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Letter from an Unknown Woman [VHS]

Letter from an Unknown Woman [VHS]

Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Staring: Joan Fontaine , Louis Jourdan , Mady Christians , Marcel Journet , Art Smith
Director: Max Ophüls
"By the time you read this letter, I may be dead," reads aging bon vivant Louis Jourdan from a letter found in his tiny hotel room. With tousled hair and a tux tired from yet another night of meaningless flirtation, he's startled by these opening lines and suspends his preparations to flee a duel in order to read the history of a love affair that he can't remember. For the rest of the film we're transported to the life of Joan Fontaine's awkward young Viennese woman, who has been hopelessly enthralled by the dashing pianist ever since adolescence. For a moment she was his lover, the emotional pinnacle of her life but for the philandering rogue simply another fling in a blur of women passing through his bedroom. This was Max Ophüls's first personal project in Hollywood, and he injects this exquisitely stylish romantic melodrama (based on a novel by Stefan Zweig) with his continental sensibility. Both lush and restrained, the endlessly moving camera tracks, cranes, and circles around the characters while maintaining a measured distance. Fontaine delivers one of the best performances of her career, vulnerable and yearning without lapsing into sentimentality--and ultimately showing a ...
List Price: $14.98 Our Price: $69.99
Maverick [VHS]

Maverick [VHS]

Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Staring: Mel Gibson , Jodie Foster , James Garner , Graham Greene (II) , Alfred Molina
Director: Richard Donner
The joined-at-the-hip team of director Richard Donner and star Mel Gibson (all the Lethal Weapon movies and Conspiracy Theory) had obvious fun resurrecting the Wild Western comedy television series about a roguish rambler-gambler. Gibson assumes the role of cardsharp Bret Maverick, equally quick with a pair of aces and a pair of guns. Good sport James Garner (who played Maverick on TV) takes another role, as a lawman who travels alongside the hero to a big-money poker game on a riverboat. The real peach in this fruit salad of satire and broad jokes, however, is Jodie Foster, who plays a crafty Southern belle quite adept at poker herself. Sexy, funny, and (from the onscreen evidence) a great kisser, Foster has never been more of a delight. Written by William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). The DVD release offers production notes, optional French and Spanish soundtracks, and optional full-screen or widescreen viewing. --Tom Keogh
List Price: $9.98 Our Price: $0.98
Scott Joplin [VHS]

Scott Joplin [VHS]

Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Staring: Billy Dee Williams , Clifton Davis , Margaret Avery , Eubie Blake , Godfrey Cambridge
Director: Jeremy Kagan

List Price: $9.98
Air America [VHS]

Air America [VHS]

Rated: R (Restricted)
Staring: Mel Gibson , Robert Downey Jr. , Nancy Travis , Ken Jenkins , David Marshall Grant
Director: Roger Spottiswoode
Air America is one of those movies that could have been great, and now maintains its low-key reputation as a typical Mel Gibson film in the wake of his first two Lethal Weapon hits. Originally conceived as a biting black comedy about the CIA's top-secret smuggling operation in Laos during the Vietnam war, Air America lost most of its political sting when it was transformed into an action comedy for Gibson and costar Robert Downey Jr. The film is entertaining as far as it goes, with a few action sequences that explain where a lot of the budget went. If you're in the mood for some Mel, this one is a little off the beaten path, and still contains a percentage of its original potential. --Jeff Shannon
List Price: $14.98 Our Price: $2.99
The Last American Hero [VHS]

The Last American Hero [VHS]

Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Staring: Jeff Bridges , Valerie Perrine , Geraldine Fitzgerald , Ned Beatty , Gary Busey
Director: Lamont Johnson

List Price: $59.98 Our Price: $34.89
The Night They Saved Christmas [VHS]

The Night They Saved Christmas [VHS]

Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Staring: Jaclyn Smith , Art Carney , Paul Le Mat , Mason Adams , June Lockhart
Director: Jackie Cooper

List Price: $9.98 Our Price: $38.00
State of the Union [VHS]

State of the Union [VHS]

Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Staring: Spencer Tracy , Katharine Hepburn , Van Johnson , Angela Lansbury , Adolphe Menjou
Director: Frank Capra
State of the Union is somewhat better as a Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn movie than it is as a Frank Capra picture. No doubt about it, these are two good roles for the smitten stars: Tracy is a self-made businessman reluctantly drafted into a dark-horse presidential candidacy; Hepburn is his estranged but whip-smart wife, who joins him on the campaign trail. Adding intrigue is the newspaper heiress (played with relish by baby-faced Angela Lansbury) who's the cause of their marital problems. She's also the one who convinces a longtime political horse-trader (Adolphe Menjou) to take up the campaign--which leads to a series of compromises for the candidate.

The Capra flavor is here, in the paeans to liberty and the American Way, and in the crackling pacing of dialogue scenes. Capra's affection for supporting players is also evident, with standout stuff from Menjou, Van Johnson (as a cynical aide), Lewis Stone, and Raymond Walburn. But the film's roots as a hit play (by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse) are a little too evident, and the film as a whole doesn't feel as bracingly Capraesque as the director's 1930s work. Having said that, the political satire is as relevant ...
List Price: $19.98 Our Price: $2.95

Weekend Warriors [VHS]

Weekend Warriors [VHS]

Rated: R (Restricted)
Staring: Chris Lemmon , Lloyd Bridges , Vic Tayback , Graham Jarvis , Brian Bradley
Director: Bert Convy

List Price: $14.99 Our Price: $55.09
Native Son (1986) [VHS]

Native Son (1986) [VHS]

Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Staring: Victor Love , Matt Dillon , Elizabeth McGovern , Geraldine Page , Oprah Winfrey
Director: Jerrold Freedman

List Price: $14.95
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes [VHS]

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes [VHS]

Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Staring: Jerry Anderson , Don Birch , Eric Christmas , Tom Coleman (II) , Art K. Koustik
Movies with "wacky" titles are almost never any good, and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! was intentionally made to be an instant golden turkey. Despite that, and the grade-Z production values, this is a regularly funny film. You need to be a fan of the kind of low-budget horror movie it's spoofing, and you need to be very forgiving of the technical ineptness and frequent clunkers, but it works. The story? Well, tomatoes attack, basically. Jack Riley and the San Diego Chicken are in it, and that genuinely alarming helicopter crash you see in an early scene was a real accident. Seen now, the whole ratty affair brings back agreeable memories of the circa-1978 college-movie/midnight-cinema era, when seeing this film was virtually unavoidable. The sequel, Return of the Killer Tomatoes! (with a young George Clooney), is actually an even funnier film. Director John De Bello would continue to squeeze the Tomatoes franchise for years to come. --Robert Horton
List Price: $9.99 Our Price: $1.50