“The Essential Classics Collections” DVD From Warner Home Video
(January 29, 2007 - Burbank, CA) — On April 24, Warner Home Video will help make every film lover’s dream come true with the release of "The Essential Classics Collections," a selection of the studio’s most popular classic films in attractively-priced collectible giftsets. In this first offering, there will be five different collections to choose from, each with three films focused on a specific genre. Sure to satisfy a variety of tastes, these film favorites have been cherished by movie fans for decades and have garnered a total of 54 Academy Awards®.
The Collections in this first wave are the "Classic Romances" ("Gone with the Wind," "Casablanca," "Doctor Zhivago"); "Classic Family Films" ("Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory," "Goonies," "Wizard of Oz"); "Classic Dramas" ("The Maltese Falcon," "Citizen Kane," "Ben Hur"); "Classic Musicals" ("My Fair Lady," "Singin’ in the Rain," "Gigi"); and "Classic American Musicals" ("The Music Man," "Meet Me in St. Louis," "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers").
Said Michael Shroyer, VP Sales and Marketing, "Warner Home Video has specially selected the ‘crème de la crème’ of timeless classics from its massive film library (the industry's largest) to create this brand new series of affordable giftsets, and we’re very confident that the 'Essential Classics Collections' will be a welcome addition to the market. Not only will they will be available to those familiar with the titles looking for an affordable solution; they will also allow younger audiences an opportunity to begin their classic collections with confidence.”
"The Essential Classics Collections" will boast the very latest remastered versions of the films along with bonus content to further expand the entertainment and enjoyment. Each set will be beautifully packaged in foil and will sell at a consumer-friendly price of $30.97 SRP, a significant savings over purchasing the titles separately. The Collections are perfectly timed for Mother’s Day (May 13) gift giving and priced so attractively it will be easy to buy several. Order due date for all is March 20.
"Essential Classics: Romances"
"Gone with the Wind"
Winner of 9 Academy Awards® including Best Picture. Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) and Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) are a timeless match in the immortal tale of a nation divided by war and hearts torn by love. “Quite probably the most beloved movie of all time” (The Movie Guide).
Special Features:
• Commentary by historian Rudy Behlmer
"Casablanca"
Winner of 3 Academy Awards® including Best Picture. Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) “sticks his neck out for nobody.” Then she (Ingrid Bergman) walks back into his life…with her Resistance-leader husband. “Our candidate for the best Hollywood movie of all time” (Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide).
Special Features:
• Commentary by film critic Roger Ebert
• Commentary by historian Rudy Behlmer
• Introduction by Lauren Bacall
• Theatrical trailers "Doctor Zhivago" Winner of 5 Academy Awards® with stunning vistas for the eyes and epic romance for the heart. Soulful Zhivago (Omar Sharif), married to Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin), is caught up in the surging tides of Russian revolution…and in his passionate love for Lara (Julie Christie). Special Features: • Commentary by Omar Sharif, Rod Steiger and Sandra Lean
• Introduction by Omar Sharif
• Music-Only Audio Track "Essential Classics: Family Films" "The Wizard of Oz" Judy Garland soars “over the rainbow”…and into cinema legend. The beloved tale of a Kansas farm girl who follows a yellow brick road with three new friends is an all-time enchanter that’s “just as good the fifteenth time as the first” ("Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide"). Winner of 2 Academy Awards®. Special Features: • Commentary by historian John Fricke including actual interviews of the film’s cast and crew
• "The Wonderful World of Oz Storybook"
• "Prettier Than Ever: The Restoration of Oz"
• "We Haven’t Really Met Properly" … Supporting Cast Profile Gallery
• Music-and-Effects-Only Track "The Goonies" A treasure map, a pirate ship…and a monster! It’s amazing what a group of misfit kids can discover on one drizzly day. Steven Spielberg brings his special magic to “a deliciously dizzy adventure with crowd-pleasing fun” (Kathleen Carroll, New York Daily News). Special Features: • Commentary – with hidden video treasures – by director Richard Donner and selected cast members
• "The Making of The Goonies"
• Additional scenes
• Cyndi Lauper “The Goonies R Good Enough” music video
• Theatrical trailer "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory" The golden ticket to fun: Gene Wilder is Willy Wonka, guiding five lucky children on a fantastical, phenomenal, “scrumdiddlyumptious” journey through a candy factory only imagination could build. What a treat! Special Features: • "Pure Imagination: The Story of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"
• Mouth-watering commentary with the Wonka Kids
• Four sing-along songs
• Vintage featurette
• Theatrical trailer "Essential Classics: Dramas" "The Maltese Falcon" Private eye Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) follows a trail of murder and high-living lowlifes to “the stuff that dreams are made of” – a coveted priceless falcon statuette. As thrilling today as yesterday – and often cited as the first Film Noir movie. Special Features: • Commentary by Bogart Biographer Eric Lax
• "Warner Night at the Movies" 1941 Short Subjects Gallery:
• Commentary by Director/Welles biographer Peter Bogdanovich
• Premiere newsreel
• Gallery of storyboards, rare photos, alternate ad campaigns, studio correspondence, call sheets and other memorabilia
• Theatrical trailer
• Production notes, filmmaker postscripts and awards data "Ben Hur" Winner of 11 Academy Awards® including Best Picture. Legendary as a screen spectacle, this awe-inspiring tale of majesty and miracle includes thundering chariots, fierce clashes at sea, and Charlton Heston as the Jewish nobleman whose heroic odyssey includes fateful encounters with Jesus. Special Features: • Commentary by historian T. Gene Hatcher, with Charlton Heston
• Music-Only track "Essential Classics: Musicals" "My Fair Lady" Winner of 8 Academy Awards® including BEST PICTURE. No one’s fairer than Audrey Hepburn in this all-time Lerner and Loewe triumph. Rex Harrison is the professor who wagers he can transform a street waif (Hepburn) into a society belle. Simply loverly! Special Features: • Commentary by art director Gene Allen, Singer Marni Nixon and restorers Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz "Singin’ in the Rain" What a glorious feeling! Gene Kelly’s umbrella-swinging ‘splash’ hit is an ode to joy and to the bumpy era when silent movies became talkies. “Is this really the greatest Hollywood musical ever made? In a word, yes” (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times). Special Features: • Commentary by Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, Cyd Charisse, Kathleen Freeman, co-director Stanley Donen, screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green, filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and historian Rudy Behlmer
• Theatrical trailer "Gigi" Winner of 9 Academy Awards® including Best Picture. Thank heaven for…the bubbly fun and glorious Lerner and Loewe music! Gigi (Leslie Caron) goes from girlishness to glamorous and yearns for more than the luxury offered by suitor Louis Jourdan. Co-stars bon vivant charmer Maurice Chevalier. Special Features: • Theatrical trailer "Essential Classics: American Musicals" "The Music Man" 76 trombones. 110 cornets and an Academy Award®…you can count the reasons this musical is so beloved. There’s trouble (and plenty of fun) in River City when Robert Preston plays his rousing signature role of con artist bandleader Harold Hill. Special Features: • Commentary by historian Rudy Behlmer
• Documentary "Right Here in River City: The Making of Meredith Willson’s The Music Man"
• Introduction by Shirley Jones
• Production notes
• Theatrical trailers "Meet Me in St. Louis" She’s in love with the boy next door. And movie fans are forever in love with her. Judy Garland stars in a nostalgia- and humor-filled tale of life with the Smith family in 1903 St. Louis. Songs include “The Trolley Song” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Special Features: • Introduction by Liza Minnelli
• Commentary by Judy Garland biographer John Fricke, with Margaret O’Brien, composer Hugh Martin, screenwriter Irving Brecher and Barbara Freed-Saltzman, daughter of producer Arthur Freed
• Vincente Minnelli trailer gallery "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" Nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture (and winner for Best Musical Score), the film is the perfect marriage of song and dance, as backwoods boys inspired by romance and the lure of hot biscuits raid the local town for brides. Howard Keel and Jane Powell head the cast. Special Features: • Commentary by director Stanley Donen
• Donen musicals trailer gallery With operations in 90 international territories Warner Home Video, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, commands the largest distribution infrastructure in the global video marketplace. Warner Home Video’s film library is the largest of any studio, offering top quality new and vintage titles from the repertoires of Warner Bros. Pictures, Turner Entertainment, Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Home Video and New Line Home Entertainment.# # #
• Commentary by historian Rudy Behlmer
• Introduction by Lauren Bacall
• Theatrical trailers "Doctor Zhivago" Winner of 5 Academy Awards® with stunning vistas for the eyes and epic romance for the heart. Soulful Zhivago (Omar Sharif), married to Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin), is caught up in the surging tides of Russian revolution…and in his passionate love for Lara (Julie Christie). Special Features: • Commentary by Omar Sharif, Rod Steiger and Sandra Lean
• Introduction by Omar Sharif
• Music-Only Audio Track "Essential Classics: Family Films" "The Wizard of Oz" Judy Garland soars “over the rainbow”…and into cinema legend. The beloved tale of a Kansas farm girl who follows a yellow brick road with three new friends is an all-time enchanter that’s “just as good the fifteenth time as the first” ("Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide"). Winner of 2 Academy Awards®. Special Features: • Commentary by historian John Fricke including actual interviews of the film’s cast and crew
• "The Wonderful World of Oz Storybook"
• "Prettier Than Ever: The Restoration of Oz"
• "We Haven’t Really Met Properly" … Supporting Cast Profile Gallery
• Music-and-Effects-Only Track "The Goonies" A treasure map, a pirate ship…and a monster! It’s amazing what a group of misfit kids can discover on one drizzly day. Steven Spielberg brings his special magic to “a deliciously dizzy adventure with crowd-pleasing fun” (Kathleen Carroll, New York Daily News). Special Features: • Commentary – with hidden video treasures – by director Richard Donner and selected cast members
• "The Making of The Goonies"
• Additional scenes
• Cyndi Lauper “The Goonies R Good Enough” music video
• Theatrical trailer "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory" The golden ticket to fun: Gene Wilder is Willy Wonka, guiding five lucky children on a fantastical, phenomenal, “scrumdiddlyumptious” journey through a candy factory only imagination could build. What a treat! Special Features: • "Pure Imagination: The Story of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"
• Mouth-watering commentary with the Wonka Kids
• Four sing-along songs
• Vintage featurette
• Theatrical trailer "Essential Classics: Dramas" "The Maltese Falcon" Private eye Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) follows a trail of murder and high-living lowlifes to “the stuff that dreams are made of” – a coveted priceless falcon statuette. As thrilling today as yesterday – and often cited as the first Film Noir movie. Special Features: • Commentary by Bogart Biographer Eric Lax
• "Warner Night at the Movies" 1941 Short Subjects Gallery:
- Vintage Newsreel
Technicolor Musical Short "The Gay Parisian"
Two Classic Cartoons: "Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt" and "Meet John Doughboy"
• Commentary by Director/Welles biographer Peter Bogdanovich
• Premiere newsreel
• Gallery of storyboards, rare photos, alternate ad campaigns, studio correspondence, call sheets and other memorabilia
• Theatrical trailer
• Production notes, filmmaker postscripts and awards data "Ben Hur" Winner of 11 Academy Awards® including Best Picture. Legendary as a screen spectacle, this awe-inspiring tale of majesty and miracle includes thundering chariots, fierce clashes at sea, and Charlton Heston as the Jewish nobleman whose heroic odyssey includes fateful encounters with Jesus. Special Features: • Commentary by historian T. Gene Hatcher, with Charlton Heston
• Music-Only track "Essential Classics: Musicals" "My Fair Lady" Winner of 8 Academy Awards® including BEST PICTURE. No one’s fairer than Audrey Hepburn in this all-time Lerner and Loewe triumph. Rex Harrison is the professor who wagers he can transform a street waif (Hepburn) into a society belle. Simply loverly! Special Features: • Commentary by art director Gene Allen, Singer Marni Nixon and restorers Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz "Singin’ in the Rain" What a glorious feeling! Gene Kelly’s umbrella-swinging ‘splash’ hit is an ode to joy and to the bumpy era when silent movies became talkies. “Is this really the greatest Hollywood musical ever made? In a word, yes” (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times). Special Features: • Commentary by Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, Cyd Charisse, Kathleen Freeman, co-director Stanley Donen, screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green, filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and historian Rudy Behlmer
• Theatrical trailer "Gigi" Winner of 9 Academy Awards® including Best Picture. Thank heaven for…the bubbly fun and glorious Lerner and Loewe music! Gigi (Leslie Caron) goes from girlishness to glamorous and yearns for more than the luxury offered by suitor Louis Jourdan. Co-stars bon vivant charmer Maurice Chevalier. Special Features: • Theatrical trailer "Essential Classics: American Musicals" "The Music Man" 76 trombones. 110 cornets and an Academy Award®…you can count the reasons this musical is so beloved. There’s trouble (and plenty of fun) in River City when Robert Preston plays his rousing signature role of con artist bandleader Harold Hill. Special Features: • Commentary by historian Rudy Behlmer
• Documentary "Right Here in River City: The Making of Meredith Willson’s The Music Man"
• Introduction by Shirley Jones
• Production notes
• Theatrical trailers "Meet Me in St. Louis" She’s in love with the boy next door. And movie fans are forever in love with her. Judy Garland stars in a nostalgia- and humor-filled tale of life with the Smith family in 1903 St. Louis. Songs include “The Trolley Song” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Special Features: • Introduction by Liza Minnelli
• Commentary by Judy Garland biographer John Fricke, with Margaret O’Brien, composer Hugh Martin, screenwriter Irving Brecher and Barbara Freed-Saltzman, daughter of producer Arthur Freed
• Vincente Minnelli trailer gallery "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" Nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture (and winner for Best Musical Score), the film is the perfect marriage of song and dance, as backwoods boys inspired by romance and the lure of hot biscuits raid the local town for brides. Howard Keel and Jane Powell head the cast. Special Features: • Commentary by director Stanley Donen
• Donen musicals trailer gallery With operations in 90 international territories Warner Home Video, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, commands the largest distribution infrastructure in the global video marketplace. Warner Home Video’s film library is the largest of any studio, offering top quality new and vintage titles from the repertoires of Warner Bros. Pictures, Turner Entertainment, Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Home Video and New Line Home Entertainment.