THE GREGORY PECK COLLECTION (1952-1966). It's hard to believe that a star of Gregory Peck's magnitude has never received his own DVD box set, but here comes Universal Studios Home Entertainment to correct that oversight with a six-title collection. All but two of the films (Cape Fear and To Kill a Mockingbird) are making their debuts on DVD.
Although it's all but forgotten today, The World in His Arms (1952) was one of the films produced by Universal to commemorate the studio's 40th anniversary; it was a wise selection, ending up as one of the year's top 20 moneymakers. Set in the mid-19th century, it stars Peck as a sea captain and seal poacher who divides his time between wooing (and later rescuing) a Russian countess (Ann Blyth) and antagonizing his seafaring rival (Anthony Quinn). Peck enjoys better on-screen chemistry with Quinn than with Blyth; the actors would team up twice again the following decade in The Guns of Navarone and Behold a Pale Horse.
With the suspenseful thriller Cape Fear (1962), Peck not only landed the lead role but also served (in an uncredited capacity) as one of the film's producers. Robert Mitchum delivers one of his best performances as Max Cady, an ex-con who swears vengeance on Sam Bowden (Peck), the lawyer he blames for his incarceration. Cady sets about terrorizing Bowden's wife (Polly Bergen) and teenage daughter (Lori Martin), but since he's always careful to stay just within the boundaries of the law, Bowden eventually realizes that he might have to take matters into his own hands to keep this psycho away from his family. The score by Bernard Herrmann (Psycho) is superb, and Martin Balsam (as a sympathetic sheriff) and Telly Savalas (as an overconfident private eye) offer strong support. Martin Scorsese helmed a solid remake in 1991, although Robert De Niro's Max Cady pales next to Mitchum's.
What's left to say about To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), a masterpiece that, as film critic Leonard Maltin noted, "only gains in stature as time passes"? Based on Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, this casts Peck as progressive lawyer Atticus Finch, a widower who does his best to raise his two children (Mary Badham as Scout and Phillip Alford as Jem) in a small Alabama town in the 1930s. Having already placed on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American movies, this earned more kudos from the group when Atticus Finch landed in the number one spot on its greatest heroes list, edging out Indiana Jones and James Bond. Nominated for eight Academy Awards (including Best Picture), this earned three statues, for Best Actor (Peck winning on his fifth and final nomination), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Black-and-White Art Direction-Set Decoration.
Somewhat anticipating M*A*S*H in its exploration of the effects of war on military doctors and the patients in their care, Captain Newman, M.D. (1963) is an interesting comedy-drama with Peck cast as the head of a psychiatric ward during World War II. In charge of a facility that's understaffed, the overworked Newman turns to both an opportunistic orderly (Tony Curtis) and a compassionate nurse (Angie Dickinson) to help him with his patients, specifically ones played by Robert Duvall, Eddie Albert and singer Bobby Darin. As was often the case with Curtis during his prime, his wisecracking character eventually wears out his welcome, but the other actors do fine work, and the film's subject remains topical even today. This earned Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Darin), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Sound.
Long requested by film buffs as a movie worthy of a DVD release, Mirage (1965) finds Peck playing another amnesiac (the first time was in Hitchcock's Spellbound). Here, he's David Stillwell, a cost accountant who might somehow be mixed up in the death of his boss (Walter Abel), who plunged dozens of floors from a New York skyscraper. Drawing a blank on the past few years, repeatedly being menaced by thugs, and unable to identify the woman (Diane Baker) who insists they know each other, Stillwell finally turns to an affable gumshoe (Walter Matthau) to help him put all the puzzle pieces together. Memorable villains and veteran Edward Dmytryk's atmospheric direction punch this one across, although it's Matthau who steals the show with a terrific characterization.
Director Stanley Donen had a box office hit in 1963 with Charade, a sophisticated lark with two beautiful actors (Cary Grant and Audrey Heburn) on the run from international crooks. Rather than tamper with a winning formula, Donen followed it three years later with Arabesque (1966), another sophisticated lark with two beautiful actors (Peck and Sophia Loren) on the run from international crooks. Peck plays a university professor whose expertise with hieroglyphics lands him in the middle of a Middle Eastern conspiracy; Loren co-stars as an oil tycoon's mistress who finds her allegiances shifting once she becomes involved with the American academic. This was Peck's final box office hit for an entire decade; he followed this with seven flops before headlining the 1976 commercial smash The Omen.
The extras on Cape Fear and To Kill a Mockingbird are the same ones found on the earlier DVDs; Cape Fear include a making-of piece and production photos, while the two-disc Mockingbird includes audio commentary by director Robert Mulligan and producer Alan Pakula; the documentary A Conversation with Gregory Peck; a making-of feature; and Peck's Oscar acceptance speech. The World in His Arms contains only the theatrical trailer. There are no extras on the other three pictures in the set.
The World in His Arms: ***
Cape Fear: ***1/2
To Kill a Mockingbird: ****
Captain Newman, M.D.: ***
Mirage: ***
Arabesque: ***
Cape Fear Extras: **
Mockingbird Extras: ***1/2
All Other Extras: *
SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950) / ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953) / SABRINA (1954). Although Paramount Pictures won't actually be celebrating its 100th year in existence until 2012, it's already kicked off its Centennial Collection with three 1950s classics that debuted in new editions (read: new packaging, new transfers, and new extras) earlier this month.
The best movie ever made about the film industry itself, Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard is a dark masterpiece that's as bilious as it is brilliant. Gloria Swanson delivers the performance of her career as Norma Desmond, a forgotten silent-cinema star living in a dilapidated mansion with her faithful butler, Max (Erich von Stroheim, excellent). Joe Gillis (William Holden, ditto), a struggling screenwriter, inadvertently ends up at her home, where he goes from being the writer of her perceived comeback vehicle to serving as her kept man. Packed with classic lines and shot in the shadowy style of a film noir, this is a genuine staple of cinema that will still retain its freshness when Paramount celebrates its second centennial. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards (including Best Picture), this won three, for Best Story & Screenplay, Original Score, and Black-and-White Art Direction-Set Decoration.
A star was born with Roman Holiday, as the unknown Audrey Hepburn became a household name with the release of this utterly disarming romantic comedy. A far cry from the Marilyn Monroe types of the period, the slender, gamine actress became as known for her fashion sense as her performances. Here, both are shown to good effect: She's cast as Princess Ann, who, bored with her lot in life, escapes during a goodwill tour to Rome and takes in the sights of the city, accompanied by an American reporter (Gregory Peck) who professes ignorance as to her true identity in the hopes of landing a great story. Naturally, the pair fall in love. The chemistry between Peck and Hepburn is palpable (they remained lifelong friends), and there's a sharp supporting turn by Eddie Albert as the newspaper photographer who aids Peck in his covert assignment. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards (including Best Picture), this earned three statues, for Best Actress, Motion Picture Story, and Black-and-White Costume Design.
One year after Hepburn's Roman Holiday and four years after Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, the pair teamed up for Sabrina, a winning comedy featuring typically sparkling Wilder dialogue (he co-wrote the script with Samuel Taylor, author of the source play Sabrina Fair, and Ernest Lehman). This time, Audrey's the daughter of the proper British chauffeur (John Williams) who works for the filthy rich Larrabee family at their Long Island estate. Sabrina's in love with irresponsible playboy David Larrabee (William Holden), but he doesn't notice her until she returns from a Paris pilgrimage in a refined state. Older brother Linus Larrabee (Humphrey Bogart), an all-work-and-no-play sort, fears that this relationship might interfere with the family's business assets, so he tries to remove Sabrina from the equation by wooing her himself. Hepburn's typically effervescent while Holden exudes mischievous charm, but it's Bogart's atypical portrayal that stands out. Nominated for six Academy Awards (including nods for Hepburn's performance and Wilder's direction and screenplay,), this won for Best Black-and-White Costume Design.
All titles are served up in two-disc editions, mixing bonus material lifted from previous DVDs with new featurettes. Among the numerous extras, Sunset Boulevard includes author Joseph Wambaugh discussing the movie's noirish elements, Roman Holiday contains an interesting look at blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, and Sabrina examines Holden's career at Paramount.
Sunset Boulevard: ****
Roman Holiday: ***1/2
Sabrina: ***1/2
Extras: ***1/2
WALL-E (2008). Although this animated effort from Pixar is a treat for the young and old alike, it's the rare sort of toon tale that may have ended up endearing itself even more to adults than to kids. And it's not just because grown-ups will enjoy the usual asides tossed their way (e.g. a witty reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey; Aliens star Sigourney Weaver providing the voice of a ship's computer); it's also because the plot speaks to them in a way that it can't to humans who still don't possess all their permanent teeth. For ultimately, WALL-E is about nothing less than one of the tenets of human existence: the need to find a partner with whom to share life's experiences. Of course, the switch here is that it's a robot, not a human, who's in need of companionship. WALL-E is the last of his type, a Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-class robot who rumbles around a deserted Earth, as all humans have long since abandoned the polluted planet to take up residence in a gargantuan spaceship called Axiom. (Yes, it's a pro-environment cartoon, and it's no accident that our planet's Public Enemy #1, George W. Bush, is referenced via a CEO urging others to "stay the course.") When a sleek robot named EVE (Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) is dropped off on the planet to search for signs that it might be inhabitable again, WALL-E pursues her like a dog in heat, and once she's ferried back to Axiom, our intrepid little Romeo determines not to let her get away. I won't reveal any of the action that takes place on Axiom, but rest assured that the movie retains its comic invention while adding slight degrees of action and menace. And who knew that romance between robots could be so affecting?
Extras on the three-disc DVD edition include audio commentary by director Andrew Staunton; the animated shorts Presto and BURN-E; deleted scenes; the 88-minute documentary The Pixar Story; and 50 minutes of making-of featurettes.
Movie: ***1/2
Extras: ***1/2
