Does It Get Any Better Than Cary Grant Movies on DVD?

More and more vintage films are making their debuts on DVD. Warner Home Video has just released two beautifully restored Cary Grant classics in the digital format: “North by Northwest” and “Arsenic and Old Lace.”

The DVD of the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock romantic adventure “North by Northwest” ($25) is just plain wonderful.

The disc features a lush wide-screen transfer of the thriller, starring a very sexy Grant, as an advertising executive who is mistaken for a spy; Eva Marie Saint, as the blond double agent; and James Mason and Martin Landau, as the baddest of baddies.

Extra goodies include a nifty new documentary, “The Man on Lincoln’s Nose: The Making of North by Northwest,” which features recent interviews with Saint, Landau, screenwriter Ernest Lehman and Hitchcock’s daughter, Pat. There are some great stories in the documentary, such as Grant charging 15 cents for autographs, and MGM wanting Hitchcock to hire Cyd Charisse to play Saint’s role. Saint also points out a gaffe involving a little boy in the sequence in which she pretends to shoot Grant.

The documentary is also included on the just-released restored video edition ($20).

The DVD also has an isolated track of Bernard Herrmann’s pulsating score, two trailers--including a funny one with Hitchcock--cast and crew bios, a production-stills gallery and an informative audio commentary from Lehman.

Lehman talks about the fact that it was Herrmann who thought the writer would be a good match for Hitchcock and arranged an introduction. Originally, Hitchcock was going to direct the courtroom drama “The Wreck of the Mary Deare” and wanted Lehman to write it. But Lehman declined, saying he didn’t think he was the right person for the project. Hitchcock wasn’t used to people saying no to him, but instead of never talking to Lehman again, the director told him he’d always wanted to make a film with people running across Mt. Rushmore. Lehman started writing “North by Northwest.”

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Though there’s really nothing much extra on it, the digital version of the 1944 Frank Capra comedy “Arsenic and Old Lace” ($25) features a crisp, clean transfer of the macabre farce. “Arsenic and Old Lace” is based on the Broadway hit by Joseph Kesselring about two elderly sisters (Josephine Hull and Jean Adair) who poison old gentleman callers by putting arsenic in elderberry wine. Grant plays their nephew, a famous theater critic, and Priscilla Lane is his newlywed wife; Raymond Massey is his mobster brother; and Peter Lorre is Massey’s inept plastic surgeon.

The disc does include a few interesting production notes chronicling how the play made it to the screen. “Arsenic and Old Lace” was actually made in 1941 but was held from release until 1944 because the play was doing so well on Broadway. Hutchinson and Adair, who were in the Broadway production, were given two months off from the play to do the movie. But Boris Karloff, who played the evil brother on Broadway, wasn’t able to leave the production because he was the main star, so Massey replaced him in the film.