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Classic DVDs

Once Upon a Time in the West

Sales Rank:1501
List Price: $9.98
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Anamorphic
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Henry Fonda
Charles Bronson
Claudia Cardinale
Jason Robards
Gabriele Ferzetti

The so-called spaghetti Western achieved its apotheosis in Sergio Leone's magnificently mythic (and utterly outlandish) Once upon a Time in the West. After a series of international hits starring Clint Eastwood (from A Fistful of Dollars to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly), Leone outdid himself with this spectacular, larger-than-life, horse-operatic epic about how the West was won. (And make no mistake: this is the wide, wide West, folks--so the widescreen/letterboxed version is strongly recommended.) The unholy trinity of Italian cinema--Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Dario Argento--concocted the story about a woman (Claudia Cardinale) hanging onto her land in hopes that the transcontinental railroad would reach her before a steely-eyed, black-hearted killer (Fonda) does. (The film's advertising slogan was: "There were three men in her life. One to take her ... one to love her ... and one to kill her.") Meanwhile, Leone shoots his stars' faces as if they were expansive Western landscapes, and their towering bodies as if they were looming rock formations in John Ford's Monument Valley. --Jim Emerson

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Operation Petticoat

Sales Rank:2268
List Price: $14.98
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Color
DVD-Video
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Director(s):

Actor(s):

Cary Grant
Tony Curtis
Joan O'Brien
Dina Merrill
Gene Evans

Blake Edwards's delightful 1959 comedy stars Cary Grant as a World War II submarine captain whose preference for a by-the-book command reluctantly yields to certain realities. Chief among those is that Grant's first officer (Tony Curtis, who impersonated Grant that same year in Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot), a shameless hustler, is better than the navy at delivering whatever supplies the ship and crew need to keep going. But when Curtis sneaks a handful of Philippine refugees and several gorgeous nurses onto the all-male sub, the skipper not only has to cool down his crew but deal with an unexpected feminine influence on ship protocol. The film is a great deal of fun, sprinkled with the director's trademark sight gags (including one of Edwards's best, involving a torpedo and jeep), and graced with his unmistakable lilt. Grant is in great form, his comic brilliance almost impossibly effortless. --Tom Keogh

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The Winds of War

Sales Rank:2017
List Price: $79.99
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Box set
Collector's Edition
Color
DVD-Video
Full Screen
Miniseries
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Robert Mitchum
Ali MacGraw
Jan-Michael Vincent
John Houseman
Polly Bergen

An engrossing, 1983 television miniseries based on a bestselling work of historical fiction by Herman Wouk, The Winds of War is an admirable production reminiscent of the era of Hollywood's epic features. At the center of the globe-trotting story is the Henry family, whose laconic but straight-shooting patriarch is United States Navy Commander Victor "Pug" Henry (Robert Mitchum), sent to Hitler's Berlin in the spring of 1939 as a naval attaché to the then-neutral American embassy. A keen observer, Pug deduces that Germany is not preparing for war on two fronts (western Europe on one side, Russia on the other) despite what the Nazis want the world to believe, meaning that Hitler must be working out a secret peace deal with Stalin. Pug's prescience makes him a favorite eyewitness in Berlin for Franklin D. Roosevelt (Ralph Bellamy); the irony is that Pug is far less sagacious when it comes to the realities of his family.

Polly Bergen plays unhappy wife Rhoda, who turns to A-bomb developer Palmer Kirby (Peter Graves) for comfort. Pug's 19-year-old daughter, Madeline (Lisa Eilbacher), defies her iron-willed dad's decision that she stay in school by taking a job for CBS radio in New York. Compliant son Warren (Ben Murphy) can't seem to get Pug's attention despite doing everything right (including becoming a Navy pilot, eventually present at the bombing of Pearl Harbor). By contrast, Pug spends more time fuming over black sheep son Byron (Jan-Michael Vincent), who is working in increasingly Fascist Italy as an assistant to an art historian (John Houseman) while trying hard to woo the latter's exasperating niece, Natalie (Ali MacGraw). The story of Byron and Natalie takes up much of The Winds of War as the pair traverse Poland during the shock of Hitler's 1939 assault, and Jewish Natalie later finds herself trapped inside Italy facing the threat of concentration camps. Before The Winds of War ends, each of these characters will end up in places and situations, and with historical figures (Churchill, Mussolini) as well as ordinary people, they would not have anticipated outside the pressures of war. The program's length and smart script allow for a lot of ideas and background detail that pull a viewer in--happily. --Tom Keogh

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The Andy Griffith Show - The Complete First Season

Sales Rank:2362
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Box set
Black & White
Dolby
DVD-Video
Full Screen
NTSC

Director(s):

Bob Sweeney
Don Weis
Gene Reynolds
Sheldon Leonard

Actor(s):

Andy Griffith
Ron Howard
Don Knotts
Frances Bavier
George Lindsey

Since its network debut in 1960, The Andy Griffith Show has been a viewer favorite thanks to its folksy, nostalgic charm and memorable cast, both of which shine in this set featuring the series' debut season. Originally spun off from an episode of Make Room for Daddy (both series shared producers Sheldon Leonard and Danny Thomas), The Andy Griffith Show centered around the lives of small-town sheriff Andy Taylor (the marvelously dry Griffith), his son Opie (Ron Howard), cousin and deputy Barney Fife (multiple Emmy winner Don Knotts), and the other gentle eccentrics of Mayberry (which was based on Griffith's real hometown). But while other "rural" programs poked fun at its characters (The Real McCoys, The Beverly Hillbillies), The Andy Griffith Show never stooped to stereotypes, preferring instead to draw its humor from the fine writing and cast, which counted Frances Bavier as Aunt Bee, Howard McNear as Floyd the Barber, and Hal Campbell as Mayberry's benevolent drunk, Otis, among the first season ensemble. All 32 episodes (including the epilogues, which are rarely aired in syndication) are compiled on this four-disc set, which regrettably lacks any supplemental features. --Paul Gaita

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Bewitched - The Complete Sixth Season

Sales Rank:1078
List Price: $39.95
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Box set
Color
Dubbed
Full Screen

Director(s):

David White
Ernest A. Losso
Luther James
Richard Michaels

Actor(s):

Elizabeth Montgomery
Dick York
Dick Sargent
David White
Maurice Evans

Yes, yes, we’ve heard it before: Bewitched jumped the broom in season six when Dick Sargent replaced Dick York as Darrin Stevens, the most infamous cast switcheroo in TV history. But if you don’t purchase this set, be advised that you will miss what Quentin Tarantino, when he hosted Saturday Night Live, proclaimed to be "the single greatest moment in television history": Serena’s rendition of "I’ll Blow You a Kiss in the Wind" in the episode "Serena Stops the Show." Beyond that, this season shows there was still plenty of magic left in this supernatural series. Over the course of the first five seasons, Bewitched replaced Louise Tates and Gladys Kravitzes, so why not Darrin? Besides, Sargent was originally tapped to star as Darrin (but he was contractually bound elsewhere). However, Marion Lorne, who won an Emmy as endearingly addled Aunt Clara, was irreplaceable. So when she passed away, a new character was introduced this season; Esmeralda (Alice Ghostley), a shy witch whose lack of self confidence caused her to fade when she got nervous, and whose good-intentioned spells invariably backfired. If this season suffers from anything, it’s more a sense of been there, twitched that. There is yet another Halloween episode that battles the "ugly witch" stereotype, and several in which a spell gone awry is explained away as a concept for one of Darrin’s ad campaigns (why else would there be a unicorn in the Stevens’ backyard in the episode, "Samantha’s Yoo-Hoo Maid"). And Endora (Agnes Moorehead) continues to cast embarrassing spells on Darrin, like transforming him into a yes-man in "You’re So Agreeable," or compelling him to speak in nothing but clichés in "The Phrase is Familiar." But the writers did conjure up some fresh situations. In a two-parter, Darrin’s newfound magic powers go to his head. In "Samantha’s Secret is Discovered," Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) finally reveals to her mother-in-law (Mabel Albertson) that she is "a cauldron-stirring, card-carrying" witch. And this season, Samantha gives birth to warlock infant Adam. The adorable Erin Murphy, as daughter Tabitha, gives the show some added kid appeal with her misguided uses of her budding powers. In the season opener, she switches places with Jack (Family Affair’s Johnny Whitaker) to climb the beanstalk and confront the Giant. In another episode, she creates a double of Samantha so she can go to the park. In addition to Montgomery’s groovy dual role as Serena, this season offers the always-welcome return of Paul Lynde as practical joker and insult zinger Uncle Arthur and Bernard Fox as the cantankerous and contemptuous Dr. Bombay. This set’s extras are limited to two random "minisodes" of The Partridge Family and I Dream of Jeannie. --Donald Liebenson

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The Fall Of The Roman Empire (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (The Miriam Collection)

Sales Rank:1351
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Closed-captioned
Color
DVD-Video
NTSC
Widescreen

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Sophia Loren
Alec Guinness
Christopher Plummer
Stephen Boyd
James Mason

The second and last of Anthony Mann's historical epics is a smart, handsome spectacle of the decadence, corruption, and intrigue that tears apart the greatest empire the world has seen. The sprawling story spreads itself thin over a number of characters and stories. At the center are handsome but stiff Stephen Boyd as Livius, the loyal soldier and symbolic son of the aging emperor (Alec Guinness), and Christopher Plummer as Commodus, the corrupt heir to the throne--boyhood friends turned enemies when the latter accedes to the throne and sells out the values of his father for greed and hedonistic pleasures. The three-hour running time is filled out with the tales of Sophia Loren (as the beautiful Lucilla in love with Livius but coveted by greedy Commodus) and a gallery of heroes and villains that includes James Mason, Mel Ferrer, Anthony Quayle, John Ireland, Omar Sharif, and Eric Porter. The film is highlighted with spectacular scenes (a grandiose funeral fit for an emperor, brutal battles in the provinces as the barbarians threaten the empire, and a climactic duel to decide the destiny of Rome), which Mann weaves into the shadowy intrigue of the halls of power. Like his previous epic El Cid, The Fall of the Roman Empire remains one of the best of the 1960s epics: well written (and largely historically accurate) with strong performances and a consistently elegant style, but it lacks a central core and the magnetic hero of its superior predecessor. --Sean Axmaker

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Bye Bye Birdie

Sales Rank:2124
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MPAA Rating: G (General Audience)

Format:

Anamorphic
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Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Full Screen
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Dick Van Dyke
Ann-Margret
Janet Leigh
Maureen Stapleton
Bobby Rydell

When Elvis-like rock & roll star Conrad Birdie is drafted into the military, the teen nation is united by a contest in which the winner bestows a farewell kiss upon their idol while on the Ed Sullivan Show. Ann-Margret (in her film debut) is the lucky little lady from Sweet Apple, Ohio, who wins the contest, much to the chagrin of her steady beau (Bobby Rydell) and miserable parents (Paul Lynde and Mary LaRoche). Dick Van Dyke and Janet Leigh are an older couple kept from marrying by his meddlesome mother, played to the hilt by Maureen Stapleton. Lightweight but fun, this features an exuberant soundtrack with such memorable ditties as "Put on a Happy Face" and "Kids" and the title track. This is a much better choice than the lackluster, 1995 made-for-TV version. --Rochelle O'Gorman

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Easy Living (Universal Cinema Classics)

Sales Rank:2234
List Price: $14.98
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Full Screen
Subtitled
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Jean Arthur
Edward Arnold
Ray Milland

Of all the screenplays Preston Sturges wrote for Paramount before becoming the greatest comic director of his generation, 1937's Easy Living seems the most like something he would have filmed himself--a satirical fable about chance, class, and the absurdity of the American dream. Jean Arthur is a New York secretary riding to work atop a double-decker bus when a fur coat miraculously descends from the sky and settles on her shoulders. The fur, however, has not dropped from Olympus but from the hand of a millionaire (Edward Arnold) who has just tossed it from a nearby roof to punish his wife. But as if it were a magic fleece (the mythical reference is almost certainly intended by the erudite Sturges), it makes its wearer invincible, conferring an aura of prosperity, celebrity, and power on the previously average working girl. No folk tale is complete without a prince: Sturges's is the millionaire's son, Ray Milland, who is trying to pass as an apprentice stockbroker. Directed with a light, elegant touch by Mitchell Leisen, the film lacks the crazy energy it would have had under Sturges's own hand, but this remains one of the great screwball comedies (in a year that also saw The Awful Truth and Nothing Sacred). --Dave Kehr

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F Troop - The Complete First Season

Sales Rank:2770
List Price: $39.98
Lowest New Price: $15.98
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Box set
Black & White
Closed-captioned
Full Screen
Subtitled
NTSC

Director(s):

Charles R. Rondeau
David Alexander
Gene Reynolds
Leslie Goodwins
Seymour Robbie

Actor(s):

Forrest Tucker
Larry Storch
Ken Berry
Melody Patterson
James Hampton

F-Troop belongs to the ranks of television's great military slacker comedies, including Sgt. Bilko and McHale's Navy. Ken Berry was promoted from bit player to leading man with his role as clueless and clumsy ("I fall down a lot") Wilton Parmenter, who is put in charge of the frontier post Fort Courage after a display of inadvertent Civil War heroism. "He's the pigeon we always dreamed of," enthuses Sgt. O'Rourke (Forrest Tucker), who runs "O'Rourke Enterprises" with his sidekick Corporal Agarn (Larry Storch). Most episodes involve O'Rourke and Agarn's get-rich schemes that ultimately backfire. The show's great (albeit politically incorrect) comic conceit is the Hekawis, the decidedly un-bloodthirsty Indian tribe who makes tourist souvenirs, not war. "We invent peace pipe," proclaims Chief Wild Eagle (Frank DeKova), whose broken English and anachronistic vernacular (similar to Joey Bishop in Texas Across the River) provide most of each episode's biggest--and, in these more enlightened times, guiltiest--laughs.

F's troupe also includes Melody Patterson as Wrangler Jane, who has a hankerin' for "Will" ("I told you, Jane, not in front of the men"), James Hampton as bungling bugler Dobbs, Joe Brooks as nearsighted look-out Vanderbilt, cowboy star Bob Steele as gung-ho Alamo survivor Duffy, and venerable character actor (and Rocky and Bullwinkle's "Fractured Fairy Tales" narrator) Edward Everett Horton as Hekawi medicine man Roaring Chicken. Among the more memorable guest appearances include Zsa Zsa Gabor as a gypsy who attempts to fleece Agarn in "Play, Gypsy, Play," and Don Rickles (!) as Chief Wild Eagle's excitable, warlike son in "The Return of Bald Eagle." The episode, "Reunion for O'Rouke," contains the classic bit about how the Hekawis got their name. F-Troop debuted in 1965 and lasted but two seasons. It broke no television ground and was never nominated for an Emmy. A single-disc compilation of six episodes is also available, but Baby Boomers who remember F-Troop fondly will want to enlist for a full season. It's old school, flat-out funny. -–Donald Liebenson

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The Donna Reed Show: The Complete First Season

Sales Rank:3126
List Price: $39.95
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Box set
Black & White
DVD-Video
Full Screen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Donna Reed
Carl Betz
Shelley Fabares
Paul Petersen
Jimmy Hawkins

The show revolves around housewife, Donna Stone, and her family--husband Alex who is a pediatrician, 14 year-old Mary, and 11 year-old Jeff. The Stone family reside in the midwestern town of Hilldale. Donna was the perfect American housewife and mother. She was always neatly-groomed, lovely, good-natured, thoughtful, and capable. The episodes involved the usual family problems and adventures, with Donna usually saving the day in her quiet, capable way.

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