Farewell to Snows of Becky Twist
Annie Van Auken | Planet Earth | 01/12/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Screenplays in the GREAT NOVELS ON FILM 4 Movie Pack are based on the writings of Hemingway, Dickens and Thackeray.
CONTENTS:
BECKY SHARP-- This central character in "Vanity Fair" was an orphaned child of poor parents. Becky made her life's ambitions the obtaining of money and social status, no matter who got hurt along the way.
A FAREWELL TO ARMS-- During WWI, an injured ambulance driver falls in love with his nurse. To modern sensibilities this plays like a warning against pre-marital sex. The most likeable character in the film, Menjou's Major Rinaldi, turns out to be a bit of a rat.
OLIVER TWIST-- Orphaned child endures tortures and deprivations in a workhouse, is apprenticed to an abusive undertaker and runs away to London where he falls in with a gang of thieving street urchins. Their leader, Fagin, tutors the boy in the "art" of picking pockets.
SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO-- As a writer lays dying, he thinks about his life. Based on several Ernest Hemingway stories. Even the author didn't like this film.
ALFRED HITCHCOCK: 4 Tales of the Macabre (also from BCI / Eclipse) contains a few fine examples of the Master of Suspense's early sound films.
BRENTWOOD's 4-fers are nicely priced movie bundles. Video and sound quality of these digitally unrestored public domain films is generally fine. Discs are dual-side recorded.
.
Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are 1 to 10 viewer poll ratings found at a film resource website.
(6.2) Becky Sharp (1935) - Miriam Hopkins/Cedric Hardwicke/Billie Burke/Nigel Bruce
(6.5) A Farewell To Arms (1932) - Helen Hayes/Gary Cooper/Adolphe Menjou
(5.7) Oliver Twist (1933) - Dickie Moore/Irving Pichel/William 'Stage' Boyd
(6.3) Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) - Gregory Peck/Susan Hayward/Ava Gardner/Leo G. Carroll"