James Stewart: The Signature Collection includes six movies starring the American icon from the 1950s and 1960s: The FBI Story, The Naked Spur, The Spirit of St. Louis, The Stratton Story, and a double-feature DVD of The Cheyenne Social Club and Fire Creek (the last two debuting for the first time on Wide screen DVD)
The FBI Story (1959)
In this salute to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Jimmy Stewart portrays one of J. Edgar Hoover’s finest man, and Vera Miles co-star as his steadfast wife.
The colorful career of Agent Chip Hardesty (Stewart) spans over three decades, from 1924 to the late 1950s. Based on two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Don Whitehead’s bestseller, and tautly directed by craftsman Mervyn LeRoy, the film describes how, along the way, he tangles with everything from the Ku Klux Klan to a bomber that commits mass murder for the insurance money.
Hardesty’s fiercest exploits come in the 1930s when he stares down a gun barrel at Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, Machine Gun Kelly, Ma Barker, and John Dillinger.
DVD special features
Theatrical trailer
The Naked Spur (1953)
In the third of his five landmark Anthony Mann-directed Westerns, Jimmy Stewart stars as the relentless leader of bounty hunters, caught in the snare of the hunted baddie (Robert Ryan).
Tough, tense, and well-shot against the beautiful Colorado Rockies setting, “The Naked Spur” features Stewart in one of his most relentlessly intense performances.
“Plain arithmetic: Money splits better two ways instead of three,” smooth-talking outlaw Ben Vandergroat reasons to his captors, three bounty hunters thrown together by chance. They are taking Ben to justice in Abilene, but he has his own agenda with its own set of rules. If he can set the men against each otherplay on their greed, their fears, and their vanitiesBen may be able to make his break to freedom.
DVD special features
Vintage short, “Things We Can Do Without”;
Theatrical trailer;
Classic cartoon, “Little Johnny Jet”;
The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)
On May 21, 1927, the world changed: “Lucky Lind” (Jimmy Stewart) landed safely outside Paris. People who previously talked about the limitations of air travel suddenly dreamed of its limitless possibilities.
“The Spirit of St. Louis” is six-time Oscar-winner Billy Wilder’s recreation of the struggles and success of Charles A. Lindbergh, the pioneering flyboy who, like test pilots and astronauts to follow him later, had the “right stuff” of aviation heroism.
Lindberg fan Stewart, himself a pilot with a WWII track record, sought the role but was initially turned down. Nonetheless, his persistence paid off, as He was able to add Lindy to his gallery of indelible portrayals of American heroes. Stewart and Wilder together manned the cockpit of a stirring and exciting epic entertainment.
DVD special features
New digital transfer from restored picture and audio elements;
Soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1;
Vintage Joe McDoakes comedy short, “So Your Wife Wants to Work”;
Theatrical trailer;
Classic cartoon, “Tobasco Road”;