Home Entertainment : Costner’s ‘Earp’ Gives Life to Old Earp Videos

With last week’s theatrical release of “Wyatt Earp,” starring Kevin Costner, preceded by the video debut of another Earp movie, “Tombstone,” with Kurt Russell, there’s renewed interest in the frontier marshal.

Now video retailers are prominently displaying old movies about Earp that had been buried in the Western bins.

The best of the lot are “My Darling Clementine” (1946) and “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” (1957). Directed by John Ford, “Clementine” features Henry Fonda as Earp and Victor Mature as Doc Holliday. This is one of the great Westerns of that era, with Mature, playing Holliday as a dashing scholar, giving one of the two best performances of his career (“Kiss of Death” was the other). The chemistry between Fonda and Mature is terrific.

Until “Tombstone,” the Earp movie with the best action sequences was “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral,” with Burt Lancaster as Earp and Kirk Douglas as Holliday. Directed by John Sturges, it features some taut, marvelously edited action sequences. Some Western-film fans list this as one of the top five Westerns of the ‘50s, just after “High Noon” and “Shane.”

“Frontier Marshal,” from 1939, is little more than a B Western, with Cesar Romero hamming it up as Holliday and Randolph Scott making Earp as interesting as a tumbleweed. “Wichita” (1955), which focuses on Earp, isn’t much better, with Joel McCrea playing the hero with zero flair. What’s worse, the action scenes aren’t even well staged.

Another one to skip is “Hour of the Gun,” a 1967 movie that follows Earp (James Garner) and Holliday (Jason Robards) in the post-O.K. Corral period. A fairly dull Western, with Robards’ Holliday the least interesting of all the screen characterizations.

“Doc” (1971), with Stacy Keach as Holliday and Harris Yullin as Earp, isn’t out on video yet but it’s probably for the best. This colorless Western is the worst of all the Earp movies.

Videobits

The pilot for the “I Love Lucy” series, shown on TV for the first time a few years ago, is just out on video, on CBS at $13. What makes “I Love Lucy: The Very First Show” really a must for hard-core fans is the commentary by Lucie Arnaz--daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz--and the scriptwriters.

There have long been complaints that major video companies neglect the Spanish-language market--particularly the kidvid segment. Buena Vista helped fill that void this week, releasing 10 Spanish-language tapes, including the animated “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Sword and the Stone,” “Pinocchio” and “Alice in Wonderland” at $25 each, and four “Sing-Along” tapes at $13 each. Southern California retailers with large Latino clienteles are expected to do good business with these videos.

Foreign Films

“Mon Oncle,” starring Jacques Tati, is one of the best French comedies ever. The 1958 film is available, digitally remastered, on Home Vision Cinema. For $30, with English subtitles, (800) 323-4222. . . . For those who have never seen famed Japanese actor Kazuo Hasegawa, he’s excellent in the 1979 movie “An Actor’s Revenge,” director Kon Ichikawa’s film about the revenge mission of an actor from a Kabuki troupe. A subtitled rental from New Yorker Video, (800) 447-0196. . . . Coming from New Yorker on July 13, “The Sun’s Burial,” a grim, fascinating drama set in an Osaka slum, about illegal blood-selling. It’s directed by Nagisa Oshima, best known for the steamy “In the Realm of the Senses.”

Special Interest Videos

An outstanding documentary, “Schindler,” came out Wednesday as a rental on HBO. It’s about the hero of Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List,” featuring interviews with some of the Jews he helped survive the Holocaust. . . . With “The Lion King” dominating the box office, kiddies will want related videos. One possibility is “The Jungle King,” the animated feature about a lion maturing into king-of-the-jungle status. Youngsters should find this one entertaining. On Sony Wonder at $25. . . . For UFO fanatics, the hourlong “Visitors From Space” makes a fairly convincing case--with interviews and photos--that aliens have come to Earth. Too talky at times but often absorbing. For $40 from Films of the Nation Video, (908) 462-3522.

What’s New On Video;

“Philadelphia” (Columbia TriStar); Hollywood’s first major-star AIDS movie is significant because of its message about tolerance. Tom Hanks won the Oscar for his very sympathetic role as a lawyer who’s fired when his firm discovers he’s a homosexual with AIDS. He sues the firm, hiring a lawyer (Denzel Washington) who also has to deal with his own homophobia. The courtroom battle is the centerpiece of the movie, which is sometimes genuinely moving--but at times it goes Hollywood and turns shameless tear-jerker.

“In the Name of the Father” (MCA/Universal); The true story of a brash young Irishman (Daniel Day-Lewis) who’s wrongfully jailed, with his father (Pete Postlethwaite), in 1974 for a English pub-bombing that killed five people. Riveting drama, set largely in prison, focusing on the father-son relationship, the ugly Irish-English feud and the efforts of their attorney (Emma Thompson) to set them free. Great acting by the entire cast. The three stars were all nominated for Oscars, along with the movie and director Jim Sheridan.

“Naked” (New Line); Writer-director Mike Leigh’s movie, set in London, is tough going because the lead character is so unsavory. But if you’re in the mood for a gut-wrenching downer, try to sit through the adventures of this bright, rebellious, abusive, reckless loser--brilliantly played by David Thewlis. The irony is that he does such a good job playing a distasteful character that the movie itself is distasteful.

“Blindfold: Acts of Obsession” (Libra); Most fans will skip the R edition of this movie, which was shown on cable, in favor of the unrated version, which features added footage--nude scenes of star Shannen Doherty. She plays a housewife in the throes of an affair with her kinky therapist (Judd Nelson). Doherty gives a zesty performance, helping to make this a cut above the usual cheesy fare in the soft-core porn genre.

FILMS ON VIDEO

Recent films coming out on video: MCA/Universal’s “Greedy,” with Michael J. Fox and Kirk Douglas on Aug. 31. Also: “Grumpy Old Men,” “Sugar Hill,” “House Party 3” and “Romeo Is Bleeding” (Wednesday); “Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit,” “Shadowlands,” “Reality Bites,” “Searching for Bobby Fischer,” “Blink,” “Heaven and Earth” and “Body Snatchers” (July 13); “On Deadly Ground,” “Car 54, Where Are You?” and “My Father the Hero” (July 20); “Thumbelina” (July 26); “Wrestling Ernest Hemingway,” “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?,” “Cabin Boy” and “Blank Check” (July 27); “Major League II,” “Angie” and “The Chase” (Aug. 3); “Beethoven’s 2nd” (Aug. 9); “Intersection,” “My Girl 2,” “The Ref” and “Chasers” (Aug. 10); “Schindler’s List” and “I’ll Do Anything” (Aug. 17); “Blue Chips” and “Like Water for Chocolate” (Aug. 24); “Four Weddings and a Funeral” (Aug. 25); “D2: The Mighty Ducks” (Aug. 26); “8 Seconds” (Aug. 31); “Tim Burton’s the Nightmare Before Christmas” (Sept. 30); “Jurassic Park” (Oct. 4); “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (Oct. 28).