Here’s a selection of top gift ideas for the multimedia movie watcher in the family.
The Best of Bogart Collection (Warner Home Video, Not Rated, $49.99) — Appreciate one of cinema’s greatest tough guys in a four-disc, Blu-ray set offering a quartet of Humphrey Bogart’s finest films. Viewers get remastered versions of “Casablanca,” “The Maltese Falcon,” “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” and Bogart’s Academy Award-winning performance as grizzled riverboat captain, Charlie Allnut, in “The African Queen.”
Of the hours worth of extras for each movie, the best includes: an optional commentary track on “Casablanca” from the late movie critic Roger Ebert; a Warner Night at the Movies (a very fun feature that presents a group of trailers and cartoon shorts one might have seen in a 1940s movie theater before the main film) for “The Maltese Falcon,” “Casablanca” and “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,”; audio vaults playing classic radio shows; and an hourlong documentary on the making of “The African Queen.”
Additionally, Warner Home Video throws in a set of four, movie poster art cards.
Herzog: The Collection, Limited Edition (Shout! Factory, Rated R, $159.99) — Movie connoisseurs can now easily appreciate legendary director Werner Herzog’s body of feature film work through this 13-disc, Blu-ray set.
As one of the key influencers of the New German Cinema (encompassing the period 1962 to 1982), the uncompromising Mr. Herzog built a reputation for delivering impactful movies often twisting fiction, history and reality through some disturbing stories.
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Owners get 13 films (all for the first time in the high-definition format) including “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” “The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser,” “Heart of Glass,” “Fitzcarraldo” and the profoundly bizarre “Even Dwarfs Started Small.” My favorite, “Nosferatu the Vampyre,” has actor Klaus Kinski deliver one of the creepiest version of Dracula in the history of film.
Best of all to the collection (housed in a package combined with a 40-page booklet), 10 of the 13 films offer an optional commentary tracks with Mr. Herzog.
Gone with the Wind 75th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition (Warner Home Video, Rated G, $49.99) — Consistently rated as one of the American Film Institute’s Top 10 movies, producer David O. Selznick’s adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s historical romance novel came to life in 1939 and starred Clark Gable as the charismatic Rhett Butler and Vivian Leigh as the eternally optimistic Scarlett O’Hara.
The over three-hour-long saga arrives beautifully remastered in the Blu-ray format, dripping with Southern melodrama set during and after the Civil War and with enough goodies and bonus features to give movie lovers plenty of reason to give a damn.
Digital extras include an optional commentary track with film historian Rudy Belhmer, a definitive 1989 documentary on the production (over two hours long), a six-hour documentary on MGM Studios and even the TV movie “Moviola: The Scarlett O’Hara War” covering Selznick’s search to find the perfect leading lady.
To further sweeten the deal, gift owners get a replica of Rhett Butler’s handkerchief, a music box playing Tara’s theme (even sporting an image of the famed Rhett and Scarlett kiss) and a 36-page companion booklet featuring a look at the fashion styles of “Gone with the Wind.”
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• Joseph Szadkowski can be reached at jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com.
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