Westerns - Page 18

Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Brand: WEA Model: 2210784

Frisco Kid, The (DVD)Harrison Ford and Gene Wilder star as a taciturn gunslinger and a clueless immigrant rabbi traveling across the Wild West in the comic adventures of The Frisco Kid.Ranked 87th out of 88 in his rabbinical class, Avram Belinski (Wilder--Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein) accepts a posting to Gold Rush-era San Francisco. Speaking little English but following a leading from God, the young rabbi sets out from Philadelphia for San Francisco, believing his destination to be a short walk. Along the way he befriends bank robber Tommy Lillard (Ford--Indiana Jones films, Star Wars films). Now, as this mismatched pair crosses the frontier, the Old West will never be the same.]]>

Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Brand: Sony Model: 2226148

The sleeper hit of 1965, CAT BALLOU was declared an instant classic when its sly blend of Western parody and rapid-fire action hit the screen. Lee Marvin won an Oscar(r) for Best Actor in his dual role as both Tim Strawn, a noseless ("it got bit off in a fight") gunslinger, and as Kid Shelleen, the woozy, boozy, has-been who goes up against Strawn at high noon. In accepting the award, Marvin said, "I think half of this belongs to a horse somewhere in the Valley," referring to the hilarious scene where Marvin and the horse both lean against a shed in a drunken stupor (certainly one ofthe most famous sight gags ever). Jane Fonda, at the height of her sex-kitten period, stars as Catherine "Cat" Ballou, the schoolmarm-turned-outlaw who teams with Kid to protect her father's ranch from a greedy railroad tycoon. Filmed in just 32 days, CAT BALLOU went on to become one of the biggestbox office hits of 1965, proving the popularity of the Western spoof. Singer Nat King Cole and comedian Stubby

Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Brand: Warner Brothers Model: 4409550984

Marx Brothers Collection (DVD) (5-Pack) When it comes to long-awaited treats like The Marx Brothers Collection, you can never get too much of a good thing. These seven comedies can't compare to the sheer lunacy of the five classics (The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, and Duck Soup) that the Marx Bros. made for Paramount between 1929 and 1933 (available in The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection), but when uber-producer Irving Thalberg signed Groucho, Harpo, and Chico to an MGM contract in 1935 (by which time sibling costar Zeppo had become the team's off-screen manager), he knew just how to cure their box-office blues. As a result, A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races were critical and commercial hits, lavishly produced according to the "Tiffany" studio's golden-age formula of glamorous set pieces and musical numbers combined with sensible plots that smoothly integrated snappy, well-written Marxian antics. Opera is the jewel of this set, with timeless scenes (the Stateroom, the Groucho-Chico contract negotiation, etc.) that rank among the greatest bits of silver-screen comedy... not to mention Groucho's flirtatious insults at Margaret Dumont's upper-crust expense. A Day at the Races deserves near-equal acclaim ("Get-a your tootsie-fruitsie ice cream!"), but Thalberg's death in 1937 dealt a devastating blow, and the Marxes suffered from studio indifference, resulting in a succession of comedies that are timelessly enjoyable even as they fall prey to diminishing returns. By the time they made Go West and The Big Store, the Marxes were out of their element, and a few of the musical interludes indulge racial stereotypes that were common in the studio era. Despite this, these movies remain fresh and frantic, and Warner Bros. (holder of the RKO and MGM libraries) has done a marvelous job of packaging The Marx Brothers Collection to nostalgically approximate the filmgoing experience of the 1930s and '40s, with vintage shorts (Our Gang, Robert Benchley comedies, MGM cartoons, etc.)...

Manufacturer: Turner Home Ent Brand: Warner Manufacturing Model: 5822730

The Tom Selleck Western Collection (DVD)A collection of Tom Selleck's greatest westerns including: Monte Walsh, Last Stand at Saber River and Crossfire Trail.]]>