Classic Comedies (Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story, Dinner at Eight, Libeled Lady, Stage Door, To Be or Not to Be)

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (SPECIAL EDITION): Sophisticated romantic comedy achieved its pinnacle in this timeless classic voted one of the Top 100 American Films of all time by the American Film Institute. Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Best Actor Academy Award winner James Stewart star in the masterful comedy (directed by George Cukor) about a faultfinding, bride-to-be socialite who gets her comeuppance.

DINNER AT EIGHT: Dinner At Eight, a vastly entertaining behind-closed-doors glimpse into the lives of the troubled and troublemaking Who's Who of people invited to a posh Manhattan party, is served with ample helpings of humor and melodrama. Buoyed by the success of the studio's mult starred, multistoried Grand Hotel the year before, producer David O. Selznick aspired for something grander-and found it in this George Cukor-directed adaptation of the George S. Kaufman/Edna Ferber stage hit.

LIBELED LADY: Bill Chandler (William Powell) is one of America's great anglers, a sports fisherman without peer, doom in waders to the wiliest trout. And that isn't the only fish story Chandler tells. Four of Hollywood's greatest stars-Powell, Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy-reel in this whopper of a screwball romantic comedy classic nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. It all starts when society diva Loy slaps newsman Tracy with a libel suit. Tracy enlists fiancée Harlow andidown-on-his-luck Powell in a counter maneuver involving a rigged marriage, a phony seduction, a fabulously funny fishing scene, fist cuffs, broken promises, and hearts and eventually, true love for all. This Lady is one fine catch.

STAGE DOOR: Ginger Rogers and Ann Miller tap in time and rat-a-tat lines. Lucille Ball braves a date with an obnoxious lumber baron. Eve Arden can't recall Hamlet but one meets so many people in the big city. And Katharine Hepburn becomes Broadway's biggest star in a play wherein she notes "the calla lilies are in bloom again."

Stars galore shine in this nominee for 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture, a fast, witty story of aspiring actresses living at a theatrical boarding house. Based on the Edna Ferber/George S. Kaufman play, the tale was considerably rewritten for the film, so much that Kaufman quipped that it should be called Screen Door. What matters most to an acting hopeful is an open door. With humor and hart, this excellent movie suggest some things matter more.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE : The world is on the brink of war but the show must go on. So Joseph Tura, the Polish actor who put the hamiin Hamlet, stares beyond the footlights and says: "To Be or Not to Be." That is the question, as well as the classic in which director Ernst Lubitsch, whose witty "Lubitsch touch" had stylishly lampooned sex and wealth, now took on a new target: Nazism. The story centers on a Warsaw theatrical troupe that outwits Nazi occupiers by playing the roles of (and for) their lives. Jack Benny stars as Tura, underplaying hilariously. In her final role, Carole Lombard isizany and radiantias his alluring wife. Typical of Lubitsch, a gem-sprinkled ensemble has opportunities to shine. No question: watching this To Be is to be gloriously entertained!
 


Editor's Note

Six of the most highly regarded comedies ever made appear in this compilation, individually described below:

BRINGING UP BABY - A nonstop profusion of hilarious calamities, coincidences, and misunderstandings ensue when an accident-prone heiress turns a sheltered scientist's life upside down. Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant helm perhaps the greatest comedy ever filmed, featuring a script with everything from raucous slapstick to sophisticated drawing room humor, and performances so rich that the movie must to be seen to be believed. Howard Hawks directs BRINGING UP BABY with the control of a master, creating the finest and most definitive example of brilliant screwball comedy ever to reach the screen. So ahead of its time that it was a box-office failure, BRINGING UP BABY feels like it could have been made yesterday--if only two light comedy performers as phenomenal as Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn could ever be found again.

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY - Katharine Hepburn portrays heiress Tracy Lord, pursued as she prepares for her wedding by an ex-husband (Cary Grant) and a scandal-sheet reporter (James Stewart in his Oscar-winning supporting role). The light comedy, based on the play by Phillip Barry, was first a Broadway sensation with Hepburn, who acquired the screen rights, claimed the starring role, and chose the director (George Cukor), screenwriter, and lead cast.

DINNER AT EIGHT - This poignant 1930s comedy features nearly flawless performances by an all-star cast under the deft direction of George Cukor. Based on the successful play by Edna Ferber and George Kaufman, DINNER AT EIGHT is the tale of a socially scheming Park Avenue hostess (Billie Burke) who performs a series of clever manipulations to bring about a dinner party for an aristocratic English couple. Wallace Beery, Marie Dressler, Jean Harlow, and both John and Lionel Barrymore show up at the party.

LIBELED LADY - A conniving newspaper editor (Spencer Tracy) uses his fiancee (Jean Harlow) and an ex-employee (William Powell) to get the goods on a hot-headed heiress (Myrna Loy) in this superb ensemble light comedy.

STAGE DOOR - The Footlights Club, the primary setting for much of the film, is a remarkable creation. The result of a collaboration between director Gregory La Cava, screenwriter Morrie Ryskind, and an outstanding group of tough, smart-talking young actresses played by Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, Eve Arden, and Gail Patrick, the film's club is always full of noise, as the conversations overlap and wisecracks come spinning out of the melee.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE - A black comedy set in wartime Poland which deals with the members of an acting troupe who inadvertently become involved in the war effort against the Nazis. Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, and a young Robert Stack play the leads in this classic directed by the great Ernst Lubitsch.