Product Details

• Actors: Robert DeNiro, Nick Nolte, James Cagney, Lee Van Cleef, Robert Mitchum
• Directors: John Huston, Busby Berkeley, Henry King
• Format: Black & White, Color, Full Screen, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 10
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: BCI / Eclipse
• DVD Release Date: October 12, 2004
• Run Time: 1860 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0009KCTKU
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #86,888 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Beat the Devil An international group of crooks are headed to East Africa under the auspices of selling vacuum cleaners to buy land reportedly loaded with uranium. In a cult classic satirical style their many misadventures and double-crossings end with them facing extermination by an Arab firing squad.Swap TheIn a story of disillusionment murder and revenge Sam (Robert De Nero) is a man who is investigating the death of his brother and desperately hunting for his killer.BLOOD ON THE SUN Nick Condon (James Cagney) stars as an American editor of a pre-WWII Tokyo newspaper. After the murder of two of his best friends he suspects the "peaceful" Japanese government is corrupt. Targeted and betrayed Condon tries to foil the Japanese plans and stay alive while doing so.BOXER THE Although a threat of victory will end in the murder of his manager / trainer Nick Boxer Teddy Wilcox (Robert Blake) wins his first fight. When Nick shows up dead Wilcox is the primary suspect and must try to clear his name and find Nick's real killer.THE KLANSMAN In a small town begrudgingly facing the effects of the Civil Rights Movement a young white woman is violently raped. The white town fathers immediately declare that the attacker had to be black and blame Garth a young black man who takes to the woods as the Klansmen start hunting him down.THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL Johnnie a prizefighter is unwittingly involved in a murder and unable to prove his innocence quits boxing and flees to a ranch in Arizona run by an old lady as a work farm for delinquent teenagers. He falls in love with Peggy and became the "teenagers" hero. But a New York Detective is still on the hunt for the fleeing boxer.GOLD Rod Slater (Roger Moore) is the newly appointed general manager of the country's largest gold mine Sonderditch. He quickly stumbles across a despicable scheme to control the international price of gold with a plan to sabotage the mine by drilling into an underground lake. Can

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Half action, December 27, 2007

By	Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

TOUGH GUYS OF ACTION might be better described as "Action Stars in Other Genres," for only half of these 20 titles are legitimate action movies.

The two based on Hemingway stories ("Farewell to Arms and "Snows of Kilimanjaro") are melodrama/romances. The Bogart film ("Beat the Devil") fits just about every category BUT action. "Death Sentence" is a courtroom drama, "They Made Me a Criminal" a crime story. The DeNiro film's a drama, as are the Spencer Tracy and Sidney Poitier movies. Jack Palance appears in a horror/mystery story.

In spite of a technical misnomer, this DVD box set offers literally dozens of fine performers in mostly lesser-known films. The price for over 31 hours of entertainment is quite fair and BCI's audio and video transfers of these unrestored movies uniformly decent.


For action film fans, Rule of the Gun 20 Movie Pack (from MILL CREEK ENTERTAINMENT) would complement this collection nicely.

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Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are 1 to 10 viewer poll ratings found at a film resource website.

(5.2) Agency (Canada-1980) - Robert Mitchum/Lee Majors/Valerie Perrine/Saul Rubinek
(6.5) Beat the Devil (UK/USA/Italy-1953) - Humphrey Bogart/Jennifer Jones/Gina Lollobrigida/Robert Morley/Peter Lorre
(6.3) Blood on the Sun (1945) - James Cagney/Sylvia Sidney/Robert Armstrong/Wallace Ford/Rosemary DeCamp/Hugh Beaumont (uncredited)
(5.0) Border Cop ("The Border") (UK-1979) - Telly Savalas/Eddie Albert/Michael V. Gazzo
(3.6) Border Shootout (1990) - Charlene Tilton (Glenn Ford/Michael Ansara in bit parts)
(4.4) The Boxer (Italy-1972) - Robert Blake/Ernest Borgnine
(4.8) Death Rage (Italy-1976) - Yul Brynner/Martin Balsam
(5.2) Death Sentence (TV-1974) - Nick Nolte/Cloris Leachman/Laurence Luckinbill/Alan Oppenheimer/William Schallert
(6.5) A Farewell to Arms (1932) - Gary Cooper/Helen Hayes/Adolphe Menjou
(5.5) Gold (UK-1974) - Roger Moore/Susannah York/Ray Milland/Bradford Dillman/John Gielgud
(4.3) The Klansman (1974) - Lee Marvin/Richard Burton/Cameron Mitchell/O.J. Simpson/Lola Falana/Linda Evans
(6.0) Man in the Attic (1953) - Jack Palance/Constance Smith/Frances Bavier/Rhys Williams
(6.3) Marie Galante (1934) - Spencer Tracy/Ned Sparks/Helen Morgan/Sig Ruman
(4.3) The Mark of the Hawk (USA/UK-1957) - Sidney Poitier/Eartha Kitt/John McIntire
(6.5) Quicksand (1950) - Mickey Rooney/Jeanne Cagney/Peter Lorre/Minerva Urecal/Jimmie Dodds
(6.9) Rogue Male (TV-UK-1976) - Peter O'Toole/John Standing/Alastair Sim/Harold Pinter
(6.3) The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) - Gregory Peck/Susan Hayward/Ava Gardner/Leo G. Carroll
(3.5) The Swap ("Sam's Song") (1969) - Robert DeNiro/Jennifer Warren
(7.0) They Made Me a Criminal (1939) - John Garfield/Dead End Kids/Claude Rains/Ann Sheridan
(4.9) Thieves of Fortune (USA/S Africa-1990) - Lee Van Cleef/Liz Torres/Michael Nouri

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More Tough Guys than their is Action, January 27, 2008

By	Richard Ross - See all my reviews

Since there are 20 films I won't go into detail about all of them just the ones that are especially good or bad. Besides there's a lot of crap films and a lot of old black and white films in the set. "Agency" stars Robert Mitchum, Lee Majors, and Saul Rubinek. Mitchum plays a shady political advisor who has just taken over the ad agency that Majors and Rubinek work for. Both men suspect their boss of splicing in subliminal messages for the political candidate of his choice in their commercials. Mitchum doesn't have a huge part but Rubinek's manic energy is enough to carry the film whenever he isn't in it. The ads that serve as political propaganda are hilarious since they're for deodorants and chocolate milk. "Thieves of Fortune" is Lee Van Cleef's last film and with the exception of his ninja T.V. show "The Master" the most embarrassing thing he's ever been in. He is spared further shame by not lasting past the first ten minutes which leaves the rest of the film to an attractive young woman who is forced to dress up like a man in order to inherit Van Cleef's fortune. "Death Rage" stars Yul Brynner, Martin Balsam, and the lovely Barbara Bouchet. Brynner is a hit man coaxed out of retirement to kill the man who murdered his brother. Balsam is the detective who is onto him and Bouchet is the woman that Brynner romances and beds. Frustratingly like other films in this box this version is heavily edited leaving all of the "action" scenes on the cutting room floor. "Rogue Male" is a very well made BBC film that stars Peter O'Toole as a wealthy aristocrat who attempted to assassinate Hitler. He was captured and tortured by the Germans but escaped and was forced to hide underground. There are two film adaptations of Ernest Hemingway books that are both autobiographical and highlights of the box. First up is "A Farewell to Arms" which is the story of a soldier (Gary Cooper) who falls in love with a nurse during wartime. Both the war and Cooper's best friend (a delightful Adolphe Menjou) do their best to keep the lovers apart. "Snows of Kilimanjaro" is in beautiful color and stars Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner. Peck plays an author who is fatally wounded on a safari. With only hours to live he recounts his failed romance with the woman he loved (Gardner) and his failure at writing the Great American Novel. "Gold" sounds like it would be an entertaining Roger Moore film but instead you get duped and the "Gold" that is included in the box is a grainy old film from the '30's. "The Klansman" stars Lee Marvin, Richard Burton, and O.J. Simpson. This film was set to be written and directed by the legendary Samuel Fuller. The studio didn't like the direction he was taking the film and replaced him with James Bond director Terence Young. Fuller pulled out of the picture and star Marvin also wanted to but he couldn't get out of his contract. Fuller is still credited as one of the writers. Marvin plays a sheriff and Burton is a black sympathizer who live in the same Southern town comprised of "Good Christian People." When a white woman is raped by a young black man the towns' considerable Klan population declare open season on all blacks and chase them into the woods. This film suffers the most from editing and all of the racism, rape, and violence that make up the story is edited out making it very confusing to follow. The brilliant Cameron Mitchell also stars in this film. "The Swap" is an embarrassing early effort from Robert DeNiro. He plays a porn film editor who is murdered one night by someone who doesn't want the identity of one of the performers in the dirty movie to be revealed. DeNiro's acting isn't embarrassing it's that mustache. Even though his role is limited and told in flashbacks it's more entertaining than a lot of his more recent films. Roger Ebert includes the next film "Beat the Devil" on his Great Film's list. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Gina Lollobrigida, and Jennifer Jones. The film was directed by John Huston and written by Truman Capote. It's a spoof on spy films like "The Maltese Falcon" and other films that Bogart was associated with. With Huston providing reliably strong direction and Capote supplying some witty lines the film is both well made and very entertaining. It flopped however and Bogart always regarded it as a failure. He lost a lot of money on it as well since his company produced the film. "They Made Me A Criminal" stars John Garfield, Claude Rains, and the Dead End Kids and was directed by Busby Berkeley. A boxer (Garfield) is falsely accused of murdering his manager and goes on the run. He hides out in an orphanage and befriends some young troublemakers (The Dead End Kids). A detective (Rains) pursues him every step of the way. Familiar faces like Jimmy Cagney, Sidney Poitier, and Mickey Rooney (a tough guy? Please.) do well for themselves even though their films aren't that great. "Ripped Off" stars Robert Blake and Ernest Borgnine. Blake, in an odd case of art imitating life, plays a man who is accused of murder and who tries desperately to elude the cops and prove his innocence. Blake, in both films and real life, tries to act like a tough guy and plead his innocence but it doesn't work either way. "Death Sentence" says it stars Nick Nolte but it actually focuses on Cloris Leachman and Nolte fans will be disappointed by his brief couple of scenes. "Border Cop" stars Telly Savalas and the raspy voiced, bald guy from "Godfather 2". Savalas is an honest border cop who battles the baldy over his practice of smuggling young kids across the border to illegally work in his meat processing plants. There are at least half a dozen quality films in this box making it worth checking out but for the most part you get gypped by films that are heavily edited or that aren't even in the box despite being listed. It's par for the course of what you can expect from a Brentwood Box.