ShareThis(LADY KILLER. 1933. NOT RATED. WARNER BROS. HOME VIDEO. $19.98)You might think you know James Cagney, but really, if you've never seen him in his early 1930s incarnation, you haven't seen him. Cagney's energy is extraordinary. He is full of mischief, and, moment by moment, he finds ways to keep things lively onscreen.Also, because there was no censorship in the early '30s, he was able to play characters who were shady and unscrupulous, yet lovable and full of beans. His films in this period were mere pretexts for showcasing his personality, and this one, from 1933, is one of his better vehicles.In a mere 75 minutes, Cagney plays a movie usher, a con artist, a gangster and a movie star, with a stint of homelessness thrown into the mix. He is the plucky little guy who is going to make it, somehow, some way, despite the Depression, despite the odds, because he's too relentless to contain. His female co-stars include Mae Clarke, an appealing actress ("Waterloo Bridge") with whom he starred in "The Public Enemy," and the lovely Margaret Lindsay, who is barely remembered today. The DVD comes with lots of extras, including a short-subjects gallery, featuring a classic cartoon, trailers and a vintage newsreel. -- MICK LaSALLE(LOST HIGHWAY. 1997. R. UNIVERSAL STUDIOS. $19.98)"Lost Highway" is a way station in David Lynch's career -- while the film has some mesmerizing scenes, overall its chief interest is in setting the stage for the more artistically successful "Mulholland Dr.," made four years later. The questions of identity and the interplay between dream and reality in the latter film grew out of the Mobius strip structure of its predecessor."Lost Highway" is told in two parts. In the opening, a Los Angeles jazz musician (Bill Pullman), who fears that his wife (Patricia Arquette) may be unfaithful, begins to receive menacing videotapes that show that someone is watching their house. The strain on the couple ends in an act of violence. In the second segment, an auto mechanic (Balthazar Getty) begins an affair with the wife -- also played by Arquette -- of a gangster (Robert Loggia). One of the picture's highlights is Robert Blake's bizarre portrayal of a mysterious figure who seems to know everything.The story, which combines noir elements with Lynchian enigmas, was written by the director and Barry Gifford (author of "Wild at Heart," which Lynch filmed in 1990). Frequent Lynch collaborator Angelo Badalamenti provides much of the music, which is supplemented with contributions from David Bowie ("I'm Deranged"), Lou Reed, Marilyn Manson (who also has a small acting role), Rammstein and others. No extras on this disc. -- WALTER ADDIEGO(THE ICE STORM. 1997. RATED R. THE CRITERION COLLECTION. $39.95)Though this Ang Lee film never quite becomes the thoroughly satisfying psychological drama that it promises to be, it does capture some of the psychological motifs of life in the early 1970s, particularly among a certain stratum in the upper-middle-class suburbs. Kevin Kline, Joan Allen and Sigourney Weaver head an ensemble cast in this film about soulless infidelity and the hollow promise of the sexual revolution. The adults in the film, all in their 40s, missed the real sexual revolution, so they strive to re-create it, but the means by which they do -- "key parties," joyless partner swapping -- result in unhappiness and degradation. They're too old and jaded for happy hedonism, too pot-bellied and sagging to be all about their bodies.Meanwhile, these people's children (played by Tobey Maguire and Christina Ricci) are rootless, undisciplined, cast adrift in a world without values. For all the movie's superficial '70s references (the clothes, "The Brady Bunch"), the film does seize on the essential truth of the decade: that it was all about sex, about discovering it and, moreover, discovering its meaning.The Criterion disc has been remastered and comes with deleted scenes, director's commentary and a video interview with Rick Moody, who wrote the novel on which the film is based. Also included is a documentary featuring interviews with all the film's principal cast members. -- MICK LaSALLE(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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