Eye on Warner Archive: May 6, 2014

Here are some highlights of the recent releases to the Warner Archive Collection. DVD’s and Blu-rays are manufactured on demand. They also have a streaming service. Before you visit Warner Archive to check out their selection, check out the selections below an a few of my thoughts.

Oscar Nominees & Winners

Our primary reason for highlighting each week’s selections is to showcase new and reprints of Oscar nominees and winners. Below are the Archive’s most recent releases in this class.

Alice Adams (1935)
Based on the Pulitzer prize-winning novel by Booth Tarkington, George Stevens adeptly directs Katharine Hepburn to her second of twelve Oscar nominations as an lower-middle-class daughter who wants to break out of her humdrum, mediocre life by climbing into the wealthy social strata despite disdain from the well-to-do. When she finally meets the man she wants to marry (Fred MacMurray), her and her mother try everything they can to keep him from finding out just how inexperienced and poor they really are.

This romantic comedy helped establish Hepburn as a viable romantic lead even if she was a bit long in the tooth to play the role. Regardless it’s a masterful performance of varying shades of complexity. MacMurray is an able and affable romantic lead.

The film was nominated for two Academy Awards including Hepburn in the Best Actress category and the film in Best Picture.

Summer of ’42 (1971)
Robert Mulligan directs a trio of novice actors (Gary Grimes, Jerry Hauser, Oliver Conant) as teenage friends enjoying the season on Nantucket island during the Summer of 1942. While the U.S. is actively engaged in World War II, the boys explore their emotions and desires, Hermie (Grimes) falls in love with a young Army Wife (Jennifer O’Neill) whose pilot husband is fighting overseas.

Mulligan was known for catching the innocence of youth in his films and Summer of ’42 is no different, taking us into the minds and lives of young men just bursting into sexual maturity.

The film won an Academy Award for Best Dramatic Score and was nominated for three other trophies: Original Screenplay, Film Editing and Cinematography.

The Sunshine Boys (1975)
Two faded Vaudevillian performers reunite for a television special in spite of decades of resentment. Their successful career crumbled when Al (George Burns) desires retirement while Willy (Walter Matthau) wants to go on. Willy’s son Ben (Richard Benjamin) must not only convince the pair to get back together, but must also juggle their personality quirks and general animosity.

Neil Simon is one of the greatest screenwriters ever to have written for the stage. His plays dig into the depths of our past while relating those days gone by to the present. Picking up the brilliant Walter Matthau and George Burns to star in this adaptation of his play is a stroke of genius. Oscar-nominated director Herbert Ross was no stranger to Simon, perfectly understanding the wit and wisdom beneath his situations and characters.

The film was nominated for four Academy Awards. George Burns won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, becoming the oldest actor ever to win the prize (a record he held for 36 years). Matthau was nominated for Best Actor while Simon captured a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. The fourth nomination went to the films Art Direction.

Pennies from Heaven (1981)
Another Herbert Ross film joins the collection. This one stars Steve Martin as a sheet music salesman during the Great Depression who can’t seem to peddle his wares while biding his time in a fading marriage. As he begins an affair with a young school teacher (Bernadette Peters), he embarks on a series of flights of fancy set to period music. Jessica Harper plays his wife.

A surreal feature film, Ross stretches his imagination and puts together a gifted comedian (Martin) with a brilliant songstress (Peters) to come up with a fascinating character study of marital infidelity, lives left unlived and the power for finding romantic inspiration in the joyous songs of the past and present.

Dennis Potter’s original screenplay was one of three Oscar nominations the film received. Prominent costume designer Bob Mackie was also nominated as was the film’s sound design team.

Other Films

Here are other notable film releases coming to Warner Archive Collection

Lady L (1966)
Peter Ustinov directs Sophia Loren in this light-hearted look at sex from the far side of life. The titular Lady L – Lady Louise Lendale (Loren) – is an elegant, elderly Corsican, celebrating her 80th birthday in high style at a castle in Yorkshire while recounting her romantic misadventures and conquests in her rise from laundress to Lady to Sir Percy (Cecil Parker), her biographer. Among the lads she loves are Armand (Paul Newman), a thief and an anarchist, and Lord Lendale (David Niven), a suave aristocrat. Carlo Ponti produces and Ustinov appears as the princely target of Armand’s revolutionary ambitions. 16×9 Widescreen Welcome Back (In Print), Warner Bros.

More Than a Miracle (1967)
Omar Shariff is the Prince and Sophia Loren is the Peasant in this satiric, profane, earthy and sacred take on fairy tales that puts a bit of sin into Cinderella. Ill-tempered Prince Rodrigo is highly resistant to the idea of matrimony, contrary to the best efforts of his Queen Mother (A still-captivating Dolores del Rio). Fleeing her and her seven proposed princesses on horseback, Rodrigo, thanks to some magical intervention, encounters proud, stunning peasant girl, Isabella.

But the stars are crossed against the temperamental pair and it will take the combined magic of witches and monks, as well as some dishwashing skills deluxe, for Isabella to become the belle of the ball and the mistress of Rodrigo’s heart. Produced by Carlo Ponti. 16×9 Widescreen.

The Biggest Bundle of Them All (1968)
Raquel Welch, Robert Wagner and Edward G. Robinson top a too-cool cast in this late Sixties, swinging caper comedy. When a crew of amateur, criminal ex-pats nab a retired Mafia overlord (neorealist auteur and actor Vittorio De Sica) they think they’ve hit the jackpot. Sadly, the former don’s credit is worse than theirs, so they join forces to pull off The Professor’s (Robinson, naturally) dream heist of a great train robbery. But the leader of the criminals (Wagner) has an acute Achilles Heel – he’s head over heels ga-ga about his real gone lady friend (Welch). Also stars Godfrey Cambridge. 16×9 Widescreen.

Television

The occasional television program or series is released in Warner Archive Collection. Here are this week’s offerings.

Challenge of the Gobots: The Series, Volume One (1985)
They’re mighty robots and mighty vehicles are back at last! Cy-Kill! Leader-1! Cop-Tur! Turbo! Crasher! Scooter! The noble Guardian GoBots and the nefarious Renegade GoBots continue the war begun in The Battle for GoBotron (see Challenge of the GoBots: The Original Mini-Series) across time and space in their epic 60 episode series that comes to you factory fresh and newly remastered – from the original film elements! With Earth as their chosen staging ground, the Renegades deploy Earth’s worst such as the deranged Dr. Braxis (voiced by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Rene Auberjonois) in their quest to conquer Earth and GoBotron, so it’s a good thing the Guardians have Matt, Nick and AJ of UNECOM on their side! This 30-Episode, Three-Disc set collects the first half of the series and finds the amazing, metamorphosing cyborgs taking their fight to Ancient Rome, lost Atlantis and back to GoBotron in a series of adventures that will leave you shouting for “MOAR”!