Classic Holiday Collection

For this year's holiday season, Warner once again dips into its vaults for a passel of DVD treats. This three-disc boxed set collects a trio of Christmastime perennials. Norman Taurog's Boys Town (1938) tells the story of the famous boarding school for wayward boys run by the selfless Father Flanagan (played by Spencer Tracy, who won an Oscar for his performance). Mickey Rooney co-stars as the resident tough kid, a troublemaker who finally falls in line when tragedy rears its ugly head. Melodramatic in some spots, saccharine in others, Boys Town is extremely well done…even if it is a little manipulative (as a bonus, the lesser 1941 sequel Men of Boys Town is also included). Joseph L. Mankiewicz's A Christmas Carol (also 1938) isn't the definitive cinematic version of the classic Dickens story—that honor still belongs to the 1951 film starring Alastair Sim—but it's a handsomely mounted and nicely cast adaptation that boasts a substantial number of devotees. Reginald Owen plays Scrooge with a tad more restraint than some, but that only makes him more believable, while Gene Lockhart, Leo G. Carroll, and Ann Rutherford are among the fine supporting players in this perfectly serviceable edition of a holiday favorite. Peter Godfrey's breezy (if inconsequential) Christmas in Connecticut (1945) is a different type of Christmas movie—one that doesn't attempt to stimulate the tear ducts—starring Barbara Stanwyck as a sophisticated urban journalist posing as an expert hostess and homemaker. When circumstances force Stanwyck to entertain her boss (Sydney Greenstreet) and a World War II veteran (Dennis Morgan) over the holidays, she goes into ghost-of-Martha-Stewart-future mode to save her reputation. Sporting decent transfers and a handful of vintage featurettes (as well as the Oscar-winning short Star in the Night and the Oscar-nominated cartoon Peace on Earth), this set is recommended. (E. Hulse)