This week on DVD

Tom Hanks and Paul Newman get gloomy, "Tales of the City," Barnabas Collins, "Deep Space Nine," Cary Grant rarities and the rest of the week's best new releases.

Published February 25, 2003 9:00PM (EST)

"The Cardinal" (1963). Directed by Otto Preminger. Starring Tom Tryon, Carol Lynley, Dorothy Gish, Cecil Kellaway, John Saxon, John Huston. Two-disc set. Catholic whitewash of 20th century history. Extras: "Otto Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker" two-hour documentary, vintage 1963 making-of featurette (Warner).

"Dark Shadows: Collection Four." Forty episodes (331-371) of the '60s cult vampire soap on four discs (MPI).

"Drôle de Drame" (1937). Directed by Marcel Carné. Rarely seen French farce, set in Victorian London, from the director of "Children of Paradise." Extras: Liner notes by film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum (Home Vision Entertainment).

"The Forsyte Saga" (1969). The original 26-episode BBC series that created the U.S. market for Brit melodrama (not the more recent version just seen on PBS). Seven-disc set (BBC Video).

"George Carlin: What Am I Doing in New Jersey?" Carlin's sixth HBO stand-up concert special (MPI).

"Gloria" (1980). Directed by John Cassavetes. Starring Gena Rowlands, Buck Henry, John Adams, Julie Carmen, Lupe Guarnica. From the godhead of American independent cinema (Columbia TriStar).

"King of Kings" (1961). Directed by Nicholas Ray. Narrated by Orson Welles. Starring Jeffrey Hunter, Robert Ryan, Rip Torn, Siobhan McKenna, Viveca Lindfors. Extras: "The Camera's Window of the World" making-of featurette, two premiere newsreels (Warner).

"Knockaround Guys" (2002). Written and directed by Brian Koppelman and David Levien. Starring Vin Diesel, Barry Pepper, Seth Green, Andrew Davoli, John Malkovich, Dennis Hopper. "You could drive a van full of stolen VCRs through the dead air" in this "limp and spongy" mobster farce, writes Salon's Stephanie Zacharek. Extras: Filmmaker commentary, deleted scenes, DVD-ROM extras (New Line).

"The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum" (1975). Directed by Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta. Starring Karl Heinz Vosgerau, Jürgen Prochnow, Heinz Bennent, Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler. Fascinating period piece of mid-'70s West Germany, beset by terrorism and bedeviled by the Cold War. Extras: New video interview with Schlöndorff and von Trotta; new video interview with director of photography Jost Vacano; documentary on author Heinrich Böll (Home Vision/The Criterion Collection).

"Man and Boy" (1972). Starring Bill Cosby, Gloria Foster, Leif Erickson. Frontier drama with unlikely cast (Columbia TriStar).

"Once Upon a Time" (1944). Starring Cary Grant, Janet Blair, James Gleason, Ted Donaldson, Howard Freeman, William Demarest. Minor but bizarre Grant comedy (Columbia TriStar).

Road to Perdition (2002). Directed by Sam Mendes. Starring Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Stanley Tucci, Tyler Hoechlin. Monotonous, meticulous, arty. The shots are "composed to the point of being embalmed," says Stephanie Zacharek. Extras: Commentary by Mendes, deleted scenes, "making-of" documentary (DreamWorks).

"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Complete First Season." Six-disc set. Extras: "Deep Space Nine: A Bold Beginning," crew dossier on Kira Nerys, "Michael Westmore's Aliens: Season One," secrets of Quark's Bar, "Alien Artifacts: Season One," "Deep Space Nine Sketchbook," photo gallery, "Section 31 Hidden Files" (Paramount).

"The Scarlet Letter" (1934). Starring Colleen More, Hardie Albright (Timeless Video).

Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" (1993). Groundbreaking PBS miniseries with Olympia Dukakis, Donald Moffat, Laura Linney, Marcus D'Amico, Chloe Webb, Barbara Garrick, Thomas Gibson, Billy Campbell, Paul Gross. Three-disc set. Commentary by Maupin, director Alastair Reid, Dukakis, Linney and Garrick; behind-the-scenes location and rehearsal footage; Maupin bio and booklist; cast bios; full-color insert with introduction by Maupin, production notes by producer Alan Poul, filming locations and landmarks (Acorn Media).

"The Talk of the Town" (1942). Directed by George Stevens. Starring Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Ronald Coleman. Solid period comedy-drama (Columbia TriStar).

"Tuck Everlasting" (2002) . Directed by Jay Russell. Starring Ben Kingsley, Sissy Spacek, William Hurt, Amy Irving, Jonathan Jackson, Alexis Bledel, Scott Bairstow. "A neo-vampire movie for tender-hearted preadolescent girls who are afraid of sex," writes Stephanie Zacharek. Go for it! Extras: Commentary by director Russell and Jackson, Bledel and Bairstow; commentary by Russell and screenwriter James Hart; "Lesson of Tuck": Jackson offers discussions on the story's moral issues at key points in the film; "A Visit With Natalie Babbit," featurette on the author of the book (Disney).

"The Tuxedo" (2002). Starring Jackie Chan, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jason Isaacs, Debi Mazar, Peter Stormare, James Brown. Only for Chan's hardcore fans, and maybe not even them. Extras: Deleted and expanded scenes, blooper reel, more (DreamWorks).

"La Vallée" ("The Valley Obscured by Clouds," 1972). Directed by Barbet Schroeder. Starring Bulle Ogier. Stream-of-consciousness period nonsense, with score by Pink Floyd. Extras: Liner notes by author and NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu (Home Vision Entertainment).


By Salon Staff

MORE FROM Salon Staff


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Movies