I would imagine it's very easy for some to sneer at No Substitute for Victory: From Vietnam...to Iraq and the War on Terror, the 1970 documentary (with new, interactive sequences added) hosted by John Wayne that pushed for total victory in Vietnam, not only because of the film's firmly stated politics, but also because the film itself is such a wobbly production. It's certainly no frills, with the Duke speaking in his office, directly addressing the camera, while retired generals and other speakers such as newspaperman Lowell Thomas and actress Martha Raye, stare doggedly into the camera, espousing their political viewpoints. The camerawork is less than pretty, with shots sometimes off-kilter; the sound fails at time to synch up with the speakers' mouths, and the editing is fairly rough, with hard jump cuts between sequences. No Substitute for Victory: From Vietnam...to Iraq and the War ...Read the entire review

Gentlemen: if you are too dense to realize that Merle Oberon has the hots for you, then you truly deserve every terrible thing that happens to you for the rest of your miserable life.

Oberon, whose intense beauty has been known to border on illegal levels, stars in "The Broken Melody," a 1934 musical melodrama from director Bernard Vorhaus ("The Last Journey," "The Amazing Mr. X"). She plays Germaine, a lowly Parisian who gets by working at a café; her father is a landlord, and she's madly in love with one of the tenants, a struggling composer named Paul (John Garrick). But he thinks they're just friends, as he's much to engrossed in his music to notice such things. They share a lovely song or two, and she helps him gain some minor success with one song - only this success leads him into the arms of Simone (Margot Grahame), the city's most famous opera diva. Poor Germaine gets left in the dust ...Read the entire review

During the 1930s and '40s MGM was the biggest studio in "Hollywood" and liked to claim that it didn't make B-pictures, that its production polish was such that even what were essentially its lower-half, bottom of the bill program pictures - the Andy Hardy Movies, their Tarzan films, the Thin Man movies, etc. - were produced with a level of care and with budgets rivaling most studios' A-pictures.** This is true to a point, though judging by The Secret of Dr. Kildare (1939) not always the case.

This Roan release of the now presumably public domain MGM production was the third of 15 "Dr. Kildare / Dr. Gillespie" movies MGM made during 1938-1947. The company's top series were deliberately paced at about one every other year; roughly two Kildare movies were produced annually, though that's still awfully leisurely compared with the rate series were cranked out by studios like Universal and Fox.

...Read the entire review

Roan continues to release some fun public domain films that would otherwiselanguish in film vaults. Their latest release is The Silver Horde,a 1930 action/romance film that has a great cast and a script that is betterthan the cover copy would lead you to believe. This pre-code filmis about salmon fishing in Alaska sounds like a typical melodrama fromthe 30's but is really quite sophisticated for its time.

Boyd Emerson (Joel McCrea) has gone up to Alaska to make his fortune. He needs to strike it rich so that his rich girlfriend Mildred's fatherwill allow them to marry. Unfortunately Boyd has horrible luck,and as the movie begins he's ready to give up. That's when he meetsCherry Malotte (Evelyn Brent). She not only gives him his confidenceback, but arranges for Boyd to get into the salmon business.

George Blat (Louis Wolh...Read the entire review

We all want to spoil our children. But how much is too much? That's a question Adolf Wagenkampf never thought to ask.

Adolf is a German immigrant who spares no expense at providing for his children. And why not, considering how they fill him with such great joy? Adolf's boundless delight at the mere presence of his family is infectious; you can't help but smile at the happiness that pours from this man, the simple pleasures of family and love evident in his every move. And cheer with him when he brazenly declares that "love is the key to success in the world," his heart, not bank account, making him a rich man.

But do his children love him back? Sure, but you wouldn't quite know it. This family has gotten used to taking advantage of their father's generosity and has grown blind to his sacrifice. In one scene, Adolf, who has bent over backwards to send all his children to college, finds hi...Read the entire review

The Roan Group has reached into its vault once again and pulled outan amusing romantic comedy, Three Guys Named Mike.  This 1951vehicle Jane Wyman has the actress staring as an airline stwerdess who can'tchoose between the three men she's dating, all named Mike of course.  It isa rather amusing film and though there aren't a lot of big laughs, it'sstill a lot of fun.  Roan has once again done a splendid job on theDVD, presenting the movie with a clean audio track and a very good picture.

Perky and bubbly Marcy Lewis (Jane Wyman) leaves her small rural townin search of her dream: to become an airline hostess (that's what flightattendants were called before they were called stewardess.)  Her inquisitivenature gets her into a bit of trouble, but her charming personality andwinning smile always seem to get her out of it.

On va...Read the entire review

Tim Reid (Bobby Breen)...Read the entire review

The Roan Archival Entertainment Group, now owned and operated by Troma Films, is responsible for digitally restoring and remastering classic Films. While falling short of the lengths to which Criterion goes when issuing a classic release, Roan still puts out very solid work. I had the pleasure of watching their John Wayne: The Early Years Collection and was very pleased with the results. Crisp black and white prints with clean audio and solid, steady transfers seem to be the norm. I'm happy to say that Randolph Scott's The Fighting Westerner (1935) also lives up to their exacting standards.

Author and naturalist Zane Grey has been called "the greatest storyteller of the American West," drawing on his own past and rich life experiences to capture the elusive spirit of the Old West in the written...Read the entire review

In a nutshell: Tarzangoes to Guatemala looking for a lost friend and a valuable statue.

The first Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan film, Tarzan the Ape Man(1932,) was a huge success and spawned a long series of sequels. However Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs didn't care for these adaptationsof his most famous character. He thought they strayed too far fromthe books he had written. In the novels, Tarzan was an English gentlemanwith an Oxford education, but Weissmuller's Tarzan could barely speak. To change this perception, Burroughs helped to produce a serial that wouldshowcase the Tarzan that he envisioned. The result is the 12 chapteraction filled serial The New Adventures of Tarzan.

Tazan's (Herman Brix) friend M. D'Arnot, the man who found Tarzan inthe African jungle and brought...Read the entire review

Serials were a staple of the American movie going experiencefor decades. These short 20 minute stories that ended with a suspensefulcliffhanger were designed to get people to come back to the theater weekafter week to see how the story turns out. Though they are hardlymentioned today, these long adventure films. mainly aimed at kids, arejust as much fun to watch now as they were seventy years ago.

Roan (a division of Troma) has gathered together four of their previouslyreleased serials and packaged them together in a limited edition slipcaseunder the title The Serial Box. These four serials are a greatoverview of the genre. They cover the serial's highpoint of the 30'sto its decilne in the 50's. There are good, bad, and average chapterplays included, making this a nice collection. The serials are:

New Adventures of Tarzan (1935)
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There aren't a lot of Harold Lloyd films available on DVD.  Kinohas released a collection of his short films, and his rather poor lastmovie, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, has a couple of releases frombudget studios.  Aside from that there really isn't much.  That'swhy I was excited when I heard that Roan was releasing Lloyd's best talkingmovie, The Milky Way.  Not only that, but they include a WWIIera East Side Kids feature, Kid Dynamite, along with it.  Thesetwo films make a very enjoyable double feature and are well worth the retailprice.

The Milky Way

Harold Lloyd is best known for his silent comedies of course, but alsohad a successful career in the talking movies too.  Though none ofhis later films had the same comic genius as his silent movies, some ofthem were actu...Read the entire review

Vincent Sherman started out acting on the stage and was called to Hollywoodwhen they decided to film a play he was appearing in.  That part ledto more small roles, but he probably wouldn't be remembered today if hedidn't start rewriting his lines to make them sound more authentic. Soon he jumped from acting to being a script doctor.  One thing ledto another, and in 1941 he was tapped to direct his first feature film. Sherman went on to become one of Warner Brothers stable of directors duringthe heyday of the studio system and he thrived there.  He directedsuch notables as Bette Davis, John Garfield, and Joan Crawford, and hewas at the helm of The Adventures of Don Juan, Errol Flynn's lastswashbuckling role.  (A production that was plagued by delays andcost overruns because the star often didn't show up, and when he did, hewa...Read the entire review

The Roan Archival Entertainment Group, now owned and operated by Troma Films, is responsible for digitally restoring and remastering Classic Films. While falling short of the length to which Criterion goes when issuing a Classic release, Roan still puts out some solid work. I had the pleasure of watching their John Wayne: The Early Years Collection and was very pleased with the results. Clean prints with nice grayscale and audio tracks, along with rock steady transfers seemed to be the norm. I'm happy to say that Colorado Sundown (1952) also lives up to this standard.

By all accounts Rex "The Arizona Cowboy" Allen was the last of the singing cowboys and with him went the last of the singing Westerns. These were a sub-genre of the traditional Western and were popularized by the likes of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. Allen followed in their footsteps through his...Read the entire review