Billy Wilder Collection - 4-DVD Box Set ( Double Indemnity / A Foreign Affair / Five Graves to Cairo / The Front Page ) ( 5 Graves to Cairo )

Billy Wilder Collection - 4-DVD Box Set (DVD) (*)

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Original Title: Double Indemnity / A Foreign Affair / Five Graves to Cairo / The Front Page
Alternate Title: 5 Graves to Cairo
Screened, competed or awarded at:
David Donatello Awards
Golden Globes
Oscar Academy Awards
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
Dutch ( Subtitles )
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
Netherlands ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
407 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Box Set
Interactive Menu
Multi-DVD Set
Scene Access
Black & White

Movie filmed in 1943 - 1974 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Billy Wilder

Written By:
Billy Wilder
Raymond Chandler
Charles Brackett
Ben Hecht
Charles MacArthur

Actors:
Fred MacMurray ..... Walter Neff
Barbara Stanwyck ..... Phyllis Dietrichson
Edward G. Robinson ..... Barton Keyes
Porter Hall ..... Mr. Jackson
Jean Heather ..... Lola Dietrichson
Tom Powers ..... Mr. Dietrichson
Byron Barr ..... Nino Zachetti
Richard Gaines ..... Edward S. Norton, Jr.
Fortunio Bonanova ..... Sam Garlopis
John Philliber ..... Joe Peters
Jean Arthur ..... Phoebe Frost
Marlene Dietrich ..... Erika Von Schluetow
John Lund ..... Captain John Pringle
Millard Mitchell ..... Col. Rufus J. Plummer
Peter von Zerneck ..... Hans Otto Birgel
Stanley Prager ..... Mike
William Murphy ..... Joe
Raymond Bond ..... Pennecot
Boyd Davis ..... Giffin
Robert Malcolm ..... Kramer
Charles Meredith ..... Yandell
Michael Raffetto ..... Salvatore
Damian O'Flynn ..... Lieutenant Colonel
Frank Fenton ..... Major Mathews
James Larmore ..... Lieutenant Hornby
Franchot Tone ..... Cpl. John J. Bramble / Paul Davos
Anne Baxter ..... Mouche
Akim Tamiroff ..... Farid
Erich von Stroheim ..... Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
Peter van Eyck ..... Lt. Schwegler
Fortunio Bonanova ..... Gen. Sebastiano
Jack Lemmon ..... Hildy Johnson
Walter Matthau ..... Walter Burns
Susan Sarandon ..... Peggy Grant
Vincent Gardenia ..... Sheriff
David Wayne ..... Bensinger
Allen Garfield ..... Kruger
Austin Pendleton ..... Earl Williams
Charles Durning ..... Murphy
Herb Edelman ..... Schwartz
Martin Gabel ..... Dr. Eggelhofer
Harold Gould ..... The Mayor
Cliff Osmond ..... Jacobi
Dick O'Neill ..... McHugh
Jon Korkes ..... Rudy Keppler
Lou Frizzell ..... Endicott

Synopsis:

Double Indemnity (1944)
Smooth talking insurance salesman Walter Neff meets attractive Phyllis Dietrichson when he calls to renew her husband's automobile policy. The couple are immediately drawn to each other and an affair begins. They cook up a scheme to murder Mr. Dietrichson for life insurance money with a double indemnity clause. Unfortunately, all does not go to plan...

A Foreign Affair (1948)
A congressional committee visits occupied Berlin to investigate G.I. morals. Congresswoman Phoebe Frost, appalled at widespread evidence of human frailty, hears rumors that cafe singer Erika, former mistress of a wanted war criminal, is 'protected' by an American officer, and enlists Captain John Pringle to help her find him...not knowing that Pringle is Erika's lover.

Five Graves to Cairo (1943)
World War II drama set in Egypt in June 1942. The story of how a British corporal, posing as Nazi spy discovers Rommel's secret of five ammunition dumps hidden on a route to Cairo.

The Front Page (1974)
Hildy Johnson is the top reporter on a Chicago newspaper during the 1920s. Tired of the whole game he's determined to quit his job to get married. His scheming editor, Walter Burns, has other plans though. It's the day before guilty (but insane) murderer, Earl Williams, is due to go to the gallows and Burns tempts Johnson to stay and write the story.

Double Indemnity (1944)
In 1938, Walter Neff, an experienced salesman of the Pacific All Risk Insurance Co., meets the seductive wife of one of his clients, Phyllis Dietrichson, and they have an affair. Phyllis proposes to kill her husband to receive the proceeds of an accident insurance policy and Walter devises a scheme to receive twice the amount based on a double indemnity clause. When Mr. Dietrichson is found dead on a train-track, the police accept the determination of accidental death. However, the insurance analyst and Walter's best friend Barton Keyes does not buy the story and suspects that Phyllis has murdered her husband with the help of another man.

A Foreign Affair (1948)
A US congressional committee is in Berlin following World War II to investigate rumors of low morale amongst the American troops patrolling the American quadrant of the city. One of those on the committee is Congresswoman Phoebe Frost, a Republican from Iowa who has a singular focus on work, especially when on a mission. Once in Berlin, she believes the committee's military liaison, Colonel Rufus J. Plummer, is providing them with a false report of the issue as she herself has witnessed firsthand what she considers the depravity occurring in the city, especially between American troops and German 'fraulein'. Specifically, she is concerned about an unofficial report of Erika von Schlütow, a singer at an underground cabaret, who was a high ranking Nazi during the war and whose record is being protected and expunged by a high ranking but unknown American military man. To find out who this military man is, Phoebe enlists the help of Captain John Pringle, a fellow Iowan who she met on her travels in Berlin and who she trusts because of his Iowa heritage. She is however unaware that John is Erika's lover and protector. John does whatever he needs to to keep this secret from Phoebe for the few days she's in town. His measures include pretending to have a romantic interest in her himself. Phoebe comes to her own incorrect conclusion of who is protecting Erika. Erika, on the other hand, has her own agenda which she demonstrates in an encounter with Phoebe. Meanwhile, John's secret from Phoebe may become compromised when Colonel Plummer, aware of John and Erika's relationship, asks John to perform a military task concerning hunting down Hans Otto Birgel, a missing member of the Gestapo who was a former companion of Erika's.

Five Graves to Cairo (1943)
In June 1942, the 8th British Army Corporal John J. Bramble is retreating from Rommel's Afrika Korps and has sunstroke, reaching a remote hotel in Sidi Halfaya. He is helped by the Egyptian owner, Farid, under the protest of the French chambermaid, Mouche, afraid with the imminent arrival of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and the Germans that are heading to Alexandria and Cairo. John assumes the identity of the deceased Alsatian lame waiter Paul Davos to survive, but he discovers other secrets.

The Front Page (1974)
This third film version of the 1928 Ben Hecht/Charlie MacArthur Broadway hit The Front Page was the first one permitted to utilize all the salty profanities in the original play. Director Billy Wilder cast his two favorite leading men, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, as ace reporter Hildy Johnson and ruthless newspaper editor Walter Burns, respectively. The plot of the Hecht/MacArthur play remains intact: Burns pulls every underhanded game in the book to prevent Johnson from leaving his Chicago paper to get married, and in so doing the two journalists uncover a cesspool of political corruption, centered around the planned execution of anarchist Earl Williams (Austin Pendleton). Carol Burnett has an extended cameo as Williams' tart girlfriend, Mollie Malloy. The Front Page was remade for a fourth time in 1988 as Switching Channels.

Double Indemnity (1944)
Insurance agent Walter Neff plots with attractive Phyllis Dietrichson to murder her husband. After the husband has been tricked into signing a double indemnity accident policy, they kill him to make it look like an accident. Insurance investigator Barton Keyes doesn't believe it was an accident and pursues the case, linking Phyllis with everyone but his friend, Walter. Neff, meanwhile, is told by Dietrichson's daughter from a previous marriage that she believes that Phyllis killed her mother in order to marry her father. Neff suspects Phyllis of a double cross and he believes she has abandoned him for the younger man.

A Foreign Affair (1948)
In a wrecked post-war Berlin, a congressional committee from the United States of America comes to the occupied city to investigate the moral of the American troops. The conservative republican Congresswoman Phoebe Frost from Iowa brings a birthday cake to Captain John Pringle from his girlfriend also from Iowa. Later she splits from the other congressmen and decides to investigate the decadence of the military on her own, and not in accordance with the official speech and visit promoted by Colonel Rufus J. Plummer. She meets two American privates that believe she is German. They take her to the night-club Lorelei, where the lead attraction is the singer Erika Von Schluetow, who is the secret mistress of Captain Pringle. Congresswoman Frost overhears that Erika belonged to the Nazi Party and is protected by a senior officer, and she enlists her fellow countryman Captain Pringle to help her in the investigation of Erika. The officer seduces Frost to protect Erika and himself from martial court, but the jealous former lover of Erika, the Nazi Hans Otto Birgel, is seeking revenge against his competitor.

Five Graves to Cairo (1943)
June, 1942. The British Army, retreating ahead of victorious Rommel, leaves a lone survivor on the Egyptian border--Corporal John Bramble, who finds refuge at a remote desert hotel...soon to be German HQ. To survive, Bramble assumes an identity which proves perilous. The new guest of honor is none other than Rommel, hinting of his secret strategy, code-named 'five graves.' And the fate of the British in Egypt depends on whether a humble corporal can penetrate the secret...

The Front Page (1974)
Chicago Examiner reporter Hildy Johnson has just quit his job in order to marry Peggy Grant and start a new career when, shortly prior to his scheduled execution, convicted revolutionary Earl Williams escapes from death row in the Cook County Jail and secretes himself in a rolltop desk in the Criminal Court Building press room. In reality, Earl is an impoverished, bumbling leftist with a penchant for stuffing fortune cookies with messages demanding the release of Sacco and Vanzetti, but the yellow press of Chicago has painted him as a dangerous threat from Moscow and as a result the city's citizens are anxious to see him put to death.

This product was added to our catalog on Sunday 21 October, 2012.