Rent It Happened in Hollywood / Adventure in Sahara / Power of the Press (1943)
3.2 of 5 from 58 ratings
3h 9min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Triple bill of American classics.
It Happened in Hollywood (1937)
While hospitalized young Billy (Bill Burrud) meets his silent movie idol Tim Bart (Richard Dix) but then the talkies came, destroying Bart's career. Now Bart must convince his young friend he is still a star.
Adventure in Sahara (1938)Agadez is a lonely French outpost baking under the desert sun and commanded by the cruel and oppressive Captain Savatt (C. Henry Gordon). To it comes, at his own request, Legionnaire Jim Wilson (Paul Kelly) soon followed by his fiancée, Carla Preston (Lorna Gray), who has been tracing him from post to post. Legionnaires seize the fort and turn Savitt loose in the Arab-haunted desert with only a fraction of the water and food needed to get back to civilization. But Savitt gets through and returns to the fort at the head of an avenging troop of men. But Arabs surround Savitt and his men, and the mutineers, knowing that to leave the fort and aid them means their own death...
Power of the Press (1943)
During WWII, the publisher of the isolationist New York Gazette is murdered just as he was about to change the paper's policy and support the US war effort. His friend, a small town patriotic editor, is brought in to find the culprits.- Actors:
- Richard Dix, Fay Wray, Victor Kilian, Charles Arnt, Granville Bates, William B. Davidson, Arthur Loft, Edgar Dearing, James Donlan, Bill Burrud, Franklin Pangborn, Zeffie Tilbury, Harold Goodwin, Charles Brinley, Wally Albright, Colleen Bawn, Joan Beauchamp, Scotty Beckett, Georgie Billings, John Bohn
- Directors:
- Harry Lachman, D. Ross Lederman, Lew Landers
- Producers:
- Myles Connolly, William Perlberg, Louis B. Appleton Jr., Leon Barsha
- Writers:
- Ethel Hill, Harvey Fergusson, Samuel Fuller, Myles Connolly, Maxwell Shane, Robert Hardy Andrews
- Aka:
- Once a Hero / Revolt in the Sahara / Power of the Press
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Classics, Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Collections:
- 10 Films to Watch if You Like A Star Is Born, Films to Watch If You Like...
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 25/06/2018
- Run Time:
- 189 minutes
- Languages:
- English LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Full Screen 1.37:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- (0) All
- Bonus:
- All-Star Party (2018, 6 mins): a who's who of the 'stars' and their impersonators in the climactic party scene from It Happened in Hollywood
- Sam Fuller's Search for Truth with Tim Robbins (2009, 7 mins): the celebrated actor explores Fuller's time as a reporter • Image gallery: publicity photography and promotional material for all three films
- World Premieres on Blu-ray
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Reviews (2) of It Happened in Hollywood / Adventure in Sahara / Power of the Press
Quite a Party - It Happened in Hollywood / Adventure in Sahara / Power of the Press review by CH
Why is It Happened in Hollywood not better known?
Made in 1937, it turns around what has become a theme of films: a talkie about the advent of talkies and the effect upon those who could not adapt.
The opening itself is a well-managed trick, made all the better by the revelation that it takes place not in the West but the ward of a children's hospital. Sometimes sentimental, it is also broad farce, and even romance (with Fay Wray), as a former cowboy star tries to make good again.
Crucial to this is a fifreen-minute scene in which many of Hollywood's finest appear to enjoy a sunny garden party and utter their most famous lines. Say no more - except also watch the short documentary about the making of that scene. Along with that there are two more early works by Sam Fuller: the wartime Power of the Press is a sombre, doubly topical work (including the revelation that the phrase "fake news" is almost ninety years old).
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Power of the Press. - It Happened in Hollywood / Adventure in Sahara / Power of the Press review by Steve
Low budget polemic about the threat of fascism in the American media. A pro-Nazi has the liberal owner of the New York Gazette killed so he can seize editorial control. Only the dead man left a will which transfers the publication to an editor from Hicksville with real American values who must fight to save the paper for democracy.
This is remembered because the story was written by future cult director Sam Fuller. It was made by Columbia, the studio which emerged from poverty row largely because of the progressive films of Frank Capra. And it's easy to imagine this as a story treatment for the great director, though this is the punchy tabloid version. Well, there's a war on.
So swap in James Stewart for Guy Kibbee as the small town editor. Jean Arthur for Gloria Dickson as his spunky girl Friday. And Edward Arnold for Otto Kruger as the fifth columnist. What might have been! It's actually directed by B-picture stalwart Lew Landers who gets it all done in 64 minutes without style, romance or a lot of folksy hee-haw from Walter Brennan.
But it's really entertaining. It continually moves forward at pace and gives us what we want. And that's is a grim outcome for the enemies of the free world, including a big speech about the indomitable people. Which feels just as winsomely optimistic as the climax of a Capra film. All while Fuller was away fighting real Nazis in Italy.
*** for this/** for the collection.
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