line on a toll bridge, hauled freight behind steeplecab freight motors and served several large industries in a small city? The Springfield Terminal Railway ran eight miles between Springfield, VT to Charlestown, NH, where it interchanged passengers and freight with the Boston and Maine Railroad. This DVD takes us back to 1956, when ST owner, the B&M, decided to dieselize the little line. They sent in one of their bright young managers. The manager was was also a railfan and recognized the historical significance in the traction equipment being made surplus. He notified several traction museums of the opportunity to obtain and preserve some of these cars. The Connecticut Electric Railway Association and its president, Karl Hartman, quickly availed itself of the of...  (less)

be a complete waste of time, right? Faint praise indeed, but fans of these mainstream funny-folk will enjoy this movie as a lazy-weekend distraction. Ben's a newlywed insurance risk-assessment analyst whose wife (Debra Messing, in a throwaway role) betrays him on their honeymoon. His uptight, play-it-safe lifestyle (which includes acute aversion to germs and irritable bowel syndrome) makes him seemingly incompatible with the spontaneous, free-spirited Polly (Aniston), but writer-director John Hamburg (whose writing credits include the previous Stiller hits Meet the Parents and Zoolander ) is determined to give them at least the appearance of romantic potential. No such luck. You will, however, get a few laughs from supporting players Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bryan Brown, and Al...  (less)

needs to manufacture his disgust and cynicism over spying. The grim business of point-counterpoint espionage has rarely been depicted with less glamour; Burton's great climactic speech on the subject is the definitive take on sinking to the level of the enemy. Claire Bloom is an offbeat love interest, and a bearded Oskar Werner is an East German investigator on Burton's case (the pecking order in the Communist spy hierarchy is a source of black humor). Director Martin Ritt extends his unvarnished approach to the movie's stripped-down look, which means that Richard Burton is constantly in a harsh, unflattering light. He looks terrible, but it's in the service of a fine performance. --Robert Horton  (less)

the box title claims. If the term "Western classic" is to mean anything--and it should--it has to be reserved for the likes of Stagecoach , The Naked Spur , Seven Men from Now , and Unforgiven . What we have here are half a dozen pictures that came out in mid–20th century, have recognizable professionals going about their business, and agreeably remind us of how they made 'em before they stopped makin' 'em the way they used to. And for a pleasant weekend's viewing, that'll do nicely. The Civil War–era Escape from Fort Bravo (1953), the first of director John Sturges's many Westerns, has flint-hard U.S. Cavalry officer William Holden riding herd on Confederate POWs in Arizona. Once Holden has fallen for his colonel's daughter's best friend Eleanor Parker, who's also secretly the fiancée of Rebel officer John Forsythe, the film itself is allowed to escape For...  (less)

witty innkeeper (Colm Meaney -- STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION) will stop at nothing to defend their honor! While the townspeople rally around their "mountain," a fiery young woman (Tara Fitzgerald -- SIRENS) charms the puzzled out-of-towner into seeing things their way! You'll be elevated by laughter as the hilarious townspeople rise to the occasion -- and the bewildered visitor stumbles into love when he least expects it!  (less)

plays Hirsh, whose arrival in Parkman brings small-town hypocrisy to the unforgiving light of day in this character-driven tale directed by Vincente Minnelli and based on a novel by James Jones (whose From Here to Eternity had led to Sinatra’s 1953 Oscar). In his first screen pairing with Sinatra, Dean Martin plays a sharp-witted cardsharp. And Shirley MacLaine earned one of the movie's five Academy AwardÒ nominations as the good-hearted floozie with a potentially fatal attraction to Hirsh.  (less)

twin brothers, Robin and Maurice, were making TV and radio appearances in Australia as early as 1960 before returning to their native England and joining the Beatles-led British Invasion, and they're still at it more than 40 years later. All of that is duly chronicled in this two-hour documentary (produced in 2000), along with a great deal more: the personal problems that led to a breakup in the early '70s; the unparalleled success of the Saturday Night Fever era; their occasional missteps and failures (e.g., the abominable Sgt. Pepper movie); the rise and tragic fall of brother Andy; the respect their success finally earned them in the '90s; and so on. The format is pretty standard; interviews, photos, home movies, and concert footage all contribute to a straight, chronol...  (less)

pity, because this film certainly has its strengths--particularly in the central performances of Morgan Freeman as a forensic detective and Ashley Judd as a would-be victim who escaped from one of the killers. Director Gary Fleder demonstrates visual flair and maintains an involving undercurrent of tension, but as this adaptation of James Patterson's novel approaches its climax, familiar elements combine to form a chronic case of thriller déjà vu. It's altogether competent filmmaking in the service of a moribund story of competing psychopaths, and by the time the serial killers reach the home stretch of their twisted contest, the movie's dangerously close to Freddy Kruger territory, with a finale that could've been borrowed from any dozen similar thrillers. -- Jef...  (less)

world is turned upside down, as he makes an uproarious attempt to change his life from middle-of-the-road to totally-out-there! Along Came Polly is the most hilarious comedy smash to come along in years!  (less)

this collection that includes five new-to-DVD films - The Bride Came C.O.D., Captain of the Clouds, The Fighting 69th, Torrid Zone and The West Point Story. Cagney's versatile talent is on display opposite a star-studded array of screen favorites including Bette Davis, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Virginia Mayo, Ann Sheridan and Pat O'Brien. Special features on each title in the Collection include the entertaining "Warner Night at the Movies" short subject galleries with vintage newsreels, vault treasures and classic cartoons.  (less)