Home Video & DVD
[DVD] [VHS]	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; however, 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!). Roger Ebert said in his 1995 review, "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle is the kind of movie best appreciated, I think, by those who already know the players around the Round Table, and have read some of their work. Others are likely to wonder what the fuss was about."
[DVD] [VHS]	Big Blonde (DVD) Big Blonde (VHS) Broadway Theatre Archive, 1972 Kultur Video Director: Kirk Browning Run Time: 90 minutes First broadcast on PBS television as part of its "Great Performances" in 1972. Sally Kellerman stars in Dorothy Parker's 1929 O. Henry Prize-winning short story which poignantly chronicles the life of a vivacious showroom model and good-time party girl in the 1920s who gives up her high-life for marriage to a traveling salesman (John Lithgow). When he turns out to be a hard-drinking philanderer, the marriage deteriorates; and the now-blowsy and dissolute aging flapper turns to drinking for solace, moving from man to man as she sinks into an alcoholic haze and a deep funk. "Big Blonde" also stars Anita Morris, Peg Murray, George Coe and Rosetta Lenoire.
[DVD] [VHS]	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.
[DVD] [VHS]	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 five extra films). A true fan of the Round Tablers will want to have this one. The Knights of the Algonquin includes: The Trouble With Husbands (1940, w/ Robert Benchley) Crime Control (1941, w/ Robert Benchley) The Witness (1942, w/ Robert Benchley) The Man's Angle (1942, w/ Robert Benchley) The Treasurer's Report (1928, w/ Robert Benchley - Fox Movietone) The Sex Life of a Polyp (1928, w/ Robert Benchley - Fox Movietone) Mr. W.'s Little Game (1934, w/ Alexander Woollcott and Leo G. Carroll) Humorous Flights (1929, w/ Donald Ogden Stewart) Traffic Regulations (1929, w/ Donald Ogden Stewart) DVD Only: The Forgotten Man (1941, w/ Robert Benchley) How to Take a Vacation (1941, w/ Robert Benchley) Nothing But Nerves (1941, w/ Robert Benchley) Keeping in Shape (1941 w/ Robert Benchley) Waiting For Baby (1941, w/ Robert Benchley)
[DVD] [VHS]	A Star is Born (DVD Edition) A Star is Born (VHS Edition) 1937, Collectors Edition. Dorothy Parker teamed up on the dialogue for this Hollywood classic. A young woman rises to stardom while her husband sinks into depression in this William Wellman Technicolor classic. It's a Cinderella story of a fresh-faced farm girl, the improbably named Esther Blodgett (they have a lot of fun with that one) who transforms into screen icon Vicki Lester when she comes to the attention of matinee idol Norman Maine (Fredric March). But when the deliriously happy couple marries, Vicki's rise to the top is counterbalanced by Norman's fall from grace, a precipitous plummet from stardom to alcoholism and bitterness. This poignant story resulted in three film remakes. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay (by Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell). DVD: Technicolor Remaster Edition, from Original 35mm Nitrate
[DVD] [VHS]	DVD Edition: Smashup: The Story of a Woman VHS Edition: Smashup: The Story of a Woman (Unrated VHS) 1947, Universal International Pictures, Runtime: 103 min Dorothy Parker was nominated for an Academy Award in 1948 for writing the screenplay for Smashup. She didn't win the Oscar that night, but we do have this classic movie starring Susan Hayward. The plot: Angie Evans, fast-rising nightclub singer, interrupts her career to marry struggling songwriter Ken Conway. When Ken lucks into a career as chart-topping radio crooner, Angie is forced into idle luxury which proves her downfall. Her potential alcoholism burgeons and Ken remains clueless concerning his responsibility for her problems. Stars: Susan Hayward, Lee Bowman, Marsha Hunt, Eddie Albert, Carl Esmond. As one reviewer said, "This is probably the most important movie of Susan Hayward's career."
[DVD] [VHS]	DVD Edition: Saboteur VHS Edition: Saboteur 1942, Collectors Edition, Runtime: 108 min Director: Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock and Dorothy Parker together! Dottie kicked in the dialogue for the circus performers, and has an on-screen cameo (sitting with Hitch in a car). A forerunner to North by Northwest and The Fugitive, the classic Saboteur is the story of a man falsely accused of espionage who is forced to find the true leader of a spy ring. Well-known for its famous climactic clash on the Statue of Liberty, the film carries themes later explored deeply in other Hitchcock films. The loner hero escapes and races across famous sites searching for proof of his innocence. A classic. Stars: Priscilla Lane, Robert Cummings, Otto Kruger, Alan Baxter, Clem Bevans. DVD: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Full Screen, NTSC, Production notes, Theatrical trailer(s), Saboteur: A Closer Look, Storyboards, Alfred Hitchcock's Sketches, Production Photographs, Full-screen format.
	Suzy VHS, 1936, Runtime: 93 min This World War I romantic drama was co-written by Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell, and is one of their first screen credits for MGM. It was directed by George Fitzmaurice and stars Jean Harlow, Franchot Tone and Cary Grant. It concerns American showgirl Suzy in London in 1914. She loves Irish inventor Terry who works for an engineering firm owned by a German woman. After their marriage Terry is murdered and Suzy flees to Paris where she meets flyer Andre as war is breaking out. "Suzy" is unique in being one of Cary Grant's rare forays into working for the legendary studio, and his only teaming with MGM leading lady Jean Harlow. Trivia: The flying scenes for this movie were not shot by MGM. They were outtakes from "Hell's Angels" (1930) filmed by Howard Hughes.
[DVD] [VHS]	DVD Edition: The Cowboy and the Lady VHS Edition: The Cowboy and the Lady MGM, 1938, Runtime: 91 min This drama produced by Samuel Goldwyn and starring Gary Cooper and Merle Oberon had an uncredited script by Dorothy Parker and Anita Loos (four others, including Leo McCarey, got credit). The story is a silly one for the Depression: Poor Mary Smith (Oberon) can't go night-clubbing or have any other fun because any hint of scandal could damage her father's political career. She decides to rebel and convinces her two maids to let her go along with them on a blind date with some rodeo performers. She tells her date, 'Stretch' Willoughby (Cooper), that she's a parlor maid and that she left home because her father beat her. The two fall in love and elope. Now Mary has a double dilemma: continuing her charade with Stretch and keeping her marriage a secret from her father.
	Hands Across the Table VHS, 1935, Runtime: 80 min A Paramount Pictures comedy-drama co-written by Dorothy Parker and starring Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Astrid Allwyn and Ruth Donnelly. Hotel manicurist Regi Allen (Lombard) is a cynical golddigger who meets her match in Theodore 'Ted' Drew III (MacMurray). After a date with Ted, she lets him sleep on her couch when he's too drunk to go further; but what is she to think when he wants to extend the arrangement? Classic depression era comedy/drama where true love wins out over possible higher financial stakes.
	Sweethearts VHS, 1938, Runtime: 114 min Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell co-wrote the screenplay for this classic MGM musical comedy starring Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger and Florence Rice. A musical comedy duo in their 6th year on Broadway receive an offer to perform in Hollywood making films. The change of lifestyle is inviting to the Sweethearts. Jeanette MacDonald thinks her sweetheart and husband (Nelso Eddy) is engaged in an affair with their personal assistant. The Sweethearts split up and carry on performing with their understudies as their co-stars. This was MGM's first Technicolor film.