Search - Directed by William Wyler/The Love Trap on DVD

Movie Release: 2002 DVD Release: 11/05/2002 Format: DVD - Black and White SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 10 mins Studio: Kino Members Wishing: 2

This DVD combines Aviva Slesin's 1986 documentary Directed by William Wyler and the 1929 Wyler-directed feature The Love Trap. The documentary covers the arc of Wyler's entire career, with help from the director himself, who was interviewed for the film just three days before his death in 1981, and includes interviews with Lillian Hellman, Bette Davis, Gregory Peck, John Huston, Barbra Streisand, Billy Wilder, Margaret Tallichet (the second Mrs. Wyler), Charlton Heston, Terence Stamp, Samantha Eggar, and Laurence Olivier, among others. Wyler's and Tallichet's recollections concerning Samuel Goldwyn make for the most entertaining body of stories, but the documentary makers also got permission for the use of some surprisingly lengthy clips from his work for a multitude of studios. The Love Trap (1929) is a movie that does show its age -- the first minute and a half is window-boxed and a bit on the scratchy side visually, though it stabilizes after that and looks quite good beyond that point. The movie is done as a silent with synchronized music for the first 45 minutes, and at a reel-change at that point turns into a talkie. The audio is in fine shape, and the image is sharp and crisp. The disc opens automatically to an unusually complex menu, owing to the presence of two features and a great two-pronged bonus feature: First are the trailers from 16 of Wyler's movies from the 1930s until the 1960s (including 1944's The Memphis Belle); second is one of the better and more useful onscreen filmographies that this reviewer has encountered on a DVD to date. The Love Trap is an interesting artifact of its period, though it doesn't offer much appeal beyond that -- it's not It and Laura La Plante isn't Clara Bow. But Directed By William Wyler is almost as valuable as entertainment as it is for its scholarship, and worth the price of the disc by itself. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide