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Paul Newman finally won his best actor Academy Award in 1987, for reprising his role of pool shark Fast Eddie Felson in “The Color of Money.” But with all due respect, Newman earned the prize for his original performance in the role, in 1961’s “The Hustler,” now re-released and digitally remastered as a 2-disc “Collector’s Edition” (4 stars, Fox, $19.98).
Director Robert Rossen effectively stripped away all of Newman’s movie star persona so he could portray the arrogant and deeply unsympathetic Eddie, who will do whatever it takes to beat the legendary Minnesota Fats (brilliantly played by Jackie Gleason). Shot in smoky black and white by Eugene Shufftan (who did win an Oscar for his cinematography), “The Hustler” features excellent supporting performances by a relatively subdued George C. Scott as Eddie’s manager, and Piper Laurie as the alcoholic who gets involved with Eddie.
The new version has a superior commentary track with contributions from Newman, the late Rossen’s daughter, film editor Dede Allen and Time film critic Richard Shickel, who also hosts a short making-of documentary. Also included are a couple of films on how to make the tricky pool shots seen in the film.
There are those who argue “The Hustler” is Newman’s greatest dramatic performance. Considering his vast, varied and generally excellent body of work, it’s hard to be definite about such things. I’m partial to his portrayal of Frank Galvin, the ambulance-chasing Boston lawyer in Sidney Lumet’s masterful “The Verdict.”
It, too, received a new 2-disc “Collector’s Edition” upgrade (4 stars, Fox, $19,95). Written by David Mamet, it has worn-down drinker Galvin being thrown a bone by an old crony, a malpractice suit involving a Catholic hospital that all parties are eager to settle out of court. But something about the case revives Galvin’s sense of justice, and he insists on a trial.
It’s a redemption saga, but one sheared of the usual sentimentality and sense of triumph, and if Mamet’s script gives the story the bracing bite of an alcoholic’s first drink of the day, Newman gives it a soulfulness rarely found in courtroom dramas. This performance was Oscar nominated (as was the film and director Lumet), but the statuette went to Ben Kingsley for “Gandhi.”
Together Newman and Lumet provide a commentary track that seems to have been taken from the same sessions as the on-camera interviews that comprise two separate featurettes, “The Craft of Acting” and “The Craft of Directing.” In a recent “Nightline” interview Newman did, the 82-year-old actor said a fading memory makes it highly unlikely he will ever act again. Lumet, who turns 83 this month, and whose overlooked 1981 classic “Prince of the City” also received a recent and welcome 2-disc “Special Edition” DVD upgrade (4 stars, Warner, $19.98), has a film titled “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” slated for release this year, and another in preproduction.
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Also new this week:
“Days of Glory” (3 stars, Weinstein, $28.95), nominated for a best foreign language Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards, focuses on Algerian Muslims fighting for the colonialist French in North Africa in WWII. Great Britain’s last angry director Ken Loach had a 1993 Cannes’ Grand Jury prize-winner with “Raining Stones” (3 stars, Koch-Lorber). The story about an unemployed, God-fearing Catholic construction worker who risks jail to get the money for his daughter’s communion dress, more than deserves its new DVD remaster.
Eclipse has released “Late Ozu” (3 stars, $69.95), bringing together five post-“Tokyo Story” films by the late and revered Japanese director Yasuhiro Ozu.
As for the recent, surprise hit movie version of “Ghost Rider” (1 star, Columbia-TriStar) starring Nicolas Cage as the cult comic book antihero, a stunt-rider turned vengeful specter, let’s just say there’s no accounting for taste or Cage’s career decisions.
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TV on DVD:
Depending on what I’m watching, I can make a strong case that “The Sopranos,” “The Wire” or “Deadwood” is the best dramatic TV series of all time, but of the three, “Deadwood” had the least opportunity to fulfill its destiny. The episodes collected as “The Complete Third Season” (4 stars, HBO, $99.98) are the last we’ll see of corrupt-to-the-core Al Swearingen (Ian McShane), principled but malleable Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) and the rest of the residents of the South Dakota boom town. The shows concentrate on the struggle between Swearingen and George Hearst (Gerald McRaney) and they’re as intense, profane and surprising as ever. Unless plans to produce a pair of long episodes are realized, we’ll have to settle for not knowing the fates of some characters, but we’ll never forget them.
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Family pick of the week:
With a clever new retro-update of “Nancy Drew” coming to theaters this weekend, Warner has dusted off the first four feature films - from 1938-39, starring feisty Bonita Granville as the small town, amateur teenage sleuth - and packaged them on 2 discs as “The Original Nancy Drew Mystery Collection” (3 stars, $24.95).
She’s introduced in “Nancy Drew, Detective”; other titles are “Nancy Drew, Reporter,” “Nancy Drew, Troubleshooter” and “Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase.” If the kids complain that the movies look old-fashioned, tell them to imagine their grandmother solving crimes in the olden days. That should do the trick.
