Comedians, politicians and rock stars all graced The Dick Cavett
Show stage, but the audience favorites were often the movie
stars. And when the guests were greats like Fred Astaire, Bette
Davis, Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum and Orson Welles, Cavett
often devoted the full 90 minutes to them. In the case of
Katharine Hepburn, the interview went so well that it required
two full 90 minute shows.
This 4-DVD set contains 12 episodes featuring:
Katharine Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Bette Davis, Groucho Marx,
Debbie Reynolds, Kirk Douglas, Alfred Hitchcock, Marlon Brando,
Mel Brooks, Frank Capra, Robert Altman, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert
Mitchum, John Huston and Orson Welles.
Also contains a new Cavett interview conducted by Turner Classic
Movies host Robert Osborne.
Additional bonus material includes:
Outtakes featuring Katharine Hepburn
New episode introductions by Dick Cavett
Original promos for The Dick Cavett Show
.com
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In an era that makes celebrities out of talent-free narcissists
like Paris Hilton, it's nice to be reminded of a time when stars
were bigger-than-life characters who were famous and beloved
because they had actually accomplished something, and whose
off-screen shenanigans were the stuff of legend rather than some
glib report on Entertainment Tonight. The reminder comes in the
form of Hollywood Greats, the latest offering from the vaults of
Dick Cavett's 1970s TV talk show. This is a really impressive
lineup: Katharine Hepburn, Marlon Brando, Fred Astaire, Robert
Mitchum, Orson Welles, Groucho Marx, Kirk Douglas, Bette Davis,
and others. And if some of them prove less than scintillating, on
balance there's still more than enough on these four discs to
satisfy even the most ardent star-gazers.
Of principal interest to many will be Cavett's interviews with
people like Hepburn and Brando, who rarely ventured into TV land.
The notoriously press-shy Hepburn, 66 at the time (1973), is seen
checking out the studio and making picky remarks about the rug
and furniture before agreeing to do the do right then and there,
with no audience; she ends up holding forth for two entire shows
(plus bonus material), revealing herself to be witty and
sophisticated, as well outspoken, practical, and entirely in
charge ("You keep interrupting," she chastens Cavett, "Just shut
up..."). Brando, a year removed from The Godher and Last Tango
in Paris, agreed to appear only if he could discuss the plight of
American Indians (several of whom are also on hand). Cavett, a
sharp, self-effacing, well-prepared host, went along, little
suspecting that the whole interview would be an exercise in
teeth-pulling, with Brando refusing to discuss his career at all;
his dismissal of his stage and screen work as "irrelevant" is
laughably disingenuous, considering that were it not for his
acting, he wouldn't have been invited on the show in the first
place. On the other hand, Davis is grand, saucy, full of stories
about Hollywood's Golden Age--everything one wants in a movie
star. Astaire is charming, showing that even at age 71 he was a
great dancer and good singer. Welles, the man who married Rita
Hayworth, had dinner with the pre-Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, and made
Citizen Kane, is worldly, erudite, expansive (in every
sense--he's twice Cavett's size), and probably the most
entertaining of the lot. And Hitchcock is marvelous, showing off
his dry, peculiar wit and revealing several tricks of the trade
(it took 78 edits to make the 45-second shower scene in Psycho).
Bonus material includes several Cavett show promos and a new
featurette with him and film historian Robert Osbourne. Scattered
throughout the various interviews are clips from some great
films, including Night of the Hunter, The Birds, Holiday Inn, a
variety of Douglas' movies, and even an obscure Bette Davis item
called Watch on the Rhine. --Sam Graham