Mr. DVD

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Articles in Mr. DVD

Get Smart, Get Barbara! Ms. Feldon Purred

Ms. Feldon in 1967.
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Ms. Feldon in 1967.

By the mid-60’s, the standard that had been established for sitcoms in the previous decade&mda  read more »

New Brando Collection: Reflections Goes Gold

Marlon Brando in <i>Reflections in a Golden Eye</i>.
Courtesy of Warner Bros.
Marlon Brando in Reflections in a Golden Eye.

Studios almost never admit to being wrong.  read more »

New Brando Collection: Reflections Goes Gold

Studios almost never admit to being wrong.  read more »

Revolutionary Romance: Lefties Look for Love

Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton.
United Artists
Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton.

The poster for Reds, Warren Beatty’s 1981 epic about American radicals in the early 20th centu  read more »

Revolutionary Romance: Lefties Look for Love

The poster for Reds, Warren Beatty’s 1981 epic about American radicals in the early 20th century,  read more »

La Dolce Vita? Nah!- Amarcord Is Even More Fun

Everyone remembers the blowhard on the movie line in Annie Hall.  read more »

La Dolce Vita? Nah!— Amarcord Is Even More Fun

Federico Fellini in 1955, arriving from Rome at Idlewild Airport (now J.F.K.), New York.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Federico Fellini in 1955, arriving from Rome at Idlewild Airport (now J.F.K.), New York.

Everyone remembers the blowhard on the movie line in Annie Hall.  read more »

The Asexual Femme Fatale: Indemnity’s Stanwyck

Barbara Stanwyck in 1936.
Margaret Chute/Getty Images
Barbara Stanwyck in 1936.

Her shoes should have warned him.  read more »

Don't You Forget About Me: The Genius of John Hughes

For a certain generation, the films of John Hughes were a perfect pop-culture mirror of what it mean  read more »

Don’t You Forget About Me: The Genius of John Hughes

Emilio Estevez and Molly Ringwald, April 1985.
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Emilio Estevez and Molly Ringwald, April 1985.

For a certain generation, the films of John Hughes were a perfect pop-culture mirror of what it mean  read more »

The Girl Can’t Help It: Jayne Mansfield’s Allure

Jayne Mansfield, 1933-1967.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Jayne Mansfield, 1933-1967.

If part of Hollywood’s appeal is the lure of the artificial—not the entirety of its appe  read more »

The Girl Can't Help It: Jayne Mansfield's Allure

If part of Hollywood’s appeal is the lure of the artificial—not the entirety of its appeal, but  read more »

Richardson’s Lively Disaster: Waugh’s The Loved One

British film director Tony Richardson (1928-1991).
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
British film director Tony Richardson (1928-1991).

Stuck in that weird intersection between the death throes of the old Hollywood and the birth pangs o  read more »

Richardson's Lively Disaster: Waugh's The Loved One

Stuck in that weird intersection between the death throes of the old Hollywood and the birth pangs o  read more »

Stagecoach: Is There Such A Thing as an Anti-Western?

Stagecoach is to American movies what The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is to American literature.  read more »

Stagecoach: Is There Such A Thing as an Anti-Western?

Director John Ford in 1947.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Director John Ford in 1947.

Stagecoach is to American movies what The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is to American literature.  read more »

Williams and Kazan's Baby: Why the Church Went Nuts

Few things are left to give one a sense of constancy in this world, so it’s nice to know the Catho  read more »

Williams and Kazan’s Baby: Why the Church Went Nuts

American playwright Tennessee Williams in London, 1959.
Express/Express/Getty Images
American playwright Tennessee Williams in London, 1959.

Few things are left to give one a sense of constancy in this world, so it’s nice to know the C  read more »

De Palma's Masterpiece: A Casualty of the Box Office

It would be nice to think that with the release of the new extended cut of Casualties of War, Brian  read more »

De Palma’s Masterpiece: A Casualty of the Box Office

Brian De Palma.
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Brian De Palma.

It would be nice to think that with the release of the new extended cut of Casualties of War, Brian  read more »

Screwball’s Garbo? Carole Lombard Wants Fun

The sharpshooter: Carole Lombard (1908-1942) in Hollywood.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The sharpshooter: Carole Lombard (1908-1942) in Hollywood.

If you accept the world of screwball comedy as an alternate universe, with a logic inside its seemin  read more »

Screwball's Garbo? Carole Lombard Wants Fun

If you accept the world of screwball comedy as an alternate universe, with a logic inside its seemin  read more »

Generous Criterion Set Challenges Myths of Malle

If there were any justice in the movies, we still wouldn’t have to make the case for Louis Malle a  read more »

Generous Criterion Set Challenges Myths of Malle

The misunderstood French filmmaker Louis Malle in 1974.
Evening Standard/Getty Images
The misunderstood French filmmaker Louis Malle in 1974.

If there were any justice in the movies, we still wouldn’t have to make the case for Louis Mal  read more »

That Scary 70's New York- Dog Days, But No Cynicism

The freak show that was 70’s New York both on- and off-screen can be summed up by the kicker of Pa  read more »

That Scary 70’s New York— Dog Days, But No Cynicism

Al Pacino in <i>Dog Day Afternoon</i>.
Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon.

The freak show that was 70’s New York both on- and off-screen can be summed up by the kicker o  read more »

Where Are You, Whit? Criterion Does Metropolitan

Midway through Metropolitan, the preppy cast riffs on Luis Buñuel’s unflattering portrayal of the  read more »

Where Are You, Whit? Criterion Does Metropolitan


Midway through Metropolitan, the preppy cast riffs on Luis Buñuel’s unflattering portra  read more »

The American Man: Cary Grant Gets Dazzling Set

“Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.”—Cary Grant.  read more »

The American Man: Cary Grant Gets Dazzling Set

Cary Grant (1904-1986), who was born Archibald Leach, in England.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Cary Grant (1904-1986), who was born Archibald Leach, in England.

“Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.”—Cary Grant.  read more »

Peckinpah’s Obsessions: Aging Men, and Marriage

Director Sam Peckinpah.
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Director Sam Peckinpah.

When a director has been as condemned and lionized as Sam Peckinpah has, it’s inevitable that  read more »

Peckinpah's Obsessions: Aging Men, and Marriage

When a director has been as condemned and lionized as Sam Peckinpah has, it’s inevitable that the  read more »

A Gorgeous Tribute to Ozu, Hou’s Café Requires Patience

Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien.
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Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien.

The suggestion that there are some filmmakers we have to work to appreciate often implies that movie  read more »

A Gorgeous Tribute to Ozu, Hou's Café Requires Patience

The suggestion that there are some filmmakers we have to work to appreciate often implies that movie  read more »

Pam Grier More Than Foxy; Nothing Tops Jackie Brown

Has any honest-to-God movie star ever been given sleazier settings in which to shine than Pam Grier?  read more »

Pam Grier More Than Foxy; Nothing Tops Jackie Brown

Bound: Pam Grier in <i>Foxy Brown</i>
American International Pictures/Getty Images
Bound: Pam Grier in Foxy Brown

Has any honest-to-God movie star ever been given sleazier settings in which to shine than Pam Grier?  read more »

Audrey and Albert Share Swingin' Memories of a Marriage

In 1967, a Time magazine cover story trumpeted “The Shock of Freedom in Films,” praising Hollywo  read more »

Two-Faced Woman? The Glory of Garbo

That strange Swede: Greta Garbo (1905-1990) in 1941.
Photo by MGM Studios/Getty Images
That strange Swede: Greta Garbo (1905-1990) in 1941.

The parodists have it wrong.  read more »

They Can't Take That Away … New Boxset for Fred and Ginger

The Last Dance: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, from the musical <i>The Barkleys of Broadway</i>.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The Last Dance: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, from the musical The Barkleys of Broadway.

The screen persona of Fred Astaire is more enduringly charismatic than that of any other musical per  read more »

Thick as Thieves in Thin Man: Nick and Nora Stay Young

William Powell as private detective Nick Charles.
Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images
William Powell as private detective Nick Charles.

Myrna Loy makes her entrance as Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934) preceded by a dog’s butt.  read more »

Thick as Thieves in Thin Man: Nick and Nora Stay Young

Myrna Loy makes her entrance as Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934) preceded by a dog’s butt.  read more »

John Boorman Gets Revenge: Point Blank, A Hollywood Tale

Lee Marvin, sitting in the roof garden of the Dorchester Hotel, London, 1966.
Victor Drees/Evening Standard/Getty Images
Lee Marvin, sitting in the roof garden of the Dorchester Hotel, London, 1966.

John Boorman Gets Revenge: Point Blank, A Hollywood Tale

Of all the disjunctions in John Boorman's seminal 1967 noir Point Blank, none is more jarring than t  read more »

Lovable-and Brilliant!-Lunacy: Remember David and Maddie?

It's been 20 years since David Addison and Maddie Hayes set up shop together at the Blue Moon Detect  read more »

The Last Gasp of the 1950's, In Trashy, Sexy Cinemascope

Thanks to the auteur theory, instead of a lot of antiquated factory product and the studio P.  read more »

Upmarket, Tastefully Dirty And Deeply Uninvolving

God having lavished so much on the exterior, Natalie Portman doesn't deserve an inner life.  read more »

Arrogant Bastard's Contempt Enlivens Waspish Melodrama

Darryl Zanuck loved the story but hated the choice of writer-director-an "arrogant bastard" with "fo  read more »