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The Thief of Bagdad - Criterion Collection
: :Legendary producer Alexander Korda's marvel The Thief of Bagdad, inspired by The Arabian Nights, is one of the most spectacular fantasy films ever made, an eye-popping effects pioneer brimming with imagination and technical wizardry. When Prince Ahmad (John Justin) is blinded and cast out of Bagdad by the nefarious Jaffar (Conrad Veidt), he joins forces with the scrappy thief Abu (the incomparable Sabu, in his definitive role) to win back his royal place, as well as the heart of a beautiful princess (June Duprez). With its luscious Technicolor, vivid sets, and unprecedented ...
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The Scarlet Pimpernel
: :'That damned elusive Pimpernel' finds a dashing embodiment in Leslie Howard, who has the steel to be an action hero and the wit to hide behind his alter ego: a British fop. Based on Baroness Orczy's novel, the story focuses on the efforts of this British dandy to aid members of the French aristocracy in escaping the guillotines of the French revolution. He also romances Merle Oberon, a beauty forgotten by recent generations, and engages in a wonderfully wicked duel of wits with the humorless enforcer for the French Republicans (Raymond Massey). If ...
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Dead of Night/The Queen of Spades
:Description:DEAD OF NIGHT A group of strangers is mysteriously gathered at a country estate where each reveals a chilling tale of the supernatural. First, a racer survives a brush with death only to receive terrifying premonitions from beyond the grave. Then a teen's innocent game of hide-and-seek leads to an encounter with the macabre. Next, a young couple purchases an antique mirror that unleashes a horrific power from its past. In a lighter vein, two competitive golfers play for stakes that may haunt the winner forever. Finally, a renowned ventriloquist descends into an ...
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Rembrandt
:Description:Academy AwardÂ(r) winner* Charles Laughton brilliantly captures the inner turmoil of the passionate 17th-century genius in probably the finest acting performance ever recorded on celluloid (The Observer)! In Amsterdam of 1642, master painter Rembrandt Van Rijn (Charles Laughton), enjoys a rich, full life in a beautiful, blinding, swirling mist of fame and fortune. But with the sudden death of his beloved wife and muse, his work takes a dark, sardonic turn that quickly offends even his most loyal patrons. Bankrupt and bereft, he finds comfort in the arms of pretty, young Hendrickje (Elsa ...
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Thief of Bagdad (1940)
: essential video:Often hailed as the greatest fantasy film ever made, The Thief of Bagdad (1940) was producer Alexander Korda's crowning achievement. Deservedly winning Academy Awards for art direction, color cinematography, and special effects, this Arabian Nights adventure appeals to all ages with its fantastical tale of Abu (Sabu), the little thief who befriends the prince of Bagdad (John Justin) and foils the nefarious plans of the evil grand vizier (Conrad Veidt), who seizes control of Bagdad and covets the princess of Basra (Joan Duprez). From its gorgeous, epic-scale sets to flying horses, ...
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The Four Feathers
: :Some movies you just have to love. Oh, they may be well, even beautifully, made; wonderfully cast and stirringly acted; uplifting in theme and noble in motive. That's fine. In fact, that's great. For that, you admire them. But you love them because they are perfect distillations of a mood, of a moment in the history of filmmaking, of a breed of imagination that, like the best of fairy tales, transcends the tides of taste and empire, and certainly of political correctness. Consider The Four Feathers, produced in England in 1939, at Alexander ...
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Things to Come
:Description:From H.G. Wells’ shocking book comes one of the most lavish science fiction epics ever to hit the screen! -In color for the first time and includes fully restored black & white version -Great Ray Harryhausen bonus features, Classic Sci-fi Toy Commercials essential video:Based on H.G. Wells's speculative meditation on the price of progress, this 1936 English science-fiction epic shows the painterly touch of director William Cameron Menzies, an American whose career in art direction and production design, as well as uncredited directorial work, attached him to such visual triumphs as Gone ...
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Obsession
:Description:Robert Newton stars as Clive Riordan, a London doctor who can not and will not tolerate the humiliation of his faithless wife, Storm (Sally Gray). When he catches her with her American lover, Bill Kronin, Dr. Riordan plans his perfect revenge. He leads
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Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist (The Emperor Jones / Body and Soul / Borderline / Sanders of the River / Jericho / The Proud Valley / Native Land / Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist) - Criterion Collection
:Description:All-American athlete, scholar, renowned baritone, stage actor, and social activist, Paul Robeson (1898–1976) was a towering figure and a trailblazer many times over. He made perhaps his biggest impact, however, in the medium of film. The son of an escaped slave, Robeson managed to become a top-billed movie star around the world during the time of Jim Crow America, always striving to use film to educate viewers about equality, democracy, and the rights of workers. Though he eventually left movies behind, using his international celebrity to speak on behalf of those denied their ...
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The Four Feathers [Region 2]
: :Far too many film versions of the The Four Feathers have been made over the years, which is especially surprising considering that this 1939 Korda brothers production is surely definitive. The film simultaneously celebrates and pokes fun at British imperialism, showing the kind of dogged stiff-upper-lippery that forged an Empire, but also the blinkered attitudes and crass snobbishness of the ruling classes (and those accents--did people ever really talk like that?). Whatever political subtext may or may not be read into it, though, the film is best celebrated for its magnificent vistas: partially ...
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