James Cagney - The Signature Collection

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Da DVDTimes

Warner Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of James Cagney: The Signature Collection for 24th April 2007. The Oscar winning screen icon comes to life in this collection that includes five new-to-DVD films – The Bride Came C.O.D., Captain of the Clouds, The Fighting 69th, Torrid Zone and The West Point Story. Cagney’s versatile talent is on display opposite a star-studded array of screen favorites including Bette Davis, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Virginia Mayo, Ann Sheridan and Pat O’Brien. Special features on each title in the Collection include the entertaining “Warner Night at the Movies” short subject galleries with vintage newsreels, vault treasures and classic cartoons. James Cagney: The Signature Collection will be available as a giftset with superslim packaging for $49.92 SRP and the individual titles will sell for $19.97 SRP.

The Films

The Bride Came C.O.D (1941)
Comedy comes from a mother lode of sources in this screwball farce headlined by the ebullient pairing of James Cagney and Bette Davis, scripted by Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein (Casablanca, Arsenic and Old Lace). Whether up in the clouds, or underground in a mine, the stars (in their second and final film together) spar with harebrained zest as a pilot hired to kidnap an about-to-elope heiress, and the happy result from start to end is C.O.D. – Comedy on Demand.

DVD Special Features:

* Warner Night at the Movies 1941 short subjects gallery:
o Vintage newsreel
o Musical shorts Carnival of Rhythm and the Oscar-nominated Forty Boys and a Song
o Classic cartoons Porky’s Pooch and the Oscar-nominated Rhapsody in Rivets
o Trailers of The Bride Came C.O.D. and 1941’s Honeymoon for Three
* Subtitles: English (feature film only)

Captains of the Clouds (1942)
One of the first war-themed films to hit theatres after America entered World War II tells the expansive tale of rugged bush pilots who bring their flying savvy to the Royal Canadian Air Force. James Cagney plays pilot Brian MacLean with grit and swagger. Michael Curtiz, who would next helm Cagney’s Yankee Doodle Dandy, directs this two-time Academy Award nominee cheered for vivid Technicolor lensing of North Country lakes and forests.

DVD Special Features:

* Warner Night at the Movies 1942 short subjects gallery:
o Vintage newsreel
o Sports short Rocky Mountain Big Game
o Classic cartoon Fresh Hare
o Trailers of Captains of the Clouds and 1942’s In This Our Life
* Classic cartoon What’s Cookin; Doc?
* Subtitles: English (feature film only)

The Fighting 69th (1940)
In the seventh of their nine movies together, off-screen pals James Cagney and Pat O’Brien play soldiers of the famed, largely Irish-American World War I regiment, the Fighting 69th. O’Brien is Father Duffy, the brave chaplain whose statue stands today in Manhattan’s Times Square. Cagney is Jerry Plunkett, a street-tough braggart turned yellow by the horror of No Man’s Land, but inspired to redemptive heroism by Duffy’s courage under fire.

DVD Special Features:

* Warner Night at the Movies 1940 short subjects gallery:
o Vintage newsreel
o Two patriotic shorts: Young America Flies and the Oscar-nominated London Can Take It!
o Classic cartoon Pilgrim Porky
o Trailers of The Fighting 69th and 1940’s Brother Orchid
* Classic cartoon The Fighting 69½th
* Audio-only bonus: radio adaptation with Pat O’Brien, Robert Preston and Ralph Bellamy
* Subtitles: English (feature film only)

Torrid Zone (1940)
Off-screen pals James Cagney and Pat O’Brien team for the eighth time in this snappy action comedy set in a Central American “Banana” Republic. In a role widely cited as putting her on the movie fan’s map, Hollywood’s “Oomph Girl” Ann Sheridan portrays wisecracking chanteuse Lee Donley who’s the lure to keep the plantation’s best man (Cagney) from leaving the company. With superb support, zippy repartee, plus 950 banana trees planted over 5 backlot acres, the heat is on.

DVD Special Features:

* Warner Night at the Movies 1940 short subjects gallery:
o Vintage newsreel
o Musical short Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra
o Technicolor historical short Pony Express Days with Torrid Zone’s George Reeves
o Classic Oscar-nominated cartoon A Wild Hare
o Trailers of Torrid Zone and 1940’s Santa Fe Trail
* Subtitles: English (feature film only)

The West Point Story (1950)
Yankee Doodle Dandy Academy Award winner James Cagney puts on his dancing shoes again for this merry musical comedy packed with spirited starpower and lively tunes by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn.

Cagney plays a Broadway showman down on his luck yet full of hotshot ideas. Brought to West Point to stage the cadets’ annual musical, he decides to make it a tryout for a Broadway transfer. But first, he must lure the show’s talented lead (Gordon MacRae) out of the military. He’s got just the right bait: a sweet-natured Hollywood star (Doris Day). Virginia Mayo and Gene Nelson also star alongside the irrepressible Cagney, who’s “in rare good form, singing, dancing and wisecracking in his most electrifying style” (Bosley Crowther, The New York Times).

DVD Special Features:

* Warner Night at the Movies 1950 short subjects gallery:
o Vintage newsreel
o Oscar-winning Sports Parade short Grandad of Races
o Classic cartoon His Bitter Half
o Trailers of The West Point Story and 1950’s Tea for Two
* Subtitles: English (feature film only)

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