Movies

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Commentary by Hitchcock scholar Marian Keane, Dolby Digital 1.0

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono

Comments: Handcuffed to the girl who double-crossed him

Summary: A high point of Hitchcock's pre-Hollywood career, 1935's The Thirty-Nine Steps is the first and best of three film versions of John Buchan's rather stiff novel. Robert Donat plays Richard Hannay, who becomes embroiled in a plot to steal military secrets. He finds himself on the run; falsely accused of murder, while also pursuing the dastardly web of spies alluded to in the title. With a plot whose twists and turns match the hilly Scottish terrain in which much of the film is set, The Thirty-Nine Steps combines a breezy suavity with a palpable psychological tension. Hitchcock was already a master at conveying such tension through his cinematic methods, rather than relying just on situation or dialogue. Sometimes his ways of bringing the best out of his actors brought the worst out in himself. If the scene in which Donat is handcuffed to co-star Madeline Carroll has a certain edge, for instance, that's perhaps because the director mischievously cuffed them together in a rehearsal, then left them attached for a whole afternoon, pretending to have lost the key. The movie also introduces Hitchcock's favoured plot device, the "McGuffin" (here, the military secret), the unexplained device or "non-point" on which the movie turns. --David Stubbs

Sound: Mono

Summary: A damaged U-boat is stranded in a Canadian bay in the early years of World War II. The Fanatical Nazi captain and his crew must reach the neutral United States or be captured. Along the way they meet a variety of characters each with their own views on the war and nationalism. In this film

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: Nice Wheels. Dirty Deals. And One Mean Mother In A Kilt.

Summary: Elmo McElroy (Jackson) is a streetwise American master chemist who heads to England to sell his special new formula - a powerful, blue concoction guaranteed to take you to 'the 51st state.' McElroy's new product delivers a feeling 51 times more powerful than any thrill, any pleasure, any high in history. But his plans for a quick, profitable score go comically awry when he gets stuck in Liverpool with an unlikely escort (Carlyle) and his ex-girlfriend (Mortimer) and becomes entangled in a bizarre web of double-dealing and double-crosses.

Subtitles: English, Spanish, French

Sound: 4-Track Stereo

Comments: Let the Awe and Mystery of a Journey Unlike Any Other Begin

Summary: 2001 is a story of evolution. Sometime in the distant past someone or something nudged evolution by placing a monolith here on earth (presumably elsewhere throughout the universe as well) Evolution then enabled man to reach the moon's surface where he finds yet another monolith, one which signals the monolith-placers that we have evolved that far. Now a race begins between computers (HAL) and man (Bowman) to reach the monolith-placers, the winner will achieve the next step in evolution, whatever that may be. (Ever notice how sperm-like the space ship is?) Man wins the race because he is a slightly irrational risk-taker, compared to machine. HAL didn't think that Dave would be able to re-enter the ship but Dave took a chance. HAL was wrong and Dave wins, the prize being a meeting with a third monolith.