Sabrina, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Funny Face combine to make the Audrey Hepburn Blu-ray Collection a must-have for fans of classic films and Audrey Hepburn. Along with plenty of bonus features, this new collection has all the charm of the actress herself.

 

In Sabrina, Hepburn stars alongside Humphrey Bogart and William Holden. How’s that for a great cast? The 1954 film is considered a classic and was remade in 1995 with Julia Ormond, Harrison Ford, and Greg Kinnear. As far as remakes go, this is pretty good but it can’t compare with the original.

 

Hepburn stars as a chauffer’s daughter in love with the younger brother of the rich Larrabee family for whom her father works. She is obsessed with playboy David (Holden) but ends up with his older and more professional brother Linus (Bogart). This is a charming and fun movie from legendary filmmaker Billy Wilder.
The bonus features include a look at the story, a featurette on William Holden, a featurette on Hepburn’s fashion status, a featurette with Hepburn, and plenty more. Sabrina won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

 

In the 1961 movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Hepburn plays the iconic Holly Golightly, an enchanting young woman looking for a rich man. She ends up with a not-so-rich one, played by George Peppard. Hepburn’s fashionable style made Golightly one of the most memorable and referred to when people discuss film characters. She was even given a nod in the 2002 movie Anything but Love. Her iconic black dress with high hairstyle, hat, and sunglasses has been copied many times, but no one could pull it off like Audrey Hepburn.

 

Breakfast at Tiffany’s won two Academy Awards: one for Best Original Song and one for Best Music Score. “Moon River,” from Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer, is probably most associated with Andy Williams, however it was Audrey Hepburn, ala Holly Golightly, who debuted it in this movie.

 

Bonus features include a “making of” feature, a look at composer Henry Mancini, and many more features about the film.

 

The final disc in this collection is the 1957 film Funny Face. This musical brought French high fashion and designer Herbert de Givenchy to American theaters. Although Ms. Hepburn wore several Givenchy creations in Sabrina, it was her Paris wardrobe in Funny Face that captured the attention of American women.

 

Hepburn plays a mild-mannered Greenwich Village bookshop employee who is plucked from the store to become the face of a high-fashion magazine. Legendary entertainer Kay Thompson plays the magazine’s editor, and Fred Astaire plays the photographer. This movie is filled with musical numbers and plenty of dancing as well. The highlights of this film are the scenery in Paris and of course, the amazing Givenchy creations. They are just as fabulous today as they were in 1957.

 

Bonus features include a look at Givenchy and his association with Audrey Hepburn, who thought of him as a brother. Their relationship lasted the rest of their lives. There is another feature about the Paris locations in which the film was shot. And there is a great feature about Kay Thompson who was an important part of the Warner Bros. music department, Andy Williams’ and his brothers’ careers, and music in general.

 

There is no doubt the bonus features on these discs are just as interesting and entertaining as the movies. The three-disc collection is packed full of great movie memories, information, and wonderful entertainment. And with the Blu-ray versions, the films look amazing.

 

About the Author

Francine Brokaw has been covering all aspects of the entertainment business for 20 years. She also writes about technology and has been a travel writer for the past 12 years. She has been published in national and international newspapers and magazines as well as internet websites. She has written her own book, Beyond the Red Carpet The World of Entertainment Journalists, from Sourced Media Books.

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Scott Eastwood and Cheryl Ladd star in this movie inspired by a true story. At the heart of The Perfect Wave is the belief in God.

 

When he was a young boy, Ian did not believe in God. He stopped going to church with his family. Instead he felt closer to the ocean and the perfect wave than he did to anything religious. His spirituality was being one with the wave. He felt free and alive when he was surfing.

 

His mother, however, had a different belief. She had experienced God in her own way and truly believed in a higher power. She had a deep connection to a higher power.

 

When Ian decided to take off on the trip of a lifetime, that is exactly what he got, literally. His plan was to surf, party, and enjoy the planet with great waves and interesting people. He was free and young, and thought this would be the best way to honor his freedom before settling down.

 

The scenery in the film is beautiful. It was shot in Indonesia, South Africa, and Mauritius. It’s not a surfing movie in the true sense of the word. If you are looking for a surfing movie, this isn’t it. This is a movie about one surfer who finds a different path in life. He catches the perfect wave of spirituality.

 

How does he do this? After an accident, Ian is pronounced dead. Thousands of miles away his mother feels there is something wrong with her son and begins praying for him. But Ian, who formerly didn’t feel any connection to God, has an interesting experience. He hears God for the first time. And he sees what is waiting for him if he were to die. Does he want to die?

 

Ian decides to return to life and tell his experience to anyone who will listen. The real Ian is now a Christian Evangelist. His experience with death is part of his story of life.

 

If you don’t want a spiritual story, don’t watch this movie. It’s definitely geared for those who are open to Ian McCormack’s story. If you are interested in watching the story of this young surfer whose life was changed by one experience, then this is for you. Note: it’s a Christian story.

 

The Perfect Wave is not rated.

 

About the Author

Francine Brokaw has been covering all aspects of the entertainment business for 20 years. She also writes about technology and has been a travel writer for the past 12 years. She has been published in national and international newspapers and magazines as well as internet websites. She has written her own book, Beyond the Red Carpet The World of Entertainment Journalists, from Sourced Media Books.

Follow her on Twitter

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This 1965 movie is finally available on Blu-ray, and that makes all the difference for fans of the Blake Edwards comedy. The Great Race is a fun romp across three continents as automobile drivers travel from New York to Paris.

 

Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Jack Lemmon, Peter Falk and Keenan Wynn star in this slapstick film with an opening dedication to “Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy.” And, it’s not a stretch to imagine Laurel and Hardy as Professor Fate (Lemmon) and his sidekick Maximilian Meen (Falk).

 

The time is the beginning of the 20^th century. The world is changing. Women are seeking equality and technology is allowing people to get off their horses and into automobiles. The Great Leslie (Curtis) is a daredevil, in the same manner as Houdini but without trickery. He wants to prove American automobiles are the best, so he proposes a race and insists he drives the American car with his mechanic Hezekiah (Wynn) at his side. Leslie’s foe, Professor Fate, intends to use all his cunning and wicked treachery to prove he is the greatest and builds his own car to suit his needs.

 

In the meantime, Maggie Dubois (Wood) is a suffragette set on proving a woman reporter can cover the race as well as a man can. She manages to enter her own car in the race and sets out alongside the men to, as we would say today, embed herself in the race. Maggie not only intends on covering the race for the local newspaper, but she also says she will win the race. After all, the only way to cover the winner is to be the first one through the finish line. Isn’t it?

 

The actual race doesn’t start until at least a quarter through the film. The beginning sets the stage for the various characters: feisty Maggie Dubois, charming Leslie, loyal Hezekiah, scheming Professor Fate, and bumbling Maximilian Meen.

 

The movie is filled with music and satire, slapstick comedy, some romance, and a lot of laughs. With a score by Henry Mancini, the songs and background music are memorable, to say the least. “The Sweetheart Tree” was nominated for an Oscar for the best original song in 1966. The movie won an Academy Award for Best Effects, Sound Effects.

 

Throughout the movie other characters make appearances, including Denver Pyle as a Sheriff, Dorothy Provine as Lily Olay (a singer in a rough and tumble western town who sings the fun song “He Shouldn’t-A, Oughtn’t-A Swang On Me”), Larry Storch as Texas Jack, Arthur O’Connell as the publisher of the newspaper and Vivian Vance as his wife who is a suffragette and looking to advance the cause along with Maggie Dubois.

 

Ross Martin plays a Baron who notices the uncanny resemblance between Crown Prince Frederick Hoepnick and Professor Fate. Wanting to take over, he manages to kidnap the prince and replace him with Fate. That lasts until Leslie rescues the prince and the race continues.

 

Traveling from New York to the Wild West then on to the cold of Alaska then to the Kingdom of Carpania (where Dubois uses her skill in the Russian language), and then through the countryside to Paris, the gang endures one adventure after another – in the same vane as the classic 1956 film Around the World in Eighty Days, with the additional fun and flair only Blake Edwards could add.

 

The bonus feature is a look behind the scenes of the film.

 

The Great Race Blu-ray edition is part of the Warner Archive Collection and can be ordered from their website at www.wbshop.com.

 

About the Author

Francine Brokaw has been covering all aspects of the entertainment business for 20 years. She also writes about technology and has been a travel writer for the past 12 years. She has been published in national and international newspapers and magazines as well as internet websites. She has written her own book, Beyond the Red Carpet The World of Entertainment Journalists, from Sourced Media Books.

Follow her on Twitter

Like her on Facebook