For years now, Hollywood comedies have either had to be raunchy or sentimental or both to sell. The latest case in point is the March hit, I Love You, Man which walks a fine line between the two elements. Written by John Hamburg and Larry Levin and directed by Hamburg, the film starts with the wobbly premise that nice guy Paul Rudd has no male friends and needs to find one in a hurry to be his best man at his upcoming nuptials. That sets him off on a frenzy of “dates” with guys such as the 89-year-old man who lies about his age on the internet and the new-to-Los Angeles son of a friend of his mother’s neither knew was gay.

Just when the film seems in danger of drowning in clichés along comes overgrown kid Jason Segel to liven things up. The two meet at an open house for Lou Ferigno’s digs which real estate agent Rudd is trying to sell. They quickly bond, but there is an edge to Segel’s character that you can’t tell whether or not his friendship is sincere. Even more of a problem is that the character of Rudd’s fiancé, played by Rashida Jones, is under-developed. It’s odd that Rudd’s family and Jones’ friends attend the engagement dinner thrown by Rudd’s parents, Jane Curtin and J.K. Simmons, but Jones’ family is not even mentioned. Nor do they attend the wedding in which no one gives the bride away. Not to worry, though, the yucks are there and everyone seems bound to live happily ever after at the film’s finish. If you watch it though, don’t turn it off until after the end credits. The film’s funniest scene takes place over them.

I Love You, Man is available on Blu-ray and standard DVD.

A real curiosity, 1952’s Actors and Sin was the last film directed by the legendary Ben Hecht, better known for his writing. It was in fact co-directed by cinematographer Lee Garmes with whom Hecht had co-directed Angels Over Broadway twelve years earlier.

The film is two, short 45-minute stories, Actor’s Blood and Woman of Sin, combined into one movie.

The first segment stars Edward G. Robinson as a hammy stage actor who discovers his actress daughter Marsha Hunt’s body and proceeds to help the police solve her murder. Aside from Robinson and Hunt, the only actor of any consequence in the film is Dan O’Herlihy who plays Hunt’s ex-husband. He is also the only one who doesn’t overact in this melodramatic hodgepodge.

The second story is a sillier-than-need-be screwball comedy about a young girl who writes adult love stories for the radio, Eddie Albert and Hecht’s nine-year-old daughter Jenny star in this one.

Better than either segment is the delightful thirty-minute DVD interview of Marsha Hunt who talks about her film career cut short by the blacklist, her subsequent twenty-five years of service to the U.N. and stage work, her Hollywood friendships with everyone from Bing Crosby to Paul Newman to Harry Belafonte and the now-91-year-old star’s current career as a record producer. Unlike the film, she’s a total delight.

Actors and Sin is available on standard DVD only.

Divided into five hour-long segments that make it look like a TV special, Richard Schickel’s You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story was in fact a theatrical film release first presented at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and subsequently shown in limited release in theatres last fall.

The documentary follows the changing trends of films from the silent era to the present day. Its many generous clips have almost all been restored, but if you’ve seen any of the TCM documentaries that have accompanied many of Warner Bros. DVD releases over the years you will recognize many of the included interviews with stars and directors long gone. Still, it’s nice to see and hear the likes of Busby Berkeley, James Cagney, Stanley Cortez, Julius J. Epstein, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Kim Hunter, Elia Kazan, Howard Koch, Mervyn LeRoy, Pat O’Brien, William T. Orr, Ronald Reagan, Edward G. Robinson, Vincent Sherman, Alexis Smith, Claire Trevor, Hal B. Wallis, Raoul Walsh, Jack Warner and William A. Wellman once more.

Still living interviewees include Carroll Baker, Warren Beatty, George Clooney, Stanley Donen, Molly Haskell, Robert Redford, Andrew Sarris, David Thompson and Richard Zanuck. Clint Eastwood narrates.

Among the films now available for order from the Warner archive are a number of Al Jolson films. Jolson’s The Jazz Singer was, as everybody knows, the first talking picture. Actually it’s a mostly silent film with very little spoken dialogue that bursts into song now and then.

When The Jazz Singer opened in October 1927, only 200 theatres across the U.S. were equipped with sound which meant that more people heard about the film at the time than actually saw it. The Singing Fool, released almost a year later in September 1928, after most theatres were so equipped, was the first mostly-talking picture that most people were able to see, making it the most financially successful film at the box-office until Gone With the Wind.

It had to have been the novelty. The film itself creaks. It probably creaked then, but audiences didn’t mind as long as they could see and hear Jolson sing "There’s a Rainbow Round My Shoulder", "I’m Sitting on Top of the World” and other hit songs.

The plot has aspiring singer Jolson married to two-timing Josephine Dunn who leaves him after both become stars and takes his beloved three year old son, "Sonny Boy" (picture-stealing Davey Lee) with her. It doesn’t help that Jolson has more chemistry with little Davey Lee than he does with either Dunn or Betty Bronson as the perky waitress who waits for him.

It’s a film that’s worth seeing primarily for its historic value.

Whereas the plot of The Singing Fool doesn’t turn maudlin until the last act, 1929’s Say It With Songs starts out that way and doesn’t let up. Radio star Jolson spends the better part of the film behind bars for accidentally killing his boss for having lecherous designs on his wife, Marion Nixon. There’s even a Stella Dallas-type scene near the end with Jolson peering through the window at his now-estranged wife and his beloved "Little Pal", the same Davey Lee who climbed upon his knee as "Sonny Boy". Worst of all, the songs here aren’t even interesting. The wretched "Little Pal" is heard at least three times, and that’s three too many. Like The Singing Fool, Say It With Songs is worth seeing more for its historic value than its content.

Other Jolson titles available through the archive include Big Boy, about a horse, not another little kid; the all-star Wonder Bar featuring Kay Francis, Dolores Del Rio, Dick Powell and more; Go Into Your Dance, his only film opposite wife Ruby Keeler; and The Singing Kid, his last starring role.

It’s been out for a while now, but with the Emmy awards approaching this may be the best time to catch up with Breaking Bad – The Complete First Season. The entire season was only seven episodes long. Played back-to-back, the running time is approximately 5 ½ hours, making it seem more like a long, absorbing film.

Bryan Cranston won a surprise Emmy for this last year and has been nominated again this year along with co-star Aaron Paul. Both are terrific.

A description of the comedy-drama series probably sounds awful to those who haven’t seen it, but it’s far from that. Cranston plays a high school chemistry teacher who learns he is dying of lung cancer and, with the help of failed former student Paul, buys an RV which he turns into a meth lab in order to make enough money to take care of his pregnant wife and handicapped son after he’s gone.

Set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the small regular cast also includes Anna Gunn as Cranston’s wife, Dean Norris as his loud-mouthed brother-in-law in charge of the local DEA, Betsy Brandt as Gunn’s bitchy sister and Norris’ wife, and 16-year-old newcomer RJ Mitte as Cranston’s son. Mitte, who has a mild case of cerebral palsy in real life, plays the more severely afflicted character with a charm that has already made him something of a teen idol.

Give it a chance. You’ll be hooked.

Breaking Bad – The Complete First Season is available on standard DVD only.

-Peter J. Patrick (August 18, 2009)