The Cecil B. DeMille Collection

Best remembered for his lavish Biblical spectacles (which actually accounted for a fairly small percentage of his oeuvre), legendary filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille is well represented in this five-disc boxed set, which offers a quintet of his best films from the 1930s. The Sign of the Cross (1932), featuring Fredric March as a centurion, Charles Laughton as the emperor Nero, and Claudette Colbert as his alluring empress Poppaea, recounts the persecution of early Christians by the Roman Empire (cut for theatrical re-release and television, the restored film sports several outrageous sequences and partial nudity). Colbert also stars in two 1934 films collected here: Four Frightened People, a small-scale melodrama about a quartet shipwrecked on a deserted island, and Cleopatra, an opulent production that showcases some of DeMille's best set-pieces. The Crusades (1935), a rousing epic that thoroughly whitewashes the medieval Christian invasion of the East, stars longtime DeMille favorite Henry Wilcoxon as Richard the Lion-Hearted. Finally, Union Pacific (1939) dramatizes the building of the first transcontinental railroad and pits likable leading man Joel McCrea against villainous Brian Donlevy, with Barbara Stanwyck playing a feisty Irish lass. There isn't a weak film in the bunch, and both The Sign of the Cross and Cleopatra can fairly be said to represent the flamboyant filmmaker at his best. Boasting decent transfers, but no DVD extras, this boxed set is highly recommended. (E. Hulse)