We’ve said it before and we will most definitely say it again: There’s never been a better time to be a lover of classic cinema. Each week, scores of titles from throughout the ages are making their DVD and Blu-ray debut, giving audiences the ability to enjoy some of the finest forgotten favorites and hits of yesteryear as if for the first time. To make sure that you don’t miss out on seeing these gems, we occasionally like to present a round-up of recent films from the Golden Age of Hollywood that you might have missed. (It is a hectic, fast-paced world after mind). Here then are an assortment of five noteworthy movies that we think you’ll enjoy!
On the lam during Prohibition, rumrunners Frankie Madison (Burt Lancaster) and Noll Turner (Kirk Douglas) agreed to split their gains 50-50, no matter what. The cops got Frankie, and after 14 years in stir, he showed up on the doorstep of his partner’s prosperous nightspot, looking for his cut. Noll wants out of the bargain…and his escape clause involves a frame-up for murder. Long-demanded noir tale, the first Lancaster-Douglas pairing, co-stars Lizabeth Scott, Wendell Corey, Marc Lawrence.
In a small Norwegian village, two years of German occupation was more than enough for fisherman Gunnar Brogge (Errol Flynn), who channeled his resentments into leadership of the local resistance. His forbearance toward armed uprising vanishes, however, when the Nazis look to make an example of his collaborator and lover Karen Stensgard (Ann Sheridan). Lewis Milestone’s gripping wartime saga also stars Walter Huston, Helmut Dantine, Judith Anderson, Ruth Gordon, Nancy Coleman.
In the wilds of Manitoba, Mountie Steve Wagner (Errol Flynn) managed to run Col. von Heller (Helmut Dantine)–the sole survivor of a Nazi espionage party–to ground, but his prisoner kept his silence about the mission. A determined Wagner used his heritage to sell himself as a sympathizer to von Heller’s cause…but the saboteur may have a double-cross of his own in store. Gripping wartime thriller from Raoul Walsh also stars Julie Bishop, Gene Lockhart, John Ridgely, Tom Tully.
After a prison-destroying air raid in Vichy France, career criminal Jean Picard (Errol Flynn) fled his date with the guillotine…but police inspector Marcel Bonet (Paul Lukas) made a dogged and successful pursuit. When a vital supply line is blown up–and the Nazis promise to execute 100 innocents if the saboteurs don’t step forward–Picard convinces his captor to deliver him as the guilty party. Raoul Walsh’s distinctive war drama co-stars Faye Emerson, Jean Sullivan, Sheldon Leonard, Lucile Watson.
A Matter of Life and Death (The Criterion Collection)
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s classic fantasy/romance stars David Niven as Peter Carter, a WWII British pilot who miraculously survives a crash and goes on to fall for American WAC June (Kim Hunter). When a brain injury suffered in the accident leaves Carter near death, his spirit is summoned before a heavenly court where he pleads to be allowed to return to Earth. With Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey, Richard Attenborough, Marius Goring. AKA: “Stairway to Heaven.”
For a complete rundown of recent releases, click here.