Collections Even a Dirty Rat Will Love
The brash, upstart dynamo that was James Cagney during his most exuberant Warner Bros. days a half-century ago is just as much fun to watch in 1993 in a new “James Cagney Collection” being released Wednesday by MGM/UA Home Video, one of several male star laser-disc collections now available at $100 apiece.
The collection is a clever bit of packaging, offering Cagney in a series of roles ranging from tough and tender to romantic and amusing. Most of the films run around an hour and a half, about the length of a movie of the week without commercials. The difference is that they’ll give you an evening’s entertainment and a good idea of what made Jimmy Cagney so popular.
The 1935 “G Men” probably comes closest to the tough-guy roles with which Cagney is so closely identified. Only this time he’s on the side of the law. The film, which is preceded by a dreadfully camp 1949 prologue that accompanied its reissue, also features Ann Dvorak and Margaret Lindsay.
Cagney in a Western may be hard to imagine but in the fast-paced “The Oklahoma Kid” (1939) he’s paired with bad-guy Humphrey Bogart in the tale of a young hero out to keep Tulsa from turning into a den of corruption. The 1940 “Torrid Zone” pairs him with Ann Sheridan as well as Pat O’Brien and Andy Devine in a banana-plantation romantic comedy that’s vaguely reminiscent of “The Front Page”--plantation owner O’Brien will do anything to keep Cagney from leaving.
Rounding out the five-film set are 1941’s “The Bride Came C.O.D.,” an unlikely romantic comedy pairing him with Bette Davis, and the 1942 “Captains of the Clouds,” a World War II film in which he’s a Canadian bush pilot. While there are better Cagney films out on video, this collection offers a look at a rare Cagney in some of his lesser-known roles.
A handsome brochure provides both helpful chapter stops (an average of 16 per film) along with informative details and data on each movie accompanied by reproductions of the original posters and publicity stills.
The Cagney collection is only the latest in a series of wonderful “collections” by which MGM/UA has packaged introductions to stars in crisp, well-delineated laser releases. Films in these collections usually are not available in single laser editions (many are not available on videocassette either) and offer good introductions, and great bargains, for those interested in seeing what these great names were really all about, or to those who already know and want to see crisp releases, with good picture and sound, of favorite films.
Other collections worth seeking out:
“The Bogart Collection”: This is one of the best collections since it features many of Bogart’s classic films. The package offers “The Petrified Forest” (1936) with Bette Davis and Leslie Howard; “High Sierra” (1941) with Ida Lupino and a John Huston screenplay, directed by Raoul Walsh; “Across the Pacific” (1942) with Mary Astor and Sydney Greenstreet, and “Passage to Marseille” (1944) with Claude Rains, Peter Lorre and Greenstreet.
“The Gable Collection” reveals how Clark Gable defined the word star in “Red Dust” (1932) with Jean Harlow and Mary Astor directed by Victor Fleming (“Gone With the Wind,” “The Wizard of Oz”); “Honky Tonk” (1941) with Lana Turner, and “Mogambo,” John Ford’s 1953 remake of “Red Dust,” featuring Grace Kelly and Ava Gardner clawing after the sensual Gable.
“The Gable and Crawford Collection” offers more Gable, this time teamed with his real-life paramour, superstar Joan Crawford. The dynamic duo is terrific in a series of steamy situations, plus a minor comedy: “Dance, Fools, Dance” (1931), “Chained”(1934), “Forsaking All Others” (1934), “Love on the Run” (1936) and “Strange Cargo” (1940).
“The Al Jolson Collection” offers an opportunity to see Jolson both in the blackface that introduced sound (“The Jazz Singer,” 1927) as well as other singing and dancing roles that reveal how the stereotype that dogged much of his career unfolded, and how he tried to go beyond it. Other films in this collection: “The Singing Fool” (1928), which includes his rendition of “Sonny Boy”; “Say It With Songs” (1929); “Mammy” (1930), directed by Michael Curtiz and based on Irving Berlin’s “Mr. Bones”; “Big Boy” (1930), again in blackface, and featuring the song “Tomorrow Is Another Day.” The more sophisticated Jolson emerges in “Wonder Bar”(1936) with choreography and direction by Busby Berkeley, and “Go Into Your Dance” (1935) in his only co-starring role with his wife, Ruby Keeler. It also features Glenda Farrell and Helen Morgan along with Harry Warren-Al Dubin songs, among them, “About a Quarter to Nine,” and “The Singing Kid” (1936) with music and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen (“The Wizard of Oz”).
Each collection makes an attractive holiday gift for anyone with a laser-disc player. Next: more laser collections, this time featuring the female stars of the 1930s and 1940s.
Laserbits
New Movies Just Out:
Columbia TriStar’s hit romantic comedy “Sleepless in Seattle,” with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan ($35); “Super Mario Bros.” (Hollywood, letterboxed, $35); “Guilty as Sin” (Hollywood, letterboxed $40).
Coming Soon: FoxVideo’s thriller “Rising Sun,” starring Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes, comes out Thursday. MCA/Universal’s romantic comedy “Hearts and Souls,” starring Robert Downey Jr. (letterboxed, $35).
A collection of Sergio Leone-directed Clint Eastwood spaghetti Westerns is due Dec. 22 for $100 from MGM/UA: “A Fistful of Dollars,” “For a Few Dollars More” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”
Paramount’s “Coneheads,” with Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin, is scheduled for Jan. 26 ($35).
Old Movies Just Out: “The Barefoot Contessa” (MGM/UA, 1954, $40), director Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s drama about a director (Humphrey Bogart) who turns a dancer (Ava Gardner) into a movie star.
“Jane Eyre” (FoxVideo/Image Entertainment, 1944, $50), the adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s Gothic novel, featuring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine.
“Man of La Mancha” (MGM/UA, 1972, $40), with Peter O’Toole and Sophia Loren.