Several Jeanette MacDonald classics (featuring co-stars Nelson Eddy and Robert Young) dominate this week’s new releases. Along with those titles that are exclusive to Movies Unlimited, other great titles showcasing everything from the superheroics of The Avengers to a Dick Van Dyke variety series from the 1970s are also now available. It is a terrific time to be a film fan, so check out what offerings are waiting for you!
Cairo – Exclusive!
Top-flight intrigue ensues when a war correspondent is recruited by a purported British spy to pass on top-secret information to a woman in Cairo. While in the city, the journalist falls for an American movie star, learns that his Cairo contact is actually a Nazi spy, and finds himself in a frantic desert chase. Jeanette MacDonald, Robert Young, Reginald Owen, and Ethel Waters star.
Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection
Fifteen-disc boxed set includes “Saboteur,” “Shadow Of A Doubt,” “Rope,” “Rear Window,” “The Trouble With Harry,” “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1956), “Vertigo,” “North By Northwest,” “Psycho,” “The Birds,” “Marnie,” “Torn Curtain,” “Topaz,” “Frenzy,” and “Family Plot.”
American Horror Story: The Complete First Season
In the debut season, the Harmon family moves from Boston to Los Angeles and quickly discovers that their home possesses plenty of secrets and ghosts. All 12 episodes–including “Pilot,” “Murder House,” the two-part “Halloween,” “Birth,” and “Afterbirth”–are featured in a four-disc set.
Around the World in 80 Days: The Complete Epic Mini-Series
In this acclaimed miniseries based on the Jules Verne novel, Pierce Brosnan stars as Phileas Fogg, who wagers he can circumnavigate the globe in 80 days. Fogg’s well-to-do friends take him up on his brazen bet, so the Victorian gentleman sets out on an improbable odyssey that finds him meeting such famous and infamous figures as Louis Pasteur (Hugo De Vernier), Sarah Bernhardt (Lee Remick), and Jesse James (Stephen Nichols). The all-star supporting cast also includes Eric Idle, Jack Klugman, Christopher Lee, Julia Nickson, Peter Ustinov, Robert Wagner, and Jill St. John.
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1
Frank Miller’s classic four-part comic series comes to life in this gritty animated movie. A decade after retiring, an aging Bruce Wayne returns to the world of costumed crimefighting to pull Gotham City out of a devastating era of lawlessness. But even with the help of a teenaged, female Robin, is Batman up to the task of taking on old foes Two-Face and the Joker? Features the voices of Peter Weller, Michael McKean, Ariel Winter, David Selby.
Twenty-two-disc set includes “Dr. No,” “From Russia With Love,” “Goldfinger,” “Thunderball,” “You Only Live Twice,” “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” “Diamonds Are Forever,” “Live And Let Die,” “The Man With The Golden Gun,” “The Spy Who Loved Me,” “Moonraker,” “For Your Eyes Only,” “Octopussy,” “A View To A Kill,” “The Living Daylights,” “Licence To Kill,” “GoldenEye,” “Tomorrow Never Dies,” “The World Is Not Enough,” “Die Another Day,” “Casino Royale” (2006), “Quantum Of Solace,” and a disc full of extra features.
All 24 episodes of season three–including “He Who Digs a Grave,” “Come Watch Me Die,” “A Well Remembered Terror,” “Where’s Jennifer?,” and “The Stalker”–are featured in a six-disc set.
Four college chums–aspiring journalist Janet Gaynor, young attorney Charles Farrell, Broadway-bound actress Ginger Rogers, and wanna-be radio crooner James Dunn–share a journey to New York City in search of their respective career ambitions. Their triumphs and heartbreaks memorably unfold in this drama co-starring Dick Foran, Beryl Mercer; look quickly for Shirley Temple.
Charlie’s Angels: The Complete Series
Relive the action, beauty and seemingly weatherproof hairdos of the original “Charlie’s Angels” series with this 27-disc set that includes all five seasons of the show. And be sure to tell us who your favorite Angel is in the comments!
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: The Twelfth Season
All 22 episodes from season 12–including “73 Seconds,” “Freaks & Geeks,” “Zippered,” “Seeing Red,” and “Homecoming”–are featured in a six-disc set.
All 19 episodes from season 10–including “Countermeasures,” “By the Book,” “A Few Dead Men,” “Law and Disorder,” and “Habeas Corpse”–are featured in a five-disc set.
All 18 episodes from season eight–including “Indelible,” “Officer Involved,” “Crushed,” “Kill Screen,” and “Near Death”–are featured in a five-disc set. 13 hrs. total.
Writer/director Whit Stillman’s upbeat, clever comedy follows a quartet of pretty, smart, good-hearted college co-eds who take it upon themselves to help their school’s male students improve themselves. Their methods include everything from starting a suicide prevention hotline to dispensing soap to the hygienically challenged to attempting to start an international dance craze to promote unity. Greta Gerwig, Carrie MacLemore, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Analeigh Tipton star.
Caroline (Kat Dennings) is a sassy and cynical teenage girl who’s mortified when her father moves them to a perpetually dreary Podunk in British Columbia where other students’ drug-induced behavior consistently depresses her. Out of boredom, she initiates affairs with her teacher and a stoner classmate, all while a serial killer is terrorizing the town–but matters sour when the men develop intense feelings. Josh Lucas, Andie MacDowell, Reece Thompson, and Rachel Blanchard co-star.
Tire salesmen Sean Astin and Michael Vartan always got a charge out of the incessant pranks they pulled on hapless colleague David Cross…until the day he made supervisor, and immediately busted them down to the secretarial pool. You can be sure they’ll be bringing revenge along with the coffee in this riotous workplace farce. Sara Foster, Ron White, Robert Klein co-star.
Deperate Housewives: The Complete Eighth and Final Season
All 23 episodes from season eight–including “Secrets That I Never Want to Know,” “Always in Control,” “She Needs Me,” “Give Me the Blame,” and “Finishing the Hat”—have been collected in a five-disc set.
Delicious black comedy from director/co-scripter Paul Bartel features him and Mary Woronov as Paul and Mary Bland, a straitlaced California couple who hit upon a scheme to raise the cash they need to open their own restaurant: lure swingers to their apartment with kinky tabloid ads, kill them, and take their money! Outrageous romp also stars Robert Beltran, Buck Henry, Susan Saiger.
In the wake of her fiance’s abrupt death, pregnant Ann Harding is aided by compassionate doctor Clive Brook in securing adoption for her child. Years later, circumstances render adoptive father Otto Kruger a widower, and Harding sets her sights on him, regardless of the cost to others. Moving drama (remade five years later as “Always Goodbye”) also stars Dickie Moore, Janet Beecher, Betty Lawford.
Gossip Girl: The Complete Fifth Season
All 24 episodes from the fifth season–including “Yes, Then Zero,” “The Fasting and the Furious,” “Rhodes to Perdition,” “It Girl, Interrupted,” and “The Return of the Ring”–are featured in a five-disc set.
Forced by the wartime housing shortage to turn to a boarding house, a D.C. secretary (Sheila Ryan) soon puts her new roommates off with her flighty, gold-digging ways. She soon sets her sights on a charming European (Anthony Quinn), but he turns out to have a hidden and dangerous agenda, in this then-topical programmer. Trudy Marshall, Ronald Graham co-star.
A ranking German officer is captured by English forces during World War I, and British lieutenant George Sanders–a lookalike for the prisoner–is sent back in his stead to obtain needed intelligence. The pose fools all but secret police head Peter Lorre, who dispatches femme fatale Dolores del Rio to seduce, and then expose, the impostor. Crackling espionage tale co-stars Joseph Schildkraut, Virginia Field, Lionel Atwill.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Year Thirteen
All 23 episodes from season 13–including “Scorched Earth,” “Missing Pieces,” “Theatre Tricks,” “Valentine’s Day,” and “Rhodium Nights”–are featured in a five-disc set.
MacDonald & Eddy: Exclusive Value Pack
Receive four films–”The Chocolate Soldier,” “Three Daring Daughters,” “Cairo,” and “The Sun Comes Up”–for the price of three with this limited time offer.
All 10 episodes of the second season–including “Mixology,” “Cool Wedding,” “Cat Nap,” “No Olympics,” and “Brunch Village”–are featured in a two-disc set.
Rescue Me: The Complete Series
Twenty-six disc set includes the complete seasons 1-7 of “Rescue Me.”
The durable videogame-based franchise goes computer-animated for this installment that follows the actions of a warrior trapped in a European war zone. Emerging from the crumbled ruins all around him are ferocious beasts eager to rip limb from limb. Will the desperate soldier have enough firepower to obliterate all the evil in residence? Stars the voices of Laura Bailey, Roger Craig Smith. AKA: “Biohazard: Damnation.”
Sidney Sheldon’s Nothing Lasts Forever
Powerful miniseries tracks the triumphs and tragedies of three young woman doctors (Gail O’Grady, Brooke Shields, Vanessa Williams) as they’re placed in the crucible of an internship at a San Francisco hospital. Lloyd Bridges, Gerald McRaney, Gregory Harrison, Chris Noth, Meshach Taylor, Saul Rubinek co-star.
A disgraced Special Forces officer (Christian Slater) is tapped to lead a group of wealthy thrill-seekers who’ve paid big money to take part in an actual military operation. But when their mission to deliver weapons to a rebel army goes awry, Slater and his team of would-be soldiers are soon locked in a desperate fight for their lives. Ving Rhames, Sean Bean, Freddy Rodriguez, and James Cromwell co-star in this thrilling action saga.
The Best of the Carol Burnett Show (Two-Disc Set)
Seven episodes–guest-starring Ken Berry, The Jackson Five, Roddy McDowall, Vincent Price, Carl Reiner, Joan Rivers, Maggie Smith, Joanne Woodward, and others–are featured in a two-disc set.
The Carol Burnett Show: Carol’s Favorites
Sixteen episodes–with such guest stars as Ken Berry, Rock Hudson, The Jackson Five, Steve Martin, Roddy McDowall, Jim Nabors, Joan Rivers, Dinah Shore, Betty White, and others–are featured in a six-disc set.
The Game (Criterion Collection)
Successful investment banker Michael Douglas gets an unusual 48th birthday present from younger brother Sean Penn: membership to a mysterious service called “the Game” that promises to add whatever is missing in one’s life. For control-freak Douglas, that means a series of increasingly dangerous incidents that threaten his job, his way of life and his very identity. Director David Fincher’s gripping suspenser also stars Deborah Kara Unger, James Rebhorn.
Skeptical of President Polk’s motives in opening up the Oregon territory, New York journalist Fred MacMurray signs on with a wagon train for some first-hand investigation. When the party is waylaid and threatened with massacre by hostile Indians, he might have wished he called a stringer! Gloria Talbott, Henry Hull, John Carradine co-star.
Samuel L. Jackson plays con artist Foley, a bad dude recently paroled for killing his best friend. Looking to start life fresh (and honest), Foley bonds to the beautiful Iris (Ruth Negga)–but the son (Luke Kirby) of his deceased buddy soon shows up with the offer of participating in a score that Foley finds hard to resist. Modern noir thriller co-stars Deborah Kara Unger, Tom Wilkinson.
When conniving British nobles again scheme to oppress the poor, the greying Merry Men of Sherwood look for leadership. As it turns out, the only heir Robin Hood left behind was a daughter (June Laverick), who convinces a young rebel (David Hedison) to pose as “son” and act as figurehead. Engaging adventure co-stars David Farrar, Marius Goring, George Coulouris, George Woodbridge.
Fleeing France, as well as his bonded servitude to nobleman uncle George Macready, Cornel Wilde sojourns to the jungles of Guatemala in the hopes of uncovering the mythical treasure that will allow him to reclaim his lands and title. Stirring and colorful remake of “Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake” also stars Anne Bancroft, Fay Wray, Finlay Currie, Constance Smith; Delmer Daves directs.
Van Dyke & Company: The Complete Series
Sitcom legend Dick Van Dyke turned to the variety show format in this single-season series that spotlighted the Emmy Award-winner’s talents for song, dance, and making viewers laugh. Van Dyke is joined by regulars Andy Kaufman and Bob Einstein, and a stellar parade of guest stars, including Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Gabe Kaplan, Tommy Smothers, and many others; features musical appearances by Ike and Tina Turner, John Denver, Sha Na Na, Lola Falana, and more.
Roped back into active duty through a clerical error, World War II vet/restaurateur Dick Shawn finds himself stationed on a sleepy Pacific isle. Frustrated waiting for the red tape to untangle, he decides to act upon the island’s potential as a vacation paradise, and his schemes soon have his superiors blowing their stacks. Service farce co-stars Ernie Kovacs, Jack Warden, Don Knotts, Margo Moore; Mervyn LeRoy directs.
This two-disc collection of eccentric thrillers begins with “Girl On The Run” (1953), in which a reporter enters the world of a carnival to investigate the murder of his boss. Richard Coogan, Rosemary Pettit star. Next, travel “The Naked Road” (1959) with a model (Jeanne Rainer) rescued from a sleazy judge only to become the sex slave of her benefactor! Ronald Long, Paul Judson co-star. “The 7th Commandment” (1961) comes back to haunt an amnesiac preacher blackmailed by a former flame. Jonathan Kidd, Lyn Statten star. Emerging from psychiatric treatment, a young woman is accused of murder–with death following her everywhere, in “Fear No More” (1961). Mala Powers, Jacques Bergerac star. “Fallguy” (1962) is a stylish crime tale about a teenager who witnesses a mobster’s murder, then goes to the police to tell what he saw. With Ed Dugan, George Andre, and Madeline Frances. Finally, “Stark Fear” (1962) is the creepy drama starring Beverly Garland as a put-upon woman whose unemployed husband tortures her until she leaves him for her boss. Skip Homeier, Kenneth Tobey also star.
Jazz Age-set musical charmer follows the whirlwind courtship between bandleader Dan Dailey and hometown girl Jeanne Crain, who makes an earnest but ultimately unsuccessful attempt at sharing his life on the road. When the onset of the Depression makes his prospects dry up, will their union survive? Oscar Levant, Percy Kilbride, Selena Royle co-star; songs include “Good Night, Sweetheart,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” and the title tune.
Touched By an Angel: The Sixth Season
All 26 episodes from season six–including “Such a Time as This,” “The Occupant,” “Buy Me a Rose,” “Bar Mitzvah,” and “Pandora’s Box”–are featured in a seven-disc set.
The Marvel Comics superhero team assembles in this ambitious blockbuster from writer/director Joss Whedon. Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and the Hulk (a motion-captured Mark Ruffalo) must combine their strength to stop the evil Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and his alien army from conquering Earth. With Stellan Skarsgard, Clark Gregg, and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.
The Sun Comes Up — Exclusive!
Widow Jeanette MacDonald retreats to the backwoods of Georgia after her son is killed in World War II. She wishes to keep to herself, but when an orphan boy and his dog, Lassie, begin to help her with chores, a friendship is built. And after Lassie saves the boy in a fire, MacDonald decides to act as the boy’s guardian. With Claude Jarman, Jr.
Three Daring Daughters — Exclusive!
Jane Powell, Elinor Donahue, and Ann B. Todd are the feisty offspring of divorced magazine editor Jeanette MacDonald who go to great lengths to reunite their parents. But the girls carry out their scheme while Mom’s on an ocean cruise…meeting and marrying concert pianist Jose Iturbi! Songs include “Route 66,” “Alma Mater” and many classical works.
The Chocolate Soldier — Exclusive!
Happily married–if irrationally jealous–opera star Nelson Eddy decides to test the fidelity of spouse Rise Stevens by posing as a newly discovered Russian prodigy, and attempting to seduce her. She immediately sees through the deception, and, to his great chagrin, strings him along. Lavish musical romance also stars Nigel Bruce, Florence Bates; score includes “While My Lady Sleeps,” “Sympathy.”
For details and availability of more of this week’s new releases, click here.
Here’s a look at last week’s DVD & Blu-ray releases.