A nice pair of Genes
Nov. 17th, 2012 12:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
litlover12(I am SO sorry. Somehow I seem to be in a mood for dreadful puns these days.)
If you're a classic movie buff, the Warner Archive Collection is pretty much the greatest site in the history of time. They're putting out all sorts of rare movie and TV classics on DVD. (That is, on DVD-R, which, I'm told, will only play in a DVD player. I don't know why they went that route. Cheaper, maybe?) As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
stillsparkling pointed out the other day, they've got Jimmy Stewart's detective series Hawkins, which I don't think I ever got to see before.
AND they've got something I've been pining for, literally for decades: The Cross of Lorraine, one of Gene Kelly's few non-musical films.
It airs on TV once in a blue moon, but I don't think it's ever been on DVD until now. Believe me, I looked. I loved this film as a teenager. You can't NOT love a film in which Gene Kelly spits on Nazis (one of whom is played by the great Peter Lorre).
How or why Gene got into this one, I don't recall -- I think it was during his early days at MGM when they hadn't yet figured out what to do with him. And fortunately, they weren't requiring their "Frenchmen" to have French accents. :-) (It's funny enough when he tries to talk like an Italian-American from New York in The Black Hand -- which Warner Archives also has, by the way. Not that he does it badly -- he actually pronounces the double "t" in "vendetta" rather nicely -- but come on, honey. You're about as Italian as a shamrock.)
All I really know is, The Cross of Lorraine holds up remarkably well, including Gene's performance. If he hadn't been a dancer, he would still have made a fine dramatic actor.
Warner Archive also has The Devil Makes Three, a post-World War II thriller that I hadn't seen before. Gene's an American Air Force captain on leave in Munich; Pier Angeli is an embittered young German woman caught up in a smuggling ring. It's certainly not The Third Man -- and Gene falls in love and out of love and back in love with the girl with a speed that'll make you dizzy -- but it's a competent thriller, worth a viewing. Plus Gene gets to dance a little -- well, just a turn or two around the dance floor with the girl, not anything special. But even doing just ordinary, garden-variety, off-in-the-corner slow dancing, it's funny how he blows everyone else off the floor.
At the moment, the Warner Archive is having a 30 percent off sale on "select titles," so go take a look if you're interested. This is the kind of operation I've longed to see for a very long time; it's wonderful to have it finally up and running!
If you're a classic movie buff, the Warner Archive Collection is pretty much the greatest site in the history of time. They're putting out all sorts of rare movie and TV classics on DVD. (That is, on DVD-R, which, I'm told, will only play in a DVD player. I don't know why they went that route. Cheaper, maybe?) As
stillsparkling pointed out the other day, they've got Jimmy Stewart's detective series Hawkins, which I don't think I ever got to see before.AND they've got something I've been pining for, literally for decades: The Cross of Lorraine, one of Gene Kelly's few non-musical films.
It airs on TV once in a blue moon, but I don't think it's ever been on DVD until now. Believe me, I looked. I loved this film as a teenager. You can't NOT love a film in which Gene Kelly spits on Nazis (one of whom is played by the great Peter Lorre).
How or why Gene got into this one, I don't recall -- I think it was during his early days at MGM when they hadn't yet figured out what to do with him. And fortunately, they weren't requiring their "Frenchmen" to have French accents. :-) (It's funny enough when he tries to talk like an Italian-American from New York in The Black Hand -- which Warner Archives also has, by the way. Not that he does it badly -- he actually pronounces the double "t" in "vendetta" rather nicely -- but come on, honey. You're about as Italian as a shamrock.)
All I really know is, The Cross of Lorraine holds up remarkably well, including Gene's performance. If he hadn't been a dancer, he would still have made a fine dramatic actor.
Warner Archive also has The Devil Makes Three, a post-World War II thriller that I hadn't seen before. Gene's an American Air Force captain on leave in Munich; Pier Angeli is an embittered young German woman caught up in a smuggling ring. It's certainly not The Third Man -- and Gene falls in love and out of love and back in love with the girl with a speed that'll make you dizzy -- but it's a competent thriller, worth a viewing. Plus Gene gets to dance a little -- well, just a turn or two around the dance floor with the girl, not anything special. But even doing just ordinary, garden-variety, off-in-the-corner slow dancing, it's funny how he blows everyone else off the floor.
At the moment, the Warner Archive is having a 30 percent off sale on "select titles," so go take a look if you're interested. This is the kind of operation I've longed to see for a very long time; it's wonderful to have it finally up and running!
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