Turner Classic Movies and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment are proud to present The Jean Arthur Drama Collection. Presented for the first time on DVD, digitally restored and remastered, these four features showcase Arthur's range and virtuosity at an early stage in the sound era, playing everything from melodramas and tearjerkers to courtroom dramas and morality tales. Whirlpool, 1934) Buck Rankin (Jack Holt), the owner of a disreputable traveling carnival, is sentenced to prison for twenty years on a manslaughter charge. Not wanting his wife to waste her life waiting for him, he forges a note from the warden to her, claiming he died in an escape attempt. Upon his release years later, Rankin reinvents himself as a nightclub owner but his past life comes back to haunt him when his daughter Sandra (Jean Arthur), a newspaper reporter, begins investigating him for a front page expose. An unconventional portrayal of a father-daughter relationship, (Whirlpool) unfolds as a brisk, unpredictable human drama with an emotionally affecting climax. (The Defense Rests, 1934) Law school graduate Joan Hayes (Jean Arthur) is so impressed with the brilliant accomplishments and successful trial record of attorney Matthew Mitchell (Jack Holt) that she hounds him for a job. Impressed by her spunk and intelligence, Mitchell hires her but Joan quickly becomes disillusioned with her employer's criminal clients and the questionable methods he uses to win cases. Ethics triumph over immorality in this rousing courtroom drama based on a screenplay by Oscar winner Jo Swerling (The Pride of the Yankees, 1942). (The Most Precious Thing In Life, 1934) Ellen (Jean Arthur), an elderly cleaning woman, returns to her former hometown and finds a job at the university. While cleaning the dormitory rooms, she learns that one of the attending students is Chris Kelsey (Richard Cromwell), the son she had to abandon years earlier. Though she keeps her true identity a secret, Ellen develops a close attachment to Chris, becoming his confidant. In the grand tradition of Madame X, this tearjerker provides Jean Arthur with one of her most challenging early roles, taking her from youth to old age. (Party Wire, 1935) When Matthew Putnam (Victor Jory), heir to the Putnam Dairy fortune, returns to his hometown to attend to family business, the local women take a special interest in his bachelor status. Once it becomes apparent that he is only interested in Marge Oliver (Jean Arthur), jealousy gives way to gossip when an overheard conversation on the town's party line is misinterpreted and results in a rumor that leads to a near tragedy. A poisonous portrayal of small town life and the effect of gossip, (Party Wire) is a riveting morality tale distinguished by a superb supporting cast including Charley Grapewin, Helen Lowell and Walter Brennan.
Genre: Drama
Format: Dolby, NTSC, Box set, Multiple Formats
Contributor: Geneva Mitchell, Edward Le Saint, Bobbie Sheehan, Spec O'Donnell, Kernan Cripps, Lowden Adams, A. R. Haysel, Charles McAvoy, Harold Huber, Sam Hayes, Lydia Knott, Phil Dunham, Richard Cromwell, Greta Meyer, Fletcher Norton, Harry Bowen, Margaret Ehrlich, Eddie Clayton, Alfred P. James, Lillian Harmer, Christy Kellar, Lee Phelps, Albert J. Smith, Charles McMurphy, Al Hill, Raymond Walburn, Frank Mills, Billy West, Florence Dudley, Jack Long, Anita Louise, Hal Taggart, Vester Pegg, Ben Alexander, Earl Hodgins, Donald Cook, Maidel Turner, Emerson Treacy, Selmer Jackson, Richard Kipling, Joe Smith Marba, Charles Brinley, Eleanor Wood, Samuel S. Hinds, James Bradbury Jr., Sam Lufkin, Frank McClure, Stephen Colt, Robert "Buddy" Shaw, Blanche Rose, William McCall, Lila Lee, Cyril Ring, Lillian West, Charles Cowen, Katherine Clare Ward, Nestor Aber, Dorothy Bay, Dolly Bevins, Ethel Sykes, Sam Finn, Charles Middleton, Oscar Apfel, Lu Ann Meredith, Paul Stanton, Billie Van Every, Ben Hall, Sammy Blum, Matt McHugh, George Pearce, Arthur Belasco, Oscar Rudolph, Clarence L. Sherwood, E. W. Borman, Howard Hickman, Stanley Mack, Lambert Hillyer, James B. "Pop" Kenton, Harvey Clark, Harry Hume, Edward Cecil, Milla Davenport, Victor Jory, Jack Baxley, Beatrice Curtis, John Deering, Nick Copeland, Maude Eburne, Jack Curtis, Charley Grapewin, Peggy Leon, Nat Pendleton, Dorothy Shearer, Tony Martelli, Jimmie Barnes, Ed Schaefer, John Miljan, Hal Price, Earle Bunn, Brooks Benedict, Allan Jenkins, Rosalie Lincoln, Mary Forbes, Herbert Ashley, Bert Morehouse, Buddy Messinger, Erle C. Kenton, Nelson McDowell, Louise Carter, Joan Dix, Jerry Storm, Ray Ellis, Joe Marba, Arthur Hohl, Lottie Hildebrand, Charles Hickman, Willard Robertson, Blanche Payson, Clara Blandick, Jane Darwell, Lincoln Stedman, Carlyle Moore Jr., Sarah Padden, Adda Gleason, Don Brody, James A. Guilfoyle, Harrison Greene, Bill Dill, Lynn Cowan, Bruce Randall, Jessie Arnold, Mitchell Ingraham, June LaVere, Robert Kerr, Reginald Simpson, Tom Wallace, Bess Flowers, Heinie Conklin, Ward Bond, Clifford Jones, Richard Sumner, Shirley Grey, Maston Williams, Ila Lee, Donald Meek, Wilfred North, Andre Cheron, Arnold Gray, Harry Strang, Rosita Foucher, Walter Brennan, Dutch Hendrian, Si Jenks, Helen Lowell, Maidena Armstrong, Allen Caven, Vivian Oakland, Max Barwyn, J. Carrol Naish, Frank O'Connor, Bess Stafford, Monte Vandegrift, Raymond Hatton, John Wray, Hope Holloway, Rita La Roy, Robert Gleckler, Stella LeSaint, Arthur Hickman, Tony Merlo, Roy William Neill, Lafe McKee, Bud Davies, Ray Cooke, Grace Hale, George Yeoman, Loo Loy, Jack Holt, Jolly Lee Harvey, John M. Sullivan, Jack Mack, Nat Leffingwell, Robert Allen, Jean Arthur, Ernest Young, Arthur Rankin, Hal Greene, Robert Middlemass, Mary Gordon, Gino Corrado, Sofia Wormser, Oliver Eckhardt, Lenora Nova, Charles KingSee more
Language: English
Runtime: 4 hours and 40 minutes
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer:No
MPAA rating:NR (Not Rated)
Product Dimensions:0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 4.8 ounces
Item model number:411469
Director:Erle C. Kenton, Lambert Hillyer, Roy William Neill
Media Format:Dolby, NTSC, Box set, Multiple Formats
Run time:4 hours and 40 minutes
Release date:November 25, 2014
Actors:Jack Holt, Richard Cromwell, Jean Arthur, Victor Jory, Nat Pendleton
Studio:Turner Classics Mod
