DVD Report

''MISSING'': Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek star in the 1982 drama from director Costa-Gavras.

New Releases | Tom Russo

Drawing real emotion from a tragic true story

Producers recall in the bonus materials on "Missing" (1982) that the late Paul Newman was originally approached about playing the lead in director Costa-Gavras's haunting drama of family and dark diplomacy. But the filmmakers couldn't have made a savvier choice than Jack Lemmon to portray real-life figure Ed Horman, a no-nonsense American businessman who travels to volatile '70s Chile to help his daughter-in-law (Sissy Spacek) search for his vanished son, Charles (John Shea). Lemmon deftly takes his familiar "Out-of-Towners" mix of cranky indignation and befuddlement and turns it into something tragic - and heroic - as he pleads and clashes with US officials throwing bureaucratic roadblocks in his path. In another of the DVD supplements, Charles's widow, Joyce, contends that for all the accuracy Costa-Gavras brought to the film, embassy staffers actually were portrayed in a relatively kind light. Producer Edward Lewis also cites the film's restraint more generally: "[Costa] said, 'I won't do any scene of torture or any battles scenes. But in every shot, there'll be some evidence of violence.' "

Extras: Joyce Horman's newly recorded interview runs half an hour in total, and presents her as an eloquent, surprisingly even-handed voice on life in the Allende-Pinochet era, her ordeal notwithstanding. Viewers have an opportunity to hear from Horman during a promotional roundtable for a high-profile screening at the '82 Cannes Film Festival, but the segment is an uncomfortable mingling of entertainment glitz and personal loss. Costa-Gavras weighs in via archival video interviews (in French) and a text Q&A (in English). Liner notes also include the US State Department's official response to the obviously highly controversial release. (Criterion, $39.95)

"THE INCREDIBLE HULK" (2008)

It's still not entirely clear to what degree star Edward Norton hulked out on the makers of this comic-book reboot over cuts to the storyline. He sits out the DVD's commentary, instead leaving the play-by-play to director Louis Leterrier and onscreen nemesis Tim Roth. The movie capably meets its goal of delivering an action-oriented story in keeping with the Lou Ferrigno TV show, even throwing in the scenic bonus of an opening act set amid the favelas of Rio. But one gets a sense of what Norton missed through an extensive deleted scenes collection, much of which deals with the juicy triangle of Bruce Banner, lost love Betty Ross (Liv Tyler), and her new psychiatrist boyfriend (Ty Burrell). These moments make clear that Banner isn't the only character in the Hulk saga with cause to be monstrously agitated. (Universal, $34.98; single-disc version, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.98)

"CASINO ROYALE" (1967/2006)

With the latest James Bond adventure (and first straight sequel in the series) due next month, Daniel Craig's debut as 007 gets the expected memory-refresher reissue. What's less expected is the scope of this three-DVD package, which includes new commentary from director Martin Campbell along with an entire disc of featurettes and deleted scenes. We're still not sure that a segment on the art of "freerun" - the frenetic chase choreography that opens the movie - gives the similar street aerobics of parkour its due. But the set does make us care enough to quibble. Another "Royale" surprise this week is a piggyback re-release of the original camp adaptation of Ian Fleming's novel, with David Niven. Bond historians (read: obsessives) supply commentary to go along with a collection of new featurettes. (2006 release, Sony, $29.95; Blu-ray, $38.96; 1967 release, MGM, $19.98)

"COMEDY CENTRAL SALUTES

GEORGE W. BUSH" (2008)

"South Park" mainstays Kyle and Stan get hauled off to the White House as part of a two-hour programming grab bag that also includes episodes of the animated "Lil' Bush," the live-action "That's My Bush!," and others. Amusing, but more thematically than in practice, since we're missing the Comedy Central regulars who owe the president most: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. (Paramount, $14.99)

Documentary DVD | Mark Feeney

Where the elite would meet to eat

Bernard "Toots" Shor (1903-1977) may have been the world's most famous saloonkeeper. His restaurant in midtown Manhattan was a swanky melting pot where diners (and drinkers) were as likely to bump into Jackie Gleason or Mickey Mantle as some tourist taking in a New York landmark, which Toots Shor's was.

"You would see everybody from motion picture people to sports figures," Mike Wallace recalls in the documentary "Toots." "DiMaggio. Sinatra. Working stiffs. Journalists. Everybody, everybody used to go there." Or as the journalist Nicholas Pileggi puts it, "He had the greatest floor show in New York, and it didn't cost him a nickel."

Kristi Jacobson, Shor's granddaughter, has made a loving tribute not just to Shor, but even more perhaps to a time and place: midcentury New York, at the heavy-drinking height of its imperial splendor.

The film includes interviews with an impressive roster of former patrons: Walter Cronkite, Gay Talese, Yogi Berra, Frank Gifford. There are clips from Shor appearances on "This Is Your Life," "What's My Line," and "Person to Person." (Edward R. Murrow, introducing Shor, describes the former bouncer as "exactly the kind of guy he'd throw out of his place.") Best of all are a steady stream of period photographs and archival footage of New York street scenes and nightlife.

Being a relation, Jacobson isn't expected to be on oath. And who could resist including a quote as good as this one, from another talking head, journalist Pete Hamill: "If somebody said, 'OK you have to erase him from all the social histories of New York, it would be like trying to get rid of an Alp - saying Mont Blanc isn't there anymore, now try to write about Switzerland.' " True enough, except Mont Blanc is in France and Italy.

"Toots" notes Shor's relationship with the mob, which backed both incarnations of his establishment. Learning more about his shadiness might have dialed down the worshipfulness a bit. The documentary portrays Shor, with his thick slab of a face and gravelly voice, as just a lovable lug. Yet as Pileggi points out, "Nobody else from South Philly has been able to hustle himself into five White Houses. There are certain touched guys, they're just anointed. They have such unbelievable gall." A little more skepticism on that order would have been welcome. Still, who can resist a saloonkeeper who declared, "I'm probably my own best customer." "Toots," like its subject, makes sure customers have a good time.

Extras: director's commentary, additional interviews, animated timeline (IndiePix, $24.95)

Silent DVD | Mark Feeney

When clothes make the man

"I went last night to a 'movie,' " the photographer Edward Weston wrote in his daybook on April 15, 1925. "Unusual form of dissipation for me, but I would go more often could such films as last night's be seen. Fine acting - and fine photography and real life. . . . The film is German - titled 'The Last Laugh.' "

F.W. Murnau's classic has the simple arc of a fairy tale. Emil Jannings, that very thick slice of Westphalian ham, plays an elderly hotel doorman demoted to washroom attendant. His redemption, when it comes, takes a most improbable form.

This two-disc set includes both a pristine restoration of the original German version and the unrestored export version - the one previously available on DVD - which contains several minor variations.

What makes "The Last Laugh" a classic is Murnau's phenomenally assured mise-en-scene and the absolute pathos of the doorman's degradation. Jannings does his best to turn pathos to bathos, but Murnau's often-dazzling camerawork keeps sentimentality at bay. The inclusion of only four intertitles lends a further narrative purity.

The doorman prizes his uniform greatcoat - thickly festooned with piping and braid - as a badge of honor. Its removal from him and the stripping away of all but one of its brass buttons is a shocking moment. Loss of status meets deprivation of fetish object, and it's not a pretty sight. Could Murnau have meant the plight of the doorman, with his field marshal bearing and Junker whiskers, as a metaphor for Germany's defeat in World War I?

Extras: making-of featurette, image gallery (Kino, $29.95)

ALSO THIS WEEK

"THERE'LL ALWAYS BE AN ENGLAND" (2008)

The Sex Pistols and video director Julien Temple flash back to the punk scene - and Temple's Pistols-dissecting documentary "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" - with a concert film spotlighting the band's recent 30th anniversary gigs.

Extras: Feature-length primer on punk London with band members. (Rhino, $19.99; available now)

"THE STRANGERS" (2008)

Masked home invaders from hell scare Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman out of their wits - and quickly bore viewers out of their gourds - in this clunky genre entry.

Extras: Unrated footage; production featurette. (Universal, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.98)

"EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED" (2008)

Self-appointed populist smarty-pants Ben Stein plays Michael Moore as he questions the scientific community and others on why Darwinian subscribers insist on hatin' the notion of "intelligent design." Even Stein fans won't find the film very entertaining, much less persuasive.

Extras: Message from Stein. (Vivendi Entertainment, $26.99; Blu-ray, $34.99)

REISSUES

"WARNER BROS. PICTURES GANGSTERS COLLECTION, VOL. 4" (2008)

Warner again swings open the vault door on its signature genre of the '30s and '40s, offering a new-to-DVD set including "Kid Galahad" (1937), with Edward G. Robinson as a racketeering boxing promoter. Cinephiles may also remember this as the first of Humphrey Bogart's six films for "Casablanca" director Michael Curtiz.

Extras: Film historian commentary; feature-length documentary "Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film." (Warner, $59.92)

"CAPRICORN ONE" (1978)

Elliott Gould leads the ensemble in Peter Hyams's wacked-out conspiracy thriller imagining a manned Mars mission that's a hoax - except for the part where the astronauts don't make it home alive.

Extras: Commentary by Hyams; production featurette. (Lionsgate, $19.98; available now)

TELEVISION

"BACK TO YOU": SEASON 1 (2007-08)

Fox might have dismissed Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton with a coolish "we'll get back to you," but we would have liked to see more of their traditional but sharp newsroom sitcom. Grammer as a blowhard local news personality was spot-on casting; Heaton as an anchorwoman with an edge was a kinder role, in some ways, than occasionally over-edgy Debra Barone.

Extras: Three unaired episodes; production featurettes; gag reel. (Fox, $39.98; available now)

"THE MUNSTERS": THE COMPLETE SERIES (1964-66)

We were always far more partial to the Addamses, but who doesn't have a soft spot for Herman's brood around Halloween? The 70-episode set also includes the unaired pilot and a pair of feature-length follow-ups.

Extras: Cast spotlight featurettes. (Universal, $69.98; available now)

Capsules are written by Tom Russo and titles are in stores Tuesday unless otherwise specified.