Editorial Product Review: essential video:This silky smooth film noir pits gruff police detective Dana Andrews, stiff and blunt in his street-bred manners, against a cultured columnist and acidic wit (Clifton Webb at his prissiest) in a battle of wits during a murder investigation. The cop is a romantic hiding under a hard-boiled exterior who falls in love with the beautiful victim through the portrait that hangs in her apartment. Gene Tierney, whose heart-shaped face mixes the exotic with the girl next door, brings the poise and calm ...
Editorial Product Review: :Clifton Webb brings the imperious fussiness that made him a prissy film noir icon in such films as Laura and The Dark Corner to the role of Lynn Belvedere, the self-proclaimed genius who takes a position nannying a trio of bratty boys. This professed child-hating bachelor proves to be a godsend for flustered parents Maureen O'Hara and Robert Young. Within days his unconventional mix of child psychology and strict discipline tames the three rambunctious boys--faced with an infant who insists on spattering him with oatmeal, ...
Editorial Product Review:Description:Clifton Webb stars in this fascinating account of a daring intelligence operation designed to mislead the Nazis prior to the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily. In an effort to convince the Germans to redeploy their defenses, Lt. Commander Montagu (Webb) creates a false English officer and fabricates letters that indicate the British intend to land in Greece. Montagu than plants these documents on a dead man and orchestrates the 'discovery' of this 'officer' on the coast of Spain, Knowing the papers will fall into German ...
Editorial Product Review: :Although it was never known for strict authenticity, the elegant 1953 production of Titanic holds just as much fascination as A Night to Remember and James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster. Its original screenplay deservedly won an Oscar® for its brilliant, dramatically involving creation of fictional characters--primarily a strained couple on the verge of divorce (Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck)--whose lives are forever altered on that fateful morning of April 15, 1912. Director Jean Negulesco focuses on this human drama, lending a personal touch to the luxury liner's ...
Editorial Product Review: :Velvety and glazed like a fattening pastry, this 1954 love story concerns three American women who make wishes for love in Rome, and end up having three romances. The cast is fine, but as for the film, what you see is what you get. There's no mystery to any part of this movie--like everything director Jean Negulesco made once CinemaScope entered his life (e.g., How to Marry a Millionaire, A Certain Smile), Three Coins is designed to lull rather than stimulate. (It did, however, win ...
Editorial Product Review: :The Somerset Maugham novel should be read by everybody at a certain age (say, early twenties), and this 1946 movie adaptation of The Razor's Edge stays faithful to the book's questing spirit. Despite its apparently uncommercial storyline, it was a pet project of Fox honcho Darryl F. Zanuck, who saw the spiritual journey of Larry Darrell (Tyrone Power) as an 'adventure' movie. Power, who was newly returned to Hollywood after his military service in World War I, does his most soul-searching work as the WWI ...
Editorial Product Review: :The Dark Corner can't seriously be proposed as a great film noir, but it's one that people cherish. For one thing, it's unique in having Lucille Ball--who has absolutely no 'splainin'' to do--as the smart, resourceful, devoted secretary of beleaguered private eye Mark Stevens. Lucy actually rates top billing, with Clifton up-to-his-old-Laura-tricks Webb and William vicious-brute-in-a-white-suit Bendix also getting their names above that of the hero in the credits. In this, there's a certain justice; they all deliver the goods, whereas Stevens seems a tad ...
Editorial Product Review: :The Dark Corner can't seriously be proposed as a great film noir, but it's one that people cherish. For one thing, it's unique in having Lucille Ball--who has absolutely no 'splainin'' to do--as the smart, resourceful, devoted secretary of beleaguered private eye Mark Stevens. Lucy actually rates top billing, with Clifton up-to-his-old-Laura-tricks Webb and William vicious-brute-in-a-white-suit Bendix also getting their names above that of the hero in the credits. In this, there's a certain justice; they all deliver the goods, whereas Stevens seems a tad ...
Editorial Product Review: essential video:Though it's impossible to gauge just how much of it is true, this endearing family comedy (based on the book by their children Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey) is inspired by the true story of the husband-and-wife efficiency experts Frank and Lillian Gilbreth and their adventures raising 12 kids at the turn of the century. Director Walter Lang takes a loping pace through the episodes of family life: the kids descend upon the new school in force while Dad (fussy ...
