Cheap Great Escape-Movies Capture Our Hearts (Video) Price

Narrated by John Forsythe, this program is itself a great escape for film buffs. In the grandest movie palaces and the humblest traveling tent cinemas, the earliest movies had a uniquely transporting and transforming power. "It was three for a dime," rhapsodizes one New York City moviegoer. "It was worth three million."

From a silent-film accompanist in New York to a projectionist in Rome to moviegoers around the world, Great Escape is a valentine to the movies that had the power to "enthrall, entertain, and seduce." A Parisian man recalls that when he was 10, he couldn't sleep for two nights after seeing Miriam Hopkins on screen. An Italian woman states, "I learned how to kiss and hug at the movies." Adds an Indian woman, "If I had not gone to the cinema so often, I don't think I would have romance in my life. I would have been married off to the man of grandfather's choice."

Like other videos in this award-winning series, Great Escape is not simply a compilation of well-worn classic clips. Lesser-known films such as World War II-era documentaries illustrate film's effective use as propaganda.

Movies are more popular today than ever, yet as the interviews in this program illustrate, they have lost much of their innocence. Italy's Duilia Bartoli perhaps says it best: "Sometimes I don't remember what I did yesterday. But I remember these movie scenes. I will remember them forever." --Donald Liebenson