TCM Greatest War Film Collection

TCM Greatest Classic Film Collection: War (Battle of the Bulge / The Dawn Patrol / Gunga Din / Operation Pacific)

It's generally been hard for significant others of GeorgeStevens' awesome enterprise film GUNGA DIN to discover a duplicate that didn't seem as though it had been dragged through the earth. The print in this accumulation was, great. Teaming it with one of my most loved flying motion pictures, THE DAWN PATROL, made this an absolute necessity have.

BATTLE OF THEBULGE This epic recreation of one of World War II's pivotal clashes captures the explosive action of massive forces squaring off as well as the brave ingenuity of weary GIs trying to survive a cruel European winter. Ken Annakin (The Longest Day) directs an all-star juggernaut: Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Robert Ryan and more. THE DAWN PATROL Errol Flynn and David Niven take to the skies in this thrilling aerial action yarn as World War I British flyboys who unite in devil-may-care gallantry and in disdain for their commander (Basil Rathbone). But war's realities will soon tarnish their bonhomie and change their disdain to understanding. GUNGA DIN Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. star as cheeky soldiers of Queen and Empire armed with battlefield gallantry and chin-up heroics as they combat a murderous sect in colonial India. Director George Stevens orchestrates teeming battles, boisterous humor – and an indelible title-role performance by Sam Jaffe. OPERATION PACIFIC Meet the dive-for-glory torpedo devils of the USS Thunderfish as John Wayne commands a desperate World War II submarine mission deep into enemy territory. Patricia Neal and Ward Bond co-star.

TCM Greatest Gangsters Movie

TCM Greatest Classic: Gangsters - Humphrey Bogart

TCM and Warner keep on truckin' with these 4-great-films-for-cheap releases. After buying some of the newer titles it appears they have officially abandoned their double-sided flipper discs and opted for reusing the original single-sided discs with same disc labels (BTW these collections are all re-releases, nothing new). However they are housed in a stackable hub case which some people believe could scratch discs somehow. I've never come across a disc that's been damaged in these cases so I much prefer it over the flipper discs. With twice the discs (and subsequently the label artwork as well) it feels like you're getting just a little more for your money.

As for the films themselves, they are all quintessential classic cinema at it's finest. While Bogie isn't the lead in 2 of them (The Petrified Forest, The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse) he is fantastic in the smaller roles. All of them boast phenomenal casts with the likes of Edward G. Robinson, Ida Lupino, Bette Davis, Jackie Gleason and Phil Silvers. All Through the Night isn't really a gangster film but instead features Bogie as a good-natured kingpin gambler complete with a hilarious posse who uncovers an underground ring of Nazis - doesn't really fit in with the other movies but great stuff nonetheless. All discs have some special features like Warner's "Night at the Movies" which presents you with a period-appropriate trailer, newsreel, short subject and cartoon just like you would have seen at the theater back then.

More 4-movie collections from TCM & Warner will most likely be on the way given the rate they are cranking them out now. About 1/3 of the DVDs from their Warner Bros. Gangster Collections haven't yet been re-released in these moneysavers and they've got an incredible catalog of existing releases to pull from. After passing on a lot of DVDs over the years, it's convenient to see some get a second life at a more economical rate.

TCM Family Classic Legends

TCM Greatest Classic Legends: Lauren Bacall (Key Largo / Blood Alley / Dark Passage / Designing Woman)

Four Great old motion pictures. It is a good time for us old clocks to return to the past. More youthful blue-beam encompass sound individuals will most likely not be content with this accumulation. I'm mature enough (1929) to acknowledge both the old and the new. I have the most recent 3D 55 inch TV with the most recent sound. I have two full range speakers to one side and the privilege of the TV, a fabulous woofer and two back of the room speakers Super solid is accessible. for the most recent motion pictures .

Story Hint

This entry in TCM/Warner Home Video's budget-priced classic movie collection is one of the best they've assembled. Lauren Bacall, one of the greatest actresses from the golden age, is featured in four memorable movies (sharing the screen in two of them with husband Humphrey Bogart). The pick of the bunch is DESIGNING WOMAN (which had actually been out-of-print for a couple of years before being reissued in this set).

 The two Bogie/Bacall titles are 1947's DARK PASSAGE and what was to be their final screen pairing, 1948's KEY LARGO. DARK PASSAGE is my personal favourite of all the Bogart-Bacall films. Wrongly jailed for the murder of his wife, Vincent Parry (Humphrey Bogart) escapes from San Quentin and is picked up by Irene Jansen (Lauren Bacall), a sympathiser who frequented Parry's trial, and by sheer coincidence, was in the area when Parry fled. Back in San Francisco, Parry undergoes plastic surgery in an attempt to disguise himself, but when his best friend is murdered and a small-time crook recognises the fugitive, Parry must track down whom he believes is the real person who killed his wife.
 KEY LARGO boasts an Academy Award-winning performance from Claire Trevor as a tragic gangster's moll, co-starring opposite Edward G. Robinson, who holds a group of disparate strangers hostage in a run-down hotel during a hurricane. Bacall is Nora Temple, the daughter of the hotel's aged owner (played by Lionel Barrymore in one of his great autumnal turns).
 Bacall stars opposite John Wayne in the splashy CinemaScope adventure BLOOD ALLEY, a 1955 production from Wayne's film company, Batjac. Set in Communist China, Bacall is Cathy Grainger, the daughter of a local doctor who has been murdered by the regime and begs sea captain Tom Wilder (John Wayne) to transport a boatload of Chinese refugees down the dangerous waterway known as "Blood Alley".

 Finally in the sparkling 1957 Vincente Minnelli-directed gem, DESIGNING WOMAN, Bacall gets to shine in a delicious "battle of the sexes" romp co-starring amiable Gregory Peck as a sportswriter who romances fashion designer Marilla (Bacall). Clarion-voiced Broadway import Dolores Gray co-stars as one of Peck's former flames who cannot help but meddle in their affairs.
 Conceived by longtime MGM costume designer Helen Rose, the shoot of DESIGNING WOMAN was scheduled around the time when Humphrey Bogart was gravely-ill with cancer. The lighthearted mood of the film must have provided a welcome distraction for Bacall - who turns in one of her greatest performances.