‘Platoon’ to Sell for Highest Price Yet--$99.95; ‘Fallen Sparrow,’ With John Garfield, Is Back

“Platoon,” last year’s Oscar-winning hit about the Vietnam War, will reach home video markets Oct. 14 with a price tag of $99.95, the highest price of any current mainstream video.

When a movie makes its home video debut at such a high retail price, the company assumes it will be a very popular rental. When a video company sells to retailers and distributors at steep prices, it generally means that the video company is trying to cash in on the rental profits in which it normally doesn’t share.

According to Home Video Publisher, “Platoon’s” video release will be accompanied by a $1.5 million promotion campaign. Distributor HBO Video plans to wait a year before re-releasing the tape at a lower price, 75 days before releasing the film to pay-for-view cable, and six months before its regular cable-television run, Home Video Publisher said.

The movie has brought in $100 million to date at the box office.

Some observers suggest that the high price tag may scare off some collectors, who will wait to buy the tape until the price drops to $30 or less, which may not be till next summer--after “Platoon” has passed its rental peak.

OLD MOVIES: If you’re in the mood for a suspenseful, black-and-white World War II spy thriller, “The Fallen Sparrow” (Fox Hills, 1943, $19.95) is a good bet. John Garfield stars as a shell-shocked ex-soldier who’s harboring a secret the Nazis want. Garfield, in a Bogart-type role, has some classic tough-guy dialogue. It’s worth seeing just to watch Maureen O’Hara in a rare role as a temptress. There’s a lot of flag-waving but that’s part of the fun of watching movies from the early ‘40s.

“Paris When It Sizzles” (Paramount, 1964, $29.95) doesn’t sizzle. It’s supposedly a comedy about a screenwriter (William Holden) and his secretary (Audrey Hepburn) who use fantasies as a writing aid, but there’s not much to laugh at. Some analyses of Hepburn’s career single this one out as her worst movie. Lone bright spots are the Parisian scenery and appearances by Noel Coward and Marlene Dietrich.

On Oct. 15, at $69.95, RCA/Columbia is releasing “I Never Sang for My Father,” a grim, underrated, 1970 family drama starring Gene Hackman and Melvyn Douglas.

On Aug. 30, four Marilyn Monroe movies--”Monkey Business,” “Niagara,” “River of No Return” and “Let’s Make Love”--will make their home video debut on CBS-Fox at $19.98. Also, the price of six other previously released Monroe titles, including “How to Marry a Millionaire” and “Gentleman Prefer Blondes,” will be reduced to $19.98

On Sept. 16, two great foreign film dramas from Embassy at $29.95: director Rene Clement’s “Forbidden Games,” which won the best-foreign language film Oscar for 1952, and “Two Women,” which earned Sophia Loren the 1961 best-actress Oscar. Also, Paramount’s “The Red Shoes,” the 1948 classic based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, is due out Sept. 23 at $19.95.

NEW RELEASES: Paramount’s “Critical Condition,” starring Richard Pryor, is more heartwarming than funny, which is true of nearly all his features. This is the same character he’s played in other movies--the small-time hustler with a heart of gold who redeems himself by helping the good guys. This time he’s in a New York hospital trying to escape a jail term by faking insanity. One long night, when a blackout and a storm cause chaos, he poses as a doctor and, through various scams and cons, helps the beleaguered New York hospital make it through the night.

There aren’t many laughs (the comedy scenes are flat) but fans who enjoy seeing Pryor’s character triumph over assorted adversities should enjoy it. Critics were blase about the movie, directed by Michael Apted, but it was a modest hit because there are enough Pryor fans out there who’ll watch him in anything .

In Vestron’s thriller “The Bedroom Window,” Steve Guttenberg stars as an executive who’s having a fling with the boss’s wife (Isabelle Huppert). Looking out his bedroom window, she witnesses an assault on a cocktail waitress (Elizabeth McGovern). To avoid exposing their affair, the executive reports the assault, claiming he was the witness. Through a series of strange events, he winds up as a suspected killer. The consensus was that, though initially absorbing, the movie crumbles in the second half under the weight of implausibilities. Still, through writer-director Curtis Hanson’s slick techniques and McGovern’s compelling second-half performance, it does hold your attention.

In Lorimar’s “King Kong Lives,” which overly humanizes the big ape, he’s bounced back from that nasty fall off the Empire State Building and has a lady friend. While being studied at an institute, they escape and spend the rest of the movie battling soldiers--with a little help from their friends, played by Linda Hamilton and Brian Kerwin. This isn’t a critics’ movie. But monster-movie lovers--who thrive on hokiness--should be enthralled.

CHARTS (Compiled by Billboard magazine) TOP VIDEOCASSETTES, RENTALS 1--”The Color Purple” (Warner Video).

2--”The Golden Child” (Paramount).

3--”Crimes of the Heart” (Lorimar).

4--”Little Shop of Horrors” (Warner Bros.).

5--”Hannah and Her Sisters” (HBO).

6--”The Morning After” (Lorimar).

7--”Heartbreak Ridge” (Warner Video).

8--”The Color of Money” (Touchstone).

9--”Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (CBS-Fox).

10--”Children of a Lesser God” (Paramount).

TOP VIDEOCASSETTES, SALES 1--”Jane Fonda’s Low Impact Aerobic Workout” (Lorimar).

2--”Top Gun” (Paramount).

3--”Callanetics” (MCA).

4--”Here’s Mickey!” (Disney).

5--”Jane Fonda’s New Workout” (Lorimar).

6--”The Color Purple” (Warner Video).

7--”Kathy Smith’s Body Basics” (JCI).

8--”Sleeping Beauty” (Disney).

9--”Here’s Donald!” (Disney).

10--”Playboy Video Centerfold 5” (Lorimar).