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CHRISTMAS STORIES: Warner is obviously in the holiday spirit, announcing several goodies that’ll land just in time for gift-giving. Four much-requested titles find their place in the Classic Holiday DVD Collection, Vol. 2:

All Mine To Give (1957), a classic tearjerker with Glynis Johns and Cameron Mitchell as parents of a wilderness family of six boys who deal with incredible adversity;

Holiday Affair (1949), with Robert Mitchum as a ne’er-do-well who helps single mom Janet Leigh and her son out on Christmas time, causing a ruckus with her wealthy boyfriend;

It Happened On 5th Avenue (1947), in which hobo Victor Moore and pals find someone home when they stage their annual holiday crash on a a usually-unoccupied neighborhood mansion; and

Blossoms In The Dust (1941), spotlighting Greer Garson as Edna Gladney, who dedicated her life to helping unwanted infants. Walter Pidgeon co-stars in this title which is exclusive to the set.

Warner has also reconfigured their Classic Holiday DVD Collection, Vol. 1. In addition to Boys Town (1938) with Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney; the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol, starring Reginald Owen as Scrooge; and the original Christmas In Connecticut (1945) boasting Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan, the set is now the only place you can find The Singing Nun (1966), with Debbie Reynolds as the real-life novitiate who had a hit with the song Dominique.

The company is also serving up A Christmas Story (Ultimate Collector’s Edition), a deluxe set of the 1983 favorite that includes all sorts of incredible extras, packaged in a tin, with a leg lamp. Ovaltine is not included.

GOOD EVVVVE-NING…: Two companies are putting on the Hitch—Alfred Hitchcock, that is.

First, MGM (and Fox) offer the much-requested films that the director helmed for David O. Selznick, including Notorious, Spellbound and Rebecca. Then there’s the Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection, which encompasses the aforementioned titles as well as The Lodger, The Paradine Case, Sabotage, Young And Innocent and Lifeboat.

Also, Universal is returning three of its best Hitch titles to the DVD marketplace in double-disc editions chockfull of great extras, commentaries and featurettes: Psycho (Special Edition), Vertigo (Special Edition) and Rear Window (Special Edition).

AN OFFER YOU SHOULDN’T REFUSE: Director Francis Coppola has overseen The Godfather Collection (The Coppola Restoration), a five-disc set that includes all three of the films in the great trilogy. Loaded with great extras, commentaries, featurettes, The Godfather, The Godfather, Part II, and The Godfather, Part III—which are also available separately—have been meticulously restored by Robert A. Harris (Lawrence Of Arabia) with input by Coppola and cinematographer Gordon Willis. It reportedly took two years to put the original mob epic in tip-top shape as the original prints were mishandled and overprinted. We can’t wait to see the final results of this worthy project.

PLEASE HAMMER DON’T HURT THEM: Sony is about to get a whole lot more involved with their library titles, we’re told—finally! Horror movie fans will certainly be thrilled to find Hammer Films: Icons Of Horror Collection being delivered. This dandy compendium of the fright stuff from the fabled British studio includes The Two Faces Of Dr. Jekyll (1960), an interesting, psychological take on the Robert Louis Stevenson story, with Paul Massie in the lead and Christopher Lee in support; Scream Of Fear (1961), directed by cult favorite Seth Holt (The Nanny), a scarefest that delves into the creepy relationship between daughter Susan Strasberg and mother Ann Todd; The Gorgon (1964), with Lee, centering on the mythological monster who appears in a German village; and The Curse Of The Mummy’s Tomb (1965), in which an American sideshow promoter discovers that his new attraction is actually an ancient pharaoh looking for revenge.

20TH CENTURY NOIR: A trio of diverse film noirs are on the way from Fox. Chief among them is Boomerang!, the oft-announced but never issued DVD of Elia Kazan’s 1947 classic thriller in which attorney Dana Andrews has to uncover the facts behind a priest’s death. Road House (1948) features Richard Widmark as the owner of a saloon/bowling alley who goes to great lengths to keep manager Cornel Wilde away from singer Ida Lupino. The lovely Lupino also stars in Moontide (1942), as the emotionally troubled girl that dock worker Jean Gabin gets involved with after he’s convinced he has killed a man during a brawl.

ISN’T THAT SPECIAL: Several movies have returned to the DVD market as much-in-demand special editions, showcasing featurettes, documentaries, commentaries, extra footage, etc., etc. Included are:

Touch Of Evil (50th Anniversary Edition): Orson Welles directed and co-stars in this 1958 noir essential, considered by many to be the greatest ‘B’ movie ever made. Charlton Heston is the Mexican narc who heads back south of the border with wife Janet Leigh to find corruption, drugs and a big cop named Hank Quinlan (Welles) who has an agenda all his own. This set includes three different versions of the film.

Child’s Play (Anniversary Edition): The 1988 introduction of Chucky, the devilish doll, who can’t stop that scary stuff.

Watership Down (Deluxe Edition): Richard Adams’ award-winning book became a superb 1978 animated feature about life in a society of rabbits.

The New World (Extended Cut): Terrence Malick’s 2005 saga about John Smith and Pocohontas was edited before its theatrical release, but now you can see it with the scenes restored and more.

Gigi (Two-Disc Special Edition): The 1958 Leslie Caron movie musical people “thank heaven” for is offered in a special edition. Also includes the 1949 non-musical version of the tale.

An American In Paris (Two-Disc Special Edition): Gene Kelly is the Yankee artist wooing French femme Caron in this packed double-disc salute to the 1951 favorite.

National Lampoon’s Animal House (30th Anniversary Edition): There’s zero-point-zero chance that you’ll want to miss this double-disc celebration of the 1978 John Belushi campus classic.

LONDON CALLING: An assortment of interesting thrillers from Merry Olde is being offered as British Cinema Collection from VCI. Included are The Girl In The News (1941), directed by Carol Reed, in which a man kills his boss, then frames a nurse for the deed; and The Frightened Man (1952), in which a young man thrown out of college becomes a jewel thief. Diana Dors is featured in Tread Softly Stranger (1958), about a man overwhelmed by gambling debt who must help his brother out of his own problems; and Siege Of Sidney Street (1962) is an unusual true crime story that pits cops against anarchists in 1911. Rounding out the package are Crimes At The Dark House (1940), featuring Tod Slaughter in a story of a psychotic who kills the owner of a mansion and assumes his identity; and The Hooded Terror (1938), a Sexton Blake mystery.

PASS THE TORCH: As we mentioned before, Columbia (through Sony) is finally getting their act together. Witness these interesting releases from their immense back library:

Nickelodeon (1976): Peter Bogdanovich’s loving tribute to silent films has never been on DVD (or VHS, for that matter). It stars Ryan O’Neal, Burt Reynolds, Tatum O’Neal and John Ritter.

The New Centurions (1972): Rough and tumble adaptation of the Joseph Wambaugh best-seller with Stacy Keach as a rookie L.A. cop being brought into the fold by veteran George C. Scott.

$ (Dollars) (1971): Security expert Warren Beatty teams with hooker Goldie Hawn for a wild and stylish heist caper.

The Anderson Tapes (1971): Sean Connery tries to pull off an intricate heist of the residences of a high-tone apartment building; Dyan Cannon and Alan King co-star in Sidney Lumet’s fine caper saga.

The Garment Jungle (1957): Gritty New York crime drama with Kerwin Mathews trying to keep his garment company owner father Lee J. Cobb from getting involved with shady hoods.

Affair In Trinidad (1952): Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford reunite for a post-Gilda thriller, this time with Rita going undercover to track down the killer of her husband by a group of international spies.

A CLOSER LOOK I: Based in the amazing-but-true bestselling book Bringing Down The House, 21 is an attempt to shine as a Rounders for the blackjack set. This means it features younger performers doing cool things in card-playing situations. Thanks to a sharp cast, solid direction by Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde) and the presence of a back-to-basics bad guy perf for Kevin Spacey, it succeeds most of the time.

The plot concerns MIT student and math wizard Ben (Jim Sturgess of Across The Universe), who needs something like $300,000 to get into Harvard Medical School.He finds a way to raise the money by joining up with Professor Rosa (Spacey), who teaches his extra-curricular class how to count cards and win big at blackjack in Las Vegas. Soon, Ben goes from penniless student to someone surrounded by Vegas glitz, and takes on fellow Rosa supporter Jill (Kate Bosworth, who played Lois Lane to Spacey’s Lex Luthor in Superman Returns) as a girlfriend. Of course, not all goes as smoothly planned, and, as expected, Ben has his share of problems on his road to the top of Glitter Gulch.

If you’re a Vegas fan, this movie has a lot to offer, equaling the Ocean’s 11 movies with location shooting (The Hard Rock, Red Rock, Riviera, and the Venetian get screen time). And it’s always good to see Spacey playing a sophisticated heel after a sojourn into good guy-ness (Pay It Forward, anyone?) . The DVD presentation is loaded with extras, including featurettes on blackjack, card-counting, the film’s production, and Vegas locales, as well as commentary by Luketic.

YOU’VE ASKED FOR THEM: While they’re not part of any specific collections, a few films that have been requested by fans over the years are making their way on the DVD stage, and we’re happy to give you the heads-up.

The Boys In The Band (1970): William Friedkin’s electrifying adaptation of Matt Cowley’s play about New Yorkers congregating at an apartment for a birthday party was a landmark survey of homosexuality. Laurence Luckinbill, Leonard Frey and Cliff Gorman star.

The Singing Detective (2003): The feature version of Dennis Potter’s heralded TV series stars Robert Downey, Jr. as a pulp fiction novelist suffering from terrible burns who has a series of fantasies about the characters in his first novel. Mel Gibson, who also produced, co-stars with Robin Wright Penn and Jeremy Northam.

Ladies And Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (1981): Long unseen study of a punk rock band led by Diane Lane and their exploits on the road and in the record business. Laura Dern, Ray Winstone, Cynthia Sikes, and rockers Fee Waybill, Paul Cook and Steve Jones also star.

Woman Times Seven (1967): Shirley MacLaine gets to play seven characters in this omnibus sex farce directed by Vittorio de Sica. Co-stars in these tales of adultery include Peter Sellers, Rossano Brazzi, Robert Morley, Elsa Martinelli and Lex Barker.

Strange Bedfellows (1965): Wacky and sexy romantic farce with oil company worker Rock Hudson and artist Gina Lollobrigida as a couple about to be divorced who get back together to help Hudson get a company promotion. The offer is threatened, however, when Gina decides to enact Lady Godiva’s naked ride for her art group. Gig Young and Terry-Thomas also star.

A CLOSER LOOK II: Raven-Symone is so Raven, no matter what the project is. It could be her Disney show That’s So Raven, or as an occasional member of The Cheetah Girls. And now in a big feature film showcase, the former Cosby kid is so Raven in College Road Trip, a road farce that should win Raven even more new fans. (She’s planning on taking the lead in a remake of Adventures In Babysitting).

Raven is a high school student from the Chicago area getting ready for college. Against police chief father Martin Lawrence’s wishes, she desires to go to Georgetown, while he prefers nearby Northwestern University. So, Raven, Lawrence and her pals Brenda Song (The Suite Life Of Zach And Cody) and Margo Harshman (Even Stevens) head off on a road trip to visit different college campuses from Chicago to D.C.

There’s also a pet pig and the songs Getting To Know You from The King And I and So Long, Farewell from The Sound Of Music. College Road Trip is a very funny and warm look at a bond between a daughter and her father.

--Sarah Lloyd-Slifkin (age 10) and Rosie Lloyd-Slifkin (age 7)

CRITERION CORNER: More terrific films getting the first-rate treatment from the Criterion Collection. Each one is loaded with commentaries, featurettes and great extras, plus wonderful new transfers.

Leading off the new batch are three Max Ophuls films. La Ronde (1950) is a landmark French film with a signature style—multiple characters and stories intersect—that laid the groundwork for such efforts as Short Cuts, Crash, and Babel. Anton Walbrook and Simone Signoret star in the film, which is set in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century. Also from Ophuls is Le Plaisir (1952), a three-story anthology, all centering on the theme of pleasure, and starring Jean Gabin and Jean Servais. Another Ophuls outing is The Earrings Of Madame De… (1953), centering on the consequences resulting when the wife of a wealthy general sells a set of prized earrings to pay off debts. Look for elaborate camera movements, a playful quality and lots of irony in all cases.

Two Criterion releases showcase the work of French director Jean-Pierre Melville, known for his first-rate crime films which often feature shadowy characters, moody atmosphere and guys in trenchcoats and fedoras. Le Doulos (1962) is one of his best. Stool pigeon Jean-Paul Belmondo gets out of the slammer and into hot water when he partakes in what should be a simple heist. Less well-known but no less accomplished is Le Deuxieme Souffle (1966), in which Lino Ventura plays a ruthless mobster who escapes from the pokey and gets involved with swiping $1 million in platinum and getting revenge on the crime boss who turned him in.

Also from Criterion are two acclaimed works by independent pioneer John Cassavetes, finally available separately from the company’s massive five-film set. A Woman Under The Influence (1974) features Cassavetes’ wife Gena Rowlands in a tour-de-force performance, playing a woman in Los Angeles with emotional problems and how she, husband Peter Falk and her three sons cope with it. And in The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie (1976), strip club owner Ben Gazzara finds himself in hot water when he owes mobsters thousands in debt and is asked to carry out a dastardly deed. The Criterion release includes both the shortened 109-minute version and the complete 135-minute edit, which was originally released in theaters.

Finally sighted on the horizon from Criterion is a two-disc special edition of Missing (1982), Costa-Gavras’ gripping fact-based tale teaming Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemmon as the wife and father of an American journalist who vanished during the 1973 Chilean coup, whose quest for answers resulted in bureaucratic roadblocks and chilling discoveries.

FROM THEATERS TO YOU—IN NO TIME FLAT: Here are the latest first-run titles that were just in theaters a second ago…

88 Minutes: That’s how long a mystery caller has given renowned forensic psychiatrist Al Pacino to live, and he’s got to thin out a long list of suspects that he’d helped put away. Alicia Witt, Amy Brenneman, Leelee Sobieski co-star.

Baby Mama: The SNL Weekend Update anchors are reunited onscreen, when successful (if infertile) businesswoman Tina Fey feels her biological clock ticking, and the best available surrogate turns out to be trailer-trash Amy Poehler. Steve Martin, Sigourney Weaver, Greg Kinnear co-star.

Chicago 10: Director Brett Morgen (The Kid Stays In The Picture) mixes animation and newsreel footage for a withering look at the chaos at the ’68 Democratic Convention and the anti-war activists put on trial in its wake; voicework courtesy of Nick Nolte, Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schreiber and Roy Scheider.

Deception: Steamy thriller in which meek accountant Ewan McGregor gets embroiled in an underground sex club by smooth new lawyer pal Hugh Jackman, setting the stage for intrigue and betrayal. Michelle Williams, Natasha Henstridge, Charlotte Rampling co-star.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall: Latest from the Judd Apatow chuckle posse offers Jason Segel (who also scripted) as a TV composer devastated when dumped by actress girlfriend Kristen Bell, who heads to Hawaii to forget…and runs right into her and new boyfriend Russell Brand. Mila Kunis co-stars.

Hell Ride: A retro cycle flick made under Quentin Tarantino’s auspices, this instant cult fave offers writer-director-star Larry Bishop and Michael Madsen straddling their hogs in order to run down the Satan-worshipping biker bunch who killed their brother. Dennis Hopper co-stars.

The Love Guru: Plenty of spiritual self-help silliness with Mike Myers as a fame-crazed ashram runaway who’s hired by Toronto Maple Leafs owner Jessica Alba to wrest her star player’s wife back from Kings goalie Justin Timberlake. Verne Troyer, Ben Kingsley co-star.

Pathology: Creepy tale stars Milo Ventimiglia as an arrogant young doctor starting a coveted residency at a prestigious hospital, who discovers that his new colleagues have some perverse notions about spending their downtime. Alyssa Milano co-stars.

Run Fatboy Run: Enjoyable comedy starring Simon Pegg (who-co wrote with Michael Ian Black) as a loser who decides that he’s going to try and win back the woman (Thandie Newton) that he left pregnant at the altar five years earlier by running a marathon. Hank Azaria co-stars in David Schwimmer’s directing debut.

Speed Racer: Fast-paced family fun with the Wachowski Brothers’ ambitious eye-candy actioner, adapting the adventures of anime’s automotive ace (Emile Hirsch). Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, Matthew Fox co-star.

Standard Operating Procedure: The latest provocative documentary from Errol Morris brings a laser focus on the genesis and staging of the scandalous Abu Gharib detainee photos.

Street Kings: Training Day scripter David Ayer takes the director’s chair for this tale starring Keanu Reeves as a cop with a penchant for handing suspects due process at the end of his gun and gets targeted by internal affairs as a result. Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans co-star.

Taxi To The Dark Side: This year’s Oscar winner for Best Documentary, this sobering indictment of U.S. prosecution of the War on Terror starts with the tale of a wrongly-accused Afghan cabbie who died after torture at an American prison, and goes up the chain from there. Powerful entry from the makers of Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room.

What Happens In Vegas: Sin City silliness abounds when just-fired slacker Ashton Kutcher and just-dumped exec Cameron Diaz meet, get drunk, and get hitched…and have the morning after further complicated when one hits a $3 million jackpot. Rob Corddry, Lake Bell, Queen Latifah co-star.

Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?: Documentarian Morgan Spurlock follows up his month of eating nothing but Mickey Dee’s by trying to accomplish what U.S. intelligence hasn’t, heading to the Middle East to track down the world’s most wanted man.

You Don’t Mess With The Zohan: Hit action comedy from Adam Sandler casts him as Israel’s premiere counterterrorism operative, who chucks his now-tiresome grind to pursue his lifelong dream of hairdressing in NYC, but can’t cut and run from his old enemies. John Turturro, Rob Schneider, Emmanuelle Chriqui co-star.

Young@Heart: A traveling choir of senior citizens whose repertoire consists of rock anthems? Strange but true, funny, and touching, this documentary is not to be missed.

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