Marlene Dietrich, Carole Lombard, Mae West, Cecil B. DeMille DVD Sets
January 25th, 2006 by Andre Soares
Universal (owner of the Paramount films of the studio era) has announced the release of the following box sets:
On April 4, three "Glamour Collection" sets:
The Carole Lombard Glamour Collection: Man of the World (1931), We’re Not Dressing (1934), Hands Across the Table (1935), The Princess Comes Across (1936), Love Before Breakfast (1936), and True Confession (1937).
The Mae West Glamour Collection: Night After Night (1932), I’m No Angel (1933), Goin’ to Town (1935), Go West Young Man (1936), and My Little Chickadee (1940).
The Marlene Dietrich Glamour Collection: Morocco (1930), Blonde Venus (1932), The Devil Is a Woman (1935), The Flame of New Orleans (1941), and Golden Earrings (1947).
On May 23:
The Cecil B. DeMille Collection: The Sign of the Cross (1932) with Fredric March and Elissa Landi, Four Frightened People (1934) with Claudette Colbert and Herbert Marshall, Cleopatra (1934) with Colbert and Warren William, The Crusades (1935) with Loretta Young and Henry Wilcoxon, and Union Pacific (1939) with Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea.
The quality of the films I’ve seen from these collections ranges from the yawn- to the mirth-inducing: Hands Across the Table and Love Before Breakfast are two duds, though the latter film boasts a pleasant Carole Lombard performance, while the mildly amusing True Confession is saved by another effective Lombard star turn.
I’m No Angel, however, is Mae West’s best film; the campy The Sign of the Cross is worth a look if only to watch Claudette Colbert as a man-hungry Ancient Rome villainess and Charles Laughton as a very fey Nero.
Union Pacific has its moments, while the downright bizarre Colbert vehicle Four Frightened People must be seen to believed. (Hopefully, the Four Frightened People DVD will feature the first-rate UCLA restoration.) The Crusades is your typical DeMille epic.
Josef von Sternberg’s Morocco (above) and Blonde Venus, and The Flame of New Orleans are worth watching only as historical curiosities. Marlene Dietrich received an — undeserved — best actress nomination for her Morocco seductress. (Her stilted posing notwithstanding, she does look good in top hat and tails, evening gowns, and feathers.)
But good or poor, anyone interested in Hollywood history should take a look at those films at least once. For instance, overall the aforementioned Morocco may be a dud (and the available prints have been quite dismal), but this over-the-top melodrama offers several precious moments including Dietrich’s famous "lesbian" kiss and her removal of her high-heel shoes in order to more comfortably follow legionnaire Gary Cooper into the desert.
Universal tends to release classic films on DVD with few — if any — extras. Yet, despite the missed opportunity of making the best use of such historically important films, those releases are most welcome simply because they give us the chance to watch movies that otherwise would remain locked up inside some Universal vault. Considering that hundreds of other films are still gathering dust in the Universal vaults, here’s hoping that more will come out on DVD in the near future.
Of particular interest would be Paramount’s sophisticated — and quite racy — pre-Code rarities, in addition to numerous never-released-on-home-video/DVD Claudette Colbert vehicles.
The Joan Crawford Collection DVD Set
The Bette Davis Collection DVD Set
The Greta Garbo Signature Collection DVD Set
THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU on DVD
LEMONY SNICKET’S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS on DVD
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Thanks for sharing the announcements. I just watched and reviewed DeMille’s Four Frightened People, but am looking forward to a superior print.