The week’s DVDs begin Somewhere in Europe:
DVDs for Jan. 29 by Boo Allen
This week we begin somewhere in Europe:
This Land is Mine (***)
On Demand Warner Archives releases this unheralded 1943 unrated feature that boasts a remarkable pedigree. After Jean Renoir had directed his masterpieces Grand Illusion and Rules of the Game, he came to the U.S. to escape the Nazis. While here, he turned out a limited yet varied assortment of films. In This Land (103 minutes), he follows the jingoistic script by legendary scribe Dudley Nichols (Stagecoach, and Oscar winner for The Informer). The story takes place “Somewhere in Europe” in an anonymous small town occupied by Germans. A timid, cowardly school teacher, Albert (Charles Laughton), lives with his mother (Una O’Conner) but is secretly in love with Louise (Maureen O’Hara), his neighbor and fellow teacher. But she is engaged to a collaborating local industrialist George (George Sanders). When several acts of sabotage make the Nazis repress the citizenry further, Albert stumbles but then rights himself when he finally has a chance to show bravery. Nichols and Renoir often pause for speeches about democracy, liberty, freedom and the tyranny of the Nazis, but they deliver some solid entertainment even while painting with the broad strokes of the war-time era.
Cherry Tree Lane (*)
It is somehow comforting to see that the British film industry can also turn out pure pieces of junk. In this psychological-thriller, of sorts, written and directed by Paul Andrew William, a staid middle-aged couple, Christine and Michael (Rachael Blake and Tom Butcher), eat their dinner when three young thugs break in, supposedly looking for the couple’s son. The trio ties up the couple and then abuses them both orally, physically and sexually for the next hour. In between, the assaults combine with snippets of inane dialogue that offer no insight and no further plot development until the threesome receive their inevitable comeuppance, delivered in expected violent fashion. The film’s only redeeming quality is its blissful brevity.
Not rated, 77 minutes.
The Wild Bill Elliott Double Feature—Fargo (***), The Homesteaders (***1/2)
Warner Archives also releases this manufactured-on-demand unrated double bill, on a single disc, both directed by Lewis Collins. They star once famous movie cowboy Bill Elliott. At one stretch during the 1940s and 1950s, Bill ranked as one of moviedom’s top ten cowboys for fifteen years. But he was not exactly wild as, at some point in most of his movies, he usually pauses long enough to state some variation of his recurring theme of “I’m a peaceable man.” In fact, Bill usually adapts a taciturn, sullen demeanor, one best fitted to wiping out the bad guys when the time comes. In Fargo (1952, 69 minutes), Bill travels from Texas to the Dakota territory when his brother dies during a brewing range war between cattlemen and farmers. He arrives just in time to cool tempers while still landing in a few scrapes and fistfights yet avoiding his trademark backward-draw twin revolvers. The Homesteaders (62 minutes) debuted 1953, the same year as the French thriller Wages of Fear. Considering how fast studios like Monogram Pictures turned out these oaters, it’s hard to overlook the plot similarities between the two. Here, Wild Bill plays an Oregon farmer right after the Civil War. In order to blow up rocks and clear the fields for himself and fellow farmers, he buys a shipment of so-called bad dynamite from the army. He then hires a troop of undisciplined soldiers just released from the army stockade. They must transport the delicate cargo through Indian territory and, if they succeed, they look to clash with a gang determined to steal the cargo. Poor Bill then navigates among these foes, providing for taut entertainment.
The Love Section (**1/2)
In this fairly standard romantic-comedy, Lawrence Adisa, who also wrote the screenplay, appears as Ali, a moderately successful real estate agent. But more importantly, he is a single man who loves the ladies. He loves them, and he then he leaves them. He hits unknown territory, however, when he meets Sandrine (Davetta Sherwood), a single mom who wants more than a one night stand. Suddenly, Ali questions himself and his habits. With Mekhi Phifer, Brian Hooks, and directed by Ronnie Warner.
Not rated, 100 minutes.
And, finally, from this week’s TV offerings:
The Men Who Built America
This eight part mini-series, on three discs, ran on cable channel History, and it examines the lives of some now legendary industrialists: Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, Henry Ford. The series uses dramatic re-enactments to examine points in the men’s lives that led to their eventual successes. Along the way, an amazingly impressive list of current day financial figures and renowned entrepreneurs testify to the men’s legacies: Russell Simmons, Jim Cramer, Alan Greenspan, Steve Wozniak, Mark Cuban, Jack Welch, Donald Trump, Steve Wynn and others. Various historians also add background and valuable information on the men. As the series approaches modern times, more archival footage, newsreel and clips appear. Peripheral figures such as Thomas A. Edison, Nikola Tesla, William Jennings Bryan and others play roles. A major fault with the series, however, comes with the needless repetition of footage in each episode.
Not rated, 360 minutes. The collection also includes a total of seven brief featurettes spread among the three discs. They further examine points of interest, such as “Monopoly” and “Traits of a Titan.”
Also on DVD: The Awakening, Downton Abby—season three, Paranormal Activity 4, Seven Psychopaths.