NOTE: These DVDs are
Manufactured on Demand (MOD); to order, fans must visit The Warner Archive
Collection (www.WarnerArchive.com or www.wbshop.com)
DOCTOR! DOCTOR! Warner Archive is pleased to
release a bevy of back-in-print features that span nearly 5 decades as part of
the historic home video alliance forged between Warner Bros. and Paramount
Pictures - with more on the way! THE
NAKED JUNGLE (1954) Carl Stephenson's adventure classic Leiningen
Versus the Ants gets the big screen treatment courtesy of producer George Pal.
Screen scribes Ranald MacDougall and Ben Maddow (via Philip Yordan) fill out
the short story by skillfully grafting a mismatched romance between a
mail-order widow (Eleanor Parker) and a repressed jungle conqueror (Charlton
Heston) onto Stephenson's tale of man against implacable formic foe. We're
talking killer ants - a creeping horror 20 miles long and two miles wide.
Directed by Byron Haskin, co-starring William Conrad, star of the acclaimed
radio version of the tale. THE
FAMILY JEWELS (1965) Jerry Lewis directs, writes, produces, and stars,
stars, stars, stars, stars, stars, and stars in this family classic about a
poor little rich girl (Donna Butterworth) who must choose between six eccentric
uncles (all played by Jerry himself) to be her new guardian and the custodian
of her 30 million dollar inheritance. But the best man for the job may not be
her one of the avuncular whackos, but her clumsy chauffeur (also Jerry Lewis).
Also stars Sebastian Cabot. THE
BROTHERHOOD (1968) Producer Kirk Douglas peels back the curtain on
the shadowy aspects of Sicilian life a few years before Mario and Francis Ford
would do the same. The son of a powerful Mafia don comes home from Vietnam and
wants to lead his own life, but family tradition and his relationship with his
older brother dictate otherwise as he's slowly drawn back into that world. HELLO
DOWN THERE (1969) Uber-producer Ivan Tors is chiefly known for his
"Blue-Sky" Sci-Fi (Magnetic Monster, Gog), aquatic adventures (Sea
Hunt, Around the World Under the Sea), and family friendly animal shows
(Flipper, Daktari). Hello Down There braids all three of these strands together
- then throws them into a late sixties psyche-deco blender. Tony Randall plays
an inventor desperate to save his pet project - an underwater model home (think
SeaLab: 2020 - the Suburban Years) by convincing his family to move-in down
below and stay for 30 days. Complicating matters is that his rock and roll
offspring are about to sign with the heppest music agent of all (Roddy
McDowall) who runs his biz thanks to a mechanical whiz. Seals, dolphins, sharks
and a singing Richard Dreyfus are just some of the delights in store. Also
starring Janet Leigh, Jim Backus, Ken Berry, Charlotte Rae, Arnold Stang and
Merv Griffin as himself. Directed by Jack Arnold. THE
MOLLY MAGUIRES (1970) This searing seventies social drama explores the
real life struggle of Irish terrorist organization, The Molly Maguires, to
improve the lot of exploited Irish immigrant miners in THE
WHITE DAWN (1974) A young Philip Kaufman takes on James Houston's
inspired by true events tale - and the elements - to prove his adept hand at
very real portrayals of humans living in the extreme. Only the third feature to
film on location above the Arctic Circle, Kaufman allows the environment and
the local Inuit (who speak their native language) to infuse the tale of three
whalers (Lou Gossett, Timothy Bottoms, Warren Oates) stranded in an alien
sub-zero world with a startling sense of otherness that manages to speak to a
universal sense of humanity. GUNG
HO (1986) Ron Howard directs Michael Keaton, in full fast-talking flim flam
mode, in a tale of auto-culture clash. Faced with the closure of his plant,
factory foreman Hunt Stevenson (Keaton) gets a Japanese company to take over
the plant, but is not prepared for the Japanese way of doing business. Also
stars Gedde Watanabe, George Wendt, Mimi Rogers and John Turturro. BACK
TO THE BEACH (1987) This sly post-modern take on nostalgia-fest
reunion pictures helped usher in the modern ironic era of entertainment but
with more heart than snark. Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello return to the
surf and sand to cook up a beach bonfire of fun along with some welcome familiar
faces including Bob Denver, Tony Dow, Jerry Mathers, Don Adams, Edd
"Kookie" Byrnes, Pee-Wee Herman and rock-ska wunderkinds Fishbone.
Directed by Lyndall Hobbs. KIDS
IN THE HALL: BRAIN CANDY (1996) Groundbreaking sketch savants Kids in the Hall
(Kevin McDonald, Scott Thompson, Mark McKinney, Bruce McCulloch, and Dave
Foley) single cinema foray proves to be more than ready for rediscovery 16
years later. Faced with the age-old dilemma of how to structure a sketch
feature, Kids in the Hall instead opted to make an absurdist ensemble satire
that's so smart it hurts. Brain Candy's prescient skewing of Big Pharma is more
relevant now than during the film's initial release, and with it we hope, an
appreciation of the talented of troupe that delivers it. Produced by Lorne
Michaels and directed by Kelly Makin.
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