Product Details

• Actors: Dick Cavett, Truman Capote, Rex Reed, Joni Mitchell, Liza Minnelli
• Writers: Raymond Siller
• Producers: Tony Converse
• Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Shout Factory Theatr
• DVD Release Date: September 12, 2006
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000G0O5EG
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,234 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Television > TV Series By Letter > D > The Dick Cavett Show

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
In an era that makes celebrities out of talent-free narcissists like Paris Hilton, it's nice to be reminded of a time when stars were bigger-than-life characters who were famous and beloved because they had actually accomplished something, and whose off-screen shenanigans were the stuff of legend rather than some glib report on Entertainment Tonight. The reminder comes in the form of Hollywood Greats, the latest offering from the vaults of Dick Cavett's 1970s TV talk show. This is a really impressive lineup: Katharine Hepburn, Marlon Brando, Fred Astaire, Robert Mitchum, Orson Welles, Groucho Marx, Kirk Douglas, Bette Davis, and others. And if some of them prove less than scintillating, on balance there's still more than enough on these four discs to satisfy even the most ardent star-gazers.

Of principal interest to many will be Cavett's interviews with people like Hepburn and Brando, who rarely ventured into TV land. The notoriously press-shy Hepburn, 66 at the time (1973), is seen checking out the studio and making picky remarks about the rug and furniture before agreeing to do the do right then and there, with no audience; she ends up holding forth for two entire shows (plus bonus material), revealing herself to be witty and sophisticated, as well outspoken, practical, and entirely in charge ("You keep interrupting," she chastens Cavett, "Just shut up..."). Brando, a year removed from The Godfather and Last Tango in Paris, agreed to appear only if he could discuss the plight of American Indians (several of whom are also on hand). Cavett, a sharp, self-effacing, well-prepared host, went along, little suspecting that the whole interview would be an exercise in teeth-pulling, with Brando refusing to discuss his career at all; his dismissal of his stage and screen work as "irrelevant" is laughably disingenuous, considering that were it not for his acting, he wouldn't have been invited on the show in the first place. On the other hand, Davis is grand, saucy, full of stories about Hollywood's Golden Age--everything one wants in a movie star. Astaire is charming, showing that even at age 71 he was a great dancer and good singer. Welles, the man who married Rita Hayworth, had dinner with the pre-Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, and made Citizen Kane, is worldly, erudite, expansive (in every sense--he's twice Cavett's size), and probably the most entertaining of the lot. And Hitchcock is marvelous, showing off his dry, peculiar wit and revealing several tricks of the trade (it took 78 edits to make the 45-second shower scene in Psycho). Bonus material includes several Cavett show promos and a new featurette with him and film historian Robert Osbourne. Scattered throughout the various interviews are clips from some great films, including Night of the Hunter, The Birds, Holiday Inn, a variety of Douglas' movies, and even an obscure Bette Davis item called Watch on the Rhine. --Sam Graham

Product Description
Comedians, politicians and rock stars all graced The Dick Cavett Show stage, but the audience favorites were often the movie stars. And when the guests were greats like Fred Astaire, Bette Davis, Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum and Orson Welles, Cavett often devoted the full 90 minutes to them. In the case of Katharine Hepburn, the interview went so well that it required two full 90 minute shows.

This 4-DVD set contains 12 episodes featuring:

Katharine Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Bette Davis, Groucho Marx, Debbie Reynolds, Kirk Douglas, Alfred Hitchcock, Marlon Brando, Mel Brooks, Frank Capra, Robert Altman, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Mitchum, John Huston and Orson Welles.

Also contains a new Cavett interview conducted by Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne.

Additional bonus material includes:

• Outtakes featuring Katharine Hepburn

• New episode introductions by Dick Cavett

• Original promos for The Dick Cavett Show

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing and Brilliant!, September 12, 2006

By	T. Damico "Damico" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the first time I have written a review for Amazon. I just purchased this DVD today and simply could not wait to see Cavett's interviews with Bette Davis and Katherine Hepburn. Both these women are so unique and so strong willed in their sense of who they are one can't help but be impressed. Earlier today I glanced at the Tyra Banks show and she was devoting her entire show to interview the Celeb du jour Nicole Richie. When asked, Richie could not fully even explain why she was famous. Seeing Davis and Hepburn one is fully aware why they are so rightly put on a pedastal by movie fans and film historians when seeing their originality and inner strength and sheer bravado. In a way it is very sad seeing these two being interviewed especially when compared to the mediocrity of todays bland celebs that are all about marketing and fit bodies and NO PERSONALITY!
Watching Hepburn I am inspired to honor everything about myself that is unique and to aspire to live life better and to more consciously enjoy the present.
As a gay man, I must say Bette Davis has fascinated me since I was a kid. Her physical fraility (especially towards the end of her life) could never diminish her forceful personality. It is because of this contradiction that I believe so many gay men of a past era have been inspired by her- I can't imagine anyone telling her what to do without encountering a wrath of outrage on her part. In Cavetts interview she remains as commanding and opionated as ever. Davis will always be my favorite actress, but Hepburn is a close second.
I am eager to see the other interviews on this DVD collection, especially Orson Welles. Cavett is a wonderful interviewer because he allows his guest to shine with little interruption. I always thought Oprah was great at interviewing, but after seeing Cavett I must admit she constantly interrupts her guest and fails to let them shine (lets face it the spotlight is on her even if she were interviewing Christ-just kidding!!).
Do yourself a favor during this present day wasteland of celebrity mediocrity and hear the wisdom and charm of celebrities that live up to their greatness. I know Davis and Hepburn will charm you while they share interesting anecdotes about their lives in such a wonderfully articulate way. It is so refreshing to hear celebrities speak who are actually intelligent and have something to truly say. Enjoy!

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully Insightful Glimpses into True Movie Legends From Cavett's Early 1970's Talk Show, October 1, 2006

By	Ed Uyeshima (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In the early 1970's, I remember how Dick Cavett was constantly positioned as a competitive threat to reigning late night king Johnny Carson. Coming across as far more erudite and at times pretentious, Cavett never came close ratings-wise, yet he did get some amazing "gets" during his tenure on ABC. This four-disc set is appropriately entitled "Hollywood Greats" since it contains relatively extensive interviews with true film legends who rarely subjected themselves to such probing. While Cavett can come across as a bit worshipful at times (e.g., he looks truly awestruck with Hepburn for the first half-hour), he also asks sharp, often unconventional questions and offers some clever quips to warm up his guests with tangible results.

The best is the two-part 1973 interview with Katharine Hepburn, her first ever for TV. At a robust-looking 66 and with her crackling persona in full bloom, the legend threatens to make Cavett into a whipping boy with her unapologetic honesty and lacerating wit. After a typically critical appraisal of the set, the interview unexpectedly starts, and for well over two hours, she is constantly fascinating from her confessions of being a burglarizing prankster in her youth to her genuine pride over her accomplished parents to her thinly veiled disgust with actors who refuse Oscars to her personal impressions of co-stars like Bogart and Peter O'Toole. What she does so well is completely skewer Cavett when he becomes too unctuous, for example, when he asks whether she regrets not working with Olivier, her lightning-quick response is "Neither of us is dead yet." My favorite moment occurs when Cavett disingenuously asks Hepburn whether she has ever had a desire to snort some coke, her response is immediate..."Cold sober...I find myself absolutely fascinating." So true. There is also an intriguing extra included - 24 minutes of unedited pre-interview footage which shows Hepburn interviewing Cavett.

There are also terrific conversations with Bette Davis, Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas, as well as master directors Orson Welles, John Huston and Alfred Hitchcock. The feisty Davis showcases her brazen honesty with unabated energy and humor in a 1971 interview, especially talking about her early days at Warner Brothers when she was called on to assess fifteen actors on their lovemaking skills. Also from 1971, Mitchum is hilariously deadpan as he talks about escaping a chain gang in Georgia or the seemingly unyielding tolerance of his wife of thirty years. With his dry humor in full effect in 1972 just as his underrated "Frenzy" was released, Hitchcock is wonderfully sharing about his particular aptitude in filmmaking as well as his limitations.

The funniest chats are unsurprisingly with Groucho Marx (with fellow guest Debbie Reynolds) and Mel Brooks, who is part of an intimidating multiple-filmmaker line-up of Frank Capra, Robert Altman and Peter Bogdanovich. There are some other chats that are not as interesting. Even though he sings Gershwin, Berlin and Porter tunes with his elegance intact, an impeccably dressed but overly self-effacing Fred Astaire is simply not that revealing in his 1970 interview. He easily looks the most ill-at-ease with Cavett's format. But easily the worst interview is with Marlon Brando, then embroiled in his 1973 Oscar snub and focused on the plight of Native Americans. With his cocky arrogance, the 49-year old actor, who was then in the midst of a career renaissance with "The Godfather" and "Last Tango in Paris", simply refuses to talk about his career in favor of his cause despite Cavett's best efforts.

Sadly, the print quality varies at times, in particular, during the Hepburn interview when the lighting noticeably changes from segment to segment. Nearly seventy now, Cavett has recorded new introductions for the interviews with his personal remembrances of how they came about. On Disc Four, there is also a recent interview TCM's Robert Osborne conducts with Cavett, more celebratory than insightful. This set is for anyone who is a fan of Hollywood's golden era, as Cavett was able to talk to otherwise inaccessible celebrities and capture their real personalities for posterity.

Here is the content breakdown of the four discs:
--Disc One: Katharine Hepburn, Fred Astaire
--Disc Two: Bette Davis, Groucho Marx, Kirk Douglas
--Disc Three: Mel Brooks, Frank Capra, Robert Altman, Peter Bogdanovich, John Huston, Marlon Brando
--Disc Four: Robert Mitchum, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Lost Art of Conversation, October 12, 2006

By	Cubist (United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

In our current soundbite culture the art of conversation is dead. Talk shows (both day and night) are merely vehicles for actors, authors and musicians to promote their latest movie, book or record. They are given very little time to have a conversation between commercial breaks. With the exception of The Charlie Rose Show, which is on public television and has no commercials, there are very few shows were people can talk to each other for longer than five minutes without an interruption.

In the 1970s, The Dick Cavett Show was a great source of fascinating conversation. He interviewed a diverse group of people during the various incarnations of his program and this new boxed set features an impressive collection of Hollywood icons who normally shunned these kinds of shows and the Hollywood scene in general. Cavett gets notoriously private stars like Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis to open up in wonderfully unpredictable interviews. At first, they seem uncomfortable or, in Hepburn's case, even confrontational but Cavett, like any good interviewer, makes them feel at ease. This, in turn, makes them feel comfortable enough to talk about their lives and careers.

Another potentially tough interview subject, Robert Mitchum, comes across as quite pleasant and engaging as he tells all kinds of entertaining Hollywood stories. He clearly felt comfortable enough around Cavett to speak candidly about his career. He talks about his lifelong struggle with insomnia and nonchalantly about his stint on a chain gang, alluding to his escape from it. There is a real absence of ego (as opposed to Brando) as the actor speaks humbly about his reputation. Mitchum was one of those rare movie stars unafraid to speak his mind. The man led a colourful life and was someone you could listen to for hours because he was such a good storyteller.

The first disc features "Katharine Hepburn Uncut," showing her with Cavett before the show started getting ready. It allows us to see them in unguarded moments that provide fascinating insight on the legendary actress.

Discs two, three and four include promos for various shows. Also on this fourth disc is "Seeing Stars with Dick Cavett and Robert Osborne." The two men talk about the differences between talk shows when he did them and that state of them now. Cavett speaks about how he became a talk show host and how his hero was the legendary Jack Paar. Osborne takes Cavett through some of his more famous guests (complete with clips) and offers his recollections of them.