A Classic Returns

One of the all-time great World War II flicks, 1945’s “The Story of G.I. Joe,” has finally been released on video ($20) and DVD ($25) by Image Entertainment.

And the William Wellman-directed classic has held up remarkably well over the last 55 years. Burgess Meredith gives a memorable performance as the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ernie Pyle, one of the most famous war correspondents. The film, based on his columns, focuses on Pyle as he follows a group of infantryman while they do battle from North Africa to Italy.

Robert Mitchum received his only Oscar nomination as Capt. Bill Walker, a gruff but thoughtful commander. Freddie Steele is also compelling as a sergeant who carries a carefully wrapped recording of his young son’s greetings.

Many of the soldiers who appear in the film were veterans of the Italian campaign and several died in action before “G.I. Joe” was released. Pyle himself was killed by enemy fire in the Pacific in 1945 at the age of 44.

Wellman, a World War I veteran who directed the first Oscar-winning film, “Wings,” does a marvelous job with “G.I. Joe.” He offers some great touches, as when the company witnesses its first casualty. Even the company’s mangy dog gives a touching performance, crying on cue each time one of his caretakers dies. Get out a hankie for the final scene.

The DVD features a short clip of the real Pyle interviewing soldiers, along with copies of his columns.

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Two new oldies from Kino on Video are a mixed bag.

“On Our Merry Way” ($25 for VHS; $30 for DVD) is a 1948 comedy that’s neither very merry nor very funny, despite a cast that includes Burgess Meredith, Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda. It’s a four-vignette affair that is tied together by Meredith’s “Man on the Street” news columnist. Fred MacMurray, Dorothy Lamour and Paulette Goddard round out the cast.

It is worth watching, though, just to see Stewart and Fonda play down-on-their-luck jazz musicians; their story was penned by John O’Hara and directed--uncredited--by John Huston and George Stevens.

German Douglas Sirk made his American film debut with 1946’s “A Scandal in Paris” ($25 for VHS), a glossy bit of froth starring the always enjoyable George Sanders, who turns on the charm as a famous French thief and lover. Akim Tamiroff, who is almost unrecognizable with a bizarre nose, Carole Landis and Signe Hasso also star.

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Bruce Brown’s 1971 documentary “On Any Sunday,” which featured Steve McQueen, is considered one of the best documentaries on motorcycle racing. “On Any Sunday Revisited” (Monterey, $20 for VHS and DVD), directed by Brown’s son, Dana, looks at the making of the Oscar-nominated original and features clips from that film, as well as footage never used, plus current interviews with Bruce Brown and several of the motorcycle racers profiled in the movie.

The DVD also features rider profiles, a McQueen biography and a scrapbook. There’s also a boxed video set ($50), which features “On Any Sunday,” “On Any Sunday II” and “On Any Sunday Revisited.”

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The digital version of “Man on the Moon” ($30, Universal), the Andy Kaufman biopic starring Jim Carrey, is a disappointment. The wide-screen edition features a standard behind-the-scenes documentary, music videos with R.E.M., production notes and some interesting deleted scenes. But there is no audio commentary with director Milos Forman or star Carrey, which would have added immeasurably to the viewing experience.

Paramount Home Video is jumping on the Kaufman bandwagon, releasing three volumes of episodes on video of the classic TV series “Taxi” ($10 each), which highlight his character of Latka.

Also new from Paramount is “Andy Kaufman Plays Carnegie Hall” ($13 for VHS), from 1979. The evening begins with a song and some patter by Kaufman’s obnoxious alter ego, Tony Clifton, and features Kaufman doing his wonderful Elvis Presley impression as well as challenging the women in the audience to wrestle him.

There are some bizarre guests, including a man who sings “Happy New Year” in Times Square every Jan. 1. And its’ a hoot to find out who actually is playing Kaufman’s devoted granny. The finale finds Kaufman leading the audience to buses, on which they depart for milk and cookies.

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New on DVD from Columbia TriStar is the harrowing, fact-based drama “Girl, Interrupted” ($25), starring Wynona Ryder as a young woman who is sent to a mental institution for women after she takes an overdose of pills. Angelina Jolie won the Oscar and Golden Globe for the performance as Lisa, the charming, manipulative and deeply troubled inmate who befriends Ryder.

The DVD features a wide-screen transfer, a featurette that originally aired on HBO, an isolated music score and several deleted scenes with commentary from writer-director James Mangold.

The original cut of the film was three hours, Mangold says, so most of these deleted scenes occur early in the film, before Ryder goes to the institution. Mangold realized he needed to get her to the facility early on in the film because that’s where the drama is.

The director also is featured on the audio track, talking about how he was inspired to play with time and space in the opening sequences by George Roy Hill’s 1972 version of Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five.”

A fan of silent films, Mangold wanted actions to speak louder than words in his scenes. For example, there are only a few lines of dialogue in the powerful scene in which a nurse (Whoopi Goldberg) has to watch Ryder shave her legs with a razor because the staff is afraid she’ll try to hurt herself. He says he thinks Ryder would have been a perfect silent film star--not because of her evocative eyes, but because of the way she can express her feelings with the rest of her face and body.