Literary Classics Collection (Madame Bovary (1949), Captain Horatio Hornblower, The Three Musketeers (1948), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937 and 1952 Versions), Billy Budd)
Starring: Literary Classics CollectionStudio: Warner Home Video
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
DVD Release: March 6th 2007
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DVD Review
The great movie tradition of adapting high-toned novels into star-studded vehicles gets an airing in Warner DVD's Literary Classics Collection, a group of six such pictures. It's a grab bag, but some of this stuff is unmissable. The best film in the box might be the 1937 version of The Prisoner of Zenda, Anthony Hope's buckle-swashing tale of a commoner (Ronald Colman) impersonating a lookalike king. This David Selznick production is one of those sparkling examples of the Hollywood heyday of the thirties, in which every cylinder is firing at full speed: buoyant script, luscious black-and-white photography (by the great James Wong Howe), exuberant swordplay, wonderful villainy (take a bow, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Raymond Massey), and a lovely damsel (Madeleine Carroll). John Cromwell directed, although others chimed in. As an adventure picture, it's just about flawless. On the flip side of the disc, the 1952 remake sticks closely to the original--and the formula still works, although the zest isn't quite there. Stewart Granger steps into Colman's shoes, with Deborah Kerr and James Mason in support.
The 1948 version of The Three Musketeers is one of the lesser versions of that swashbuckler; Gene Kelly and Lana Turner leads the cast in a Technicolor-iffic but dramatically underwhelming effort. Raoul Walsh's Captain Horatio Hornblower (1950) delivers thoughtful seagoing strategies, as the British captain navigating gunships and political winds. The movie doesn't have the oomph of the usual Walsh action film, perhaps keyed instead to Gregory Peck's serious presence, but it has a gratifyingly intelligent forward motion. Plus, the Hornblower disc comes with "Captain Hareblower," a Warners cartoon with Bugs Bunny battling Yosemite Sam on the high seas.
The shipboard morality play of Melville's Billy Budd is included here, in the classic 1962 adaptation by director Peter Ustinov (who also plays Captain Vere). Terence Stamp, in his film debut, is the innocent sailor Billy, and Robert Ryan etches one of the all-time portrayals of cold-eyed cruelty as the brutal master-at-arms Claggart. A great conversation piece in the era of the repertory house, the film holds up--and a commentary track with Stamp and Steven Soderbergh provides good stuff on the actor's career start.
The 1949 M-G-M production of Madame Bovary might not please Flaubert purists, but it will impress auteurist fans of Vincente Minnelli. The tale of a wayward small-town wife is infused with Minnelli's swooning grasp of camera movement and décor, and a showpiece ballroom sequence out-duels any Max Ophuls film for swirling dance delirium. Jennifer Jones' alien presence might be a problem for modern viewers, yet her strangeness actually fits the character. This might just be the discovery of the set, which is otherwise filled out with a satisfying batch of vintage cartoons and short subjects. --Robert Horton
User Reviews
6 GREAT FILMS. GREAT PRESENTATION. GREAT VALUE. BRAVO WB - Rating: 5/5
Like so many other Warner Brothers releases, this set will spoil you. A 5 disc set of 6 great films (2 versions of ZENDA on one disc), beautifully remastered, exquisitely packaged, and selling here on Amazon for a bargain price.
This is one to tell your friends about, because there's something for everyone here. I echo all the positive comments left by others, and underscore emphatically how amazing it is to finally have a proper widescreen BILLY BUDD. The other films in the collection haven't been as hard to see or own as BILLY, but BILLY suffered from being made by a small company (Allied Artists).
Warner rectifies that error now with this great new set, which is a no-brainer purchase for any true cinephile.
Diamonds are forever!! - Rating: 5/5
I ordered this package because of Captain Hornblower and The Three Musketeers, two films that have really marked my childhood memories. I haven't had the chance to see the rest of the films so this package was an excellent chance to do so and also get the two other films that I only possess in worn-out VHS copies.
I have already watched Captain Hornblower and it was as if it was brand new. The quality and sound are of high quality, the colours are better and I also loved the fact that I had the english subtitles available (I always wanted to figure out the "Fire as your guns bare" phrase).
The price is not a bargain only if you compare it with other available box-sets but I would pay even more for this one.
Where have all the French subtitles/audio gone? - Rating: 4/5
Since these are Region 1 DVDs -- USA and Canada -- the official languages are English and French, so both audio and subtitles should be provided in both languages. Subtitles help people with hearing difficulties, and help all when actors don't speak clearly or aren't recorded well.
Spanish is a good third choice.
[BTW, it would be nice if subtitle authors were required to be proficient in the source and destination languages. Ideally, they would have access to the script. Also, they should not make common, elementary English errors: its vs. it's, maybe vs. may be, everyday vs. every day, a lot (not alot), till or until (not 'til or til), Internet (not internet), could've or could have (not could of), OK or okay or even O.K. (not Ok or ok), for a while (not for awhile), I used to (not I use to), omitting the second delimiter of parenthetical information, hyphenating two words (a-b) when they mean to put a dash between two parts of a sentence (a--b, a - b, or a -- b), vs. or v. (not vs), etc. or et cetera (not etc...), etc. Punctuation doesn't matter much in e-mail or in Web reviews, but these subtitle authors are being paid as professionals to create something that lasts.]
Where have all the Spanish subtitles gone? - Rating: 3/5
I'm a Spanish movie lover since I was a child and I bought hundreds of DVD's, many of them, and very proudly, from Amazon. I can't understand why the spanish subtitles they used to include (Warner, Universal)even in recent releases (Gary Cooper or Marlon Brando Signature Collection)are missing o "replaced" by respectable but less spoken languages. I was very dissapointed when I checked The Heiress or The Robert Mitchum Signature Collection and found out the terrible truth.
6 Literary Classics, 2 Good Films - Rating: 3/5
I wouldn't waste my money on this set. '3 Musketeers', 'Madame Bovary', and 'Captain Horatio Hornblower' are mediocre 'Hollyweed products'. The only worthwhile films are 'Billy Budd' and 'Prisoner of Zenda'. So my own recommendation is to purchase these 2 seperately. Personally I found '3 Musketeers' probably the worst interpretation of all time (with the exception of the Charlie Sheen version, of course) with Gene Kelly and June Allyson woefully miscast. 'Hornblower' is just plain dull, and I have seen 'Bovary', but have no memory of it, which says something about the film. This is one of the few times I would recommend the later versions of these stories, with Richard Lester's 'Musketeers'and the A&E Hornblower series being far superior to the films here.
