The Hollywood Collection
GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS
Al Pacino heads a stunning star-studded cast… Close the deal … or you’re history. The stakes couldn’t be higher for four desperate Chicago real-estate salesmen: close the deal or lose your job. David Mamet’s famously profanity-laden screenplay based on his own Pulitzer Prize-winning play ferociously nails the dog-eat-dog world where lies, flattery, threats, theft and bribery rule supreme as the four salesman scrabble to thrash the opposition and keep their livelihoods. But who will survive? Will it be top closer Ricky Roma? Has-been Shelley The Machine Levene? Timid no-hoper George Aaronow? Big-mouth Dave Moss? Or does ruthless office manager Williamson hold all the trump cards? Al Pacino, who earned both Academy Award® and Golden Globe® nominations for his powerhouse performance, heads a fabulous cast of big-name stellar talent, including Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Jonathan Pryce and Jack Lemmon (who won the Volpi Cup – Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival).
JULIA
Fred Zinnemann’s last great movie. Based on part of Lillian Hellman’s memoir, the film stars Jane Fonda as Hellman as she recounts her friendship with the enigmatic Julia, played by Vanessa Redgrave. Fonda gives a gutsy performance, playing well with Redgrave and, to a greater degree, Jason Robards, who plays Dashell Hammett. Alvin Sargent’s screenplay cleverly bends time, jumping back and forth as the story of Hellman’s friendship with Julia is told and Zinnemann creates a melancholy feel that’s sustained throughout. The excellent music by Georges Delerue is haunting and the cinematography by Douglas Slocombe is beautiful. The supporting cast features Meryl Streep as Anne Marie, Maximillian Schell as Johann, Cathleen Nesbitt as Julia’s grandmother, Rosemary Murphy as Dorothy Parker and Hal Holbrook as Parker’s husband Alan Campbell.
THE LONG HOT SUMMER
Paul Newman plays Ben Quick, the mysterious drifter who stirs up a town and its women when he hitches up in Frenchman s Bend, Mississippi, where life is dominated by elderly patriarch Will Varner (Orson Welles). Will s daughter Clara (Joanne Woodward) and son Jody (Anthony Franciosa) are a disappointment to him. While Jody spends his time fooling around with his alluring wife, Eula (Lee Remick), the strong-willed Clara is courted by Alan Stewart (Richard Anderson), a milquetoast mama s boy. Will himself is resisting being pressured into marriage by his long-term mistress Minnie (Angela Lansbury), but he sees in Ben the passion and drive that Jody lacks. He invites Ben to live with the family, and Ben launches a relentless campaign to break Clara s will and win her heart. This proves the final straw for Jody, who is driven to desperate measures to prove his manhood a situation that sparks both deadly danger and shocking revelations over the course of one long, hot summer.