10 best warner romance movies collections

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8 Hilarious War Time Classics starring Bing Crosby Abbott & Costello, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Charlton Heston, Tony Curtis and more! Buck Privates: Two con artists (Bud Abbott and Lou Costello) accidently enlist in the U.S. Army to avoid getting arrested. In the Navy: A pair of sailors (Bud Abbott and Lou Costello) must help a famous crooner keep his identity secret. Here Come the Waves: A popular entertainer (Bing Crosby) gets drafted in the Navy and immediately sails into choppy romantic seas with identical twin sisters. Hail the Conquering Hero: Ashamed for being discharged, an ex-Marine (Eddie Bracken) dupes his hometown into thinking he is a war hero. Caught in the Draft: Despite his efforts to avoid the draft, gun-shy movie star (Bob Hope) finds himself bungling his way through basic training. Francis Joins the WACS: A clerical mishap places ex-G.I. Peter (Donald O’Connor) back into the service…this time in the Woman’s Army Corps unit! Private War of Major Benson: After getting into trouble, a tough officer (Charlton Heston) is transferred to a military academy where he is horrified to learn his new recruits are young boys. The Perfect Furlough: A corporal (Tony Curtis) is granted a furlough for three weeks of fun and romance – including constant supervision by a beautiful military psychologist (Janet Leigh)!

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Wartime Comedies 8-Movie Collection

Synopsis

8 Hilarious War Time Classics starring Bing Crosby Abbott & Costello, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Charlton Heston, Tony Curtis and more!

• Buck Privates: Two con artists (Bud Abbott and Lou Costello) accidently enlist in the U.S. Army to avoid getting arrested.
• In the Navy: A pair of sailors (Bud Abbott and Lou Costello) must help a famous crooner keep his identity secret.
• Here Come the Waves: A popular entertainer (Bing Crosby) gets drafted in the Navy and immediately sails into choppy romantic seas with identical twin sisters.
• Hail the Conquering Hero: Ashamed for being discharged, an ex-Marine (Eddie Bracken) dupes his hometown into thinking he is a war hero.

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Best of Warner Bros. 20 Film Collection Romance (DVD)

20 Romance Movies on 22 Discs! Broken out into 3 chapters:

1950-1965 (Unforgettable Affairs)

· Annie Get Your Gun (1950)

· A Streetcar Named Desire: The Original Director’s Version (1951/1993)*

) · Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

· Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

· Splendor in the Grass (1961)

· Doctor Zhivago (1965)

1973-2008 (Modern Romance)

· A Touch of Class (1973)

· A Star Is Born (1976)

· The Goodbye Girl (1977)

· The Bodyguard (1992)

· You’ve Got Mail (1998)

· Two Weeks Notice (2002)

· The Lake House (2006)

· Nights in Rodanthe (2008)

1938-1942 (Timeless Love)

Also includes a 24-Page Booklet. *Original release/subsequent release · Jezebel (1938)

· Gone with the Wind (1939)

· The Philadelphia Story (1940)

· Casablanca (1942)

· Mrs. Miniver (1942)

· Now, Voyager (1942)

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Note: This title is available in Four disc set and Double disc set.



Four Disc set: Movies are consistent with the the disc titles.



The Double disc set contains discs that could be played on both the sides.



Disc 1: Side A - The Lake House

          Side B - Two Weeks Notice

Disc 2: Side A - Practical Magic

          Side B – In Love And War

Product features

4 Film Favorites: Sandra Bullock (In Love and War, The Lake House, Practical Magic, Two Weeks Notice)

IN LOVE AND WAR:

In war they found each other...In each other they found love…

After being wounded during World War I, a 19-year-old military ambulance driver named Ernest Hemingway (Chris O'Donnell) falls in love with his 26-year-old nurse Agnes Von Kurowsky (Sandra Bullock).

Directed by Richard Attenborough, the true story of In Love and War tells the passionate tale between the two that Hemingway would write about a decade later in his>A Farewell to Arms.

THE LAKE HOUSE:

Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves reunite to star in this romantic tale of two people who find a love strong enough to span the years separating the couple living in The Lake House. As lonely Dr. Kate Forster (Bullock-Crash) exchanges letters with architect Alex Wyler (Reeves-Matrix films), a correspondence grows into love, but the two realize that they are living in the same house two years apart. To be together, they must unravel the mystery behind their extraordinary romance-knowing that their quest may destroy the link that has allowed them to fall in love.

PRACTICAL MAGIC:

Enchanting international superstars Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman sparkle in this wry, romantic tale of two sisters who discover the gift of Practical Magic. In a small, contemporary New England town, for two sisters from a family of witches, falling in love is the trickiest spell of all. They struggle to use their gift for magically guiding fate to overcome their family curse: The men they fall in love with are doomed to an untimely death!

TWO WEEKS NOTICE:

Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock star as smart, charming and undeniably self-absorbed millionaire George Wade and George's overworked, underappreciated, multi-tasking chief counsel, Lucy Kelson. For five years Lucy has been treated more like a nanny than a Harvard-trained lawyer, chosen George's clothes, arranged his divorce, lost sleep and gained an ulcer, but now she's calling it quits. She gives George her Two Weeks Notice.

George finally agrees to let her go... if she finds her own replacement. After a challenging search, Lucy hires an ambitious young lawyer (Alicia Witt) with an obvious eye for her new boss. Now, as she joins her devoted boyfriend (Mark Feuerstein - "Good Morning, Miami") for an adventure at sea, Lucy is finally free of George. Or is she? With Lucy sailing out of his life, George must decide if it's ever too late to say "I love you."

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Looney Tunes: Golden Collection, The (DVD)

They're the crown princes of animation. They're the international ambassadors of cartoon comedy. They're the fabulously funny friends you grew up with! And now, 56 of the very best animated shorts starring the very wackiest Warner Bros. cartoon characters have been rounded up on DVD for the first time ever in The Looney Tunes Golden Collection! Just barely contained in four special edition discs, each specially selected short has been brilliantly restored and re-mastered to its original, uncut, anvil-dropping, laughter-inducing glory! Featuring some of the very earliest, ground-breaking on-screen appearances of many all-time Looney Tunes favorites, it's an unprecedented celebration for cartoon-lovers eager to re-live the heady, hilarious, golden age of Warner Bros. animation! Sparkling with one unforgettable, landmark animated marvel after another, there's that icon of carrot-crunching aplomb, Bugs Bunny, in a dazzling assortment of his very best classic shorts. Also highlighted in their own delightfully zany series of cartoon gems: the ever-flustered Daffy Duck and eternal straight-man Porky Pig. Plus, all the rest of the beloved Looney Tunes lineup starring in some of the most wildly imaginative cartoon shorts ever created! Including an array of exclusive bonus DVD features from expert commentaries to insights into the evolution of these classic characters, this is the ultimate animated experience for anyonewho's ever thrilled to the timeless query: "Ehhh? what's up, Doc?"

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For years, animation buffs have waited impatiently for the Warner Bros. cartoons to appear on DVD. The Warner shorts never commanded the budgets and prestige of the Disney and MGM films, and won fewer Oscars than they deserved. But decades after the best ones were created, they remain the quintessential Hollywood cartoons: brash, fast-paced, aggressively funny and uniquely American. Virtually everyone in the U.S. under the age of 60 grew up on these films, in theaters and on TV. The 56 cartoons in the set (out of a studio output of over 1,000) were transferred from good prints--which means the viewer can see dust, scratches, and occasional mistakes by the cel painters. The films are all presented uncut, in defiance of the killjoys who have insisted on censoring alleged "violence" in the versions shown on television. Warner Bros. is obviously testing consumer response with this set. Although the erratic selection includes many classics, purists will argue (correctly) that it offers neither a fair representation of the directors' oeuvres, nor anything approaching a coherent history of the characters or studio style. (Nearly half the films were directed by Chuck Jones; only three are by Bob Clampett, and there's nothing by Tex Avery or Frank Tashlin.) But it seems petty to carp about omissions and biases when the discs offer excellent, uncensored prints of some of the funniest films ever made in the U.S.--or anywhere else. (Rated G, suitable for all ages: cartoon violence) --Charles Solomon

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The Golden Age Takes Center Stage!

Featuring Rita Hayworth, Ingrid Bergman, Judy Holliday!

CONTENTS:

THE SOLID GOLD CADILLAC

Starring: Judy Holliday, Paul Douglas

an entertaining ride New York Times, Bosley Crowther

A delightful comedy about a woman taking on the fat cats of the business world.

WE WERE STRANGERS

Starring: Jennifer Jones, John Garfield, Pedro Armendariz

Intense, Intriguing. Leonard Martin

An explosively intense, action-suspense thriller about a small band of Cuban revolutionaries who fall in love.

ANGELS OVER BROADWAY

Starring: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Rita Hayworth

Rita Hayworth is outstanding in the most exacting role she has (played)... The Hollywood Reporter

When a gangster and a dancer team up in a swindle scheme, they get more than they bargained for.

MUSIC IN MY HEART

StarringL Tony Martin, Rita Hayworth

Rita Hayworth is pure gold AMG Review, Craig Butler

Hearts and taxicabs collide when Bob and Patricia miss their midnight boat for Europe.

THE MARRYING KIND

Starring: Judy Holliday, Aldo Ray

genuinely and touchingly comic. Newsweek

A groundbreaking blend of comedy, fantasy and tragedy which chronicles a young couple on the verge of divorce.

IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU

Starring: Judy Holliday, Peter Lawford, Jack Lemmon

a tickling and touching entertainment with intelligence, compassion and lots of gags. New York Times, Bosley Crowther

When Gladys becomes a celebrity she realizes she must decide between her boyfriend and her exciting new life.

ADAM HAD FOUR SONS

Starring: Ingrid Bergman, Warner Baxter

remains engrossing Reel Film Reviews, David Nusair

A young girl keeps a family from destroying itself when she comes into their home to serve as a governess.

DOWN TO EARTH

Starring: Rita Hayworth, Larry Parks

packs quite a wallop. AMG Review, Craig Butler

A musical comedy about an angelic muse, incensed at the notion that Broadway is going to portray her as a modern living sexpot.

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5FF: Nicholas Sparks (DVD)

The gift of romance for movie lovers everywhere. For the first time ever on Digital, own the best films from the acclaimed Nicholas Sparks stories. THE LUCKY ONE U.S. Marine Sergeant Logan Thibault returns from his third tour of duty in Iraq, with the one thing he credits with keeping him alive—a photograph of a woman he doesn’t even know. THE NOTEBOOK Love is forever. Two couples – one young, one old – explore the mysteries of devotion in this transcendent story. Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, Gena Rowlands and James Garner star. A WALK TO REMEMBER She (Mandy Moore) is a preacher’s daughter. He (Shane West) is a rebel. But romance finds a way to bring the high-schoolers together in a tender, treasured tale to remember. MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE She found his heartfelt message. Can she find a way into his grieving heart? A touching story of love lost and found starring Kevin Costner, Robin Wright Penn and Paul Newman. NIGHTS IN RODANTHE A sheltering love. As a nor’easter approaches, the two inhabitants (Richard Gere and Diane Lane) of a coastal inn find strength in each other…and a romance that rebuilds their troubled hearts.

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5FF: Nicholas Sparks (DVD)

THE LUCKY ONE:

Returning from his third tour of duty in Iraq, U.S. Marine Sergeant Logan Thibault (Zac Efron - 17 Again, New Year's Eve) credits his survival to carrying a photograph of a woman he's never met (Taylor Schilling). Seeking her out in North Carolina, he shows up at her door and takes a job at her family-run kennel. Despite her initial mistrust and hesitation, a romance soon develops between them, giving Logan hope that she might become more than his good luck charm. Based on the bestselling book by Nicholas Sparks (A Walk to Remember), and directed by Oscar nominee Scott Hicks (No Reservations, Shine, Snow Falling on Cedars), this romantic drama spins a timeless tale of love and destiny.

A WALK TO REMEMBER:

In the little port town of Beaufort, North Carolina, Landon Carter recalls his senior year in high school... and the girl who made him believe in his dreams. Serious, self-confident and strong in faith, Jamie Sullivan does not concern herself with peer pressure. Aimless, reckless and superficial, Landon leads the cool kids, taunting anyone who doesn't meet their standards--including Jamie. When circumstances force these two opposites together, Landon and Jamie discover that the power of love can transform an ordinary life into one worth living.

THE NOTEBOOK:

In Seabrook, North Carolina in the 1940s, teenaged debutante Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams) and local boy Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) spend one passionate, carefree summer together and deeply in love. But when the summer ends, war and duty separate the young couple. Today, an elderly man (James Garner) visits a nursing home to read from his notebook to a woman (Gena Rowlands) whose memory is fading. As he spins a tale of two young lovers with their whole lives before them, his beloved Allie relives a long-ago passion that has never died, an unbreakable bond between two ordinary people rendered extraordinary by the strength, power and beauty of true love.

NIGHTS IN RODANTHE:

Adrienne Willis (Diane Lane) is a woman with her life in chaos, who retreats to the tiny coastal town of Rodanthe in the Outer Banks of North Carolina to tend to a friend’s inn for the weekend. Here she hopes to find the tranquility she so desperately needs to rethink the conflicts surrounding her-a wayward husband who has asked to come home, and a teenaged daughter who resents her every decision.

Almost as soon as Adrienne gets to Rodanthe, a major storm is forecast and Dr. Paul Flanner (Richard Gere) arrives. The only guest at the inn, Flanner is not on a weekend escape but rather is there to face his own crisis of conscience. Now, with the storm closing in, the two turn to each other for comfort and, in one magical weekend, set in motion a life-changing romance that will resonate throughout the rest of their lives.

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE:

Grieving widower Garret Blake builds boats for a living. Theresa Osborne, a lonely divorcee and researcher for the Chicago Tribune, tracks down Garret after finding a message he wrote inside a bottle on a Cape Code beach and profoundly touched her heart.

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The Tom Selleck Western Collection (DVD)

A collection of Tom Selleck's greatest westerns including: Monte Walsh, Last Stand at Saber River and Crossfire Trail.

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Warner Gangsters Collection Volume 3 (DVD)

PICTURE SNATCHER (1933): An admirably tough B-picture enlivened by an energetic James Cagney performance, Picture Snatcher stars Cagney as Danny Kean, a former gangster who has decided to go straight after a stretch in the big house. Danny has fallen for Patricia (Patricia Ellis), the daughter of the cop who put him away (Robert Emmett O'Connor). Dad isn't convinced that Danny has left his life of crime behind him, and he isn't too impressed with his new career taking pictures for a sleazy tabloid newspaper. Between getting a lurid photo of a fireman in front of a burning building (where his wife and her lover met their fate) and a daring shot of a woman being executed (based an actual incident when a New York Daily News photographer got a photo of Ruth Snyder in the electric chair), Danny's work is selling papers but hardly making Officer O'Connor think his daughter is in good hands (especially since he was in charge of press security for the execution). Short, sweet and sassy, Picture Snatcher is the sort of gutsy fare Warner Bros. did best in the 1930's; Ralph Bellamy turns in a great supporting performance as Danny's boozy editor LADY KILLER (1933): Based on the novel by Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter stars Alan Arkin as John Singer, who is deaf. Singer moves from a small town in order to be close to his institutionalized deaf and mentally impaired friend Antonapoulos (Chuck McCann). Singer rents a room with a family whose father, Mr. Kelly (Biff McGuire), is unable to earn a living due to a serious injury. His teen-aged daughter Mick (Sondra Locke, in her film debut) is at first resentful of Singer's presence, but he ingratiates himself by introducing her to classical music (which he can "feel," if not hear). Singer likewise tries to brighten the lives of such unfortunates as alcoholic Blount (Stacy Keach Jr., also making his first film appearance), dying black doctor Copeland (Percy Rodriguez), and Copeland's poverty-stricken daughter (Cicely Tyson). SMART MONEY (1931):Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney were teamed for the only time in their careers in Smart Money. Robinson has the larger part as a small-town barber who fancies himself a big-time gambler. He travels to the Big City in the company of his younger brother Cagney, who wants to make sure that Robinson isn't fleeced by the high-rollers. Unfortunately Robinson has a weakness for beautiful blondes, most of whom take him for all his money or betray him in some other manner. The cops aren't keen on Robinson's gambling activities, but they can pin nothing on him until he accidentally kills Cagney in a fight. The incident results in a jail term for manslaughter, and a more sober-sided outlook on life for the formerly flamboyant Robinson. Watch closely in the first reel of Smart Money for an unbilled appearance by Boris Karloffas a dope pusher. BLACK LEGION (1937): Factory worker Frank Taylor believes that he has missed out on a deserved promotion when it is instead given to a Polish immigrant. Angry and looking for a scapegoat, he is an ideal mark for the Black Legion, an underground group who want to get rid of immigrants and racial minorities through violent means. Frank joins the Legion, and with his new friends, he dons black robes and drives the Polish family from their home. His aim achieved, Frank gets his job, but soon the Legion begins to take up more of his time and money, and turns his character darker and darker. He leaves his wife, begins to drink heavily, and soon is on a downward spiral. MAYOR OF HELL (1933): Five members of a teen-age gang, including leader Jimmy Smith, are sent to the State Reformatory, presided over by the melodramatically callous Thompson. Soon, Patsy Gargan, a former gangster appointed Deputy Commissioner as a political favor, arrives complete with hip flask and blonde. Gargan falls for activist nurse Dorothy and, inspired by her, takes over the administration to run the place on radical principles. But Thompson, to conceal his years of graft, needs a quick way to discredit Gargan. BROTHER ORCHID (1940): A gangster escapes an attempt on his life by rival mobsters, and hides out in a monastery. He pretends that he is interested in becoming a monk so that the Brothers will let him stay while he plots his revenge. However, the kindness of the monks gradually changes him and he resolves to turn over a new leaf and reject his violent past.

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The third volume of the Warner Gangsters Collection can be heartily endorsed--just so you emphasize the "Warner" and go light on the "Gangsters." Warner Bros. was the feistiest studio in 1930s Hollywood and these movies exemplify its street savvy, proletarian gutsiness, and drive. Warners was also home to the classic gangster cycle, from Little Caesar and The Public Enemy through The Roaring Twenties (all included in Volume 1)--but none of the six films in Volume 3 bears more than a tangential connection to that cycle. Yes, every picture boasts one or more of Warner Bros.' "Murderers Row" stars: Edward G. Robinson toplines in two of the half-dozen films, Humphrey Bogart is featured in two, and James Cagney skitters through no fewer than four. And there's lashings of lawbreaking, raffishness, and tough talk--albeit a lamentable shortage of tommy guns. But Brother Orchid is a gangster spoof, the Cagney vehicles feature scalawags rather than mobsters, and the "gang" in Black Legion, although dangerous and despicable, has nothing to do with organized crime.

The best movies of the bunch fall farthest from the gangster family tree. Picture Snatcher (1933) is exemplary early Cagney, 77 hard-charging minutes with the favorite son of the Lower East Side as a brash ex-con determined to go straight. How straight is a delicate question, since his job is scoring sensational photos for a raunchy tabloid. Picture Snatcher was made before the Production Code cast its puritanical shadow over Hollywood, and the script features two memorably morbid sequences--Cagney's debut as a literal picture snatcher, and the snapping of a clandestine prison-death-house photo--as well as abundant opportunities for risque byplay, gallows humor, and freewheeling amorality. Lloyd Bacon (soon to direct Cagney in Footlight Parade) makes yeoman work of it all, even getting away with scenes in the newspaper's restroom, and staging a last-reel shootout ferocious enough to be worthy of a real gangster movie.

Humphrey Bogart wasn't yet a star when he appeared in Black Legion (1937), but among his pre–High Sierra assignments at Warners, here's a rare one in which he doesn't play second or third fiddle to Robinson, Cagney, and/or Pat O'Brien. It's a surprisingly powerful social-consciousness fable, in the muckraking tradition of I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. Bogart plays a working-class family man with his eye on promotion to factory foreman; when the job goes instead to a co-worker with a foreign-sounding name, Bogart's character--basically a decent guy--gets drawn into a secret, Ku Klux Klan–like organization espousing "America for Americans" and ready to stomp anyone deemed less than "real 100-percent American." (Such groups weren't exactly rare at the time, as the commentary track details--nor are their sentiments unfamiliar today.) Robert Lord's original screen story was Oscar nominated, and the screenplay is careful to make Bogart's actions understandable and also to create a whole community of characters affected by the Black Legion's atrocities. The finale is uncompromising, with a last shot like a fist to the chest. Archie Mayo directed; Bogart's fellow name-below-the-title players include Erin O'Brien-Moore (impressive as his wife), Dick Foran, Joe Sawyer, and future star Ann Sheridan in her first Warners film.

Edward G. Robinson spent a lot of his Warner years resisting Little Caesar typecasting, and Smart Money (1931) is a fascinating case in point. Although the story of "Nick the Barber" recalls elements of Robinson's starmaking hit, the actor insisted on script modifications so that Nick, a compulsive gambler, emerges as a sympathetic character--and a fatally soft touch where women are concerned. His itinerary takes him from small-town barbershop with an after-hours game in the back to operating his own swank casino in the big city, but he never comes off as a criminal except by prissy legal technicality. Directed by Alfred E. Green, the movie marks the sole occasion of Robinson and Cagney working together. Really, it's Robinson's picture--though Jimmy the Gent outshines him in a classic scene where they discuss a woman's attributes ... in mime.

In Lloyd Bacon's Brother Orchid (1940), it's Bogart who's relegated to supporting status while Robinson plays "Little John" Sarto, a comic variant of guess-who who decides to retire as mob boss and pursue "class" by collecting art in Europe (an inside joke on Robinson's real-life standing as art connoisseur?). After blowing his fortune, Sarto attempts to reclaim his old job, which his former lieutenant (Bogart) isn't about to give up. Taken for the proverbial ride, Little John escapes and finds shelter among the Floracians, a monastic order devoted to "beautifying the lives of men with flowers." Thus is "Brother Orchid" set on the path to spiritual rebirth--after settling some old business, of course. Robinson agreed to make this gangland comedy if Warners let him star in a pair of historical biopics, Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet and A Dispatch from Reuter's--his own pursuit of class, perhaps. It was a good deal all around. Brother Orchid also features Ann Sothern as Sarto's patient moll, Ralph Bellamy in one of his trademark amiable-sap roles, Donald Crisp and Cecil Kellaway among the horticultural monks, and a funny, Runyonesque screenplay by Earl Baldwin.

The final entries, two more from Jimmy Cagney's busy year of 1933, both suffer from weak scripts. Archie Mayo's The Mayor of Hell focuses on the plight of inner-city youth sent to reform schools where they're more likely to be destroyed than rehabilitated. We get a full two reels of setup (featuring troubled lad Frankie Darro, soon to star in Wild Boys of the Road) before Cagney shows up 24 minutes in, as a political hack whose newly won sinecure of "deputy commissioner" includes token responsibility for Peakstown State Reformatory. A former slum kid himself, he evolves from "What do I have to do to make things look regular?" to taking an active interest in his charges, at the mercy of a warden (Dudley Digges) who's both corrupt and sadistic. An absurdly pain-free revolution reforms Hell for a fleeting moment, till a subplot involving Cagney's larcenous interests sidelines him and opens the way for a violent and anarchic climax. Roy Del Ruth's Lady Killer is much lighter fare, with Cagney as a movie-theater usher who falls victim to a con game, then joins in the scam and soon is running the outfit. When one ornate caper results in a bystander getting hurt, Cagney has to hop a train two steps ahead of the law. At the other end of those train tracks is Hollywood, where he catches the eye of someone from Central Casting who thinks he'd make a good gangster type in the movies. Full-fledged stardom is only a reel change away--whereupon that old gang of his comes sniffing around. Some of this is diverting, some is just sloppy; the film gives the impression of having had different writers assigned from scene to scene. However, the satiric jabs at Hollywood are fun, and Cagney, as always, has his lyric moments.

All the films in the set look spiffy, and each comes with a "Warner Night at the Movies" package of cartoons, trailers, and sometimes other short subjects. The full-length commentary tracks range from fanboy blither (Picture Snatcher, alas) to authoritative testimony, with Anthony Slide and Patricia King Hanson offering socio-historical insights on Black Legion and veteran noiristes Alain Silver and James Ursini paying close attention to matters of style and nuance on Smart Money (though one of them twice misstates that the Hawks-Hughes Scarface was made at Universal). --Richard T. Jameson

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Doris Day Collection Vol. 2 (DVD)

Doris Day, America's sweetheart of the '40s, '50s and '60s, returns to DVD on April 10 with six more new to DVD titles as Warner Home Video releases The Doris Day Collection Volume 2, following the success of 2005's first collection. Volume 2 features six more new-to-DVD titles, focusing on Miss Day's golden years at Warner Bros., where her film career began. The collection contains her blockbuster screen debut Romance on the High Seas, as well as such audience favorites as My Dream is Yours, I'll See You in my Dreams, On Moonlight Bay, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, and Lucky Me - films which contain a treasure chest of musical standards that include "It Had to be You," "Makin' Whoopee," "I'll String Along With You," "'Ain't we Got Fun" and dozens more.

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Doris Day fans will be dizzy with pleasure over The Doris Day Collection, Volume 2. This package of six Warner Bros. films covers the early phase of Day's movie career, including her debut picture, and is actually better and more of-a-piece than Warners' previous Day set. The box doesn't include anything from the later Rock Hudson stage of her career: This is the former Doris von Kappelhoff in full youthful sparkle, with her tomboyish attitude and freckled perkiness (and skillful singing, which is showcased in each film).

Her 1948 debut, Romance on the High Seas, actually presents Day in a different light from her subsequent well-scrubbed image. (Maybe this is what co-star Oscar Levant meant when he later quipped, "I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin.") She's a sassy, hep-talking band singer, drawn into an unlikely (and extremely silly) plot involving confused identity during a South American cruise. Michael Curtiz might not be a comedy director, but the script is fun and there's no mistaking the spectacle of a star being born.

The follow-up, My Dream Is Yours, returns Curtiz and leading man Jack Carson in a tale that has some parallels to Day's real life: she's a singer with a young child, looking for her breakthrough. The movie's a serviceable but humdrum backstage story with great vintage locations, and Bugs Bunny appears in a surreal dream sequence. The Technicolor shines here, as it does through much of the set; the only black-and-white film is I'll See You in My Dreams, an enjoyably low-key biopic of lyricist Gus Kahn (Danny Thomas), who wrote so many of the signature tunes of the 1920s. A great score ("Makin' Whoopee," "It Had to Be You") help this one past the conventions of the composer biopic; Doris plays Kahn's alpha-female wife.

Day's rising popularity was confirmed with the success of On Moonlight Bay and By the Light of the Silvery Moon, a pair of old-timey musicals based on Booth Tarkington's "Penrod" stories. Nostalgia for the WWI era runs high in these sugary confections, with Doris paired with Gordon MacRae and a batch of vintage tunes. The strong ensemble and the backlot re-creation of a bygone era are almost impossible to resist.

By her own account, Day was exhausted by her Warners contract at the time of Lucky Me, the latest film (1955) in this set. The lame showbiz story indicates as much, with Doris stranded in Miami and coming to the attention of composer Bob Cummings. The widescreen CinemaScope process gives some oomph to the musical numbers, and if Day herself was exhausted it doesn't show; America's sweetheart never failed to turn on the high beams, and it's easy to see why the moviegoing public needed her to twinkle. --Robert Horton

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4 Film Favorite: Modern Romances Collection (4FF) (DVD)

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