A Great Month for Overlooked Titles : Retailers are showcasing movies about African Americans during Black History Month.

Shrewd video retailers have been using Black History Month--which is February--as a tool for pushing black-oriented movies, new and old.

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Retailers with significant black clienteles are showcasing classics about black family life, such as Paramount’s “Sounder,” starring Paul Winfield, and RCA/Columbia’s “A Raisin in the Sun,” featuring Sidney Poitier. These movies, usually buried in the classics section, often get star treatment in the front of the store throughout February. It’s a chance for movies that are generally overlooked to find an audience.

Black History Month should prove to be a boon to “Nothing but a Man,” one of the best--and most obscure--movies ever made about the black community. New Video Group decided this is the best time for this 1964 movie, starring Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln, to make its home video bow. It came out Wednesday, geared to the rental market.

The movie, a black-and-white independent effort made for only $230,000, examines the black community in the early days of the civil rights movement. The hero, played by Dixon, is a blue-collar type struggling to survive and maintain dignity in a hostile world. It deals insightfully and honestly with black rage, a subject that most filmmakers were still skirting in the early ‘60s.

Though it played in some theaters and was critically acclaimed, the film mainly as been seen in churches and schools, said Michael Roemer, who directed, co-wrote and co-produced “Nothing but a Man.”

“It’s never been regarded as a mass-market movie,” he said. “It’s been on public television but that’s all. Commercial television has considered showing it a few times but then ultimately decided against it.”

Why has it taken so long to come to home video?

“I have no idea,” Roemer replied. “They probably didn’t know how to market it. But New Video showed interest and saw a way to market it. Thank God for Black History Month.”

More Black History Month: “Menace II Society” came out two weeks ago, and “Poetic Justice,” with Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur, will be released Wednesday. “The Meteor Man,” Robert Townsend’s inner-city fairy tale, will be in stores Feb. 9. “Laurel Avenue,” the outstanding HBO miniseries about ghetto family life, was released Wednesday. On Feb. 16, Warner is introducing Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X” to the sales market, pricing it at $25.

Orion is promoting “King,” the 1978 miniseries about the life of Martin Luther King Jr., starring Paul Winfield. A good one-hour documentary about King, Xenon’s “A Historical Perspective,” featuring rare footage and photos, became available Wednesday.

“Only the Ball Was White” (MPI, $20) is an informative half-hour documentary, narrated by Winfield, about the Negro baseball leagues that existed before black players were allowed into the major leagues in the late 1940s.

Videobits

“A Woman’s View of Pro Football” (PolyGram, $20) is 45 minutes of amusing commentaries about the sport from women such as Ivana Trump and Joan Rivers. It should be a popular attraction at Super Bowl parties this weekend.

Looks like another banner year for Barney, the cuddly dinosaur. “Let’s Pretend With Barney” is just out, with another due in March, “Barney’s Alphabet Zoo.” In addition, there will be video versions of his March shows at New York’s Radio City Music Hall and his April TV special.

What’s New on Video

“Last Action Hero” (Columbia TriStar, no set price). One of the most expensive (cost estimates run as high as $120 million) flops in film history. In this convoluted, film-within-a-film fantasy, you’re often reminded that the action you’re watching isn’t real--a bummer for real action-movie fans. Arnold Schwarzenegger, as action-film hero Jack Slater, is clearly having fun poking fun at his image. Too bad the fun isn’t contagious.

“Coneheads” (Paramount, no set price). Feeling nostalgic for the Coneheads bits from the early “Saturday Night Live” shows? Then whatever you do, don’t rent this movie--it’ll destroy all those fond memories. Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin, who starred in the old skits, are reunited as the coneheaded, robot-like aliens who make bumbling attempts at being average Americans. Mostly juvenile humor that may have some appeal to the subteen and early teen set.

“Hard Target” (MCA/Universal, no set price). This classy action movie--kick-boxing star Jean-Claude Van Damme’s best ever--showcases the skills of Hong Kong director John Woo, who’s making his Hollywood debut. The hero is pitted against a decadent sportsman (Lance Henriksen) who arranges human-prey safaris for millionaires. It’s the umpteenth rip-off of 1932’s “The Most Dangerous Game”--but so what? The plot merely serves to kill time between the great action sequences.

“Rookie of the Year” (FoxVideo, no set price). In his directorial debut, Daniel Stern, who overdoes it playing the pitching coach, doesn’t miss a cliche in this comedy about a 12-year-old boy (Thomas Ian Nicholas) who mysteriously develops a blazing fastball and becomes a pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. Despite a procession of stereotypes, it’s entertaining hokum that manages to keep you interested--right down to the inevitable ninth-inning finale. Gary Busey co-stars.

Upcoming

Just announced: Touchstone’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” the Tina Turner biography starring Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne, due March 23. HBO/Savoy’s “A Bronx Tale,” directed by and featuring Robert De Niro, comes out April 6.

Also: “Kalifornia” and “Indochine” (Wednesday); “In the Line of Fire,” “Amongst Friends,” “The Real McCoy” and “That Night” (Feb. 9); “The Secret Garden” (Feb. 15); “Man Without a Face,” “The Program” and “Calendar Girl” (Feb. 16); “For Love or Money,” “Son of the Pink Panther,” “Dazed and Confused,” “Son-in-Law,” “Needful Things,” “Strictly Ballroom” and “Boxing Helena” (Feb. 23); “Much Ado About Nothing,” “The Good Son” and “Striking Distance” (March 2); “The Fox and the Hound” (March 4); “Manhattan Murder Mystery,” “Judgment Night” and “So I Married An Axe Murderer” (March 9); “Gettysburg” and “Bopha!” (March 16); “The Fugitive” (March 22); “Fatal Instinct” (March 23); “The Joy Luck Club” (March 30); “Malice” (April 13).