Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and Universal Studios Home Entertainment are joining forces on TCM Showcase, a brand new line of value-priced DVD sets featuring legendary stars in iconic roles. Available exclusively through TCM's online store (http://shop.tcm.com), the TCM Showcase collection has launched with DVD sets celebrating two of the brightest stars ever to grace the Silver Screen – Claudette Colbert and Barbara Stanwyck.
The TCM Showcase DVD collection marks a new phase in TCM's ongoing partnership with Universal Studios Home Entertainment, a collaboration that began with the launch of the TCM Vault Collection in 2009. While the TCM Vault Collection focuses on rare and hard-to-find titles, the TCM Showcase collection offers Hollywood's greatest stars in the roles that made them legends.
Each DVD set released under the TCM Showcase banner includes four films. First out of the starting gate is TCM Showcase: Barbara Stanwyck, featuring the tough and versatile actress in The Lady Eve (1941), Double Indemnity (1944), All I Desire (1953) and There's Always Tomorrow (1956). Also available, TCM Showcase: Claudette Colbert features the playful and sophisticated Colbert in Cleopatra (1934), Imitation of Life (1934), Midnight (1939) and The Palm Beach Story (1942).
TCM Showcase: Barbara Stanwyck and TCM Showcase: Claudette Colbert are on sale now through the TCM store. Each set is available for the special low price of $24.99, 17% off the suggested retail price. Complete descriptions are included below.
TCM Showcase: Barbara Stanwyck
In her 60 years on screen, stage and television Barbara Stanwyck distinguished herself as one of Hollywood’s most multi-talented actresses. Starting as a dancer, she went on to excel in both dramatic and comedic roles with her ability to portray femme fatales, wisecracking broads and madcap con artists. Stanwyck also worked with some of Hollywood’s finest directors, including Preston Sturges (The Lady Eve), Billy Wilder (Double Indemnity) and Douglas Sirk (All I Desire and There's Always Tomorrow).
The following are the four films featured in TCM and Universal Studios Home Entertainment's TCM Showcase: Barbara Stanwyck:
The Lady Eve (1941) – Barbara Stanwyck is a cardsharp and con artist who woos the shy heir to the Pike Ale Fortune (Henry Fonda) in an attempt to fleece him. This hilarious screwball comedy of double dealing and mistaken identities is one of the best from director Preston Sturges.
Double Indemnity (1944) – "How could I have known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle?" Fred MacMurray is an insurance agent and Stanwyck the woman who seduces him into killing her husband in this film noir directed by Billy Wilder and written by Raymond Chandler.
All I Desire (1953) – Stanwyck revisits parts of her own life story in this powerful melodrama from director Douglas Sirk. In the film, she plays a woman who abandons her family for a life on stage. Maureen O’Sullivan co-stars.
There's Always Tomorrow (1956) – Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray reunite in this Douglas Sirk melodrama about a toy executive who suffers the indifference of his wife (Joan Bennett) before rekindling a flame with a former lover (Stanwyck).
TCM Showcase: Claudette Colbert
With her mix of intelligence, beauty and easy humor, Claudette Colbert was adept at everything from comedies and melodramas to historical epics. Starring in more than 60 films during a career that spanned 34 years, she worked with some of Hollywood’s most talented directors, including Cecil B. DeMille (Cleopatra) and Preston Sturges (The Palm Beach Story).
The following four films are featured in TCM and Universal Studios Home Entertainment's TCM Showcase: Claudette Colbert:
Cleopatra (1934) – Claudette Colbert plays the title character in this stylish and lavish portrayal of the notorious Egyptian empress's love for Roman general Marc Antony. Cecil B. DeMille helmed this opulent epic, regarded as one of the director's most intelligent films.
Imitation of Life (1934) – Two women – one white, one black – form an enduring friendship as they struggle through financial hardship and racial prejudice to raise their daughters. Named one of the "25 Most Important Films on Race" by TIME Magazine, this powerful drama was adapted from Fannie Hurst's novel by screenwriter Preston Sturges. John M. Stahl directed.
Midnight (1939) – Colbert sparkles as an out-of-work American showgirl caught up in Parisian high society in this delightful romantic comedy. Don Ameche, John Barrymore and Mary Astor co-star, with Mitchell Leisen directing from a script by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett.
The Palm Beach Story (1942) – Complications abound in this screwball comedy with Colbert and Joel McCrea playing two sets of identical twins who marry one another's sweethearts, then are forced by financial troubles to seek more profitable liaisons. The legendary Preston Sturges wrote and directed this uproarious farce.
