2009 Dream DVDs
Every year, the studios release the same films again and again on DVD. (Do we really need another release of Lilo and Stitch?) Every year, I wish that films that haven't been released before will come out. Last year, I was delighted when The Major and the Minor and Easy Living, even if they were done with little care and few extras. This month, we finally get the classic 1941 version of Waterloo Bridge. Maybe there's hope for these DVD orphans, but I doubt it. Some of these titles you'll remember from last year (or not). But others are ones that I never got around to writing up.
…All the Marbles (1981) - Now that The Wrestler has made serious movies about professional wrestling trendy, I wonder if there’s some hope for Robert Aldrich’s last film, about two female tag team wrestlers and their two-bit manager, to be released on DVD. Hugely underrated-probably by people who judged the movie by its subject matter before seeing it (or without seeing it altogether). One of Peter Falk’s greatest performances.
The Reluctant Debutante (1958) - As the DVD wasn’t released when the limp Amanda Bynes remake What a Girl Wants came out, I don’t think there’s any hope that this will be released any time soon, unless maybe in a Vincente Minnelli box. This charming film about an American girl visiting her father in England and her stepmother’s (for once, not a wicked stepmother) attempts to make the girl socially successful is worth seeing for Kay Kendall’s (in one of her last performances-sadly she was already visibly terminally ill) hilarious turn as the stepmother, Sandra Dee’s inimitable ability to play the sexually burgeoning naïf, and Angela Lansbury’s society-licking bitch, not to mention Minnelli’s ability to make a screenplay that’s essentially a stage play seem open, light, and…frothy.
Margie (1946) - Charming period piece, set in the 1920s and loaded with hits from that era, about an unpopular girl and her quest to find romance. Margie (Jeanne Crain) lives with her formidable grandmother because her widowed undertaker father can’t figure out how to raise a female. She lives next door to Marybelle, the most popular girl in school (Barbara Lawrence), who, while being legitimately friendly to Margie, also enjoys lording her popularity over her. The only male attention Margie can get is from the school nerd, who goes around with a perpetual head cold. By the end of the film, of course, she’s attracted the attention not only of Marybelle’s dreamy boyfriend “Johnnikins” but the handsome new French teacher (Glenn Langan) as well. A movie that understands that, for a lot of people, adolescence is less a time of mayhem and rebellion than a protracted series of more or less embarrassing moments, here rendered humorous for the viewer. Never released on home video in any format.
Vivacious Lady (1938) - This screwball comedy was released on VHS overseas but has never appeared on home video in the U.S. despite the star power of Jimmy Stewart and Ginger Rogers. A small town chemistry professor goes off to the big city to stop an ill-advised marriage between his cousin and a nightclub performer, only to end up married to the girl himself. He brings her back to his small college town where hijinks ensue. Highlights include Rogers’ catfight with Stewart’s fiancée (who’s unaware he’s married Rogers behind her back) and Rogers dancing on the sly with Stewart’s mother (Beulah Bondi, who played Stewart’s mother 5 times).
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) - This movie is the kind of thing that would result if Martin Scorsese and Sidney Lumet mated. On the one hand, it’s plot is very much in the typical heist movie vein, before heist movies got so cocky and elaborate. On the other hand, it’s a deeply thought out character study of an aging crook (Robert Mitchum) at the end of his rope. Never released on home video in any format.
Light in the Piazza (1962) - Why this movie didn’t get released when the stage show was so popular a couple of years ago, I don’t know. Anyhow, no stage version can recreate the excellent location work of this film, which tells the story of a mother (Olivia de Havilland) who brings her brain damaged (and therefore charmingly childlike), but nubile, young daughter (Yvette Mimieux) on vacation where she attracts the attention of a wealthy, local suitor (George Hamilton). De Havilland’s fine performance far outweighs any negatives resulting from the presence of Hamilton.
…All the Marbles (1981) - Now that The Wrestler has made serious movies about professional wrestling trendy, I wonder if there’s some hope for Robert Aldrich’s last film, about two female tag team wrestlers and their two-bit manager, to be released on DVD. Hugely underrated-probably by people who judged the movie by its subject matter before seeing it (or without seeing it altogether). One of Peter Falk’s greatest performances.
The Reluctant Debutante (1958) - As the DVD wasn’t released when the limp Amanda Bynes remake What a Girl Wants came out, I don’t think there’s any hope that this will be released any time soon, unless maybe in a Vincente Minnelli box. This charming film about an American girl visiting her father in England and her stepmother’s (for once, not a wicked stepmother) attempts to make the girl socially successful is worth seeing for Kay Kendall’s (in one of her last performances-sadly she was already visibly terminally ill) hilarious turn as the stepmother, Sandra Dee’s inimitable ability to play the sexually burgeoning naïf, and Angela Lansbury’s society-licking bitch, not to mention Minnelli’s ability to make a screenplay that’s essentially a stage play seem open, light, and…frothy.
Margie (1946) - Charming period piece, set in the 1920s and loaded with hits from that era, about an unpopular girl and her quest to find romance. Margie (Jeanne Crain) lives with her formidable grandmother because her widowed undertaker father can’t figure out how to raise a female. She lives next door to Marybelle, the most popular girl in school (Barbara Lawrence), who, while being legitimately friendly to Margie, also enjoys lording her popularity over her. The only male attention Margie can get is from the school nerd, who goes around with a perpetual head cold. By the end of the film, of course, she’s attracted the attention not only of Marybelle’s dreamy boyfriend “Johnnikins” but the handsome new French teacher (Glenn Langan) as well. A movie that understands that, for a lot of people, adolescence is less a time of mayhem and rebellion than a protracted series of more or less embarrassing moments, here rendered humorous for the viewer. Never released on home video in any format.
Vivacious Lady (1938) - This screwball comedy was released on VHS overseas but has never appeared on home video in the U.S. despite the star power of Jimmy Stewart and Ginger Rogers. A small town chemistry professor goes off to the big city to stop an ill-advised marriage between his cousin and a nightclub performer, only to end up married to the girl himself. He brings her back to his small college town where hijinks ensue. Highlights include Rogers’ catfight with Stewart’s fiancée (who’s unaware he’s married Rogers behind her back) and Rogers dancing on the sly with Stewart’s mother (Beulah Bondi, who played Stewart’s mother 5 times).
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) - This movie is the kind of thing that would result if Martin Scorsese and Sidney Lumet mated. On the one hand, it’s plot is very much in the typical heist movie vein, before heist movies got so cocky and elaborate. On the other hand, it’s a deeply thought out character study of an aging crook (Robert Mitchum) at the end of his rope. Never released on home video in any format.
Light in the Piazza (1962) - Why this movie didn’t get released when the stage show was so popular a couple of years ago, I don’t know. Anyhow, no stage version can recreate the excellent location work of this film, which tells the story of a mother (Olivia de Havilland) who brings her brain damaged (and therefore charmingly childlike), but nubile, young daughter (Yvette Mimieux) on vacation where she attracts the attention of a wealthy, local suitor (George Hamilton). De Havilland’s fine performance far outweighs any negatives resulting from the presence of Hamilton.