Before he was the suave, sophisticated and dashing movie star known as Cary Grant, he was a rising young leading man appearing in every type of genre film from war epic to action-adventure to romantic melodrama. "Cary Grant: The Early Years Collection" is a three-picture sampler of his early years at Paramount studios that includes "Devil and the Deep" (1932), "The Eagle and the Hawk" (1933), and "The Last Outpost" (1935). In "Devil and the Deep, " Cary is a lieutenant whose commanding officer (Charles Laughton) suspects him of seducing his wife (Tallulah Bankhead) when the real threat is another officer (Gary Cooper). "The Eagle and the Hawk" is a powerful anti-war adventure in which Cary and Fredric March play pilots with bitterly opposing views of warfare. "The Last Outpost" features Cary as a British officer stationed in th Sudan who falls in love with the wife (Gertrude Michael) of a secret agent (Claude Rains). **Three-disc set includes "Devil and the Deep," "The Eagle and the Hawk," and "The Last Outpost" (1935).**

Movies Unlimited and TCM Vault Collection teamed up with Universal Studios to release some classic movies for the first time on DVD. Unfortunately, these releases are only available at Movies Unlimited / Turner Classic Movies stores. We can not vouch for single movie releases, but at least this collection of 3 movies, Cary Grant: The Early Years, are on pressed DVDs coded for region 1. Each disc has a progressive transfer and from the best materials, but unfortunately the negatives for Paramount titles do not survive in Universal vaults, so the best available transfers are presented here.

 The Eagle and the Hawk is a shorter 1939 re-cut of the film - original 1933 version most likely no longer survives. There is some grain, light scratches and marks on the prints and the mono sound is adequate, but contains some distortion and hiss for the first feature, most likely due to early sound recording technology. Unfortunately, none of the films contain English or any other language subtitles or closed captioning. The Eagle and the Hawk contains a short intro by Robert Osborne and all 3 features include some galleries, text info and trivia about each film.

NOTE: From David in email: ``The second title, The Eagle and the Hawk, which gives sole director credit to Stuart Walker, is in fact now academically and universally agreed to have been completely directed by Mitchell Leisen (who received a credit only for "dialogue director" or some such on the titles.) Leisen explicitly stated this in interviews late in life and his biographers are in do doubt about the true authorship.

The screeenplay was written by a trio including John Monk Saunders from his own short story. Saunders was also the author of a number of WW1 Airforce or Flying pictures ( a virtual subgenre of the 30s) and has a hand in everything you can imagine from Wellman's Wings, through Hawk's original Dawn Patrol of 1930, and the Goulding remake of 1939.

Just as importantly one can confidently cite the film as Leisen's first fully realized feature in 1933 (after two earlier credits, only one of which I've been able to see), preceding the better known Death Takes a Holiday and Murder at the Vanities, both in 1934.

Leisen's characteristic "touches" - his intimately close work with actors and the shading of their performances, and his uncanny feel for romantic glamour in the midst of squalor or despair are all on display here, along with a not unidentifiable homoerotic undertone in the relationship between March and Grant - in whom we can see the latter's performance develop very noticeably in stature from a rigid unformed chracter player in the first half to the beginnings of a real star, in this picture.`` (thanks David!)

 - Gregory Meshman

CLICK to order from:

Universal

Region 1 - NTSC

Part of the 3-disc "Cary Grant: The Early Years Collection" that includes "Devil and the Deep" (1932), "The Eagle and the Hawk" (1933), and "The Last Outpost" (1935). In "Devil and the Deep".

1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 5.85 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen - 1.33:1

Edition Details:
• Publicity Stills
• Scene Stills
• Movie Poster
• Lobby Cards
• TCMDb Article
• Trivia

DVD Release Date:
3 discs in a digipack

Chapters 14