Clearly, It’s a Funny Colbert and Gable

A few months ago, Columbia TriStar Home Video released a sumptuous DVD of the restored 1937 Frank Capra classic “Lost Horizon.” Now Columbia has given the star treatment to an equally enjoyable Capra film, the Oscar-winning 1934 comedy “It Happened One Night” ($25).

Beautifully restored and remastered, this romantic farce starring Claudette Colbert as a runaway heiress traveling to New York on a bus and Clark Gable as the newspaper reporter who wants her story has never looked or sounded better. The comedy, which won Oscars not only for best film but for best director, actor, actress and screenplay (Robert Riskin), probably hasn’t looked this crisp and clear since it was originally released nearly 70 years ago. Some scenes, including the one in which Gable carries Colbert across the river, are so beautiful they look as if they were shot on velvet.

Thankfully, the comedy is just as funny and romantic as it was back in ’34. Gable’s famous sequence without an undershirt, as well as the hitchhiking scene, are still wonderful bits of comedy.

The collector’s edition includes vintage advertising materials from the movie, a trailer and the original Lux Radio Theatre broadcast from 1939 featuring Gable and Colbert repeating their roles, as well as the movie’s original co-stars Walter Connelly and Roscoe Karns.

Frank Capra Jr. provides the commentary and is also featured in a short documentary about the film. Capra discusses how his father read a short story in a magazine called “Night Bus” and asked Columbia Studios to buy it for him. The director and Riskin set about working on the script. At first, Columbia wasn’t impressed, so Capra enlisted writer Marc Connelly to help out. Connelly suggested some changes in Colbert’s heiress that would make her more likable and turned Gable’s character into a newspaper reporter.

Colbert didn’t want to do the movie because she was ready to start a month’s vacation. So Columbia head Harry Cohn told Capra he had a month to make the film in order to accommodate Colbert. Cohn also doubled Colbert’s usual salary of $25,000 to $50,000. The film itself cost just $325,000.

Though Colbert complained during the entire shoot and thought the film was going to be a disaster, Capra Jr. says Gable had a wonderful time doing a comedy. Gable ended up doing the picture because Louis B. Mayer loaned him out to Columbia after he balked at doing a picture at MGM.

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If you love “Dracula,” Universal has the DVD for you ($30). The disc not only has the restored version of the definitive 1931 “Dracula,” starring Bela Lugosi and directed by Tod Browning, it also has the same film with the new score by Philip Glass performed by the Kronos Quartet and the wonderful Spanish-language version, which was shot simultaneously on the same sets. The Spanish version, considered by numerous critics as superior to Lugosi’s, stars Carlos Villarias and Lupita Tovar.

The collector’s edition features production notes, a poster and photo montage and cast and crew biographies. “The Road to Dracula,” an original documentary by historian David J. Skal, provides an interesting history of “Dracula,” from how novelist Bram Stoker came up with the idea, to the various theatrical versions to the 1931 film version. Carla Laemmele, the niece of Universal founder Carl Laemmele, hosts the 30-minute documentary. In fact, she actually uttered the first words in the movie. Included in the documentary are interviews with Bela Lugosi Jr., horror novelist Clive Barker, film historian Scott MacQueen, makeup artist Ric Baker and actress Tovar. An interesting note: Lon Chaney was originally pursued to play the role of Count Dracula, but he died of cancer in 1930.

Skal also provides the informative audio commentary.

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In 1946, Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth lit up the screen in the torrid romantic melodrama “Gilda.” Two years later, they teamed up for “The Loves of Carmen,” which has just been released by Columbia TriStar ($28). The restored Technicolor transfer is stunningly beautiful. But this version of the classic story about the sexy Gypsy who snares the naive soldier (Ford) into her web is really pretty silly. Hayworth gets to perform some great Spanish dances, but Ford is very miscast as her lover. With his curly hair and outrageously ugly yellow and red uniform, it’s hard to believe any woman would fall in love with him.

This special edition includes trailers for this film as well as “Gilda” and “Pal Joey.” There’s also a selection of vintage advertising, as well as production notes. A short featurette, “The Columbia Lady,” offers a look at the career of Hayworth at the studio in the ‘40s and early ‘50s, but it ends too abruptly.

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More Oldies but Goodies: Also new from Columbia TriStar is the special edition of the endearing 1973 romance “The Way We Were” ($25), which stars Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford. The restored transfer is presented in wide screen and includes trailers and a new making-of documentary, “A Look Back,” which features interviews with Streisand and director Sydney Pollack. Also featured are production notes and commentary by Pollack.

The collector’s edition of 1984’s “Against All Odds” (Columbia TriStar, $25) includes the wide-screen version of the wan remake of the film noir classic “Out of the Past.” The disc also features theatrical trailers, seven deleted scenes, production notes, commentary from director Taylor Hackford and screenwriter Eric Hughes and another commentary track with Hackford and stars Jeff Bridges and James Woods.