(A woman can change a lot in 10 years. Or, in the case of ...)
A woman can change a lot in 10 years. Or, in the case of Phoebe, change even more in a day. After her beau Dr. Gray returns home from a decade in the Napoleonic Wars, he's disappointed that faithful Phoebe appears worn and unattractive. So Phoebe transforms her looks and poses as carefree, younger Livvy. Dr. Gray, unaware of the ruse, is smitten. And about to discover that the person he truly loves is Phoebe.
Katharine Hepburn, her voice a youthful flutter and her hair a mass of ringlets, teams with her Alice Adams director George Stevens for this droll screen version of James M. Barrie's play. Also among the denizens of Quality Street: Franchot Tone, Fay Bainter, Eric Blore and unbilled Joan Fontaine.
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("Your hair is like a field of silver daisies," a rhapsodi...)
"Your hair is like a field of silver daisies," a rhapsodic suitor tells Tinseltown megastar Lola Burns. "I'd like to run barefoot through your hair." In her signature comedy, Jean Harlow shimmers and smolders as Lola, whose life is a dizzy whirlpool of studio expectations, adoring fans, familial leeches and most of all, a firecracker of a freewheeling press agent (Lee Tracy) who'd do handsprings through a minefield if it would keep Lola's name in the tabloids. But Lola is ready to provide a final headline herself. She's quitting the biz. Leaving. Abandoning the sham and the glam for the pitter-patter of tiny feet. Can Hollywood - and a certain P.R. flack - prevent it? Under the assured yet nimble direction of Victor Fleming (Red Dust), explosive laughter is in store with the comedy Bombshell.
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(Wartime romance is always potent material for film, with ...)
Wartime romance is always potent material for film, with the specter of sudden death making now intense and desperate. Today We Live is such a film. Set during World War I, it tells the story of a lovely English aristocrat whose heart belongs to a dashing American flyer...and to her childhood sweetheart, who cannot face war's terror without her love. Few films have so impressive a pedigree: the only screen pairing of movie icons Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford, direction by Howard Hawks (The Dawn Patrol, Air Force) and story and dialogue by 1949 Nobel Prize-winner William Faulkner. Highlighted by thrilling combat sequences, Today We Live is a haunting reminder of the sacrifices of body, mind and spirit made in time of war.
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(As working girl Sadie McKee, Joan Crawford wears a maid’s...)
As working girl Sadie McKee, Joan Crawford wears a maid’s uniform. And as any Crawford fan knows, she’ll shortly swap her white apron for black sable – even (or especially) if it means heartbreak along the way. In this rags-to-riches tale, Sadie wins the affections of the singer (Gene Raymond) she loves, the tycoon (Edward Arnold) she marries and the lawyer (Franchot Tone) she grew up with. That’s a lot of on-screen romantic fire, and not all of it may be due to acting ability alone: The year after Sadie McKee was filmed, Crawford became Mrs. Franchot Tone.
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(
The vast and mysterious world of criminals, from ancien...)
The vast and mysterious world of criminals, from ancient times through the twenty-first century, is vividly captured in
The Great Pictorial History of World Crime
. This unique reference work chronicles every major criminal act from every era. A definitive reference source to worldwide crime, this survey is organized into sixteen chapters:
•
Assassination
•
Bigamy
•
Burglary
•
Cannibalism
•
Celebrity Slayings
•
Drugs
•
Fraud
•
Organized Crime
•
Kidnapping
•
Mass Murder
•
Piracy
•
Robbery
•
Secret Criminal Societies
•
Serial Killers
•
Terrorism
•
Unsolved Homicides
Each chapter begins with an essay that introduces the topic and provides a concise overview of the historical, social, and political significance of the crime. Subjects are further developed crime by crime through descriptive entries covering the criminal acts, modus operandi, criminal background information, and motives, along with insightful anecdotes.
In addition to being a being a vital and informative historical and sociological reference work,
The Great Pictorial History of World Crime
features more than 2,500 illustrations. More than a chronicle of chilling events, these two volumes provide gripping reading for anyone interested in true crime, law enforcement, criminology, and criminal justice.
(Marcia Townsend is ready to settle down, playboy Sheridan...)
Marcia Townsend is ready to settle down, playboy Sheridan "Sherry" Warren isn't, so what do they do? Get hitched! But when Sherry continues to live in a way that would unhitch any vows, Marcia concocts a plan to give him his comeuppance. She'll throw a society party - bridge, charades and payback - where the invitees include people loved and left (and hurt) by the rakish cad. Salut, Sherry!
The sparks fly in this giddy comedy of manners (coscripted by The Philadelphia Story's Donald Ogden Stewart) starring Joan Crawford and Robert Montgomery. Most giddy of all: the cocktail-fueled witticisms of co-stars Edna May Oliver and Charlie Ruggles. No More Ladies - lots of Golden Era fun!
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(Myrna Loy is merely the bridesmaid while Rosalind Russell...)
Myrna Loy is merely the bridesmaid while Rosalind Russell assumes the bridal honors to partner with Myrna’s former flame Walter Pidgeon on this occasion. But perennial screen wife Myrna is not one to take also-ran status without many a brittle barb – or a strategy to turn the tables. Man-Proof puts star power to the test – with Myrna’s newspaper colleague/confessor Franchot Tone as the fourth headliner – and passes with flying colors, answering the burning question: Can ex-lovers separated by wedlock move on and just be friends? With smart talk and bubbly charm, it also answers another: Can good friends resist when their true romantic feelings make them slip on the same old banana peel? It’s a delicate tightrope to walk, yet Myrna knows (or thinks she does) what she wants. However, when she gets it – along with a bittersweet dose of the truth – will she still want it? Playing characters who resolutely don’t know love when they see it, these sublimely skilled actors make this tangled seriocomic web a tantalizing treat.
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(World War 1 battle action, gangster life, a love triangle...)
World War 1 battle action, gangster life, a love triangle and antiwar elements combine in They Gave Him a Gun, directed by WS. Van Dyke II (The Thin Man). As the story opens, worldly-wise Fred takes naive Jimmy under his wing at boot camp, helping the gun-shy youth he calls Hayseed adapt to the army. The two friends see action in the trenches, and Jimmy uses the marksmanship he developed to wipe out enemy machine gunners. Jimmy gets medals...and Rose, the nurse who agrees to marry Jimmy after she erroneously believes Fred has been killed in battle. Postwar, Jimmy is no longer reticent about guns and secretly is a mob hit man. Then Fred inadvertently encounters his old army pal, setting in motion events that put Jimmy’s marriage and life in the balance. Spencer Tracy gives a firm, compelling performance as Fred; Franchot Tone plays Jimmy, and, in a role that mirrors her later work in The Roaring Twenties, Gladys George is Rose.
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(The sassy daughter of a local innkeeper, Peggy O'Neill (J...)
The sassy daughter of a local innkeeper, Peggy O'Neill (Joan Crawford) uses her smarts and good looks - not to mention her close personal friendship with President Andrew Jackson (Lionel Barrymore) - to make a scandalous impression on Washington's power elite in this lavish adaptation of Samuel Hopkins Adams' bestselling novel. Co-starring a legendary leading man lineup (Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone, Melvyn Douglas and James Stewart), The Gorgeous Hussy earned two 1936 Oscar(r) nominations (Best Cinematography and Supporting Actress Beulah Bondi as the First Lady) and marked Crawford's sole sound-era appearance in a costume period piece.
Barrymore would reprise his Jackson role in 1952's Lone Star, a Clark Gable Western that was also the veteran actor's final screen performance.
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(By 1935, every movie fan in the world knew Jean Harlow as...)
By 1935, every movie fan in the world knew Jean Harlow as both a blonde bombshell and a delightful comedienne. To expand her range, the studio gave her a dramatic role in Reckless - and Harlow was a hit. She plays musical star Mona Leslie, the bride of a champagne-stewed blueblood. When he blows his brains out, Mona is suspected of his murder, igniting media frenzy. The film is also notable for its Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein title tune (Harlow, whose considerable skills didn't extend beyond acting, was dubbed and body doubled in the musical numbers), plus a cast that includes Franchot Tone, Rosalind Russell, and as a hotshot promoter, William Powell, who would become the last love of Harlow's tragically short life.
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Phantom Lady (1944) NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - France
(France released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on st...)
France released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Mono ), French ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Black & White, Cast/Crew Interview(s), Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: Unhappily married Scott Henderson spends the evening on a no-name basis with a hat-wearing woman he picked up in a bar. Returning home, he finds his wife strangled and becomes the prime suspect in her murder. Every effort to establish his alibi fails; oddly no one seems to remember seeing the phantom lady (or her hat). In prison, Scott gives up hope but his faithful secretary, 'Kansas,' doggedly follows evanescent clues through shadowy nocturnal streets. Can she save Scott in time?
...Phantom Lady (1944)
(The wartime espionage thriller FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO, star...)
The wartime espionage thriller FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO, starring Franchot Tone and Anne Baxter, marks Billy Wilder's second directorial effort. John J. Bramble Tone), the sole survivor of a British tank crew, makes his way to a desolate desert town where he is given refuge by a hotel owner (Akim Tamiroff) and a French hambermaid (Baxter) who prepare to receive General Erwin Rommel (Erich Von Stroheim) and his German staff. Posing as the hotel's waiter, Bramble attempts o infiltrate Rommel's inner circle and report the general's plans to the Allies.
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This product is expected to play back in DVD Video "play only" devices, and may not play in other DVD devices, including recorders and PC drives.
(As America despaired during the early days of the Depress...)
As America despaired during the early days of the Depression, Hollywood met the challenge with chorus girls, gangsters, romances, a few dramas of social realism and this one-of-a-kind, thoroughly astonishing fantasy: Gabriel over the White House. Walter Huston stars as a corrupt U.S. President who has a brush with an angel after a near-fatal car crash and awakens determined to right all America's wrongs - now and by any means possible. Towering like a Yankee Colossus, he sweeps Constitutional safeguards aside to tackle poverty, crime and world peace as a populist dictator, winning the adulation of a grateful nation. Gregory La Cava, who would later score OscarÒ nominations* for his work on 1936's My Man Godfrey and 1937's Stage Door, directed this grandly made, must-see curio!
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(In Java during the darkest days of World War II, an Ameri...)
In Java during the darkest days of World War II, an American pilot takes off in his squad's only air-worthy plane. His mission: drop the 500-pound bomb strapped to his plane's fuselage on a Japanese aircraft carrier. As he wings toward certain death, the airmen left behind share their comrade's life story - a stirring tale of love, ambition, political corruption and personal redemption. Part of Hollywood's war effort, this memorable programmer captures America's can-do spirit during the fight against worldwide fascism. Franchot Tone starts as the heroic pilot, and Gene Kelly makes his dramatic debut as one of the men left behind, a brash hothead who knew the doomed pilot best. Van Johnson, Kelly's pal since they worked together in Broadway's Pal Joey, has a featured role. The crisp, muscular direction is compliments of George Sidney, who would go on to direct Kelly in Thousands Cheer, Anchors Aweigh and The Three Musketeers.
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(An American heiress flees from her planned wedding to a P...)
An American heiress flees from her planned wedding to a Prince with a man whom she doesn't know is a reporter. When they steal an airplane in the process, they discover secret spy plans hidden inside that inadvertently embroil them in a spy chase.
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Suzy (DVD) 1936 - Jean Harlow, Cary Grant, Franchot Tone
(SUZY:
Luminous Jean Harlow is the heroine buffeted by fat...)
SUZY:
Luminous Jean Harlow is the heroine buffeted by fate and gives wings to the hearts of two flyboys--Cary Grant & Franchot Tone.
Fearing a murder charge, chorus cutie Suzy Trent (Jean Harlow) flees World War I era London after her new husband is gunned down by a mysterious woman. Suzy resurfaces in Paris and rediscovers happiness in the arms of an escadrille hero she later marries. Little does Suzy know, the flyboy is also a playboy.
Life jolts Suzy again when she crosses paths with a British test pilot--the spouse she left for dead in London.
Romance combines with spy intrigue. aerial dogfights and thanks to scribes that include Dorothy Parker, flashes of humor.
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain
(Spain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on sta...)
Spain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), Spanish ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), Spanish ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Black & White, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: In the Northwest Frontier of India, the 41st Bengal Lancers leaded by the harsh Colonel Tom Stone are having trouble with the rebellious leader Mohammed Khan. After two casualties, the experienced but insubordinate Lieutenant Alan McGregor receives as replacement, the arrogant Lieutenant Forsythe and the immature son of Colonel Stone, Lieutenant Donald Stone. With the intention to prove that he will not have any privilege in the troop, the reception of Colonel Stone to his son is absolutely cold, but he becomes the protégé of McGregor. When Lieutenant Stone is kidnapped by Mohammed Khan, McGregor and Forsythe disobey the direct order of their commander, disguise as Indian peddlers and go to Khan's fortress to attempt to rescue their friend. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Oscar Academy Awards, ...The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
(United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT pl...)
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Mono ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Black & White, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: In this frothy musical comedy, Ann Carter (Deanna Durbin) is an aspiring singer from the Midwest who decides to move to New York in hopes of advancing her career. Her half brother, Martin Murphy (Pat O'Brien), is already living in the Big Apple, and has told her that he's doing well as a businessman; however, when she arrives at his door, she discovers that he's actually working as a valet for Charles Gerard (Franchot Tone), a well-known composer. This is good news for Ann, since Charles could doubtlessly do a great deal to give her career a boost, but Martin is hesitant to talk to his boss about Ann. Charles is inundated with pleas from semi-talented would-be musicians all day long, and putting another in his path would earn Martin no favors. However, Martin soon has bigger worries; it seems that Charles has developed an interest in Ann which Martin is convinced has nothing to do with music. As you might expect, Durbin sings several songs, including {&"In the Spirit of the Moment,"} {&"When You're Away,"} and an aria from Puccini. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Oscar Academy Awards, ...His Butler's Sister
(One-of-a-kind stage, silent and sound star Alice Brady de...)
One-of-a-kind stage, silent and sound star Alice Brady delivers a remarkable performance alongside costar Maureen O’Sullivan in this pre-Code melodrama about a mother’s twisted love, based on a book by backstage tell-all master Bradford Ropes of 42nd Street fame. Vaudeville star Kitty Lorraine (Brady) is forced to give up her infant daughter to her in-laws after her husband’s death. Years later, when she has outgrown the boards, she sends for her innocent daughter, Shirley (O’Sullivan), and grooms her, Pygmalion-style, to be the stage sensation Kitty never was. But as Shirley matures, she enters into a romance with painter Warren Foster (Franchot Tone), a romance that Kitty twists into something sordid as she extracts a payout from Warren’s wealthy parents…beginning a pattern for both mother and daughter.
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Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone was an American stage, film, and television actor.
Background
Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone was born on February 27, 1905 in Niagara Falls, New York. He was the youngest son of Dr. Frank Jerome Tone, the wealthy president of the Carborundum Company, and his socially prominent wife, Gertrude Van Vrancken Franchot. His maternal great-grandfather was congressman Richard Franchot. Tone was also a distant relative of Wolfe Tone (the "father of Irish Republicanism"); his fourth great-grandfather John Tone was a first cousin of Peter Tone, the father of Wolfe Tone. Tone was of French Canadian, Irish, and English ancestry. Through his ancestor, the nobleman Gilbert BasqueHomme (Bascom), he was of French Basque descent.
Education
Tone received his early education at private schools, including the Hill School in Pottstown, Pa. (1919 - 1923). He then attended Cornell University, where he earned Phi Beta Kappa honors and a B. A. in Romance languages in three years (1924 - 1927). Tone also played forty different roles in a variety of drama classes while at Cornell. Following a summer of study at the University of Rennes in France, Tone returned to the United States intending to teach, but he gave in to his passion for the theater.
Career
He joined the Garry McGarry Players--a Buffalo stock company headed by his cousin, Pascal Franchot--as assistant stage manager. He first acted with the company when he replaced a juvenile lead who had become ill.
In October 1927, Tone first appeared in New York City at the New Playwrights' Theatre in The Belt. He made his Broadway debut the following year with Katharine Cornell in The Age of Innocence. From 1929 to 1931, Tone appeared in Theatre Guild productions (Red Dust, Meteor, Hotel Universe) and played his first starring role in Green Grow the Lilacs (1931).
He went with the Group Theatre when it split off from the Theatre Guild in 1931; with the Group, he appeared in The House of Connelly (1931), Night over Taos (1932), and A Thousand Summers (1932).
In 1932, Tone made his film debut in Paramount's Wiser Sex, with Claudette Colbert. Some months later, while appearing as the lead in the play Success Story (1932), Tone was signed to a five-year contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). He played Walter Huston's secretary in Gabriel over the White House (1933) and Joan Crawford's brother in Today We Live (1933). Tone then appeared in a string of MGM romantic comedies: The Stranger's Return (1933, with Miriam Hopkins), Dancing Lady (1933, with Crawford), Bombshell (1933, with Jean Harlow), Sadie McKee (1934, with Crawford), and The Girl from Missouri (1934, with Harlow). He received top billing for the first time in Straight Is the Way (1934), with Gladys George.
While on loan to other studios, Tone generally found meatier parts. He appeared in John Ford's The World Moves On (1934) at Fox; Gentlemen Are Born (1934) and Dangerous (1935) at Warner Brothers; and Henry Hathaway's The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) at Paramount, in the last-named giving one of his best performances.
After playing the midshipman in MGM's Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)--for which he received an Academy Award nomination as best actor--Tone appeared in a number of films for the studio in which his roles were routine: One New York Night (1935), Reckless (1935), No More Ladies (1935), The King Steps Out (1936), Suzy (1936), Exclusive Story (1936), and The Gorgeous Hussy (1936). In Quality Street (1937), Tone played period comedy opposite Katharine Hepburn. He was atypically cast as a vicious gangster in They Gave Him a Gun (1937). One survey placed Tone seventh among Hollywood's top ten male stars in 1937.
As an officer in the Screen Actors Guild, he earned a reputation as a "Red" among some producers because of his outspokenness. Tone's appearance in Fast and Furious (1939) marked the end of his contract with MGM; he had increasingly objected to the "stuffed shirt" roles in which the studio was casting him, and his parting with MGM was not amicable.
Tone returned to the stage in New York, appearing in The Gentle People (1939) and The Fifth Column (1940).
During the 1940's, Tone freelanced as a film actor. Though he found more varied parts, his stock in Hollywood steadily declined. Two of Tone's better films of the decade were Trail of the Vigilantes (1940) and Five Graves to Cairo (1943). Often, however, he appeared in vehicles which were shallow and, on occasion, tasteless.
Tone's film career was played out by the early 1950's. He returned to the stage, where he was sometimes able to appear in plays having the quality he desired: The Second Man in summer stock in 1950 and 1952; Oh, Men! Oh, Women! (1953) and a revival of The Time of Your Life (1955) on Broadway; Uncle Vanya (1956) off Broadway; and Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten (1957) on Broadway.
During the 1960's, Tone continued his occasional stage appearances in New York, notably in a revival of Strange Interlude (1963). There were also a few film parts, of which the most impressive was in Advise and Consent (1962), in which he played the President.
At the time of his death in New York, Tone was trying to set up a film based on Renoir, My Father, by the French painter's son, the filmmaker Jean Renoir, with himself in the title role; he had also just given up his interest in an off-Broadway theater he had hoped to use for experimental work.
Tone, a chain smoker, died of lung cancer in New York City on September 18, 1968. Crawford arranged for him to be cremated and his ashes scattered at Muskoka Lakes, Canada.
At Cornell University he was president of the drama club and was elected to the Sphinx Head Society. He also joined the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity.
Personality
Tone, who was tall, witty, intelligent, and gracefully handsome, appeared to be a perfect matinee idol for his time. He enjoyed New York's nightlife and was frequently seen in the company of beautiful women at the city's finest nightclubs.
Connections
In 1935, Tone married actress Joan Crawford. They were divorced in 1939. They made seven films together--Today We Live (1933), Dancing Lady (1933), Sadie McKee (1934), No More Ladies (1935), The Gorgeous Hussy (1936), Love on the Run (1936), and The Bride Wore Red (1937). During the time they were married, they tried to have children, but Crawford alleged that seven pregnancies ended in miscarriages.
Tone took their split hard, and his recollections of her were cynical — "She's like that old joke about Philadelphia: first prize, four years with Joan; second prize, eight. " However, many years later, when Tone was dying of lung cancer, Joan often cared for him, paying for his food and medical treatments. At one point during this period, Tone suggested they remarry. Crawford refused.
In 1941, Tone married fashion model-turned-actress Jean Wallace, with whom he had two sons and who appeared with Tone in both Jigsaw and The Man on the Eiffel Tower. They were divorced in 1948.
In 1951, Tone's relationship with actress Barbara Payton made headlines when he was rendered unconscious for 18 hours and sustained numerous facial injuries following a fistfight with actor Tom Neal, a rival for Payton's attention. Plastic surgery nearly fully restored his broken nose and cheek. Tone subsequently married Payton, but divorced her in 1952 after obtaining photographic evidence she had continued her relationship with Neal.
In 1956, Tone married Dolores Dorn, with whom he appeared in Uncle Vanya. They were divorced in 1959.