Friday, January 5, 2018

#Ad #Spon Hollywood's Greatest Screen Legends ~ #Review

Disclosure: I received free product for review purposes and all opinions are my own.


Hollywood's Greatest Screen Legends

Image Credit: Mill Creek Entertainment



SYNOPSIS: FROM MILL CREEK ENTERTAINMENT

Over 20 Hours of Hollywood Biographies
Enjoy this timeless documentary collection that pays tribute to the greatest Hollywood screen legends of all time. Featuring 25 male and 25 female stars of the silver screen, go in-depth on their lives and careers as we honor these Tinseltown treasures.
Contents:
DISC 1
1. Katharine Hepburn 
2. Bette Davis 
3. Audrey Hepburn 
4. Ingrid Bergman 
5. Greta Garbo 
6. Marilyn Monroe 
7. Elizabeth Taylor 
8. Judy Garland 
9. Marlene Dietrich 
10. Joan Crawford 
11. Barbara Stanwyck 
12. Claudette Colbert
DISC 2
13. Grace Kelly 
14. Ginger Rogers 
15. Mae West 
16. Vivien Leigh 
17. Gloria Swanson
18. Olivia DeHavilland
19. Rita Hayworth 
20. Lauren Bacall 
21. Sophia Loren 
22. Jean Harlow 
23. Lana Turner
24. Julie Andrews
25. Ava Gardner
DISC 3
1. Humphrey Bogart 
2. Cary Grant 
3. James Stewart 
4. Marlon Brando 
5. Fred Astaire 
6. Henry Fonda 
7. Clark Gable 
8. James Cagney 
9. Spencer Tracy 
10. Errol Flynn
11. Gary Cooper 
12. Gregory Peck
DISC 4
13. John Wayne 
14. Laurence Olivier
15. Gene Kelly 
16. Orson Welles 
17. Kirk Douglas 
18. James Dean 
19. Burt Lancaster 
20. Jack Lemmon
21. Paul Newman
22. Sidney Poitier 
23. Robert Mitchum 
24. Edward G. Robinson
25. William Holden

My Thoughts:

I love the old movie stars so was excited to get to find out more about the careers of some of my favorites such as Clark Gable, Barbara Stanwyck, Marilyn Monroe, Olivia DeHavilland, Gary Cooper, Robert Mitchum and William Holden just to name a few.

This DVD & Digital comes with 4 discs and include 25 male and 25 female famous stars from days gone by. It is a documentary that is really interesting finding out about their lives and how they got into the business.

I found out that Barbara Stanwyck started as working out as a dance hall girl.She was born with the name Ruby Stevens and moved to Hollywood in 1928. Her starring role was in Mexicali Rose, which I had never heard of before. I found out that she was married to Robert Taylor for some time also, something that was news to me. One of my favorite films she was in was Meet John Doe with Gary Cooper, which she was so good in, starring as a newspaper reporter. In 1944 the US government declared Stanwyck as the highest paid woman in the USA. She was making a salary of $400,000. Another of my favorites was Christmas in Connecticut with Dennis Morgan, which I watched on TCM a few times this past Christmas.

Another famous star the documentary tells about is Marilyn Monroe, who led a turbulent and troubled life. She grew up in a series of foster homes and orphanages. Norma Jean was her real life name and at the age of 16 she married a man who was shipped off to the merchant marines and she worked in a factory. While there she had the opportunity to get her picture taken by an army photographer. It led her to a string of modeling jobs. Her husband didn't approve and they divorced. She got a contract at 20th Century Fox where her new name was made "Marilyn Monroe" and dyed her hair blond. She had a hard time finding jobs at first and posed nude for Playboy magazine. Some of my favorites of her films are Some Like It Hot. Another good one that I enjoy is Niagara which is a dramatic film. She was usually type cast as a dumb blonde and made a lot of movies that I had never heard of before such as Monkey Business. Marilyn married Joe DiMaggio, who didn't approve of her sexy roles in movies. They eventually divorced after arguments about her playing the role in The Seven Year Itch when her dress lifts from the air on a subway train. Marilyn was also married to playwright Arthur Miller. The Misfits was her last film, along with Clark Gable. Marilyn remains a Hollywood icon.

A male star I admired was Robert Mitchum, who was born August 6, 1917 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He married his high school sweetheart and settled in Los Angeles after working a variety of different jobs. In the beginning he worked in 1943 in some Hop Along Cassidy films. Mitchum actually played in 18 films in 1943. He received an Oscar nomination for The Story of GI Joe for best supporting actor. In 1945 he was drafted and trained for 8 months  but never had to see any action because of the war ending. Michum was always known as one of Hollywood's bad boys and was arrested for possession of marijuana, but was released on probation after spending 2 months in jail. He made River of No Return with Marilyn Monroe which was a film I may have seen once but not for a long time. A great movie I've seen quite a few times is The Night of the Hunter which is very creepy and different. Another scary or creepy movie he made was Cape Fear, which was remade with Robert DeNiro. El Dorado was a great western he made with John Wayne in which he portrayed a has been drunken sheriff. Mitchum played made over 100 films in his lengthy career.

William Holden was a handsome leading man in many movies. He was born of wealthy parents and they moved to Pasadena when he was 3 years old. He started acting when he was attending college and started playing door next door types. He played in Our Town and it got an Oscar nomination as picture of the year. One of my favorite movies he starred in was Sunset Boulevard with Gloria Swanson. This is a classic which I've seen quite a few times. The Moon Is Blue is another good one he starred in which was a romantic comedy. Holden starred in Stalag 17 which was set in a Nazi POW camp which was a hit in which he won an Oscar for best actor. In 1955 Holden starred in Picnic which is a great film also, with Kim Novak. He stars as a drifter who causes trouble trouble when he falls in love with his old friend's girl. In 1956 Holden was voted as the number one popular male star.
A classic war film I really like also is The Bridge On The River Kwai. It was a smash hit and won 7 Oscars. My husband's favorite film of all time just happens to be The Wild Bunch in which Holden stars as an aging outlaw. It is an American classic and also starred Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Warren Oats and Edmund O'Brien. Network and The Towering Inferno were two later movies in which were hits for Holden. He received his third Oscar nomination for Network. In 1981 William Holden sadly died from injuries caused from a drunken fall.

If you want to learn about some of Hollywood's greatest star legends, this disc set would be for you! You can get it at Mill Creek Entertainment for $14.98.







2 comments:

  1. That's a lower price than I though it was going to be for information on all those stars! Sounds like an interesting and informative thing to watch to learn more about their lives. It sounds like some of them had some rough starts in life.

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    Replies
    1. It sure is a lot of information and I enjoyed viewing it, especially since I like old movies and the stars of long ago. I thought it was a reasonable price for all the stars you find out about also.

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