Round Table DVD & Video

"What this country needs is a good five-cent nickel." — Franklin P. Adams

Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (DVD)
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (VHS)

1994, Fineline Films
Director: Alan Rudolph
Run Time: 124 minutes

Kind of a hoot, and not wholly accurate, but it does have Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dorothy and she gives a fine performace; I think her portrayal of Dottie is too brooding. The best parts are Leigh reading Parker's verse. Movie glosses over 30 years of Parker's life. Campbell Scott is OK as Robert Benchley. Loads of star cameos: Matthew Broderick plays jerky boyfriend Charlie MacArthur, Andrew McCarthy is Eddie Parker, Campbell Scott is Robert Benchley and Peter Gallagher is Alan Campbell. Watch for fleeting turns by Gwyneth Paltrow, Heather Graham and Jon Favreau (as Elmer Rice!). The DVD edition, released in 2006, has bonus material, including a documentary "The Infamous Dorothy Parker" this is of interest to all fans.

DVD Edition:
The Paramount Comedy Shorts 1928-1942: Robert Benchley and the Knights of the Algonquin
1928-1942, Kino Video. 136 minutes. Black and White.

VHS Edition:
Robert Benchley and the Knights of the Algonquin
1928-1941, Kino Video. 86 minutes. Black and White.

Make it a Round Table Night! This incredible collection captures on film three of the key members of the Algonquin Round Table: Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott and Donald Ogden Stewart. This is a compilation of short films, each one under 10 minutes in length. Benchley's famous "The Treasurer's Report" (1928) and Woollcott's "Mr. W's Little Game" (1934) are true comedic gems that haven't lost anything in seven decades. Included are Benchley's Paramount and Fox Movietone shorts. (The DVD has 14 films). A true fan of the Round Tablers will want to have this one. The Knights of the Algonquin includes:

"The Treasurer's Report" (1928) -- Robert Benchley
"Nothing But Nerves" (1942) -- Robert Benchley
"How to Take a Vacation" (1941) -- Robert Benchley
"The Witness" (1941) -- Robert Benchley
"The Trouble With Husbands" (1940) -- Robert Benchley
"The Man's Angle" (1942) -- Robert Benchley
"The Sex Life of a Polyp" (1928) -- Robert Benchley
"Crime Control" -- Robert Benchley
"Traffic Regulations" (1929) -- Donald Ogden Stewart
"Humorous Flights" (1929) -- Donald Ogden Stewart
"Mr. W's Little Game" (1934) -- Alexander Woollcott

Women & Men: Stories of Seduction (DVD)
Women & Men: Stories of Seduction (VHS)

1990, produced by Home Box Office (HBO), Runtime: 90 minutes

A short-film anthology that brings to life three famous short stories:
Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants"
Mary McCarthy's "The Man in the Brooks Brothers Suit"
Dorothy Parker's "Dusk Before Fireworks"

All-star writing, acting and directing! Three classic American short stories come to the small screen, each focused on a man and a woman. The screenwriters (Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne) marvelously transfer the words of Parker, Hemingway and McCarthy to the screen. In "The Man in a Brooks Brothers Suit" (starring Elizabeth McGovern and Beau Bridges) a businessman plies a young woman with liquor aboard a train. In "Dusk Before Fireworks" (Molly Ringwald and Peter Weller) a youthful flapper arrives at her boyfriend's classy flat intent on an evening of passion. A constantly ringing telephone interrupts each embrace. In "Hills Like White Elephants" (Melanie Griffith and James Woods) a couple traveling in Spain discuss their situation: he wants things to stay as they are, she sees that notion as a fiction. Also look for small supporting parts by Ray Liotta, Andie MacDowell and Kyra Sedgwick. These are three excellent adaptations. "Dusk Before Fireworks" was directed by Ken Russell ("Tommy"); the other two stories were directed by Tony Richardson ("Tom Jones") and Frederic Raphael.