Brother Can You Spare a Dime? (Blu-ray) [] [1975]
$24.95 $17.47
Brother Can You Spare A Dime? is the chronicle of an unforgettable piece of American history – twelve crazy, painful see-saw years, from the Wall Street crash to Pearl Harbor, by juxtaposing contemporary news and documentary footage with extracts from many Hollywood classics. (Blu-ray Recordable which will play on any standard Blu-ray player.)
MPAA Rating: PG
(Blu-ray Recordable which will play on any standard Blu-ray player)
Brother Can You Spare A Dime? is the chronicle of an unforgettable piece of American history – twelve crazy, painful see-saw years, from the Wall Street crash to Pearl Harbor.
By juxtaposing contemporary news and documentary footage with extracts from Hollywood classics such as “Golddiggers,” “Lady Killer” and “Wild Boys of the Road,” director Philippe Mora offers us an immediate, intricate and evocative scrapbook of the 1930’s. Somehow there are uncanny echoes of some of our current preoccupations: strikers at Ford’s, mass unemployment, breadlines, vigilante gangs and failing fortunes…
Two heroes emerge: James Cagney, the rough diamond, hood-with-a-heart-of-gold star of the Movies, the little man who won’t be beaten, and Franklin D. Roosevelt himself: tough yet benign, stepping into the breach with confidence and determination, yet imperceptibly crumpling under the weight of responsibility as he leads America through her most difficult years until the final humiliation of Pearl Harbor.
Songs and images stick in the mind: fortunes dwindle, the small man’s savings disappear, even the Banks go bust; men lose their jobs and join the breadlines to the haunting title song of “Brother, can you spare a dime?”; hobos and oakies take to the road while Bessie Smith sings “Nobody loves you when you’re down and out”; a ragged child huddles against the bleak landscape as Woody Guthrie sings the “Dustbowl Blues”; an abandoned cat shivers on the ledge of a flooded home…
Only Hollywood offers an escape from reality for these are the Golden Years of Bogart, Cooper and Dietrich. We glimpse Gable and Vivien Leigh at the screen test of “Gone with the Wind”; George Raft dances a languorous tango with Carole Lombard; Shirley Temple dimples and Chaplin jokes while Busby Berkeley fills the screen with his lavish extravaganzas…and the marathon dancers stumble on…
As Ginger Rogers says: “It’s the depression, dearie… ”
1975 | 106 min | B&W & Color | Optional English Subtitles: SDH† | dts-HD Master Audio| All Region | Rated PG
Special Feature:
• Approximately 60 minutes of rare vintage Pathé Newsreels from the period.
Cast James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Clarke Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Katharine Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Shirley Temple, James Stewart, Spencer Tracy, King Kong, and many more Hollywood greats |
Director Philippe Mora |
Language English
Region All Regions
Audio dts-HD Master Audio
Aspect Ratio 1.37:1
Subtitles Optional English Subtitles: SDH+
Rating PG
Runtime 106 min
Year 1975
Color B&W/Color
UPC 089859905520
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