l'déluge digital

Only one week after the long-awaited North American video release of Nausicaä and Porco Rosso, Disney decides to finally grace us with Bambi on DVD. Slave to Amazon that I am, I am scrounging around for that extra purchase that bumps me into Super Saver Shipping Land. Porco Rosso, as you can tell from my review, is not a must-have for this borderline otaku. Maybe Spirited Away?

Then, like a light from the heavens, Amazon parts the clouds with the mother of all AOLTimeWarnerTurnerMGM box sets. Who would've thought something with the innocuous title Classic Comedies Collection turns out to be The Greatest Box Set of All Time (forget Star Wars and LOTR) . Check it out:

1. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
2. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
3. Dinner At Eight (1933)
4. Libeled Lady (1936)
5. Stage Door (1937)
6. To Be Or Not To Be (1942)

Total @ Amazon: $48.29

I would pay $48 for just To Be Or Not To Be. Four of the six are on AFI's Top 100 Laughs of All Time list. Of the two not on the list, Stage Door, while chock full o' wonderful wisecracks, is not really a comedy, while Libeled Lady, at least as funny as the others, tends to be overlooked as a formula picture by a studio hack director (Jack Conway). Never you mind: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Jean Harlow are all in top form, and the script is hilarious.

And that's just the least famous of the six. Check this out:

Bringing Up Baby: directed by Howard Hawks, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Many consider Katharine's first attempt at comedy her best. The slaptick in this movie surprised me, completely overturning my past images of Hepburn and Grant. Watch a ditzy Hepburn sink birdie puts, take pratfalls, and wrestle with the eponymous leopard. Grant only gets to cross dress and act nerdy, but who else could pull that off with such charm?

The Philadelphia Story: directed by George Cukor, starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart. Jimmy won Best Actor, but most people think Cary put in the better performance. Yet, it was all just a vehicle for Katharine, a vehicle that cemented her perch as Hollywood's greatest actress for the next half century.

Dinner At Eight: directed by George Cukor, starring Jean Harlow, John and Lionel Barrymore, Billie Burke, gruff-faced Wallace Beery, and even gruffer-faced Marie Dressler. Trying to recapture the magic of the previous year's kitchen-sink Best Picture Grand Hotel, MGM replaced Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo with rising star Jean Harlow, crusty old Marie Dressler (in her late 60s, a bigger box-office draw than Garbo, Dietrich, or Crawford in their primes), and a deliriously ditzy Billie "only bad witches are ugly" Burke. George Cukor and David Selznick injected a liberal dose of comedy and let the stars strut their stuff.

Stage Door: directed by Gregory La Cava, starring Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, ...please, give some other movies a chance! On the heels of My Man Godfrey, La Cava brought depths of emotion out of this backstage melodrama that one might never have suspected watching Godfrey. Critics praised Ginger Rogers' first big serious role, while Hepburn brings down the house with what would become her trademark line, "the Calla lilies are in bloom again."

To Be Or Not To Be: directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Jack Benny, Carole Lombard, and a young Robert Stack. One of my three favorite comedies of all time (the others are The Lady Eve (1941) and His Girl Friday (1940)). The script is outrageously funny, and Jack Benny's delivery is priceless. Carole Lombard's best and last performance (she died in a plane crash before the film was released, leaving hubby Clark Gable distraught).

All six are memorable, influential, hilarious, touching, inspired, glamorous, and packed with beautiful stars. Forget The Aviator, this box set is the greatest celebration of Hollywood since Randy Newman sang I Love L.A.