THE BUSBY BERKELEY COLLECTION (1933-1934). During Hollywood's Golden Age, MGM was renowned for its musicals while Warner Bros. largely earned its reputation with its slate of gangster flicks. Yet as the studio that produced The Jazz Singer -- the first talking picture and the first musical -- Warner wasn't exactly tone-deaf, and during the early '30s it achieved great success with its musicals choreographed by Busby Berkeley. Snatched from Broadway, Berkeley became a Hollywood sensation, as his mind-blowing dance routines fed the imaginations of Depression-wracked audiences. This set contains five of his best-known titles, and while plotlines are shaky, one can always count on the high level of quality in Berkeley's eye-popping production numbers.
42nd Street (1933) has clearly stood the test of time as Berkeley's best movie, as well as one of the industry's quintessential musicals. "You're going out there a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!" blares director Julian Marsh (Warner Baxter) to ingénue Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler), but before that happens, we're treated to a fast-paced build-up as a Broadway troupe attempts to get its latest musical off the ground. Dick Powell (appearing in all five movies in this set) provides boyish charm while Ruby Keeler provides fresh-faced naiveté (Keeler isn't an especially good actress in any of her four movies included here, but she's irresistible nonetheless), though it's rising star Ginger Rogers who -- along with Berkeley's showstoppers -- really perks up the proceedings.
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) opens with a smashing number -- Ginger Rogers performing "We're In the Money" (partly in pig Latin!) -- and closes with the equally riveting Depression-era ode "Remember My Forgotten Man." In between, though, is a tedious yarn about a millionaire (Warren William) who gets involved with a showgirl (Joan Blondell).
Footlight Parade (1933) receives an added boost from the presence of James Cagney, who's in top form as a producer-hoofer hell-bent on churning out quality musical "prologues" to accompany the screenings of early talking pictures. Berkeley goes all out here, ending the film with a trio of elaborately staged numbers.
The funniest picture in the set is Dames (1934), which wisely hands over the bulk of its non-musical segments to character actors (and series regulars) Guy Kibbee and Hugh Herbert. The pair vainly attempt to close down a musical show they deem inappropriate; naturally, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler and Joan Blondell won't stand for it. Songs include the classic "I Only Have Eyes for You" and "When You Were a Smile On Your Mother's Lips and a Twinkle In Your Daddy's Eye."
Gold Diggers of 1935 (1934) offers a few modest laughs and an Academy Award-winning song in "Lullaby of Broadway"; otherwise, it's only so-so, with Dick Powell and Gloria Stuart (63 years before playing old Rose in Titanic) among those involved in a show staged at a posh hotel.
Extras on the discs include featurettes, vintage cartoons, and trailer galleries. The set also contains a sixth disc showcasing 21 musical numbers from the five titles included in this collection as well as from Wonder Bar, Fashions of 1934, In Caliente and Gold Diggers of 1937.
42nd Street: ***1/2
Gold Diggers of 1933: **1/2
Footlight Parade: ***
Dames: ***
Gold Diggers of 1935: **1/2
Extras: ***1/2
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (2005). A Canadian filmmaker, David Cronenberg here resembles nothing so much as one of his fellow countrymen glimpsed in Bowling for Columbine, gazing at our land across the lakes and wondering why we're always so obsessed with carnage. In much the same manner that David Lynch deconstructed the myth of the squeaky-clean small Southern town in Blue Velvet, so too does Cronenberg take a hatchet to the façade of bland Midwestern homeliness. His protagonist is Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen), a family man who becomes a national hero after killing two psychos in self-defense. But the exposure brings a stranger to town, a gruff mobster (Ed Harris) who insists that Tom was once a homicidal kid back in Philadelphia. Cronenberg and scripter Josh Olson (deservedly earning an Oscar nomination for adapting a graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke) create a dizzying examination of this country's love-hate affair with brutality, exploring numerous gray areas with the help of a powerhouse cast. William Hurt earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nod for his hammy (albeit effective) turn as a Philly crime kingpin, but top honors belong to Maria Bello as Tom's wife, who's both aroused and frightened by the mystery surrounding her husband's identity, and Harris, who brings genuine menace to his role as a scar-faced killer. DVD extras include audio commentary by Cronenberg, an hour-long behind-the-scenes documentary titled Acts of Violence, a deleted sequence, and footage of Cronenberg promoting the film at Cannes.
Movie: ***1/2
Extras: ***
STALAG 17 (1953). Director and co-writer Billy Wilder's adaptation of a stage play was a critical and commercial hit upon its release, and it's easy to see why: Different than most of the more baldly jingoistic WWII flicks that had preceded it, it combined hard-biting drama and broad humor in a manner not usually seen in war flicks of the period. Today, the drama survives intact but the humor proves to be a serious drag. Set in a POW camp, the film stars William Holden as Sefton, whose self-serving actions alienate him from the other American soldiers held in the same barracks. When it becomes apparent that there's a German spy among the POWs in Stalag 17, all suspicion falls on Sefton, who's forced to out the enemy informant before the other GIs turn vigilante on him. Holden earned the Best Actor Oscar for his unsentimental turn as the SOB POW, but while he's typically solid in the role, it's shocking to note how little screen time he commands. Instead, Stalag 17 functions as an ensemble piece, which is fine when it focuses on the taut dramatic aspects of the tale but detrimental when it breaks the mood by centering on the slapstick antics of two buffoonish soldiers played by Robert Strauss and Harvey Lembeck (Strauss' incessant mugging as Animal inexplicably earned him a supporting Oscar nod, yet I suspect his role is even larger than that of top-billed Holden). Incidentally, this was the inspiration for the long-running TV sitcom Hogan's Heroes. DVD extras on this Special Collector's Edition include audio commentary by supporting actors Richard Erdman and Gil Stratton and co-playwright Donald Bevan, a making-of piece, a photo gallery, and a look at the real prisoners of Stalag XVIIB.
Movie: ***
Extras: **1/2
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