Frills and Thrills : Keepsake Sets of Videos Include Special Touches--For a Price
Commemorative videocassettes of classic films and boxed sets with collectible extras have become increasingly coveted keepsakes, especially pervasive as Christmas gifts. And why not? Everybody has an all-time favorite flick or two, and these special edition videos let viewers celebrate and enjoy them for years to come.
Clearly, keepsake cassettes make considerably more compelling gifts than, say, a fruitcake or fresh pack of BVDs. Their appeal is twofold; rather like glossy coffee-table tomes, they’re objects d’art as well as practical entertainment. Not incidentally, they often contain insightful commentary and restored footage.
Examples? One of the hottest commemorative video releases of the year, “Casablanca,” is available from MGM/UA in a pair of acclaimed collectible packages that feature an array of neat bonuses. The lower-priced “Casablanca: Remastered Collector’s Edition” ($25) has a half-hour documentary on the making of the film, narrated by Lauren Bacall, tacked on at the end of the movie. For $99.98, the boxed “Fiftieth Anniversary Limited Collector’s Edition” has the same Bacall documentary on a separate cassette, along with a paperback full of production notes, a selection of 8-by-10 glossies, a transcription of dialogue and a Certificate of Ownership.
Best of all, both editions of the cassette sport exceptionally clean and sharp images, thanks to a recent digitally processed transfer of the classic film onto videotape. Not only is the visual quality vastly improved, the soundtrack resonates with revitalized clarity and nuance. Perfect for Bogart buffs who want to play it again and again and again.
More often than not, commemorative videos pay tribute to well-loved films from decades past, but a movie needn’t be a relic in order to be enshrined as a collectible artifact. Case in point: Considered an instant animated classic, Disney’s Academy Award-winning “Beauty and the Beast” is already available in a deluxe, boxed collector’s edition ($99.99) that includes a limited-edition lithograph, a compact disc of the soundtrack, an illustrated book on the making of the movie and a separate “work-in-progress” video featuring the original rough cut of the film.
For aficionados of action, a boxed set featuring “Batman Returns”--the box-office champ of 1992--and Tim Burton’s original “Batman” from 1989 is available for $44.92 from Warner’s. A collector’s package of both “Terminator” films, from Carolco, lists for $29.99.
“The Star Wars Trilogy” collectible ($99.98) pays homage to one of the most popular film series in history and, for the first time, presents the George Lucas classics in a letterboxed format--that is, with horizontal black bars framing the top and bottom of the squarish TV screen; it’s the only way to re-create the original wide-screen ratio of the movies as they appeared in theatrical release. Also lurking inside the flashy holographic gift box is an abridged version of the book “George Lucas, the Creative Impulse,” a Certificate of Authenticity signed by Lucas and a separate documentary video hosted by Mark “Luke Skywalker” Hamill.
In this year of rampant attention to “family values,” it’s only fitting that Paramount has released “The Godfather Trilogy 1901-1980,” a unique collectible that presents the three-film saga of the Corleones clan as a seamless tale, interwoven into a 9-hour, 43-minute production supervised by director Francis Coppola, replete with additional scenes omitted from the original versions. Housed in a gold-embossed leather case, this $199.95 set comes with a 73-minute cassette that includes behind-the-scenes footage of themaking of the “Godfather” films, and a 28-page booklet packed with photos and never-before-seen archival material from Coppola’s private library--storyboard sketches, theoriginal handwritten outline for “The Godfather Part III,” a page from a rough draft of “The Godfather Part II” screenplay and more. A boxed set of all three films on separate cassettes is available for $89.95.
Enhanced and re-released anniversary editions are quite prominent this year. The 25th anniversary of “The Graduate” is being celebrated with a special, letterboxed version of the 1967 Academy Award-winning film ($19.95) that includes the original trailer and a short documentary that features interviews with the cast and the film’s creators. A digitally remastered edition of “Singin’ in the Rain” ($19.98)--with its theatrical trailer and a previously deleted scene of Debbie Reynolds singing “You Are My Lucky Star”--has been released from MGM/UA to honor the film’s 40th anniversary.
Also from MGM/UA comes a series of three-cassette boxed sets, each spotlighting the work of a single legendary Hollywood star--Humphrey Bogart, the Marx Brothers, Greta Garbo, Bette Davis, Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable and many more are featured. Each set costs $49.92.
What’s up with the increasingly popular laser-disc format this holiday season? A sequel to one of the most popular sets ever on LD, “The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol 2” ($99.98) features 70 classic Warner Bros. cartoons on five discs, in vivid, restored color and with pristine sound quality. It was recently made available on videocassette as well, so there’s no excuse for failing to indulge the cartoon junkies on your list.
