TCM Greatest Classic Film Collection :: Romance

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Turner Classic Movies and Warner Brothers have teamed up to produce a cut-rate DVD set titled TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Romance, but Kleenex box-toting sentimentalists should beware: although l'amour is definitely in the air, so are mental illness, selfish parenting, Oedipal complexes, philandering, infidelity, emotional abuse, suicide, and a wee bit of gunplay. In other words, if you prefer your love stories scrubbed clean of reality, then this collection is not for you.

Another note of caution: ascribing the word "classic" to two of the four films in the collection--Billy Wilder's Love in the Afternoon and John Ford's Mogambo--is, at best, a stretch. These romantic offerings, from a couple of Hollywood's least dewy-eyed directors, are just too testosterone-biased, depicting older man/younger woman relationships in ways that never overcome incredulity.

Of the two films, the African-set Mogambo comes closest to pulling off this feat thanks to the rugged charms of its star, Clark Gable; but, ultimately, even Gable cannot make us believe that his self-centered, somewhat despicable character could enthrall both Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly simultaneously. By contrast, Love in the Afternoon suffers from a bizarrely miscast Gary Cooper, struggling to personify an international playboy who has set his seductive sights on a pigtailed French na�f played by Audrey Hepburn; unfortunately, Cooper's acting range did not extend much beyond Sergeant York and Lou Gehrig.

Although Wilder and Ford disappoint, the collection's other two films, Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass and Irving Rapper's Now, Voyager, are genuine classics that end with heartrending scenes of bittersweet resignation. Both Kazan's young lovers (Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood) and Rapper's older ones (Bette Davis and Paul Henreid) allow community expectations to circumscribe their happiness, a compromised way of living that Walt Whitman (both films' inspiration, as their titles suggest) certainly would have understood.

The collection's special features are a bit paltry, but given its cost, there is more bonus material than one might expect: each film is accompanied by a theatrical trailer; Now, Voyager includes musical cues from the film's scoring session, a nice add-on for ardent fans; both Love in the Afternoon and Now, Voyager contain mini-biographies of their more notable cast and crew; and then there is the set's pi�ce de r�sistance, a Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cartoon titled Beep Prepared that truly attests to the enduring power of love.