Whoopee! Some Vintage Film Offerings

The past few months have been pretty slim for the avid video collector because very few vintage flicks came out over the summer.

But now that fall is here, the vaults have been opened. Here’s a look at what’s new in the oldies-but-goodies market.

From the 1920s through the 1950s, banjo-eyed Eddie Cantor was one of the most popular stars of vaudeville, Broadway, movies, radio and television. His films, though, are rarely shown on television these days.

Thanks to HBO, Cantor’s fans are in for a treat. HBO’s new “The Eddie Cantor Giftset Collection” ($80 for the set; $15 each) features six of the musical comedies the beloved Cantor made for Samuel Goldwyn in the 1930s.

The HBO collection includes three Cantor films that previously have been released on video: 1930’s “Whoopee!,” based on his Broadway hit in which he plays a hypochondriac; 1932’s “Roman Scandals,” which features Lucille Ball as a chorine; and 1934’s “Kid Millions,” which also features Ethel Merman and the Nicholas Brothers.

New to video is the creaky 1931 musical “Palmy Days,” which finds Cantor playing the nervous aide to a fake fortuneteller, who accidentally finds himself hired as the new efficiency expert at a bakery. Busby Berkeley staged the spiffy musical numbers, which include the catchy “‘My Baby Said Yes, Yes.” Look for Betty Grable as one of the chorus girls.

Grable also appears in the opening number of 1932’s “The Kid From Spain,” an entertaining little farce in which Cantor finds himself mistaken for a famous bullfighter. Robert Young also stars.

Last, and definitely least, is 1936’s “Strike Me Pink,” a threadbare comedy dealing with mobsters in an amusement park. Ethel Merman also stars.

Be warned, though, several of these films unfortunately feature Cantor doing musical numbers in blackface. In this day and age, these sequences are painful to watch.

For baby boomers and their kids, there’s Walt Disney Home Video’s “The Love Bug Collection” ($20 each), featuring the popular live-action adventures of the four-wheel hero Herbie: “The Love Bug,” “Herbie Rides Again,” “Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo” and “Herbie Goes Bananas.”

MGM is offering three new gift sets ($43 each). The Frank Capra Collection features 1933’s “Lady for a Day,” 1959’s “A Hole in the Head” and his last film, 1961’s “Pocketful of Miracles,” which was a remake of “Lady for a Day.”

The Humphrey Bogart Collection includes 1942’s legendary “Casablanca,” 1948’s “Key Largo” and the video debut of the recently discovered director’s cut, from 1945, of “The Big Sleep.”

The Elizabeth Taylor Collection includes 1950’s “Father of the Bride,” 1958’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and 1960’s “Butterfield 8,” for which she won her first best actress Oscar.

For connoisseurs of camp, there’s William Castle’s delicious 1958 thriller “House on Haunted Hill” (Warner, $15), starring Vincent Price as a multimillionaire who invites a group of people to spend the night at a haunted house and win $10,000 if they survive. Definitely watch with the lights out.

Also new from Warner is the dreadful horror flick “Frankenstein 1970” ($15), which was actually made in 1958. This time around, Boris Karloff--who devours the scenery whole--doesn’t play Frankenstein’s monster but Dr. Frankenstein. Snooze.

Warner Bros. Classics ($20 each) presents the widescreen edition of 1971 Clint Eastwood classic “Dirty Harry,” which also features the theatrical trailers for all five Dirty Harry movies.

Earlier this year, Paramount released the 25th anniversary edition of “The Godfather.” Now, Warner Bros. Classics has spruced up and remastered another noteworthy film from 1972: the Oscar-nominated “Deliverance” ($20), with Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds. The video includes the original trailer and a “making of” featurette and is available in widescreen.

MGM also is making several epics available in widescreen for the first time ($25 each) including “The Big Country,” “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and the 1962 version of “Mutiny on the Bounty.”