Cult Classics: 20 Movie Pack [4 Discs]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Cult-ivate" your pleasure with this 20 pack of classic cult films-loaded with cult-ural" value! Includes Reefer Madness (1936), Gambling with Souls (1936), Test Tube Babies (1948), and 17 more on 4 DVDs. 1925-56/color-b&w/23 hrs., 54 min/NR/fullscreen.

DVD FEATURES:

• Number of Discs: 4
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Screen: Black and White

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Asta Nielsen - Maria Lechner
       Alan Baxter - Markey
       Bryant Washburn - Taylor
       Betty Atkinson
       Einar Hansen - Lt. Davis, USA
       Edward Keane - Attorney
       David Holt - Bob Lester
       Don C. Harvey - Lt. Tyne
       David Gorcey - Ricky
       Countess Agnes Esterhazy - Regina Rosenow
       Alexander Mursky - Dr. Leid, a lawyer
       Warren Mills - Roy Ford
       Fern Emmett - Fanny
       Harry Todd - Sample
       Daisy Belmore - The Old Hag
       Hertha Von Walther - Else
       "Little Billy" Rhodes

• Director:

  Elmer Clifton, Harry L. Fraser, Harry J. Revier, W.A. Conner, William O'Connor, Albert Herman, Edward E. Kaye, Eddie King, Merle W. Connell, Melville Shyer, Dwain Esper, Leon Leonard, Louis J. Gasnier, Norton S. Parker, Sherman Scott, Sam Newfield, H.B. Parkinson, Herman E. Webber, G.W. Pabst

• Producer:

  George Moscov, Raymond J. Friedgen, Albert Herman, Donald C. McKean, J.D. Kendis, Merle W. Connell, Leonard S. Picker, Dwain Esper, George A. Hirliman, Richard Kay, Jed Buell, H.B. Parkinson, Willis Kent

• Screenwriter:

  Nat Tanchuck, Arthur St. Claire, Peter Perry, Jr., Jay M. Kude, Willis Kent, George D. Green, Leon Leonard

• Book Author:

  Herman Melville

• Screenwriter:

  Paul Franklin, Arthur Hoerl

• Screen Story:

  Lawrence Meade

• Screenwriter:

  Richard Landau, Robert A. Dillon, Norton S. Parker

• Play Author:

  Edwin Waugh

• Screenwriter:

  Clarence J. Marks, Fred K. Myton, Frank Miller, Willy Haas

• Book Author:

  Hugo Bettauer

• Cinematographer:

  Ira Morgan, Marcel Le Picard, Harvey Gould, Ben Kline, John H. Greenhalgh, Jr., Eddie Linden, Vernon Walker, Mack Stengler, Guido Seeber, Robert Lach

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Lee Zahler

• Composer (Music Score):

  Albert Glasser

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Abe Meyer

• Songwriter:

  Lew Porter

• Editor:

  George Merrick, Stanley Frazen, Carl Pierson, Earl Turner, Martin G. Cohn, Richard G. Wray

• Production Designer:

  Jane Huizenga, Otto Erdmann, Hans Sohnle

• Art Director:

  Paul Palmentola, Fred A. Ritter, Robert Priestley, Fred Preble

• Set Designer:

  Tec-Art Studios

• Technical Director:

  David D. Martin

• Short Story Author:

  Arthur Hoerl

REVIEWS:

• Although The Joyless Street is remembered chiefly as the film that made an international star out of the legendary Greta Garbo, it's actually much more than a star showcase. Indeed, though Garbo dominates much of the film through her sheer star power, hers is actually a secondary role in what is essentially an ensemble drama. Even the part played by top-billed Asta Nielsen, at the time a much bigger established star than Garbo, is simply part of the larger cast. That's as it should be, for Street is not about any one person but about a time, a place and, above all, a society that was perilously divided into two very unequal parts. Director G.W. Pabst and scenarist Willy Haas have created a social conscience melodrama that is enormously powerful; it's manipulative at times, but there's such commitment behind it that most viewers won't mind. Pabst is excellent at exploring the bleakness and despair of the residents of the Street and contrasting it with the amorality and immorality of the upper classes, who think nothing of spreading false rumors that will destroy many but will increase their own already considerable wealth. Money exerts a powerful grip on almost all the characters, whether through greed or necessity, and Pabst demonstrates how it can become a dangerously controlling force. The director is helped immensely by the atmospheric lensing of Robert Lach and Guido Seeber, and even more so by his cast. Garbo is wonderful, more vibrant and alive than she was often allowed to be in her Hollywood outings, yet still having that world-weary air; the battle between the two conditions exemplifies the battle her character also undergoes. Nielsen is also striking, giving a performance that is imbued with tremendous nuance; even in her bizarre "mad" costume, she is mesmerizing. Werner Krauss is appropriately villainous, and the rest of the cast is quite good. Street was heavily censored and mercilessly mutilated in many countries, including the U.S., when it was originally released; viewers should be wary of any version that is considerably shorter than 96 minutes. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi
• "I've gotta have dope! I'm a hop head! I'd sell my soul for just one shot!" Dean Benton cries in Cocaine Fiends. Yes, the dialogue is corny but Benton and the rest of the cast perform with a sincerity completely lacking in Reefer Madness, the anti-dope melodrama with which the film is always compared. Despite the tacky surroundings, there are actually several well-known players involved, including Noel Madison, Sheila Manners (aka Sheila Bromley), and Lois January, all of whom were borrowed from Warner Bros. Yet Cocaine Fiends, or, as it was originally titled, The Pace That Kills, remains a typical exploitation film complete with a lengthy "square-up" (an introductory statement that served to explain why such an unseemly topic was both necessary and urgent) and the inclusion of a dreadful variety show for no other reason than to stretch the running time. The only ingredient missing, and presumably much to the dismay of the paying customers, is "spectacle." You never actually see anyone snort cocaine and there is none of the gratuitous sexual titillation that is so much a part of the genre in general and the more famous (or should that be "infamous"?) Reefer Madness. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
• Sex Madness is by far and away the most obscure and cheapest-looking of the "Madness Trilogy," which also includes the much better known Reefer Madness and Cocaine Fiends. Yet it is typical exploitation melodrama harking back to the reformist age of the early 1910s. But unlike most films of the genre, Sex Madness spreads its net rather wide and in addition to the topic of venereal disease also discusses the general ill effects of casual sex and lesbianism. The former is shown via the standard "wild party" scene while the latter is merely hinted at in a couple of sequences depicting two stenographers, one a mannish type, the other a more traditional starlet, who are encouraged to explore their "forbidden" desires by attending a rather tame burlesque show. Sex Madness, like most exploitation films, also includes cautionary documentary footage from the World War I era, in this case a parade of syphilis-infected patients (a so-called "square-up" reel), and several completely unrelated variety performances. At one point in the story, the heroine wears a Spanish mantilla for no apparent reason other than to match footage from a hacienda festival "lifted" intact from some Grade-Z Western. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
• Since its rediscovery on the cult movie circuits of the early '70s, Reefer Madness has been the subject of not only ridicule (which is well-deserved), but widespread misunderstanding as to its purpose. Acid-dropping flower children could of course marvel at the misinformation regarding "the devil weed," which according to Reefer Madness would unquestionably lead to violence, insanity, and suicide. But this reception of the more overtly ludicrous aspects of the film presupposes that Tell Your Children (as it was originally called) was truly intended as a heartfelt if clumsy warning against drug addiction. At least three sequences, barely registering with a modern viewer, demonstrate that it was not: the least subtle of the three is a lovemaking scene between the young leads that includes what appears to be French kissing, a strict taboo under the Production Code that regulated mainstream Hollywood fare; then a girl under the influence wantonly removes her sweater to reveal a brassiere; and, most subtly of all, but perhaps also the most indicative of the film's true intent, the character of Mae Coleman's seemingly superfluous changing of wardrobe. The sequence, during which Mae (Thelma White) lovingly rolls up her sheer stockings, may be explained to further establish the character as an unscrupulous despoiler of young innocents. But apart from parents, educators, and law officials, Mae is the only adult present with misgivings about the drug-induced orgies taking place in her apartment. Granted, the character is as ill-defined as everyone else in the film, but her presence still goes a long way to demonstrate Reefer Madness' true mission: sexual titillation. Stereotypical dope fiends were common enough in mainstream Hollywood films of the 1930s -- Lewis Howard does a hilarious imitation of Reefer Madness' Dave O'Brien in Deanna Durbin's It's a Date (1940) -- but the kind of sexual innuendo permitted in exploitation films like Reefer Madness was not seen anywhere else on the public screen until the 1960s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi