Search - The Carpetbaggers on DVD

MPAA Rating: PG Content Advisory: Questionable for Children Movie Release: 1964 DVD Release: 04/22/2003 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV - Closed Captioned Edition: Restored/Remastered,Special Collection Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 30 mins Studio: Paramount Members Wishing: 9 Genres: Drama, Romance, Showbiz Drama, Film a Clef

Edward Dmytryk brings Harold Robbins' trashy, dirt-dishing Hollywood best-seller to the screen with George Peppard starring as Jonas Cord, a rancidly-sketched portrait of Howard Hughes. In 1925, when his father dies of a stroke, Jonas inherits the Cord Chemical factory, a manufacturer of dynamite and other explosives. Jonas proceeds with several cut-throat transactions, making a settlement with his sexy stepmother Rina (Carroll Baker) and liquidating the stock owned by cowhand Nevada Smith (Alan Ladd, in his final American film role). With the help of Mac McAllister (Lew Ayres), his father's attorney, Jonas builds his father's company into a multi-million dollar business, expanding into plastics and aeronautics. Meanwhile, Rina has become a top fashion model and movie star and Nevada Smith has parlayed his laconic demeanor into a career as a popular silent film cowboy idol. Jonas then marries, then ignores, the well-meaning Monica Winthrop (Elizabeth Ashley), and ruins her father's company in the process. Then, with the advent of sound films, Jonas helps Nevada Smith through the sound film crisis by offering financial backing for a film to star both Nevada and his ex-mother-in-law Rina. Jonas decides to direct the film himself, hoping to seduce Rina. But Jonas's insensitive and egomaniacal behavior causes Monica to leave him. Jonas invests all his time in film production but the alcoholic Rina dies in a car accident. The owners of the film studio -- Bernard B. Norman (Martin Balsam) and Dan Pierce (Robert Cummings) -- want to sell the studio to Jonas but hide the fact that Rina, the studio's biggest star, has died. Jonas buys the studio and when he finds his biggest asset is gone, he goes on a drunken binge. But Jonas quickly meets call girl Jennie Denton (Martha Hyer), who he decides to turn into a superstar modeled upon Rina. Despite having made her a star, Jonas's vile treatment of Jennie repulses both her and his old friend Nevada Smith, and Smith decides it's time to beat some sense into Jonas's head. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

George Peppard - Jonas Cord, Jr.
Alan Ladd - Nevada Smith
Martha Hyer - Jennie Denton
Elizabeth Ashley - Monica Winthrop
Carroll Baker - Rina Marlowe

Edward Dmytryk's The Carpetbaggers comes to DVD without any extras, just a decent transfer on a minimally programmed disc. The 1964 movie, produced by Joseph E. Levine, opens with a rather unpromising credit sequence but gets rather better looking once the action starts. The sharpness is still not great in the wide shots, but the close-ups do look sensational, and the DVD avoids the transfer anomalies inherent in the old laserdisc edition from the early 1990's -- the letterboxed image (2.35-to-1) does show off a beautiful production design in many of the interior shots, especially those depicting the Cord household; the shot of Alan Ladd leaving George Peppard's company down that enormous staircase is worth the price of the disc by itself, and the image 34 minutes in (and a similar shot 55 minutes in) of Carroll Baker with her legs stretched out is one of the glories of 1960's Panavision. The disc has been given a paltry 15 chapters, which is hardly adequate for a 150 minute movie that is as episodic as this one. The DVD goes to its simple three-choice two-layer menu automatically on start-up, with the "play" option in the defau ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide