I’m thrilled to have one of my all-time favorite Disney classics to give away: The Jungle Book. The last film personally supervised by Walt Disney himself, this one has brilliant voice talent (Phil Harris, Louis Prima, Sebastian Cabot) and some of Disney’s best-loved songs: “The Bear Necessities,” “I Wanna Be Like You.”
To enter, send me an email at moviemom@moviemom.com with Jungle in the subject line and tell me your favorite jungle animal. Don’t forget your address! Many people were disqualified from the the last contest because they did not include the mailing address. I promise, I never share it or use it for anything but sending out prizes. (U.S. addresses only). I’ll pick winners at random on April 13. Good luck!
The last animated film personally overseen by Walt Disney is “The Jungle Book,” inspired by the Rudyard Kipling story of a boy abandoned in the forest who is raised by the animals. It has some of the most endearing and memorable characters in all of Disney animation, including two voiced by top musician/singers Baloo the Bear (Phil Harris) and King Louie (Louis Prima). And it has some of Disney’s all-time best songs from the Sherman Brothers (the brother team recently portrayed in “Saving Mr. Banks”), featuring “The Bear Necessities” and “I Wanna Be Like You.”
A panther named Bagheera (the aristocratic-sounding Sebastian Cabot) finds a baby in a basket deep inside the jungle. It is Mowgli (Bruce Reitherman, the son of director Wolfgang Reitherman). Bagheera knows the infant will not survive unless he can find someone to care for him. So, he takes him to a wolf, who raises him for ten years along with her cubs. The animals call Mowgli “man-cub,” and he grows up happy and well cared for.
But then Shere Khan, a man-eating Bengal tiger (silkily voiced by George Sanders), returns to the jungle, and it is clear that Mowgli is not safe. Bagheera agrees to escort him to the village, where he can be with other humans. But Mowgli does not want to leave the only home he has ever known. He loves the jungle. And the animals she sees along the way only make him more sure that he wants to stay in the only home he has ever known, even after he is hypnotized and almost killed by Kaa the python (husky-voiced Sterling Holloway, best known as Winnie the Pooh). He marches with the elephant troops led by Colonel Hathi and his wife (J. Pat O’Malley and Verna Felton of “Sleeping Beauty”). King Louie is an orangutan who promises to keep Mowgli in the jungle if he will teach him the secrets of being a human, like making fire. But Mowgli was raised in the jungle, so he does not know how. He loves the easy-going Baloo the bear best of all.
But the jungle is dangerous. When Baloo tries to tell Mowgli that he has to go to the village, Mowgli runs away. Kaa and Shere Khan are after him. The animals who love Mowgli will have to find a way to show him that it is time for him to leave the jungle.
This is one of Disney’s most entertaining animated classics, and it is a pleasure to see this gorgeous new Diamond edition.
He could make you laugh and break your heart at the same moment.
Here the blind girl who thought he was a millionaire when she could not see, and knew him only by the touch of his hand, discovers that he is a poor man who gave up everything to pay for the operation to restore her sight.
“Film Noir” (“black films”) usually refers to the stylized dark crime films of the 1940’s, usually made by German directors who came to the United States to escape the Nazis. Their cynicism, sense of dread and loss, and themes of betrayal, obsession, and sin gave their stories of crime and mystery an archetypal feeling. Two of the best can now be seen for free.
A neglected gem from Orson Welles, “The Stranger” is the story of an investigator (Edward G. Robinson) who is tracking down a Nazi war criminal (Welles), now living a quiet life as a professor and married to a woman (Loretta Young) who knows nothing of his past. The climax in a church belfry tower is brilliantly staged.
Edward G. Robinson also appears in the less characteristic role of a mild-mannered professor who gets caught up in a web of deception and betrayal in “The Woman in the Window.” The ending is a disappointment, but the direction by Fritz Lang is a masterpiece of noir mood.
What could be better than a 2 1/2 hour movie with every comedian and comic actor in Hollywood in a madcap masterpiece about the race to a hidden fortune? A new Blu-Ray edition with deleted scenes, commentary, and interviews!
Directed by a man not known for comedy, Stanley Kramer, this 1963 film begins with Jimmy Durante literally kicking the bucket after confessing to a group of random strangers on the highway that he has hidden $350,000 in stolen money at “the big W.” At first, the group tries to be cooperative and civilized, but that is quickly abandoned as they decide it will have to be winner take all. Each takes off to see if they can find the big W first, creating chaos in every relationship and by every possible mode of transportation along the way. It is wild, silly fun and highly recommended for the sheer pleasure of seeing a movie that includes top comedy performers from television, vaudeville, movies, and theater, with everyone from Mickey Rooney, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Phil Silvers, Edie Adams, Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, to Ethel Merman are among those trying to get to the money before anyone else and Tracy and William Demerest are the cops who have been trying to find the stolen money for 15 years. Even Jerry Lewis and the Three Stooges show up in cameos.
The opening credits by credit-sequence master Saul Bass are featured in my book, 101 Must-See Movie Moments. It is a “visual overture,” in the words of producer Walter Parkes, an introduction to the movie’s tone and themes, an invitation into the world the movie will create.
“It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” presented Bass with quite a challenge: dozens of names. The contracts of movie stars often spell out in great detail the size, placement, and order of their names in the credits. The enormous cast of very successful performers could have led to an opening title sequence that looked like a page in the telephone book. But Bass made it into an advantage, using each list of names to help convey something about the comedy that was coming. It begins with a simple red frame, the score by Ernest Gold sounding like a slightly off circus. A little animated man in black carries out an enormous globe, which topples him over. Then a saw starts poking out of the globe and cuts out a square. A hand reaches out holding a flag with the name of the movie’s biggest star, Spencer Tracy. A hand comes down to nail the globe shut again and the fight is on. The globe is opened like a tuna can and more names tumble out, “in alphabetical order,” but they start scrambling over each other to be on top of the list. The globe bounces like a ball, cracks open like an egg, and gets ridden like a unicycle. We get information but more important we get a sense of the mad mad world that we are about to enter.
This new edition includes some treasures among the extras, including deleted scenes, plus:
New audio commentary featuring It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World aficionados Mark Evanier, Michael Schlesinger, and Paul Scrabo
New documentary on the film’s visual and sound effects, featuring interviews with visual-effects specialist Craig Barron and sound designer Ben Burtt
Excerpt from a 1974 talk show hosted by director Stanley Kramer and featuring Mad World actors Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, and Jonathan Winters
Press interview from 1963 featuring Kramer and cast members
Excerpts about the influence of the film from the 2000 AFI program 100 Years . . . 100 Laughs
Two-part 1963 episode of the TV program Telescope that follows the film’s press junket and premiere
The Last 70mm Film Festival, a 2012 program featuring Mad World cast and crew, hosted by actor Billy Crystal
Selection of humorist and voice-over artist Stan Freberg’s original TV and radio ads for the film, with a new introduction by Freberg
Trailers and radio spots
Parents should know that this movie includes extended cartoon-like comic peril and violence and some silly and greedy bad behavior.
Family discussion: How did the money affect different characters differently? Did you sympathize with anyone? What would you do with $350,000?
If you like this, try: more work by these actors and an uneven but enjoyable update, “Rat Race”
I’m thrilled to have one of my all-time favorite Disney classics to give away: The Jungle Book. The last film personally supervised by Walt Disney himself, this one has brilliant voice talent (Phil Harris, Louis Prima, Sebastian Cabot) and some of Disney’s best-loved songs: “The Bear Necessities,” “I Wanna Be Like You.”
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. It is a “visual overture,” in the words of producer Walter Parkes, an introduction to the movie’s tone and themes, an invitation into the world the movie will create.