James Cagney Signature Collection II (R2) in June

Warner Home Video have announced the UK Region 2 HMV Exclusive DVD release of James Cagney: The Signature Collection Volume II for 11th June 2007 priced at £29.99. The award-winning screen icon comes to life in this collection that includes four new-to-UK DVD films – The Bride Came C.O.D., The Fighting 69th, Torrid Zone and The West Point Story.

Special features on each title in the Collection include the entertaining “Warner Night at the Movies” short subject galleries with vintage newsreels, vault treasures and classic cartoons.

This is the UK equivalent of the April Region 1 DVD release: James Cagney: The Signature Collection and is identical in terms of content other than the obvious omission of a fifth film - Captain of the Clouds.

The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941)
Comedy comes from numerous sources in this screwball farce headlined by the ebullient pairing of James Cagney and Bette Davis, scripted by Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein (Casablanca, Arsenic and Old Lace). Whether up in the clouds, or underground in a mine, the stars (in their second and final film together) spar with harebrained zest as a pilot hired to kidnap an about-to-elope heiress, and the happy result from start to end is C.O.D. – Comedy on Demand.

DVD Special Features::

• Warner Night at the Movies 1941 short subjects gallery:
  • Vintage newsreel
  • Musical shorts Carnival of Rhythm and the Oscar-nominated Forty Boys and a Song
  • Classic cartoons Porky’s Pooch and the Oscar-nominated Rhapsody in Rivets
  • Trailers of The Bride Came C.O.D. and 1941’s Honeymoon for Three

The Fighting 69th (1940)
In the seventh of their nine movies together, off-screen pals James Cagney and Pat O’Brien play soldiers of the famed, largely Irish-American World War I regiment, the Fighting 69th. O’Brien is Father Duffy, the brave chaplain whose statue stands today in Manhattan’s Times Square. Cagney is Jerry Plunkett, a street-tough braggart turned yellow by the horror of No Man’s Land, but inspired to redemptive heroism by Duffy’s courage under fire.

DVD Special Features:

• Warner Night at the Movies 1940 short subjects gallery:
  • Vintage newsreel
  • Two patriotic shorts: Young America Flies and the Oscar-nominated London Can Take It!
  • Classic cartoon Pilgrim Porky
  • Trailers of The Fighting 69th and 1940’s Brother Orchid
• Classic cartoon The Fighting 69½th
• Audio-only bonus: radio adaptation with Pat O’Brien, Robert Preston and Ralph Bellamy

Torrid Zone (1940)
Off-screen pals James Cagney and Pat O’Brien team for the eighth time in this snappy action comedy set in a Central American “Banana” Republic. In a role widely cited as putting her on the movie fan’s map, Hollywood’s “Oomph Girl” Ann Sheridan portrays wisecracking chanteuse Lee Donley who’s the lure to keep the plantation’s best man (Cagney) from leaving the company. With superb support, zippy repartee, plus 950 banana trees planted over 5 backlot acres, the heat is on.

DVD Special Features:

• Warner Night at the Movies 1940 short subjects gallery:
  • Vintage newsreel
  • Musical short Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra
  • Technicolor historical short Pony Express Days with Torrid Zone’s George Reeves
  • Classic Oscar-nominated cartoon A Wild Hare
  • Trailers of Torrid Zone and 1940’s Santa Fe Trail

The West Point Story (1950)
James Cagney puts on his dancing shoes again for this merry musical comedy packed with spirited starpower and lively tunes by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn.

Cagney plays a Broadway showman down on his luck yet full of hotshot ideas. Brought to West Point to stage the cadets’ annual musical, he decides to make it a tryout for a Broadway transfer. But first, he must lure the show’s talented lead (Gordon MacRae) out of the military. He’s got just the right bait: a sweet-natured Hollywood star (Doris Day). Virginia Mayo and Gene Nelson also star alongside the irrepressible Cagney, who’s “in rare good form, singing, dancing and wisecracking in his most electrifying style” (Bosley Crowther, The New York Times).

DVD Special Features:

• Warner Night at the Movies 1950 short subjects gallery:
  • Vintage newsreel
  • Oscar-winning Sports Parade short Grandad of Races
  • Classic cartoon His Bitter Half
  • Trailers of The West Point Story and 1950’s Tea for Two

Date：2008-3-17　【Return】