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Paths of Glory

Actors: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready, Wayne Morris
ASIN : 0792841409
Sales Rank : 2243
Director : Stanley Kubrick
Studio : MGM (Video & DVD)
Region Code : 1
Format : Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780792841401
ISBN : 0792841409
UPC : 027616767424
Release Date : December 29, 1999
Publisher : MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer : MGM (Video & DVD)
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : MGM (Video & DVD)
Running Time : 87

Description

Safe in their picturesque chateau behind the front lines, the French general staff passes down a direct order to Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas): take the Ant Hill at any cost. A blatant suicide mission, the attack is doomed to failure. Covering up their fatal blunder, the generals order the arrest of three innocent soldiers, charging them with cowardice and mutiny. Dax, a lawyer in civilian life, rises to the men's defense but soon realizes that, unless he can prove that the generals were to blame,nothing less than a miracle will save his clients from the firing squad. A compelling masterpiece from world-class director/writer Stanley Kubrick and screenwriters Calder Willingham and JimThompson, Paths of Glory is a blistering indictment of military politics and "an unforgettable movie experience" (Newsweek).

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Stanley Kubrick had already made his talent known with the outstanding racetrack heist thriller The Killing, but it was the 1957 antiwar masterpiece Paths of Glory that catapulted Kubrick to international acclaim. Based on the novel by Humphrey Cobb, the film was initiated by Kirk Douglas, who chose the young Kubrick to direct what would become one of the most powerful films about the wasteful insanity of warfare. In one of his finest roles, Douglas plays Colonel Dax, commander of a battle-worn regiment of the French army along the western front during World War I. Held in their trenches under the threat of German artillery, the regiment is ordered on a suicidal mission to capture an enemy stronghold. When the mission inevitably fails, French generals order the selection of three soldiers to be tried and executed on the charge of cowardice. Dax is appointed as defense attorney for the chosen scapegoats, and what follows is a travesty of justice that has remained relevant and powerful for decades. In the wake of some of the most authentic and devastating battle sequences ever filmed, Kubrick brilliantly explores the political machinations and selfish personal ambitions that result in battlefield slaughter and senseless executions. The film is unflinching in its condemnation of war and the self-indulgence of military leaders who orchestrate the deaths of thousands from the comfort of their luxurious headquarters. For many years, Paths of Glory was banned in France as a slanderous attack on French honor, but it's clear that Kubrick's intense drama is aimed at all nations and all men. Though it touches on themes of courage and loyalty in the context of warfare, the film is specifically about the historical realities of World War I, but its impact and artistic achievement remain timeless and universal. --Jeff Shannon

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The Cary Grant Signature Collection (Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House / Destination Tokyo / The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer / My Favorite Wife / Night and Day)

Actors: Cary Grant, John Garfield, Myrna Loy, Shirley Temple, Alexis Smith
ASIN : B0001WTWYW
Sales Rank : 4455
Director : Delmer Daves, Garson Kanin, H.C. Potter, Irving Reis, Michael Curtiz
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Warner Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Box set, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780790794655
ISBN : 0790794659
UPC : 085393498221
Release Date : December 01, 2004
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
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Label : Warner Home Video
Running Time : 540

Description

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House The Bachelor and The Bobby-Soxer My Favorite Wife Destination Tokyo Night and Day

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Greatest movie star ever? How can you argue against Cary Grant, the graceful clown, the ironic romantic? Equally at home in an Alfred Hitchcock suspense piece or a Howard Hawks screwball comedy, the superb Mr. Grant (born Archie Leach) could handle just about anything. And it's a testament to his appeal that this boxed set, which contains not a single great movie, is nevertheless an entertaining catalog of Grant's splendid run during the 1940s.

The earliest picture, and a sheer delight, is 1940's My Favorite Wife, one of Grant's blissful pairings with the wonderful Irene Dunne. He's about to remarry when his first wife washes up again after having been lost on a desert island (with he-man Randolph Scott) for seven years. Destination Tokyo is a WWII submarine picture, with Grant as the stalwart skipper--slightly odd casting, but he brings it off with admirable professionalism. (The film's propagandistic jabs at demonizing the Japanese enemy have not aged well.)

Night and Day is one of those composer biographies that veers rather radically from reality, with Grant playing Cole Porter. A ton of great songs and the canny casting of Cary as the champagne-sophisticate Porter make it passably de-lovely, despite the whitewash of the composer's real-life story. The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer puts Grant in deliciously antic mode, mooned over by teenager Shirley Temple but preferring the company of her older sister, Myrna Loy. He re-teams with Loy in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, an artless but regularly hilarious tale of Manhattanites whose Connecticut fixer-upper becomes a money pit. --Robert Horton

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Pride and Prejudice

Actors: Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier, Mary Boland, Edna May Oliver, Maureen O'Sullivan
ASIN : B000GRUQKQ
Sales Rank : 4286
Director : Robert Z. Leonard, Rudolf Ising
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Warner Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Black & White, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0012569793682
UPC : 012569793682
Release Date : December 10, 2006
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
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Label : Warner Home Video
Running Time : 118

Product Description

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 10/10/2006 Run time: 118 minutes Rating: Nr

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Jane Austen's wonderful novel has been adapted to the screen many times, with this 1940 version representing the golden age of the Hollywood studio era. Greer Garson, then just on the cusp of her stardom, plays the headstrong Elizabeth Bennet, smartest of five daughters who must be married off. Laurence Olivier is that difficult fellow Mr. Darcy, whose mulishness about the Bennet girls begins to thaw when he gets a dose of Elizabeth's sense and sensibility. The film is done up in the glamorous MGM house style, which means we're stuck with the less-than-inspired direction of Robert Z. Leonard (The Great Ziegfeld), redeemed somewhat by a collection of handsome sets (Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse won the Oscar for Interior Decoration) and the dandy photography by Karl Freund, one of the greats. Anyone accustomed to the 1995 miniseries version of Pride and Prejudice will need to adjust to the swifter demands of a two-hour movie, and to be sure this version, like the 2005 Keira Knightley remake, simplifies some of Austen's scenes. It's one of the few films, by the way, with Aldous Huxley as a credited screenwriter. Edmund Gwenn is lovely as Mr. Bennet, and Mary Boland brash as Mrs. Bennet; Garson, although MGM liked to corset her in fine-lady roles, manages to let Elizabeth's sauciness come through. Actually, the movie's weak spot is Laurence Olivier's elaborate performance as Darcy, which feels too theatrical. Not that it matters; Austen's story is so good, the film sails through to its delicious finish with all flags flying. --Robert Horton

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On the Waterfront (Special Edition)

Actors: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning
ASIN : B00003CXBU
Sales Rank : 1297
Director : Elia Kazan
Brand : Sony
Studio : Sony Pictures
Region Code : 99
Format : Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Special Edition, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780767804271
ISBN : 0767804279
UPC : 043396784093
Release Date : December 23, 2001
Publisher : Sony Pictures
Manufacturer : Sony Pictures
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Label : Sony Pictures
Running Time : 108

Product Description

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 05/13/2008 Run time: 108 minutes Rating: Nr

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Marlon Brando's famous "I coulda been a contenda" speech is such a warhorse by now that a lot of people probably feel they've seen this picture already, even if they haven't. And many of those who have seen it may have forgotten how flat-out thrilling it is. For all its great dramatic and cinematic qualities, and its fiery social criticism, Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront is also one of the most gripping melodramas of political corruption and individual heroism ever made in the United States, a five-star gut-grabber. Shot on location around the docks of Hoboken, New Jersey, in the mid-1950s, it tells the fact-based story of a longshoreman (Brando's Terry Malloy) who is blackballed and savagely beaten for informing against the mobsters who have taken over his union and sold it out to the bosses. (Karl Malden has a more conventional stalwart-hero role, as an idealistic priest who nurtures Terry's pangs of conscience.) Lee J. Cobb, who created the role of Willy Loman in Death of Salesman under Kazan's direction on Broadway, makes a formidable foe as a greedy union leader. --David Chute

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The Three Lives of Thomasina

Actors: Patrick McGoohan, Susan Hampshire, Karen Dotrice, Vincent Winter, Denis Gilmore
ASIN : B0001I55R4
Sales Rank : 2710
Director : Don Chaffey
Studio : Walt Disney Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Anamorphic, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0786936234084
UPC : 786936234084
Release Date : December 06, 2004
Publisher : Walt Disney Video
Manufacturer : Walt Disney Video
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Label : Walt Disney Video
Running Time : 97

Description

Set against the beauty of the Scottish Highlands, Paul Gallico's best-selling story of a little girl's undying love for her cat comes wonderfully to life in this classic Disney adaptation. Tragedy strikes when Mary McDhui (Karen Dotrice) finds her beloved Thomasina seriously injured. Not even her stern father, a widowed veterinarian (Patrick McGoohan), can save the pet. Their only hope lies in a mysterious "witch" and the healing power of love. Conjuring up both tears and laughter, this tender film has a magical charm that will linger long in your heart.

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A beloved tabby cat becomes the catalyst for healing and hope between a young girl and her widowed father in Disney's 1964 classic, based on the enchanting fable by Paul Gallico. Set in the Scottish highlands in 1912, the story focuses on Andrew MacDhui (Patrick McGoohan) a veterinarian who, after the death of his wife, has closed his heart to goodness and empathy-- toward his animal patients and his only child. Left essentially an orphan, Mary (Karen Dotrice) finds love from her cat, Thomasina, until a tragedy injures the cat and her father orders it to be killed. A tenderhearted maiden (Susan Hampshire) finds Thomasina, detects a heartbeat, and nurses the feline back to health. Her healing powers eventually move beyond the animal kingdom into the lives of MacDhui and Mary. The stellar cast includes standout performances by Dotrice and Matthew Garber (who plays Mary's loyal chum)--better known as the duo, Jane and Michael Banks, in Mary Poppins. Best watched with kids and Kleenex. (Ages 5 and older) --Lynn Gibson

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Gone with the Wind (Four-Disc Collector's Edition) 1939

Actors: Clark Gable, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil, Vivien Leigh, Evelyn Keyes
ASIN : B0002V7TZ6
Sales Rank : 2623
Director : Sam Wood, Victor Fleming, George Cukor
Studio : Warner Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : AC-3, Box set, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780790790497
ISBN : 0790790491
UPC : 012569591721
Release Date : December 09, 2004
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
Label : Warner Home Video
Running Time : 238

Description

DVD Features: Disc 1 & 2 (The Film)
* Commentary by film historian Rudy Behlmer
* 5.1 Dolby Digital Soundtrack
* Original Mono Soundtrack

DVD Features: Disc 3
* The Making of a Legend: Gone With The Wind the acclaimed 1989 documentary made by Selznick's sons and narrated by Christopher Plummer (125 Minutes, Never-before-available on DVD)
* Restoring a Legend- An in-depth look at the restoration and Ultra-Resolution process utilized by Warner Bros. For this new DVD presentation
* Footage from 1939 Atlanta and 1961 Civil War Centennial Atlanta premieres
* The Old South - Fred Zinnerman directed this historical 1940 theatrical short, which was shown by MGM in theatres prior to the release of Gone With The Wind

DVD Features: Disc 4
* Melanie Remembers: Olivia de Havilland Recalls Gone With The Wind - All new documentary produced especially for this new DVD set, features Ms. de Havilland's personal recollections of the film
* Clark Gable: A King Remembered - A Portrait of the legendary actor's long and distinguished career as M-G-M's most famous leading man
* Vivien Leigh: Scarlett and Beyond hosted by Jessica Lange, this is an insightful look at Leigh's short and troubled life
* Mini documentaries covering lives and careers of the most prominent cast members

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David O. Selznick wanted Gone with the Wind to be somehow more than a movie, a film that would broaden the very idea of what a film could be and do and look like. In many respects he got what he worked so hard to achieve in this 1939 epic (and all-time box-office champ in terms of tickets sold), and in some respects he fell far short of the goal. While the first half of this Civil War drama is taut and suspenseful and nostalgic, the second is ramshackle and arbitrary. But there's no question that the film is an enormous achievement in terms of its every resource--art direction, color, sound, cinematography--being pushed to new limits for the greater glory of telling an American story as fully as possible. Vivien Leigh is still magnificently narcissistic, Olivia de Havilland angelic and lovely, Leslie Howard reckless and aristocratic. As for Clark Gable: we're talking one of the most vital, masculine performances ever committed to film. --Tom Keogh

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Witness For the Prosecution

Actors: Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, John Williams
ASIN : B00005PJ6Z
Sales Rank : 1804
Director : Billy Wilder
Studio : MGM (Video & DVD)
Region Code : 1
Format : Anamorphic, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780792851660
ISBN : 0792851668
UPC : 027616869425
Release Date : December 11, 2001
Publisher : MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer : MGM (Video & DVD)
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Label : MGM (Video & DVD)
Running Time : 116

Description

Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton star in this brilliantly made courtroom drama (The Film Daily) that left audiences reeling from its surprise twists and shocking climax. Directed by Billy Wilder, scripted by Wilder and Harry Kurnitz and based on Agatha Christie's hit London play, this splendid, six-time Oscar-nominated* classic crackles with emotional electricity (The New York Times) and continues to keep movie lovers riveted until the final, mesmerizing frame. When a wealthy widow is found murdered, her married suitor, Leonard Vole (Power), is accused of the crime. Vole's only hope for acquittal is the testimony of his wife (Dietrich) but his airtightalibi shatters when she reveals some shocking secrets of her own! *1957: Best Picture, Actor (Laughton), Supporting Actress (Elsa Lanchester), Director, Sound, Film Editing

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Billy Wilder cowrote and directed this brilliant 1957 mystery based on Agatha Christie's celebrated play about an aging London barrister (Charles Laughton) who's preparing to retire when he takes the defense in the most vexing murder case of his distinguished career. In his final completed film (he died of a heart attack less than a year later), Tyrone Power plays the prime suspect in the murder of a wealthy widow, and Marlene Dietrich plays the wife of the accused, whose testimony--and true identity--holds the key to solving the case. A classic of courtroom suspense, Witness for the Prosecution is one of those movies with enough double-crossing twists to keep the viewer guessing right up to the very end, when yet another surprise is deftly revealed. This being a Billy Wilder film, the dialogue is first-rate and the acting superb, with both Laughton and his offscreen wife Elsa Lanchester (playing the barrister's pesty nurse) winning Academy Awards for their performances. Although later films would concoct even more complicated courtroom scenarios, this remains one of the best films of its kind and a model for all those films that followed its lead. --Jeff Shannon

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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (40th Anniversary Edition)

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn, Katharine Houghton, Cecil Kellaway
ASIN : B000TXP56C
Sales Rank : 3459
Director : Stanley Kramer
Brand : Sony
Studio : Sony Pictures
Region Code : 99
Format : AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0043396211001
UPC : 043396211001
Release Date : December 12, 2008
Publisher : Sony Pictures
Manufacturer : Sony Pictures
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Label : Sony Pictures
Running Time : 107

Product Description

Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn (who won the Academy Award® for Best Actress for her performance) are unforgettable as perplexed parents in this landmark 1967 movie about mixed marriage. Joanna (Katharine Houghton), the beautiful daughter of crusading publisher Matthew Drayton (Tracy) and his patrician wife Christina (Hepburn), returns home with her new fiance John Prentice (Sidney Poitier), a distinguished black doctor. Christina accepts her daughter's decision to marry John, but Matthew is shocked by this interracial union; the doctor's parents are equally dismayed. Both families must sit down face to face and examine each other's level of intolerance. In Guess Who's Coming to Dinner,director Stanley Kramer has created a masterful study of society's prejudices.

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Humphrey Bogart - The Signature Collection, Vol. 2 (The Maltese Falcon Three-Disc Special Edition / Across the Pacific / Action in the North Atlantic / All Through the Night / Passage to Marseille)

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale, Claude Rains
ASIN : B000GIXLVQ
Sales Rank : 3039
Director : B. Reeves Eason, Byron Haskin, Chuck Jones, Crane Wilbur, Friz Freleng
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Warner Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0012569679863
UPC : 012569679863
Release Date : December 03, 2006
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
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Label : Warner Home Video
Running Time : 617

Product description

Includes: The Maltese Falcon (Three-Disc Special Edition), Across the Pacific, Action in the North Atlantic, All Through the Night, and Passage to Marseille.

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The movie that made Humphrey Bogart Humphrey Bogart anchors this second DVD box devoted to the mighty star. The Maltese Falcon gets--and merits--the deluxe three-disc treatment, and the other Bogie movies collected here are solid vehicles from his early 1940s Warner Bros. heyday. The essence of Bogart's world-weary yet mysteriously romantic aura is on luscious display, even if most of these films fall just short of classic status.

Bogart's letter-perfect incarnation as Sam Spade, the anti-hero of John Huston's debut film as a director, grounds The Maltese Falcon in a smart, sardonic groove. Even if Spade is one of Bogart's finest turns, it's hard to single out the film's best performance: Mary Astor as the mystery dame who trips off the case, Peter Lorre as the fey Joel Cairo, or Sydney Greenstreet as the massively erudite Kasper Gutman (the latter making one of the great debuts in film history). Dashiell Hammett's best-selling story had been filmed twice before, and both versions are included in the extras here: the 1931 Maltese Falcon, which has a fair amount of cheek and some near-identical snatches of Hammett dialogue as the 1941 film--but without the magic--and the 1936 Satan Met a Lady, which puts the story squarely in the realm of screwball comedy, with Warren William and Bette Davis acting as though they'd wandered into a Thin Man movie. Other extras include a commentary with Bogart biography Eric Lax, three radio versions of the tale, and a short documentary about the Falcon.

Huston also directed Across the Pacific, a fun and somewhat tongue-in-cheek picture that brought Bogart, Astor, and Greenstreet back together. After being drummed out of the military, Bogie finds himself aboard a ship sailing toward the Panama Canal--and as the date of Dec. 7, 1941, looms on the horizon, we suspect intrigue. Also from 1942 is the wisecracking All Through the Night, which is set entirely in a Damon Runyon NYC but nevertheless unearths a nest of Nazis (Conrad Veidt among them) planning a homeland attack.

WWII figures in the other two features. Michael Curtiz's Passage to Marseille (1944) burdens itself with too many flashbacks, but otherwise presents a nicely atmospheric tale of Devil's Island escapees trying to get home to fight for France. Lorre and Greenstreet are back, with Michele Morgan snuggling Bogart in the Casablanca-inspired love story. Action in the North Atlantic (1943) is a more conventional picture, with Bogart and Raymond Massey fighting the war in the Merchant Marines; the topnotch action sequences and crusty supporting cast keep it going. Bogart's covert socking of a loose-lipped bar patron gives us the vintage Bogie. Bartender: "Did you hurt your hand?" Bogie: "Never do." --Robert Horton

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Paths of Glory

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The Cary Grant Signature Collection (Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House / Destination Tokyo / The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer / My Favorite Wife / Night and Day)

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Pride and Prejudice

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On the Waterfront (Special Edition)

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The Three Lives of Thomasina

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Gone with the Wind (Four-Disc Collector's Edition) 1939

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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

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Witness For the Prosecution

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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (40th Anniversary Edition)

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Humphrey Bogart - The Signature Collection, Vol. 2 (The Maltese Falcon Three-Disc Special Edition / Across the Pacific / Action in the North Atlantic / All Through the Night / Passage to Marseille)

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