Best Bets for DVDs

There will be no way to avoid King Kong this fall. As the hype machine for Peter Jackson's $110 million version of the shaggy ape saga rolls ever closer toward its date with destiny on December 14, fans of the original will be able to sate their appetites on November 22 with the remarkably comprehensive four-disc King Kong Collection ($39.92). As if to compensate for not releasing even a substandard teaser version of the classic on DVD, Warner Home Video has prepared boxed sets that include a digitally remastered edition of the film, with restored footage from nitrate film elements; new-to-DVD editions of The Son of Kong and Mighty Joe Young; a seven-part documentary hosted by Jackson; commentary by special-effects wizard Ray Harryhausen; archival interviews with Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack, Ruth Rose, Fay Wray and Robert Armstrong; and a 20-page reproduction of the original souvenir program.

Although The Wizard of Oz and Ben-Hur have already enjoyed DVD releases, their fans, too, will be tempted by multi-disc collector's editions. There seems to be no end to the stream of freshly discovered memorabilia, archival material and documentary studies of MGM's beloved adaptation of L. Frank Baum's novel about Dorothy and her traveling companions.

Among the new goodies arriving October 25 are a souvenir program from Grauman's Chinese Theatre, reproductions of publicity stills and a facsimile of the invitation to the premiere ($49.92). Ben-Hur arrives September 13 in a four-disc package ($39.95), with both the 1925 and 1959 versions of the epic; documentaries and featurettes; screen tests; and commentary.

While at RKO, Val Lewton produced some of the scariest and most stylized psychological thrillers in the history of horror. Far creepier than Universal's more famous lineup of monster titles, the demons haunting Lewton's low-budget thrillers worked on the deeper fears of its audience. The Val Lewton Horror Collection ($59.92) includes Cat People, The Curse of the Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, The Body Snatcher, Isle of the Dead, Bedlam, The Leopard Man, The Ghost Ship, The Seventh Victim and Shadows in the Dark. It arrives October 4.

On October 18, slackers everywhere will rejoice in the release of a collectors' edition of The Big Lebowski ($49.98), which comes complete with drink coasters, cards, a shammy towel (an edition with a robe, cocktail glass and bowling ball awaits, I suppose). In the Coen brothers' comedy, Jeff Bridges plays a wonderfully disheveled character known as the Dude—"the laziest man in Los Angeles County"—who found himself enmeshed in a mystery inspired by Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye.

For the seven or eight people in America who missed season one of the breakaway ABC hit dramedy, Desperate Housewives, a six-disc set ($59.99) reprising a full year's worth of episodes arrives September 20, or just in time for season two. It includes tours of Wisteria Lane with Meredith Vieira and series creator Mark Cherry, commentary from the stars, fresh "secrets" and "dirt," and a look at the costume and set design.

Hot on the heels of Bob Dylan's autobiography, Chronicles: Volume 1, comes the DVD set of Martin Scorsese's Bob Dylan: No Direction Home ($29.99), on September 20. Hard to figure why it's arriving ahead of the PBS broadcast of the same two-part film—which includes rare performance footage and interviews with Dylan and other artists—but it will save TiVo-phobic folkies from missing all the fun.