Many Oldies But Goodies Are Making Their Video Debuts

Film noir, MGM gloss, restored classics and the movies of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn will dominate the list of oldies making their video debuts during the next month.

While Disney's 1940 animation classic, "Fantasia," will undoubtedly be the best-selling vintage film on tape for some time (it turns up Nov. 1), there's a long list of other worthy titles.

Already in the stores are a $20 John Wayne double feature from the early 1930s ("The Range Feud" and "Two-Fisted Law") and one of the best made-for-TV movies of the early 1970s, "The Execution of Private Slovik," starring Martin Sheen as the only American soldier to be executed for desertion during World War II. The latter is available from MCA Home Video for $60.

Turner Home Entertainment has just brought out a collection of noir-ish 1940s movies for $20 apiece. The late Don Siegel's "The Big Steal," a twisty Robert Mitchum/Jane Greer vehicle that was previously available only on laserdisc, is making its tape debut. Also new are a neatly paced George Raft detective story, "Nocturne," and a lesser Glenn Ford thriller, "Framed."

At the same price, the Turner package includes reissues of the Peter Lorre thriller, "Stranger on the Third Floor" (which is the opening film in the Seattle Art Museum's next noir series in January), Irving Reis's "Crack-Up," Robert Wise's "Born to Kill" and Ted Tetzlaff's 1949 suspense classic, "The Window," which won a special Oscar for Disney child star Bobby Driscoll.

Also in stores now is "Boop Oop a Doop," a 74-minute documentary, narrated by Steve Allen, that's made up of colorized clips from Max Fleischer's Betty Boop cartoons. It's available from Ivy Classics Video, which has the rights to more than 50 of the original cartoons produced between 1931 and 1944.

Two restorations will show up on the shelves Nov. 7: the recent theatrical reissue of Stanley Kubrick's three-hour 1960 Roman epic, "Spartacus" ($20 from MCA Home Video), and John Ford and Gregg Toland's 1943 account of the attack on Pearl Harbor, "December 7th" ($20 from Kit Parker Video and Central Park Media).

The latter is a real find: an Academy Award winner that has never been publicly shown in its original 82-minute version, in which Walter Huston plays a complacent vacationer in Honolulu when the Japanese attack begins. The chief of naval operations, Adm. Harold Stark, confiscated the negative because it left "the distinct impression that the Navy was not on the job at Pearl Harbor." He allowed only a heavily cut version to be released. At 34 minutes, it won its Oscar for best documentary short subject!

(In stores later this week is another account of the attack, "Target: Pearl Harbor: The Special Commemorative Edition, 1941-1991," available from J2 Communications and priced at $10. The 70-minute documentary includes interviews with survivors and makes use of rare footage captured from the Japanese.)

MGM/UA Home Video is also bringing out a collection of World War II movies, including a couple of Errol Flynn vehicles ("Desperate Journey," "Objective, Burma!"), "Kings Go Forth," "The Devil's Brigade," "633 Squadron," plus the Korean War aircraft-carrier drama, "Men of the Fighting Lady." All are priced at $20 beginning Nov. 13.

On the same day and at the same price, the company will release its latest "leading lady" series. The collection includes two Garbo pictures ("Romance," "Inspiration"), two movies with Ava Gardner ("Bhowani Junction," "East Side West Side"), a Myrna Loy comedy ("Love Crazy"), a couple of Jean Harlow comedies ("Wife vs. Secretary," "Reckless"), and a pair of Joan Crawford dramas ("Above Suspicion," "Possessed").

At the same time, MGM/UA is remastering the Elizabeth Taylor romance, "The Last Time I Saw Paris," and reissuing "The Night of the Iguana," "The Children's Hour," "Queen Christina," "The Misfits" and many more for the same price.

MGM/UA has another batch of oldies coming up Nov. 20: a Tracy-Hepburn collection, no doubt inspired by the recent publication of Hepburn's autobiography, "Me," and a new four-film installment in its "Forbidden Hollywood" series.

Fritz Lang's 1936 classic, "Fury," starring Tracy as an innocent murder suspect who is almost lynched, is the standout on the former list, which includes three films in which Tracy and Hepburn appear together: "Keeper of the Flame," "Without Love" and "Sea of Grass." Tracy also stars in "Edison the Man" and "The Seventh Cross," and he's the subject of a documentary, "The Spencer Tracy Legacy," hosted by Hepburn.

Two lesser Hepburn efforts, "Song of Love" and "Undercurrent," will make their debuts at the same time, along with reissues of "Father of the Bride," "Inherit the Wind," "Adam's Rib," "Woman of the Year" and others. All are priced at $20.

MGM/UA's latest "Forbidden Hollywood" series, hosted by Leonard Maltin, is made up of several early-1930s films produced before the Production Code clamped down and censorship became institutionalized. "Night Nurse," starring Barbara Stanwyck as a private nurse who discovers a murder plot, is particularly racy. "Lady Killer" stars James Cagney as a New York thug in Hollywood; "Blonde Crazy" co-stars Cagney and Joan Blondell in a 1931 forerunner of "The Grifters"; while "Heroes For Sale" is a serious social drama about morphine addiction and unemployment during the Depression. All are priced at $30.

Republic Home Video's contribution to the vintage lineup next month is a collection of full-length serials never released on tape before: "Flying Disc Man From Mars," "Radar Patrol Vs. Spy King," "Federal Agents Vs. Underworld, Inc.," "The Invisible Monster," "Black Widow" and "Jungle Drums of Africa." Each black-and-white serial is made up of a dozen episodes and comes on two cassettes. The price is $30.

Video Watch by John Hartl appears Sundays in Arts & Entertainment. You can get more video information by calling the Seattle Times' 24-hour free service Infoline. Call 464-2000 from any touch-tone telephone and when instructed, enter the category number 0911 to reach the Video Hotline. You may replay all information by pressing "R" (7); back up to previous information by pressing "B" (2); and jump over over current information by pressing "J" (5).

NEW VIDEOS IN STORES THIS WEEK

Tuesday - Jimmy Cliff in "The Harder They Come" (remastered), Cecil Taylor in "Burning Poles," Peter Greenaway's "Four American Composers: Philip Glass, John Cage, Meredith Monk and Robert Ashley."

Wednesday - "Give My All," Bill Moyers' "Circle of Recovery," Lorenzo Lamas in "Killing Streets," "Toxic Avenger III," Maxwell Caulfield in "Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat," Albert Brooks in "Defending Your Life," Rae Dawn Chong in "The Borrower," "Target: Pearl Harbor," "The Hollywood Chronicles."

Thursday - "The Simpsons Christmas Special," Gene Hackman in "Class Action," Lou Diamond Phillips in "Ambition," Jodie Foster in "The Silence of the Lambs," Sidney Poitier in "Separate But Equal," Michael York in "Heat of the Day," Joan Plowright in "And a Nightingale Sang," Patrick Bergin in "The Real Charlotte," "A Tale of Two Cities," "Jeeves and Wooster," "The Addams Family in New York," "The Circus Story," "Rampage 91," "Amazing Grace With Bill Moyers."

New laserdiscs: "Simply Mad About the Mouse," Yves Montand in "The Wages of Fear" (restored 149-minute version), Dan Aykroyd in "Nothing But Trouble," Gary Grimes in "Summer of 42," Jack Webb in "Pete Kelly's Blues" (letterboxed), Stanley Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" (letterboxed), Barbara Stanwyck in "Night Nurse," Michel Blanc in "Monsieur Hire," Dick Powell in "Pitfall," Frank Borzage's "I've Always Loved You," Betty Lou Gerson in "The Red Menace," George Sanders in "The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry," Gary Cole in "Son of the Morning Star," Bela Lugosi in "Zombies on Broadway," Barbara Stanwyck in "Clash by Night," Buster Keaton's "College," Spencer Tracy in "The Devil at Four O'Clock," Amos and Andy in "Check and Double Check," Barbara Stanwyck in "Baby Face," Julia Roberts in "Sleeping With the Enemy," Grace Kelly in "High Society" (letterboxed), Howard Keel in "Kiss Me Kate" (remastered), "k.d. lang," "The Kinks," "Thomas Dolby," "Dick Tracy's Dilemma."