Motion Picture Masterpieces Collection (David Copperfield 1935 / Marie Antoinette 1938 / Pride and Prejudice 1940 / A Tale of Two Cities 1935 / Treasure Island 1934) Digital Life DVD

Motion Picture Masterpieces Collection (David Copperfield 1935 / Marie Antoinette 1938 / Pride and Prejudice 1940 / A Tale of Two Cities 1935 / Treasure Island 1934)
starring: Edna May Oliver, Elizabeth Allan, Jessie Ralph, Harry Beresford, Freddie Bartholomew
directed by: George Cukor, Hugh Harman, W.S. Van Dyke

List Price: $49.98

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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 0012569793712
Format: Box set, Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, NTSC
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 5
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: October 10, 2006
Running Time: 635 minutes
Sales Rank: 22760
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: August 26, 1938

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Product Description:
MARIE ANTOINETTE The woman who was France! Norma Shearer and Tyrone Power headline an opulent saga of royalty and revolution. DAVID COPPERFIELD Based on the best-selling book by Charles Dickens. W.C. Fields is Micawber and Freddie Bartholomew is young David in a splendid version of Dickens' most autobiographical work. A TALE OF TWO CITIES From the famed author Charles Dickens. 'It was the best of times it was the worst of times.' Ronald Colman stars in the lavish story of the French Revolution...and one man's redemption. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE Based on the best-selling book by Jane Austen. Mr. Darcy (Laurence Olivier) sets maiden hearts aflutter - except for that of unimpressed Elizabeth Bennett (Greer Garson). Austen's masterwork! TREASURE ISLAND Based on the unforgettable book of the same title by Robert Louis Stevenson. Avast me hearties for the swashbuckler about a boy with a treasure map - and a pirate (Long John Silver) with a scheme. The Champ's Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper reunite!Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 012569793712 Manufacturer No: 79371

Amazon.com:
For an accurate look at how things were at MGM in the glory days, go directly to Motion Picture Masterpieces, a DVD box with five literary-minded A-list productions. MGM liked to think of itself as the studio of class, and its highbrow aspirations (mixed with plenty of old-fashioned hokum) are on lavish display in this collection.

Louis B. Mayer ran the studio, and boy wonder Irving Thalberg supervised production. However, another strong-willed producer, future Gone with the Wind CEO David O. Selznick, was responsible for guiding a pair of highly enjoyable Dickens adaptations, both released in 1935. David Copperfield is a wonderful condensation of the sprawling novel, crammed with memorable evocations of Dickens' roster of eccentrics. Freddie Bartholomew, who became a star with this role, plays the young David; equally indelible are W.C. Fields as Mr. Micawber, Basil Rathbone as Murdstone, and especially Edna May Oliver as Besty Trotwood. Director George Cukor's empathy and craftsmanship keep the movie humming with Dickensian wit. A Tale of Two Cities followed shortly thereafter, with Ronald Colman in one of his signature roles as the drunken romantic Sydney Carton, whose throttled love for the beautiful Lucie Manette leads to the French Revolution's guillotine. Jack Conway directs in tight, brisk fashion, and once again the supporting cast (Oliver and Rathbone return from Copperfield) is flavorful.

The French Revolution also figures in the rather preposterous Marie Antoinette (1938), an eye-popping production about the bride of Louis XVI. The project was a pet of Thalberg and his wife Norma Shearer, and MGM proceeded with the overstuffed production even after Thalberg's early death. Marie gets an extramarital affair (with the young Tyrone Power) and an incredible parade of gowns and wigs, but not too much blame for the peasants starving. Robert Morley steals the show as Louis XVI, with John Barrymore in rascally form as his grandfather. Shearer's ordinariness somehow fits her out-of-it character.

Treasure Island (1934) casts Jackie Cooper as young Jim Hawkins and Wallace Beery as that one-legged seadog, Long John Silver (the pair had scored a huge hit in The Champ three years earlier). This is a lot of people's favorite adaptation of the marvelous Robert Louis Stevenson novel, and Victor Fleming's manly directing approach manages to take some of the sheen off the MGM house style (by the way, art director Cedric Gibbons, credited on all these films, is one of the stars of the box set).

Pride and Prejudice (1940) is a respectable take on Jane Austen's oft-filmed novel, with Greer Garson as the headstrong Elizabeth Bennet and Laurence Olivier as the difficult Mr. Darcy. MGM liked to corset Garson in fine-lady roles, but here she lets some of Elizabeth's sauciness come through; actually, Olivier's elaborate performance is the movie's too-theatrical weak spot. But boy, does this movie tell a good story--and that's rather the point of these (Marie excepted) solid literary adaptations. --Robert Horton

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- MGM Great Classics!
These movies are some of the masterpieces of the 30s and for Pride and Prejudice, 1940. While Hayes led his objection to the immorality of the movies, the studios tried to fend him off with upstanding works of art. MGM didn't fall down on the job. The films here begin in 1934 with Treasure Island. This film looks better than I've ever seen it and it was wonderful to see Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper together as they were in The Champ. The films from 1935 were both Christmas releases with David O. Selznick's stamp on it, David Copperfield and A Tale of Two Cities. We get to see Freddie Bartholomew as the young David Copperfield and W.C. Fields as his great friend. It is a very nice movie. A Tale Of Two Cities is even better with Ronald Coleman as Sydney, the man who changes places for Lucy, the woman he loves so she can have her husband saved from the guillotine. Marie Antoinette is a moving, huge Norma ... Read More

Rating:

- Classics!
These are delightful. Note especially that this version of Pride and Prejudice is a much better version than the import. A treat for everyone!

Rating:

- Beloved Classics
I wish I had waited for DVD before I taped these classics. On DVD they are truly beautiful the way the original film makers intended them. Too bad they are not here to see their masterpieces restored and treasured.

Rating:

- Glad I bought this
Excellent movies and the extra's ( trailers, cartoons etc) are an added bonus. Worth every penny.

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