TURN-ONS AND TURN-OFFS IN CURRENT HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES : ****Excellent ***Good **Fair *Poor : VIDEOCASSETTES

“Sylvia Scarlett.” Nostalgia Merchant. $19.95. This is one of those movies--scandalous flops in their day--that assume a whole different meaning for later generations. In 1935, audiences were bewildered or put off by the sexual chic of this George Cukor film with its British milieu of careless rich people and amoral grifters preying on them, its tart John Collier lines and, worst of all, a heroine in drag for most of the story--Katharine Hepburn, posing as “Sylvester Scarlett.” (There’s a love triangle among Hepburn, Cockney con man Cary Grant and randy artist Brian Aherne that’s complicated by the fact Aherne believes Hepburn’s a boy.) Truth to tell, the film is so daring that it gets strident at times, but it’s still a neglected gem--a buoyantly sly piece of what Cukor called “Laurel Canyon picaresque.” Information: (800) 421-4509. *** 1/2