Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Its OK consdering you are getting 3-4-1, November 18, 2007
I collect movies and have an interest in classic films. The Marilyn Monroe film Hometown was not the best film of that era nor did it feature her for longer than 20 minutes. It is good to see her fresh before iconic status. I actually bought this DVD because I wanted to se Howard Hughes' film Outlaw. That in itself was worth it.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful buy!!!, September 9, 2007
For $5.49 you get the following three movies:
1. MARILYN MONROE in HOMETOWN STORY: released in 1951. This is Marilyn before Niagra and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Marilyn plays a very small role as a secretary to a newspaper editor. Her performance is too small to be noteable. She looks gorgeous and her speaking tone is more business like. It is not one of her "slap and tickle" roles. The film is good and very interesting by it's own rights. The actual visual picture quality for HOME TOWN STORY is the best of the 3 picture son the disc, as is the audio quality.
Starring in the film are Jeffrey Lynn, Donald Crisp, Marjorie Reynolds, Alan Hale Jr. (of Gilligan's Island), directed by Arthur Pierson. The story is about a Senator who is returning home to run a newspaper as editor after being defeated for re-election and how he plans to go on a crusade to change the world using the newspaper to do this to get all the things done from his small hometown paper that he was unable to accomplish on Capitol Hill. It's a good story, but if you watch it just for glimpses of Mariyln Monroe you will be disappointed. The picture itself has it's own redeeming qualities. It's great that it is now billed as a Marilyn picture as more people will see it who otherwise would not have come across it.
This film is a good addition (not a must-have) for the serious Marilyn Monroe Collector, but for someone just getting introduced to her films or a casual viewer of her films; there is not enough of her or to her performance to buy this film because of *her*. However, the film is very entertaining (by 1940 standards) to buy the dvd pack with/out Marilyn especially with the other two movies bundled.
2. JANE RUSSELL in THE OUTLAW: released independently by Howard Hughes in San Francisco in 1943 after United Artists refused to relsase the picture, censors having been so agitated by it! The picture upset the public and was almost immediately shut down by civic groups. IN 1946, Hughes re-released the picture (again spending thousands himself to do so) audiences came in droves to the theatre!! It is my opinion that this is a must-see for Jane Russell fans. Jane Russell doesn't play her typical hardened bad girl femme-fatale in this picture and it's very interesting, and somewhat refreshing, to see her like this.
The real stars of this film are a very gorgeous Jack Buetel as a young Billy the Kid and Walter Huston as Doc Holliday with Thomas Mitchell (easily recognized as Gerald O'Hara from Gone With The Wind) as Pat Garrett. This is a delightful comedy and a very fun picture - the best picture among the 3 on the dvd bundle. The image quality is very blurred for the first 20 minutes of the picture. This is not a hardcore - hard-boiled Western - this is a fun comedy.
The story synopsis from the back cover (listed on IMDB & in some places on Amazon but not all, which will hopefully be updated soon) is *not even close* to the real story: this, very simply put, is how it actually goes: Doc Holliday and Lawman Pat Garrett and very old close friends (before Pat was a sheriff). Doc's horse was stolen and he comes to town looking for his horse and comes upon Billy the Kid who claims to have bought the horse. Doc believes Billy and quickly they become friends & partners. This creates a riff between long-time friends Doc and Pat who go their seperate ways as Pat, being sheriff has an obligation to bring Billy in and plain just doesn't like Billy the Kid. I will leave the rest to you movie watchers so there won't be any spoilers. :)
3. AVA GARDNER in WHISTLE STOP: released in 1946.. Ava stars with George Raft in this highly watered down version of The novel written by Maritta M. Wolff that had caused a bit of a sensation for it's provacative sexual content. The screenwriter (Yordan) maintained the opening setup of the nivel, the return of the beautiful woman Mary (played by Ava Gardner) from the big city to her small hometown and the uncertain rekindling of an old love affair, and the script made surprisingly explicit that Mary Mary had been living as a kept woman (and prostitute) while in Chicago... The script and movie cut out the book's old love affair which Mary returns home to: an incestutuous one between two siblings, and the ne'er-do-well young brother is turned into a n'er-do-well ex-boyfriend who inexplainably lives with his mother in Mary's house. With George Raft looking old enough to be Mary's father! The movie is interesting when you know this background information and see how the movie was shaped and ghanged to handle the censors, but on it's own it is pretty bland, with the exception for luminous Ava Gardner pre-her stardom in The Killers. The picture quality is very dark and grainy as with a lot of the film noir B movies of this time period, but it is decent enough to be watchable.. and for Ava Gardner's performance: you certainly DO want to watch it: no matter how weak the story has been watered down to.
For $5.49 this dvd is an absolute knockout deal with 3 good stories (THE OUTLAW BEING REASON ENOUGH TO PURCHASE IT ALONE) & decent picture and sound quality for films released in the 40's.
all the films are black & white
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3.0 out of 5 stars
One out of three..., June 21, 2007
The best movie out of the three is THE OUTLAW. It definetly lives up to it's legendary status! The other movies are so-so.
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