Warner Archive Collection New Releases Nov. 12: Danny Kaye and Jack Benny
Danny Kaye Clown Collections
Danny Kaye: The Goldwyn Years (1944-48)
After conquering the Borscht Belt and Broadway, David Daniel Kaminski (Danny Kaye) got the nod from maverick impresario Samuel Goldwyn and quickly conquered cinema as America’s favorite clown. Set contains four features:
UP IN ARMS (1944) Kaye makes his feature film debut as the hypochondriac soldier Danny Weems who is enamored of nurse Mary (Constance Dowling) who actually loves Danny’s pal Joe (Dana Andrews), whose girl, nurse Virginia (Dinah Shore), really has the hots for Danny. The war might have proved the respite, but the whole quartet is now on a ship to the South Pacific.
WONDER MAN (1945) Virginia Mayo makes the first of her multiple movie pairings with Kaye in this crime comedy featuring a signature Kaye schtick: multiple roles in the same film. Kaye plays twins with a twist, one of them is a nightclub performer, the other a reclusive bookworm. One of them dead, murdered by the mob, the other possessed by his sibling’s spirit and set after the mobster that rubbed the brother out. Also features Vera-Ellen, Allen Jenkins and S.Z. Sakall.
KID FROM BROOKLYN (1946) A mild-mannered milkman accidentally ends up on the pro-boxing circuit thanks to a thick skull and an uncanny ability to avoid a punch. This re-working of Harold Lloyd’s The Milky Way features Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen, Steve Cochran, Eve Arden and Lionel Stander reprising his role from the original.
A SONG IS BORN (1948) Howard Hawks re-envisions his screwball classic, Ball of Fire as a superstar Jazz musical with Danny Kaye in the Gary Cooper role playing an out-of-it professor and Virginia Mayo in the Barbara Stanwyck role as the Snow White moll who sweeps seven monastic academics off their feet. With performances by Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Benny Carter, Charlie Barnet, Mel Powell, Harry Babasin, Louis Bellson, Al Hendrickson, The Golden Gate Quartet, Russo and the Samba Kings, The Page Cavanaugh Trio, and Buck and Bubbles.
Danny Kaye Double Feature
After stints at an array of studios, Danny Kaye came to call Paramount Pictures home for much of the fifties. It was there that Kaye created some of his most memorable screen portrayals, as evidenced by the pair found in this collection – both of which enjoy contributions from Kaye’s songstress spouse, Sylvia Fine.
THE COURT JESTER (1956) This epic comic fantasy sees Kaye playing a carnival performer who impersonates a fool to aid in the ousting of a usurping tyrant. Thanks to the amazing all-star cast (including Angela Lansbury and Basil Rathbone), a score courtesy of Sylvia Fine and Sammy Cahn, and creators Norman Panama and Melvin Frank, The Court Jester is rightly considered a cinema classic – ripe fare for young and old alike. 16×9 Widescreen
THE FIVE PENNIES (1959) This biopic, based on the roller-coaster life of Jazz hornblower Red Nichols, reteams Kaye with the legendary Louis Armstrong alongside a bevy of Big Band greats. Just as Red’s career takes off, his beloved daughter is stricken with polio and he must curtail his Dixieland dreams. Years later, Red makes a musical comeback thanks to the aid of some astonishing friends. Also stars Barbara Bel Geddes, Susan Gordon and Tuesday Weld (in her screen debut). 16×9 Widescreen
Jack Benny on the Big Screen
GEORGE WASHINGTON SLEPT HERE (1942) Jack Benny stars in this classic comedy about a ‘confirmed cliff dweller’ banished to the wilds of the Pennsylvania countryside and the confines of a Colonial fixer-upper. Ann Sheridan plays the spouse who catches the old house flu and Hattie McDaniel co-stars as the maid along for the ride. Directed by William Keighley from a story by comedy kings George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.
THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT (1945) This cult classic comic fantasia finds Jack Benny playing the angel Athanael, sent down to Earth to blow The Last Trumpet and usher in Armageddon. Alexis Smith co-stars as his amorous angel co-worker, while Allyn Joslyn and John Alexander play Osidro and Doremus, a pair of fallen angels trying to cancel his apocalyptic gig. The butt of many jokes in its initial release – many of them thanks to Mr. Benny himself – The Horn Blows at Midnight is a cinema survivor that has the last laugh.
The Big Man Rides Out
CHEYENNE: THE COMPLETE SEVENTH SEASON (1962-63) After seven seasons, Cheyenne put up the saddle after saving a studio, a network, and forever changing American entertainment. Under the auspices of William T. Orr and creator/developer Roy Huggins, Cheyenne established the one-hour continuing drama as a pop-culture staple, eventually emerging as the dominant narrative force in American fiction. Helped in no small part by the charms of its star, the Big Man himself, Clint Walker, and the show’s blend of high adventure, drama and romance – all of which may be found in high abundance in this complete 13-Episode Collection. From shotgun marriages to abominable mountain-monsters, from range wars to the state senate, from amnesiac gunslingers to blind saloon singers, Cheyenne Bodie faces them all as he delivers his two-gun mix of justice and mercy across the plains. Long may he ride! Note: Initial quantities of this release will be traditionally replicated (pressed) in anticipation of high consumer demand.
4 Decades of Paramount Return to DVD
GOODBYE, COLUMBUS (1969) Film adaptation of Philip Roth’s best-selling social satire brings together Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw as young lovers crossing class lines and disapproving parents. Co-starring Jack Klugman and Nan Martin. 16×9 Widescreen
THE LAST TYCOON (1976) F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel about studio politics in early Hollywood comes to the screen courtesy of director Elia Kazan and screenwriter Harold Pinter. Robert DeNiro heads an astonishing cast playing a thinly disguised Irving Thalberg stand-in with Robert Mitchum, Jeanne Moreau, Theresa Russell, Anjelica Huston, Donald Pleasance and Jack Nicholson playing the studio chief’s cronies, lovers, pawns and opponents. 16×9 Widescreen
THIEF OF HEARTS (1984) This romantic thriller from the titanic production team of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer stars Steven Bauer as a thief who seduces a wealthy suburbanite after stealing her diary (Barbara Williams). David Caruso co-stars as the accomplice that stand between the thief and a new life. 16×9 Widescreen
D.A.R.Y.L. (1985) Mary Beth Hurt and Michael McKean star in this Sci-Fi family drama that turns Frankenstein on its head. The Data-Analysing Robot Youth Lifeform appears to be a teenager, but is built to be a weapon. Escaping the government, D.A.R.Y.L. gets a chance to be a real boy thanks to the love of Joyce and Andy Richardson but the government is on the hunt for their lost piece of hardware. 16×9 Widescreen
EXPLORERS (1985) Fab fan favorite director Joe Dante mixes flights of fantasy, innocence and humanist humor in this tale of three young visionaries who dream their way into a breathtaking interplanetary adventure. A very young River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke make their big-screen debuts. 16×9 Widescreen
SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER (1993) Steve Zaillian directs an all-star cast in this heartwarming adaptation of Fred Waitzkin’s memoir, Searching for Bobby Fischer: The Father of a Prodigy Observes the World of Chess. Josh (Max Pomeranc) is a chess prodigy, so his hyper-competitive father (Joe Mantegna) sets him up with a demanding tutor, chess champion Bruce Pandolfini (Ben Kingsley). But Josh might prefer the lessons found with Washington Square Park chess hustler Vinnie (Laurence Fishburne). Also stars Joan Allen, William Macy, Laura Linney and David Paymer. 16×9 Widescreen
