Warner Gangsters Collection.

Finding this boxed set at Costco for $42 brought the unit cost to
$7 per movie -- just a little bit more than Wal-Mart's bargain bin
specials.

Here is my ranking of the titles.

_White Heat_ (****)
One of James Cagney's best. Lots of action. Pure entertainment.
Virginia Mayo is easy on the eyes. Steve Cochran's first role as Virgina
Mayo's boyfriend -- the first was in _The Best Years Of Our Lives_.

_The Public Enemy_ (***½)
James Cagney, Mae Clark and Jean Harlow. This flick set gangster
movie standards for years to come.

_The Roaring Twenties_ (***) Cagney excels, this time with Humphrey
Bogart, as they rise above a routine script.

_Angels with Dirty Faces_ (***)
The Bowery Boys meet Jimmy Cagney.

_Little Caesar_ (***)
Good non-Cagney film. This creaky talkie has its moments.

_The Petrified Forest_ (½)
The only throwaway disk in the box. Humphrey Bogart's constant
sneering is not enough to save this boring, stagey melodrama. Leslie
Howard dies in the last scene, which isn't anywhere near soon enough.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...v=glance&s=dvd

One-Shot Scot

"Derek Janssen" <> wrote in message
news:15UKd.2468$...
> One-Shot Scot wrote:
>
> > _The Petrified Forest_ (½)
> > The only throwaway disk in the box. Humphrey Bogart's
> > constant sneering is not enough to save this boring, stagey
> > melodrama. Leslie Howard dies in the last scene, which isn't
> > anywhere near soon enough.
>
> ...Do they include the WB cartoon that parodied it?


The Cartoon on _The Putrefied Forest_ is "The Coo Coo Nut Grove."

The others are:

_White Heat_: "Homeless Hare"

_The Public Enemy_: "Smile, Darn Ya, Smile"

_The Roaring Twenties_: "Thugs With Dirty Mugs"

_Angels with Dirty Faces_: "Porky and Daffy"

_Little Caesar_: "Lady Play Your Mandolin"

One-Shot Scot

One-Shot Scot wrote:

> _The Petrified Forest_ (½)
> The only throwaway disk in the box. Humphrey Bogart's constant
> sneering is not enough to save this boring, stagey melodrama. Leslie
> Howard dies in the last scene, which isn't anywhere near soon enough.

....Do they include the WB cartoon that parodied it?

Derek Janssen

Derek Janssen

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 13:06:46 -0800, "One-Shot Scot" <>
wrote:

>_Angels with Dirty Faces_ (***)
> The Bowery Boys meet Jimmy Cagney.

Actually it was The Dead End/East Side Kids






"Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game
because they almost always turn out to be -- or to be indistinguishable from
-- self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time."
- Neil Stephenson, _Cryptonomicon_

Allan

"Allan" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 13:06:46 -0800, "One-Shot Scot" <>
> wrote:
>
> >_Angels with Dirty Faces_ (***)
> > The Bowery Boys meet Jimmy Cagney.
>
> Actually it was The Dead End/East Side Kids


You're absolutely right. Too bad this was pre-widescreen. Watching all
of those kids try to stay crammed into the 4:3 frame makes me
claustrophobic. It is almost as bad as seeing the cast of McHales Navy
always standing on top of each other.

http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet.../McHales_Navy/

Another mistake was this:

_White Heat_ (****)
One of James Cagney's best. Lots of action. Pure entertainment.
Virginia Mayo is easy on the eyes. Steve Cochran's *first* role as
Virgina Mayo's boyfriend -- the first was in _The Best Years Of Our
Lives_.

Should have read: "Steve Cochran's _second_ role..."

One-Shot Scot

"Derek Janssen" <> wrote in message
news:G3ZKd.2892$...

>>>_The Petrified Forest_ (½)
>>> The only throwaway disk in the box. Humphrey Bogart's
>>>constant sneering is not enough to save this boring, stagey
>>>melodrama. Leslie Howard dies in the last scene, which isn't
>>>anywhere near soon enough.
>>
>>...Do they include the WB cartoon that parodied it?
>
> The Cartoon on _The Putrefied Forest_ is "The Coo Coo Nut Grove."

<<Can't recall the title, but there's an early 30's
audience-at-the-movies cartoon where we see onscreen a looney parody of
"Pute-rified", with Leslie Howard and Bette Davis caricatures:>>

<Poet Leslie reading one of his works:>
"'Mary had a little ham'...er, 'a bit of jam'...'a litter'--well,
anyway, she had a goat."

> The others are:
>
> _White Heat_: "Homeless Hare"
>
> _The Roaring Twenties_: "Thugs With Dirty Mugs"

<<..D'OHH!!--WHEN are they going to move these to the Looney Box 3??
>_< >>

<<("Slick Hare" managed to be salvaged from "High Sierra", but "Bacall
to Arms" is still theme-exiled to "To Have and Have Not"...)>>


I can't recall ever seeing The Putrefied Forest cartoon.

If Warner keeps doing this, the cartoon collection DVDs will never be
complete. I can't decide if putting isolated cartoons on movie discs is
mere stupidity or a clever marketing strategy.

Probably the latter.

One-Shot Scot

One-Shot Scot wrote:

>>>_The Petrified Forest_ (½)
>>> The only throwaway disk in the box. Humphrey Bogart's
>>>constant sneering is not enough to save this boring, stagey
>>>melodrama. Leslie Howard dies in the last scene, which isn't
>>>anywhere near soon enough.
>>
>>...Do they include the WB cartoon that parodied it?
>
> The Cartoon on _The Putrefied Forest_ is "The Coo Coo Nut Grove."

Can't recall the title, but there's an early 30's audience-at-the-movies
cartoon where we see onscreen a looney parody of "Pute-rified", with
Leslie Howard and Bette Davis caricatures:

<Poet Leslie reading one of his works:>
"'Mary had a little ham'...er, 'a bit of jam'...'a litter'--well,
anyway, she had a goat."

> The others are:
>
> _White Heat_: "Homeless Hare"
>
> _The Roaring Twenties_: "Thugs With Dirty Mugs"

...D'OHH!!--WHEN are they going to move these to the Looney Box 3?? >_<

("Slick Hare" managed to be salvaged from "High Sierra", but "Bacall to
Arms" is still theme-exiled to "To Have and Have Not"...)

Derek Janssen

Derek Janssen

One-Shot Scot wrote:

>>The others are:
>>
>>_White Heat_: "Homeless Hare"
>>
>>_The Roaring Twenties_: "Thugs With Dirty Mugs"
>
> <<..D'OHH!!--WHEN are they going to move these to the Looney Box 3??
>
>>_< >>
>
> If Warner keeps doing this, the cartoon collection DVDs will never be
> complete. I can't decide if putting isolated cartoons on movie discs is
> mere stupidity or a clever marketing strategy.

Although I may have to rent "Roaring" just to watch "Thugs" again:

Edward G Robinson caricature: "Nice haul, boys, see?--We made a clean
getaway, nyah....<to camera> Say, I do a pretty good Eddie Robinson
don't I, nyah? And I can do Fred Allen, too...Just listen: <pinches
nose> 'Heheh, hellooo, and welcome to Town Hall Tonight--'"
Thug: "--Aw, c'mon, Killer, quit showin' off!"

Derek Janssen

Derek Janssen

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005, One-Shot Scot wrote:

> _Angels with Dirty Faces_: "Porky and Daffy"

This was the big bonus for me...a black and white Clampett (for some
reason, Warner retained the rights to the B&W Looney Tunes...and only
released them one or two at a time...if only Turner had gotten them for
laserdisc...)

And of course, it's hilarious. For someone who lives in Cartoon
Network-less Canada, these are a real treasure.

swac

Stephen Cooke