****Excellent ***Good **Fair *Poor : VIDEOCASSETTES

“Red Beard.” Media/Cinematheque Collection. $59.95 (two cassettes). This was the last of Akira Kurosawa’s black-and-white movies, his final film to star Toshiro Mifune, and also--even more than “Seven Samurai”--the one on which he lavished the most sustained, painstaking effort. Though set in period and 185 minutes long, it’s a non-action film, except for one brief, almost tongue-in-cheek street brawl. Instead, Kurosawa steeps us in the misery of a charity hospital where a young, self-centered doctor (Yuzo Kayama) gradually learns compassion and self-sacrifice from his gruff, tyrannical mentor (Mifune). The 1965 film is constructed in long, sparsely edited scenes of near-excruciating intensity. Stylistically, it’s Kurosawa’s most Mizoguchian film and, with “Ikiru,” the starkest statement of his belief in the imperiled but essential goodness of man. Released in the correct wide-screen “letterbox” format. Information: (213) 216-7900. ****