U.S. Culture
Musical
1776 (1972)

 

 The film version of the Broadway musical comedy of the same name. The musical is by Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone.

The hit Broadway musical by Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards became the basis for this 1972 film about America's first congress and the nation's
declaration of independence from Britain. Most of the original cast members
are aboard, including William Daniels as John Adams. The film is a little
stodgy and moves stiffly from scene to scene--the adaptation to the screen
is not a smooth success. But it is nonetheless captivating, considering that so few films have dealt directly with America's birth. Directed by Peter H.
Hunt. --Tom Keogh (source)
BYE BYE BIRDIE

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 When rock star and teenage heart-throb Conrad Birdie gets drafted, the nation's teenagers go haywire and Conrad's manager, Albert faces unemployment. So Albert and his girlfriend organize a nationwide contest in which one lucky girl wins a farewell kiss from Conrad on the Ed Sullivan Show.
The Cherry Orchard  Extra : Judi Dench Talks To Richard Eyre (Michel Saint - Denis)

Closed-captioned，英文發音，260 min. (共2卷)

792.6/M623/W052317V  

 Judi Dench is one of those actors who rarely seem to make a false move, handling wrenching drama, madcap farce, and witty comedy with equal aplomb. Among the BBC productions of classic and original plays available in the The Judi Dench Collection, she stars as Anya in Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, a 1962 production translated by, and starring, John Gielgud and, as Madame Ranesvky, Peggy Ashcroft. Ashcroft is a hard act to follow, but Dench pulls it off in a 1981 production in which she assumes the role of the irresponsible aristocrat, also included here.
THE GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST (ROBERT Z. LEONARD)

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 Cawpokes from all around agree. Ain't nobody like Mary, the tomboy they call "the girl". She's as much at ease serving a slug of whiskey as she is trilling a tune. And when it comes to playing a hand of cards to save the neck of the bandit she loves, Mary does as any cowgirl would.
JEZEBEL  (WILLIAM WYLER)

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Headstrong Julie is anything but conventional. At the Mardi Gras Ball, where all the belles are dressed in virginal white, she wears a gown that's flame red. Scorned by the man she loves, she lashes out in revenge, destroying lives in the process. "I am thinking of a woman who did wrong in the sight of God. Her name was Jezebel," says her aunt.
A Little Night Music (Harold Prince)

無字幕，英文發音 (120 min.)

792.6/P954/W052350V

Perhaps best known for the hit "Send In the Clowns," Stephen Sondheim's glamorous 3/4 waltz-time musical recalls enchanted evenings, white kidskin elbow gloves, and romance of the green-eyed bittersweet and bed-hopping sort. The ruse is that these folks lead "ordinary lives": the father is widowed, remarries, and briefly rekindles a sack-side former flame; the son flirts with the maid; the child bride is cuckolded yet loves and is loved by the son; and the maid has a romp with the butler. Adapted from a mid-'50s Ingmar Bergman film, the play debuted in America in the early '70s and is set in Sweden's turn-of-the-century well-to-do society. Now remastered and heard at the dawn of the millennium, Night Music is a dated yet charmingly affected period piece, abundant in its sweeping theatricality. As an unhappily chaste newlywed, Len Cariou, Broadway's glistening middle-aged dandy, is smashing as Fredrick. Glynis Johns (who always sounds congested and quite cosmopolitan) steals focus as the delightful actress Desiree. Night Music is a foolishly fanciful, twinkly score swathed in plucky harp, sweeping strings, and coolly elegant conversational tunes.
SHOW BOAT  (JAMES WHALE)

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The lovely Magnolia, fated to fall for Gaylord Ravenal dashing riverboat gambler. It is their turbulent romance and Magnolia's growth from a shy, guileless girl to a mature star of the stage that form the core of the story.
Tennessee Williams’The Glass Menagerie (Anthony Harvey)

英文發音 (105 min.)

792.6/A635/W052319V

Katharine Hepburn, one of the great American actresses, stars in this film adaptation of one of the greatest American plays, Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. Hepburn plays Amanda Wakefield, a faded Southern belle now living in a small urban apartment, where she suffocates her two children--her restless son Tom (a very young Sam Waterston) and her painfully shy daughter Laura (Joanna Miles)--with her incessant mixture of insistent cheer and guilt. After much prodding from Amanda, Tom finally brings home a friend from his workplace, in the hopes that he might strike up a romance with reclusive Laura. The result is one of the sweetest and most heartbreaking scenes ever written. Hepburn's steely will and sudden vulnerability make her ideal for the domineering mother, but the entire cast--including Michael Moriarty as the "gentleman caller"--is superb; Moriarty and Miles deservedly won Emmy awards for their performances.

                   

Video Catalogue
English Department, Fu Jen University