 | |
List Price: $59.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 13888
Released: February 3, 2009 |
| Our Price: $37.99 |
| Used Price: $36.96 |
|
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
|
Editorial Review:
SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty are young lovers ripped apart by the repressive small-town mentality of 1920's Kansas. SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL Helen Gurley Brown’s book shoved aside, title used to exploit fairly amusing tale of smut-magazine editor, Tony Curtis wooing notorious female psychologist, Natalie Wood. INSIDE DAISY CLOVER Daisy Clover is a 15 year old Tomboy who dreams of being a Hollywood star - and succeeds! After becoming the toast of Hollywood, Daisy must then come to terms with her new found fame and the 1930's Hollywood star treatment. GYPSY (Deluxe Edition) Everything comes up roses when you let Rosalind Russell, Natalie Wood and Karl Malden entertain you in the lavish movie musical of the Broadway hit about Gypsy Rose Lee and her formidable mother. BOMBERS B-52 A love story between army pilot Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. and Natalie Wood, despite the objections of Ms. Wood’s sergeant father. Riveting aerial footage of jet plane maneuvers. CASH MCCALL James Garner is a capitalist in the grip of merger mania, and Natalie Wood is the woman he wants and the daughter of the man whose company he seeks to acquire.
Description of Natalie Wood Collection (Splendor in the Grass / Sex and the Single Girl / Inside Daisy Clover / Gypsy / Bombers B-52 / Cash McCall):
The inclusion of the inside-Hollywood exposé Inside Daisy Clover in this boxed set underscores the somewhat melancholy legacy of a once-bright star, Natalie Wood, who always seemed just a bit overwhelmed by the manufactured nature of cinematic success. The Natalie Wood Collection groups six pictures from the middle phase of Wood's career, when she was one of the biggest female stars in the movies. The earliest film, Bombers B-52, is from the ingénue stage, with Wood cast as the daughter of meat-and-potatoes military lifer Karl Malden, and romanced by supposedly dashing (but fatally wooden) flyboy Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. Smoothly directed by Gordon Douglas, the movie's got some fine footage of airplanes, if it lacks excitement in other aspects. Cash McCall (1959) is an oddball time capsule, with James Garner as a Donald Trump-like business buccaneer and Wood as the woman who doesn't want to love him. The plotline is a stupefying tale of corporate intrigue, but the supporting cast is flavorful. Wood turned a corner with her Oscar-nominated role in Splendor in the Grass (1961), Elia Kazan's classic about an ill-fated 1920s love story between fragile Wood and small-town prince Warren Beatty (his first big-screen role). The real-life affair between the two stars fuels the tangible passion of the movie, which has one of the most affecting final reels of this era. Gypsy (1962) is on everybody's shortlist of greatest Broadway musicals (songs by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim), and the movie version doesn't disappoint. Wood, rarely more gorgeous, plays the vaudeville child trouper who would grow up to be the legendary stripper Gypsy Rose Lee; Rosalind Russell is her monstrous stage mother. Sex and the Single Girl (1964) borrows its title from the best-selling Helen Gurley Brown advice book. The movie is a vintage (practically antique) Sixties sex farce, with Tony Curtis as a writer for a dirty magazine who wants to discredit a prominent psychologist and expert on sex (that's Natalie). Director Richard Quine uncorks some amusing sight gags, and Henry Fonda and Lauren Bacall add class, but the movie leans too much on leering. Finally, Inside Daisy Clover (1966) is a jaundiced tale of a Judy Garland-like tomboy sent through the Hollywood wringer as a synthetic starlet. Wood is spirited in the lead role, Christopher Plummer is snakelike as a studio boss, and Robert Redford enjoys himself as a devilish movie star. But the film almost chokes on its own cynicism (the film's basically one long demonstration of how audiences are suckers), despite the intelligence of director Robert Mulligan & co. It's impossible not to relate the storyline to Wood's own curious career, and she looks as though she's found a role to identify with completely. Extras in the set are minimal, but prints are uniformly fine. --Robert Horton
Natalie Wood Collection (Splendor in the Grass / Sex and the Single Girl / Inside Daisy Clover / Gypsy / Bombers B-52 / Cash McCall) Reviews:
Natalie Wood box set 
2009-10-13 - I love all of her movies, but these are some of the very best.
Everything arrived promptly and in it's stated condition.
Thanks!
Another collection 
2009-10-03 - One of the biggest marketing successes of the last few years was the creation of these DVD "collections" of borderline movies that probably would realize small sales if they were offered independently. Just place a sexy picture of the star on the case and you're in business.
None of the movies in this package are outstanding, and yet none of them are real clunkers either. They're just average. Even "Splendor in the Grass," which is the most acclaimed of the lot, is slow and somewhat talky.
Unless you are a die-hard Natalie Wood fan, you're probably going to be less than pleased purchasing this bundle.
Lightning rod for issues of sex and marriage 
2009-08-25 - Gorgeous Natalie Wood was a huge star in the late 50s and early 60s, and she became a lightning rod for issues of sex and marriage at a time when the sexual revolution was just starting and these issues were coming out of the shadows.
Without a doubt, the most important movie in the set is "Splendor in the Grass", a top drawer classic directed by Elia Kazan. Not only is this Natalie Wood's finest role, period, but Warren Beatty premiered in this movie and he hit the ground running. This is a bittersweet Romeo and Juliet story about family and peer relationships that remains relevant for all time, and it moves so quickly and passionately to tell it's ironic and poignant story. Kazan's economy of storytelling is most unusual and quite literary, especially by today's standards. The story structure and editing are as tight as any film ever made, and nothing ever, ever gets bogged down.
Pat Hingle as Bud's overbearing father is unforgettable. There are so many great character actors from the period, but an often overlooked one is Kermit Murdock as Dean Pollard (at Yale), who finds himself sandwiched in between the father's desires and those of Bud. As the story moves forward, Bud's father becomes increasingly desperate to maintain control of Bud, but instead loses control of his own life. That confrontation between Ace Stamper and Dean Pollard in the Dean's office very nicely juxtaposes the 1929 stock crash with the clash over academic goals. "What's the matter with people?" Ace says, even as his own irrationality is quite apparent.
Cash McCall is another movie in the set, with James Garner as a millionaire industrialist. The whole movie is about mergers and takeovers in the television manufacturing business. Natalie plays Cash McCall's love interest, and once again the sexual mores of the early 60's bring on shades of shame, embarassment and conscience which you will seldom find today.
Aside from the beautiful Natalie Wood, and James Garner in the prime of his career, the full bevy of character actors in Cash McCall are almost more fun to watch than the lead actors.
Roland Winters as General Danvers specializes in avuncular mischief and rank indignation. Edward Platt (George Kaplan's attorney from North by Northwest) is fascinating to watch, even with a toupee on his head. And Parley Baer, E. G. Marshall, Olan Soule, and Dean Jagger are also terrific to see in this fresh and vital look at American industry in it's heyday. What I'd like to know is what the heck happened to American manufacturing of domestic products like televisions? And why did all the money and man power end up going into government and military technologies?
You might find part of the answer in the third movie in the set, Bombers B-52, a post-Korean War epic, brought to you through the courtesy of the Military-Industrial Complex, starring Natalie, Karl Malden, and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. It is the earliest release of the movies in the set, with a gorgeous, elegiac score by Leonard Rosenman.
The story of a father and a suitor who battle for Natalie's love dovetails somewhat awkwardly with the B-52, the massive aircraft which is an icon-like technology presence in the movie. While Efrem Zimbalist falls in love with Natalie, the audience is supposed to fall in love with the B-52.
The footage of the enormous B-52 is impressive and ideally suited to the massively wide Cinemascope format, and obviously Warner Bros and the Air Force worked hand in hand to bring us this ode to military technology and Cold War supremacy.
Efrem and Natalie are really good, but Karl Malden as Master Mechanic Sergeant Chuck V. Brennan, the righteous man with all the tools, truth, and integrity, is generally annoying and more or less weighs the movie down.
Yet for all it's flaws and a campy story that plods along, I like this movie because it evokes the 50's and the Cold War so well. It recalls a time, almost forgotten, when fighting the Commies was just about what everybody drew their next breath for. And when, after ten years of the Great Depression and almost as many years of war and scary conflict, luxurious material things were a real novelty and something to appreciate and even discuss.
Inside Daisy Clover is a well-produced but peculiar tale of stardom, with a most unsatisfying ending. A miscreant, disobedient "flower-child" of the 30's, Clover (Natalie) is adopted by a Hollywood movie mogul, played wonderfully by Christopher Plummer in his usual smug and self-confident mold, but the movie somehow lobotomizes Miss Clover's transformation into a star. That most important part of her metamorphosis is neatly left out of the story! She is pulled off the street, and the next thing we know, she appears at her movie premiere in a full length gown, with thousands of fans, yet not quite sure why she is there.
Natalie, Plummer, and Robert Redford are cool to watch, but the story is really weird. Nevertheless, this is an entertaining, if bizarre, film. Some parts of it are pretty good.
The 5th movie in the set, "Gypsy", I found unwatchable because I can't tolerate most musicals -- mostly because I find in musicals formalized obsessive-compulsive behavior. But when an actor starts singing -- forget it, I just completely lose my suspension of disbelief.
On to the final movie in the set, "Sex and The Single Girl", a comedy starring Natalie and Tony Curtis. Natalie runs a sex and love research institute and Tony is a reporter from a tabloid magazine trying to discredit her methods, ostensibly by pretending to seek help from her with his own love life. The Neil Hefti score, the costumes, the locations, and the generally silly mood date this movie to exactly 1964.
Henry Fonda and Lauren Bacall are embarassingly bad as a disharmonious middle-aged couple, but I guess they're SUPPOSED to be bad. Now Tony and Natalie -- they're something else.
Tony Curtis is kind of a sleazy stand-in for Cary Grant, but on the other hand, he's perfect for this role, and very handsome fodder for Natalie, who is at her luscious best.
But the madcap craziness will get excessive at times, especially the big "car chase" sequence at the end of the movie, with it's nutty dual-floating-cars-in-front-of-a-rear-projection-screen-with-dialogue shots. If you don't mind the excessive and vapid zaniness, Sex and The Single Girl is a very entertaining bit of silly fluff that takes itself pretty seriously.
Natalie Wood Collection
2009-05-26 - Nice to have movies of Natalie Wood that they don't
show on t.v. anymore. Sex and the Sinlge Girl is a
very good comedy she did with Tony Curtis who she also
star with in The Great Race. I recommend this collection
to any Natalie Wood fan.
Natalie Woods Special Collection
2009-03-22 - Finally three of her movies are out on DVD, Cash McCall, Bombers B-52 and Sex and The Single Girl. All are great in my humble opinion. the others are fine as well.
Chuck B
