There is nothing like reliving your childhood. I remember as a child watching the old films with my parents, sitting awestruck at the stars of yesteryear. Now with the new Mill Creek release “Timeless Family Classics” I can relieve those glory days of family entertainment all over again.
Our Rating System:
**** = Don’t Miss it!
*** = Worth a look.
** = An Ok way to spend an evening.
* = You haven’t missed anything.
Disk 1:
Lost in the Stratosphere (1934) Two military pilots have as much of a rivalry in the air as they do on the ground. They play practical jokes on one another, but things take a more serious turn when they both have interest in the same girl and the jokes backfire. (**)
Freckles come home (1942) College boy Freckles returns from school and hopes to bring experience to his hometown. What he finds is his girl is in love with a con man and gangsters planning to rob the bank. It’s up to Freckles to thwart the gangsters plans and win back the love of his girl. (**)
The Big Chance (1933) A crooked promoter leads a boxer astray with promises and riches and women. The boxer believes he will be a success, but when he is forced to throw a fight will his girlfriend and old trainer convince him to do the right thing?! (**)
The Iron Mask (1929) Douglas Fairbanks stars as D’Artagan in the sequel to his 1921 film "The Three Musketeers.” This was Douglas Fairbanks’ last silent film. (***)
Disk 2:
Treasure of fear (1945) A bumbling reporter takes the wrong bus and ends up covering the wrong story. (**)
That’s my baby! (1944) A young woman and her boyfriend fear for her father’s health as it appears he is depressed and may be suicidal. They bring a host of characters to entertain him, with the thought something may work. (**)
The gang’s all here (1941) Two friends decide to become truck drivers, but find themselves thrown into the middle of a war between the trucking firm owners and a gang of saboteurs. (***)
My dear secretary (1949) A best-selling author and playboy hires a new secretary; an aspiring writer herself. Soon she realizes his immature ways and quits even though she is attracted to him. Hoping to win her back the novelist tries to change his ways. (***)
Disk 3:
The Borrowers (1973) Based on the novel by Mary Norton. The film follows the fortunes of a family of tiny humans who live beneath the floorboards of a Victorian mansion. They live on scraps left by the “big people.” (***)
The General (1927) Many consider this Buster Keaton’s greatest film. Buster portrays a Southern railroad engineer who is as devoted to his train, The general, almost as much as he is to his girlfriend Annabelle. (***)
Kid Dynamite (1943) The East Side Kids were a group of rough necks from the bowery, lead by Muggs McGinnis (Leo Gorcey). In this movie Muggs is set to fight in an amateur boxing match with the west side champion, but when Muggs is kidnapped, fellow east sider Danny (Bobby Jordan) step in the ring. (***)
Let’s get tough (1942) The East Side kids are back! This time the boys think a local Asian shopkeeper is a spy, but when they return later that evening and find him stabbed to death, they set out to find the killer. (**)
Disk 4:
Swing it, Sailor! (1938) Two Navy men vie for the affections of the same woman, as well as drive their superiors crazy with their antics. (**)
The Admiral was a lady (1950) A recently discharged WAVE becomes the love interest of four men, all who lead leisurely lifestyle. She feigns off the advances of the four men and goes in search of her fiancé who is running from an angry millionaire. (**)
A bride for Henry (1937) A young bride-to-be’s fiancé no shows on the wedding day because of a hangover from his bachelor party. So she decides to teach him a lesson. She calls for her lawyer and proposes to him on the spot, the two are married thinking she would get the marriage annulled later; the only problem is the lawyer was secretly in love with her all along. (**)
Jane Eyre (1934) Jane (Virginia Bruce) grew up an orphan so she never understood the love of a family. So when she is hired as governess for the children of Sir Rochester she falls in love with the children and Sir Rochester. A Shocking discovery drives the two apart, but tragedy brings them together again. (**)
Disk 5:
Run to the high country (1974) A young boy decides to protect the wildlife and environment in his home of Utah even if it risks his health and life. (***)
Flying High (1941) The East Side Kids are back again for another adventure. The boys are working at an airplane factory, where Muggs (Leo Gorcey) thinks the operator of an air ambulance service is the front for a spy ring. (**)
The Big Trees (1952) In 1900, a change in the law allows lumbermen access to some of the prime Redwood forest in California. Standing between those who wish to harvest are a Quaker colony. Kirk Douglas is in the starring role. (**)
The Medicine Man (1930) This was Jack Benny’s first starring role. Benny plays Dr. John Harvey, a traveling medicine show owner. Dr. Harvey falls for a young woman, but she is about to be married off to an elderly millionaire. Will Dr. Harvey return an rescue her from this ceremony? (**)
Disk 6:
Oliver Twist (1933) This was the first talking picture version of Charles Dickens classic tale about the orphan child living in the 19th century. (**)
Lost Honeymoon (1947) An American architect return home from the war, but resuming life before the war is going to be tough, when a woman with two children follow him claiming he married her and is the father of her two children. (***)
Hay Foot (1942) Sgt. Doubleday has a photographic memory and because of this is mistaken for an expert marksmen. Than he is set up in a firing range match against Sgt. Ames and Sgt. Cobb the division shooting champions. (**)
The Little Princess (1939) Shirley Temple’s first Technicolor feature. Sara Crewe (Temple), a young Victorian English girl is enrolled into a boarding school by her father because he is being sent off to fight in the Boer War. (***)
Bill Cracks Down (1937) The founder of a steel mill passes away, now the mill foremen will inherit the mill if he straightens out the mill owners son. (**)
Disk 7:
The Flying Deuces (1939) Stan and Ollie join the French foreing legion to help Ollie forget the rejection by his love Georgette. (**)
Mr. Boggs steps out (1938) An office worker wins a bean guessing contest and quits his job.He uses his winnings to buy a failing barrel making factory. He has hopes for turning it into a successful business. (***)
The Inspector General (1949) Georgi (Danny Kaye) is a member of a traveling medicine show who is mistaken by a Russian village as a royal official with vast powers; The Inspector General! (***)
The Kid (1921) Charlie Chaplin’s first starring role. The Tramp (Chaplin) finds and adopts an abandoned baby. Years later the now successful mother begins looking for her son. (****)
Disk 8:
The Groom wore spurs (1951) A movie star cowboy is the complete opposite of his on-screen persona. When he gets in trouble in Las Vegas he is freed by his female lawyer. The two are married and she plans and transforming him into the hero he portrays on the big screen. (**)
Heading for Heaven (1947) A relator is sitting on a large piece of land that rumors say is going to be the site of a new airport. He also believes he going to die soon so he decides to sell the land to benefit his family. (**)
The Hurricane Express (1932) Larry Baker (John Wayne) a commercial pilot and son of railroad engineer sets out to find “The Wrecker”; the man that caused his father’s death is a railroad derailment! (**)
A Farewell to Arms (1932) This is the first screen adaption of the classic Ernest Hemingway novel and stars Gary Cooper. (***)
Disk 9:
Gulliver’s travels (1939) Max and David Fleischier (known for the superman cartoons of the 1930s and 1940s) bring Jonathan Swift’s classic tale to life in this full length animated feature. (***)
The Nut Farm (1935) A young couple plan to move to California and buy a nut farm. Unfortunately the wife become the victim of a group of con men using a movie-making scheme to get her money. (***)
My Favorite Brunette (1947) Ronnie Jackson (Bob Hope) is a baby photographer, who desires to be a private eye. Now sitting on death row in San Quentin for a murder he didn’t commit, he is given a chance to tell his story to the press. (***)
Fair Play (1972) A young man comes to the old west town of Fair Play to visit his uncle. When he arrives he finds a feud between his uncle and another man. He must try to get them to patch things up if he wants to date the enemy’s daughter. (*)
Disk 10:
Against a crooked sky (1975) A Native American tribe raids a pioneer families’ farm and takes their eldest daughter. Her brother sets out to rescue her and enlists the aid of a drunken fur trapper as a guide. (**)
Wacky Taxi (1972) A struggling family man has always dreamed of owning his own company. One day he decides to pursue his dream. He quits his job at the canning factory, buys an old Cadillac and transforms it into a taxi. (**)
Beyond Tomorrow (1940) Three wealthy men die in a plane crash, but stay behind in spirit form to make sure a young couple they befriended continue in love. (***)
The Racketeer (1929) A mobster helps a young lady win some money for an ailing concert violinist friend. Later the mobster promises to promote her friend’s comeback if she promises to marry him. (**)
Disk 11:
Goodbye Love (1933) When a wealthy gentlemen is having problems with his ex-wife’s alimony payments and finds out that his new wife is only in it for the money. The gentlemen and his valet devise a plan to foil the two gold-digging females. (**)
Adventure Island (1947) A group of sailors find an abandoned cargo, they intend to steal, but they find the Captain’s daughter on board. They end up docking on an uncharted island that is ruled by an insane man. They must find a way to survive and escape from the “Adventure Island”. (**)
Lay that down rifle (1955) A young country girl (Judy Canova) works at her aunts hotel dreaming of being an aristocrat. A group of con men arrive in town hoping to use the young girl to swindle the aunt and town’s banker. What results is a very funny little film. (***)
A Star is Born (1937) Ester Blodgett is a waitress dreaming of stardom on the big screen. When she is discovered by Norman Maine an alcoholic star, he gives her a screen test and marries the fading screen idol. Ester is ensnared by the Hollywood machine. (**)
Disk 12:
Uncle Joe (1941) One summer a girl is shipped to the country to her relatives to keep her out of trouble. What she finds is interesting neighbors and an eccentric uncle with some crazy inventions. Than when a family friend is going to be foreclosed on the crisis brings everyone together to help them. (**)
Boys of the City (1940) The East Side Kids return for one final adventure in this collection. The boy leave the comfort of the bowery and head to unfamiliar territory, add a spooky mansion, a creepy housekeeper and a mystery and you got all your need for a good little adventure. (***)
The Lost World (1925) The first screen adaption of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s story of prehistoric creatures still alive on a remote Amazon plateau. (***)
The time of your life (1948) This is the movie version of William Saroyan’s Pulitzer prize winning play about the various characters who populate Nick’s Saloon. Stars James Cagney. (***)
Our Town (1940) A film adaption of Thornton Wilde’s Pulitzer prize winning play. This touching tale centers upon the small New Hampshire town of Grover’s Corners around the turn of the century. This film was nominated for six Academy Awards. (***)
Timeless Family Classics reaches all the way back to the early 1921 silent film The Kid starring Charlie Chaplin and includes some of the most beloved films from Hollywood’s Golden Age in every decade from the 1920s to the early 1970s. Just about every important big screen performer or famous duo is represented in these films from Charile Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Carole Lombard and Gary Cooper to Bob Hope, John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, and Ginger Rogers to Laurel & Hardy and Abbott & Costello. The most modern movie in this set is Against A Crooked Sky from 1975 which is one of the few pictures in color in that collection.
In the final analysis the 50 films are kind of hit and miss. The video quality is no pristine, but for me it was not a problem especially when you realize the age of these films. The booklet insert giving a synopsis of each film and where to find them is a plus, the only problem with this is there is no running times for the films in the booklet. Also Mill Creek has made these collection now with one side dvds instead of the two sided disks which I’m much happier about.
The only downside for this collections is the overlapping films! Some of the films found on this collection can be found in other Mill Creek 50 movie collections! But if you enjoy classic films as much as I do and you love family entertainment; you can’t go wrong with getting this collection of movies. Head on over to Amazon and get a copy of Timeless Family Classics.
Moral Rating: Nothing offensive
Audience: Some films may need parental guidance
Genre: Families
Length: Almost 63 hours
Released: 2012
Our Rating: B+
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