Six lesser Katharine Hepburn films move to disc
By David Germain
Associated Press
| |||
Selected home-video releases:
Half a dozen lesser-known Hepburn films make their DVD debuts in honor of the actress' centennial. The highlights of the six-disc set come from the beginning and end of Hepburn's career with 1933's "Morning Glory," a tale of a rural woman struggling to become a Broadway star that earned the actress her first of four Academy Awards, and 1979's "The Corn Is Green," George Cukor's TV remake of the Bette Davis classic about a teacher in a Welsh mining town.
The set also includes four other films from the 1930s and '40s: "Without Love," with Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in a marriage of convenience; "Dragon Seed," an adaptation of Pearl S. Buck's novel set against Japan's invasion of China in World War II; "Undercurrent," co-starring Robert Taylor and Robert Mitchum in a thriller about a woman whose husband is plotting to kill her; and "Sylvia Scarlett," with Hepburn on the lam disguised as a man in a romance co-starring Cary Grant. Each movie is accompanied by a vintage short film and cartoon. (Warner Bros.)
Dare we say it? Hannibal the Cannibal, arguably cinema's most chilling serial killer, has become boring. After Anthony Hopkins' Oscar-winning performance as Hannibal Lecter in "The Silence of the Lambs," his subsequent turns as the diabolical murderer and muncher of human flesh began going stale with "Hannibal" and "Red Dragon."
This lame and sometimes laughable prequel takes the story back to Hannibal's roots as a World War II orphan in Eastern Europe and later Paris, where young Lecter (Gaspard Ulliel) comes under the spell of his beautiful aunt (Gong Li) and begins his grisly career of butchery to avenge the horrific events of his childhood.
The movie comes in the R-rated theatrical version or an unrated edition adding about 12 minutes of footage. The DVD includes deleted scenes, two featurettes and commentary from director Peter Webber and producer Martha De Laurentiis. (Genius)
TV ON DVD