[MikeM]

Hey guys:


Are you aware that a company called Kino has just released the full American Film Theater subscription series that played in theaters during the mid-1970's? I can't believe this hybrid of great cinema/great theater has been finally released on DVD.


You may recall that 14 of the greatest theatrical works were filmed by great directors with incredible casts and the only way you could see them back them was if you subscribed -- just like real theater performances.


Some of the works included:


Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh (John Frankenheimer director) with Lee Marvin, Jeff Bridges, Robert Ryan, Frederick March and Bradford Dillman.


Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance (Tony Richardson director) with Katharine Hepburn, Paul Scofield


Robert Shaw's The Man In The Glass Booth with Maximillian Schell

The Maids

Alan Bates in Butley

Stacey Keach as Luther

Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder in Rhinoceros


and many more.


exciting stuff!!!

 

[Phat Phreddy]

I have the box set on order sa I simply MUST have the Ice Man Cometh... Heard about it but never seen...


While you are there... Make sure you buy Himalaya AKA Caravan AKA l'enfonce d'un Chief... Eric Valli's camera work is great and the monstrous yaks in the blizzards look better than any lucas creation... Other worldly...

 

[Shaded Dogfood]

I remember these. They were exceedingly difficult to see, as they were expensive and really only came around once (though opportunities arose later to catch some of them. I always wanted to see The Iceman Cometh, but I can't remember if I did or not- most of the ones I did see must be coming in the next batch. Topol as Galileo, as I recall, is one of the ones coming up.


They look better than TV shows, but not quite as good as movies, but for the most part work fairly well.


The BBC series of the Shakespeare plays seem to be making their appearance on DVD as well, though they were rather uneven, generally done so reverently that they tended towards being boring. And they're very expensive, and it doesn't seem you can buy them one by one either.

 

[Larry Davis]

Threads merged.

 

[John Moschella]

Thanks for the heads up Mike. I remember when this series came out.


I remember seeing The Iceman Cometh but I don't remeber how because I did not subscribe back in the 70s. I saw it well after that possibly in film class during college. It made a big impression on me and Lee Marvin was amazing. This sounds really cool.

 

[MikeM]

For those of you who are Iceman devotees, certainly the stellar cast and cinema approach taken by Eli Landau's American Film Theater was superb. However, you can also acquire what is widely regarded as the definitive Iceman with Jason Robards in the lead role as Hickey. This is available as a 4x3 fullscreen video of the CBS broadcast in 1960. It's remarkably well preserved and is available through the Broadway Theater Archive series on DVD and Amazon.com. This one is interesting because some great actors were hardly known back then such as Robert Redford as the kid (Parrit). James Broderick (Matthew Broderick's father). Also, the fact that Tom Pedi plays the all important bartender in both versions even though they were made 14 years apart is worth noting.

 

[John Moschella]

Here is a link to a list of the American Film Theater releases:

http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=KD |||899American|Film|Theatre