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SUCK IT! WEBZINE IN ASSOCIATION WITH AMAZON.COM DELIVERS
VHS Classics
Amazon.com Editor, Sam Sutherland
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Word for Word
The Longest Day
"I don't have to tell you the story. You all know
it. Only two kinds of people are gonna stay on this beach: those that are
already dead and those that are gonna die! Now get off your butts! You guys are
the Fighting 29th!"
--Brigadier General Norman Cota (Robert Mitchum) exhorts his troops during the Normandy invasion in the World War II epic The Longest Day (1962).
Dial M for MurderA suave tennis player (Ray Milland) plans a perfect murder when his rich wife (Grace Kelly) becomes involved with another man in Hitchcock's elegant chamber thriller, faithfully adapted from Frederick Knott's stage hit. The action stays indoors, but sleek performances and the master's reliable hand in tightening the screws make this a great way to chill down on a hot summer night.
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The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
starring Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, and Tim
Holt; directed by John Huston
Moviegoers balked at an unsympathetic Bogart when this sagebrush noir tragedy opened in 1948, resulting in box-office blues. But critics and fans alike since have recognized this as a masterpiece, one of the finest among the superb collaborations between the star and director John Huston. The gritty tale of prospectors striking gold, but losing their bearings, south of the border also features a grizzled, Oscar®-winning performance from the director's father, Walter Huston.
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The Maltese Falcon
starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Sidney
Greenstreet; directed by John Huston
The first Bogart-Huston collaboration remains a truly essential film, as well as a watershed on myriad levels--Huston's directorial debut, Bogart's critical leap from villain to antihero, and a platform for a noir repertory team that includes Sidney Greenstreet (also making a screen debut) and Peter Lorre. With its gripping story and razor-sharp dialogue lifted directly from the pages of Dashiell Hammett's classic mystery, it's truly "the stuff that dreams are made of."
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Auntie Mame
starring Rosalind Russell, Forrest Tucker, and
Coral Browne; directed by Morton DaCosta
"Life's a banquet, and most suckers are starving to death," argues Rosalind Russell as the exuberant, eccentric title character in this stylish screen bonbon from 1958, adapted from Betty Comden and Adolph Green's hit stage version of the Patrick Dennis novel. Russell's own high-beam charisma and a nifty supporting cast enliven the piece, which chronicles a young orphan's eye-opening new life when he's taken under the wing of his flamboyant, bohemian aunt (Russell).
His quicksilver wit and manic energy brought Jack
Lemmon early notoriety as a comedic natural, but this enormously appealing
actor gambled and won by tackling darker roles as well. From the early 1960s
onward, Lemmon alternated rib-ticklers with more provocative choices, proving
himself an actor's actor. We remember this cinematic Everyman with a gallery of
his most popular performances.
See Amazon.com's list of Jack
Lemmon classics
Stalag 17Black comedy and suspenseful action are the twin engines in this Billy Wilder adaptation of the stage hit set inside a German POW camp during World War II. Apart from providing a blueprint for subsequent serious films (not to mention the boob-tube spoof Hogan's Heroes), Stalag 17 snagged William Holden an Oscar® as Best Actor in 1953. Releases August 21.
The Bridges at Toko-Ri
starring William Holden and Grace Kelly;
directed by Mark Robson
James Michener's sobering chronicle of a veteran's return to duty as a naval pilot during the Korean War offers both gripping aerial action and poignant romance between Holden and Grace Kelly as his wife, along with a clear, heartbreaking recognition of the futility underlying the conflict. Releases August 21.
Son of Frankenstein
starring Basil Rathbone, Bela Lugosi, and Boris
Karloff; directed by Rowland V. Lee
A textbook lesson in how to revive a seemingly extinct franchise, this solid melodrama brought not just the monster but Universal's horror franchise back to life by introducing the late doctor's son (Rathbone) as protagonist. While lacking the campy parfait of gothic splendor and macabre humor that sparked James Whale's prior chapters, Son rose to respectable heights--and provided Mel Brooks with the seed for the delirious Young Frankenstein. Releases August 28.
Natasha : The Biography of Natalie Wood
You'll find great videos, features, and more in Amazon.com's Classics Store.
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