Search - The Arrangement on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Violence, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Adult Language Movie Release: 1969 DVD Release: 01/30/2007 Format: DVD - Color,Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 6 mins Studio: Warner Home Video Members Wishing: 2 Genres: Drama, Melodrama

Kirk Douglas has an extreme case of mid-life crisis in Elia Kazan's turgid melodrama (adapted from his best-selling novel). Douglas plays successful advertising executive Eddie Anderson, who cracks under the strain of the morning rush hour in Los Angeles and plows his sports car into a truck. Landing in a convalescent home, Eddie remains mute to everyone except his boss Finnegan (Charles Drake). In his recovery room, Eddie dreams about co-worker Gwen (Faye Dunaway), a sexy research assistant at his agency. Meanwhile, the psychiatrist Dr. Liebman (Harold Gould) talks to Eddie's wife, Florence (Deborah Kerr), who reveals that at one time Eddie and Gwen had an affair, but they broke it off. Unfortunately, after that escapade, Eddie's interest in sex vanished completely.

Then after the interview with Dr. Liebman, following a terrible nightmare, Eddie breaks out of his self-imposed silence and declares to Florence that he is tired of his unfulfilling life of "arrangements." Eddie returns to work, but the return is marked by Eddie insulting a major client, alienating his co-workers, and then taking off in a private plane in which he flies madly over the skies of L.A. His lawyer Arthur (Hume Cronyn) keeps Eddie from being thrown in jail and also talks Eddie into giving Florence the power of attorney. Eddie proceeds to travel to New York, where he runs into Gwen, who now has a child. Eddie is in New York to visit his senile father, Sam (Richard Boone), but when his family attempts to put Sam in a nursing home, Eddie takes him away with him to their old family estate on Long Island. Eddie calls up Gwen, and she travels to Long Island to resume their affair. Meanwhile, Eddie's loved ones search for Sam, and they are closing in on Eddie's Long Island sanctuary. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Kirk Douglas - Eddie Anderson
Faye Dunaway - Gwen
Deborah Kerr - Florence Anderson
Richard Boone - Sam Anderson
Hume Cronyn - Arthur

Elia Kazan's overlong and overwrought chronicle of one man's rather spectacular mid-life crisis belatedly comes to DVD in this edition from Warner Home Video. The Arrangement has been given a widescreen transfer to disc -- letterboxed on conventional televisions at the theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and enhanced for anamorphic play on 16x9 monitors. The image looks good, with sharp focus and a realistic color balance, and it accurately reflects the way the picture appeared on screen in its original release. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Mono, featuring the original English language soundtrack as well as an alternate version dubbed into French; the quality is good but occasionally reflects the aural limitations of a movie recorded almost three decades before the advent of DVD's. Optional English language subtitles are also included. Two bonus features have been included -- The Arrangement's original theatrical trailer, and "A New Lifestyle," a short documentary on the making of the film made to promote its original release and including behind-the-scenes footage of Kazan directing his cast. The Arrangement is one of Elia Kazan's lesser films, and only die-hard fans have reason to seek it out, but those who do should be happy enough with this package, which allows the film to look and sound as good as it deserves. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide