It Happened One Night

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Director Frank Capra (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) took home every Oscar in the book (well, okay, all the major ones) for this seminal 1934 comedy starring Clark Gable as a hard-bitten reporter who stays close to a runaway heiress (Claudette Colbert) rather than lose a good story. Funny and sexy, the film is full of memorable scenes often referred to in other films, such as the "walls of Jericho" (a mere bedcover hung on a line down the middle of a room so opposite-sex roommates can get undressed), and Colbert's famous flash of thigh to stop a speeding car in its tracks. Capra's brisk, urbane brand of wit was a perfect complement to his populist faith in the common man (in this case, Gable's character), and that inspired combination makes this film both a spirited entertainment and an uplifting experience. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

Poor Sound and Visual Quality, Lucky Winner of Best Picture Award!.......2007-09-12

Content-wise, this is a good movie except that when you consider that this was up against "The Thin Man" in the same categories save Best Actress, I find it hard to believe that this movie is the better screwball romance of the two. Firstly, the jokes are more frequent and are less dated sounding and I found myself laughing at them although I was born more than 3 decades later and overall "The Thin Man" moves along at a good pace making it for me the true Best Picture of 1934. Woody Van Dyke was also the better director although I can see how the screenplay award could go down to the wire.

As the second best movie of 1934, this movie has a few good things going for it although to call it the best ever screwball romantic comedy would be ridiculous as there are many better ones such as "My Girl Friday" and "The Philadelphia Story" just to name a couple let alone "The Thin Man", as it does have a pretty good screenplay and both Gable and Claudette have a good on-screen chemistry. I thought the film dragged on a little though and was not as smooth flowing as say "The Thin Man" and the "logic" of going on foot instead of continuing on the bus and in not telling Ellie why he had to go and get gas in the middle of the night escapes me but what made this film great is the great acting of both Gable and Claudette who both deserved their Oscars although I can see why Bette Davis would feel aggrieved after her great performance in "Of Human Bondage".

The problem with this DVD though is the very poor sound and visual quality of the transfer when compared with "The Thin Man". Perhaps the original masters were better preserved for the latter film but the difference in quality is night and day if you can get a copy of the DVDs to compare them you'll see what I mean. A little known fact about this movie though is that the scene on the cover is what inspired the creation of Bugs Bunny as creator Chuck Jones stated that he saw Gable as a "big rabbit" and if you watch early Bugs Bunny cartoons, you'll see more than a slight resemblance to Peter Warne as portrayed in the movie.

To conclude, good movie but poor DVD transfer and certainly NOT the best picture of 1934.

clark gable fan.......2007-07-23

This is a great movie!! nice for a light happy and funny movie that the whole family can enjoy and watch together!
We watched it outside with a large screen with 30 family members and it was great fun!!Everyone enjoyed it!

a classic.......2007-07-22

I saw this in my films class and afterwards I rushed out to buy my own copy. This movie is the father of today's romantic comedies. It's extremely romantic with memorable scenes and characters.

The best romantic comedies.......2007-07-06

This Frank Capra film is timeless! This first romantic comedy (they called them screwball comedies then) won 5 Academy Awards in 1934--Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay. It is still funny and cute even though it is 70+ years old. The Walls of Jerico scene demonstrated how classy the older filmmakers were--love scene without showing any sex. A nice addition for any classic movie buff, but also buy Bringing Up Baby...

It Happened One Night.......2007-06-20

Frank Capra's sublime romantic comedy swept the 1934 Oscars, and it's still easy to understand why. Few seventy year old movies hold up like this one. Colbert makes a charming, deft comedienne (check out that hitch-hiking scene!), and Gable was never more appealing, winning his only Oscar for this role. The scene where Peter takes off his shirt and exposes his bare chest was a first, and reportedly, sounded a death knell for the undershirt industry. Hail to the walls of Jericho!

Average customer rating:

Suspenseful Thriller- 3.5 Stars
Based on a 1920's serial killer.
Watch with your preacher, or minister, so he can help you understand
The Night of the Hunter
The movie no child will ever forget

The Night of the Hunter
Starring: Robert Mitchum , Shelley Winters , Lillian Gish , James Gleason , and Evelyn Varden
Director: Charles Laughton
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
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ASIN: B000035P5R
Release Date: 2000-01-25

Amazon.com essential video

In the entire history of American movies, The Night of the Hunter stands out as the rarest and most exotic of specimens. It is, to say the least, a masterpiece--and not just because it was the only movie directed by flamboyant actor Charles Laughton or the only produced solo screenplay by the legendary critic James Agee (who also cowrote The African Queen). The truth is, nobody has ever made anything approaching its phantasmagoric, overheated style in which German expressionism, religious hysteria, fairy-tale fantasy (of the Grimm-est variety), and stalker movie are brought together in a furious boil. Like a nightmarish premonition of stalker movies to come, Night of the Hunter tells the suspenseful tale of a demented preacher (Robert Mitchum, in a performance that prefigures his memorable villain in Cape Fear), who torments a boy and his little sister--even marries their mixed-up mother (Shelley Winters)--because he's certain the kids know where their late bank-robber father hid a stash of stolen money. So dramatic, primal, and unforgettable are its images--the preacher's shadow looming over the children in their bedroom, the magical boat ride down a river whose banks teem with fantastic wildlife, those tattoos of LOVE and HATE on the unholy man's knuckles, the golden locks of a drowned woman waving in the current along with the indigenous plant life in her watery grave--that they're still haunting audiences (and filmmakers) today. --Jim Emerson

Customer Reviews:

Suspenseful Thriller- 3.5 Stars.......2007-08-06

Setting- West Virginia near the Ohio river. Shot in black and white, the story centers around a mother and 2 young children, John and Pearl, whos father is hanged for robbery and murder. The mother ends up quickly marrying a man masquerading as a preacher who she barely knows. It turns out hes some kind of psychotic and is out for money and hes willing to go to any length to get it. It amazed me how quickly she was brainwashed by this guy. Everyone around them seems to think this preacher is a good guy. He only reveals his true nature to the ones who he is trying to get something from. Behind closed doors hes another person but the son seems to sense something funny about this guy off the bat though the daughter is more captivated by his fake charm.. though soon she too finds out what a monster he is.

Soon one thing leads to another and he ends up going after the children who know of where the money is hidden. From there the children are trying to escape from this preacher with the money and their lives. The religious dialogue was a bit too much but i understand that this guy was trying to come off as a preacher and he was really convincing. It makes you think about how you never really know who someone truly is and what their motives are... Especially strangers.

Some of the images have a sense of peace about them and others are disturbing, Its like a disney film meets horror. Except without the animation.. sort of fairytale like yet sinister foreboding that can occur at any moment. It was hard to follow at times and almost put me to sleep with the dreamlike visuals and boring dialogue. Other than that it was decent. Its a very old movie and you will probably either love it or hate it.

As for me i cant really decide on this one. I see the merit of it but it slightly disapointed me. I was expecting something completely different. On one hand i thought it was somewhat boring and predictable, on another i cant seem to get those images out of my mind and when i think of the images i think greatness. Many of the images are unforgettable and unique.

This movie is a mix of german expressionism, rural america, religious hypocrisy and some kind of brothers grimm fairy tale mixed into one.

Based on a 1920's serial killer........2007-07-29

This movie is based on a 1920's serial killer who lived and murdered in Clarksburg, West Virginia. The real one raped, tortured and killed at least 6 women and children, maybe more. This 1050's movie is watered down and is not nearly as frightening as the real "Harry Powers."

Watch with your preacher, or minister, so he can help you understand.......2007-07-17

This is one of my all time favorite movies. It made it to number 36 out of my favorite 100. I first heard of this film in 1991, and watched it I was horrorstruck. A preacher can do that? Well I had to remember 3 years earlier that it was not a good thing to be a minister if your name was Jim. I know watch this, and say that despite the collar that ministers are just like us they're human. The two children John and Pearl are two sheep. Pearl is young and trusting; all she wants is a family to belong to, and after her father goes to prison, and is hung, she clings to Preacher Harry Powell for salvation. John on the other hand loved his father, and was upset he had to die; I mean after all he was providing for his family wasn't he? Financial depression can make everyone do alot of desparate things. However, John learned one thing from his father that really hindered him throughout most of this movie, and that was "God will help you if you help yourself." Unfortunately, if you're doing all the work, and not allowing God into the picture you can't experience God's blessings, but when Harry Powell marries John's mother played by Shelly Winters he sees that his skepticism was right on. Back to Harry Powell he's really knowledgeable about being a man of God, but he keeps looking to get his hands on the money that John's father stole, and dismissing it as the Lord providing for his needs. Little did Harry know when he kills John's mother that he would bring a whole town into backsliding. I remember the scene after Powell's arrest that the same people he considered friends now wanted him crucified, and the thing was they were sounding rather stoned drunk if you ask me. How is a little child to react to something like this? Well fortunately John begins to learn about God, and who he is when a elderly woman played by Lillian Gish teaches him about God in the Bible. I found that alot of people's ideas about religion were expressed in this film, and unfortunately, depending on the preachers out there people may be fed the wrong ideas. We have to read the word of God, and be able to discern if the preacher is telling us God's word true, or false. If you're not a Christian still watch with a minister...in fact it's my belief this should be shown in church as a tool to show non-Christians that Harry Powell's way isn't the right one.

The Night of the Hunter.......2007-06-26

Gothic suspense/horror entry was actor Laughton's only outing behind the camera, and he was heart-broken when it failed at the box office. Evidently, the film was simply too dark for audiences of the time. Mitchum is terrifying as Preacher Harry, a wolf in sheep's clothing who has the word "Love" printed on the fingers of one hand, "Hate" on the other. Winters is perfectly cast as the dim Willa, but the stand-out is silent actress Gish as gun-toting Rachel Cooper, the kids' unlikely protector. Eerily composed and shot, and featuring a brilliant screenplay by James Agee, "Hunter" remains a spine-chilling masterpiece.

The movie no child will ever forget.......2007-02-18

"He ain't my dad."
"No. And he ain't no preacher either."

In my opinion Lillian Gish, the wonderful silent film actress, is the real prize in this film. She embodies the little goodness that may be left in the world. She is the willing instrument of God -He always picks the weakest and least of us for His purposes- in the plan to protect children from evil.

The film starts starts with a warning against false teachers, and thus, plainly states what the story is going to be about; so there's no need to waste words explaining anything. It just amazes me how well it measures the amount of evil and destruction that is around us, and how little goodness and inocence. Children and an old woman, that's all the goodness you will find. Everybody else is rotten, and they'd better repent and humble themselves before it's too late. Not only the false preacher, instrument of the devil, but everybody is guilty. Just pay attention. Who is not guilty of something here? Even the poor kids' old uncle won't help them -he is drunk when most needed-. And what about the officer in charge of killing the ones who are sentenced to death? He ain't happy either with what he has to do, however, he would rather keep his job. Not to mention the mob: such a crowd of hypocrites and gullible people.

Yup. Methinks there's enough guilt stinking around for everyone to have a little sniff. But for the innocent children. I loved, though, how the old lady gave an earnest spanking to the boy when he wouldn't wash.

No kid should skip this movie. It can be a spiritual experience out of which may grow, some day, some good seed in their hearts.

Still, some people will say this is not a Christian movie... or even worse: that it exposes Christians thru their hypocrisy.

Beware of false teachers; know them by their fruits. And love the Lord first and foremost.

P.S. And how about being located in the South? You say that people in the North are not so gullible and fanatical? Well, I say that if that's so maybe they are already dead (spiritually). Long live the South.

Average customer rating:

Great Restoration and Extras; Silly Movie.
New DVD is somewhat disappointing
A glittering disappointment...not a critical or box-office success...
Buy the Film for the Visuals.

A Midsummer Night's Dream
Starring: James Cagney , Joe E. Brown , Dick Powell , Mickey Rooney , and Victor Jory
Director: Max Reinhardt , and William Dieterle
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000QGE8JC
Release Date: 2007-08-14

Amazon.com

James Cagney and Mickey Rooney romping in a Shakespearian fairyland? This could only be A Midsummer Night's Dream, Warner Bros.' 1935 attempt at classing up the proletarian studio. The legendary German stage director Max Reinhardt had produced the play at the Hollywood Bowl to enchanted, sold-out audiences, and Warners decided to hand Reinhardt the keys to the studio (along with fellow Germans William Dieterle, co-director, and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who adapted Mendelssohn's music). Reinhardt created an eye-popping phantasmagoria, a movie laced with sparkling sequins, flying fairies, and moon-kissed forests. As for the words, Reinhardt had a collection of Warners studio players, notably James Cagney as Bottom, whose playing of "Pyramus and Thisby" with Joe E. Brown is perhaps the movie's comic high point. The other actors are decidedly varied, and they tend to be overwhelmed by the production design. Not so Mickey Rooney, whose performance as Puck is a feral, antic act of imagination (he was 14 during filming); picture a boy raised by wolves who somehow memorized Shakespeare. His Puck growls and screams and mocks the drama of the other characters, a little postmodern imp before his time. (Critic David Thomson called this Puck "truly inhuman, one of the cinema's most arresting pieces of magic"). The rest of the movie comes to earth with some regularity, but it's a one-of-a-kind production, and a reminder of the lavish, unreal possibilities within a movie studio. --Robert Horton

Description

Love is blind, fickle and true. And under the sway of capricious fairies it becomes blinder ( a queen romances as donkey), more fickle (best friends swoon over each other's beau) and truest of all (lovers repledge their devotion). "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" in Shakespeare's bewitching comedy!

Customer Reviews:

Great Restoration and Extras; Silly Movie........2007-09-03

Max Reinhardt's sound-film career started and ended with A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (AMND). Reinhardt (originally Goldmann) was a noted European stage director/producer who tried to make the jump to sound film. Not everything that was successful in live theater (especially on European stages during the 20's and 30's) ended up a cinematic hit (especially with American film audiences) during the same period. AMND is an expensive exhibit A. Reinhardt was in the midst of preparing his next film for Warner Bros. (working title appears to have been "DANTON") when the disastrous box office results came in from AMND. This, among other things, lead Warners to promptly terminate their film-directing arrangements with Reinhardt.
AMND was puffed up with some of Warners' major stars of the time, but it is difficult--make that painful and plain embarrassing--to watch them in such a silly film. Apparently, Warners was apprehensive from the start. At least two featurettes or shorts were produced by the studio to plug its own film (both are included as extras on this DVD).
Film restoration and transfer are suburb, complete with digital sound. Obviously a fair amount of money and effort went into this release. The question is, why? Warner Home Video has not done the same for many/most of its recent releases of classic films on DVD including the shabby treatment afforded THE ERROL FLYNN SIGNATURE COLLECTION.
The extras make this DVD worth buying. They include the promotional short A DREAM COMES TRUE which includes the only known appearance of classic film-score composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold in a sound film (a tad brief at only 49 seconds). Plus an early Olivia de Havilland screen test (there are two scenes). While it is obvious that the tests have nothing to do with AMND, apparently they were directed by Reinhardt perhaps in preparation for his second sound film (which was never produced). Each scene is a bit long, but both are delightful to watch as a plucky and pudgy de Havilland delivers over-the-top performances. Separately, the DVD extras rate at least three stars, the film barely one.

William Flanigan, Ph.D.

New DVD is somewhat disappointing.......2007-08-26

The much awaited DVD release of the classic 1935 Warner Brothers production of `A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM' is something of a disappointment, in spite of the blurb on the keep case about its "sparkling restoration from original film elements".

This film, one of the most remarkable projects of 1930s Hollywood, was released in October 1935 in a 143 minute roadshow presentation. This was trimmed back to 132 minutes for general release (with the overture & exit music removed) and trimmed again to 117 minutes for its October 1936 re-release.

Apparently, only the original nitrate camera negative of the 117 minute version survives, which means that Warners discarded the trims. However, there is also a nitrate positive of the long version, and a nitrate dupe negative of same. I believe that they also have a nitrate fine grain of the short version, which was used as the basis for the very first Laser Disc and subsequent VIDEO release in the late 80s.

So, the team assembling this DVD had a number of excellent source materials from which to work and to produce a definitive version at last. Regrettably, they didn't and unless I am mistaken, no frame-by-frame digital restoration has even been attempted. Given all these choices, I would have thought they could have made a better job. Clearly WB just wouldn't spend the money.

Indeed, the team that was responsible for assembling the materials made some pretty poor decisions. This film is one of the most beautiful, visually, of the entire era and deserves better. Hal Mohr's spectacular photography (he deserved his Oscar) and wonderful lighting produces some breathtaking effects. While for the most part, we can enjoy a cleaner, crisper and finer image than ever before, sometimes, the image deteriorates greatly with excessive grain and serious frame damage with marks, lines and other blemishes that really should have been sorted out. A particularly crucial example is perhaps one of the most famous sequences in the entire film - the Awakening of the Elves (at Chapter 7 on the DVD) where the fairies slowly emerge from the mist and run UPWARDS along the moonbeam.

In the old VHS Video version, this entire sequence was in perfect condition and looked terrific, not a mark or a scratch anywhere. On the new DVD it is very poor with continuous lines marring the image. Given that this scene appears in all the various prints, and especially the nitrate camera negative, any damage could easily have been repaired and/or digitally removed. For the Video & Laser Disc versions, they obviously used the best material available for this sequence.

There are several other places where similar damage occurs.

As the film has been bundled with other Shakespeare movies, Warners presumably didn't think it would sell on its own and nobody wanted to commit the resources to restore it properly - a great opportunity missed.

On the plus side, the soundtrack (and especially Korngold's marvellous music score which he ingeniously based on numerous works by Felix Mendelssohn) is in much improved audio and there are also some nice extras. Chief among these is an excellent, highly informative and very entertaining commentary by historian Scott McQueen, who has made a special study of this movie over many years and provides copious facts and figures, anecdotes and excerpts from the extensive production memos that fortunately still survive at the Warner Archive at the University of Southern California.

There are the several teaser trailers, and a reissue trailer (previously released on the Laser Disc version) and most importantly, the first ever release of the special short subject A DREAM COMES TRUE which, as well as providing unique footage of the Hollywood Premiere on Oct 16 1935, also includes behind the scenes shots of the production and the only known footage of Erich Wolfgang Korngold playing the piano. This little film was not available when the Laser Disc was made and I think probably came from a private collection. It's great to finally see it available for all of us to see.

In addition, there is Olivia De Havilland's 1936 screen test for a film that was never made - DANTON - which was to have been Max Reinhardt's follow-up picture after DREAM, to star Paul Muni with a score by Korngold. Ms De Havilland donated the reel of film (which she had owned since 1936!) to the Motion Picture Academy Archives last year, when she came to Los Angeles to attend a special tribute evening organised by the Academy. She deserves our profound thanks!

But come on Warners! Couldn't somebody have written up a brief title card to explain what this TEST actually is? Or listed it correctly on the menu and slipcase? Or even thanked Ms De Havilland and explained its provenance? Instead, it is just thrown onto the disc with no explanation or correct title. Such cheap and sloppy behavior, as if nobody gives a damn!

I would have liked to see a stills gallery (there are hundreds of these, plus behind-the scenes- shots, all preserved at George Eastman House in New York) and in addition, surely some of the extensive radio material that surrounded the various premieres of this film could have been traced for an `audio vault` extra? Because the original nitrate optical tracks for this movie were discarded in the late 1970s (when Warners shamefully destroyed its entire sound archive), no audio out-takes survive - a pity, as there would be plenty to hear. The extant score materials contain numerous songs and other pieces arranged by Korngold that were recorded (with Dick Powell and others) and subsequently cut.

It was very nice to see the long-unseen animated Intermission card (only included for the initial road-show presentations) which was apparently on a separate negative roll. However, WHY the DVD producer could not put a brief pause after this - instead of slamming into the opening of the second half, I just do not know. Again, no thought, no care.

While I am pleased that the film has made it onto DVD, I guess we are still some way off from the definitive restored version. At least as long as these precious archival materials survive intact, there is a chance - but nitrate will not last forever, and time is running out.

Perhaps the Library of Congress might consider A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM as a major priority for its film preservation programme. It is a classic one-of-kind film, unlike any other produced in Hollywood and a unique record of the genius of Max Reinhardt and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

BRENDAN CARROLL

A glittering disappointment...not a critical or box-office success..........2007-08-23

Warner Bros. was looking to improve their image during the '30s when most of the studio product consisted of crime melodramas starring either Cagney, Robinson or Bogart.

Jack Warner was impressed enough with the Hollywood Bowl version of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (which he attended to catch the performance of Olivia de Havilland as Hermia), to give Max Reinhardt the green light to produce it as a major film.

Unfortunately, much of it looks like a museum piece and not just because it's in glorious B&W. Some of the performances are pitched towards stage acting while others (notably Dick Powell and Ross Alexander) fail to give their lines any depth or meaning. Victor Jory (as Oberon) and Anita Louise (as Titiana) do the most acceptable acting jobs with Ian Hunter coming in a close third.

James Cagney struts around as Bottom but it seems a hopelessly foolish role for him to be playing. Mickey Rooney as Puck looks the role but becomes irritating after his first few shrieks of laughter, as if to remind one and all that this is supposed to be a comedy of errors.

Olivia de Havilland, while lovely in her film debut, has flashes of temperament that at least give us the impression that she knows what the part is all about.

Not one of my favorite Warner films, to put it mildly. The special effects give everything a totally artificial look which others find "dreamlike" and the forest scenes with the use of glitter give this viewer a claustrophobic feeling. Overlong and stagey, this is a product of filmmaking only barely acceptable to 1930's audiences, appearing to be a film that was dated when first released.

Sorry, thumbs down on this version of the Bard.

Trivia note: The DVD features "the Olivia de Havilland screen test" which is actually footage shot for "Danton", a film that Max Reinhardt was going to direct but was cancelled after the box-office failure of this one.

Buy the Film for the Visuals........2007-08-10

A great production of Shakespeare overwhelms us with its oral perfection and sensational visuals. In this case it is the latter, the remarkable stage visuals, that astonish us, as opposed to the elocution of the actors and actresses.

Max Reinhardt was a superstar theatre producter of the Berlin twenties.
(Being Jewish, he had to flee the Nazis, once they assumed power). He has created a German High Romantic version of the play. For example, the film has a spiritual glow, a soft-focus radiance when the fairies are in display. Even the palace in Athens has dreamlike, amorphous spires. At moments, I thought I was experiencing a religious vision of the Virgin and Child when Titiana and Bottom were in the forest. Other times, the spiral of fairies ascending in the air reminded me of a William Blake painting of Jacob's Stairway to Heaven.

Regarding the actors, the undisputed star of the film is Mickey Rooney. In this movie, he communicates a manic energy, a malevolent laugh, a force of nature in his peformance. I thought the other actors were substantially weaker...so if you are primarily interested in the language, go for the Peter Hall version of Midsummer Night's Dream.

Nevertheless, the film is so overwhelmingly stunning that it must belong in anyone's list of the top 1000 films anywhere. It's so ironic that with the development of movie special effects in the last 70 years, today's filmmakers cannot replicate the truly magical effects that Max Reinhardt delivers. Go for the experience, forget the weaknesses, and appreciate this photographic masterpiece for what it is.

Classic Albums - Queen: The Making of A Night at the Opera

Average customer rating:

A great behind the scenes dvd
An Excellent, In-Depth Look at a Queen Masterpiece (4.5 stars)
A Great Companion for any Queen CD Collection
A Cool Masterpiece!...
very weak audio

Classic Albums - Queen: The Making of A Night at the Opera
Starring: Ian Hunter (IV) , Brian May (II) , Rosie Horide , Joe Smith (III) , and Freddie Mercury
Director: Matthew Longfellow
Manufacturer: Eagle Vision USA
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000EHSVP0
Release Date: 2006-03-21

Description

If ever there was an album worthy of inclusion in Eagle Vision's Classic Albums series it is Queen's breakout release A Night At The Opera. Released in 1975, this was not only the band's first platinum album, but also the one that catapulted them into the spotlight as one of the biggest rock acts in the world.

Now for the first time, fans are offered an in-depth look at one of rock music's seminal records with the Classic Albums DVD Queen — The Making Of A Night At The Opera.

• BRAND NEW INTERVIEWS with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor.
• COMMENTARY by original producer Roy Thomas Baker.
• ARCHIVAL PERFORMANCE and INTERVIEW FOOTAGE with late lead singer Freddie Mercury.
• INTERVIEWS and GUEST COMMENTARY by guitarists Joe Perry (Aerosmith), Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme), Ian Hunter (Mott The Hoople) and many more.
• NEW ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCES of '39 and Love Of My Life by Brian May.
• DRUM and ACOUSTIC DEMONSTRATIONS of I 'm In Love With My Car from Roger Taylor.
• ANALYSIS OF THE RECORDING PROCESS of all12 tracks on the album.

Customer Reviews:

A great behind the scenes dvd.......2007-09-08

If you like this album and are interested in the technical details of how it was made, you'll love this dvd. Nice footage of Brian sitting behind the mixing board listening to, and separating the tracks he and Queen recorded so long ago. The average person might find this quite boring, but it's very enjoyable from a musicians standpoint.

An Excellent, In-Depth Look at a Queen Masterpiece (4.5 stars).......2006-11-08

In 1975, Queen were a band on the rise. They just had a hit single with "Killer Queen" off the "Sheer Heart Attack" and were set to release their 4th studio album. "A Night at the Opera" marked Queen's breakthrough, which spawned 2 hit singles, one of them being one of the most popular singles of all time. This song of course was "Bohemian Rhapsody", Freddie Mercury's epic, 6 minute long operatic force. John Deacon also contributed a delightful pop hit with "You're My Best Friend." It wasn't just these two singles that made this album so classic though.

Brian May and Roger Taylor give excellent, detailed descriptions of the work that went into recording and writing many of the songs off the album. "Death on Two Legs" was Freddie's heavy opener, and the DVD takes an excellent excerpt of a Mercury interview where he describes the idea behind the song. Brian May goes through his song structures and writing techniques for "The Prophet's Song", "'39", "Good Company" and "Sweet Lady." Roger Taylor explains the drum-work for "I'm in Love With My Car." However, John Deacon doesn't participate in any interviews, and Roger and Brian discuss how he wishes to live the "quiet life." If you are a Queen fan, this is great footage of the band members detailing the work done on these songs, and along with in-depth analysis and summaries of every song on the album, there are extras. Included is a live version of "Sweet Lady" at Hyde Park, Brian May's performance of "'39" and "Love of My Life", performed by Freddie and Brian.

This a worthwhile DVD if you are a Queen fan who loves this particular album, and are interested in how it was composed so brilliantly. Highly recommended to all fans of Queen.

A Great Companion for any Queen CD Collection.......2006-11-05

I'm a big fan of the 'Classic Albums' DVD series. As a fan, I'd rather see and hear about my favorite musicians' triumphs rather than their personal failures (ala' "Behind the Music"). If you're a fan of the group being profiled, you're going to enjoy the behind-the-scenes look at the making of their best-known album. I'm a Queen fan, and I thoroughly enjoyed this video.

There's a lot of archival footage of Queen's mid-70s stage act (though not of the footage shows the band in the studio actually recording their music). Brand-new interviews with both Brian May and Roger Taylor comprise the bulk of this DVD's running time. Brian and Roger are as soft-spoken and thoughtful as always and I've always appreciated their dry sense of humor. Roy Thomas Baker, the album's producer, also appears sporadically as do a handful of executves who were in power at Elektra Records when Queen were under contract there. (Elektra were Queen's American distributors at one time; I am surprised no one from EMI was interviewed as this was Queen's British label). There are some rock journalists and British DJs. A variety of minor rock celebrities (Nuno Bettencourt, Joe Perry) pop in but provide very little. Freddie Mercury, of course, only appears in grainy vintage TV interviews from the early 1980s. John Deacon apparently is letting his bass work speak for itself as he declined requests to be interviewed for this project.

There are many, many highlights to both Brian's and Roger's interviews. Brian, in particular, gently reminds us that although 'A Night at the Opera' was considered Queen's breakthrough album, it really exists in a continuity of musical styles and techniques going back to Queen's first album. Brian plays us excerpts of 'March of the Black Queen' and 'Procession' to bring the point home. It's always a delight to see Brian play his Red Special guitar (or an Ovation) to make a musical point, and Brian freely credits Freddie Mercury for authoring some of Queen's heaviest riffs. It's also a treat to hear Brian's solo acoustic takes on both '39' and 'Love of my Life.' Roger shares a wonderful story in which Groucho Marx gave his blessing to Queen's appropriation of the Marx Brothers' film title to their album, and its an anecdote that isn't often retold.

There are also a series of 'extras' which were apparently cut from the TV Special version of this DVD. For what it's worth, I would have prefered if these sequences were simply re-edited into the continuity of the video. Still, they are great to have and the DVD is stronger for their inclusion.

If you're a Queen fan (especially of the 1970s material), you'll definitely want to own this DVD. While Queen experts may already know most or all of the stories included here, it's a great tribute to one of rock music's most adventurous bands.

A Cool Masterpiece!..........2006-10-02

It was really a pleasure to see this DVD and realise the renewed personalities of drummer Roger Taylor and guitarist Brian May. If you remember after that Freddie passed away (RIP), they were really in a dark, gloomy mood. I don't remember their tranquility and peace of mind in an interview, since all happened, 6 years ago.
This DVD really is illustrative with an extensive analysis of the recording process song by song with Roy Thomas Baker and Brian May (I don't know if it had would been better to add the comments of Roy Thomas Baker about the making of "Bohemian Rhapsody" that appear in "THE MAGIC YEARS" vol. I), special Roger's drum demostration (almost a clinic!... If you aren't a drummer, with these tips you can understand better the Roger Taylor style), with good introspective interviews (and the reason of the John Deacon's disappearing of the musical scene), with people that lived the bankrup of the band in '74, and finally, the making of an extraordinary masterpiece: the A NIGHT AT THE OPERA album. It's interesting see the live footage and performances between one and another interview, and a good example of this is the live track "SWEET LADY" from the DVD LIVE AT THE HYDE PARK, '76... Good Luck!

very weak audio.......2006-09-07

I think their original intention was to give you an insight to the behind the scenes making of the album...what you end up with is a very light overview of what happened. Lacking the presence of Freddie and John Deacon...most of what you're hearing and seeing are assumptions and opinions of half a band. They really aren't sharing any secret studio tricks with you that hadn't been made available at earlier dates.

I agree with the other reviewer who commented....since when are Joe Perry...Nuno Bettencord and Ian Hunter considered Queen experts.....at least Ian was playing the same local London bar circuit back in the pre-fame days as Queen were..and was classified as "glam rock"..so they climbed up from the same streets.

I wasn't very pleased with the audio.....very weak output.

My bottom line opinion is: The remainer of Queen are just cashing in on anything they can use to generate more income. This video is just a trip down memory lane with some of the people involved in the making of a great album. Just as they are doing by touring with Paul Rodgers and billing themselves as Queen and Paul Rodgers....They need to come up with a new name to represent their project...Queen died when Freddie did....and John Deacon pretty much made his mind known when he refused to be a part of any further musical projects. Sometimes you need to let go and move on.

Tennessee Williams Film Collection (A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Two-Disc Special Edition / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Deluxe Edition / Sweet Bird of Youth / The Night of the Iguana / Baby Doll / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone)

Average customer rating:

Essential boxset for fans of American theater of the 1950s
A Boxed Set Named Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams' plays as movies
A Bit Of Heaven In This Southern Madness
Amazing Box Set Collects Some of the Finest Film Performances of Mid-20th Century American Cinema

Tennessee Williams Film Collection (A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Two-Disc Special Edition / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Deluxe Edition / Sweet Bird of Youth / The Night of the Iguana / Baby Doll / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone)
Starring: Vivien Leigh , Marlon Brando , Kim Hunter , Karl Malden , and Rudy Bond
Director: Elia Kazan , and Richard Brooks
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000EBD9UI
Release Date: 2006-05-02

Amazon.com

A much-needed DVD tribute to one of the essential American playwrights, The Tennessee Williams Collection gathers six Williams titles and one vintage documentary. Taken together, it's a potent introduction to the specific terrain (geographical and emotional) of this brilliant writer. The set is anchored by Warner's deluxe two-disc treatment of A Streetcar Named Desire, which has copious extras (among them a fine 90-minute documentary about director Elia Kazan). The multi-Oscar-winning Streetcar is one of the better stage adaptations in film history, and it captures the electrifying Marlon Brando, re-creating his stage role, in the part that changed American acting: the brutish New Orleans sensualist Stanley Kowalski. Vivien Leigh won an Oscar opposite him, as the faded (except in her own mind) Southern belle Blanche DuBois, whose arrival in the Kowalski home leads to disaster.

Kazan also directed Baby Doll, which Williams scripted from a couple of one-act plays. This outrageous sex comedy casts the excellent Carroll Baker as the 19-year-old wife of middle-aged Karl Malden, who anxiously awaits the day he can finally consummate his maddening marriage; immigrant cotton magnate Eli Wallach shows up at Malden's crumbling plantation house just in time to take the bloom off the rose, as it were. Famous for being condemned in 1956, Baby Doll remains a very modern (and gloriously dirty) movie. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Richard Brooks, faithfully brings three of Williams's indelible characters to the screen, even if the script discreetly changes the original stage text: the hot Maggie the Cat (Elizabeth Taylor), her reluctant husband Brick (Paul Newman), and Brick's rich Big Daddy (Burl Ives). All three performers act the lights out.

Sweet Bird of Youth reunites Paul Newman with director Brooks, and also showcases Geraldine Page's performance as an aging film star tagging along with young stud Newman to his Southern home town. Some of Williams' more depraved touches are toned down, but the milieu is unmistakable and the movie is intense. The Night of the Iguana gives Richard Burton perhaps his finest hour onscreen: as Williams' dissolute defrocked priest, playing tour guide in Puerto Vallarta to tour groups of nattering biddies. The movie has director John Huston's sympathy for life's losers, as well as a trio of women built to torment Burton's reverend: Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, and Sue Lyon. The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, based on Williams's novel, is not a great movie, but gives Vivien Leigh a good workout as a wounded actress dallying with Italian gigolo Warren Beatty.

Tennessee Williams' South is a 1973 documentary featuring some marvelous observations from Williams, as he holds court for filmmaker Harry Rasky. It also has long scenes from his plays, enacted by good folks such as Maureen Stapleton, Colleen Dewhurst, and Burl Ives. Especially valuable is a Streetcar sequence with Jessica Tandy re-creating her original role as Blanche. Williams himself reads the narration from The Glass Menagerie, a privileged moment. This is not an exhaustive Williams set (Joseph Mankiewicz's Suddenly, Last Summer and Sidney Lumet's The Fugitive Kind are among the best Williams films), but it maps out the steamy, tortured landscape awfully well. --Robert Horton

Description

Streetcar Named Desire 2 Disc SE Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Deluxe Edition Sweet Bird of Youth Night of the Iguana Baby Doll Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

Customer Reviews:

Essential boxset for fans of American theater of the 1950s.......2007-02-23

This is a terrific boxset, collecting six of the films based on Tennessee Williams's plays (plus another disc with the documentary "Tennessee Williams' South"). All the films are transferred with great care, and look quite wonderful. And the films themselves are fascinating, because (with the exception of BABY DOLL), they're invariably sanitized, as the major studios (Warner Brothers, MGM) struggled to constrain the unfettered imagination of one of America's most floridly uninihibited playwrights. Yet Williams' reputation as one of the premiere writers for actors allows some classic performances, starting with Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, one of the most potent displays of Method acting which helped to revolutionize American film and theater. Kazan's hyperbolic direction of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE is tempered in BABY DOLL, possibly the most charming film in the set (with terrific performances from Carroll Baker, Karl Malden, Eli Wallach, and, most hilariously, Mildred Dunnock). It seems incredible that, at the time (1956), BABY DOLL was the most controversial film of its year, with condemnation and cries of "filth" being bandied about. But BABY DOLL is a comic interlude in Williams' career. CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF is the most heavily censored, so that all the talk of mendacity makes the film seem mendacious, because no one is talking about what the film is really about. But all the actors go to town with their Southern accents, especially Elizabeth Taylor and Judith Anderson.

But if CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF seems antiseptic, that's nothing compared to SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, which is alternately lurid and dainty. To watch Geraldine Page rip through in an absolutely corrosive and riveting performance is to see one of America's greatest actresses at her peak. THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA is uneven, but, again, some of the performances (in particular, Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, and, especially, Deborah Kerr and Cyril Delevanti) are superb. The long sequence with Burton and Kerr talking about demons and love while Burton is tied in the hammock is one of the most poetic sequences in all of Williams, handled with great insight and power.

THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE has worn well with the years, as Vivien Leigh gives an elegant performance as the aging woman desperate for love nad even more desperate for her dignity.

Of course, these are all works which could be done now with a greater fidelity to Williams' original texts, but it would be hard to beat the incredible performances, done (in many cases) in the original acting styles of the period (in STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, many of the original Broadway casts were also cast in the films). This is a chance to see some legendary actors in the classic parts which they made famous.

A Boxed Set Named Tennessee Williams.......2007-01-08

He may be considered the great American playwright of the 20th Century, but until I got the boxed set of DVDs featuring adaptations of his works, I had never really been exposed to Tennessee Williams. This set of six movies gives a good sampling of Williams and shows why he got his reputation for both daring and excellence.

In chronological order by film date, the first film in the set (and probably the best) is A Streetcar Named Desire. This story focuses on the interrelationship of three characters: Blanche DuBois (played by Vivien Leigh), her sister Stella (Kim Hunter) and Stella's husband, Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando). Blanche moves in with the couple, fleeing from scandal in her hometown and with only a weak grip on sanity. The brutish Stanley is her natural antagonist, with Stella stuck in the middle. Eventually, however, Blanche and Stanley will have to confront each other.

Though Blanche may be the main character, it is Stanley who steals the show due to Brando's wonderful performance. After seeing this movie, I can understand how significant of an impact that Brando had in the world of movie acting; prior to Streetcar, acting performances like Brando's were quite rare. This is a great film, and the only Williams movie I was really familiar with prior to watching, both due to its immortal scenes ("Stella!") and the brilliant Simpsons musical adaptation (in "A Streetcar Named Marge").

Next is Baby Doll, with Karl Malden as an impoverished cotton-miller and Carroll Baker as his very young wife, the Baby Doll of the title. She has been viewing her much older spouse with increasing contempt and has held him to a promise that they would not consummate their marriage until she turned 20, an event soon to happen. Eli Wallach enters the film as both a business and romantic rival to Malden. For the time this movie was made (1956), this film was sexually daring, and though not as explicit as modern movies, it still holds up well.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof features Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor) and Brick (Paul Newman) as a married couple on the edge. A deep secret has kept them estranged and there is the additional complication of the impending death of Brick's very wealthy and dominating father. Brick may be Big Daddy's favorite, but their problems threatens to cut Brick out of an inheritance he doesn't want; Maggie, however, has other ideas.

Newman is back in a different role in Sweet Bird of Youth as a young hustler who returns to his hometown as the lover/employee of an aging actress. He is hopeful that she will help him make it big in Hollywood, but he is also interested in winning back his old girlfriend, a goal her corrupt political boss father will do anything to stop.

Night of the Iguana has Richard Burton as a drunken reverend turned third-rate tour guide winding up at a hotel run by the widow (Ava Gardner) of an old friend. His job is threatened when a young tourist (played by Sue Lyons of Lolita fame) keeps trying to seduce him. As things fall apart for him, it's up to the widow and an artist (Deborah Kerr) to keep him from destroying himself.

Finally, there is The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, featuring Vivien Leigh as a recently widowed actress who takes a young lover (played by an early Warren Beatty). This is probably the weakest in the set, and the only one I felt rather bored while watching.

Actually, there is a problem that is consistent with many of these movies in that they often just seem like filmed plays. That is, everything seems very staged and there is little real action; the focus is on dialogue, which often takes the somewhat formal form you see in the theater. That is not to say that these are bad movies; actually, they are almost all good: Streetcar is a five star film, Baby Doll, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Sweet Bird of Youth merit four, Night three and Roman Spring two. There are also a good number of extras in the set, including commentaries on Streetcar and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a bunch of mini-documentaries and a bonus disc called Tennessee Williams' South. This bonus disc is an early-1970s documentary featuring interviews with Williams and various actors doing scenes from his plays; it is mildly interesting.

One does not watch Williams expecting happy endings and everything nicely resolved (although some of the films do end more upbeat than others, in part, I believe because of a Hollywood demand for such conclusions, despite how the plays may have been written). Instead, you get a level and type of drama that was rarely shown prior to the Williams. Overall, this set rates a high four stars; it may not be perfect, but you do get some good films that pushed the limits of what was allowed at the time.

Tennessee Williams' plays as movies.......2007-01-06

Each of the plays of Tennessee Williams that has been rended as a movie is worth watching. The rawness of emotions, the actors and the direction all make these movies immensely watchable.

A Bit Of Heaven In This Southern Madness.......2006-10-09

Being a sucker for a good box set, I have accumulated quite a few. You end up with some great DVDs, but also some titles that you might not have purchased on their own. This Tennessee Williams collection is one that I wholeheartedly recommend--each selection might not be a true classic, but each represents a significant part of Williams' lexicon and lore. Put together, they symbolize and honor a master craftsman and a time when words, dialogue and screenplays were more important than quick edits and loud soundtracks.

Of course, the undisputed champion of this set is the two disc "A Streetcar Named Desire." An absolutely perfect rendering of a brilliant play, "Streetcar" boasts some of the most powerful performances you're likely to see. With Oscars going to Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter--this is one of the most honored films in history. And Marlon Brando's Stanley Kowalski has become a legend.

I'm not going to individually review every film, each offers its own merits. What is amazing about these films is how adult they were for their day and how well they stand up today. Southern melodrama never looked or sounded so good.

"Cat on A Hot Tin Roof" is a flawed, truncated version of Williams' play--but still an entertaining vehicle for Newman and Taylor. "Sweet Bird Of Youth" is one of my absolute favorites proving once and for all that Geraldine Page was an acting icon! Those that dismiss "Baby Doll" as a more minor work miss some of its subtlety. It's a very clever romp. "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" and "The Night of the Iguana" are both intriguing and eminently watchable, but not without their problems.

These films represent very adult topics, some great writing--sometimes leaning toward lurid melodrama--and awesome performances. It's easy to see why so many top caliber actors and directors are attached to these pieces--and why so many were honored for their works.

If you love film (or plays for that matter) and you haven't seen some of these titles, do yourself a favor--BUY THIS SET and enjoy. Tennessee Williams was a singular talent and a unique voice. KGHarris, 10/06.

Amazing Box Set Collects Some of the Finest Film Performances of Mid-20th Century American Cinema.......2006-05-24

If playwright Tennessee Williams's Southern gothic writing style makes his works feel more ornately melodramatic than those of O'Neill or his closest contemporary Arthur Miller, they do provide resonant showcases for the actors inhabiting his characters. This is clearly evidenced in this six-film, eight-disc collection that epitomizes some of the most powerful acting to come out of Hollywood in the 1950's and early 1960's, all directed by true filmmaking masters. Probably because they are the least censored by the studio system at least in the form presented now, the best of the set are Elia Kazan's "A Streetcar Named Desire" and John Huston's "The Night of the Iguana". The others are Kazan's "Baby Doll", Richard Brooks' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", Jose Quintero's "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" and Brooks' "Sweet Bird of Youth".

A feral, smoldering Marlon Brando justifiably made his reputation as brutish Stanley Kowalski in 1951's "A Streetcar Named Desire", and his animalistic charisma still leaps off the screen. Intriguingly, one of the extras included in the two-disc set for the movie is footage from a 1947 screen test of Brando when he was 23, and his stardom seems assured even then. The plot of the movie amounts to the inevitable clash between Kowalski and his visiting sister-in-law, Blanche DuBois, a fading Southern belle on the verge of a mental breakdown. Having proven her ability to be a convincing Southerner in "Gone With the Wind", Vivien Leigh expertly handles all the florid dialogue with her particular blend of defiance and vulnerability.

Strong supporting work comes from Kim Hunter as Blanche's naive sister Stella and Karl Malden as Blanche's seemingly respectful suitor Mitch. Now over ninety, Malden is on hand to provide his own eloquent recollections of the production on an alternate track, and film historians Rudy Behlmer and Jeff Young provide more objective commentary on another track. Film critic Richard Schickel's 1995 feature-length look at Kazan is the centerpiece of the second disk, and there is also a more interesting five-part documentary on the film and original Broadway show, the best portion focusing on censorship and the several minutes that have been reinserted in the DVD version of the film.

1964's "The Night of the Iguana" deals with a similarly dysfunctional group of people, but this time the setting is a dilapidated Mexican beach resort where Reverend Shannon, newly defrocked, has taken a group of spinsters from a women's college. Huston made his reputation on his strong literary adaptations, and his affinity shows in the fulsome characterizations, striking visuals and dark humor. Richard Burton is in peak form as Shannon, and there is also sterling work from Deborah Kerr as the spinsterish Hannah and especially Ava Gardner as the slatternly resort owner, Maxine Faulk. The DVD contains a recent making-of featurette and a vintage video, both fascinating.

"Baby Doll" is an entertaining hoot that doesn't seem as sensationalistic as I'm sure it was when the film was first released in 1956. It's simply a Southern-fried farce about the potential deflowering of a nineteen-year old child bride with a nice, pouty turn by Carroll Baker in the title role and a surprisingly funny one by Karl Malden as her randy husband, cotton mill owner Archie. 1958's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is far more vaunted but ultimately hamstrung by the overly careful portrayal of Brick as an asexual protagonist, this in spite of stellar performances from Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and Burl Ives.

Newman is even better as gigolo Chance Wayne in 1963's "Sweet Bird of Youth", and he is matched all the way by Geraldine Page's all-cylinders-on performance as faded movie queen Alexandra Del Lago (a role that would have ironically been ideal for Ava Gardner). The weakest film of the set is 1961's "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" about an aging American actress living in Rome who falls recklessly in love with an indifferent gigolo. A decade after "Streetcar", the glamorous-looking Leigh excels in the title role, while a young Warren Beatty fits the physical requirements as the gigolo Paolo even though his faux-Italian accent is a little too emphatic. All four of these movies come with making-of featurettes and original trailers, and "Cat" also includes commentary from Williams' biographer Donald Spoto.

The focal point of the eighth disc is a 1973 documentary, "Tennessee Williams' South", which highlights insightful interviews with Williams in the New Orleans area. The film also includes classic scenes from his plays reenacted specifically for the documentary. You can have the privilege of seeing Broadway's original Blanche DuBois, Jessica Tandy, and compare her work to Leigh's, as well as an impressive turn by Maureen Stapleton as Amanda Wingfield in "The Glass Menagerie". This is an incredible film collection for anyone who wants to see some of the greatest performances of mid-20th century American cinema.

Ian Hunter - Just Another Night Live at the Rant Band

Average customer rating:

Very fine, my complaints amount to quibbles.
Ian Hunter Musical Icon
almost 5 stars
"Rock and Roll's a loser's game/ it mesmerizes and I can't Explain..."
Awesome

Ian Hunter - Just Another Night Live at the Rant Band
Starring: Ian Hunter
Manufacturer: Mvd Visual
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000ANVPLA
Release Date: 2005-10-04

Product Description

JUST ANOTHER NIGHT: LIVE AT ASTORIA (HUNTER,IAN)

Customer Reviews:

Very fine, my complaints amount to quibbles........2007-07-23

The set list is great, it's fun to see Ian Hunter back with Mick Ralphs. It's a well-balanced set list drawing from Mott the Hoople and Hunter's post-Hoople solo recordings. I have to take this back: the set list not just great, it's impossible to argue with it in any substantive form. Bravo!)

Hunter's voice is raspier than I remembered it, uh, THIRTY years ago, but I'm not going to complain about it. Mott has been on my radar screen since they were on "ABC's In Concert," a Friday night show where you watched on your TV and listed through your stereo FM radio. He's welcome to age, and he's aged well.

So, those quibbles. "The Truth, The Whole Truth, Nothing But the Truth" is kind of the show's centerpiece. I don't have a problem with that, it's a great tune. But the mix during the first guitar solo, by Andy York, emphasizes the drums over the guitar. When Mick Ralphs does HIS solo on the tune, suddenly the guitar is given its proper emphasis.

Second quibble: on "I Wish I Was Your Mother" (the best Bob Dylan tune Dylan never wrote), York tries to make his guitar sound like a mandolin. The two instruments aren't the same, and it's only a partial success: on the higher notes York does well with ultra-fast picking, but if you remember the Mott recording, during the chorus the mandolin went into a medium register - - this is missing from this recording. Watching York (me, for the first time), he seems very talented - - as someone who plays guitar more than mandolin, I'm surprised York couldn't make the leap the mandolin.

BUT. THESE. ARE. QUIBBLES.

This show is well recorded, it's a fine set, and I frankly have no idea why I bothered to register these quibbles in the context of what is really a fine DVD.

Ian Hunter Musical Icon.......2006-11-28

Unfortunately the setlist is missing from the official description of this DVD.
So here it is.. buy it.. you'll love it!

Rest In Piece
Rock'n'Roll Queen
Once Bitten Twice Shy
Twisted Steel
I Wish I Was Your Mother
Knees Of My Heart
23A Swan Hill
Irene Wilde
The Truth, The Whole Truth, Nuthin' But The Truth
Rollerball
Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square
Roll Away The Stone
Saturday Gigs
All The Young Dudes
The Journey
Dead Man Walkin'
Just Another Night
Cleveland Rocks
Michael Picasso
Standin' In My Light
All The Way From Memphis

almost 5 stars.......2006-06-07

I've seen Ian everytime he's been in Cleveland since 1972.

That being said, this is perhaps his best live/DVD/VHS concert ever. Unless they unearth a video with Mick Ronson, this is it!
Ian ain't about flash, smoke pots, and fire, his songs are the reason people go to see him.

With a set that includes songs from LP 1 (R & R Queen/ Mott The Hoople) to his last studio LP (Dead Man Walking/Rant),he touches all bases.

With a crack line-up which includes Andy York and MICK RALPHS!!, they tear up a slew of classics and obscure songs---obscure only if you're a newbie to his music

Highlights--Dudes--Ian's joined onstage by his kids Tracie (what a Hottie) and Jesse
Michael Picasso--ode to Ronson
Roll Away the Stone--another appearence by Tracie
Memphis--because Ian screws up and they restart the song in true Mott The Hoople fashion

The only downer on this is the camera placement. Most everything is shot from viewer left/stage right---up and down to center stage.
This is why it gets 4 stars.

Good interview with Ian also, although a translator might be in order--lol---he's so British

New LP on the way---hopefully by September

"Rock and Roll's a loser's game/ it mesmerizes and I can't Explain...".......2006-06-06

Wow...all the other reviewers here sound like they've been to the Cameron Crowe school of adjectives. Ok, truth is, I have Ian with Ronno and the "Welcome To The Club" band, so I'm in no great rush to hear his songs mangled by JC Mellonhead's guitarist. But Ralpher is on here fairly prominently, so, until IH releases stuff that he did PRE-MTV....like I said, I will wind up buying this. 6/20 - it arrived yesterday. It's wonderful to see and hear Ralpher again - and, in truth, the price you pay for this thing is justified, just to watch/hear Mick Ralphs actually play the immortal riff that IS All The Young Dudes." And Tracy is a stone HOTTIE, but somebody needs to stick a sock in that brat from "Def Leppard" & Brian May's mouths, and....oh, you know, I'm sorry ; I've said it all before: stick to pre- "Welcome To The Club" stuff.

Awesome.......2006-05-26

Wow. Great DVD. Ian's looking great. It's so much fun to see these guys up there playing a mix of old and new stuff. The band sounds great and look like they're having a lot of fun, too. This is true rock and roll.

Average customer rating:

Don't Make the Same Mistake I Did
Basehart a Darkhorse!
He Walked by Night
Great and dark
You could call this a Dragnet prototype. Jack Webb has

He Walked By Night
Starring: Richard Basehart , Scott Brady , Roy Roberts , Whit Bissell , and James Cardwell
Director: Anthony Mann , and Alfred L. Werker
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ASIN: B0000CNY4Z
Release Date: 2003-12-02

Amazon.com

This gritty and often chilling documentary-style noir (based on a true story) about the hunt for a cop killer in Los Angeles is a must-have for fans of vintage crime films. Richard Basehart stars as a cold-blooded thief whose murder of a police officer sets off a citywide manhunt; the law, led by granite-jawed Scott Brady, tracks him relentlessly until the pair square off in the shadow-steeped drainage canals beneath the city (the same locale for the finale of Them!). Though Alfred Werker is credited as director, noir and Western vet Anthony Mann actually helmed the majority of the film; his muscular direction lends palpable suspense to the picture, aided in no small part by longtime collaborators John C. Higgins (who co-wrote the script) and cinematographer John Alton, whose Germanic-influenced lighting creates an otherworldly atmosphere. Supporting cast member Jack Webb borrowed the no-nonsense, semi-documentary approach for Dragnet. --Paul Gaita

Description

Based on true events, this film noir classic is a "thrilling, absorbing story, superbly told, well-acted [and] brilliantly photographed" (The Hollywood Reporter). Starring Richard Basehart, Scott Brady and Jack Webb, this "tense, exciting" (Variety) thriller was the inspiration not only for the TV series "Dragnet" but for many other subsequent "ripped from the headlines" crime dramas. Taken from actual case files, He Walked by Night is the suspenseful, action-packed tale of a manhunt for the most cunning criminal in the history of the LAPD. With a combination of ingenuity, state-of-the-art technology, sweat and sheer determination, the police painstakingly track down a brilliant, elusive thief and cop killer who seems to have the ability to vanish into thin air. But can they catch him before he murders again?

Customer Reviews:

Don't Make the Same Mistake I Did.......2007-07-20

I chose to buy the cheap version of this movie which is produced by a variety of "fly by night" dvd companies and I am sure the quality is similar for all: really, really bad. The sound is so garbled throughout that its beyond annoying. The picture suffers from contrast and brightness problems. The only solution is to pay a little extra and buy the MGM production of the movie which I am told is very good and clean.
This is an important movie ghost directed by one of Hollywood's most versatile and competent directors, Anthoney Mann who made many film noir films early in his career and then went on to direct some really great westerns with James Stewart.
I give the version I bought only one star because of the problems described above but I would give the MGM version at least four stars.

Basehart a Darkhorse!.......2007-06-27

Richard Basehart gives an under the radar performance as a lonely, troubled, cold killer in He Walked By Night (1948). His screen presence as the character Roy commands recognition among noir stalwarts such as Widmark, Duryea , Mitchum, and Lancaster. How this minor league studio produced such a realistic vision of Los Angeles noir is amazing. The acting, camera work, script, lighting, sets, and final print leaves little to be desired. A bit more plot intrigue would have earned this film a 5 star rating and a place alongside noir masterpieces such as The Asphalt Jungle, The Killers, and Out of the Past. The film boasts a wide range of characters; from mailmen, police officers, and crimminal technicians to a mentally unstable housewife. Unfortunately I own The Ultimate Film Noir Collection which contains 5 DVD's and 10 films one of which is He Walked By Night that omits closing credits. I accessed the uncredited cast of He Walked By Night by visiting a helpful website-the movie data base which contained interesting information about the film and cast. One comment I would like to make that was mentioned by previous reviewers is the comparison between the underground chase scene in He Walked By Night and The Third Man. The sound, editing, visual bleakness and desperation captured in the chase scene in He Walked By Night is superior to the plagarized scene in The Third Man.

He Walked by Night.......2007-06-22

The semi-documentary approach Director Mann pioneered within film noir, seen in both "T-Men" and "Naked City," was realized most effectively in this picture, which methodically follows a manhunt for a cop-killer. The film is extremely tight, plays out in chronological time, and climaxes with a brilliantly-shot sequence in a city sewer. The spooky, skin-crawling performance of Basehart as the baby-faced killer is reason enough to add this movie to your must-see list of noir masterworks.

Great and dark.......2007-02-20

As a kid I only knew actor Richard Basehart for his part as Admiral Nelson of the submarine Seaview on the 60's TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and wasn't aware of his edgy work in films that had preceded it. This precision tooled crime drama also includes several elements that would later become part of the Dragnet TV series, but this is a much more intense sort of work. Based on a real case, this fine black & white film showcases Basehart's portrayal of a brilliant sociopathic killer/criminal, but everyone is well cast and utilized; including a very young Jack Webb. Sort of half police-procedural film and half cold-blooded film noir. Basehart was also excellent as the man on the suicidal ledge in Fourteen Hours

You could call this a Dragnet prototype. Jack Webb has.......2007-02-02

a supporting role in this one as Lee, a forensic expert for LAPD. He must have been taking notes on how to do it. It is a good noir, murder thriller. Los Angeles became a favorite city for these type of movies for lots of obvious reasons. But it is also a huge city, spread out, diverse & exciting. A real challenge for cops. Richard Basehart is Roy Martin/Morgan, a smart sophisticated thief. He graduates to murder, a cop killer. He has no record & thus is able to fly under the radar of the cops for a quite a while. In a documentary style that became familiar, the film shows the slow, many times boring process in catching a dangerous criminal. This is seen through the main character, Sgt. Marty Brennan, played by Scott Brady. He is a doggedly determined homocide detective. It is also personal for him. One of the cops killed was his friend. He has the vast police community as his support system. Apprehension of the guilty seems assured. But the final chase scenes are nonetheless gripping, eventually ending in the vast sewer system underneath the city. Good drama, good movie

Average customer rating:

The film? Like playing Jenga on acid. The commentary? Gold, I tell ya...
A Night To FORGET!!!!!!!!
Beyond bad....
2 sams
Watch it for the commentary, it's priceless!

A Night to Dismember
Starring: Samantha Fox , Diane Cummins , Saul Meth , Miriam Meth , and William Szarka
Director: Doris Wishman
Manufacturer: ELITE ENTERTAINMENT
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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