This film, made a long time ago, is an old chestnut, but still there are some good bits in it. If one likes pomp and ceremony, you will like this.
Priceless liturgical history
The dramatic defects of this film are well known; my rating is based on its completely accurate treatment of Catholic liturgical forms before the Second Vatican Council -- uniquely correct in my experience with Catholic-based movies. It was filmed just in time, in 1963, the last year before major changes in liturgy made it increasingly difficult to recreate accurately the older traditions. And Preminger took the trouble to be precise even with things that had disappeared earlier, like the train of the prelatial choir cassock, which was abolished in 1952, but is historically correct for the period of the film. All the vesture is right, and the two scenes of Stephen's ordination to the priesthood and consecration as a bishop are flawless reproductions of the rubrics then in force.
Despite the weakness of its dramatic effects to a contemporary audience, this film should certainly be in the library of anyone who has an interest in the ceremonial traditions of the Catholic Church.
Don't bother with this movie.
After I read the book by Henry Morton Robinson, I couldnt wait to see the film. What a disappointment! I wonder to this day where Preminger got his ideas for the screenplay,and why he eliminated most of Father Fermoyle's family. Although the acting is good, especially, Tom Tryon ,Burgess Meredith and John Houston, there is just no spark to this film. By using flashbacks, Preminger loses what thread of story that is left. Its too bad that he wasnt even a pinch more faithful to the book,his cast certainly could have handled it. And why oh why were the characters of Gaetano Orselli,Ghislana Falerni, and Roberto Braggioti in particular eliminated. Did Preminger really think that the character of Anne-Marie would help the plot?? Sorry Otto, that in itself is enough for a big thumbs down. Add it all up and you still get a big waste of time.
Carol Reed (The Third Man) directed this 1965 portrait of the relationship between Michelangelo (Charlton Heston) and Pope Julius II (Rex Harrison), who commissioned the artist to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Based on a novel by Irving Stone, the script plods along, juggling the dynamics between the two men along with a somewhat perfunctory love story and distracting battle sequences. Reed seems more attuned to the nuances and great pains of the artistic process, as seen in sequences of Michelangelo working. But the overall focus of the film is unfortunately fuzzy. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Charlton Heston - Rex Harrison Director(s): Carol Reed DVD Release Date: Released the 22 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This silky smooth film noir pits gruff police detective Dana Andrews, stiff and blunt in his street-bred manners, against a cultured columnist and acidic wit (Clifton Webb at his prissiest) in a battle of wits during a murder investigation. The cop is a romantic hiding under a hard-boiled exterior who falls in love with the beautiful victim through the portrait that hangs in her apartment. Gene Tierney, whose heart-shaped face mixes the exotic with the girl next door, brings the poise and calm of a model to her role as the object of every man's gaze and the target of a killer. Laura, handsomely shot in dreamy black and white, is the first and best of Otto Preminger's cool, controlled murder mysteries. In the gritty world of film noir it remains the most refined and elegant example... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Tierney - Dana Andrews Director(s): Rouben Mamoulian - Otto Preminger DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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John Wayne personally produced many of his '50s films, which is why some of them have languished in corporate limbo following his death. The High and the Mighty was one of his most popular vehicles (no pun intended). This long, necessarily sedentary drama aboard an endangered airliner is a CinemaScope bridge between 1932's Grand Hotel and 1970s disaster movies. Despite Wayne's iconic presence as a pilot--now copilot--who survived the plane crash that wiped out his family, it's an ensemble movie with an impressive cast: Robert Stack sharing the cockpit, Oscar® nominees Claire Trevor and Jan Sterling, Laraine Day, Robert Newton, Paul Kelly, John Qualen, Regis Toomey, the ubiquitous Paul Fix, and director William A. Wellman's good-luck character actor Douglas Fowley.... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Wayne - Claire Trevor - Laraine Day Director(s): William A. Wellman DVD Release Date: Released the 02 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This restoration of Sam Peckinpah's 1965 western Major Dundee is nothing short of magnificent, a noble attempt at restoring a famously wrecked masterpiece. When Peckinpah went over budget and over schedule during the Mexico shoot, unshot scenes were canceled and the footage rudely cut by the studio. The director disowned the results. In 2005, surviving footage was patched back in, and a new musical soundtrack commissioned to replace the score Peckinpah hated. This raises some legitimate questions about interpreting a director's intentions, and about messing with film history, but Major Dundee--The Extended Version is such a rousing, mysterious experience, one feels grateful.
Major Dundee (Charlton Heston) is a vainglorious officer busted to the decidedly inglorious job... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Charlton Heston - Richard Harris Director(s): Sam Peckinpah DVD Release Date: Released the 20 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A welcome new DVD life might be in store for Darling Lili, an underrated film whose reputation is mostly locked as one of the big, expensive flops that helped reshape Hollywood at the turn of the seventies. Julie Andrews was still at the height of her popularity when she began shooting this musical-comedy-drama with new husband Blake Edwards directing; budget overruns, studio interference, and the changing box-office climate all doomed the movie's disastrous 1970 release.
Even fans of the picture would have to admit that the weird storyline had something to do with it, too. Andrews plays a World War I singer in London and Paris who's actually a spy for the Germans (part of her cover is singing popular patriotic songs, such as "Pack Up Your Troubles" and "It's a Long Way to... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Julie Andrews - Rock Hudson Director(s): Blake Edwards DVD Release Date: Released the 25 October 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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