Barbara Stanwyck: The Signature Collection (Annie Oakley / East Side, West Side / My Reputation / Executive Suite / Jeopardy / To Please a Lady)

This collecton honors Barbara Stanwyck's 100th birthday with six titles not previously on DVD and under the control of Warner Home Video. Her screen persona was generally that of a tough-as-nails woman of the world, sometimes with nefarious motives, and this collection tends to give you a broader view of her talents showing fine performances in some well-known as well as lesser known films. All of these films are in the post-code era, and this is probably because Warner Home Video has plans for her pre-codes in their Forbidden Hollywood series. For example, WB has already announced that they have plans for Stanwyck's classic pre-code "Night Nurse" to be put on DVD. At any rate, here are the films and extras in this set:Annie Oakley (1935)The oldest film in the collection, great dramatic license is taken with Oakley's real life story. Stanwyck does a good job of portraying Oakley in this film, still making use of the tough reputation she had in parts in the pre-code era and translating it into a time when less could get past the censors. There's quite a bit of comedy in this western, and George Stevens does a good job of directing all involved.Special Features:Main Street Follies, vintage 1935 short starring Hal Le RoyInto Your Dance, vintage 1935 cartoonSubtitles in English and FrenchMy Reputation (1946)Next we jump ahead ten years with Stanwyck playing a woman who is grieving over the death of her husband. She not only has the timeless problem of being a single mother raising two teenage sons, she must also deal with the issue of her reputation - as dictated by society at that time and by her mother and friends specifically. She gets involved with an Army officer (George Brent) who is the love them and leave them type, and as a result has trouble from everyone she knows. Stanwyck is great as a woman who has to learn to go it alone and stand up for herself for the first time. Brent is less convincing as a bit of a cad - he usually plays such stand-up guys and even played opposite Rin-Tin-Tin early in his career! At any rate, it's a good display of Stanwyck's talents in a different and vulnerable kind of role for her. Not previously on VHS or DVD.Special Features:Jan Savitt and Band, vintage Warner Bros. musical shortDaffy Doodles, vintage Warner Bros. cartoonAudio Only Bonuses: Vintage Radio Versions - Lux Radio Theater adaptation with Barbara Stanwyck (4/47) and Screen Guild Theater adaptation with Alexis Smith (7/47)Theatrical trailerSubtitles: English, French & Spanish (Feature film only)East Side, West Side (1949)This is a movie along the lines of a film noir and has Stanwyck playing a Manhattan woman who is devoted to her philandering husband (James Mason) who claims he loves her in spite of his weakness for serial affairs. One of his past flames, Ava Gardner, is back in town to try to take Mason away from Stanwyck permanently. This film also reunites Stanwyck with Van Heflin who both have great chemistry together. Great performances, a good plot, and an overall enjoyable film.Special Features:Counterfeit Cat, vintage MGM Tex Avery cartoonStuff for Stuff, vintage MGM short subjectOriginal theatrical trailerSubtitles: English and FrenchTo Please a Lady (1950)This film pairs Clark Gable with Stanwyck. Gable plays a renegade racing driver whose driving tactics during a race cause the death of another driver. Stanwyck plays a no-nonsense newspaper reporter out to expose Gable's professional tactics and end his career. This might actually be more interesting to car racing fans than to Stanwyck fans because of the great footage of racing and behind the scenes footage of the sport as it existed in 1950. Stanwyck does the best she can with a somewhat thin script, and it is above average entertainment, but it is probably the weakest entry in the set.Jeopardy (1953)This film is a thriller that is rather hard to categorize - it is almost avante-garde in nature. It starts out calmly enough - the Stilwin family is vacationing on an isolated stretch of beach. However, while rescuing their son, Doug Stilwin (Barry Sullivan) gets his leg caught and is stuck in the water. He is fine now - at low tide. High tide will be another matter. His wife (Barbara Stanwyck) goes for help and instead picks up an escaped killer. He proposes an interesting trade to her in exchange for his help. This is a great suspenseful movie and I'm surprised it is not better known and not shown more on TV. Meeker is very good as the criminal. His onscreen persona is an interesting cross between Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando and he has good chemistry with Stanwyck in this one. Not previously on VHS or DVD.To Please a Lady and Jeopardy are a double feature and have the following extras:To Please A Lady original theatrical trailerJeopardy original theatrical trailerAudio Only Bonus: Jeopardy 1954 Lux Radio Theater Broadcast with StanwyckSubtitles: English, French & Spanish (feature film only)Executive Suite (1954)Probably the best known of the six films in this set and probably the most awaited as far as DVD releases go. The funny thing is, Stanwyck isn't really the star in this movie - William Holden is. That's not to say Stanwyck fans won't get their money's worth though, particularly in her showdown scene with Holden and in the last scene where she outperforms everyone just by sitting in a chair and observing. This film is about the details of a power struggle when the founder of a large corporation suddenly dies. It basically boils down to two factions - the innovators and the bean counters. It's how these two groups dance around each other in their maneuvers for power that will hold your interest. The film is still relevant because big business is still about these two groups today. It is a common story of business - someone starts a company out of their love for building a superior product and somewhere along the way - often after the founder's death or retirement - the bean counters take over and regard only profits without remembering that the superior product is where those profits come from. Outstanding entertainment.Special Features:Feature commentary by Oscar-winning director Oliver StoneOut for Fun, vintage MGM Pete Smith ShortBilly Boy, vintage MGM Tex Avery CartoonOriginal theatrical trailerSubtitles: English & Spanish (feature film only)My biggest disappointment in this set is a lack of biographical material on Stanwyck's career, which was a long and illustrious one. It does look like WB gave Executive Suite good treatment with the feature commentary, though.

Barbara Stanwyck hadn't yet settled into her "tough broad" persona when she made this movie (she was only 28), but it was her first venture into something that might be called a Western, a genre of which she went on to appear in many examples, being a great admirer of the pioneers. Ironically she was (according to one historian) terrified of guns! For all that she makes a believable sharpshooter. In 1885, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show is the newest and greatest thing around, and Bill's (Moroni Olsen) partner Jeff Hogarth (Melvyn Douglas) has just signed on a brash Bowery rifleman, Toby Walker (Preston Foster), who's never been west of St. Louis and has rather a scornful attitude toward "those hairy-pants rubes." In rural Ohio, young Annie, who for the last five years has supported her widowed mother and two siblings by her wizardry at bringing down game, sees a poster featuring Walker and is immediately smitten. When Hogarth and Cincinnati hotelier James MacIvor (Andy Clyde) make a bet pitting Walker against the shooter who's been supplying Mac's kitchens with head-shot quail, neither one knows that she's a girl. But she soon dazzles the assembled multitude with her marksmanship, and even after she deliberately throws the match, Hogarth knows she's a natural for the show. Toby soon takes an interest in polishing up her act, and she becomes a great success, also striking up a real attachment with him, and even attracting the attention of Chief Sitting Bull (Chief Thunder Bird). Then the supposed "rivalry" between the two shooters seems to turn serious when Annie's hand is injured and Walker is blamed for it and fired from the show, though even a triumphal tour of Europe can't put him out of Annie's mind.This old-fashioned biopic is only partly accurate (read  The Secret Annie Oakley  for a better fictional treatment), but the young Stanwyck is really rather charming, and the show sequences are especially good. A note of humor is added by Sitting Bull's various encounters with civilization (especially the scenes in which he spots Toby in the audience and tracks him down through the New York streets so he can take his "Little Sure-Shot" to her beloved).

The 5 disc dvd collection was delivered quickly and was nicely packaged. Unfortunately, 2 of the dvds had corrupted sections so I couldn't watch 2 of the movies. This was NOT the fault of the seller. The collection was obviously brand new. I'm just disappointed that the manufacturer made flawed discs. I would absolutely buy from this seller again.

This is a romanticized version of the life of Phoebe Ann Mosey, who became known to the world as the greatest woman sharpshooter the world has ever known, Annie Oakley. I loved this movie for several reasons, the first of which is I'm a devoted Barbara Stanwyck fan.Secondly, the scenes including the Buffalo Bill Wild West show were extremely authentic. Think about this: This movie was made only 51 years after the real "Annie Oakley" joined Buffalo Bill's show. People still living from those days, including Chief Thunderbird (who played Sitting Bull) could bring a lot of authenticity to the set. Imagine if you're 65 years old, and you wanted to make a movie about the Sixties. You could bring a lot to the movie from your own life experiences, without much reliance on "WikiPedia". It was this attention to detail which helped keep me extremely interested in the story.There were, however, still many historical inaccuracies, but much of this is due to making the movie more of a lifelong romantic journey between Annie and Frank Butler (whose name was changed to Toby Walker in the film). Their romantic involvement takes place over many years in the film, whereas in real life the two were actually married a year after they met. If you don't mind Hollywood's artistic license with the facts knowing that love stories are a better sell, you'll find much to love in "Annie Oakley" (1935).

This was a lovely film one you will watch time and time againrecommended to western lovers and Barbara Stanwyck fans

Great watch

Excellent product, though one or two of the films not quite up to Stanwyck's high standard. Quality and service excellent.

Exactly as described

Great