VIDEO NEWS

MOVIES

Last Sunday marked the 100th anniversary of Charlie Chaplin’s birth, and Key Video is celebrating the occasion this week with the re-release of 11 tapes containing the comedian/director’s greatest films at the bargain price of $19.98. Included are “City Lights,” “Modern Times,” “Monsieur Verdoux,” “The Great Dictator” and a combined “The Kid”/”The Idle Class.”

Another classic new on videocassette this week is “The Merry Widow” (MGM/UA, $29.95), the 1934 Ernst Lubitsch comedy/musical starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald.

On a far less sublime level, the week’s video pickings include the action thriller with the silliest movie title of 1988, “Amsterdamned” (Vestron, $89.98, R), and the silly-headed “Cocktail” (Touchstone, $89.95, R), featuring Tom Cruise as an acrobatic bartender--before “Rain Man” made him respectable again.

Other new releases include (remarkably soon after its theatrical release) “Some Girls” (MGM/UA, $89.95, R), which The Times’ Sheila Benson called “a smart, enticing enchantment that may be the first sexual comedy to look like an Art Nouveau fairy tale,” “Memories of Me” (CBS/Fox, $89.98, PG-13), a father-son comedy/drama with Alan King and Billy Crystal, “Nijinsky” (Paramount, no suggested price), a 1980 movie about the great, eccentric dancer, directed by Herbert Ross (“The Turning Point”), “Under the Gun” (Magnum, $79.98, R), a violent thriller starring singer/former Miss America Vanessa Williams, and several Nelson Eddy/Jeanette MacDonald musicals from the ‘30s and early ‘40s: “Sweethearts,” “I Married an Angel,” “The Girl of the Golden West,” “Bitter Sweet” and “The Chocolate Soldier” ($29.95 each).

OTHER VIDEOS

Chaplin also figures in what’s perhaps the most carefully crafted, informative and entertaining documentary series ever made about the silent film. “Hollywood,” shown both on PBS and in commercial-channel syndication, is now available in thirteen 52-minute volumes from HBO ($19.99 each). The superb series, put together by David Gill and Kevin Brownlow and narrated by James Mason, features detailed, often revelatory looks at the more important aspects of the art. Chaplin and Buster Keaton are the focus of the excellent “Comedy--A Serious Business” entry.

Legends from a different field are captured in concert film seen previously only on Cinemax cable: “Jimi Hendrix: Live in Monterey, 1967” and “Otis Redding: Live in Monterey, 1967” are the complete performances (seen in part in “Monterey Pop”). Both are available from HBO ($19.99) as are “The Doors: Live in Europe, 1968” and “John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band: Live Peace in Toronto, 1969.”

Paramount is releasing three of the “Live from Lincoln Center” performances seen on PBS: “The Barber of Seville” (1976, Beverly Sills), “Giselle” (1977, Natalia Makarova, Mikhail Baryshinikov) and “An Evening with Danny Kaye” (1981). The tapes carry no suggested retail price--check with your dealer for details regarding rental or purchase.