The Tyrone Power Matinee Idol Collection


Girls' Dormitory (1936)     Love Is News (1937)     Café Metropole (1937)

Second Honeymoon (1937)     Day-Time Wife (1939)     Johnny Apollo (1940)

This Above All (1942)     The Luck of the Irish (1948)     That Wonderful Urge (1948)


I'll Never Forget You (1951)

 


Titles

 

 


 

Girls' Dormitory (1936) - Officially this has no weight, but we suggest that Congress cancel a substantial part of France's war debts in consideration of its gift of Simone Simon to Hollywood. The young French actress, whose name you must pronounce as See-MOAN See-MOAN unless you want to be blamed for a suicide epidemic in Twentieth Century-Fox's advertising department, had an astonishing début at the Roxy yesterday in "Girls' Dormitory."

Excerpt from the NY Times review HERE

 

Love Is News (1937) - Three of 20th Century Fox's stars of the late '30s team up for "Love is News" - Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, and Don Ameche. Power plays a clever reporter, Steve Layton, who is after a big story on a $100 million heiress, Toni Gateson (Young). Sick of being hounded night and day by the press, Young turns the tables on him and announces to the world that she and Layton are engaged. It comes as a surprise to him, as it does to his editor, Ameche, and of course, they don't have the story and the rest of the papers do. Layton soon learns that being engaged to Gateson has some perks and also a few things that aren't so great, particularly when the two of them end up in adjacent jail cells.

Excerpt from the blanche-2's review at IMdb.com HERE

 

Café Metropole (1937) - The Tyrone Power-Loretta Young team, formed in "Love Is News," and scheduled for still greater things, fulfills its lightly romantic duties pleasantly. Mr. Menjou does his stint when called upon, then retires gracefully from a screen which could have used him to better advantage. Mr. Winninger and Helen Westley are capital as the elder Ridgeways. Mr. Ratoff, doubling as a dialectic waiter, and Christian Rub, as the worried cashier round out an entertaining cast. The Rivoli has given us much worse, and much better.

Excerpt from the NY Times review HERE


Second Honeymoon (1937) - "Second Honeymoon" is a fluffy comedy which probably had its genesis in "Private Lives." It concerns a beautiful divorcée (Loretta Young) who, upon marrying her second husband (Lyle Talbot) runs into her first (Tyrone Power). Everyone is rich, magnificently dressed, and does a lot of traveling in the spirit of Hollywood escapism during the Depression.

Excerpt from the blanche-2's review at IMdb.com HERE

 

Day-Time Wife (1939) - A light-as-air confection, with very dark overtones. The very young, fresh-faced Linda Darnell is stood up on their second anniversary by husband Tyrone Power. The always delightful Binnie Barnes, her poisonous often-divorced friend Blanche says he's fooling around. Darnell refuses to believe it.

Excerpt from the David (Handlinghandel) from NY, NY 's review at IMdb.com HERE

 

Johnny Apollo (1940) - Wealthy Wall Street stockbroker Bob Cain (Edward Arnold) is sentenced to 5 to 10 years for embezzlement and when in prison his spoiled college-grad son Bob Cain Jr. (Tyrone Power) rejects him for betraying his trust. After a year searching for a job and not getting one because of his infamous name, Junior has a change of heart about dad and goes to see shyster lawyer Brenner (Charley Grapewin), an old drunk with a taste for Scotch-and-milk and a love for Shakespeare, about getting his pop parole.

Excerpt from Dennis Schwartz at Ozu's World Movie reviews HERE


This Above All (1942) - Out of Eric Knight's singularly skillful war novel, "This Above All," Twentieth Century-Fox and Darryl F. Zanuck have derived a taut and poignant war film, which arrived at the Astor last evening for a meticulously restrained world première. The principal weakness of the picture is that it accentuates the original's chief fault—that is, it skimps a rationalization of the leading character's profound change of mind. And it also neglects to establish the convictions to which he so stubbornly holds. But its strength and disarming distinction is that it tells a very moving love story with a sensitive regard for tensile passions against a background of England at war.

Excerpt from the NY Times review HERE

 

The Luck of the Irish (1948) - As the fellow who gives up fame and fortune at the hest of the leprechaun, Tyrone Power looks and acts like a person who is not quite certain that he isn't being a fool. And one can well understand this. Jayne Meadows, as the girl he gives up, is much more beguiling than Anne Baxter, with her quaint charm and her Midwest Irish brogue. Indeed, even the standard hard-boiled manner of a tycoon put on by Lee J. Cobb might be easier to live with, in the long run, than the Irishness of J. M. Kerrigan.

Excerpt from the NY Times review HERE


I'll Never Forget You (1951) - Well, in this retelling of the story, for which Ranald MacDougall has done the script, the gentleman's modern-day connections are brought completely up to date. He is a nuclear physicist, considerably weary and worn—and perhaps just a little radioactive—from over-work in an English lab. Thus, there's a possible suspicion that his strange difficulties with Time derive in some unexplained manner from hanging around a nuclear pile.

Excerpt from the NY Times review HERE

Posters

Theatrical Releases: Various from 1936 - 1951

  DVD Reviews

DVD Review: 20th Century Fox - Region 1 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

Distribution 20th Century Fox - Region 1 - NTSC
Time: over 13 hrs. of feature films total on five dual-sided discs
Audio English (original) - NOTE: Some features have a mono or Stereo choice
Subtitles English, French, Spanish, None
Features

Release Information:
Studio: 20th Century Fox

Aspect Ratio:
All Original Aspect Ratios - 1.33:1

Edition Details:

• Featurettes (discussed below)

• Deleted scenes from Cafe Metropole

• Galleries (Advertising, production and Behind the Scenes)

• Some Theatrical trailers


DVD Release Date: July 29th, 2008

5 slim black keep cases inside a cardboard box

 

Comments:

The 10 main features (5 discs) of this boxset are housed in individual slim keep cases (see images above) and are not sold separately at this time.  With one exception these are all "DVD10's"; that is is two sides, one layer. The Luck of the Irish has two editions on the one side (black and white and tinted) and is a "DVD14"; two sides, one dual layer, one single layer. They are divided as follows:

Disc 1: Girls' Dormitory (1936) - 1:06:20 / Café Metropole (1937) - 1:23:18
Disc 2: Love Is News (1937) - 1:17:24 / That Wonderful Urge (1948) - 1:21:39
Disc 3: This Above All (1942) - 1:50:24 / Second Honeymoon (1937) - 1:18:00
Disc 4: Day-Time Wife (1939) - 1:12:06 / Johnny Apollo (1940) - 1:34:00
Disc 5: The Luck of the Irish (1948) - 1:39:03 / I'll Never Forget You (1951) - 1:29:54

Each title is progressively transferred for region 1 in the NTSC standard. Each film is composed with the 1.33:1 aspect ratio which is maintained by these transfers. Almost all are black and white excepting the middle section of I'll Never Forget You which is Technicolor and, as we stated, The Luck of the Irish has a tinted version with the Ireland sequences color-tinted green (see sample below). All appear to have original English audio with a few features offering a mono or Stereo choice. There also seems to be English, French, or Spanish subtitles available for all ten films. There are some supplements (discussed below) but no commentaries. Three of the ten films start with this caveat screen:

Image: Despite the above warning these transfers are not terribly poor. We have some occasional speckles and dirt and light scratches mostly notable on I'll Never Forget You. My biggest concern would be over the contrast of Second Honeymoon and I'll Never Forget You - which both have a decidedly greenish haze most noticeable in the black and white scenes. This can be the sign of a failing telecine and we hope, if this is the case, that Fox are quick to respond. Johnny Apollo (1940) and This Above All (1942) probably look the strongest - exemplifying the quality many have come to expect from Fox's transfers of classic films. Possibly the best film (and newest), I'll Never Forget You (1951) aka The House in the Square (1951) looks about the worst of the bunch with the Technicolor sequences looking quite muddy at times. It's very proper of Fox to offer the theatrically original color tinting of The Luck of the Irish but today I must say it looks quite out of place. Considering these are all single-layered transfers, and the age of the productions, I'm not going to complain too loudly but purchasers should not expect pristine looking visuals from this package. I hope the screen grabs below give you a good idea.

Audio - Pretty clean mono tracks all things considered (with some including the option for stereo). I noted no excessive gaps, pops or hisses and there are optional English, French or Spanish subtitles for each production. 

Extras - Each feature seems to have some galleries - mostly Advertising (posters, lobby cards etc.), Production and a few Behind the Scenes. There are a few weak quality trailers. I liked the dancing in the deleted scenes from Café Metropole.  Interspersed in the package I noted four decent featurettes: Tyrone Power: Prince of Fox runs almost 20 minutes and focuses on his work at Fox - it's a pretty good overview. Ty and Loretta: Sweethearts of the Silver Screen has Judy Lewis (Young and Clark Gable's daughter) giving some interesting input. 'Jayne Meadows Remembers' - which I seem to recall seeing somewhere else - runs about 8 minutes. Finally "My Dad, Tyrone Power," is kind of a video memorial from his three children - nice and genuinely touching.

Overall impression: This is not necessarily the cream of Tyrone Power's prodigious screen work but there are some very good films here regardless. I enjoyed I'll Never Forget You (1951) aka The House in the Square (1951) despite its occasional hokiness and poor colors. That Wonderful Urge (1948) had Tierney looking as radiant as ever and that alone can make it worth viewing. This Above All (1942) showcased a bit of Anatole Litvak's directorial skills. Personal thumbs up for Johnny Apollo (1940) - I'm a real sucker for flicks like this. I enjoyed seeing Linda Darnell, Loretta Young and Simone Simon literally glows in Girls' Dormitory (1936) although Power only appears briefly - but the earlier films are not what I would consider the best for showcasing the actors career. Still how can we complain - it amounts to about $3.50 per film and  you won't find a better deal this month. Recommended!             

Gary W. Tooze



DVD Menus


 

Some of the Supplements

 


 

 

Girls' Dormitory (1936)

 

Directed by Irving Cummings

Starring Herbert Marshall, Ruth Chatterton, Simone Simon

 

 

Screen Captures

 

 


 

 

Love Is News (1937)

 

 

Directed by Tay Garnett

Starring Tyrone Power, Loretta Young and Don Ameche

 

 

Screen Captures

 

 

 


 

Café Metropole (1937)

 

Directed by Edward H. Griffith

Starring Loretta Young, Tyrone Power, Adolphe Menjou

 

Screen Captures

 

 


Second Honeymoon (1937)

 

Directed by Walter Lang

Starring Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, Stuart Erwin and Claire Trevor

 

 

Screen Captures

 

 


 Day-Time Wife (1939)

 

Directed by Gregory Ratoff

Starring Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell and Warren William

 

 

Screen Captures

 

 


 Johnny Apollo (1940)

 

Directed by Henry Hathaway

Starring Tyrone Power, Dorothy Lamour, Edward Arnold and Lloyd Nolan

 

 

Screen Captures

 

 


This Above All (1942)

 

Directed by Anatole Litvak


Starring Tyrone Power, Joan Fontaine, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Stephenson, Nigel Bruce

 

 

Screen Captures

 

 


The Luck of the Irish (1948)

 

Directed by Henry Koster

Starring Tyrone Power, Anne Baxter, Cecil Kellaway, Lee J. Cobb

 

 

Screen Captures

 

 


  That Wonderful Urge (1948)

 

Directed by Robert B. Sinclair


Starring Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, Reginald Gardiner

 

 

Screen Captures

 

 


I'll Never Forget You (1951)

 

aka The House in the Square (1951)

Director: Roy Ward Baker

Starring Tyrone Power, Ann Blyth, Michael Rennie, Dennis Price, Kathleen Byron

 

 

Screen Captures

 


 

DVD Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

Distribution 20th Century Fox - Region 1 - NTSC




 

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Gary Tooze

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