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Released soon after the end of the Great Depression and on the precipice of America’s entry into World War II, William Dieterle’s All That Money Can Buy is a peculiar and fascinating blend of the populist agitprop of the 1930s and the patriotic hokum that defined much of the war years.

In transposing the legend of Faust and his pact with the devil to a rousing bit of American folklore, the screenplay by Dan Totheroh and Stephen Vincent Benét presents greed as anathema to the American way of life, and in one of the few brief eras where that notion was anything short of risible. As such, rugged individualism is spurned in favor of collectivism, specifically in the exalting of the values of an agricultural grange—a communal safety net for small farmers like All That Money Can Buy’s protagonist, Jabez Stone (James Craig).

After a string of bad luck,...

The next episode of our series, ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot,’ arrives tomorrow night. It’s focused on the 1954 musical extravaganza Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. You still have time to participate. For now, as something of a preview, here’s Cláudio’s entry.

Adapted from Stephen Vincent Benet's The Sobbin' Women, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is the definition of problematic. Indeed, for some, a romantic premise that hinges on the real and horrifying subject of bride kidnapping might be irredeemable. Even for one like me, who regards cinema as audiovisual expression that can be entirely divorced from narrative, this effervescent tale of abducted women falling for their captors can be hard to swallow, look past. Consider that such objections don't even touch on the picture's penchant to treat rape imagery as comedy – yikes…...

The Little Song ‘n’ Dance Show that Could, this over-achieving Jack Cummings production is a bright exception to the dull waning days of the MGM musical, due to many factors but especially Michael Kidd’s athletic choreography. And it’s been restored in both of its simultaneously-filmed versions, flat-widescreen and CinemaScope.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Two- disc Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1954 / Color / 1:77 widescreen + 2:55 anamorphic 16:9 (separate versions) /

102 min. / Street Date June 5, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Jane Powell, Howard Keel, Jeff Richards, Russ Tamblyn, Tommy Rall, Marc Platt, Matt Mattox, Jacques d’Amboise, Julie Newmeyer (Newmar), Nancy Kilgas, Betty Carr, Virginia Gibson, Ruta Kilmonis (Lee), Norma Doggett.

Cinematography: George Folsey

Choreography: Michael Kidd

Film Editor: Ralph E. Winters

Original Music: Gene de Paul, Johnny Mercer

Written by Albert Hackett & Frances Goodrich, Dorothy Kingsley from the story The Sobbin’ Women by Stephen Vincent Benet

Produced by Jack Cummings...

'Cat People' 1942 actress Simone Simon Remembered: Starred in Jacques Tourneur's cult horror movie classic (photo: Simone Simon in 'Cat People') Pert, pouty, pretty Simone Simon is best remembered for her starring roles in Jacques Tourneur's cult horror movie Cat People (1942) and in Jean Renoir's French film noir La Bête Humaine (1938). Long before Brigitte Bardot, Mamie Van Doren, Ann-Margret, and (for a few years) Jane Fonda became known as cinema's Sex Kittens, Simone Simon exuded feline charm in a film career that spanned a quarter of a century. From the early '30s to the mid-'50s, she seduced men young and old on both sides of the Atlantic – at times, with fatal results. During that period, Simon was featured in nearly 40 movies in France, Italy, Germany, Britain, and Hollywood. Besides Jean Renoir, in her native country she worked for the likes of Jacqueline Audry...

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts and McCoy Rigby Entertainment present an all-new revival of one of the greatest musicals of all time, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, book by Lawrence Kasha and David Landay, lyrics, music and new songs by Johnny Mercer, Gene De Paul, Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn, based on the MGM Film 'The Sobbin' Women' by Stephen Vincent Benet, originally directed for Broadway by Lawrence Kasha and originally produced on Broadway by Kaslan Productions, Inc., Seven Brides For Seven Brothers will feature musical direction by Dennis Castellano, choreography by Patti Colombo and will be directed by Glenn Casale.

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts and McCoy Rigby Entertainment present an all-new revival of one of the greatest musicals of all time, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, book by Lawrence Kasha and David Landay, lyrics, music and new songs by Johnny Mercer, Gene De Paul, Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn, based on the MGM Film 'The Sobbin' Women' by Stephen Vincent Benet, originally directed for Broadway by Lawrence Kasha and originally produced on Broadway by Kaslan Productions, Inc. Seven Brides For Seven Brothers will feature musical direction by Dennis Castellano, choreography by Patti Colombo and will be directed by Glenn Casale.

Capitalizing on the latest biopic of the sixteenth United States President with this month’s release of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, Kino releases a mastered HD restoration of D.W. Griffith’s 1930 film, Abraham Lincoln. Serving as the silent film master’s official foray into sound, this serves as the conservative counterpart to Spielberg’s bearded game changer, with dueling depictions that couldn’t be more disparate in quality or content. Griffith’s film is regarded by many to be a poorly made endeavor, regardless of his renowned manifestations of blatant racism that are certainly present here, and Huston’s dowdy performance hardly rates next to the magnificent Daniel Day Lewis. But even if Spielberg’s log cabin abolitionist is more a portrait of the man we hope and wish Lincoln was, experiencing Griffith’s version serves to highlight not only how far we’ve come in the advancement of filmmaking,...

Chicago – In our latest classic edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 50 admit-two passes up for grabs to the special Chicago screening of the 1954 classic “Seven Brides For Seven Brothers” as part of the one-night-only Road to Hollywood event from Turner Classic Movies!

At the Chicago screening, you’ll be joined by Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne as well as “Seven Brides For Seven Brothers” star Jane Powell! The film also stars Howard Keel, Jeff Richards, Russ Tamblyn, Tommy Rall, Marc Platt, Matt Mattox, Jacques d’Amboise, Julie Newmar, Nancy Kilgas, Betty Carr and Ian Wolfe from director Stanley Donen and writer Stephen Vincent Benet.

To win your free pass to the special Chicago screening of “Seven Brides For Seven Brothers” courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, just answer our question below. That’s it! This one-night-only screening is on Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. in Chicago. Directions to...

• Besides taking my last year’s resolution and placing it at the top of the following year’s list of things I need to do, part of my habitual beginning-of-the-year practices is to look ahead at the year of film offerings, filter through all the crap that will come out in the next 12 months and make my most anticipated list. While you won’t find Michael Bay’s The Tranformers nor the next Peter Parker installment, you’ll find a grouping of visionary directors, great screenplays and talented cast and crews on the sort of projects that might be in contention for the Palme D’or or that will play at your local art house theatre. Commencing today (Monday) and concluding on Friday, I’ll be counting down the list of most anticipated films for 2007. You’ll find brief introductions to both the film title and the filmmaker behind

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Red Dragon star Anthony Hopkins has one film in the can that will never top the box office charts - because there is not enough money to finish it. The legendary star worked on The Devil And Daniel Webster, a version of Stephen Vincent Benet's supernatural short story, alongside screen beauty Jennifer Love Hewitt and under the direction of Pearl Harbor star Alec Baldwin. However, despite it's a-list credentials, the flick faces a bleak future, after filming wrapped in March 2001. Hopkins says, "They pulled the money out, apparently, so it'll never be seen. The producers have no money to finish it. (Alec's) good, a fine director. He's good to work with, but I don't know if Alec is even interested in (completing) it. We finished filming it a long time ago."...