Fox, Warner churning out classics

By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service

Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison star in "My Fair Lady," which arrives in a new two-disc edition by Warner Brothers. The DVD of the 1964 film, which won eight Oscars, includes a number of extras. Gannett News Service

Of the major distributors, Fox and Warner Brothers seem to have taken the most systematic approach, getting their classics, which in many cases are also Academy Award winners, out in orderly fashion. Warner's takes advantage of Oscar hype this week by releasing three best picture winners from the '30s, along with a '30s drama that won a best actor nomination for its lead, and best picture winners from the '40s and the '60s.

"Grand Hotel" (1932) was one of the earliest features to employ the multi-star, multi-story format that would be adopted for an endless parade of '70s disaster films. The guest list of Berlin's finest hotel is headed by a bankrupt baron (John Barrymore) eager to reclaim the status and fortune he squandered; a dying clerk (Lionel Barrymore) who wants to spend his final days in style; and a famous dancer (Greta Garbo) who just wants to be alone.

Supposedly looking after them is the staff, but they have other things on their minds. Big boss Wallace Beery is preoccupied with an impending merger; Joan Crawford is a stenographer preoccupied with him; and a porter (Jean Hersholt) is preoccupied with a pregnant wife at home.

The staircase of "Grand Hotel" is creaky with soap opera cliches and overwrought performances, but the visual and audio refurbishment allows us to appreciate its construction. A new 12-minute making-of doc puts it in historical perspective. Other extras include a premiere newsreel, and a musical short from the era that spoofs the story, stars and the film's popularity.

Holding up better is another best picture winner, 1935's "Mutiny on the Bounty," with Charles Laughton as the disciplinarian Capt. Bligh, Clark Gable as mutinous first officer Fletcher Christian and Franchot Tone as the midshipman in the middle of their struggle.

Winning the big prize the next year was "The Great Ziegfeld," with William Powell as the legendary Broadway impresario Florenz and Luise Rainer, who took home the best actress statuette, as singer Anna Held.

All of the above were originally issued by MGM, as was 1939's "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," the grandfather of boarding school movies, which failed to win best picture ("Gone With the Wind" won) but did take a best actor prize for Robert Donat in the role of the disagreeable instructor transformed by his love for Greer Garson.

Garson had to wait for 1942's wartime weepie "Mrs. Miniver" to win her Oscar, and this story of a British family coping with World War II, often cited as influential in swaying American opinion toward entering the war, won five others, including best film.

Extras on these films are limited primarily to trailers and newsreels, but Warner's new two-disc special edition of 1964's "My Fair Lady" has them in abundance. I've always found the movie version of Lerner and Loewe's Broadway musical adaptation of "Pygmalion" to be more admirable than enjoyable. As beautiful as Audrey Hepburn is, it's hard to get past the lip-synching and imagining what Julie Andrews might have done with the role, and Rex Harrison's talk-singing never quite worked for me. Yet the sheer sumptuousness of it is hard to deny, and it was rewarded with eight Oscars, including best picture.

The image seems sharper and the color more vibrant than on the original 1998 DVD, and the soundtrack has received a 5.1 Dolby Surround remix, though the front speakers still convey nearly all the non-musical material. With nearly all the principals dead, the audio commentary is handled by art director Gene Allen, the film's restoration team Robert Harris and James Katz, and Marni Nixon, who dubbed Hepburn's vocals.

Award nominees released

The week's recent theatrical releases include two current Academy Award nominees: "Lost in Translation," which was cited for Sofia Coppola's screenplay and direction and Bill Murray's portrayal as a disoriented American actor making a commercial in Japan, though not, alas, for Scarlett Johansson's great performance as the young newlywed with whom he has an unlikely hook-up.

The second is "Capturing the Friedmans," Andrew Jarecki's remarkable documentary about a family that comes apart when two members are charged with child molestation. Both come with must-see extras: "Lost" contains extended and deleted scenes and a longer version of the "Matthew's Best Hit TV" show on which Murray appears, while "Friedmans" has more of the family's excruciating home movies and the short on New York City party clowns that led the director to "Friedmans."

Another great doc, "Spellbound," was nominated for a best documentary Oscar last year, but lost to "Bowling for Columbine." For my money, this film, which follows eight very different kids on their quest to become a National Spelling Bee champ, will be the one people remember in 20 years. The DVD makes it even more memorable, including scenes with other kids that were not included and the best where-are-they-now followup since "Animal House."

Among other overlooked films released this week are "Secondhand Lions," with fine performances from Michael Caine and Robert Duvall as the eccentric rancher uncles of Haley Joel Osment, who reluctantly take him in when his mother flies the coop; and "American Splendor" (three stars, HBO, $27.95), a hybrid documentary-fictionalization of the ordinary life of Cleveland comic book writer and curmudgeon Harvey Pekar, who appears as himself and is also played by Paul Giamatti.