Big stars' classic movies make hot collections

By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service

James Dean in "Giant," which was still being filmed when Dean died in 1955, is included in a new DVD set about the enigmatic actor. Advertiser library photo

Actually, in the case of "The Complete James Dean Collection," it contains all of the actor's film work, not counting bit parts in three early pictures. Dean did three movies in 16 months before crashing his Porsche into another car on a rural California highway; the third, "Giant," was still filming in September 1955 when he died.

"Giant," released in 1956, and 1955's "Rebel Without a Cause" have been previously issued on DVD, but not "East of Eden," Elia Kazan's emotional adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel about two Salinas Valley brothers (Dean and Richard Davalos) vying for their father's approval in the days before World War I.

Frustrated fans are rewarded for their patience with a gorgeous new transfer of the CinemaScope film and a second disc of supplementary material .

"Rebel," directed by Nicholas Ray and perhaps the first film to deal seriously with teenage alienation, and "Giant," George Stevens' adaptation of an Edna Ferber best-seller that has a Cain-and-Abel story similar to "Eden" (with Rock Hudson, in his best performance as Dean's competitor for the affection of Elizabeth Taylor), are also two-disc packages.

"Giant" is the same extra-packed edition released two years ago, while "Rebel" is outfitted with a new making-of documentary and other related material.

King of cool

The Dean box will be competing for attention with Warner's "The Essential Steve McQueen Collection," a six-film set whose drawing card is a new two-disc version of 1968's "Bullitt," which has a lot more than that infamous car chase through the hills of San Francisco to recommend it. As a cop who will not be deterred in his effort to ferret out the people who shot a witness he had been assigned to protect, McQueen established himself forever as the movies' maverick king of cool.

"Bullitt," previously available in a bare-bones format, now comes with almost five hours of extras, including a great doc on film editing (it won the Oscar in the category) and a fine new profile of the actor.

Also getting an upgrade is 1972's "The Getaway," which is perhaps director Sam Peckinpah's slickest movie; it has McQueen and Ali MacGraw as thieves on the lam.

Peckinpah was originally slated to direct 1965's "The Cincinnati Kid," with McQueen as a professional poker player tempted to throw a game, but he was replaced by Norman Jewison, probably to the film's detriment. It now comes with a commentary by David Foley and Phil Gordon, the analysts on television's "Celebrity Poker Showdown" in a shtick that gets tiresome quick.

The set is rounded out with 1973's "Papillon," 1980's "Tom Horn" and the 1959 WWII drama "Never So Few." All the titles are available individually.

Truffaut classic

Warner Home Video's approach to presenting its prestige films was obviously influenced by the Criterion Collection, which is now adding one of the most prestigious of all foreign films to its catalog — the 1962 New Wave classic "Jules and Jim" or "Jules et Jim" to us film snobs.

Francois Truffaut's story of how the longtime friendship between biologist Jules (Oskar Werner) and writer Jim (Henri Serre) is forever altered when they meet the enigmatic, vivacious Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) remains one of the most influential of all movies and also remains incredibly affecting.

Criterion, naturally, does it up right. The movie is given a new restoration and high-definition transfer overseen by the film's cinematographer and is remixed into a crisp soundtrack, with improved onscreen subtitling. There are two commentaries, one by a group that includes the film's cowriter and the perceptive author and film professor Annette Insdorf, the other by Moreau and Truffaut biographer Serge Toubiana, and various interviews with Truffaut, the best of which has him talking about Henri-Pierre Roche, author of the novel on which the film was based.

And consider ...

This month has had standouts of every description. Here are a few examples:

• "Voyage to the Planets and Beyond" (BBC,) guides us through the cosmos with help from remarkable special effects and scientific experts.
• "The Presidents" (A&E) is the eight-episode chronological examination of the presidency from Washington to Bush II, with a documentary called "All the President's Wives."
• "The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Electric Ladyland" (Red Distribution) is an in-depth look at the making of what would be the final studio album completed by Hendrix with the original Experience in his brief lifetime.
• "I Am the Cheese" (Empire) is a little-seen, moving 1983 adaptation of the young reader's novel about a boy attempting to come to terms with his parents' death.
• "King Lear" (A&E) is a beautifully acted British miniseries that re-created the acclaimed Canadian Stratford Festival production .
• "DangerMouse — The Complete Seasons 1 & 2" (A&E) collects the first 17 episodes — and the previously unseen pilot — of the endlessly clever British cartoon series about a rodent super-spy. It was made in the 1980s but first shown in the U.S. on Nickelodeon in the 1990s.