Vintage Advantage

Movie buffs should be in celluloid heaven this month with the release of several vintage flicks on home video.

Brew some Earl Grey tea, nosh on crumpets slathered with lemon curd and watch Kino’s “British Classics of the 1930s and 1940s” ($25 each), a six-film collection:

* Alfred Hitchcock fans will want to check out “Jamaica Inn” (1939), a thriller remastered from 35-millimeter footage. It’s the last movie Hitch made in England before he left for Hollywood. Too bad it’s a disappointment, a dull adaptation of Daphne duMaurier’s tale of a band of cutthroats and knaves operating in Cornwall. Charles Laughton, Robert Newton and, in her film debut, Maureen O’Hara star.

* Carol Reed’s “Night Train to Munich” (1940) is a ripping good war thriller starring “sexy Rexy” Harrison as a British agent on a mission to rescue a Czech scientist out of Nazi Germany. Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne (reprising their comedic characters from 1938’s “The Lady Vanishes”) and Margaret Lockwood also star.

* A pre-”Gone With the Wind” Vivien Leigh stars as an ambitious dancer in the sentimental romantic drama “St. Martin’s Lane” (1938). Charles Laughton steals the show with a touching performance as a middle-age busker who takes Leigh under his wing and falls in love with her. Rex Harrison also stars, as a suave songwriter. (Released in the United States as “Sidewalks of London.”)

* The pleasant romance “Wings of Morning” (1937) is best known as England’s first Technicolor film. Lushly photographed by Jack Cardiff and Ray Rennahan, “Wings” stars Annabella as a Gypsy princess who falls in love with a Canadian horse trainer (Henry Fonda). Irish tenor John McCormack also appears.

* The witty but talky drawing room comedy “On Approval” (1943), based on Frederick Lonsdale’s play, is worth watching for the delicious performances by Bea Lillie, Clive Brook (who also directed and wrote it), Googie Withers (currently in “Shine,” as the old writer who befriends David) and Roland Culver. This is the first U.S. release of the uncut version.

* Alexander Korda’s handsome production of “South Riding” (1938) is a compelling, juicy soap opera based on Winifred Holtby’s novel. Ralph Richardson, Edna Best, Edmund Gwenn and Glynis Johns star.

Columbia Classics Video has added 10 more titles to the line ($20 each). Among them: “Under the Yum Yum Tree,” a sex comedy from 1963 starring Jack Lemmon, Edie Adams and Carol Lynley; “They All Kissed the Bride,” a lightweight comedy from 1942 with Joan Crawford and Melvyn Douglas; “The Marrying Kind,” an underrated comedy-drama from 1952 starring the great Judy Holliday and Aldo Ray; “The Long Ships,” a silly Viking epic from 1964 starring Sidney Poitier and Richard Widmark; “Abandon Ship,” a gripping sea drama from 1957 with Tyrone Power and Mai Zetterling; “The Heroes of Telemark,” a World War II adventure from 1966 starring Richard Harris and Kirk Douglas; and “The Howards of Virginia,” an entertaining historical drama from 1940 starring Cary Grant.

Drop-dead handsome Tyrone Power is at his hunky best in the lavish costume drama “Captain From Castille” (1947) (FoxVideo, $15). Ty plays a Spanish nobleman who becomes an officer in Cortez’s expedition to Mexico and who seeks to avenge the treatment of his family by the Spanish Inquisitor (John Sutton). Jean Peters, in her film debut, plays the beautiful peasant girl who loves Power. This was shot in gorgeous Technicolor on location in Mexico, and Alfred Newman’s score is terrific. You’ll love this one.

New from Water Bearer Films in New York are two French films from the 1940s ($30 each). Jean-Pierre Melville wrote and directed “The Silence of the Sea” (1947), his film debut, set during the French Occupation. Edwige Feuillere, John Lodge and Alme Clariond star in Max Ophuls’ “Mayerling to Sarajevo” (1940), the last film Ophuls completed before coming to the United States. This drama recounts the marriage of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand to Countess Sophie, who both were assassinated in an incident that led to the outbreak of World War I.