Limited Time Offer from Amazon: Warners Best, 100 Films for About $2 Each

Posted on September 11, 2014 at 3:26 pm

This is an amazing deal. For a limited time, Amazon is offering a collection of 100 Warner Brothers classics at 75 percent off. Best of Warner Bros 100 Film Collection, including 22 Best Picture winners, a limited edition 27 x 40 poster, two Warner Bros. documentaries, and more, just $!49.99 until September 13, 2014. You’d pay more than this for just ten films. If there’s a movie-lover in your life, now’s a good time to do your holiday shopping.

The films are:

1. The Jazz Singer (1927)
2. Broadway Melody of 1929 (1929)
3. The Public Enemy (1931)
4. Cimarron (1931)
5. Grand Hotel (1932)
6. 42nd Street (1933)
7. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
8. A Night at the Opera (1935)
9. The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
10. The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
11. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
12. Dark Victory (1939)
13. Gone with The Wind (1939)
14. Wizard of Oz (1939)
15. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
16. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
17. Citizen Kane (1941)
18. Mrs. Miniver (1942)
19. Casablanca (1943)
20. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
21. Gaslight (1944)
22. Anchors Aweigh (1944)
23. Mildred Pierce (1945)
24. Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
25. The Big Sleep (1946)
26. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
27. An American in Paris (1951)
28. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
29. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
30. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
31. A Star Is Born (1954)
32. East of Eden (1955)
33. Rebel Without A Cause (1955)
34. Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
35. Giant (1956)
36. The Searchers (1956)
37. A Face in the Crowd (1957)
38. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
39. Gigi (1958)
40. Ben-Hur (1959)
41. North By Northwest (1959)
42. How the West Was Won (1962)
43. What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962)
44. Viva Las Vegas (1964)
45. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
46. Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
47. Cool Hand Luke (1967)
48. The Dirty Dozen (1967)
49. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
50. Bullitt (1968)
51. The Wild Bunch (1969)
52. Dirty Harry (1971)
53. Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971)
54. Cabaret (1972)
55. A Clockwork Orange (1972)
56. Enter the Dragon (1973)
57. The Exorcist (1973)
58. Blazing Saddles (1974)
59. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
60. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
61. All The President’s Men (1976)
62. Superman, The Movie (1977)
63. Caddyshack (1980)
64. The Shining (1980)
65. Clash of the Titans (1981)
66. Chariots of Fire (1981)
67. National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)
68. The Outsiders (1983)
69. The Right Stuff (1983)
70. Risky Business (1983)
71. Amadeus (1984)
72. The Color Purple (1985)
73. The Goonies (1985)
74. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
75. Lethal Weapon (1987)
76. Batman (1989)
77. Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
78. Goodfellas (1990)
79. The Bodyguard (1992)
80. Unforgiven (1992)
81. The Fugitive (1993)
82. Interview with the Vampire (1994)
83. Natural Born Killers (Director’s Cut) (1994)
84. Shawshank Redemption (1994)
85. Seven (1995)
86. L.A. Confidential (1997)
87. The Matrix (1999)
88. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)
89. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
90. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
91. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
92. The Notebook (2004)
93. Million Dollar Baby (2005)
94. The Departed (2006)
95. 300 (2007)
96. The Dark Knight (2008)
97. The Blind Side (2009)
98. The Hangover (2009)
99. Sherlock Holmes (2009)
100. Inception (2010)

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Classic Movie History Movie Mom’s Top Picks for Families Neglected gem

Best of Warner Brothers: Romances

Posted on April 1, 2013 at 7:00 am

A+
Lowest Recommended Age: Middle School
MPAA Rating: Varied
Profanity: Some mild language
Alcohol/ Drugs: Drinking, smoking, war
Violence/ Scariness: Some violence
Diversity Issues: Divers characters, some older films reflect the prejudices of their eras
Date Released to DVD: April 1, 2013
Amazon.com ASIN: B00AIQKG2S

This is a must-have for every family’s library — the latest in Warner Bros series of collections is its Romance series, with 20 of the all-time greatest movie love stories: timeless love, unforgettable affairs, and modern romance, filled with passion, heartbreak, triumph, joyous reunions and tragic partings, comedy, drama, and tragedy.  The legendary studio celebrates its 90th birthday this week.  Coming soon: 20 Comedy and 20 Thrillers series

The collection includes:

Jezebel (1938): Bette Davis is a Southern belle in Antebellum Louisiana who puts her pride above her love for Preston (Henry Fonda).  When he will not do her bidding she humiliates him by wearing a bright red dress to a ball (unmarried ladies are supposed to wear only pure white).  When he leaves her, she learns that love is about sacrifice and generosity.

Gone with the Wind (1939): One of the biggest books of its time became one of the biggest movies of all time.  Scarlett O’Hara (Oscar winner Vivian Leigh) is a tempestuous Civil War-era beauty who breaks the hearts of all the men in Georgia, except for her match, handsome heart-breaker Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) — until they leave to join the Confederate Army and she becomes an indomitable survivor in the midst of loss and chaos.

The Philadelphia Story (1940) My all-time favorite movie has Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant as battling exes from high society Philadelphia families and Oscar winner James Stewart as the reporter who comes to write the story of her new marriage to the stolid but ambitious George (John Howard).  It doesn’t come any wittier, smarter, or more romantic than this.

Casablanca (1942): One of the screen’s greatest love triangles is the Best Picture Oscar winner about former lovers Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), married to Victor (Paul Henried) who meet in the title city while it is occupied by Nazi forces.  The all-star supporting cast includes Peter Lorre, Claude Rains, and Sidney Greenstreet, and there are too many classic lines to count, plus the unforgettable “As Time Goes By” theme song.  A perfect film in every category.

 Mrs. Miniver (1942): Greer Garson, Teresa Wright, and Walter Pidgeon star in this WWII classic about a brave British family trying to stay strong in the early days of the war.

Now Voyager (1942): Bette Davis plays Charlotte, the ugly ducking of a wealthy Boston family ruled by a domineering mother (Gladys Cooper).  She has a breakdown, and with the patient kindness of therapist Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains), she begins to bloom.  On a cruise, she meets married architect Jerry Durrance (Paul Henreid) and they fall deeply in love.  But he cannot leave his unstable wife.  Charlotte finds a deeply fulfilling a way to be of service to him, memorably telling him, “Don’t ask for the moon.  We have the stars.”

 

Annie Get Your Gun (1950): One of Irving Berlin’s most rollicking scores includes standards like “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better,” in this fictionalized story of sharpshooter Annie Oakley and her life as a performer.  In real life, her co-star and husband Frank Butler (Howard Keel) was completely supportive of her, but in Berlin’s version they are both very competitive.  “The Girl That I Marry” and “I’m an Indian” reflect the stereotypes of their era, but it is still a lot of fun.

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951): Tennessee Williams’ classic is about about a fragile, disturbed woman (another Oscar-winner for Vivian Leigh) who disrupts the life of her gentle sister (Oscar-winner Kim Hunter) and her passionate, dominating husband (Marlon Brando).  Karl Malden also won an Oscar for his role as a kind-hearted would-be suitor.  This is the “director’s cut” version, restoring some scenes that were cut by the censors.

Rebel Without a Cause (1955): The ultimate classic of teenage angst features a galvanizing performance from James Dean, who is still the teenage icon, partly because he died a few months after this film was released, and so remains frozen in time, but partly because his performance in this film had – and has – ­such resonance for teenagers and for everyone else who feels unsure and angry, and unsure of why they feel angry. The title says it all: Jim is a rebel without the ability to put into words what he is rebelling against.  It co-stars Sal Mineo, Natalie Wood, and Dennis Hopper.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958): Elizabeth Taylor spends most of this movie wearing nothing but a slip trying to seduce Paul Newman as her husband as a party for her domineering father-in-law (Burl Ives) storms around his birthday party.  Taylor gives one of her best performances as Maggie, a determined survivor in a house filled with liars and cheaters.

Splendor in the Grass (1961): Warren Beatty became a star in this story of a doomed teenage romance in an era of repression and anguish written by William Inge, co-starring Natalie Wood.

Doctor Zhivago (1965): Omar Sharif plays the sensitive, idealistic title character in a love story in the midst of the Russian revolution.  Zhivago marries the daughter of the people who took him in after his parents died, but he loves Lara (Julie Christie).  The haunting theme music is by Maurice Jarre.

A Touch of Class (1973): A couple who planned to have an uncomplicated affair find themselves unexpectedly falling in love in this very 70’s bittersweet comedy starring George Segal and Glenda Jackson, featuring the new frankness permitted by the ratings system that allowed for more explicit material.

A Star Is Born (1976): This third version of the classic story of the young performer on the rise who marries a fading star has Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristoferson, with an Oscar-winning song, “Evergreen,” by Streisand and Paul Williams.

The Goodbye Girl (1977): Richard Dreyfuss won an Oscar as an aspiring actor working in a doomed production of “Richard III” who sublets an apartment only to find that it is already occupied.  Marsha Mason (then married to screenwriter Neil Simon) has the title role as a single mother who is vulnerable because she has been dumped by so many men.  

The Bodyguard (1992): Whitney Houston plays a pop star who has been threatened and Kevin Costner is her bodyguard.  They fall in love and Whitney sings the Dolly Parton song, “I Will Always Love You,” one of the biggest hits of the 90’s.

You’ve Got Mail (1998): Nora Ephron cleverly updated “The Shop Around the Corner,” about battling co-workers who don’t realize they are falling in love through an anonymous correspondence, to the era of email, and adds another timely note: Tom Hanks plays the chief executive of a chain of super-sized bookstores and Meg Ryan plays the owner of a neighborhood bookstore.  (In the next remake, the superstore will be closed down by Amazon.)  A witty script and the natural chemistry of the three-time co-stars makes this an ideal romantic comedy. 

Two Weeks Notice (2002): Hugh Grant is a feckless zillionaire and Sandra Bullock is the idealistic lawyer who goes to work for him.  Guess what happens?

The Lake House (2006): Sandra Bullock re-teams with her “Speed” co-star Keanu Reeves in this fantasy romance about a doctor and an architect who occupy the same beautiful glass lake house — two years apart.  Somehow, they are able to communicate with each other by leaving letters in the mailbox.  They begin to fall in love, but can they ever meet in the same moment?

Nights in Rodanthe (2008): Richard Gere and Diane Lane, who co-starred in “Unfaithful” and “The Cotton Club,” play a lonely pair who unexpectedly find love in this Nicholas Sparks story.  

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Classic DVD/Blu-Ray Pick of the Week Movie Mom’s Top Picks for Families Romance

20 Film Collection from Warner Brothers: Musicals

Posted on February 25, 2013 at 8:00 am

A+
Lowest Recommended Age: All Ages
MPAA Rating: Varied
Profanity: Varied
Alcohol/ Drugs: Varied
Violence/ Scariness: Varied
Diversity Issues: Varied
Date Released to DVD: February 25, 2013
Amazon.com ASIN: B009Z59782

Warner Brothers has issued a spectacular collection of musical films, from the ground-breaking “The Jazz Singer” to classics like “Cabaret,” “Signin’ in the Rain,” “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” and “The Music Man.”  This is a treasure that should be in every family DVD library, and every school and community library as well.  It includes:

The Jazz Singer ( 1927) Al Jolson plays the son of a cantor who wants to sing popular music in this groundbreaking film that was the first live-action film with a synchronized soundtrack.  (Remade twice, with Danny Thomas and Neil Diamond)

Broadway Melody of 1929 Winner of the second Best Picture Oscar, this early talkie includes “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “You Were Meant for Me.”

42nd Street (1933) “You’re going out there a chorus girl, but you’re coming back a STAR!”  This classic pre-code backstage musical features the title tune and “Shuffle Off to Buffalo.”

The Great Ziegfeld (1936) Another Best Picture winner (and Best Actress for Luise Rainer), this story of impressario Florenz Zeigfeld has rare filmed performances by Fanny Brice (the singer Barbra Streisand played in “Funny Girl”).

The Wizard Of Oz (1939) One of the most beloved films of all time, this enduring classic has Judy Garland singing “Over the Rainbow” and following the yellow brick road to see the wizard.

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) James Cagney plays the bantam-like singer/dancer/performer George M. Cohan in this biopic of the superstar who wrote classics like “For it was Mary” and “Give My Regards to Broadway.”

An American in Paris ( 1951) Gene Kelly.  George Gershwin.  Vincente Minnelli.  Glorious.

Show Boat (1951) This second version of the Jerome Kern musical based on the Edna Ferber story stars Ava Gardner, Marge and Gower Champion, Howard Keel, and Kathryn Grayson, with classic songs like “Old Man River” (sung by Wiliam Warfield in the part played by Paul Robeson in the original), “Life Upon the Wicked Stage,” and “Only Make Believe.”

Singin’ In The Rain (1952) This may just be the perfect movie as comedy, romance, satire, and musical.  Gene Kelly is the silent movie star who has to adjust to the talkie era.  In addition to the rapturous title number, the movie features Donald O’Connor’s classic “Make ‘Em Laugh.”

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) Seven rambunctious red-headed backwoods brothers named in alphabetical order (Adam, Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephram, Frank, and Gideon) are tamed by love in this rollicking musical with wildly athletic dance numbers choreographed by Michael Kidd.

A Star Is Born (1954) Judy Garland and James Mason star in the second (of three–so far) versions of the story of the fading star who marries a rising star.  Garland sings “The Man That Got Away” and “Born in a Trunk” and introduces herself as “Mrs. Norman Maine!

The Music Man (1962) Robert Preston re-creates his legendary stage performance as “Professor Harold Hill,” a con man who sells a small Iowa town on the idea of a boys’ band.  He plans to skip town before they discover that he has no idea of how to teach kids to play instruments, but then he meets “Marian the Librarian” (an almost impossibly pretty Shirley Jones) and things get complicated.  Songs include “Trouble,” “76 Trombones,” “Goodnight My Someone,” and “Til There Was You.”  And a barbershop quartet singing “Lida Rose.”

 Viva Las Vegas (1964) Elvis and Ann-Margret sing and dance.  What else do you need to know?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFw5a5Bp_Pw

Camelot (1967) The grand Lerner and Lowe musical about King Arthur, Guinevere, and Sir Lancelot stars Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, and Franco Nero.  Songs include “The Lusty Month of May,” “If Ever I Should Leave You,” and the poignant title number.

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971) This is the first and best version of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book about the poor boy who finds a golden ticket to visit the world’s most magnificently magical candy factory.  Too bad for the naughty kids who are greedy and spoiled!

Cabaret (1972) The film, director Bob Fosse, and stars Joel Gray and Liza Minnelli won Oscars for this searing musical about pre-WWII Germany, brilliantly presented in an adult musical that deals with issues like the rise of the Nazi party, anti-Semitism, and “divine” decadence.

That’s Entertainment (1974) This delicious compilation includes highlights of dozens of classic and underrated musicals and led to two sequels.

Victor, Victoria (1983) James Garner, Robert Preston, and Julie Andrews star in a wildly funny musical about an impoverished singer whose career takes off when she pretends to be a man pretending to be a woman.

Little Shop Of Horrors (1986) Possibly the most improbable source for a musical was a cheap horror film about a carnivorous plant, shot over a weekend.  But the cheeky score made it a theatrical hit and this movie version is a lot of fun.

Hairspray (1988) John Waters’ non-musical film about the controversy over integration on a teen dance show in 1960’s Baltimore inspired this musical remake with John Travolta as the mother of the adorable Tracy (Nikki Blonsky).  Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah, and Zac Efron co-star in this tuneful treat that includes “Good Morning Baltimore,” “Run and Tell That,” and “You Can’t Stop the Beat.”

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Classic Comedy DVD/Blu-Ray Pick of the Week Movie Mom’s Top Picks for Families Musical Romance
Smithsonian Exhibit: Warner Brothers Treasures

Smithsonian Exhibit: Warner Brothers Treasures

Posted on March 27, 2012 at 10:21 pm

I was lucky enough to get a chance to visit the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History today and I especially enjoyed seeing some wonderful items from the Warner Brothers archive, including costumes and props from the movie Roger Ebert says appears on more top 10 lists than any other film: “Casablanca.”  I also loved seeing Lauren Bacall’s beautiful, form-fitting suit from “The Big Sleep.”  But I got a special kick out of seeing Jack Warner’s phone book, here open to the D page with hand-written entries that include Bette Davis, Cecil DeMille, Walt Disney, and Salvador Dali!

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Not specified

Chick Flicks On Demand to Support Breast Cancer Research

Posted on October 2, 2010 at 3:55 pm

Warner Brothers Digital Distribution will support Susan G. Komen for the Cure in the fight against breast cancer every time one of 16 special movies is watched On Demand during a special initiative this month. So get a bowl of popcorn (and a hanky — there are some real weepies here) and settle back with “The Notebook,” “City of Angels,” “In the Land of Women,” “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” and more, and enjoy the movie while you feel good about helping to end this terrible disease. (If you feel more like laughing than crying, try some of the other choices like “Miss Congeniality 2,” “Fool’s Gold,” or “Music & Lyrics.”)

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