Million Dollar Mermaid [VHS]

Million Dollar Mermaid [VHS] Overview

Million Dollar Mermaid, starring the incomparable Esther Williams, is the story of "the incomparable Annette Kellerman," an Australian swimming champion and water ballet artist who went on to perform in New York's Hippodrome. We start off in Sidney, Australia, where a young Annette is hampered by cumbersome leg braces. She starts swimming to strengthen her legs and before you know it, a star is born. Annette swims and dives her way through the show-biz ranks, struggling to support her musician father and fighting every woman's battle between Love and Career. The highlight of Million Dollar Mermaid is a jaw-dropping water ballet production number that simply must be seen to be believed. Colored smoke! Trapezes! Water slides! Water starlets making floating stars with kicking legs! And, of course, Esther herself, surrounded by sparklers and swimming in all her mermaid glory. They don't make 'em like this anymore: this blast from the past is not to be missed. --Ali Davis

Customer Reviews

Million Dollar Mermaid by Esther Williams is better 'on film, and is the most successful attempt to create a combination of dramatic story ballet passable with water, which was crucial to the plot of the story.

Esther Williams plays the famous Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman, who has thrilled audiences in London and at the Hippodrome in New York, with its beautiful water ballets.

Williams is good as Kellerman, she seems to have the character well in hand. Never in any other image, the Williams show theirconsiderable interpretive skills. It 'very good swim here - both in their actions and in it.

Rounding out the cast is Victor Mature, Walter Pidgeon (as his loving father), Donna Corcoran (as the young Annette) and David Brian.

There are elaborate costumes and sets great time. The entire production is flawless.

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Now Voyager [VHS]

Now Voyager [VHS] Overview

In this 1942 melodrama, founded on the novel by Olivia Higgins Prouty (who also wrote the novel on which Stella Dallas was based), Bette Davis stars as Charlotte Vale, a dowdy, repressed woman who, overwhelmed by her domineering mother, is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She finds help at a sanitarium from a kind psychiatrist (Claude Rains), who turns her into a beautiful, confident woman. As a new person, she takes a pleasure cruise, where she meets Jerry (Paul Henreid), an architect trapped in an unhappy marriage, saddled with a troubled daughter. The two fall in love, but, of course, the romance is doomed. Yet their paths cross on occasion, and, despite their feelings, Charlotte finds satisfaction in helping Jerry's depressed child. The film will seem familiar to new viewers--the campy style was the pattern for many tearjerkers to come, and its most famous line has been oft repeated ("Don't ask for the moon--we have the stars"). But the heartstrings are tugged, and as Paul Henreid chivalrously lights two cigarettes and hands one over to the doleful-eyed Davis, pull out the box of tissues--you're gonna need 'em. --Jenny Brown

Customer Reviews

Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) is a dowdy spinster in a nervous breakdown, was led by the tyrannical mother. It occurs in a sanatorium and create an attractive woman and confident, ready to experience life on its terms. On a cruise he met Jerry (Paul Henried), a married man, he is charming and romantic, and fall in love.

This is a great film. physical and emotional transformation of Charlotte and her great passions are the things that make many female hearts racingincluding my own. Davis is a powerful, smart power, it was rightly nominated for an Oscar. Leading men are not all Henried smoother, and he pulled the cigarette already stupid double act with absolute composure, what his character flaws seem almost heroic. Tugging the heart Max Steiner score won an Oscar.

The film is pure fun escape with beautiful people, beautiful clothes, exotic locations, and, of course, love. A true classic romanticism that makes meImpotence. Highly recommended.

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Zoboomafoo - Zoboo's Little Pals [VHS]

Zoboomafoo - Zoboo's Little Pals [VHS] Overview

Zoboomafoo (pronounced Zah-BOO-mah-foo) is a wildlife series produced specifically for preschoolers. The show features great puppetry, fun songs, guessing games, and amusing animated segments. Hosts Martin and Chris Kratt are two animal-loving brothers who have befriended a lovable Lemur (puppet) named Zoboo and make daily sojourns to visit him in a rustic cabin called Animal Junction. Wild animals are frequent guests at Animal Junction, and Chris, Martin, and Zoboo always have a wealth of information to share about each new visitor.

This 47-minute video features excerpts from the PBS television series and stars some of nature's cutest babies. There's the foal that's wandered into Animal Junction and wants to run--if only the Kratt brothers can find a way to move that fallen tree. As the brothers scheme, Zoboo asks viewers, "Who could it be?" as he describes the characteristics of several different animals with accompanying animated pictures. Zoboo reminisces about the many baby animals that have visited Animal Junction, such as a black bear cub, alligator, black jaguar cub, puppies, zebra, and chicks. The recollections are accompanied by footage of the animals exploring Animal Junction, several fun expeditions into the wild, and a generous sprinkling of comic mishaps involving Chris and Martin. There are also several visits to the clay animation world of Zobooland. The Kratt brothers make a point of stressing the dangerous nature of all wild animals and suggest that they are best suited to life in the wild. This is an entertaining and educational show that's highly recommended. (Ages 3 to 9) --Tami Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

This band is excellent. We do not get so our cable channel PBS does not come in very good. I have this tape for my 15 months of age. Combines parts of five action points for baby animals, is non-stop fun! There are more than a dozen young people during a typical show animals show only 3 or 4. This group looks fantastic and sounds great. The power to look younger brothers, then on television, because I think it is clear above. However, it is equally fun and entertaining. A wonderful fun for the treatment of animalsthe whole family, but your child will enjoy as much was expected. Buy this and will not be disappointed.

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Into the Woods [VHS]

Into the Woods [VHS] Overview

A baker and his wife journey into the woods in search of a cow, a red cape, a pair of golden slippers and some magic beans to lift a curse that has kept them childless. Tony Award winners Bernadette Peters, Joanna Gleason and the rest of the original Broadway cast weave their magic spell over you in Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece, directed by James Lapine, a seamless fusion of fairy tale characters and what happens after "happily ever after. "With oft-recorded songs such as "Children Will Listen" and "No One is Alone," "Into the Woods" is a music lover's delight from start to finish--and will forever cement Stephen Sondheim's unparalleled position as the giant of the American musical theater.

Into the Woods [VHS] Specifications

Fractured fairy tales of a darker hue provide the remarkablecontext for Into the Woods, which deconstructs the Brothers Grimm by way of Rod Serling. While the faces and names are familiar, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, and company inhabit a sylvan neighborhood in which witches and bakers are next-door neighbors, handsome princes from once-parallel fables are competitive (and equally vain) brothers, and all the stories intersect through unexpected new plot twists.

Stephen Sondheim's Tony-winning score favors intricate ensemble numbers that present the characters' divergent, then overlapping fears and desires. And it's the latter category that provides a primary thread to James Lapine's ingenious puzzle of a book, which coheres around the inevitability--and treachery--of our innermost wishes. That theme is given farcical energy in the first act, which offers enough comic invention, tart dialogue, and witty music for a satisfying evening of theater as is.

Instead, Sondheim and Lapine offer a bold, darker second act that takes a look at what happens after "happily ever after," elevating the work beyond inspired parody toward allegorical gravity. By the final scenes, with the one-two punch of the score's two most enduring songs, "No One Is Alone" and "Children Will Listen," what began as a clever diversion has touched deeper nerves and primed some tear ducts. This video production by the original Broadway cast gets its marquee shimmer from Bernadette Peters's wonderful witch, but the standout (and Tony winner as Best Actress) is Joanna Gleason, who gives the Baker's Wife a mixture of warmth, pragmatism, and sudden, poignantly romantic radiance.

The DVD version is comparatively no-frills, given its American Playhouse origins, but multiformat digital audio renders the musical performances in immaculate detail. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

Bernadette Peters is incredible in this lively musical. Replay. Look twice and you sing the themes for a long time.

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Rudolf Nureyev Biography [VHS]

Rudolf Nureyev Biography [VHS] Overview

Patricia Foy's absorbing documentary Rudolf Nureyev, a portrait of surely the most committed and versatile dancer in the history of ballet, was made in 1991, two years before his death. It is as much the study of a life apart as a profile of a tireless jet-setting artist. His career took him from a poverty-stricken provincial childhood to life as a student at the Kirov, through defection to the West in 1961 and on to the great classical roles on the world's most famous stages, a sublime professional partnership with Margot Fonteyn, and a fascinating evolution as a supreme exponent of modern dance. A rich cast of assembled contributors sheds light on his mercurial character, artistic intelligence, and unexpected charm. Best of all, though, is the extended archive footage, which testifies to his extraordinary athleticism and sheer grace. Never has the human form looked so fluid in motion. --Piers Ford, Amazon.co.uk

Customer Reviews

Rudolf Nureyev story of his life would be a good biopic, along the lines of Billy Elliot: a poor ignorant boy will Tartars a late start in ballet, but through the absolute determination is a big star. He defects to the West, and becomes an even bigger star.
Patricia Foy is rather short (90 minutes) documentary (documentary as their partner's most famous Nureyev, Margot Fonteyn) is discreet, respectful, and focused primarily on working life Nureyev. The interviews with Nureyev himself, hisRussian teachers at the Kirov and Margot Fonteyn light on his incredible career. These fascinating recordings from a young Nureyev danced for the Kirov, and extended clips from Fonteyn and Nureyev early legendary performances of Giselle. You can understand why their partnership was known, despair the age difference (19 years) and differences in education, seemed to really dance like Nureyev Said, with "one body, one soul." My favorite was a funny clip "pas de deux with Miss Piggyfrom the Muppets Show. It shows a lighter side of Nureyev and, of course, is precisely the divine Miss Piggy in a Tutu is good, God.
Nureyev was a controversial figure, which was - vibrant, sophisticated, extravagant, ruthless and dedicated to his art, joined co-star with his head, administration, and an entire Ballet (Ballet of the Paris Opera, which ran with an iron hand). He had many lovers (including a long relationship with Erik Bruhn), and his life behind the scenes is not usuallydiscussed here in the filming of his return to Russia in 1988. Her dance could irregular and sometimes arrogant criticism of his "unfinished technology. Foy did not touch the controversy in the life of Nureyev, and perhaps this is a positive development because the interviews do not cover Nureyev to heat and radiation, and the preference of people who knew him. There are some nice contributions by Natalia Dudlinskaya Nureyev was the first partner. Sometimes a bit 'Reverence and respect for privacy is a good thing, in my opinion.
Nureyev in interviews is visibly tired, but eloquent, and a few years later we discovered why: After a brave fight, died of AIDS in 1993. Thus, Foy documentary takes on an explosive extra. To see Nureyev Warm-up at the bar, feet gnarled by years of dance without end, his body is haggard and old, uncomfortable and unforgettable.

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