All Movie Guide

The 1955 film Guys and Dolls began life as two Runyon short stories, the most prominent of which was "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown." This material was fleshed out into a 2-act libretto by Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling, then set to music by Frank Loesser and directed by George S. Kaufman. Opening late in 1950, Guys and Dolls was one of Broadway's hottest tickets for several seasons. The plot involves a certain Broadway citizen by the name of Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra), who maintains the "Oldest Established Permanent Floating Crap Game in New York." Seeking a location for his latest high-stakes game, Nathan has an opportunity to rent out the Biltmore Garage, but he needs $1000 to do so. He decides to extract the money from high-rolling Sky Masterson (Marlon Brando), known for his willingness to bet on anything. Nathan wagers that Sky will not be able to talk the virginal Salvation Army lass Sarah Brown (Jean Simmons) into going on a date with him. While Sky goes to work on Sarah, Nathan endeavors to fend off his girlfriend Miss Adelaide (Vivian Blaine, repeating her Broadway role), who has developed a psychosomatic cold because of her frustrating 14-year engagement to the slippery Mr. Detroit. Thanks to some fast finagling, Sky is able to take Sarah on that date, flying to Havana for this purpose. By the time they've returned to New York, Sky and Sarah are in love, but their ardor cools off abruptly when Nathan, unable to secure the Biltmore garage, attempts to use Sarah's mission as the site of his crap game. Hal Erickson

All Movie Guide

Adapted by Merle Miller from the novel by Joe David Brown, Kings Go Forth stars Frank Sinatra and Tony Curtis as, respectively, a tough army lieutenant and a cocky radio operator. Serving in Southern France during World War II, Sinatra and Curtis vie for the affections of mademoiselle Natalie Wood. Upon learning that Wood's father was black, both men succumb to their inbred prejudices. Sinatra manages to overcome his latent bigotry, but Curtis does not. In fact, he's so vocal in his race hatred that audiences are virtually cheering for his inevitable demise. After the war, Sinatra, who has lost an arm in combat, relocates Wood. The film ends ambiguously, possibly because miscegenation was still a touchy topic amongst Hollywood censors. Kings Go Forth was universally popular - except, perhaps, with those ex-GIs who were still resentful that Frank Sinatra had in real life been spared wartime service due to a questionable physical ailment. Hal Erickson

All Movie Guide

An unusually tense and intelligent political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate was a film far ahead of its time. Its themes of thought control, political assassination, and multinational conspiracy were hardly common currency in 1962, and while its outlook is sometimes informed by Cold War paranoia, the film seemed nearly as timely when it was reissued in 1987 as it did on its original release. It opens with a group of soldiers whooping it up in a bar in Korea as their commander, Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), arrives to inform them that they're back on duty. These men obviously have no fondness for Shaw, and he feels no empathy for them. While on patrol, Shaw and his platoon are ambushed by Korean troops. Months later, Shaw is receiving a hero's welcome as he returns to the United States to accept the Congressional Medal of Honor, and several of the soldiers who served under Shaw repeatedly refer to him as "the bravest, finest, most lovable man I ever met." It soon becomes evident that after their capture by the Koreans, Shaw and his men were subjected to an intense program of brainwashing prior to their release. While several are troubled by bad dreams and inexplicable behavior, it's Capt. Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) who seems the most haunted by the experience. In time, Marco is able to piece together what happened; it seems Raymond Shaw was programmed by a shadowy cadre of Russian and Chinese agents into a killing machine who will assassinate anyone, even a close friend, when given the proper commands. On the other side of the coin, Shaw is also used for political gain by his harridan mother (Angela Lansbury), who guides the career of her second husband, John Iselin (James Gregory), a bone-headed congressman hoping to win the vice-presidential nomination through a campaign of anti-Communist hysteria.

The Manchurian Candidate features a host of remarkable performances, several from actors cast cleverly against type. Frank Sinatra's edgy, aggressive turn as Marco may be the finest dramatic work of his career; Laurence Harvey's chilly onscreen demeanor was rarely used to s better advantage than as Raymond Shaw; James Gregory is great as the oft-befuddled Senator Iselin; and Angela Lansbury's ultimate bad mom will be a shock to those who know her as the lovable mystery writer from Murder, She Wrote. George Axelrod's screenplay (based on Richard Condon's novel) is by turns compelling, witty, and horrifying in its implications, and John Frankenheimer's direction milks it for all the tension it can muster. While Frankenheimer's career has had its ups and downs, The Manchurian Candidate and Seconds (1966) suggest that he deserves to be recognized as one of the most brilliantly paranoid American filmmakers of the '60s. Entertaining yet unsettling, both films indicate that things in the '60s were not what they seemed, with a resonance that still echoes uncomfortably in the present. Mark Deming

All Movie Guide

As was his custom, producer/director Stanley Kramer made some iconoclastic casting decisions when mounting his $5 million production The Pride and the Passion. Adapted from The Gun, a novel by C. S. Forester, the film is set in Spain during the Napoleonic wars. Captain Anthony Trumbull (Cary Grant), a British military officer, is ordered to retrieve a large and unwieldly abandoned cannon, then transport the weapon to the British lines, where it will be used to attack the French garrison at Avila. Hotheaded guerilla leader Miguel (Frank Sinatra) agrees to help Trumball move the cannon over hill and dale, even though he hates the Englishman's guts. Tagging along on the arduous odysseys is Miguel's fiery mistress Juana (Sophia Loren), who develops a yearning for the stolid Trundall (then-lovers Loren and Grant would later be teamed in Houseboat). Pride and the Passion made a mint at the box-office for both Kramer and United Artists. Hal Erickson

All Movie Guide

Although the main character in the gently comedic A Hole in the Head tends to tip the scales towards being unbelievably unrealistic, the story is pulled off because everyone else is convincing. Tony Manetta (Frank Sinatra) is a widower in need of a financial bailout for himself and his son, so he asks for help from his brother Mario (Edward G. Robinson), a wealthy New Yorker. Tony owns a small hotel in Miami Beach but his impractical ways have made it a losing proposition. After Mario and his wife (Thelma Ritter) arrive in Miami, thinking of taking custody of Tony's son, they suddenly decide to try to match Tony up with the widowed Mrs. Rogers -- maybe that will teach him some responsibility. This was one of the last movies directed by Frank Capra. Eleanor Mannikka

Product Details

• UPC: 027616081346
• Source: MGM (VIDEO & DVD)
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Cinemascope (2.35:1), 2.55:1
• Presentation: B&W, Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Surround, Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Español, Français
• Subtitles: Français, Español, English
• Time: 10:38:00
• Sales Rank: 17,845

This set contains DVDs which may be available separately:

• Guys and Dolls
• A Hole in the Head
• The Manchurian Candidate
• The Pride and the Passion
• Kings Go Forth

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