It's a fairly glorious 4th of July here in Hollywood, with the temperature easily topping 100 degrees. Time to move the barbecue into the shade.
Charlie Chaplin bounced back in force this week with a passel of fancy two-disc releases from MK2. The Gold Rush is a deluxe presentation of his biggest silent hit and personal favorite - presented in Charlie's preferred 1942 recut, and the 1925 original (the watchable version).
1936's Modern Times finds the Little Tramp trying to dodge riots, strikes, brutal cops, and mechanized industry run amuck. Will he and fellow vagrant Paulette Goddard survive?
MGM gives us a clean disc of the 1960 Lopert/UA hit Never on Sunday, a movie valentine from exiled director Jules Dassin to his wife, actress Melina Mercouri. The Oscar winning music is infectious in this dubious fairy tale about prostitution.
And Peter Sellers brings up the tail end of comedy in Columbia's The Mouse that Roared, a fractured satire about American foreign policy that's become cruelly dated. With Jean Seberg and Leo McKern.
Anyone care to give Savant some advice? There are more than one DVD out there of the 1937 public domain movie A STAR IS BORN ... can anyone steer me to the best-looking and sounding version .. if there is one? Enjoy the 3 day weekend - Glenn Erickson
Posted by DVD Savant at July 05, 2003 08:28 AM