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Rated: G (General Audience)
Staring:
Elaine May
,
Walter Matthau
,
Jack Weston
,
George Rose
,
James Coco
Director:
Elaine May
Based on Jack Ritchie's short story "The Green Heart"
[Note: some music has been changed for the home video version of this title.] This widely-admired film prompts many questions. Would the original 3-hour version have been better, with its unsavory murders? Or has the film benefited from the studio's pruning of Elaine "Ishtar" May's artistic liberties? Can a life devoted entirely to leisure be satisfying? Or must there be meaningful purpose behind one's existence? Are there really members of the upper crust who need to be vacuumed daily? Is Henrietta in fact only a pretend simpleton?
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![In the Spirit [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51G7AEKHY2L._SL160_.jpg "In the Spirit [VHS]")
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Rated: R (Restricted)
Staring:
Jeannie Berlin
,
Olympia Dukakis
,
Peter Falk
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Melanie Griffith
,
Elaine May
Director:
Sandra Seacat
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![A New Leaf [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4149CFAA7XL._SL160_.jpg "A New Leaf [VHS]")
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Rated: G (General Audience)
Staring:
Walter Mathau
,
Elaine May
,
Jack Weston
,
James Coco
,
Jess Osuna
Elaine May wrote, directed, and starred in this acidic comedy about a wealthy playboy (Walter Matthau) who discovers that he has nearly spent all of his fortune. Casting about for a solution to his money problems that won't actually involve work, he finds a desperate solution: He'll marry an heiress (May) for her fortune. The hitch: She's a social maladept ("The woman is feral," Matthau growls). Indeed, Matthau finds marriage so intolerable that he decides there's only one course of action, which is to actively pursue making himself a widower by bumping her off. An offbeat, funny, and dry film, with a wonderfully misanthropic performance by Matthau and a sharply drawn one by May. --Marshall Fine
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![Luv [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X6HMT3ZZL._SL160_.jpg "Luv [VHS]")
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Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Staring:
Jack Lemmon
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Peter Falk
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Elaine May
,
Nina Wayne
,
Eddie Mayehoff
Director:
Clive Donner
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![Cats [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515J2DN8YTL._SL160_.jpg "Cats [VHS]")
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Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Staring:
Elaine Paige
,
John Mills
,
Ken Page
,
Rosemarie Ford
,
Michael Gruber
Director:
David Mallet
This pop-cultural phenomenon has been performed on stage for more than 50 million patrons in 26 countries for almost 18 years, churning more than $2 billion in ticket sales. Now that Cats has finally made it to the small screen, attention must be paid not just by fans of this critic-proof show, but also by those entertainment mavens who have somehow avoided Cats until now. The video version has been restaged but, alas, not really reconceived for its new medium. The video cast, assembled from London, Amsterdam, and New York productions, is competent. Ken Page as Old Deuteronomy, Jacob Brent as Mr. Mistoffelees, and Elaine Paige--the original London Grizabella, the Glamour Cat well past her prime--are a great deal more than that. Paige has toned down her theatrical belting of her big number, "Memory," and allowed the faded ruin of her character's soul to prevail in close-up. For all the "covers" of her signature song, Paige's version remains definitive. The video is, by definition, more intimate, not always a good thing: costumes are even more Halloweeny in garish close-up, the cats less cuddly without that all-important interaction, the stage's appropriately midnig...
List Price: $14.98 |
Our Price: $1.99 |
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![San ren shi jie [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GXMPJJEDL._SL160_.jpg "San ren shi jie [VHS]")
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Staring:
Lowell Lo
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Elaine Jin
,
Ching-Ho Law
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Wing-Cho Yip
,
Dennis Chan
Director:
Stephen Shin
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![Cats - The Musical (Commemorative Edition) [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5192A0B795L._SL160_.jpg "Cats - The Musical (Commemorative Edition) [VHS]")
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Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Staring:
Elaine Paige
,
John Mills
,
Ken Page
,
Rosemarie Ford
,
Michael Gruber
Director:
David Mallet
This pop-cultural phenomenon has been performed on stage for more than 50 million patrons in 26 countries for almost 18 years, churning more than $2 billion in ticket sales. Now that Cats has finally made it to the small screen, attention must be paid not just by fans of this critic-proof show, but also by those entertainment mavens who have somehow avoided Cats until now. The video version has been restaged but, alas, not really reconceived for its new medium. The video cast, assembled from London, Amsterdam, and New York productions, is competent. Ken Page as Old Deuteronomy, Jacob Brent as Mr. Mistoffelees, and Elaine Paige--the original London Grizabella, the Glamour Cat well past her prime--are a great deal more than that. Paige has toned down her theatrical belting of her big number, "Memory," and allowed the faded ruin of her character's soul to prevail in close-up. For all the "covers" of her signature song, Paige's version remains definitive. The video is, by definition, more intimate, not always a good thing: costumes are even more Halloweeny in garish close-up, the cats less cuddly without that all-important interaction, the stage's appropriately midnig...
List Price: $9.98 |
Our Price: $5.22 |
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![California Suite [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MYG54J54L._SL160_.jpg "California Suite [VHS]")
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Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Staring:
Jane Fonda
,
Alan Alda
,
Maggie Smith
,
Michael Caine
,
Walter Matthau
Director:
Herbert Ross
The West Coast answer to Neil Simon's Plaza Suite, this film (written by Simon and directed by Herbert Ross) has a high Hollywood gloss. Instead of the omnibus form of the film of the New York version, this film (set at the Beverly Hills Hotel) intertwines the stories (à la Grand Hotel) of several different sets of guests, including Alan Alda and Jane Fonda and Walter Matthau and Elaine May, on one particularly eventful weekend. The story that works best involves Maggie Smith and Michael Caine as an Oscar-nominated actress and her straying, gay husband who come to an understanding (Smith won the Oscar for this film). The least effective is a slapsticky battle between well-to-do but competitive doctors played by Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor. --Marshall Fine
List Price: $9.98 |
Our Price: $4.87 |
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![Enter Laughing [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510QA2STE1L._SL160_.jpg "Enter Laughing [VHS]")
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Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Staring:
José Ferrer
,
Shelley Winters
,
Elaine May
,
Jack Gilford
,
Janet Margolin
Director:
Carl Reiner
A modest but pleasant comedy based on Carl Reiner's semi- autobiographical novel about how he got into show business. David, a nice young Jewish boy from the Bronx (played, oddly enough, by nice young Italian boy Reni Santoni), is a delivery boy for a machinist, but aspires to be an actor. Finally summoning up his courage to answer an audition notice, he gets cast because the leading lady (Elaine May) thinks he's the cutest of the candidates, despite the dour misgivings of her actor father (the gloriously histrionic José Ferrer). David's parents don't want him to do it; his boss doesn't want him to do it; his girlfriend, though initially supportive, becomes jealous of the leading lady. But David persists, leading to many amusing mishaps on opening night. Santoni has settled into a long career as a supporting character actor, but the supporting cast of Enter Laughing is pretty star-studded; in addition to May and Ferrer, there's Shelley Winters (as David's long-suffering mom), Michael J. Pollard, Don Rickles, Jack Gilford, and even a cameo by Carl's son, Rob, who went on to success as "Meathead" on TV's All in the Family and as director of movies such as This Is Sp...
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![In the Spirit [VHS]](http://g-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/video/icons/video-no-image.gif "In the Spirit [VHS]")
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Rated: R (Restricted)
Staring:
Marlo Thomas
,
Elaine May
,
Jeannie Berlin
,
Olympia Dukakis
,
Peter Falk
Director:
Sandra Seacat
List Price: $14.99 |
Our Price: $22.55 |
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