' and the title song 'Oklahoma!' The King And I (Dir. Walter Lang 1956): This visual and musical masterpiece features Yul Brynner's Academy Award winning performance an unforgettable Rodgers and Hammerstein score and brilliant choreography by Jerome Robbins. This masterful musical celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2006! It tells the true story of an English woman Anna Leonowens (Kerr) who comes to Siam as schoolteacher to the royal court in the 1860s. Though she soon finds herself at odds with the stubborn monarch (Brynner) over time Anna and the King stop trying to change each other and begin to understand one another. Winner of six Academy Awards The King And I contains some of the most lavish sets in Hollywood and some of the world's best-loved songs including Getting To Know You I Whistle A Happy Tune Hello Young Lovers and Shall We Dance?
The Sound of MusicThe magical, heart-warming story, which has become the most popular family film of all time, tells the story of a spirited young woman, Maria (Julie Andrews), who leaves the convent to become governess to the seven children of the autocratic Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer). The King and IThis visual and musical masterpiece features Yul Brynner's Academy Award winning performance as the stubborn King of Siam, Deborah Kerr's charming portrait of the schoolteacher Anna Leonowens and some of the world's best-loved songs, including 'Getting To Know You', 'I Whistle A Happy Tune' and 'Shall We Dance?' South PacificThis tender romance, with a score as breathtaking as the film's tropical setting, tells the story of two sets of couples on an island paradise, struggling to make love work during wartime. Featured songs include Some Enchanted Evening, Bali Hai, There is Nothing Like A Dame, Younger Than Springtime and much more. Oklahoma!This joyous celebration of frontier life combines tender romance and violent passion in the Oklahoma Territory of the 1900's, with a timeless score filled with unforgettable songs, such as Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin, The Surrey With The Fringe On Top, People Will Say We're In Love and Oklahoma! CarouselThis, the most poetic and lyrical of all the Rogers And Hammerstein musicals, tells the story of a fairground worker who dies before the birth of his daughter and is allowed to return to Earth for one day to redeem himself. The dazzling soundtrack includes the classics If I Loved You and You'll Never Walk Alone. State FairThis rousing celebration of love and laughter in America's heartland tells the story of the Frake family's visit to the Iowa state fair and of the younger generation's search for love. The Rodgers And Hammerstein score features I Think I Am Falling In Love, It's A Grand Night For Singing and the Academy Award winning song It Might As Well Be Spring.
What more is there to say about Orson Welles? One of the most talented and enigmatic artists that Hollywood has ever seen this box set gathers several films in his oeuvre for your viewing pleasure. Citizen Kane (Dir. Orson Welles 1941): In May of 1941 RKO Radio Pictures released a controversial film by a 25-year-old first-time director. That premier of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane was to have a profound and lasting effect of the art of motion pictures. It has been hai
Six classic films with unforgettable performances. Experience these landmark films from Columbia Pictures like never before, now fully remastered and debuting on 4K Ultra HD. With movies that fearlessly portray the scope of human emotion and actors that memorably embody iconic characters and with hours of special features and an exclusive 80-page book with unique insights and production detail about each of the included films this third volume of the Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection is truly the best way to watch these treasured cinematic favourites.
Struggling to come to terms with his injuries, a paraplegic war veteran turns to his doctor, fiancé and former comrades as he adjusts to a new way of life. Featuring a powerhouse performance from Marlon Brando in his first feature film, The Men is a poignant reflection on the life-changing impact of paraplegia and the support networks that help those affected rehabilitate and integrate back into society. Directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring a stellar supporting cast including Teresa Wright (Shadow of a Doubt) and Everett Sloane (Citizen Kane), this Hollywood landmark is presented on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK. Product Features Audio commentary by filmmaker and film historian Jim Hemphill Illustrated booklet with new essays by Philip Kemp, Scott Harrison and Victoria Millington Other extras TBC Newly commissioned sleeve art by Jennifer Dionisio
From Here To Eternity: Director Fred Zinnemann's 1953 Oscar-winning best picture 'From Here To Eternity' is a powerful portrait of a peacetime military camp stationed in Hawaii just before the attack on Pearl Harbour. Montgomery Clift is superlative in the major role of Robert Prewitt while Frank Sinatra delivers an electrifying Academy Award-winning (1953 Best Supporting Actor) performance as Clift's buddy. Deborah Kerr's love scene in the Hawaiian surf with Burt Lancaster is enshrined as one of the most famous moments in cinema history. (Dir. Fred Zinnermann 1953) Pal Joey: A cabaret entertainer lands in San Francisco determined to make it big but scores his biggest hits with a wealthy socialite and a chorus line cutie! Features a classic Rogers and Hart score including 'The Lady Is A Tramp' 'There's A Small Hotel' 'I Could Write A Book' and 'My Funny Valentine.' (Dir. George Sidney 1957) Young At Heart: Barney Sloan (Frank Sinatra) is a cynical down-on-his-luck musician who reluctantly agrees to help his composer friend Alex Burke (Gig Young) with a new comedy he is working on. However Barney gains a new perspective on life and love when he meets Alex's irrepressibly perky fiancee Laurie (Doris Day) - and promptly falls in love with her! A musical remake of the 1938 film 'Four Daughters' with Sinatra offering definitively gloomy renditions of 'Someone to Watch Over Me' and 'One More for My Baby' before Day manages to put a smile on his face featuring a superb score written by Cole Porter and George and Ira Gershwin (Dir. Gordon Douglas 1954) Higher And Higher: Formerly rich Mr. Drake is broke...with his household staff's wages seven months in arrears. Conniving valet Mike O'Brien hatches a scheme to pass off scullery maid Millie as Drake's debutante daughter and net a rich husband for the benefit of all. But all kinds of complications romantic and otherwise intervene... (Dir. Tim Whelan 1943)
Contains some of Brando's finest but lesser known performances: Burn The Formula Bedtime Story The Men One Eyed Jacks (also directed by Brando). Burn (Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo 1969): (English - Dolby Digital (1.0) Mono / Fullscreen) Manipulative English mercenary Sir William Walker (Marlon Brando) is posted to a Portuguese colony in the Caribbean. Once there he uses his skills to engineer a slave revolt as part of his calculated plans for the English to seize control of t
This fantastic Collector's Edition tin boxed set features six timeless classics from Rodgers and Hammerstein: Titles Comprise; 1. The Sound Of Music 2. The King And I 3. State Fair 4. Carousel 5. Oaklahoma 6. South Pacific For individual synopses please refer to the individual films.
The Bridge On The River Kwai (1 Disc Edition): Set in Burma during World War II the story tells of British P.O.Ws who are forced to build a large bridge for the Japanese while a British Commando team is sent to destroy it. Winner of seven Academy Awards. Guns Of Navarone: Exciting war film based on a novel by Alistair Maclean which tells of the attempts of a British raiding team to sabotage two giant German guns on a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. From Here To Eternity: Fred Zinnemann's 1953 Oscar-winning film is a powerful portrait of a peacetime military camp stationed in Hawaii just before the attack on Pearl Harbour. Montgomery Clift is superlative in the major role of Robert Prewitt while Frank Sinatra delivers an electrifying Academy Award-winning (1953 Best Supporting Actor) performance as Clift's buddy. Deborah Kerr's love scene in the Hawaiian surf with Burt Lancaster is enshrined as one of the most famous moments in cinema history.
Citizen Kane (Dir. Orson Welles 1941): In May of 1941 RKO Radio Pictures released a controversial film by a 25-year-old first-time director. That premier of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane was to have a profound and lasting effect of the art of motion pictures. It has been hailed as the best American film ever made and it's as powerful a film today as it was fifty years ago. It earned eight Academy Award nominations and won the Oscar for Best Screenplay. Through its unique jigsaw-puzzle storyline inventive cinematography brilliant ensemble acting and direction by Welles the story of Charles Foster Kane is a fascinating portrait of America's love of power and materialism and the corruption it sometimes fosters. Like all great films Citizen Kane is a memorable fusion of cinematic art and marvellous entertainment. Waterloo (Dir. Sergei Bondarchuk 1970): Waterloo is a film on an epic scale with a cast to match. Rod Steiger Christopher Plummer Orson Welles and Jack Hawkins all contribute brilliant performances of great men against a magnificent backdrop of battle and bloodshed. Napoleon's final bid for power and glory and his narrow defeat at Waterloo. Lady From Shanghai (Dir. Orson Welles 1948): Fascinated by the gorgeous Mrs. Bannister (Hayworth) seaman Michael O'Hara (Welles) joins a bizarre yachting cruise and ends up mired in a complex murder plot... A Man For All Seasons (Dir. Fred Zinnemann 1966): A Man For All Seasons: a motion picture for all time! Winner of six Academy Awards - including 1966 Best Picture - A Man For All Seasons stars Paul Scofield as Sir Thomas More a respected English statesman whose steadfast refusal to recognise King Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn cost him his head.
Released as part of the celebrations marking composer Richard Rodgers' centenary in 2002, this Rodgers and Hammerstein collection contains the film versions of State Fair (1945), Oklahoma! (1955), Carousel (1956), The King and I (1956), South Pacific (1958), and The Sound of Music (1965). By the time these pictures were made, the Broadway originals had become the standards by which all else was judged in a golden age of musical theatre. And while film versions tend to dilute the books, there are still threads of darkness for those who require a more varied texture. But it's the fabulous songs which really count. Rodgers' partnership with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein was cemented by their 1945 cinematic joint effort State Fair, rushed into production by 20th Century Fox in response to MGM's all-conquering Meet Me in St Louis and with a similarly folksy theme. Directed by Walter Lang, it's a charmingly flimsy affair with some delightful numbers. Oklahoma!, directed by Fred Zinnemann, features Agnes de Mille's renowned choreography, irresistible songs and two outstanding performances from unlikely musical actors: film noir siren Gloria Grahame playing against type as Ado Annie, the girl who can't say "no", and Rod Steiger as the menacing but tragic Jud. Carousel, the morally dubious tale of fairground barker and wife-beater Billy Bigelow (Gordon MacRae) who gets a chance to redeem himself after death, is crammed with great melodies including the tear-jerking anthem, "You'll Never Walk Alone". South Pacific, which contains perhaps the most spine-tingling songs penned by Rodgers and Hammerstein--"Some Enchanted Evening" is just one--a wartime love story which also manages to touch on racism and morality; anything but lightweight. Both The King and I and The Sound of Music, of course, have become cinematic legends in their own right, thanks in no small part to their leading ladies, Deborah Kerr and Julie Andrews. On the DVD: Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic musicals glow as freshly as if they were made yesterday in four of these DVD transfers, with the other two a disappointment in comparison. South Pacific, Carousel, The King and I and The Sound of Music are offered in widescreen, giving the full benefit of the original Cinemascope presentations. Oklahoma!'s titles are presented in widescreen, but unforgivably the film then reverts to a disappointing 4:3 format which hardly does justice to the big sky settings of the Scope original. The sound quality is also disappointingly muffled for Oklahoma! and State Fair, both of which are crying out for a good polish. --Piers Ford
Rear Window (Dir. Alfred Hitchcock 1954): Alfred Hitchcock amply demonstrates why he's been called ""The Master of Suspense"" with this both witty and macabre tale of voyeurism and murder starring two of cinema's all-time favourites James Stewart and Grace Kelly. L. B.Jeffries (Stewart) a photographer with a broken leg takes up the fine art of spying on his Greenwich Village neighbours during a summer heat wave. But things really hot up when he suspects one neighbour of mur
All The Kings Men (Dir. Robert Rossen): Broderick Crawford stands out in this fine drama about the rise and fall of a corrupt southern governor who promises his way to power. Crawford portrays Willie Stark who once he is elected finds that his vanity and power lust prove to be his downfall. The film is based on the 1946 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Robert Penn Warren which in turn was based largely on the story of Louisiana legend Huey Long. From Here To Eternity (Dir. Fred Zinnemann): Director Fred Zinnemann's 1953 Oscar-winning best picture 'From Here To Eternity' is a powerful portrait of a peacetime military camp stationed in Hawaii just before the attack on Pearl Harbour. Montgomery Clift is superlative in the major role of Robert Prewitt while Frank Sinatra delivers an electrifying Academy Award-winning (1953 Best Supporting Actor) performance as Clift's buddy. Deborah Kerr's love scene in the Hawaiian surf with Burt Lancaster is enshrined as one of the most famous moments in cinema history. To Kill A Mockingbird: Gregory Peck won an Oscar for his brilliant performance as the Southern lawyer who defends a black man accused of rape in this film version of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel. The setting is a dusty Southern town during the Depression. A white woman accuses a black man of rape. Though he is obviously innocent the outcome of his trial is such a foregone conclusion that no lawyer will step forward to defend him - except Peck the town's most distinguished citizen. His compassionate defense costs him many friendships but earns him the respect and admiration of his two motherless children. Harvey (Dir. Henry Koster): James Stewart stars as Elwood P. Dowd a wealthy alcoholic whose sunny disposition and drunken antics are tolerated by most of the citizens of his community. That is until Elwood begins to claim that he has a friend named Harvey who is an invisible six foot rabbit. Elwood's snooty socialite sister Veta determined to marry off her daughter Myrtle to a respectable man begins to plot to keep Elwood's lunacy from interfering.
This is Marlon Brando's screen debut; he plays a paraplegic World War II veteran who sinks into depression until his former girlfriend (Teresa Wright) manages to bring him out of it. Controversial at the time for it's vivid semi-documentary style and it's no-holds barred treatment of sexual problems.
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