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Sound of Music
: essential video:Some people may sneer at this 1965 musical, but the truth is the film has earned its status as a perennially watchable romantic-drama, largely on the strength of a fun story and chemistry between stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. Veteran filmmaker Robert Wise (The Day the Earth Stood Still) mostly stays out of the way of the film's appealing elements, which include a based-on-fact tale of Austria's von Trapp family, who fled their Nazi-occupied country in 1938. Andrews is delightful and even ...
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Mary Poppins
: essential video:There is only one word that comes close to accurately describing the enchanting Mary Poppins, and that term was coined by the movie itself: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Even at 2 hours and 20 minutes, Disney's pioneering mixture of live action and animation (based on the books by P.L. Travers) still holds kids spellbound. Julie Andrews won an Oscar as the world's most magically idealized nanny ('practically perfect in every way,' and complete with lighter-than-air umbrella), and Dick Van Dyke is her clownishly charming beau, Bert ...
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Far from the Madding Crowd
: essential video:John Schlesinger's solid adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel sees three rival suitors vying for the affections of the beautiful Bathsheba Everdene (Julie Christie decked out in a variety of bonnets and frilly dresses), who has just inherited a farm. The men in her life are stout, whiskered yeoman Gabriel Oak (Alan Bates), an impoverished local farmer; neurotic, repressed squire William Boldwood (Peter Finch); and handsome rascal Sgt. Troy (Terrence Stamp), who breaks women's hearts for a hobby. Thanks to cameraman Nicolas Roeg and ...
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Mary Poppins (Fully Restored Limited Edition)
: essential video:There is only one word that comes close to accurately describing the enchanting Mary Poppins, and that term was coined by the movie itself: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Even at 2 hours and 20 minutes, Disney's pioneering mixture of live action and animation (based on the books by P.L. Travers) still holds kids spellbound. Julie Andrews won an Oscar as the world's most magically idealized nanny ('practically perfect in every way,' and complete with lighter-than-air umbrella), and Dick Van Dyke is her clownishly charming beau, Bert ...
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Love Story
: :Strife-torn America wanted a meat-and-potatoes romance in the late '60s, and the country embraced Erich Segal's slim, generic-sounding novel in a big way. It did so again for the film adaptation in 1970, starring Ryan O'Neal as a law student who defies his rich and powerful father (Ray Milland) on every issue, including the former's love for a music student (Ali MacGraw). The two marry, start life together...and then the Grim Reaper turns up at the door. Directed by Arthur Hiller (The In-Laws), the film ...
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The Sound of Music
: essential video:Some people may sneer at this 1965 musical, but the truth is the film has earned its status as a perennially watchable romantic-drama, largely on the strength of a fun story and chemistry between stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. Veteran filmmaker Robert Wise (The Day the Earth Stood Still) mostly stays out of the way of the film's appealing elements, which include a based-on-fact tale of Austria's von Trapp family, who fled their Nazi-occupied country in 1938. Andrews is delightful and even ...
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That's Life
: :This film was something of a movie stunt: writer-director Blake Edwards cast his friends and family, gave them a structure, then had them improvise the scenes before he put them into a script. The result is so amazingly flat that you'll be astonished that anyone would think they were actually doing something interesting. The plot centers on a writer (Jack Lemmon) who, in his anxiety about the onset of his 60th birthday, doesn't notice that his singer-wife (Julie Andrews) is going through a crisis of ...
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Rhapsody in Blue
: :This film was something of a movie stunt: writer-director Blake Edwards cast his friends and family, gave them a structure, then had them improvise the scenes before he put them into a script. The result is so amazingly flat that you'll be astonished that anyone would think they were actually doing something interesting. The plot centers on a writer (Jack Lemmon) who, in his anxiety about the onset of his 60th birthday, doesn't notice that his singer-wife (Julie Andrews) is going through a crisis of ...
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Torn Curtain
: :Paul Newman and Julie Andrews star in what must unfortunately be called one of Alfred Hitchcock's lesser efforts. Still, sub-par Hitchcock is better than a lot of what's out there, and this one is well worth a look. Newman plays cold war physicist Michael Armstrong, while Andrews plays his lovely assistant-and-fiancée, Sarah Sherman. Armstrong has been working on a missile defense system that will 'make nuclear defense obsolete,' and naturally both sides are very interested. All Sarah cares about is the fact that Michael has ...
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Surrender (1987)
:Description:A writer with two painful divorces behind him meets and falls in love with an artist. He decides to keep the fact of his wealth a secret, in order to make sure she loves him for reasons other than his money.
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