'The Duke' saves the day in quintet of new Warner releases
While countless thousands of fans of John Wayne (1907-79) await the mid-2005 DVD release of "The High and the Mighty" (1954), which has been the most asked-about movie throughout the video era (No, there's still no release date), other newly issued Wayne DVDs fill the void.
Warner Home Video selected five from its library for release as a box set (available separately). Some have trailers and featurettes on Wayne.
"The Sea Chase" (Unrated but PG in nature; 1955; three stars) - Sans accent, Wayne plays an anti-Nazi German naval officer during World War II who decides on his own to sail from Australia to Germany and let his crew (James Arness, Tab Hunter) and cargo (an immaculately coifed Lana Turner) make their own choices thereafter. Lyle Bettger, always an authoritative heavy, is the fox in the floating barn. The pick of the litter within the Wayne quintet.
"Blood Alley" (PG in nature; 1955; two and one-half stars) - It rivals "Big Jim McLain" and "The Green Berets" as Wayne's most overtly anti-Communist film. The Red Chinese pursue Wayne, Lauren Bacall and their crew through a 300-mile waterway.
"McQ" (Rated PG; 1974; three stars) - "Dirty Harry" in Seattle, with Wayne as a bit-of-a-renegade cop determined to solve his partner's murder. With good support from Eddie Albert, Colleen Dewhurst and Clu Gulager.
"Tall in the Saddle" (G in nature; 1944; two and one-half stars) - Nomadic cowpoke Wayne helps gun-slinging Ella Raines save her ranch. With major support from veteran sidekick George "Gabby" Hayes and Wayne's great off-screen pal, Ward Bond.
"The Train Robbers" (Rated PG; 1973; two and one-half stars) - Less than the sum of its star power. Wayne, Rod Taylor and Ben Johnson try to help widow Ann-Margret find a stash of gold before her late husband's outlaw friends can get to it. Canonsburg's Bobby Vinton has a supporting role as he did in Wayne's "Big Jake."
"I Love Lucy" (Season Four)
G in nature; 1954-55
The first 12 of Season Four's 30 episodes include such delights as "Mertz and Kurtz," wherein Fred (William Frawley) re-creates his old vaudeville act with Barney (Charles Winninger) while Ethel (Vivian Vance) agrees to masquerade as a maid for Lucy (Lucille Ball) and Ricky (Desi Arnaz).
Several of the series' most famous episodes are among the other 18 when the Ricardos and the Mertzes set off for Hollywood where Ricky has an MGM contract.
Gems include "Tennessee Bound" (Tennessee Ernie Ford's third and final appearance as Cousin Ernie), "Ethel's Home Town" (the only episode in which the other three regulars gang up against an atypically egotistical Ethel), "Harpo Marx," with its priceless mimicry, and best of all, "L.A. at Last."
The latter features guest star William Holden and Lucy's putty nose and rivals "Lucy Does a TV Commercial" (Vitameatavegamin) and "Lucy's Italian Movie" (stomping in the grape vat) as the funniest sitcom episode ever. Endlessly rewatchable stuff.
"The Phantom of the Opera"
Rated PG-13; 2004
The stage musical version of the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Charles Hart Gothic pop opera is so theatrical that a movie featuring many of the same effects, including the Phantom's riverside underground lair, can hardly seem as impressive on screen.
Gerard Butler is a virile, lovestruck, mutilated Phantom, obsessed with lovely young Christine Daae (Emmy Rossum), who also attracts the less complicated (and much less interesting) Raoul (Carnegie Mellon University alum Patrick Wilson).
The score is full of rapturous plums ("All I Ask of You," "The Music of the Night"). The one new addition is "Learn to Be Lonely," which did receive an Oscar nomination.
"National Treasure"
Rated PG; 2004
"National Treasure," which owes more than a little of its inspiration to the Indiana Jones series, was a much bigger hit than expected, taking $173 million in North America and another $172 million abroad. And that despite a plethora of preposterously correct deductions by clever Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage).
Knowing that dishonorable people want to steal the Declaration of Independence because of a treasure map on its back, Ben resolves to steal it himself just to protect it. Don't we have agencies that could ... But that would cancel out the movie everyone wanted to make.
Jon Voight, Christopher Plummer, Sean Bean, Harvey Keitel and Diane Kruger wend through the labyrinthian adventure-comedy.
The DVD includes four featurettes, an alternate ending and deleted scenes.
"With Six You Get Eggroll"
Rated G; 1968
In Doris Day's final feature film, she's a widow with three sons. She falls for Brian Keith, a widower with a willful daughter, Barbara Hershey.
Though meritorious on its own, it had the disadvantage in 1968 of trailing by four months the release of "Yours, Mine and Ours," with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda, a much funnier and more heartfelt dramatization of the same premise. Was it only coincidence that the TV series "The Brady Bunch" premiered in the fall of '69?
"Pocahontas" 10th Anniversary Edition
Rated G; 1995
Useless as even a whiff of history, the Disney cartoon features an Alan Mencken-Stephen Schwartz score and lavish animation.
Princess Pocahontas (1595-1617) was only 12 when the story takes place, but the movie makes her an older teen so it can manipulate romantic interludes more conveniently.
The new double-disc anniversary DVD contains two versions of the film, the revision introducing Mel Gibson's performance of the song "If I Never Knew You," plus deleted scenes, a featurette, a game and sing-along songs.
