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Video
The
best in new DVD box sets—you can spend a little, or you can
spend a whole lot
Let’s get right to it: The cream of the DVD crop this season
is Preston Sturges: The Filmmaker Collection
(Universal). Sturges was the comic genius of American cinema
in the ’40s; this set includes all but one of the films he
made for Paramount. The standouts of the set are The Palm
Beach Story—which, in the sexy and smart Claudette Colbert
and Joel McCrea, features the perfect screwball comedy couple—and
a sly satire on virtue and pride, The Lady Eve. Almost
as good are the deft political comedy of The Great McGinty
and the dark wartime satire of Hail the Conquering Hero.
And Sullivan’s Travels, which is not exactly chopped
liver, is included too. The extras are slim to none, but each
film gets its own disc and the transfers look beautiful.
Seven
Samurai (Criterion) is a three-disc, one-film box
set. Akira Kurosawa’s classic has been given the ultra-deluxe
treatment. In addition to a new-and-improved image for the
film itself, there are improved subtitle translations, two
commentaries, two documentaries, a two-hour interview with
the director, trailers, posters, stills and, of course, a
fancy booklet. You can settle in with Toshiro Mifune and company
for days.
Before he came to Hollywood and made sophisticated comedies
like Trouble in Paradise, Ernst Lubitsch was Germany’s
leading director of the silent era, making boisterous comedies
and lavish historical pics. Lubitsch in Berlin
(Kino) marks the first authorized release of any of the features
from this period. Kino offers this as a set, or you can buy
the DVDs individually—a practice that’s getting rarer. Of
this four-film collection, the raucous, anti-militarist slapstick
satire The Wildcat, starring a deliciously feral Pola
Negri, and The Oyster Princess, a droll slap at American
wealth, are essential.
 With
literally dozens of TV series being dumped on the DVD market
monthly, it can be hard to find the first-class boxes. Here
are four. SCTV: The Best of the Early Years
(Shout Factory) gathers a dozen half-hour episodes from the
gang’s second and third seasons on Canadian television networks,
before the move to NBC. These hosers were funny right from
the start; many of their memorable characters are on hand,
including Andrea Martin’s brassy Edith Prickley, Eugene Levy’s
oily Bobby Bittman and Joe Flaherty’s lame horror-movie host
Count Floyd. The election episode, with John Candy’s slimeball
Johnny LaRue running for city council against a brainless
actress (Catherine O’Hara) and a right-wing loony (Dave Thomas),
is worth the price of the whole three-disc set.
The
Bob Newhart Show: The Complete Fourth Season (Fox)
is that seminal ’70s series at its off-kilter peak. Plus,
you can revisit the legendary “Hi, Bob” drinking game. The
West Wing: The Complete Seventh Season (Warner Home
Video) got short shrift from viewers (middling ratings) and
the network (no big send-off from NBC), but the White House
ensemble drama delivered, week after week, engaging multiple
storylines featuring a huge, almost embarrassingly talented
cast. Finally, revel in the Cold War-era paranoia and clever
plot gimmicks offered by Mission: Impossible: The Complete
First TV Season (Paramount). Way better than any of
the Tom Cruise films, these hourlong episodes are slick entertainment.
Martin Landau dominates, but also look for a young Steven
Hill, Law & Order’s original crusty old D.A., who
starred for just this season; he quit and was replaced by
Peter Graves. (This message will self-destruct in five seconds.
Good luck.)
The vicissitudes of corporate ownership can make for unsatisfying
box sets. Fox’s Clark Gable collection is lackluster, for
example, because the star worked only occasionally for that
studio. Late-capitalist synergy hums along perfectly for The
Marlon Brando Collection (Warner Home Video), however.
Brando left behind an eccentric filmography and, thanks to
the vast Warner Bros./Turner Entertainment holdings, his career
is well represented: the young hotshot bluffing his way through
iambic pentameter in Julius Caesar; the ham, chewing
scenery, as an Okinawan translator in The Teahouse of the
August Moon; the megalomaniac star delivering an excruciating
performance in Mutiny on the Bounty; the riveting,
aging method-acting lion as repressed gay Army officer, with
Elizabeth Taylor as his slutty wife, in John Huston’s feverish,
gold-tinted version of Carson McCullers’ Reflections in
a Golden Eye; and the wily old bastard cashing a paycheck—and
looking eerily like Dick Cheney—as an evil oil exec in The
Formula. Of course, the best of the set, Reflections
and Teahouse, are not available separately.
You may know her as a Marilyn Monroe wannabe (or Mariska Hargitay’s
mom), but Jayne Mansfield was a talented performer who made
two essential ’50s films with director Frank Tashlin: Will
Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and The Girl Can’t Help
It. Both are included, along with an OK western comedy
directed by Raoul Walsh, in The Jayne Mansfield Collection
(Fox). Rock Hunter is wicked satire on corporate
climbing, with Tony Randall, Joan Blondell and scene-stealing
character actor Henry Jones. Sample dialogue: “Did she tell
you I was on my fourth martini? Bet she didn’t mention that
I eat the olives—that’s where the nourishment is.” Girl
is a rock & roll musical with electrifying performances
by the likes of Little Richard, Gene Vincent and Abbey Lincoln.
Nice video transfer, too: The widescreen image is crisp, and
the colors are appropriately garish.
Finally, something for that special cinephile in your life—provided,
that is, they’re someone worth spending between $650 and $800
on (depending on where you buy it). 50 Years of Janus
Films (Criterion) collects 50 films in one handsome
(and heavy) package, in celebration of the pioneering art-house
distributor. Rashomon, Rules of the Game, Pandora’s
Box, Spirit of the Beehive, Wild Strawberries,
Knife in the Water, Floating Weeds, The Lady
Vanishes. . . . This is an instant library of great cinema.
—Shawn
Stone
sstone@metroland.net
2006
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