Gershwin Paul

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The reason to see Harper is the kooky mid-Sixties design, the peculiar over-the-hill-gang supporting cast, and the crazy Rat Pack lingo written by famed screenwriter William Goldman. And, of course, Paul Newman fans will want to see their guy in the full flower of his anti-hero hero phase. Anyone seeking a decent adaptation of Ross Macdonald's great series of detective novels will, however, be sorely disappointed. Macdonald's Lew Archer is a melancholy knight who operates in an increasingly somber tangle of family crimes; the movie's Lew Harper is a wisecracking hepcat who mugs his way through an indifferent missing-persons investigation. (Frank Sinatra, who was offered the role, would have been a better fit than Newman.) The cast includes Lauren Bacall, Janet Leigh, Julie Harris, and Shelley Winters as various femmes, none of them especially fatale, and Robert Wagner has one of his better roles as a kind of cabana boy to the rich. Strother Martin pops up as a bearded guru with a love temple on top of a Southern California mountain. The director is Jack Smight, whose career was largely made up of TV work. This was the first Goldman script to be made into a film, based on Macdonald's novel The Moving Target; as Goldman states in an enjoyable DVD commentary track, the name Lew Archer was switched to Harper because of Macdonald's reluctance to sign away franchise rights to his private eye's name, not because Newman wanted to have another movie with an "H" title (after The Hustler and Hud). That clears up a long-running urban legend. Newman did make another Macdonald adaptation, The Drowning Pool, in 1975 again using the Harper name. For a much better mid-sixties cool private-eye picture, see Blake Edwards' Gunn. --Robert Horton

The reason to see Harper is the kooky mid-Sixties design, the peculiar over-the-hill-gang supporting cast, and the crazy Rat Pack lingo written by famed screenwriter William Goldman. And, of course, Paul Newman fans will want to see their guy in the full flower of his anti-hero hero phase. Anyone seeking a decent adaptation of Ross Macdonald's great series of detective novels will, however, be sorely disappointed. Macdonald's Lew Archer is a melancholy knight who operates in an increasingly somber tangle of family crimes; the movie's Lew Harper is a wisecracking hepcat who mugs his way through an indifferent missing-persons investigation. (Frank Sinatra, who was offered the role, would have been a better fit than Newman.) The cast includes Lauren Bacall, Janet Leigh, Julie Harris, and Shelley Winters as various femmes, none of them especially fatale, and Robert Wagner has one of his better roles as a kind of cabana boy to the rich. Strother Martin pops up as a bearded guru with a love temple on top of a Southern California mountain. The director is Jack Smight, whose career was largely made up of TV work. This was the first Goldman script to be made into a film, based on Macdonald's novel The Moving Target; as Goldman states in an enjoyable DVD commentary track, the name Lew Archer was switched to Harper because of Macdonald's reluctance to sign away franchise rights to his private eye's name, not because Newman wanted to have another movie with an "H" title (after The Hustler and Hud). That clears up a long-running urban legend. Newman did make another Macdonald adaptation, The Drowning Pool, in 1975 again using the Harper name. For a much better mid-sixties cool private-eye picture, see Blake Edwards' Gunn. --Robert Horton

A winner of six Oscars including Best Picture, An American in Paris (1951) was Vincente Minnelli's love letter to the City of Lights and to the music of George Gershwin. Gene Kelly plays Jerry Mulligan, a former American GI trying to make a living in France as an artist after the war. He's taken on by an American patron of the arts (Nina Foch) who has other intentions, but he falls in love with a local girl (Leslie Caron in her debut) who happens to be the intended of a Parisian cabaret performer (Georges Guetary). The music of George and Ira Gershwin sparkles throughout the film, including Kelly and Guetary's ironic duet "'S Wonderful," Kelly's simple ballad "Love Is Here to Stay," Guetary's flamboyant "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise," and Kelly's tour-de-force "I Got Rhythm" dance with a bunch of kids. Oscar Levant plays his usual acerbic self as Jerry's friend and pianist, and performs the final movement of the Concerto in F--accompanied by an orchestra of himselves. The movie famously concludes with a 17-minute fantasy ballet set to the tone poem the movie is named after. While its scope and placement might seem a little odd to viewers decades later, it's an elaborate showcase of Kelly's dancing and choreography (he received an honorary Oscar that year for it), and started a trend that would be followed by similar numbers in Singin' in the Rain and Oklahoma! --David Horiuchi

The dancing of Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, a classic score by George Gershwin, and the romantic settings of the City of Lights make for a timeless musical delight that garnered six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Songs include "Embraceable You," "Nice Work If You Can Get It," and "Our Love Is Here to Stay." 114 min. Standard; Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital mono, French Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, French; theatrical trailer.

Compelling biography of composer George Gershwin featuring Robert Alda as the musical genius. Follow his career from his early days struggling on Manhattan's Lower East Side, and his partnership with brother Ira to his fame as one of music's most beloved writers. With Joan Leslie, Alexis Smith, and Oscar Levant as himself. Includes the Gershwin favorites "Embraceable You," "Swanee," "Summertime," "Someone to Watch Over Me," the title tune, and many more. Standard; Soundtrack: English.

Commemorating the first awarding of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song to Paul Simon, the Library of Congress arranged for a spellbinding array of Simon's peers to perform in a remarkable live concert tribute in the nation's capital. The program includes performances by Simon, Art Garfunkel, Stevie Wonder, Alison Krauss, George Harrison (from 1976), James Taylor, Lyle Lovett, and others. 110 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, PCM stereo.

They may have been Forbidden to some--particularly when the Wertham Seduction of the Innocent book hit the newsstands--but to kids the length and breadth of the United States (and a select few in the UK), Richard Hughes and his tremblin team of terrific tormenters were where it was at. Big time. And now, a half-century since the first issue appeared, ACG s wonderful Forbidden Worlds are accessible once more . . . and this time in state-of-the-art hardcover volumes containing five to seven issues apiece. This is going to be one hell of a journey: come make it with us as we travel together through some of the most memorable comicbooks of all time. Tales exploring the supernatural featuring Issues 1-5 from July/August 1951 to March/April 1952 of the ACG classic Forbidden Worlds. Featuring an essay by British author Stan Nicholls, this first volume has been meticulously compiled from the original source material and painstakingly digitally restored.

A biography of the successful composer of musical comedies, popular songs, symphonic works, and the opera "Porgy and Bess."

This sheet music was newly engraved from early and authoritative editions. Scored for Two Pianos, Four Hands. Performed by Paul Whiteman. Published in 1924.

A companion to the fabulous PBS series, the 21-song, 77-minute The Best of "Broadway: The American Musical" provides about as good a single-disc compilation as anyone could hope for. (There's also a five-CD version.) What sets it apart from so many other "best of Broadway" collections is its breadth--because it had access to a variety of record-label vaults it doesn't have to try to disguise gaps by using revivals or solo recordings. Here you get all the authentic stuff, including: Paul Robeson singing "Ol' Man River" from the first modern American musical, Show Boat; Ethel Merman singing "You're the Top"; the title song from Oklahoma!; Julie Andrews singing "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady; West Side Story's "America"; Betty Buckley singing "Memory" from Cats; Hairspray's "Good Morning Baltimore"; and "Defying Gravity" from Wicked, the newest show discussed in the PBS series. And it's hard to argue with the songwriters represented: Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Frank Loesser, Lerner and Loewe, Leonard Bernstein, Bock and Harnick, Kander and Ebb, Stephen Sondheim, and Andrew Lloyd Webber, among others. Obviously, no single-disc compilation could ever please everyone (did we really need two ALW songs?), but as a sampler intended for people who watched the series and want to hear more of the Great White Way, The Best of "Broadway: The American Musical" can't be topped. --David Horiuchi

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THIBAUDET JEAN-YVES GERSHWIN: RHAPSODY IN BLUE & PIANO CONC