You got ‘Gigli’? Cheer up!

If you’re among the millions of Americans whose holiday bounty included either a DVD player or DVDs -- or, just as likely, if you’re hankering to exchange those “Brother Bear” fluffy moose slippers for some movies on disc -- know that you have options beyond the hot holiday titles, such as “Finding Nemo” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.”

There are several vintage films that recently made their DVD debuts that may fit the cinephile bill including musicals, a spaghetti western and a Dean Martin camp delight.

The 1952 musical classic “Singin’ in the Rain” illustrated in high comedic terms the problems moviemakers had when Hollywood switched from silent films to sound in the late 1920s.

But that wasn’t the case with the early films of theater director Rouben Mamoulian. Not only did he keep the camera moving; his sound design was also inventive and influential. Two of his early musicals, “Applause” from 1929 and “Love Me Tonight” from 1932, are now available on disc (Kino, $30 each).

“Applause,” Mamoulian’s first feature, has a creaky story line that is more soap opera than dramatic musical. Helen Morgan, fresh from her success on Broadway as Julie in “Show Boat,” plays Kitty Darling, a good-hearted but over-the-hill vaudeville performer who has sent her daughter, April, away to a convent school. When Kitty’s latest boyfriend insists that the teenage April come home and earn her keep, the daughter soon finds herself working in the chorus.

Although it’s a potboiler, Mamoulian’s formidable staging of the musical numbers, his fluid camerawork -- shot atop skyscrapers, the Brooklyn Bridge and inside the old Penn Station -- and Morgan’s heartbreaking performance makes “Applause” a must for any movie musical fan.

The DVD includes an excerpt of Morgan performing in the 1929 film “Glorifying the American Girl,” a newsreel interview with Morgan from the early ‘30s, a filmed interview with Mamoulian and rare photographs.

Audio commentary by Miles Kreuger, president of the Institute of the American Musical, proclaims “Love Me Tonight” the best movie musical ever made. Fans of “Singin’ in the Rain” may beg to differ, but “Love Me Tonight” is indeed a masterpiece. Featuring an original score by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart that includes the standards “Isn’t It Romantic?” and “Mimi,” the musical romance stars a joyous Maurice Chevalier as a Paris tailor who goes to the family chateau of a client to get the money the aristocrat owes him. Arriving at the chateau, he sets his sights on the lonely, widowed Princess Jeanette, played by Jeannette MacDonald. Myrna Loy and Charlie Ruggles co-star.

As with “Applause,” Mamoulian’s clever use of sound and imaginative staging of the musical numbers are years ahead of their time -- check out the opening scene set on a Paris street and the “Isn’t It Romantic?” number.

The 1937 musical “Something to Sing About” (Image, $20) is decidedly off-key despite the nimble James Cagney doing some nifty dance numbers. Cagney plays a bandleader-performer who leaves his fellow band members and girlfriend behind when he is cast in a Hollywood movie. The print used for the DVD transfer, unfortunately, is pretty shabby.

The influence of Sergio Leone’s seminal 1968 spaghetti western “Once Upon a Time in the West” (Paramount, $20) can be seen in such films as Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven” and Kevin Costner’s recent “Open Range.” It’s a bravura piece of filmmaking, an epic tale of revenge, love, lust and greed set during the rapid growth of the railroad in the later half of the 18th century. The opening scene of the film, very reminiscent of the beginning of “High Noon,” is beautifully crafted and features innovative sound design for 1968.

Leone’s use of in-your-face close-ups of his actors, combined with epic long shots of the landscape, increase the film’s dramatic power. And the performances are first-rate, especially Henry Fonda in a rare bad-guy role, as well as Charles Bronson, Jason Robards and Claudia Cardinale. Ennio Morricone’s score is one of his best.

The two-disc DVD features a beautifully restored transfer of the film, an informative commentary track with directors John Carpenter, John Milius and Alex Cox, film historian and Leone biographer Sir Christopher Frayling and Cardinale, three above-average documentaries on Leone and the film’s production, and location and production galleries.

Carpenter’s 1981 action-thriller “Escape From New York” (MGM, $30) is still rollicking good fun thanks to the performance of Kurt Russell as the ultimate antihero Snake Plissken, who must save the world from terrorists when he is given the task of rescuing the president (a witty Donald Pleasance) after his plane crash-lands in Manhattan.

The problem is that the post-apocalyptic Big Apple is one big prison, so Snake literally has to break into New York to rescue the prez. But the one disturbing element -- and it’s very disturbing in this post-Sept. 11 world -- is that the terrorists who hijack the president’s plane crash it into a skyscraper. Because the jovial audio commentary between Carpenter and Russell was recorded nearly 10 years ago for the laser disc of “Escape,” this eerie coincidence isn’t addressed.

The two-disc set also features a commentary track with producer Debra Hill and production designer Joe Alves, the original 10-minute opening with commentary from Carpenter and Russell, a better-than-average retrospective documentary and something called “Snake Bites,” which is actually a fancy name for a trailer montage.

Baby boomers and their kids seem to adore the 1968 musical “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” (MGM, $30), which is based on an Ian Fleming story about an eccentric inventor (Dick Van Dyke) with two children who creates a magical flying car. But the film was poorly reviewed when it was released, and time hasn’t been kind to it. It’s overstuffed, overlong and the special effects seem cheesy even by 1968 standards. The special edition includes a storybook, a sing-along and a sweet retrospective interview with Van Dyke.

Released with little fanfare in 1975, “A Boy and His Dog” (First Run, $25) has developed a strong cult following, and for good reason. Smartly directed by actor L.Q. Jones, this futuristic black comedy based on the novella by Harlan Ellison stars a perfectly cast Don Johnson as a loner named Vic who travels the countryside, now a nuclear wasteland, with his acerbic talking dog Blood (deliciously voiced by actor Tim McIntire).

The DVD includes the trailer and commentary from Jones, former Times critic Charles Champlin and cinematographer John Morrill. However, the transfer used for the DVD leaves a lot to be desired.

When Sean Connery hit as James Bond in the early ‘60s, Hollywood was quick to jump on the spy thriller wagon. Twentieth Century Fox countered with James Coburn as the suave secret agent Flint in the “Our Man Flint” movies. And Columbia cast “Rat Pack” crooner and actor Dean Martin as womanizing secret agent Matt Helm in a series of silly films. Columbia TriStar has just released the first in the Helm franchise, “The Silencers” ($25) on DVD. Produced in 1966, it’s a real hoot -- kitschy production and costume design and sexual innuendos galore. Martin’s breezy charm saves it.