Alan W. Petrucelli's Entertainment Report: What's Hot, What's Not in New DVDs

June 26, 3:23 PMPittsburgh Stage and Screen ExaminerAlan Petrucelli

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Grey Gardens (HBO) is anything but, well, gray.
      Highlighted by memorable performances from Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange, the HBO Films drama tells the tender and intimate story of “Little Edie” and “Big Edie” Beale, two charming eccentrics who were relatives of Jackie O. 
      It’s not the first time the sordid saga has been made into a film. In 1975, filmmakers Albert and David Maysles catapulted the Beales from virtual obscurity to cult status in a documentary that showed mother and daughter living in squalor and near-isolation in their decaying 28-room mansion.
Thirty-five years later and interested in what transpired in the years before the documentary, director/writer Michael Sucsy’s original story for this “new” Grey Gardens offers a wry, behind-the-scenes look at the reclusive Beales that spans throughout four decades. Using the documentary of the same name as a framework, the film focuses on the downward spiral of their lives–from their glamorous, high-society days in the ‘30s to the ‘70’s and the circumstances behind their dwindling wealth and grasp on reality–and eventual financial rescue by niece and cousin, Jackie O. 
      It’s a sad, shocking and ultimately fascinating chronicle. The DVD includes a few bonus tracks, including audio commentary with executives producers Michael Sucsy, Lucy Barzun Donnelly and Rachael Horovitz, and Grey Gardens: Then and Now, a featurette that compares and contrasts the HBO Film with the Maysles documentary and includes clips from the documentary, as well as interview with Barrymore, Lange and Emmy-winning  Maysles. More Grey Gardens can be found at http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-4636-Pittsburgh-Stage-and-Screen-Examiner~y2009m5d7-Grey-Gardens. Not enough? Pay a visit to greygardensbook.com.

Another fascinating documentary: Catching Salinger (Kultur),  which details French writer Frédéric Beigbeder’s 2007 trip to the United States seeking out J.D. Salinger. As he searches for Salinger, followed closely by the camera of Jean-Marie Périer, a film unfolds of a French writer seeking out his personal and cultural sources, while creating a vivid portrait of American contemporary culture.
      Did Beigbeder find him? Is Salinger alive? We think so. For reasons that still remain shrouded in mystery, Salinger disappeared in 1965, withdrawing from the world and refusing any contact. He is said to be living somewhere in New Hampshire. Or working with Elvis at Burger King. 

The Bible Unearthed (First Run Features) takes viewers on a historical journey and asks many important questions. How much of the book is myth? How much is history? This masterful investigation into the origins of the Bible visits archaeological digs in Egypt, Jordan and Israel, and uses rare archival footage, ancient maps, biblical illustrations and computer simulations to place the Bible into proper context. The film does something which has never been done before–it reveals a still-unraveling revolution of what we know of the society, the history and the men who wrote the Bible.

Another influential religious text takes the spotlight with Inside the Koran (First Run Features). This eye-opening film goes deep into the heart of the Muslim world to explore the history and current state of Islam, delving into the personal lives of its subjects, who range from ayatollahs and grand imams to simple farmers and women living in veiled seclusion. Their relationship with the Koran reveals a complex, beautiful and often contradictory guide for humanity. As brave as it is brilliant.

Audiences won’t be able to divorce themselves from Husbands (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment), the must-see film written and directed by independent cinema pioneer John Cassavetes as a follow-up to his Oscar-nominated 1969 film Faces. (Husbands was originally billed as “A Comedy about Life, Death and Freedom.”)

      Husbands follows three middle-aged friends, with wives and houses in the New York suburbs, who go on a wild spree after a close friend dies of a heart attack. Ending up in London, the three must confront their own mortality and decide how to spend the rest of their lives.
      Husbands was originally released to preview audiences at a length of 139 minutes, but was subsequently cut by 11 minutes. The DVD release presents the film in its full-length, original version, largely unseen by audiences since 1969.       Husbands stars Ben Gazzara and Peter Falk, two of Cassavetes’ most consistent collaborators, as well as Cassavetes himself. Special features include a commentary with Cassavetes biographer Marshall Fine, as well as interviews with Gazzara, producer Al Ruban and cinematographer Victor Kemper.

Martial discourse and middle-age crisis things you don't want to sing about?

Then welcome  the José Carreras Concert Collection (Kultur), a four-disc DVD box set that captures opera’s legendary tenor at his magical, mesmerizing best. In 1987 doctors diagnosed Carreras with leukemia, but a year later, the charming Catalan was back on stage.

For two years after his near miraculous recovery, he made an astonishing number of appearances and recordings, and many are here for your viewing and listening pleasure, including duets with many of his friends and fellow artists, including Eva Marton and Montserrat Caballe.

And just when you though it was safe to follow the Yellow Brick Road, Warner Home Video gets ready to unleash yet another “collectible” edition of the classic 1939 flick. The Wizard of Oz: 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition promises that “the colorful characters and unforgettable songs of Oz come alive as never before” with 16 hours of “enhanced content, four of which are brand new,” a sing-along track and “extraordinary collectibles.”
      So what’s new?
      The Dreamer of Oz, a 1990 NBC-TV special about Oz author L. Frank Baum. John Ritter plays Baum, three’s company is accomplished with costars Annette O’Toole and Rue McClanahan.
      Victor Fleming, Master Craftsman,  a feature-length documentary produced specifically for this DVD release about the Hollywood director who, in the same year, miraculously also brought Gone With the Wind to the screen.
      Hollywood Celebrates It’s Biggest Little Stars, a new featurette that stars seven of the original Munchkins, and tells the saga of their long (short?) journey, culminating in them receiving their own 2007 Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
      The Magic Cloak of Oz, the first release of the complete 1914 silent film, produced by Baum himself, including lost footage never-before-included in a home video presentation of this feature.
      The Patchwork Girl of Oz,  another 1914 Baum-produced, feature-length silent film.
      And the “extraordinary collectibles?”
      All reproductions  of archival material, such as “extraordinary renderings of the original 1939 Oz campaign, exploitation and press books” and a “collectible and numbered 70th Anniversary watch,  incorporating art from the film and enhanced with genuine crystals."

Esther Williams is back in the swim of things with Spotlight: Esther Williams Volume 2 (Warner Home Video), consisting of six splashy Technicolor musicals starring America’s favorite mermaid. (Sorry, Darryl.)
Williams, an “actress” whose best talents were actually being a bathing beauty and author (her autobiography The Million Dollar Mermaid dished much dirt, including the jaw-dropping size of hubby Fernando Lamas’ wiener and that her hunky lover, actor Jeff Chandler, liked wearing women’s clothes),  pioneered a new genre of moviemaking– “aqua musicals.”  Think Busby Berkeley goes off into the deep end and you won’t be wrong.

      This set is the follow-up to the 2007 collection and includes DVD debuts of Million Dollar Mermaid, Thrill of a Romance, Easy to Love, This Time for Keeps, Fiesta and Pagan Love Song. Also included are a boatload of special features, including rarely-seen deleted musical outtakes, vintage shorts and classic cartoons.

What’s scarier than a cross-dressing Chandler? Karloff & Lugosi Horror Classics (Warner Home Video) campy and far from classic fare that's still (somewhat) frightfully fun. Two discs contain two films each: The Walking Dead (1936), the best of the bunch in which Karloff gives an outstanding performance as ex-con framed for murder who’s sentenced to the electric chair. When he's brought back to life through the miracles of science, his only task is to seek revenge against those responsible for his death. Casablanca director Michael Curtiz helmed this little-known gem.
      Also in the collection: Frankenstein 1970 (1958), in which Karloff once again returns to the screen in a new monster film loosely based on the Mary Shelley story. Here he plays Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a descendent of the original doctor, whose depleted fortune forces him to grant a film crew access to the family castle to shoot a horror flick. Yuck.
      You’ll Find Out how funny fright films can be in this 1940 gem starring Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Peter Lorre, who poke fun at their horror-genre personas in this wacky mix of music, murder and mirth. The spooky, spoofy haunted house tale also features Kay Kyser and his band; the film’s original song, “I’d Know You Anywhere” was nominated for an Oscar.
      But the fave here is Zombies on Broadway, a 1945 horror hi-jinx mix that the Lugosi legion considers a classic. Lugosi stars as a mad scientist who ends up with more than he bargained for when he meets two inept press agents looking for a real-life zombie to use for a publicity stunt in promoting a new nightclub.

     The creeps don’t stop there:  The screams of horror movie fans have finally been heard now that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released the ’80s horror comedy Night of the Creeps.
 It is one of the few times a “Director’s Cut” is worth the hype, since it contains the film’s original shocking ending. The cult classic is about a small college town ravaged by killer slugs from outer space–no, we are not making this up–and the killer bonus features include more than 60 minutes of behind-the-scenes featurettes. Buy one copy and get ready to slug it out for the rights to own it.