5 of the best Abbott & Costello films! In the Navy includes Dick Powell and the Andrew Sisters. In Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde they take on Boris Karloff in a hilarious spoof. In Jack and the Beanstalk Lou falls asleep and dreams himself into the fairy tale world of Jack and his amazing beanstalk. Also are Buck Privates and Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy.

Presenting three of Ingmar Bergman's greatest films, The Bergman Classic Prepack includes The Virgin Spring, which brought Bergman his first Oscar®; The Seventh Seal starring Max von Sydow; and "one of the few great motion pictures of our time" (The New York Post), Wild Strawberries.

Spanning 14 months from February 1965 to early April 1966, this second DVD compilation of the short-lived NBC pop-music series Hullabaloo is fascinating more as an ethereal glimpse of mid-'60s pop trends than a record of enduring music. The majority of these performers (Chad & Jeremy, Leslie Gore, Barry McGuire) were enjoying their relatively brief time in the spotlight, so they're little more than time-capsule curiosities to anyone born after these shows were originally broadcast. The format was so safely mainstream that one "Top Pop" medley segment features guest host Peter Noone (from Herman's Hermits) singing Bob Dylan's "Positively 4th Street," with predictably ludicrous results. But the menu of then-current chart-toppers also includes a generous sampling of the British Invasion (the Kinks, the Rolling Stones, and even Marianne Faithful, with several London-scene reports from Beatles manager Brian Epstein), and bonus track highlights include the Zombies, Junior Walker & the All-Stars, and the Supremes at the start of their meteoric rise. Although many of these acts lip-sync to canned music (you'll notice a lot of unplugged guitars), the sound quality surpasses the video, which was mastered from salvaged black & white kinescopes (sadly, the color videos were destroyed). In addition to the hit-or-miss music menu, the Hullabaloo dancers and popular guests hosts provide a welcomed trip down memory lane, especially when David McCallum ("Ilya Kuryakin" from TV's The Man from U. N. C. L. E. [+]

One of the greatest Westerns ever made gets the deluxe treatment on this superior disc from Republic Home Video's Silver Screen Classics line of special-edition DVDs. Written by Carl Foreman (who was later blacklisted during the anticommunist hearings of the '50s) and superbly directed by Fred Zinnemann, this 1952 classic stars Gary Cooper as just-married lawman Will Kane, who is about to retire as a small-town sheriff and begin a new life with his bride (Grace Kelly) when he learns that gunslinger Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald) is due to arrive at high noon to settle an old score. Kane seeks assistance from deputies and townsfolk, but soon realizes he'll have to stand alone in his showdown with Miller and his henchmen. Innovative for its time, the suspenseful story unfolds in approximate real time (from 10:40 a. m. to high noon in an 84-minute film), and many interpreted Foreman's drama as an allegorical reflection of apathy and passive acceptance of Senator Joseph McCarthy's anticommunist campaign. Political underpinnings aside, this remains a milestone of its genre (often referred to as the first "adult" Western), and Cooper is flawless in his Oscar-winning role. The first-rate DVD gives this landmark film all the respect it deserves, beginning with a digitally remastered transfer from the original film negative. Additional features include the exclusive documentary The Making of High Noon, hosted by film historian Leonard Maltin and featuring interviews with the late Lloyd Bridges (who played Cooper's rival ex-deputy), director Fred Zinnemann, and producer Stanley Kramer. Also included is the original theatrical trailer and a special chapter stop highlighting the Oscar-winning song "Do Not Forsake Me. [+]

Alec Guinness delivers a masterful, not-to-be-missed performance in a brilliant screenplay by J. B. Priestley that combines irony, humor, and tenderness. Shy George Bird (Guinness) learns his days are numbered, so he decides to take a "last holiday. " He withdraws his life savings and dashes off to a fashionable seaside resort, where he is taken for a man of substance and becomes a favorite with his newfound aristocratic friends.

Three real-life buddies (John Cassavetes, Peter Falk, and Ben Gazzara) team up to play three pals whose lives suffer a shock wave when a fourth friend drops dead. After the funeral, the three friends, feeling death's hot breath on their own necks, take off on a weekend-long debauch, with way too much drinking and loose women. But, in the process, they have lengthy heart-to-hearts about the nature of friendship, manhood, and marriage, among other things. As strong an example of Cassavetes's improvisational art as any of his films, this film may test your patience with his indulgent treatment of actors, allowing them to explore their characters on film. Sometimes they come up empty, but more often, they find precious moments and revelations. And these three guys play off each other like long-time partners in a high-wire game of chicken in which they all emerge as winners. -Marshall Fine.

One of Italy's most commercially successful films, Bitter Rice packed theaters around the world despite being banned by the Legion of Decency in the United States. Though intended as a scathing indictment of harsh conditions endured by women laboring in Italy's rice fields, the film's enormous popularity was largely attributed to the erotic appeal of young Silvana Mangano. The former Miss Rome became a star overnight for her sultry debut as an impoverished yet voluptuous laborer who turns down the chance to emigrate to a better life in South America in favor of a steamy affair with her best friend's lover. Ironically, Marxist writer and director Giuseppe De Santis, one of the founders of Italy's post-World War II neorealist movement, virtually brought the genre to an end with Bitter Rice by demonstrating that sex was a far greater draw than social criticism.