Customer Reviews

Henry Fonda - The Signature Collection (Advise and Consent / Battle of the Bulge / Mister Roberts / The Wrong Man)

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

 

 

I do agree with other reviews - there's not much here and it's all already available. But I do have to comment on something I see over and over in these reviews - Warner Brothers doesn't own the rights to every movie ever made. The reason they can't include his great Western "Once Upon a Time in the West" is because the rights are owned by Paramount Pictures, and "Grapes of Wrath" is owned by 20th Century Fox, just to name two.

This entire collection was probably a bad idea for several reasons, but not because these aren't good movies.

1. All of these movies are available individually on DVD and were for some time before this collection was released. Thus, this set really only works as a discount collection because you are buying all four DVDs together versus the individual price.

2. Three of the four movies are in other Warner Home Video DVD collections. "Advise and Consent" is in the "Controversial Classics" collection. It is an excellent set, and if you are a collector of classic movies you are probably going to eventually want that one. Also, if you are a fan of Alfred Hitchcock, "The Wrong Man" is also included in the "Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection", which is also a very good set. "Battle of the Bulge" is in the "World War II Collection - Battlefront Europe", also an excellent set. This leaves you with "Mr. Roberts" as the only DVD that isn't already in some other Warner Home Video collection. It is notable not only for Fonda's excellent performance but for the fact that it was the beloved William Powell's last appearance in a motion picture and one of Jack Lemmon's first.

3. Finally, let's face it, Fonda's best work was probably done in films under the control of 20th Century Fox, not in the films controlled by Warner Home Video. However, I have to wonder, with all of the duplication going on in this set, why didn't Warners include two excellent films starring Fonda that were made for Warner Brothers - 1963's "Spencer's Mountain", which was the basis for the TV series "The Waltons", and 1966's "Big Hand for the Little Lady", which is not even on DVD yet.

Nobody else has mentioned the extras on the individual DVD's, so I do that next:

Advise and Consent - There is a commentary track by Drew Casper who seems to really love everything Otto Preminger ever did. There is also a theatrical trailer that runs four minutes that has "making-of" footage. Unfortunately that footage acts as a spoiler for the plot.

Battle of the Bulge - There are two featurettes included. "The Filming of Battle of the Bulge" runs nine minutes and is narrated by Henry Fonda. "History Re-Created" is an eight minute program with short interviews with producer Milton Sperling and star Robert Shaw. There is also a theatrical trailer.

Mr. Roberts - Includes an excerpt of an Ed Sullivan Toast of the Town tribute episode with comments from producer Leland Hayward and scenes acted by James Cagney, Henry Fonda, and Jack Lemmon. You also get a clip from a documentary (Fonda on Fonda) which covers Henry Fonda's involvement with both the play and the movie, as well as a moment from a tribute at the Kennedy Center Honors. Jack Lemmon provides partial commentary on the movie.

The Wrong Man - Includes a 20-minute documentary featurette from Laurent Bouzereau that is pretty interesting. Also included is the theatrical trailer.

I would say that if you want all four of these films and know for a fact you will never want any of the three DVD Collections that contain three of the four included films, this set acts as a good discount bundle. Otherwise, just get "Mr. Roberts".

I bought this set because it had two of my favorite Henry Fonda movies included - Mister Roberts and Battle of the Bulge. I already owned Advise and Consent from another movie collection, but The Wrong Man was a new one for me. An excellent way to spend a weekend!

The Henry Fonda Signature Collection was a great deal. Mister Roberts is one of my all-time favorite movies, so I looked at Amazon.com to buy it. For only $12, which included shipping, I was able to purchase not only Mister Roberts, but three other classic Henry Fonda movies. A great deal

I don't understand all of these negitive reviews. Are not the films in this box set all good? The answer is yes and 5 stars if you are a Henry Fonda fan. I'm so sick of people giving poor ratings to a box. It's the movies that you should rate in the box. Stop being mad at a company that releases a few films in a bundle. If you already have the movies then don't buy the damn box set, but at least give these good movies from a fine actor the reviews that they deserve.

And liezl (the connoisseur) You should pay attention to what you are reviewing!

E. Where is his work with John Ford? Answer- MISTER ROBERTS is a John Ford movie.

Mister Roberts was the best of the four movies. The other three movies weren't very good. Henry Fonda made much better movies than the three other movies in this "Signature Collection" Buying used might be worth the money. Paying full price is not.

J.D. from Missouri

I love the WB Signature Collections. I honestly wait to buy some of the DVDs until the signature collections come out now that the studio is showing signs of releasing new ones on a regular basis. If I already have the movie, I just re-sale the previous copy I had before.

As to what the last person said, I agree that many of these DVDs are already released. When they first came out with the signature collections (Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant, and Elvis), only one movie out of the 23 or so in these three collections had already been released. However, now it's gone to the point where just about all of them have been released.

Like I said, I usually wait to buy the DVDs until they're contained in a box set like these, but I have to complain that the studio hasn't changed or altered the previous release or packaging--they just put three or four of the previous movies together and throw them in a box for resale. If they really want this to be a true signature collection, I believe they aught to improve the packaging and not just the outer box.

On a last note, I'm happy to see that Henry Fonda is coming out. However, I'm not pleased to see that one of the movies has already been released in a previous signature collection (The Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection under the title "The Wrong Man"). Now when they re-release DVDs, that can be just a bit annoying as already mentioned, but when they put the same released in the same collection, that just pisses me off. I hope that's not set in stone and I hope the studio decides to either put another movie in there, or take that one out. After all, there were three Cary Grant movies in the Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection that DID NOT repeat in the Cary Grant Signature Collection. They didn't repeat them then so why are they repeating them now?

Henry Fonda is one of Hollywood's icons and one of my favorite actors. Mr. Fonda has such a prolific film career that one can easily put together a sizable box set e.g. John Wayne's.
The films selected in this collection makes no sense and didn't do Mr. Fonda justice. Very few people will be interested in ordering it. 1 star is for Mr. Fonda.