ShareThis"10 YEARS OF RIALTO PICTURES." (1949-2000. NOT RATED. THE CRITERION COLLECTION. $149.95. 10 DISCS.)During the past decade, Rialto Pictures has become one of the great names in film distribution. Rialto finds great films that are not on DVD. Sometimes these are films that have never been released and that few people have ever heard of. The films are restored and offered to theaters. And then, a few months later, the DVD comes out -- always in a top-of-the-line way.In 2006, Rialto released "Army of Shadows," a 1969 masterpiece about the French resistance from Jean-Pierre Melville. Thirty-seven years after it was made, it landed on many critics' Top 10 lists. Now, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Rialto Pictures, the Criterion Collection has released a boxed set of 10 Rialto films.Purchased separately, these films would cost about $300. Here they're being released with no-frills packaging, without special features, but in the quality transfers one associates with Criterion.These are the 10 films in the collection: Luis Bunuel's "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie," Melville's "Army of Shadows," Jacques Becker's "Touchez Pas au Grisbi," Robert Bresson's "Au Hasard Balthazar," Jean-Luc Godard's "Band of Outsiders," John Schlesinger's "Billy Liar," Jean-Pierre Denis' "Murderous Maids," Jules Dassin's "Rififi," Alberto Lattuada's "Mafioso" and Carol Reed's "The Third Man." Wow. Ten movies, 10 classics and what a nice thing to find under the Christmas tree.-- Mick LaSalle"THE INCREDIBLE HULK: SEASON 5." (1981-82. NOT RATED. UNIVERSAL STUDIOS. $29.98. TWO DISCS.)This conclusion of the CBS series (the short-lived 1981-82 season with only seven episodes) might seem like slim pickings were it not for a 19-minute bonus feature, "Behind the Success: The Story of the Incredible Hulk," featuring producer Kenneth Johnson reminiscing candidly about the show's sudden, never-explained cancellation when its ratings were still high.Johnson describes how his team of writers and cinematographer John McPherson ("he was too neurotic not to hire") brought empathy and compassion to an otherwise slam-bang action show by making scientist David Banner (Bill Bixby) a sympathetic character, even if he did turn into the destructive Hulk whenever he exploded in anger. It was this contrast of Jekyll and Hyde -- as Banner roved the country seeking a cure for the blood malady that caused his transformation -- that made the show popular worldwide.Stan Lee's 1962 comic book Hulk was played by Lou Ferrigno, a 6-foot-5, 275-pound two-time Mr. Universe winner. Bixby died at 59 in 1993, but one wishes Ferrigno had been interviewed for "Behind the Success." And where's Lee, who created the Hulk? Did the DVD producers "hulk out" -- an expression used all over the world as a result of this series -- at the last minute?-- John Stanley"THE GREGORY PECK FILM COLLECTION." (1952-1965. NOT RATED. UNIVERSAL. $59.98. SEVEN DISCS.)This nice package puts together two previously released classics -- "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Cape Fear" -- with four Peck films new to DVD: "Arabesque," "Mirage," "Captain Newman, M.D." and "The World in His Arms."Little more need be said about "Mockingbird," for which Peck won an Oscar as the Lincolnesque Atticus Finch, who defends a black man accused of rape in the South. "Cape Fear" offers one of the most chilling movie confrontations ever, between Peck's upright family man and Robert Mitchum's monstrous ex-con. "Arabesque" and "Mirage" are faux-Hitchcock thrillers, "Mirage" being the better one. It's an entertaining, semi-comic story, directed by Edward Dmytryk in black and white, with Peck as an amnesiac New Yorker caught up in a mystery. Also on hand are Diane Baker and Walter Matthau. "Captain Newman" has Peck as a compassionate military psychiatrist treating servicemen during World War II. This one features a great group of co-stars: Tony Curtis, Angie Dickinson, Eddie Albert, Bobby Darin and Robert Duvall. "The World in His Arms," directed by Raoul Walsh, gives us Peck as a 19th-century sea captain vying for the love of a countess (Ann Blyth) who is married to an odious Russian prince. Among the set's extra features are a conversation with Peck, Peck's Oscar acceptance speech and "making of" documentaries about "Mockingbird" and "Cape Fear."-- Walter Addiego(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
New DVD sets: Rialto, Gregory Peck, Incredible Hulk
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