By Steve Marinucci
Published on December 7, 2006, San Jose Mercury News (CA)
MAN OF STEEL IN MULTIMEDIA
TV AND FILM VERSIONS OF 'SUPERMAN' COMIC SPAN GENERATIONS
Stores are loaded with holiday merchandise, including DVDs that may be just right for someone on your shopping list. Here's a sampling of the more intriguing items:
For Warner Bros., it's a super season, or rather a ''Superman'' season.
Available now are rereleases of all four Christopher Reeve movies in multi-disc sets. ''Superman: The Movie'' (list price $34.92) has been expanded to four discs, including both the original theatrical release and the expanded 2000 version of the film, plus screen tests and an audio-only music track. There's also the 1951 George Reeves feature ''Superman and the Mole Men'' (available, too, on an earlier release, the first season of TV's ''The Adventures of Superman'').
''Superman II'' ($26.99) comes in two versions, a two-disc Special Edition and the previously unreleased single-disc ''Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut'' ($24.98), assembled by the director from footage shot before he left the project because of ''creative differences.'' Donner handed the reins to Richard Lester, who presided over the version seen in theaters.
The Lester and Donner versions are significantly different. Marlon Brando, playing Jor-El, gets little screen time in the theatrical version but much more in Donner's cut, where the additional scenes establish the nature of the father-son relationship. Donner's version also dramatizes a scheme at the beginning by Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) to unmask Superman. ''The Donner Cut'' was assembled from footage he had planned to use in the film, as well as material from the cutting-room floor.
The weakest films with Reeve as the Man of Steel, ''Superman III'' and ''Superman IV,'' are available on single discs (list price $19.98 each).
Each of the ''Superman'' films (five, in all, counting the two versions of ''Superman II'') comes with a wealth of extra features. Both cuts of ''Superman II'' offer audio commentary, and all the films include behind-the-scenes documentaries.
With ''Superman: The Movie'' and ''Superman II: Special Edition'' comes the superb collection of Dave Fleischer/Famous Studio Superman cartoons dating from the mid-1940s, some of them spectacularly politically incorrect for the 21st century. These animated shorts, more serious in tone than today's cartoons, display crisp, realistic animation. The first short, ''Superman Comes to Earth,'' was nominated for an Academy Award.
The Superman-mania doesn't end here.
''Superman Returns,'' with Brandon Routh as the latest Man of Steel, is available in both single- ($14.98) and double-disc versions ($19.98), and, as you would expect, most of the extras are on the double disc, including more than 10 deleted scenes, commentary and behind-the-scenes documentaries.
For the Christopher Reeve completist, all of the Special Edition releases (excluding the Donner version) are packaged together in the eight-disc ''Christopher Reeve Superman Collection'' (list price $68.92). And if that's not enough, the 14-disc ''Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition'' (list price $99.92) includes all four films, as well as the Donner version, ''Superman Returns'' and the documentary disc ''Look Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman.''
None of the above packages, however, offers the rest of the recent Warner non-feature film ''Superman'' releases: the final two seasons (five and six) of the George Reeves TV series ''The Adventures of Superman'' (list price $39.98); Season Four of TV's ''Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'' (list price $59.98); and the two-disc Kirk Allyn ''Superman: The Theatrical Serials Collection'' ($39.98).
The Allyn serials, which predate the Reeves TV series, feature Noel Neill in her first role as Lois Lane, before she appeared in the TV series. The serials also are noteworthy for their flying sequences, done via animation.
On Feb. 6, Universal Home Video plans to release Focus Films' ''Hollywoodland,'' an account of a fictional detective's investigation into the death of actor George Reeves. This film, notable for its period realism, stars Ben Affleck as Reeves and Adrian Brody as the detective.
Also recently released
(box) ''Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 4'' (list $64.92) with 60 digitally remastered cartoons.
(box) Also out is the seventh and final season of ''The West Wing'' ($59.98), which includes the climactic election campaign between Texas Congressman Matt Santos and California Sen. Arnold Vinick. A combined set with all seven seasons of the series (Warner, $299.98, 45 discs) includes a copy of the series' pilot script.
(box) ''The Sopranos, Season Six, Part 1'' (HBO, list price $129.95) offers 12 episodes and four audio commentaries.
(box) ''The Dick Cavett Show'' series continues with ''Hollywood Greats,'' featuring the talk-show host's interviews with Katharine Hepburn, Groucho Marx, Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock and others. The set (Shout Factory, four discs, list price $39.98) also offers outtakes from the two-part Hepburn interview.
(box) ''Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest'' is available in two versions, a single disc with audio commentary and bloopers, and a double disc with several documentaries on the making of the film and on the amusement park attraction, limited-edition packaging and a photo diary.
(box) ''Goodnight, We Love You: The Life and Legend of Phyllis Diller,'' is a documentary by Gregg Barson, which includes Diller's final stand-up performance at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in May 2002.
CAPTION: PHOTO: DAVID JAMES -- WARNER BROS.
Kate Bosworth and Brandon Routh in ''Superman Returns.'' The two-disc version includes deleted scenes, commentary and behind-the-scenes documentaries.
PHOTO: WARNER BROS. AND DC COMICS INC.
The final two seasons (five and six) of the George Reeves TV series ''The Adventures of Superman'' are available on DVD.
PHOTO: WARNER BROS. AND DC COMICS INC.
Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder in ''Superman: The Movie,'' which has been expanded to four discs and includes the original theatrical release and the expanded 2000 version of the film.
