Golden Screen Gems Make Video Debut

Take the phone off the hook. Pop a barrel of popcorn. Then sit back and enjoy a slew of golden oldies making their home video debuts.

A definite must-see is “Sudden Fear” (Kino, $20), an absolutely fab 1952 film noir starring Joan Crawford at her scenery-chewing best. She plays a wealthy playwright who marries a charming actor (Jack Palance), only to discover that he and his vamp of a girlfriend (Gloria Grahame) are planning to murder her.

Crawford received an Oscar nomination for her fun performance. Though Palance isn’t exactly the hunky leading-man type, he also was nominated for his deliciously menacing turn as Crawford’s two-faced husband. Grahame is at her va-va-va-voom best as the femme fatale.

Also new from Kino is 1951’s “Pandora and the Flying Dutchman” ($20), which features Jack Cardiff’s stunningly beautiful Technicolor images and nice performances from Ava Gardner and James Mason. But this romantic fantasy is a meandering disappointment. To order from Kino: (800) 562-3330.

If you love mysteries, you’ll get a kick out of Home Vision Cinema’s “The Bulldog Drummond Collector’s Set” ($30 each; $100 for the set). Ronald Colman first played Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond, the British ex-Army officer with a flair for adventure, back in 1929. In the late ‘30s, Paramount made a series of low-budget but veddy entertaining flicks based on Herman Cyril McNeile’s popular detective stories.

The collection features eight mysteries including “Bulldog Drummond Escapes,” “Bulldog Drummond Comes Back” and “Bulldog Drummond’s Peril.” Ray Milland plays the engaging sleuth in “Bulldog Drummond Escapes.” John Howard stars in all subsequent flicks. John Barrymore is all ham as the master-of-disguise Col. Nielson. To order: (800) 826-3456, ext. 336.

Glenn Ford, Jack Lemmon and Anna Kashfi (the first Mrs. Marlon Brando) star in “Cowboy” (Columbia TriStar, $15), an underrated 1958 western about a young tenderfoot who becomes a tough cattleman.

On Feb. 6, MCA/Universal is adding four more titles ($20 each) to its popular “Deanna Durbin Collection.” Durbin, who retired from films in 1948, was one of the biggest musical-comedy stars of the ‘30s and ‘40s, first charming audiences with a beautiful soprano voice and engaging screen personality as a young teenager in 1936’s “Three Smart Girls.”

The newest additions feature the enchanting 1939 modern-day Cinderella story “First Love,” in which Durbin received her first screen kiss from a young Robert Stack. She and Herbert Marshall headline the entertaining 1938 musical-comedy “Mad About the Music.”

Durbin, Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone star in the standard 1943 musical farce “His Butler’s Sister.” And a grown-up Durbin stars in the 1945 pleasant mystery-comedy “Lady on a Train.”

Also scheduled for release on Feb. 6 is FoxVideo’s “The Black Swan” ($20), a rip-roaring 1942 pirate adventure starring a very dashing Tyrone Power, Maureen O’Hara, Anthony Quinn and George Sanders. Leon Shamroy’s shimmering Technicolor cinematography received an Oscar.

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Foreign Affairs: Gerard Depardieu and Roman Polanski star in the offbeat French psychological thriller “A Pure Formality” (Columbia TriStar).

New Yorker Video is offering three provocative French films: Dominique Sanda made her film debut in Robert Bresson’s “A Gentle Woman,” a 1969 drama about a young woman who commits suicide because of her miserable marriage. This was Bresson’s (“A Man Escaped”) first film in color.

Alain Tanner directed 1981’s “Messidor,” an intense drama about two disenchanted teenage girls hitchhiking in Switzerland. “Chasing Butterflies” is a 1993 comedy examining the social decay in a charming French village. Narda Blanchet stars.

New This Week: Julia Roberts, Dennis Quaid and Kyra Sedgwick star in the romantic drama “Something to Talk About” (Warner Home Video).

Peter Greene stars in “Clean, Shaven” (Fox Lorber), a disturbing drama about a schizophrenic desperately searching for his daughter.

Gary Sinise received a Golden Globe for his performance as President Harry S. Truman in the HBO drama “Truman” (HBO Video).

Larry Clark directed “Kids” (Vidmark), a controversial drama about 24 hours in the life of a group of teenagers.

Steve Guttenberg stars in “The Big Green” (Walt Disney Home Video, $20), a comedy about a group of young misfits who become local soccer heroes.

Thomas Ian Nicholas headlines “A Kid in King Arthur’s Court” (Walt Disney Home Video, $20), a comedy adventure about an ordinary kid transported back into medieval times.

Also new: “Wigstock: The Movie” (Hallmark Home Entertainment) and “National Lampoon’s Senior Trip” (New Line).