Ed Blank's reviews
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review film critic Ed Blank takes a look at a few recent popular and/or critically acclaimed films available on DVD:
Jerry Lewis collections
Jerry Lewis, now 79, tended to be at his funniest in movies when he played sweet, hapless, poorly motor-coordinated young men who seemed to have grown larger without abandoning the personality style of a hyper 9-year-old.
Lewis made his first 16 movies with crooner-straight man Dean Martin (1917-95), with whom he had teamed as a nightclub act in the mid-1940s. They were consistently among the top box-office stars from 1950-56 until, after about three years of much-chronicled feuding, they broke up.
Lewis maintained his momentum as the solo lead in most of his subsequent films until his popularity waned in the mid-1960s and had tanked by 1970. Martin survived a shaky start as a single and became one of the most durable TV and movie stars for 20-some years after the split.
Two new collections of Lewis' movies exemplify his middling-to-better work and, happily, include none of the terrible later pictures. All of the films are unrated but are G in nature.
"My Friend Irma" (1949; three stars) and "My Friend Irma Goes West" (1950; two and one-half stars) are packaged as a double feature on a single disc. They're the star-making vehicles the duo stole from prototypical dumb blonde Irma (Marie Wilson).
Jerry Lewis: The "Legendary Jerry" Collection consists of 10 movies on 10 discs packaged as five double features. Oddly, one - but only one - of the 16 films with Martin ("The Stooge") is included. Several of the 10 have Lewis-related featurettes, some have feature-long commentaries by Lewis and pal Steve Lawrence and some have commentaries only over selected scenes or none at all.
"The Family Jewels" (1965; two and one-half stars) is with "The Stooge" (1953; three stars), oddest of the 16 with Martin in that Martin victimizes Lewis throughout.
"The Delicate Delinquent" (1957; three stars) is paired with Lewis' most Chaplinesque hit, "The Bellboy" (1960; three stars).
"The Errand Boy" (1961; two and one-half stars) is with "The Nutty Professor" (1963; three stars). The latter, with Lewis in a semi-dual role, generally is considered his best post-Martin picture.
"The Patsy" (1964; two and one-half stars) is with "The Disorderly Orderly" (1957; two and one-half stars).
"Cinderfella" (1960; two and one-half stars) doubles up with "The Ladies Man" (1961; three stars).
"The Wages of Fear"
Unrated but PG-13 in nature; 1953
The new Criterion DVD restores Henri-Georges Clouzot's incredibly suspenseful, squalid thriller to 147 minutes from its long-circulated 131-minute and 105-minute cuts.
Four hungry men in two rigs, including Yves Montand and Charles Vanel (a part turned down by Jean Gabin as being too unheroic), try to drive a shipment of nitroglycerin through 300 miles of South American mountain backroads.
The double-disc DVD could use an expert commentary, but it does have a nearly hour-long candid documentary on Clouzot ("Diabolique"), a martinet who was banned from making movies in his native France for two years in the 1940s because of his perceived collaboration with the Third Reich.
"Lifeboat"
Unrated but PG in nature; 1944
Never packaged with other Alfred Hitchcock films because he made it as a one-shot deal with 20th Century Fox, "Lifeboat" earned the suspense maestro one of his five Oscar nominations for the ingenuity with which he filmed it in the most confining of sets.
As noted on historian Drew Casper's commentary, Hitchcock offered the screenplay job first to Ernest Hemingway and then to John Steinbeck; the latter's work was jettisoned although he retained a screen credit for the story he developed. The script was credited to its true author, Jo Swerling.
Talullah Bankhead, Hume Cronyn, William Bendix and native Pittsburgher John Hodiak are among the lifeboat passengers squabbling over the fate of ninth passenger Walter Slezak, a Nazi captain who sank their ship.
"The Mark of Zorro"
Unrated but G in nature; 1940
Anticipating the theatrical release Friday of "The Legend of Zorro," "The Mark of Zorro" turns up on DVD with an audio commentary by Richard Schickel.
Much more than Antonio Banderas in the new film, Tyrone Power acts the effeminacy (and all it implied to 1940s audiences) of 19th Century nobleman Don Diego de Vega in order to throw locals off the scent that he's also the virile, masked hero Zorro.
The film's strengths range from Linda Darnell's amusing distress at Diego's overly florid manners to Power's duels with Basil Rathbone, who was the savviest swordsman in all Hollywood.
"The Big Lebowski" (Collector's Edition)
Rated R; 1998
Jeff Bridges acts a confirmed loser who becomes involved in a kidnapping plot. His buddies include John Goodman as a loopy Vietnam vet, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ben Gazzara. Joel and Ethan Coen, who made the film, appear in the DVD's extra features discussing its production. Oddly, there's no commentary track.
"Titanic" Special Collector's Edition
PG-13; 1997
It will always be a spectacular epic with a silly script that casts aside hundreds of potentially interesting people to concentrate on Leonardo Di Caprio wooing Kate Winslet with a 1990s demeanor.
Special features on the new triple-disc DVD include 45 minutes of never-before-seen deleted scenes, an alternate ending, a 1912 newsreel, a Celine Dion music video and three separate audio commentary tracks - one by director James Cameron, one by historians Don Lynch and Ken Marchall (the most recommended of the lot) and one by cast and crew members such as Winslet and veteran actress Gloria Stuart.
"Herbie Rides Again"
G; 2005
Widowed former NASCAR champ Michael Keaton buys a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle for his college graduate daughter Lindsay Lohan, who plans a cross-country trip but gets distracted proving to NASCAR bully Matt Dillon that she's the better driver.
The DVD has an alternate title opening plus bloopers, deleted scenes and a commentary by director Angela Robinson.
Recycled Disney cartoons
Two of Disney's more recent cartoon features have new DVD editions.
"Tarzan" Special Edition (G; 1999; three stars) and "The Emperor's New Groove" (G; 2000; three stars) both contain deleted scenes, games, music videos, several featurettes and an audio commentary on each by the filmmakers.
"The Adventures of Superman" (Season One)
Unrated but PG-13 in nature; 1952-53
No 1950s TV series except Season One of "The Adventures of Superman" came close to approximating the hard-nosed edge of the grittier crime films of the 1940s and the late '30s.
Only these early black-and-white episodes was the series of classic quality, with Phyllis Coates (in her only season) making Lois Lane scrappy and businesslike, and George Reeves' Clark Kent/Superman taking on formidable heavies.
John Hamilton and Jack Larson were definitive in their roles as Perry White and Jimmy Olsen, respectively. The chilling, thrilling music, most of which was archival and could be pressed into service at minimal expense, was so memorably effective it was issued on CD a few years ago.
During each of the four subsequent seasons, when Noel Neill played Lois, the tone became progressively less menacing and more whimsical and broadly Damon Runyonesque. The final three seasons were filmed in color but without a trace of the intensity that characterized such first season episodes as "The Haunted Lighthouse," "Crime Wave," "The Evil Three" and "The Case of the Talkative Dummy." They still generate the willies. Additional Information:
Details
Additional DVDs released this week:
'Melinda and Melinda'
'Detective Story'
'Le Samourai'
'Save the Tiger'
'Darling Lili'
'The Escape Artist'
Coming Tuesday:
'Star Wars - Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith'
'Two for the Road'
'The War of the Worlds' (1953 version)
'Orchestra Wives'
'Warning Shot'
The Brat Pack Collection ('16 Candles,' 'Weird Science,' 'The Breakfast Club')
