The DVD Report #3

This week’s plethora of DVD releases is enough to start even the heartiest DVD collector’s head spinning – what to buy, what to buy, what to ignore…

This being the Tuesday before Memorial Day, Warner Bros. is releasing Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-nominated Letters from Iwo Jima in a two-disc special edition and reissuing his Flags of Our Fathers in a two-disc special edition at $40 a pop retail. Or you can by both films plus a documentary, Heroes of Iwo Jima,in a Five-Disc Collector’s Edition for $50. Go with the five disc set.

As harrowing as Letters from Iwo Jima is, it has nothing on Kon Ichakawa’s bleak masterpiece, Fires on the Plain, or even the more uplifting The Burmese Harp. Each World War II saga is told from the Japanese perspective and both wererecently given their due on Criterion special editions.

Other 2006 films making their DVD debuts this week include Steven Soderbergh’s The Good German, a diffident update of The Third Man with a little Casablanca thrown in; Mel Gibson’s latest ode to violence, Apocalypto; and Roger Mitchell’s Venus with Peter O’Toole in a heartfelt performance that won him his eighth Oscar nomination.

Carol Reed’s The Third Man is also back in a new and improved Criterion edition. Criterion is also releasing Kenjo Mizoguchi’s Sansho the Bailiff, Silver Lion winner at the 1954 Venice Film Festival. Previously, Criterion released Mizoguschi’s other famed film, Ugetsu. These are probably the two best known Japanese samurai films not directed by Akira Kurosawa; and in many ways each are superior.

One of the best things to happen in the world of DVD within the last year has been Fox taking over distribution of the MGM catalogue from Sony. Clueless Sony stifled the release of many of the classics from the MGM catalogue, consisting mainly of United Artists and Samuel Goldwyn films (the actual MGM classics having been sold to Ted Turner and now controlled by Warner Bros.). Fox, on the other hand, has wholeheartedly embraced the release of classic films from this catalogue and has recently chosen two of my favorite films of the 1970s, Ulu Grosbard’s True Confessions and Robert Altman’s Thieves Like Us, to release.Now they are turning their attention to an even older era.

Fox is now re-issuing the Samuel Goldwyn Company release Ball of Fire along with a number of Gary Cooper films never before on DVD. This includes Casanova Brown which reunited him with his Pride of the Yankees co-star Teresa Wright in a lighthearted comedy that was nominated for three 1944 Oscars.

Ball of Fire, co-written by Billy Wilder and directed by Howard Hawks, was nominated for four 1941 Oscars. A hilarious riff on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, it stars Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck at the height of their careers and features marvelous supporting turns by Oscar Homolka, Henry Travers, S.Z. Sakall, Richard Haydn and others.

Universal has a number of vintage releases scheduled including Mark Sandrich’s So Proudly We Hail!, one of the first women-in-war films, with Claudette Colbert and Paulette Goddard in an Oscar-nominated performance, and Cecil B. DeMille’s Unconquered featuring Cooper and Goddard.

Fox has Samuel Fuller’s Hell and High Water, for which Fuller received a 1954 Directors Guild of America nod; Delmar Daves’ Broken Arrow, nominated for three 1950 Oscars; and a trio of musicals – Pigskin Parade, On the Riviera and Can-Can.

Despite being advertised as a Judy Garland musical, Pigskin Parade is more a Stuart Erwin comedy in which Patsy Kelly has more screen time than either Garland or the equally prominently billed Betty Grable. Erwin inexplicably won an Oscar nod in the supporting category despite his starring role. It’s fairly typical of the wholesome sports films being made the time.

On the Riviera is a re-make of Maurice Chevalier’s Folies Bergere, which is not on DVD. Danny Kaye won a Golden Globe for his dual role in this amusing film. Gene Tierney receives equal billing but has little to do. Gwen Verdon shines in a couple of dance numbers.

Can-Can is the best of the lot if only for Cole Porter’s score. The film itself is a bit flat despite the star power of Frank Sinatra, Shirley MacLaine, Maurice Chevalier and Louis Jordan. My biggest beef is that the lyrics to the great title tune are not sung – was it because the producers wanted the audience to concentrate on the dancers’ legs or because the words were considered too risqué for Hollywood at the time?

In addition to the Eastwood films, Warner Bros. is releasing the 1978 Dustin Hoffman cult classic, Straight Time and Sidney Lumet’s acclaimed 1981 film, Prince of the City. They are also re-issuing the most successful TV mini-series of all time, Roots, in a special 30th anniversary edition.

The big news this week, though, is that Saturday May 26 marked the 100th anniversary of John Wayne’s birth and every DVD company that owns the rights to a John Wayne film is either releasing or re-releasing it this week. Warner Bros. has the choicest catalogue, and is re-issuing both Rio Bravo and The Cowboys in two-disc special editions.

Personally, I’ve always thought Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo was overrated – it’s way too jokey for my taste. It’s Quentin Tarantino’s favorite film though, and he is providing the commentary, so maybe if I listen to it I’ll learn what I’ve been missing all these years.

I’ve always thought Mark Rydell’s The Cowboys was as underrated as Rio Bravo was overrated. It’s unusually somber for a Wayne film and features stellar supporting performances by non-Wayne regulars Roscoe Lee Browne, Robert Carradine and Colleen Dewhurst among others.

Warner Bros.’ new-to-DVD John Wayne films this week include Allegheny Uprising, Big Jim McLain, Reunion in France, Tycoon and the best of the lot Trouble Along the Way. I was nine when I first saw this one. Marie Windsor as high school coach Wayne’s nasty ex-wife battling him for custody of adorable Sherry Jackson scared the hell out of me. You also get Donna Reed as a social worker, Charles Coburn as a priest and James Dean as a football player. What more could you want?

Wayne’s ten best? The already released Stagecoach, The Long Voyage Home, Red River, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, 3 Godfathers, Rio Grande, The Quiet Man, The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. All, except Howard Hawks’ Red River, are directed byJohn Ford.