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Guys and Dolls (1955)

“Guys and Dolls” is a film at odds with itself. Most of the footage is a pleasant distraction when it should be an invigorating entertainment, and the peak moments are strangely few and far between. At two-and-a-half hours, it constantly runs the risk of wearing out its welcome. And by the closing credits, it leaves the viewer serenely amused rather than knocked out by the greatness it should have achieved.
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The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) [Fantasia 2025]

When Jack Skellington, King of Halloween Town, discovers the existence of Christmas he embraces it as a breath of fresh air and attempts to make it his own. This spells uncertainty for the monstrous citizens who idolize Jack, and for Santa Claus… Who’s holiday is about to look very different than usual.

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The Bootleg Files: The Lambeth Walk

BOOTLEG FILES 913: “The Lambeth Walk” (1939 British feature starring Lupino Lane).

LAST SEEN:
On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It fell through the proverbial cracks.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.

Comedies that thrust earthy working-class characters into snooty high society settings might be among the most predictable pieces of entertainment, but they often produce the best results. Chaplin plumbed this concept as a disguised convict mixing with the wealthy in his 1917 classic “The Adventurer,” George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion” and its musical successor “My Fair Lady” uneasily turned a Cockney flower seller into a lady, Abbott and Costello were crass plumbers mistaken for well-heeled guests at a Long Island estate with “In Society,” and the Three Stooges often ran amok through the mansions of the hoity-toity, leaving the residue of pie fights along the way.
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