Re: COOPER, BRANDO, AND NEWMAN BOXSETS IN NOVEMBER
Full details right here -- just in from WB:
---------------------------------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Milestones From a Legendary Career
THE PAUL NEWMAN COLLECTION
All New to DVD November 14
Harper, The Drowning Pool, The Left-Handed Gun,
Mackintosh Man, Pocket Money, Somebody Up There Likes Me, The Young Philadelphians
Burbank, Calif. August 7, 2006 – On November 14, 2006, Warner Home Video (WHV) will celebrate one of Hollywood’s living legends with the debut of The Paul Newman Collection -- seven of the actor’s films never before available on DVD. Harper, The Drowning Pool, The Left-Handed Gun, Mackintosh Man, Pocket Money, Somebody Up There Likes Me and The Young Philadelphians comprise the 7-disc giftset, enhanced with new and archival featurettes, and available for $59.92 SRP. Harper will also be sold as a single title for $19.97 SRP.
With a career approaching nearly six decades, Paul Newman has shown himself to be one of Hollywood’s most enduring superstars. Born in Shaker Heights, Ohio in 1925, he was the son of a successful sporting goods store owner. Newman enjoyed acting as a child but didn’t get serious about it until he was at Kenyon College. After graduating in 1949 Newman began developing his talents: He joined several summer stock companies, spent a year at Yale Drama School and then attended the New York Actors Studio, the school that taught “Method” acting to the likes of Marlon Brando, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. Newman’s handsome chiseled features and famous blue eyes led to a quick entry into television drama, and after his first Broadway success in “Picnic,” he was offered a movie contract at Warner Bros. in 1954 and was on his way.
Newman’s first film, The Silver Chalice, in 1954, was such an embarrassment to him that he actually took a Variety ad, apologizing for his performance. But his second role in Somebody Up There Likes Me was enthusiastically praised and his career took off. After his first Best Actor Nomination for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Newman became one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s, during which time he starred in numerous hits, including The Hustler, Hud, Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Nominated nine times for a Best Actor Oscar®, he finally won in 1987 for his performance in The Color of Money.
Now in his 80s, Newman still acts, winning both an Emmy® and Golden Globe® for his role in the 2005 HBO mini-series “Empire Falls,” but primarily is focused on philanthropic interests with his wife of almost 50 years, actress Joanne Woodward. His line of food products, whose profits are all donated to charity, have resulted in over $200 million in donations to several causes, the most famous of which is The Hole in the Wall Gang Camps for terminally ill children.
Harper (1966)
Paul Newman gives a memorable performance in this box-office hit based on Ross MacDonald’s The Moving Target. The first detective film in Newman’s then 23-film career, Newman’s sleuth, Lew Harper, chews gum fast and slips out of jams even faster
while unraveling a twisted case of kidnapping and murder. William Goldman’s clever script is filled with quips and a parade of Los Angeles characters: a woman of means (Lauren Bacall), a gun-toting attorney (Arthur Hill), a poolside gigolo (Robert Wagner), a boozy ex-starlet (Shelley Winters), a jazz junkie (Julie Harris), Harper’s estranged wife (Janet Leigh) and the unholy order of the Temple of the Clouds (led by Strother Martin). Each possesses a clue. Or a bullet for Harper.
DVD Special Features:
•Commentary by screenwriter William Goldman
•Introduction by TCM host Robert Osborne
•Theatrical trailer
•Languages: English & Français
•Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
Drowning Pool (1975)
Newman returns as the quick-witted detective he first played nine years before in Harper. A cast to reckon with joins him in this mystery adapted from Ross MacDonald’s novel and directed by Stuart Rosenberg (Cool Hand Luke). Joanne Woodward plays the New Orleans oil heiress who turns to Harper for help with a seemingly routine blackmail case. Young Melanie Griffith is her kittenish daughter, and Tony Franciosa, Coral Browne, Andy Robinson and Murray Hamilton keep The Drowning Pool’s intrigue as thick as gumbo.
DVD Special Features:
•Vintage featurette Harper Days Are Here Again
•Theatrical trailer
•Languages: English & Français
•Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
The Left Handed Gun (1958)
Newman plays William Bonney, the fabled and legendary gunslinger known as Billy the Kid. The West had never seen the likes of this Brooklyn-born desperado, a troubled teen who wrote his name in blood on history’s pages. And the genre had never before seen a performance like that of Paul Newman. He displays a complex, twitchy moodiness that captures the killer’s half-boy, half-man nature.
Another major presence is first-time film director Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde, Little Big Man), here first exploring a theme he would return to again and again: the alienated outsider confronted by a hostile society. What Newman and Penn put on screen was new, provocative and startling, so it’s no surprise the movie’s initial reception was mixed. Today it’s hailed as a unique and influential Western.
DVD Special Features
•Commentary by director Arthur Penn
•Theatrical trailer
•Languages: English & Français
•Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
The Mackintosh Man (1973)
Paul Newman plays Joseph Rearden, British Intelligence’s man on the inside, in this tense and tricky thriller, directed by the legendary John Huston from a screenplay by Walter Hill (48 HRS.). It’s superbly cast with sterling talent that includes Dominique Sanda, Harry Andrews and Ian Bannen. James Mason (Newman’s adversary in The Verdict) plays a Member of Parliament who’s really a master spy – and the focus of Rearden’s assignment. In an era when spies came in from the cold, The Mackintosh Man generates a lot of heat.
DVD Special Features
•Vintage featurette John Huston: The Man, The Myth, The Moviemaker
•Theatrical trailer
•Languages: English & Français
•Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
Pocket Money(1972)
Newman and Lee Marvin star in this sunny comedy also featuring two veterans of Newman’s Cool Hand Luke: director Stuart Rosenberg and co-star Strother Martin. Newman plays debt-ridden cowboy Jim Kane and Marvin is his shifty pal Leonard, a big talker full of ideas that never pan out. As laid down in the deft screenplay by Terrence Malick (Badlands, The New World), they’re as likable a duo of drifters as ever rolled down the pike.
DVD Special Features:
•Theatrical trailer
•Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)
This inspiring bio-pic recounts the story of Rocky Graziano, the scrappy kid from New York who rose from poverty and rage to become middleweight champion. Newman plays Graziano to perfection, primarily because he met frequently with the real champ to study his speech and mannerisms. Robert Wise, who earlier captured the fight game in The Set-Up, directs what would become Newman’s breakout film and win two Academy Awards -- Best B & W Cinematography and Best Black and White Art Direction. Steve McQueen and Robert Loggia make their screen debuts; Perry Como sings the title song.
DVD Special Features:
•Commentary by Paul Newman, Robert Loggia, Director Robert Wise,
Martin Scorsese and Richard Schickel
•Theatrical trailer
•Languages: English & Français
•Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
The Young Philadelphians (1959)
Newman plays young lawyer-on-the-rise Anthony Lawrence in this grand, glossy melodrama layered with the power and privilege of Philadelphia’s social elite. The supporting cast is upper-crust in talent as well as Hollywood history: Barbara Rush, Brian Keith, Alexis Smith, Billie Burke, John Williams and others. Robert Vaughn was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as the blue-blooded outcast that Lawrence risks his career to defend in a sensational murder trial. The film received two other nominations (Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design). Vincent Sherman directed.
DVD Special Features:
•Commentary by director Vincent Sherman and film historian Drew Casper, author of Postwar Hollywood 1946-1962
•Theatrical trailer
•Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
Paul Newman Collection
Street Date: November 14, 2006
$59.92 SRP (Collection)
Harper available as a single title for $19.97 SRP
All films presented in Widescreen format
Harper (Color)
Run Time: 121 minutes The Drowning Pool (Color)
Run Time: 108 minutes
The Left-Handed Gun (B&W)
Run Time: 102 minutesMackintosh Man (Color)
Run Time: 99 minutes
Pocket Money (Color)
Run Time: 100 minutesSomebody Up There Likes Me (B&W)
113 Minutes
Note: All enhanced content listed above is subject to change.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“Widely regarded as America’s greatest actor”
-Leonard Maltin’s Movie Encyclopedia
THE MARLON BRANDO COLLECTION
DEBUTS NOVEMBER 7
DVD Debuts of Mutiny on the Bounty 2-Disc Special Edition and
Brando Classics Julius Caesar, The Formula,
Reflections in a Golden Eye and Teahouse of the August Moon
All Films Digitally Remastered With New and Vintage Features
Burbank, Calif., August 7, 2006 – On November 7, Warner Home Video honors the man widely regarded as one of the greatest film actors of the 20th century with the DVD release of The Marlon Brando Collection. Highlighting this WHV Classic Collection is a deluxe new 2-Disc Special Edition of Mutiny on the Bounty, featuring a newly-remastered presentation of the 1962 spectacular that was nominated for seven Academy Awards,® including Best Picture. This new deluxe set features hours of bonuses including five featurettes.
Also contained in the collection are four more Brando films making their DVD debuts -- Julius Caesar, The Formula, Reflections in a Golden Eye and Teahouse of the August Moon. Each film is presented in a new digitally remastered transfer. The new five-film, 6-disc gift set will sell for $59.92 SRP. All titles are exclusive to the collection, except Mutiny on the Bounty 2-Disc Special Edition, which will also sell separately for $26.99 SRP and Julius Caesar, available for $19.97 SRP. Orders are due October 3.
Marlon Brando’s combination of sensitivity and toughness brought him acclaim as the greatest actor of his generation. He appeared in over 40 films, winning two Best Actor Academy Awards® for
On the Waterfront and The Godfather, and nominated for six others. The Washington Post wrote, “One of his greatest legacies as an actor was to penetrate the deepest thoughts of his characters and convey their motivations so finely and believably. He drew on a lifetime of emotional distress, his brilliance at mimicry and his own intuition to bring new dimensions of psychological motivation to his parts.” With this incomparable skill he created a gallery of unforgettable roles in films like Viva Zapata, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Wild One, Sayonara and Apocalypse Now, as well as the films in this collection.
Born April 3, 1924 in Omaha Nebraska, the youngest of three children, Marlon Brando had a difficult childhood growing up in a small town outside of Chicago. His mother was involved in local theater and helped a young Henry Fonda to begin his own acting career but was never able to achieve her own ambition and turned to alcohol. Brando’s unruliness in the face of authority led his father to send him to military school, where he first began acting, but he was expelled due to bad grades and bad behavior. In 1943, he moved to New York to join his sisters, Frances and Jocelyn, who were involved in the arts. After jobs as a ditch digger, elevator boy and night watchman he became a friend and roommate of actor Wally Cox (TV’s “Mr. Peepers” and voice of cartoon character “Underdog”) and began to seriously study drama. One of Brando’s instructors was Stella Adler, who became his mentor and from whom he learned “method acting,” a technique which emphasized emotional truth and natural style.
Brando’s first break came in 1944 when he was hired to play the teenage son in the stage version of “I Remember Mama.” The hit play brought him many admirers, including director Elia Kazan who persuaded producer Irene Selznick to hire Brando for the role of Stanley Kowalski in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” His performance and the play were hailed as landmark theatrical events, and he found himself being sought by Hollywood. He starred in Stanley Kramer’s independent film The Men, which was not a commercial success but Brando won rave notices. When the filmed version of “Streetcar” was released in 1951, Brando’s onscreen career was spectacularly launched.
Mutiny on the Bounty Two-Disc Special Edition (1962)
In 1787, the HMS Bounty set out on a journey that took it through perilous seas to a tropical paradise…and into history as one of the most ill-fated vessels ever to sail for King and country. Lewis Milestone (All Quiet on the Western Front) directed this color-drenched spectacular nominated for seven Academy Awards* including Best Picture. Filmed before in 1935 and again in 1984’s The Bounty, the gripping tale, based on a true story, centers on two men. Marlon Brando puts his own stamp on the role of first officer Fletcher Christian, the tormented first mate transformed into a man of action. Trevor Howard is Capt. William Bligh, uncompromising in his command and his cruelty. “Fear is [my] best weapon,” Bligh proclaims. But it’s also the most costly, driving men to desperation…and to mutiny. Richard Harris, Hugh Griffith and Richard Haydn also star in this epic adventure. This new special edition presents the original, uncut roadshow version of the film, as seen in initial reserved-seat engagements, containing Overture, Intermission, Entr’acte and Exit Music.
DVD Special Features:
Disc One
•Alternate prologue and epilogue sequences not seen theatrically
•Two vintage featurettes:
o1964 New York World’s Fair Promo
oStory of the HMS Bounty
•Marlon Brando movies trailer gallery
•New digital transfer from restored Ultra-Panavision 65mm elements
•Soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1
•Languages: English & Français
•Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
Disc Two
•New featurette After the Cameras Stopped Rolling: The Journey of the Bounty
•Two vintage featurettes:
oVoyage of the Bounty to St. Petersburg
oTour of the Bounty
Julius Caesar (1953)
Brando sets aside his familiar T-shirt for a toga to give a compelling portrayal of imperial loyalist Antony in Shakespeare’s towering tale of friendship and betrayal. Julius Caesar, nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture and a winner for Best B&W Art Direction/Set Decoration, remains one of the best movie adaptations of Shakespeare as directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (Oscar® winner for All About Eve, A Letter to Three Wives). Atop the stellar cast, John Gielgud plays lead conspirator Cassius (later at the other end of the dagger as Caesar in the 1970 movie version). James Mason is tormented Brutus. The film is also highlighted by an unforgettable musical score by the legendary Miklos Rozsa.
DVD Special Features:
•Introduction by TCM host Robert Osborne
•New featurette The Rise of Two Legends
•Soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1
•Theatrical trailers
•Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
The Formula (1980)
Big oil (and bigger conspiracy) runs the mazelike thriller world of The Formula, directed by John G. Avildsen (Rocky). George C. Scott portrays police detective Barney Caine on a trail of deceit and death which leads him to uncover a secret formula for a non-polluting synthetic fuel that wouldn’t just revolutionize the oil industry. It would destroy it. While trying to make headway in the case, he may be only where certain powers allow him to be…powers like Marlon Brando,
the oil magnate and ‘mover-and-shaker’ Adam Steiffel. And Marthe Keller is a woman of mystery who’s player or pawn – or both.
DVD Special Features
•Commentary by director John G. Avildsen and screenwriter Steve Shagan
•Theatrical trailer
•Languages: English & Français
•Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)
“An Army post in peacetime is a dull place.” So begins Carson McCullers’ famous novel of secret passion, Reflections in a Golden Eye. But beneath the smooth surface of military routine at a Georgia army base, a deadly tension mounts. Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando star in this startling screen version that, like the book, crackles with mysterious exotic energy. They play the Pendertons, he a hidebound career officer wrestling with inner demons, she a caged lioness demanding love, whatever the source. Their off-kilter relationship plays out under the voyeuristic gaze of a soldier (Robert Forster) soon to become the focal point of tragedy. Provocatively directed by John Huston and co-starring Brian Keith and Julie Harris in moving supporting performances, this powerful spellbinder is a bizarre tale of sex, betrayal and perversion.
DVD Special Features:
•Vintage behind-the-scenes footage
•Theatrical trailers
•Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956)
“Serious actor” Marlon Brando displayed his versatility by getting laughs in this comic delight based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play and co-starring two top-model Fords: Hollywood star Glenn and stage star Paul, the latter recreating his Broadway role. The film is the story of the U.S. military’s occupation of Okinawa, post World War II, and their attempt to introduce western concepts such as democracy to a small village that’s only interested in getting a teahouse built. Brando plays a Japanese interpreter named Sakini, with more smart maneuvers than Admiral Halsey and his fleet, who keeps the construction of both the teahouse and the plot moving at a merry clip.
DVD Special Features:
•Vintage featurette Operation Teahouse
•Theatrical trailers
•Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
•2.55:1 Aspect Ratio with stereophonic sound
THE MARLON BRANDO COLLECTION
Street Date: November 7, 2006
Order Due Date: October 3, 2006
Collection Catalog #: 83011; $59.92 SRP
Mutiny on the Bounty Two Disc Special Edition $26.99 SRP
Julius Caesar $19.97 SRP
All films except Julius Caesar in Color, presented in Widescreen Format
Mutiny on the Bounty Two-Disc Special Edition
Run Time: 185 Minutes
Catalog# 79197
Julius Caesar
Run Time: 121 Minutes/ B+ W
Catalog #: 65918The Formula
Run Time: 117 Minutes
Collection Exclusive
Reflections in a Golden Eye
Run Time: 109 Minutes
Collection ExclusiveThe Teahouse of the August Moon
Run Time: 123 Minutes
Collection Exclusive
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Movies on DVD from the Rugged Individualist
GARY COOPER: THE SIGNATURE COLLECTION
ON DVD NOVEMBER 7
Sergeant York Two-Disc Special Edition
The Fountainhead, Springfield Rifle,
The Wreck of Mary Deare, Dallas
Titles, All Remastered and New to DVD, Include Commentary By Jeannine Basinger, New Making-of Featurettes, Documentaries & Vintage Shorts
Burbank, Calif. August 7, 2006 – Another American icon gets the Warner Home Video deluxe treatment with the release of Gary Cooper: The Signature Collection on November 7. All new to DVD and remastered, the 6-disc boxed set features Sergeant York Two-Disc Special Edition, with Cooper’s Academy Award® Best Actor performance, as well as The Fountainhead, Springfield Rifle, The Wreck of Mary Deare and Dallas. Gary Cooper: The Signature Collection will be available for $49.92 SRP. All titles are exclusive to the collection, except Sergeant York Two-Disc Special Edition, which will also sell separately for $26.99 SRP and The Fountainhead, available for $19.97 SRP.
Frank James Cooper was born in Helena, Montana on May 7, 1901. When he was young, Cooper’s parents separated and he spent his early childhood in Dunstable, England with his mother until he was 13 when he returned to this country to live with his father. Moving to Hollywood in the mid-1920s, he began to work as a stunt man and bit actor in a series of westerns. A small role in Wings (1927) catapulted him to leading man status and he appeared opposite some of the top female stars of the era, including Esther Ralston, Evelyn Brent, Florence Vidor, Colleen Moore and Nancy Carroll.
With the introduction of sound to films, “Coop” became a bigger star than ever when his first all-talking western, The Virginian, became a box office smash. His strong, silent, action-oriented hero image was ideal for the ‘30s in a string of big hits including The Spoilers, Morocco and Design For Living opposite Marlene Dietrich, Carole Lombard, Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Crawford and others. Cooper left Paramount in the late ‘30s for Samuel Goldwyn and quickly attained superstar status with strong roles in big films, including The Westerner, Meet John Doe and Ball of Fire. Cooper starred in more than 90 films, earning two Best Actor Academy Awards, one for Sergeant York in which he was hand-picked for the role by Sergeant Alvin York himself, followed by High Noon. In 1961, Cooper also received an honorary Oscar, “for his many memorable screen performances and the international recognition he, as an individual, has gained for the motion picture industry.” He passed away the same year, but his distinctly American persona has continued to captivate, landing him the number 18 spot in Entertainment Weekly’s poll of the Greatest Movie Stars of All Time. The American Film Institute also named him number 11 on their list of 50 Greatest Screen Legends.
Sergeant York Two-Disc Special Edition (1941)
Torn between religious pacifism and patriotism, Alvin York of Tennessee became World War I’s most acclaimed hero. The simple backwoods farm boy captured 132 German soldiers during the Battle of Argonne and Gary Cooper (hand-picked by York) also won acclaim – and his first Best Actor Academy Award.
Released in July, 1941 when the United States was on the brink of another war, this stirring adventure inspired thousands of men who were enlisting. Nominated for a total 11 Oscars and directed by Howard Hawks, the film details a religious man’s moral crisis and heroics. Subsequently, he returns to the rural life he loved, refusing to capitalize on the adulation heaped upon him. An ode to patriotism and the human spirit, Sergeant York endures as one of Hollywood’s finest hours.
DVD Special Features:
Disc 1
•Commentary by Jeannine Basinger
•Classic cartoon Porky’s Preview
•Vintage short Lions for Sale
• Cooper Trailer Gallery
•Languages: English & Français
•Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
Disc 2
•Two insightful documentaries:
oNew making-of featurette Sergeant York: Of God and Country
oVintage biographical profile Gary Cooper: American Life, American Legend
The Fountainhead (1949)
Gary Cooper portrays idealistic architect Howard Roark and Patricia Neal plays the troubled beauty whose desire for him almost destroys her in this emotionally and intellectually searing film scripted by Ayn Rand from her own novel. From a granite quarry to Manhattan skyscrapers to a thrilling courtroom finale with his freedom on the line, Roark stands alone against the whole world.
DVD Special Features:
•New featurette The Making of The Fountainhead
•Theatrical trailer
•Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
Springfield Rifle (1952)
Few actors personified the West like Gary Cooper. Here, in a Civil War-era sagebrush saga co-written by Gunsmoke creator Charles Marquis Warren and directed by action master Andre de Toth, Cooper plays Lex Kearny, a U.S. Army major posing as a Confederate sympathizer. Kearney’s ruse unmasks rustlers of Union horses, even though his true allegiance is revealed. The major and his troops are outmanned and outgunned but with the experimental weapon that makes one man the equal of five, they won’t be outfought.
DVD Special Features:
•Languages: English & Français
•Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
The Wreck of Mary Deare (1959)
The Wreck of the Mary Deare is part seafaring adventure, part mystery, part courtroom drama. Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston star and Michael Anderson (Around the World in 80 Days, Logan’s Run) directs from a screenplay by famed spy novelist Eric Ambler. Richard Harris, in his first year of film acting, gives an intense performance as a seaman who may be part of a duplicitous agenda.
DVD Special Features
•Languages: English & Français
•Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
Dallas (1950)
Cooper plays Blayde Hollister, posing as a Boston dandy, who comes to Texas with a gun and a plan: to seek out the notorious Marlow brothers (including Steve Cochran and Raymond Massey) who’ve wronged him. Stuart Heisler (Cooper’s Along Came Jones) directs.
DVD Special Features:
•Languages: English & Français
•Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)
GARY COOPER: THE SIGNATURE COLLECTION
Street Date: November 7, 2006
Collection: $49.92 SRP; Individual Prices Noted Below
All Titles Not Rated
Sergeant York Two-Disc Special Edition
Run Time: 135 minutes
$26.99 SRP
The Fountainhead
Run Time: 113 minutes
$19.97 SRPSpringfield Rifle
Run Time: 93 minutes
Collection Exclusive
The Wreck of Mary Deare
Run Time: 105 minutes
Collection Exclusive
Dallas
Run Time: 94 minutes
Collection Exclusive
is titled "Entertainment". This is a quality of film that is studied, because scholars like Maltby realise that the promise of being entertained is what attracts audiences to the cinema (or to the DVD shelves).
