Hicks Starring

A poignant story of a selfish young German girl's search for happiness, Blue Bird is a classic Shirley Temple film with a storybook Hansel and Gretel feel. This restored and remastered 1940 film opens with a purposely grainy, black and white world that reinforces Mytyl's (Shirley Temple) ill-humored attitude toward life. Mytyl consistently complains about everything and fails to see that she and her family are really quite blessed until her father is summoned to war. A dramatic switch to Technicolor, now bright and clear thanks to restoration efforts, marks the fairy Berylone's (Jessie Ralph) nighttime appearance and the beginning of Mytyl's and her brother Tyltyl's (Johnny Russell) quest to find the blue bird of happiness. Lead by "Light" (Helen Ericson), the children and their faithful dog Tylo (Eddie Collins) and scheming cat Tylette (Gale Sondergaard) journey through the lands of the past, future, and luxury only to find a prevailing unhappiness. In the end, it's a journey of self-discovery that leads Mytyl to find true happiness in a most unexpected place. This film marks a departure from the typically sunny and cheerful characters played by Shirley Temple and was, in spite of its lavish scenery and nominations for Academy Awards in both cinematography and special effects, unsuccessful at the box office. (Ages 5 and older) --Tami Horiuchi

Visually beautiful, full of imaginative sets, and splendidly photographed in rich Technicolor, this enchanting fantasy was Twentieth Century Fox's answer to "The Wizard of Oz". In a rare departure from her usual screen persona, Shirley plays a selfish, spoiled little girl named Mytyl, who doesn't appreciate her loving family. Only after a good fairy sends her and her brother (Johnny Russell) on a journey to find "the bird that means happiness" does she end up discovering happiness right in her own home.

One of the best American pre-war films to attempt to explain the crisis brewing in Europe, this 1940 MGM film documents the effects of the new Nazi regime on a small, peaceful Alpine village. James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan struggle to understand the unjust changes being forced upon their community by the growing Nazi influence. Helpless to avert the horror unfolding before them, Stewart and Sullavan witness old friends becoming fearful and suspicious. Others cast their lot with the new order and become cruel, jealous, and vengeful--even drunk on Nazi power. The small German village seduced by the corrupt Nazi message is an excellent analogy for what happened in Germany as a whole. At the time, Americans did not want to get involved in another "European war," but films like The Mortal Storm tried to show Americans that what was happening overseas could also happen on Maple Street, USA. --Mark Savary

Features include: •MPAA Rating: PG•Format: DVD•Runtime: 124 minutes

This tedious remake of the classic Christmas movie The Bishop's Wife falls on its face by significantly altering the careful design of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert E. Sherwood's story for the original film. In Sherwood's version, a rather wooden, inept bishop and his lonely wife unknowingly take into their lives a heaven-sent angel who aids the former and ends up falling in love with the latter. In this unnecessary update, an inner-city preacher (Courtney B. Vance) and his estranged spouse (Whitney Houston) are visited by a celestial goof (Denzel Washington), whose unsolicited offer of help is enough to galvanize Vance's character to fix his own problems. What that means is this: by the second act, there's no reason to have Washington's angel in the story. Even his infatuation with the missus isn't enough to warrant his hanging around this movie; the change is a colossal blunder by director Penny Marshall. Vance ends up stealing the film from Washington, but it's a Pyrrhic victory; for the most part this movie just seems like a series of random scenes between opportunities for Houston to belt out songs. --Tom Keogh

For anyone who loves classic comedy, the W.C. Fields Comedy Collection is absolutely essential. Film for film, this may be the best DVD showcase ever devoted to a single comedian, including all five of Fields's acknowledged classics in a sturdy, beautifully designed library-quality slipcase. One could easily lament the relative lack of bonus features (it would have been nice to have some vintage Fields radio shows and newsreel footage), but the inclusion of A&E's 1994 Biography documentary W.C. Fields: Behind the Laughter is sufficiently informative about Fields's life, career, irascible personality, and tragic alcoholism. That's all that's really needed when the films themselves are so timelessly entertaining, and they're all remarkably pristine in sound and image quality. The best way to appreciate Fields's evolving screen persona is to view these films in chronological order: In International House (1933), Fields was merely one of many Paramount stars of screen and radio (including Rudy Vallee, Burns & Allen, Bela Lugosi, Sterling Holloway, and manic bandleader Cab Calloway), but he handily steals the show, invading a Shanghai hotel in his airplane/helicopter and delivering the classic line (to Franklin Pangborn), "Don't let the posy fool ya!" It's one of Paramount's best all-star revues. It's a Gift (1934) is a remake of Fields's 1926 silent It's the Old Army Game, and was the first sound feature devoted to Fields's inimitable talent. As beleaguered husband and would-be orange farmer, Fields revives vintage routines from Vaudeville and Broadway, and his first encounter with Baby LeRoy is comedy gold. You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939) features Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and Fields's classic, still-hilarious ping-pong routine, while 1940's My Little Chickadee matches Fields (as "Guthbert J. Twillie") with Mae West, whose unforgettable on-screen banter with Fields shows no sign of their notorious off-screen animosity. In his raucous masterpiece The Bank Dick (also 1940), Fields is "Egbert Souse," lowly bank guard, unlikely hero, and manic driver in perhaps the greatest slapstick car-chase scene ever filmed. Despite the regrettable absence of Fields's final starring feature Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, this classy five-disc set is a veritable cornucopia of comedy, offering ample proof of Fields's comic genius through classic one-liners, physical routines, memorable costars, and perfect bits of business that never grow old. --Jeff Shannon

WC FIELDS COMEDY COLLECTION - DVD Movie

They don't make 'em like this anymore. Well, John Waters might, if he ever had a big enough budget. A steamy "inside look" at the alternately sleazy and glamorous world of catfighting, backbiting show-biz starlets, this Hollywood hit from the bestselling novel by Jacqueline Susann is a high-gloss camp artifact--a time capsule (or some kind of capsule, anyway)--from the screwy '60s, when a broad was a broad, a bitch was a bitch (whether "her" name was Neely O'Hara or Ted Casablanca), and a "doll" was a prescription drug. These dames of whine and poses obsessed over their bust lines, booze, and barbiturates. The once-shocking and scandalous language and behavior of these Broadway babes has been eclipsed by Dallas, Dynasty, and Melrose Place, but time has only enhanced the stature of Valley of the Dolls as a classic--and it still puts Showgirls to shame. With Patty Duke, Susan Hayward, Sharon Tate, Lee Grant, Barbara Parkins, and Martin Milner (and juicy, scene-chewing dialogue such as the infamous: "They drummed you out of Hollywood, so you come crawling back to Broadway. But Broadway doesn't go for booze and dope--now get out of my way, I've got a man waiting for me!"), Valley of the Dolls is the Mount Rushmore of backstage movie melodramas. --Jim Emerson

VALLEY OF THE DOLLS SPECIAL EDITION - DVD Movie

Hephaestus Books represents a new publishing paradigm, allowing disparate content sources to be curated into cohesive, relevant, and informative books. To date, this content has been curated from Wikipedia articles and images under Creative Commons licensing, although as Hephaestus Books continues to increase in scope and dimension, more licensed and public domain content is being added. We believe books such as this represent a new and exciting lexicon in the sharing of human knowledge. This particular book contains chapters focused on McNeese State Cowboys football, McNeese State Cowboys football players, and McNeese State Cowboys football coaches. More info: McNeese State University is a public university located in Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA. Founded in 1939 as a junior college, it became known by its present name in 1970 and is a part of the University of Louisiana System. McNeese is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a Master's University. McNeese is unranked by the U.S. News and World Report.