A few hours ago, I finished watching THE ANDERSON TAPES (a somewhat-forgotten caper film from 1971 with Sidney Lumet directing, among others, Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, and a young Christopher Walken), which I rented from Netflix. I noticed that Sony has unearthed a lot of films of varying quality from its library (THE GARMENT JUNGLE, DOLLARS, NICKELODEON, THE NEW CENTURIONS, NIGHTWING, I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER) and given them the "Martini Movies" brand for midprice DVD sales. I watched a meant-to-be-cute "How to be a Leading Man" short with ANDERSON which seemed to do little more than showcase a few clips and a recipe for a certain kind of shaken martini.
Not being a Sony employee (I once remember speaking to Michael Schlesinger, someone responsible for prints of old Columbia movies sent to repertory screenings), I wonder why the hell the decision was made to classify, say, 1970's I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER (with fine performances by Melvyn Douglas and Gene Hackman), as camp to be laughed at instead of more deserving "Martini Movie" titles from the same period such as THE LOVE MACHINE (a Jackie Susann adaptation with John Phillip Law as a sexual-dynamo TV newscaster) and DOCTORS' WIVES [these films, as far as I know, aren't on the "Martini Movies" release schedule].
But they're "old movies" to the Sony video people and I guess that, with a lot of them not being "classics", they're going to sell them in the dumbest possible manner. Just thought potential DVD buyers/renters might want to know if you're not already aware of this "martini" marketing gimmick.
[UPDATE 2/4/09: The latest slate of old Columbia titles to get the "Martini Movies" treatment include Stephen Frears' GUMSHOE from 1971 with Albert Finney, Richard Rush's 1970 campus unrest comedy/drama GETTING STRAIGHT with Elliott Gould, Candice Bergen and a young Harrison Ford in a bit part--and Carol Reed's spy satire OUR MAN IN HAVANA from 1959 with Alec Guinness and Ernie Kovacs.]
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