Customer Reviews

The Gregory Peck Film Collection (To Kill a Mockingbird / Cape Fear / Arabesque / Mirage / Captain Newman, M.D. / The World in His Arms)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'd like to comment of three of the lesser known films in this set:
1. Captain Newman, M.D. - a wonderful W.W.II comedy/drama with a great supporting cast including Tony Curtis, Angie Dickinson, Eddie Albert, Larry Storch, James Gregory, Robert Duvall and in his academy-award nominated supporting role: Bobby Darin. One of my favorite films of the 1960s.
2. Mirage-a suspenseful black and white film-noir, filmed on location in New York co-starring the very attractive Diane Baker and Walter Matthau.
3. Arabesque-suspense thriller co-starring Sophia Loren. Directed by Stanley Donen, this was an attempt to replicate the success of Donen's previous thriller "Charade." While not as good as that classic, it is still good fun with a great score by Henry Mancini.
I can't wait to see these three films again.

If you're a DVD movie collector and don't already have TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD or CAPE FEAR, this is a must, because it also contains one of the most stylish Bond-era thrillers ever made, ARABESQUE (in which Sophia Loren appears at her most stunningly beautiful), and three interesting and rarely shown films. The inclusion of the three lesser-known movies makes this a special and unpredictable collection.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is a true classic, with fine acting, gorgeous black and white photography and a compelling musical score. Most of all, it's a fascinating and well-written story. CAPE FEAR may not approach MOCKINGBIRD as a classic, but it's certainly a minor one; much better than the gratuitously violent remake. This is my second favorite Robert Mitchum performance, behind his other great villainous role in NIGHT OF THE HUNTER. Gregory Peck is perfect as the guy trying desperately to protect his family. His wife, played by Polly Bergan, a good, too. it's too bad she made so few movies of any note, because she's not only attractive, but a superb actress.

ARABESQUE is one of my all-time personal favorite thrillers. It's been unavailable in the United States for a long time, and it's good to finally have it on DVD, and it's a gorgeous print, to boot. Sophia Loren's first entrance in the film, in a stylish, black evening ensemble, ranks with the most sexy moments in her career, and all she does is walk into the room! Her character is fun, because it's not clear for some time into ARABESQUE if she's with or against Mr. Peck's harried college professor. He's on the trail of a coded heiroglyph containing vital information regarding an assassination plot. This is one of Peck's looser, more humorous performances, too, as he seems to be having great fun, being chased by thugs and trying to crack the code, and he's got such good chemistry with Loren. His drug induced bicycle ride through oncoming traffic on a rainy night is a memorable scene, and SO sixties! The stylish art direction, psychedelic photographic effects and catchy score by Henry Mancini combine to make this a worthy followup to Donen's CHARADE, although many prefer the previous film. I find ARABESQUE equally enjoyable, with its flashes of witty humor and tongue-in-cheek political intrigue. It's all pretty fake, like a paste jewel, but it sparkles just the same, as if it were a real diamond, beginning with the wonderful opening theme and 007 Movie-like titles, designed by famous titlemeister, Maurice Binder.

Of the three other movies in this boxed set, I like CAPTAIN NEWMAN, M.D. the best. I don't know how I ever managed to miss this one. It's a fascinating, if somewhat dated, study of a psychiatric facility's military doctor treating traumatic mental injuries in young soldiers during war. Peck is very good in this, but the ones who steal the show are Tony Curtis as a wisecracking intern, Bobby Darin as a guilt-ridden airman recovering from a tragic plane crash that killed his buddy, and most of all, Eddie Albert (!) as an army colonel suffering from violent delusions. This could easily be Albert's finest moment. Angie Dickinson is the only weak link, miscast as an army nurse, although her acting does contain a few screen moments that feel emotionally genuine. Otherwise, she fails to make much of an impression (on me, anyway).

The other two films are entertaining fun, if not A-List. MIRAGE is a so-so mystery lifted above its routine script by excellent performances by Peck as a man with amnesia, and Diane Baker as another ambiguous female (is she with him or against him)?

The last movie is an okay swashbuckler with Ann Blyth as the love interest. She's pretty dreadful, and the costumes are way over the top, Hollywood travesties of historical research. Redder lips were never seen, and Blyth's odd mouth is all one can look at in some scenes. But Peck is fine as a barely moral seafaring rogue, and Anthony Quinn is great fun as his unabashedly immoral foe. This film is worth seeing once, but it's tied with MIRAGE as the weakest of the six movies here.

Because three of these movies are so good, and one of those is otherwise hard to get, I give this Five Stars, considering the other three films as icing on the cake.

I just received this collection of Gregory Peck films and while I already owned one of them(To Kill a Mockingbird) already, I just had to get this collection. Arabesque is one of my all time favorites and I have been waiting for years for it to be released on DVD. Very good transfer to DVD and well worth the cost.

Film specs are courtesy of IMDB. These DVD transfers conform to those specs without exception. Sound for all six films was done by Westrex Recording System. Each film has its own chapter-encoded DVD in its own thin-style keep case, all packaged together in one slip case. Outstanding transfer! Purists should remember that these films were made 40 to 50 years ago, and take that into account when critiquing things like picture and mono sound fidelity, which are consistently crisp and blemish-free for these six films.

Mirage, 1965, Edward Dmytryk, 1.85:1, 108 min, b/w, mono sound; based on Howard Fast's 1952 novel (Fallen Angel; Little, Brown and Company; 1952; as Walter Ericson); a beautiful black and white anamorphic wide screen picture in its original aspect ratio; first time on DVD. Good noir photography and a Quincy Jones musical score adorn this edge-of-the-chair nightmarish tale of amnesia, conspiracy and murder. Peck was never better; with a stellar supporting cast of Diane Baker, Walter Matthau, Kevin McCarthy, Jack Weston, Leif Erickson, George Kennedy, and Robert Harris. Except for a couple loose ends and a dated conclusion, it still rates 5 stars!

Arabesque, 1966, Stanley Donen, 2.35:1, 105 min, Panavision Technicolor, mono sound; co-star Sophia Loren; vibrant anamorphic widescreen color picture. Light entertainment only; the film is second-rate in comparison with Charade or To Catch A Thief, which it tries (unsuccessfully) to imitate. Previously out on DVD but almost impossible to find. 3 stars for the film.

Captain Newman, M.D, 1963, David Miller, 1.85:1, 126 min, Eastman Color by Pathe, mono sound; vibrant anamorphic widescreen color picture with music by Frank Skinner. Supporting cast includes Tony Curtis, Angie Dickenson, Eddie Albert, and a very young Robert Duvall. Way too long, desperately needing cuts! Scenes range from a WWII soldiers' mental ward suicide one minute, to a Santa-costumed Tony Curtis leading the recovering soldiers in singing Jingle Bells the next. Maybe watch this one at Christmas? The DVD keep-case erroneously lists running time as 91 minutes. 3 stars for the film.

The World In His Arms, 1952, Raoul Walsh, 1.37:1, 104 min, color by Technicolor, mono. Picture is full screen 1.33:1, the original aspect ratio, with music by Frank Skinner. Supporting cast includes Ann Blythe, Anthony Quinn, and a cast of thousands (of seals). Colors are vibrant with some fine but not intrusive grain, not surprising considering the film's age: one could hardly expect better. SPOILER ALERT: A rousing, swashbuckling rogue sea captain (Peck) and his sealskin-poaching pirates fight the 1850s Alaska Ruskies, with Peck snatching the about-to-be-married (Countess) Blyth away from the evil Ruskie's marriage clutches mere moments before the final vows! 3.5 stars for the film.

To Kill A Mockingbird, 1962, Robert Mulligan, 1.85:1, 129 min, b/w, mono; black and white anamorphic wide screen picture, in its original aspect ratio. Sound is generally fine though the kids' diction lacked clarity. Won three Oscars! Concerns childhood and race prejudice in the 1932 depression-era south; and a white lawyer (Peck) defending a black man accused of assault and rape of a white woman. Aside from Peck, the principal actors are really the three kids who have far more screen time than anyone else: Phillip Alford, age 14; Mary Badham, age 10; and the youngest of the three (age five, maybe six; not credited but whose role exceeded that of most adult actors whose credited roles were barely more than cameos). A MESSAGE film so boring it must spice up the action with a racist white mob hell-bent on a hanging; and a racist, drunken white-male stereotype who also attacks women and children on the side. 2 stars for the kids.

Cape Fear, 1962, J. Lee Thompson, 1.85:1, 105 min, b/w, mono; co-star Robert Mitchum; supporting cast includes Polly Bergen, Martin Balsam, and Telly Savalas. Beautiful black and white anamorphic wide screen picture in its original aspect ratio: incredible black and white noir photography with a formidable Bernard Herrmann musical score, and with great performances from Mitchum and Peck. After viewing (and hearing!) the quality of this production and the stark film-noir imagery and atmospherics, that this film was remade in 1991 demonstrates the abject poverty of modern Hollywood thinking: Who would want to watch an inferior would-be substitute remake (or any of these modern slasher pics for that matter) instead of this masterpiece? For better appreciation you might want to watch the 28-minute making-of documentary first. 5 stars for the film.

Special Features: To Kill A Mockingbird's keep case encloses a second DVD which has two documentaries: A Conversation with Gregory Peck, encoded with 18 chapters at 97:23 minutes; and Fearful Symmetry, a making-of documentary, encoded with 24 chapters at 90 minutes. The Cape Fear DVD also contains a making-of documentary at 27:45 minutes; a self-playing montage of production photograph stills intercut with full-sound segments of the film and closing with a gallery of eight posters and a few stills, at 4:48 minutes; and an original theatrical trailer, at 2:06 minutes. Picture and sound of these special features is fine.

Adding .4 stars for the fine transfer quality and general product excellence to the averaged film rating of 3.6 stars sums to 4 stars.

Had Mirage been released by itself I would have bought it that way, but since I was able to get six great Gregory Peck films for about $5 each I won't complain. Mirage is the best film that Alfred Hitchcock didn't make.

Here is a splendid DVD package of some of Gregory Peck's famous movies such as: "to kill a mockingbird" and an extra and rare documentary feature: "a conversation with Gregory Peck", where we can see the legendary actor in his intimacy, with his family, his friends and through the late conferences he made in the USA about his career, movies and the american cinema. A wonderful must for his fans and filmgoers all over the world!

Gregory Peck is an actor who has always been at the top of the Hollywood "A List" icon charts. His is a name that is instantly recognized by everyone who has ever had an interest in film history as one of the best actors the Studio System ever produced. I have always been a fan, ever since I first saw his movies in the theaters and on TV in the 1950s and 1960s, and one would think that his films would be among those in my classic film collection, but they are not. I admit that my admiration for his work is based on only a few selected films I have seen over the years, "Captain Newman, M.D.", "Twelve O'Clock High", "How the West Was Won", "Arabesque", "The Omen" and "MacArthur" among them.

Yet I also admit that I didn't purchase this boxed set collection of his films because of my admiration for Peck's film work. I was looking to purchase one specific film of his, "Captain Newman, M.D.", a movie I had seen in the theaters during my formative teen years in the early 1960s, but the single DVD of this movie was $32 and I decided it would be wiser to spend six dollars more to buy it in this boxed set of six films rather than to pay the $32 asking price for the one DVD alone.

What a hidden treasure I uncovered for those extra six dollars! I watched "Captain Newman, M.D." first, of course, and enjoyed it just as much as I did when I first saw it in 1963, but then I began watching the others in the set and I realized what I had been missing all these years. The classic "To Kill a Mockingbird" is one of his films I've always wanted to see but admit I have never watched and I now realize why it is a classic! I've viewed it three times, now, and I can't get enough of it! "Cape Fear" is such a powerful film, and Robert Mitchum such a perfect villian, that I wonder to myself why I have never taken the time to sit down and see it in its entirety before. "Arabesque" and "Mirage" are two spy genre films I did see in the theater during my college years and it was good seeing them again (both are very entertaining in a "007" kind of way), but "The World in His Arms" is one of those cut and dried adventure films from the early 1950s that are best left to Saturday Matinee goers who have nothing better to do. I did enjoy each and every one of these films, though, and for less than $7.00 per DVD (shipping included) I can't say that I've ever spent my money more wisely for a boxed set of films.

I thoroughly recommend this Gregory Peck Film Collection to anyone who loves quality classic films.

We have been wanting the movies Arabesque and The World In His Arms starring Gregory Peck for some time. They are both in this collection along with To Kill a Mockingbird and some other of Gregory Peck's films we are less familiar with. Each film is packaged individually and the quality is good. We are very happy with this purchase.

A good variety of Gregory Peck films. There is drama, history, tension, humor and Mr Peck at his best. I hadn't seen all the films but now really enjoy them all. Recommed this for a great movie evening!!

Great! The release was long overdue. I had given up hope to ever watch "Arabesque" or "Mirage" on DVD again, I only knew them from TV.
Now if they finally could release "Blindfold" with Rock Hudson and Claudia Cardinale, another mid sixties movie for which I'm impatiently waiting to be released on DVD, I would be very happy!