Tuesday, January 06, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

VIDEO PREVIEW: Legends in Their Own Time

Leading men featured in this week's video releases

In "Out of Time," sultry Ann Harrison (Sanaa Lathan) lures small-town police chief Matt Whitlock (Denzel Washington) into a web of deceit, betrayal and murder.

Legendary leading men -- past and present -- dominate today's video spotlight.

And -- big surprise -- Denzel Washington dominates "Out of Time" (MGM), playing a small-town Florida police chief who finds himself in the unexpected role of prime suspect when the evidence in a double murder points to him. Eva Mendes, Sanaa Lathan and Dean Cain co-star for director Carl Franklin, who previously teamed with Washington on 1995's "Devil in a Blue Dress."

One legend plays another, meanwhile, with Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp in "My Darling Clementine" (Fox, $19.98 on DVD), director John Ford's 1946 Western classic, which makes its DVD debut today.

And Cary Grant gets a four-title salute in honor of his 100th birthday (coming up on Jan. 18), topped by director Howard Hawks' screwball romp "I Was a Male War Bride" (1949), with Grant as a French army officer forced to take drastic measures to accompany his American officer wife (Ann Sheridan) back to the States following World War II. "People Will Talk" (1951), meanwhile, casts Grant as a philosophical doctor targeted by a jealous, small-minded colleague (Hume Cronyn). Both titles are available from Fox, priced at $14.98 each.

Warner, meanwhile, launches five $19.98 DVDs, the top-vote-getters in an online "DVD Decision" contest to determine which golden oldies earn DVD debuts.

Two leading-man legends, Fredric March and Spencer Tracy, lead the way in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" -- the 1932 and 1941 versions, respectively. (March won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Robert Louis Stevenson's demented doctor.) Miriam Hopkins co-stars with March; Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner turn up opposite Tracy.

And while you may be familiar with the steamy teaming of Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange in the 1981 remake, the original "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946) boasts an even more potent twosome in John Garfield and Lana Turner as murderous lovers. Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick, meanwhile, share "The Days of Wine and Roses" in director Blake Edwards' 1962 bittersweet portrait of husband-and-wife alcoholics.

Sean Connery takes his inimitable Scottish burr to Morocco to play a sheik who kidnaps an American mother (Candice Bergen), sparking an international incident in the rip-roaring "The Wind and the Lion" (1975), which features a bully performance from the late Brian Keith as Teddy Roosevelt.

And for campy nostalgia, it's tough to top "Where the Boys Are" (1960), about a wild Florida spring break -- OK, wild by the standards of the day -- featuring Dolores Hart, George Hamilton, Yvette Mimieux, Connie Francis (who warbles the title tune) and the scene-stealing Paula Prentiss and Jim Hutton.

Rounding out today's DVD spotlight: a trio of foreign favorites. Two of them (Criterion, $29.95 each) highlight the unique comedic talents of France's Jacques Tati: "M. Hulot's Holiday" (1953), in which a series of comic catastrophes interrupt the title character's seaside vacation, and "Mon Oncle" (1958), in which M. Hulot tangles with modern mechanical marvels. Japanese master Akira Kurosawa's 1952 "Ikiru" ($39.95, also from Criterion), by contrast, focuses on a Tokyo bureaucrat (Takashi Shimura), dying of cancer, who ponders his imminent death -- and, even worse, the knowledge that he has never really lived.

Returning to recent releases, "Underworld" (Columbia/TriStar) puts a horror-movie spin on "Romeo and Juliet" as vampire warrior Selene (Kate Beckinsale) falls for Michael (Scott Speedman), a member of a rival werewolf gang.

And in the comedy-drama "Uptown Girls" (MGM), an orphaned rock princess (Brittany Murphy) enjoys her A-list life until her accountant absconds with her inheritance, forcing her to find gainful employment -- as nanny to the precocious, poor-little-rich-girl daughter ("The Cat in the Hat's" Dakota Fanning) of a high-powered record executive (Heather Locklear).

The Japanese psychological thriller "Cure" (Home Vision), meanwhile, pits a stubborn detective ("Shall We Dance's" Koji Yakusho) against a master criminal -- with whom he starts to feel a strange and unsettling bond.

And tuning in to a TV-to-video transfer, the 2002 animated special "A Charlie Brown Valentine" (Paramount, $12.95 VHS, $19.99 DVD) envelops Charles Schulz's beloved characters in Valentine's Day intrigue.WGBH delivers a pair of $19.95 "Masterpiece Theatre" dramas on VHS and DVD: "Warrior Queen," with "ER's" Alex Kingston as the legendary Boudica, who united recalcitrant British tribes against the Romans; and "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," yet another adaptation of James Hilton's beloved tale, with Martin Clunes ("Shakespeare in Love") as the storied teacher.