Max's Best DVD Picks

After what happened at Virginia Tech last month, let’s take at least a month off from watching violent movies. So I won’t review BLOOD DIAMOND, HARSH TIMES, or SERAPHIM FALLS. I wish Americans would boycott all violent movies, but I guess that would be asking too much. There are a lot of other movies in theaters and on DVD that entertain without shedding any blood. Here are my recommendations for May.

Most of us know that England’s Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana did not exactly like each other. They may even have despised each other. They had opposite personalities in many ways, the queen being rather royally reserved and the princess warmly reaching out to the common people with smiles and handshakes. This acclaimed movie attempts to explain why the queen didn’t publicly grieve when the princess was killed in an auto accident in Paris in 1997. How much if any of it is fact or fiction, no one knows for sure except perhaps the queen. Helen Mirren won the Academy Award for her remarkably realistic portrayal of the queen as someone who preferred to grieve privately for the princess, if at all. Michael Sheen also excels as the young prime minister, Tony Blair, as does Sylvia Syms, who was a British star of the 1950s and 1960s, as the Queen Mother. James Cromwell plays Prince Philip like a lump of coal, which he may be, and Prince Charles is depicted as being mainly afraid someone is going to shoot him or his mother, and he would prefer it not be him. It’s excellent drama, believe it or not. From Miramax. I don’t usually recommend books, but if you want to read more about Princess Diana and her troubles with the royal family, my master wrote about it in Princess Diana, a biography published in 2000 by Lucent Books.

Also recommended this month:

SAILOR OF THE KING

Jeffrey Hunter made his screen debut in this neglected gem of a World War II drama from 1953 based upon a novel by C.S. Forester. Fresh out of Northwestern University’s drama school, handsome Hunter was signed by 20th Century-Fox. His first role was as a British sailor who becomes the only survivor when his ship is sunk by a German submarine. From a desert island he disables a German cruiser until another British ship can destroy it. There’s also a love story involving co-stars Michael Rennie and Wendy Hiller, but I won’t give away the secret of how it involves Hunter.

WALLIS & EDWARD

Made for British television, this is an engrossing exploration into another royal family falling out… the 1936 abdication of King Edward VII in order to marry the twice-divorced American, Wallis Simpson. The drama is told, for the first time, with sympathy for the lady in question. Joley Richardson as Wallis and Stephen Campbell Moore as the king are perfectly cast as two people so deeply in love, they are willing to shut out the world. From Acorn Media.

Herman Melville’s novel about tyranny aboard British navy ships in 1797 is vividly captured in this strong drama from 1962 that is now available on DVD. Peter Ustinov both directed and stars in the film in which Robert Ryan plays the demonic master at arms of a ship whose crew is bound for mutiny. Terence Stamp plays a handsome blond innocent who is impressed to serve as a seaman aboard the ship which then becomes the stage for a battle between evil and good. You wouldn’t have wanted to sail aboard this ship, but from the safety of your living room, it’s a journey well worth taking. From Warner Home Video.

Series 3 of the popular British television crime series with a sense of humor takes the small London police station detective “Dangerous Davies” (winningly played by Peter Davison) on four new cases. He always gets the cases no one else wants, and they hardly notice when he solves the crimes. If you like your mysteries with a little comedy, you’ll enjoy this series, from Acorn Media.

A Masterpiece Theatre production based on the mystery trilogy by Philip Pullman, Billie Piper stars as a young sleuth trying to learn the secrets of her father’s death aboard a sunken schooner. It’s an exciting detective film from WGBH Boston Video.

Wit and wisdom from Red, a backwoods handyman and his friends at Possum Lodge. The popular British television series’ 1998 season is now on DVD from Acorn Media. The hit show ran for 15 years, proof of what Red was fond of saying: “You have to grow old, but you don’t have to mature.”

It’s a good month for classic movies from three great stars of Hollywood’s golden years… Errol Flynn, James Cagney, and W.C. Fields.
Flynn stars in DAWN PATROL, CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, DIVE BOMBER, and his personal favorite, GENTLEMAN JIM, the biopic of heavyweight champion James J. Corbett. Cagney’s films are not among his very best, but still very watchable: THE FIGHTING 69TH, TORRID ZONE, and THE BRIDE CAME C.O.D. Both collections are from Warner Bros. W.C. Fields is at his comic best in NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK, THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY, POPPY, YOU’RE TELLING ME!, and MAN ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE, from Universal.

The amazing nature series from the Discovery Channel that was filmed in 200 locations around the world and was five years in the making is now on DVD from BBC Home Video, available on five discs in regular DVD, HDTV, and Blu-Ray. Critics call it “The ultimate portrait of our planet,” and I agree. This is a rare experience for the whole family and belongs in everyone’s DVD library.

The 1930s drought across the American Southern Plains created devastating dust storms from Texas and Oklahoma to Kansas and the eastern portions of Colorado and New Mexico. Topsoil that had taken a thousand years per inch to build suddenly blew away in only minutes.
An American Experience television program documents the plight of those affected by the natural disaster, such as the Joad family in John Steinbeck’s classic novel, The Grapes of Wrath. From WGBH Boston Video.

More than 600 people died, another 100 were never found, and more than 8,000 homes were destroyed when a great storm rose up on the coast of West Africa in September of 1938 and took a northern turn up the East Coast of the United States. The storm that was never named became one of the most devastating ever recorded in North America. From WGBH Boston Video.

Everything you ever wanted to see and know about fireworks. It all began in 9th Century China when some alchemists whipped up a brew meant to provide eternal life, but it blew up in their faces. NOVA takes us to Italy, England, and Pennsylvania to reveal the chemical secrets that put the bang in the rocket and fizz in the Roman candle. The DVD shows how master pyrotechnicians create their most spectacular displays, including the record-setting millennial celebration at the Eiffel Tower. From WGBH Boston Video.

It’s the old story of the ugly duckling, retold with a twist. A newly-hatched Emperor Penguin can’t sing, like all the others, so he is ridiculed and rejected. But he can dance, and that skill eventually enables him to become a hero. The story gets a little heavy, especially for the youngest viewers, when it evolves into an Antarctic environmental crusade. Directed by George Miller who scored big with BABE, the animated film features the voices of Hugh Jackman, Robin Williams, Nicole Kidman, Elijah Wood and others. It richly deserved its Oscar for best animated movie. From Warner Home Video.

Your kids can learn how to create magic tricks with the help of master illusionist Lyn Dillies in her award-winning DVD. Lyn shows how children can learn eleven uncomplicated but impressive magic tricks within minutes by using ordinary, everyday household items. Kids will love this, especially on rainy days when they can’t get out to play. If your DVD store doesn’t have it, order it online at www.magicoflyn.com

Puppet characters help children aged six months to three years to develop and improve their early communication skills. Produced in association with the National Literacy Trust in England, the Brainy Baby Company’s Baby IQ DVD encourages parents and caregivers to talk more to children during those formative years, providing the basis of social and emotional well-being. To learn more about BABY IQ and order the DVD, go online to www.babyiq.com

I bet you didn't know, but besides reviewing movies, I sing opera. Click here to see and hear me rehearsing the Barcarolle from "Tales of Hoffman."

Maybe you would like to visit my master's web site with highlights of his huge collection of old movie magazines, Bijou Follies
Two more web sites I recommend are: Errol Flynn and Jeffrey Hunter

		May 2007

	by Max (with Walt Oleksy)	view previous issues here