The Collection includes two discs featuring a movie on each side. Now, Voyager and Love in the Afternoon are black and white films, while Splendor in the Grass and Mogambo are colored.
The first of the TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Romance takes us into the strict social and religious discipline of mid-America in the 1920's. Elia Kazan brilliantly directs William Inge's screenplay in this melodramatic romantic tragedy, Splendor in the Grass, and unveils the idyllic love life of teenagers Wilma Dean Loomis (Natalie Wood) and Bud Stamford (Walter Beatty's screen debut) as they mistakenly follow the advice of their parents to focus on a stable future and deny their romantic desires of happiness. The repercussions of this ill-fated advice take the two through a series of twists and turns as their love and affections collide with adulthood and maturity. The prophetic words of Wadsworth's poem "Ode on Intermations of Immortality" cause them to ponder the tumultuous disasters left in the wake of their pure and innocent love.
Special features include the theatrical trailer and a cartoon. I thought this was the most intense and gripping of all the movies on this series, making me experience the agony and frustration of these young lovers as much today as I did when viewing the original film.
The second feature of the TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Romance) features Billy Wilder's black and white romantic comedy Love in the Afternoon starring Audrey Hepburn as impulsive Ariane Chavasse, the inquisitive and adventurous daughter of Parisian private investigator Claude Chavasse (Maurice Chevalier), who ventures into a mystery involving aging playboy womanizer Frank Flannagan (Gary Cooper). Ariane, being privy to her father's private files on the renown oil industrialist's romantic habits, coyishly weaves her way into Flannagan's mind and heart through a series of calculated maneuvers.
This is a delightful comedy and is only enhanced by the buoyant, coquettish personality of Miss Hepburn. Flannagan's constant violin quartet, the Gypsies, follow him around and romance his ladies with the ever popular song, "Fascination." Should this movie be set in modern-day society, one wonders if the "afternoon rendevous" would be entirely innocent and questioned morally by the 1957 American audience or filled with more expressive physical love as might be believed and tolerated by the accepting European movie audience.
Audrey Hepburn was an iconic film idol in her time. Any movie she's in is going to be entertaining. Her movies will fill your hours with romantic hilarity and fun.
???????Bonus features include theatrical trailer, "Cast/Director Film Highlights" that documents highlights of the actors careers. However, I found it impossible to any filmographies other than Miss Hepburn's, Gary Cooper's and Billy Wilder's. Subtitles are in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono. Movie duration was 130 minutes.??????
From Robinson Casey's novel "Olive Higgins Pouty" comes the third film in this collection, the exceptional characterized black and white movie, Now, Voyager. This fascinating tale depicts the amazing transformation of spinster Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) of the aristocratic Boston Vales, who journeys through a psychological rejuvenation caused by emotional abuse from an over-domineering and manipulating mother. Psychiatrist Jaquith (Claude Reins) guides Charlotte through experiences that give her the strength and courage to find her own identity as Camille Beauchamp, abandoning forever her personality as Charlotte. The gift of an ocean voyage offers romance, true love and eventual sacrifice. Fellow passenger Jeremiah "Jerry" Durrance (Paul Henreid) shares his love and affection upon the seas with Camille as they form an everlasting bond of eternal love.
Now, Voyager was my favorite selection of this Romance series. The story is incredibly complicated -- a characteristic so prominent in the earlier movies. Bette Davis profoundly protrays her character and makes you fall in love with her sacrificial and generous nature. Watching this movie was worth the entire collection.
Features include Scoring Session Music Cues Audio Track which portrays various emotions and cues to various scenes; also the Cast Film Highlights which are a written depiction of the film highlights of the major actors; also including the 1941 Academy Award for Max Steiner's musical score, plus theatrical trailer.
The final feature of the TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Romance features director John Ford and screenwriter John Lee Mahin's macho movie, Mogambo which takes place in the unchartered wilderness and waterways of Africa featuring Victor Marswell (Clark Gable) as the "great white hunter" pitting his prowess and intelligence against the most vicious of jungle wildlife. Marswell's expertise provides a safety net for British anthropologist Donald Nordley (Donald Sinden) and his sophisticated wife Linda Nordley (Grace Kelly) as their safari provides research of the equatorial African gorillas. New York showgirl Eloise "Honeybear" Kelly (Ava Gardner) complicates the mix when she is stood up and abandoned on Marswell's doorstep by an Indian maharaja. The group venture out on their safari encountering a violent chase by tribal natives and a close brush with the claws and teeth of a wild leopard, while in the breeze, love and romance fill the air. Marswell's spontaneous, crude, animalistic charm captivates and infatuates the two women throughout their adventure stirring up heat, passion and emotional outbursts as the exotic rhythm of the jungle beats wildly in their primal desires.
Clark Gable has a rough exterior, but in today's opinion is certainly not "buff" for an African hunter. I thought there was a considerable bit of over-acting on the group's part to try to make this storyline believable. Out of the four featured movies on this collection, I considered this one my least favorite.
Mogambo's special features consist only of a trailer of the original 1953 Technicolor Metro Goldwyn-Mayer Studio film.
All in all, this was an enjoyable collection. It has enticed me to desire the full collections of the major stars. But for the price, it would be an entertaining addition to any classic movie buff's collection.
