11-film Columbia Best Pictures Collection on DVD (Nov 18)

11 Oscar®-winning films in one star-studded box!

COLUMBIA BEST PICTURES COLLECTION »

51 Hours of Hollywood's Best Films, Spanning 6 Decades and Collectively Garnering 57 Oscars® - debuting November 18 on DVD.

Starring a motion picture Who's Who, from Clark Gable to Dustin Hoffman, Peter O'Toole, James Stewart, Meryl Streep, Claudette Colbert, Frank Sinatra, Alec Guinness and many more!

As one of its outstanding offerings for the fall, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has assembled an award-winning ensemble of 11 iconic features from Columbia Pictures spanning six decades, which have collectively garnered 57 Oscars® and will debut in the fall as an elegant boxed set titled the COLUMBIA BEST PICTURES COLLECTION.

This impressive collection includes some of the all time greatest motion pictures in the history of movie making and features the directorial genius of such directors as Frank Capra, Sir Richard Attenborough and Elia Kazan. The collectible boxed set will be available November 18 in a 14-disc DVD Box Set (SRP $135.95).

The specially designed package offers cinemaphiles a genuine Hollywood collectible, complete with slipcase, synopsis of each film, details on the Oscar® win for each title and artwork from key movie scenes.

Featuring Columbia Pictures' Best Picture Oscar winners (Academy Award) spanning the years from 1934 to 1982, the set includes the following films:

1934 It Happened One Night
1938 You Can't Take It with You
1949 All the King's Men
1953 From Here to Eternity
1954 On the Waterfront
1957 The Bridge on the River Kwai
1962 Lawrence of Arabia
1966 A Man for All Seasons
1968 Oliver!
1979 Kramer vs. Kramer
1982 Gandhi

In addition, over eight hours of special features from the Columbia Pictures studio archives are also included. Among the highlights: "Making of" featurettes on From Here To Eternity, Kramer Vs. Kramer, Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Gandhi. Also commentaries and interviews with key actors and directors featured in the collection, including Steven Spielberg, Fred Zinnemann, David Lean, Richard Attenborough, Elia Kazan, Ben Kingsley and Peter O'Toole; a multi-part documentary on Lawrence of Arabia and another on The Bridge on the River Kwai. And the package includes a rich assortment of archival materials, including vintage advertisements for various featured films and newsreel footage from a host of red carpet openings featuring each film's stars and director.

BONUS FEATURES:
From Here To Eternity
-Making of From Here to Eternity
-Fred Zinnemann - "As I See it"
-Commentary with Tim Zinnemann (Director's Son) and Al Sargent
It Happened One Night
-Frank Capra Jr. Remembers.. "It Happened One Night"
-Original Live Radio Broadcast - Radio Spot
-Vintage Advertising - Photo Gallery
Kramer vs. Kramer
-Making-of Featurette
Lawrence of Arabia
-Making of Lawrence of Arabia
-A Conversation with Steven Spielberg
-Maan, Jordan: The Camels Are Cast
-In Search of Lawrence
-Romance of Arabia
-Wind, Sand and Star: The Making of a Classic
-New York Premiere – Newsreel
-Advertising Campaigns
Oliver!
-Interactive Map of London (game)
-Map: Bloomsbury Square, Holborn, Clerkenwell, London Bridge & Covent Garden
-Meeting Oliver!
-Meeting Fagin!
-Oliver's Nice & Easy Quiz (game)
-Fagin's Tricky Quiz (game)
-Bill Sikes Fiendishly Hard Quiz (game)
-Charles Dickens Timeline—Photo Gallery
-Be Back Soon Dance Instruction
-I'd Do Anything Dance Instruction
-Sing-Alongs:
"Be Back Soon"
"I'd Do Anything"
"Food Glorious Food"
"Consider Yourself"
"Pick A Pocket"
"Who Will Buy?"
"Reviewing The Situation"
"Oom Pah Pah"
You Can't Take It With You
-Commentary by Frank Capra, Jr. and Cathrine Kellison
-Frank Capra, Jr. Remembers
The Bridge On the River Kwai
-An Appreciation by filmmaker John Milius
-Rise and Fall of A Jungle Giant
-Making of The Bridge on the River Kwai
Gandhi
-Commentary by director Richard Attenborough
-Vintage newsreel footage
-Designing Gandhi #1: Building the Ashram
-Designing Gandhi #2: The Tent
-Designing Gandhi #3: Finding Trains
-In Search of Gandhi
-Looking Back
-Madeleine Slade: An Englishwoman Abroad
-Reflection on Ben
-Shooting an Epic in India
-The Funeral
-The Words of Mahatma Gandhi
-Ben Kingsley Talks About Gandhi
-From the Director's Chair #1: On Casting
-From the Director's Chair #2: On Music
-Vintage Lobby Cards—Photo Montage
-Milestones in the Life of Gandhi-Photo Montage
A Man for All Seasons
-The Life of Saint Thomas More
On The Waterfront
-Contender: Mastering the Method
-Commentary by Critic Richard Schickel and Film Historian Jeff Young
-Director Elia Kazan Interview

Synopsis:
THE COLUMBIA BEST PICTURES COLLECTION

It Happened One Night (1934)
Best Actor (Clark Gable) in a Leading Role, Best Actress (Claudette Colbert) in a Leading Role, Best Director (Frank Capra), Best Picture, Best Writing, Adaptation

Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert team up for laughs as mismatched lovers in this 1934 screwball comedy classic. Spoiled Ellie Andrews (Colbert) escapes from her millionaire father (Walter Connolly), who wants to stop her from marrying a worthless playboy. En route to New York, Ellie gets involved with an out-of-work newsman, Peter Warne (Gable). When their bus breaks down, the bickering couple set off on a madcap hitchhiking expedition. Peter hopes to parlay the inside story of their misadventures into a job. But complications fly when the runaway heiress and brash reporter fall in love. Directed by Frank Capra, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT was the first movie to be honored with all five major Oscars®: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.

You Can't Take It With You (1938)
Best Director (Frank Capra), Best Picture

Academy Award®-winner James Stewart (1940 Best Actor, The Philadelphia Story and 1985 Honorary Oscar®), Jean Arthur, Academy Award® winner Lionel Barrymore (1931 Best Actor, A Free Soul) and Edward Arnold star in this classic screwball comedy. Based on the phenomenally successful Kaufman-Hart play, "You Can't Take It With You", the film was directed by Frank Capra and won two Academy Awards® (1938 Best Picture, Best Director) and garnered five more nominations. It was Capra's third Oscar® for directing. Arthur stars as Alice Sycamore, the stable family member of an offbeat clan of free spirits who fall for Stewart, the down-to-earth son of a snooty, wealthy family. Amidst a backdrop of confusion, the two very different families rediscover the simple joys of life.

All The King's Men (1949)
Best Actor in a Leading Role (Broderick Crawford), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Mercedes McCambridge), Best Picture

In a bravura performance, Broderick Crawford won the 1949 Academy Award® for Best Actor with his stunning portrayal of bull-headed, backwoods lawyer Willie Stark, in this powerful drama about political and personal corruption. A somber but realistic chronicle of raw, brutal power in force, ALL THE KING'S MEN is based on Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. It was brought to the screen in 1949 by producer Robert Rossen who also wrote the screenplay and directed the film. The story was inspired by the rise and fall of southern bigwig Huey Pierce Long, the infamous "Kingfish" who was Louisiana's governor and one-time Senator. Long's cunning tactics of building public works during the depression to serve his own needs more than those of his constituents eventually brought about his own assassination in 1935.

A compelling story of a self-made, self-styled politician, it was politics that almost prevented Rossen from making ALL THE KING'S MEN in the first place when he was named by the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947 for having Communist sympathies. Rossen's denial of this to Columbia chief Harry Cohn enabled him to continue work on the film, but his earlier radicalism eventually surfaced and Rossen made only one film (The Brave Bulls) in the next five years. Nonetheless, ALL THE KING'S MEN remains a hallmark political film with superb performances throughout. John Ireland garnered an Academy Award® nomination for his role as Stark's tortured right-hand man, while Mercedes McCambridge won an Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actress as Sadie Burke, Stark's callous, conniving political aide. In addition, the film won an Academy Award® for Best Picture along with nominations for Directing, Writing and Film Editing.

From Here to Eternity (1954)
Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Frank Sinatra), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Donna Reed), Best Cinematography,(Black-and-White), Best Director (Fred Zinnemann), Best Film Editing, Best Picture, Best Sound-Recording, Best Writing-Screenplay

In this landmark film, passion and tragedy collide on a military base as a fateful day in December 1941 draws near. Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) is a soldier and former boxer being manipulated by his superior and peers. His friend Maggio (Frank Sinatra) tries to help him but has his own troubles. Sergeant Warden (Burt Lancaster) and Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr) tread on dangerous ground as lovers in an illicit affair. Each of their lives will be changed when their stories culminate in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Winner of eight Oscars®, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting awards for Sinatra, in a career-defining role, and for Donna Reed, as a not-so-wholesome club hostess.

On the Waterfront (1954)
Best Actor in a Leading Role (Marlon Brando), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Eva Marie Saint), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, (Black-and-White), Best Director (Elia Kazan), Best Film Editing, Best Picture, Best Writing (Story and Screenplay)

Marlon Brando gives one of the screen's most electrifying performances as Best Actor in this 1954 Academy Award® winner for Best Film. Ex-fighter Terry Malloy (Brando) could have been a contender but now toils for boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) on the gang-ridden waterfront. Terry is guilt-stricken, however, when he lures a rebellious worker to his death. But it takes the love of Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint), the dead man's sister, to show Terry how low he has fallen. When his crooked brother Charley the Gent (Rod Steiger) is brutally murdered for refusing to kill him, Terry battles to crush Friendly's underworld empire. Directed by Elia Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire) and written by Budd Schulberg (What Makes Sammy Run?), this unforgettable drama about Terry's redemption is among the most acclaimed of all films.

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1958)
Best Actor in a Leading Role (Alec Guinness), Best Cinematography, Best Director (David Lean), Best Film Editing, Best Music-Scoring, Best Picture, Best Writing (Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium)

When British POWs build a vital railway bridge in enemy-occupied Burma, Allied commandos are assigned to destroy it in David Lean's epic World War II adventure, THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI. Spectacularly produced, The Bridge on the River Kwai captured the imagination of the public and won seven Academy Awards® in 1957, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Alec Guinness), and Best Director. Even its theme song, an old WWII whistling tune, "The Colonel Bogey March," became a massive hit. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI continues today as one of the most memorable cinematic experiences of all time.

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color, Best Director (David Lean), Best Film Editing, Best Musical Score (Substantially Original), Best Picture, Best Sound

Winner of seven Academy Awards®, including Best Picture (1962), this is the restored director's cut of the breathtaking masterpiece. David Lean's splendid biography of the enigmatic T. E. Lawrence paints a complex portrait of the desert-loving Englishman who united Arab tribes in a battle against the Ottoman Turks during World War I.

A Man for All Seasons (1966)
Best Actor in a Leading Role (Paul Scofield), Best Cinematography, Color, Best Director (Fred Zinnemann), Best Picture, Best Writing (Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium)

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS is a dramatic depiction of the conflict between Henry VIII and Sir Thomas More. Winner of six Oscars®, including Best Picture (1966), Best Director (Fred Zinnemann), and Best Actor (Paul Scofield), it's an adaptation of Robert Bolt's play about Sir Thomas More, a Catholic statesman in England who rebelled against Henry VIII's self-proclaimed status as the head of the Church of England and paid for his religious beliefs by having his head exhibited on London Bridge.

Oliver! (1968)
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Director (Carol Reed), Best Musical Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation), Best Picture, Best Sound

Experience the high-spirited adventures of Oliver Twist in this Oscar®-winning musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic tale! Young Oliver (Mark Lester) is an orphan who escapes the cheerless life of the workhouse and takes to the streets of 19th-Century London. He's immediately taken in by a band of street urchins, headed by the lovable villain, Fagin (Ron Moody), his fiendish henchman, Bill Sikes (Oliver Reed), and his loyal apprentice, The Artful Dodger (Jack Wild). Through his education in the fine points of pick-pocketing, Oliver makes away with an unexpected treasure... a home and a family of his own. Set to a heartfelt score that includes such favorites as "Consider Yourself," "Where Is Love?" and "As Long As He Needs Me," OLIVER! leads us on a journey in search of love, belonging and honor among thieves. Winner of six Academy Awards® (1968), including Best Picture and Best Score, OLIVER! will steal your heart!

Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Best Actor in a Leading Role (Dustin Hoffman), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Meryl Streep), Best Director (Robert Benton), Best Picture, Best Writing (Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium)

Winner of five Academy Awards®, KRAMER VS. KRAMER is a ground-breaking drama about the heartbreak of divorce and the struggle between work and family. Young husband and father, Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman), loves his family – and his job, which is where he spends most of his time. When he returns home late one evening from work, his wife, Joanna (Meryl Streep), confronts him and then leaves him, forcing Ted to become the sole caregiver to their six-year-old son. Now, Ted must learn to be a father while balancing the demands of his high-pressure career. But just as Ted adapts to his new role and begins to feel like a fulfilled parent, Joanna returns and now wants her son back.

Gandhi (1982)
Best Actor in a Leading Role (Ben Kingsley), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director (Richard Attenborough), Best Film Editing, Best Picture

Ben Kingsley stars as Mahatma Gandhi, who rose from small-time lawyer to India's spiritual leader by using his philosophy of non-violent but direct-action protest that helped end British rule in India. His triumph changed the world forever. Sir Richard Attenborough's sweeping biography of Gandhi earned eight Academy Awards®, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor.