Reviews (1)

Great story on the making of Universal Studios
This is one of the most entertaining and exciting videos I have ever seen about the history of Universal Studios. Richard Dreyfus (American Graffiti, Jaws) hosts the video, he looks back and explores Universal Studios from how the theme park all started, and its challenges to become the best Studio in Hollywood. The Universal Story covers their best films such as JAWS, the Abbott and Costello movies, E.T. The Extraterrestrial, Jurassic Park, and much much more. The video also includes rare, never-before-seen extra footage from movies, and special interviews from Steven Spielberg (director of JAWS, Saving Private Ryan), Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator), Paul Newman (The STING), Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan) and more. Overall this video was well put together and I wouldn't mind spending another 2 hours watching this masterpiece! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

a whirlwind through a lifetime
With lots of little clippings from Spencer Tracy's tremendous career, this might feel like you are rushing through his works in a spaceshuttle. For people who have seen lots of his films, this will be a happy reunion. If you are not familiar with it, you'll be a bit startled and maybe even confused, for his talent is so outspoken and you'll easily get eager to learn more about his extraordinairy life and work. There are bits from his Oscar-winning films: Captains Couragous, Boys Town and Guess who's coming to dinner, and also of the films he is remembered for in a much different way: Bad day at Black Rock, Judgement at Nuremberg and others.
Friends and collegues give their opinion about him, all in the most respectfull way: Garson Kanin, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Angela Lansbury and many more.
If you are a big fan of the screen-team Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn, this will be a feast for sore eyes. Katharine Hepburn reveals much of herself in her presentation, especially when she reads her letter to him, which is filled with love and the pain she must have felt when he died. (at least: I didn't keep it dry...)

Definately a must have for the Tracy (& Hepburn) fan!!! ... Read more

Description

Suffused with tenderness, lucidity, and humor, Samuel Beckett's Happy Days is a comedy in pure, music-hall style. Legendary three-time Tony Award-winning actress Irene Worth (Lost in Yonkers) stars as Winnie, an optimist who--deep down--senses she has little to feel "happy" about, though she never allows a day to pass without looking her best and hoping for better. Worth gives a tour-de-force performance as she chatters incessantly and cheerily on a variety of subjects, portraying Winnie as the embodiment of humankind's nobler virtues: wise, just, majestic, and committed to her conviction that "this will have been a happy day." ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Essential and timeless: a perfect marriage of two artists
One of Beckett's most profound and moving plays is also one of his funniest.

Irene Worth, one of the world's greatest stage actresses, embodies one of theater's greatest female roles with both a lyrical tenderness and a deep sensuality.There is, in fact, nothing overblown or stagy about her performance: Worth is the quintessential Winnie. Famous for her deeply intelligent interpretations and blessed with a marvelously resonant voice, she is the ideal actress for a part that requires so little physicality and so much vocal depth. She understands every word of Beckett's text, and conveys her understanding with every breath she takes.

To say she is too "theatrical" and to ridicule the pronunciation of her name are pitifully inaccurate and pitifully beside the point.

The recording of her performance in this great play is a marvelous document to possess.

The brilliance of Beckett and Worth
Irene Worth was a great actress. When teamed with Samuel Beckett's words, it is an experience to be treaured. True, Beckett is not for everyone. But for anyone with a brain, a heart, a soul, and a sense of humanity, Beckett connects. Those who don't "get" Beckett tend to hate Beckett and that's too bad. For the rest of us, Beckett hits a chord, creates a visceral reaction, illuminates the abyss. And Miss Worth (whose name was pronounced Irene-y, just as it is in England, where she spent a great deal of her career) is simply delightful to watch, as she always was. She combines the sadness, optimism, coyness, despair, beauty, and humour that is Winnie, in a way that few actresses could hope to do.

Well...
... I saw this production at the Public many years ago and the "great" Miss Worth (Irene-y, as she was pretentiously called) didn't seem to understand a single word of what she was saying. Even the simplest lines were delivered in a bloated actorese. Broadway acting at its most self-important and awful. How could the dvd possibly be any good? ... Read more

Amazon.com

In 1985, 16 years before her memoir became the basis for the television film Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, Lorna Luft narrated this documentary focusing on her mother's "second career" following her years at MGM. The 59-minute retrospective (reduced from its original 90 minutes) collects comments from family and colleagues, shows clipsfrom concerts at the London Palladium, Carnegie Hall, and the Palace Theater, a previously unseen 30-second scene cut from her famous comeback film, A Star Is Born, and scenes from her short-lived TV show.

Not surprisingly, some of the footage spotlights Garland's affection for her kids: she shares the stage at the Palladium with Liza Minnelli and appears with Lorna and Joe Luft at the Palace and sings to them on her TV show. And while many of the songs are shown only in brief clips, there are a number of complete performances, including a duet with Barbra Streisand of "Get Happy" and "Happy Days Are Here Again," her dramatically charged rendition of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" following JFK's death, "Ol' Man River," and "The Man That Got Away." And of course "Over the Rainbow" is here, in a 1955 performance that is the only TV recording of how she performed the song in concert: sitting on the edge of the stage, face-to-facewith the audience. And it's a credit to Garland that even in hobo makeup, she lets the raw emotion of the song pour through. --David Horiuchi ... Read more

Reviews (8)

OUTSTANDING !....Worthy of the Greatest of them all...JUDY!!
If you're trying to decide whether to purchase this collection of Judy's best concert years performances, or JUST JUDY from the Judy Garland Show Collection, grab THIS collection and run, while it's still available. I own them both, and this one outclasses JUST JUDY in every way, especially if you have one of the new digital Widescreens and use a DVD player with Progressive Scan. JUST JUDY is a high tech, restored black and white presentation. However, in obtaining this remarkable pristeen clarity, the black and white is so vivid and harsh, it virtually removes all of Judy's makeup, even to the point of Judy's side teeth appearing as though there is a 1/8th black gap between each tooth! Oh, yes, and I mustn't forget the wrinkles, and heavy black eye shadow that contributes to Judy's stark appearance. Even the sound is far superior. BUY THIS DVD. YOU WON'T BE SORRY!!!

Great Film... Buy the DVD, not the VHS version
I am a big fan of Judy Garland, and this is one of my favorite Judy films, even though this was made in 1985, long after she passed away. Hosted by Judy's daughter, Lorna Luft,this movie overviews her career from 1951-1969, also known as "The Concert Years", and shows performances from The Judy Garland Show, The London Palladium, Carnegie Hall, and The Palace. They show parts of scenes from her movies, including "A Star is Born" and "Till the Clouds Roll By", but the film is mostly highlighting her concerts and TV years; not her movie career. (Extra on the DVD includes the A Star is Born premiere) The affection for her three kids are indeed shown in this film; performing with Liza at the London Palladium, and singing to her younger children, Lorna and Joe, on her TV show is also a great part of the film. Some other stars that shared the stage with her in this movie are Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, Ethel Merman, Bob Newhart, Danny O'Connor, and of course Liza Minnelli. Some musical highlights are "The Man that Got Away", "Ol' Man River", "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (on her show after JFK was assassinated), "Happy Days Are Here Again/Get Happy" (with Streisand), "Chicago", "Smile", "Get Happy", "You Made me Love You", "The Trolley Song", "For Me and My Gal", "Swanee", "San Francisco", and many others. And of course, her signature "Over the Rainbow" is there, filmed from her 1955 TV special, and the only existing film of Judy as she performed her song for hundreds of concerts; sitting on the edge of the stage, singing her heart out, tears on her cheeks, in her "little tramp" outfit. Extras are commentary by friends and family such as Sid Luft, Lorna Luft, Joe Luft, Tony Bennett, Mort Lindsey, and others. This is definitely a must have for any Judy Garland fan.

JUDY AT HER GREATEST!
There are no words adequate to express the thrill of watching this DVD. Every song a winner, beautifully arranged and performed. Incredible guests. And above all, the most stirring rendition of "The Battle Hymn Of The republic" ever recorded.

Living in Europe, I had to buy a special DVD player in order to watch this, and it was worth every cent. This is a must have for any Judy Garland fan.

Finally, the Complete Broadcast
When I saw this show on PBS back in '85, I didn't have a VCR, and after I got one, I looked forward to the day when the show would be made available on tape. When it finally did become available, I was pretty ticked to find out that a third of it had been cut (who knows why).

When the DVD came out, I was a bit reluctant to buy it because it was so inexpensive. I figured that all that had been done was to transfer the tape to DVD. But, for the money, why not? Tapes don't last forever. So I went ahead and gave it a shot.

I am both surprised and pleased, therefore, to announce that the DVD is in fact the complete broadcast, just shy of 90 minutes, not just a transfer of the tape, which is only 59 minutes, and the quality is everything you'd expect from a DVD.

Understand, though, as has been noted in other reviews, that this is called The Concert Years for a very good reason: the emphasis is on Judy's concert performances, not her movie roles. Therefore, there are very few movie clips. Likewise, this is not a biography, though there is a fairly liberal sprinkling of biographical material along with archival footage that you probably will not have seen elsewhere (such as her first appearance on film at age 7).

Unfortunately, very little was filmed of her concerts. It is amazing to me that, given the popularity of TV by the mid-fifties, it never occurred to anybody to capture some of these performaces, not just on television, but on broadway (imagine having a professional film of the Carnegie Hall performance). Therefore, the "concert" footage used is mostly from her television show which, granted, did try to recreate to a large extent the concert experience and did run during the middle of her concert years.

However, with only a couple of exceptions, whoever put this together exercised excellent judgement and chose those performances which show Judy at her best, e.g., Ol' Man River, Chicago, Smile, As Long As He Needs Me. And, yes, the DVD is worth buying just to get her "little tramp" performance of Over The Rainbow, performed in concert.

The point of the whole thing is to show how Judy performed in front of a live audience, and the DVD does just that.

This is the real deal, all almost-90 minutes of it. And there's stuff here you won't find anywhere else. Highly recommended.

The Essential Judy Moment
You must see this doc for one reason - the very end. The very last song is Judy singing Over the Rainbow dressed as a tramp in her 1955 special. The picture has a harsh contrast and is a bit grainy, and Judy's voice is rough from emotion and strain, but none of that matters. She stops being Judy, the starved movie star and becomes Judy, aching soul of humanity. Every time I watch it I get goosebumps. The preceeding 90 minutes isn't bad and in fact its flaws - over-sentimental narration by Lorna Luft, white-washing Sid Luft's faults, heavy reliance on footage from the Judy Garland Show - kind of heighten the final effect. There are lots of great moments; 'Old Man River' and 'The Man that Got Away' are stand outs, also the first known footage of the Gumm Sisters and short bootleg filmclips of Judy at Carnegie Hall. This one is a great compilation to have. ... Read more