This week, we start in 1957:

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is beginning to release some of the forgotten jewels it has stashed in the vaults from its Columbia Pictures library. This 1957 curiosity has been neglected for years, and it holds several marks of significance. The film is based on End as a Man, the novel and subsequent stage play by Calder Willingham (The Graduate). It was originally performed at the Actors Studio, where the premiere audience included legendary acting teacher Lee Strasburg, stage and film director Elia Kazan and Tennessee Williams. The film marks the initial screen appearance of Ben Gazzara, who plays the lead character, Jocko DeParis, a scheming, sadistic cadet at Southern Military College. Gazzara makes Jocko a fascinating character, an Iago-like liar and conniver devoid of moral substance. Playing his fellow cadets are future acting staples of the 1960s and ’70s, such as Pat Hingle, George Peppard, James Olson, Clifton James and others. The simply filmed tale of duplicity originally contained several brief sequences of suggested homosexuality, which were later edited out. This sensitivity seems ludicrous today, as the virtually all-male setting is imbued with such ambivalence. Director Jack Garfein, a World War II concentration camp survivor, also directed the stage version. But he eventually feuded with the film’s producer, Sam Spiegel, a tiff that ended with the producer burying the film, resulting in few people ever seeing it then or since.

The DVD supplements include an 11-minute interview with Gazzara, who relates some interesting tidbits on the film, its conception and eventual production.

*

What’s Up Tiger Lily? (**1/2) In 1966, near the height of the James Bond craze, 31-year-old comedian Woody Allen, who had never directed a film, took a cheesy Japanese action-adventure film and removed its soundtrack. He then replaced it with his own version, a Borscht Belt rendition with corny jokes and eye-rolling non-sequiturs. Allen inserted a plot involving the theft of a recipe for the world’s greatest egg salad — he who controls the recipe controls the world. Over-acting Japanese actors receive names like Phil Moscowitz and Wing Fat, while their lines are delivered by some of Allen’s select American voices, such as his wife Louise Lasser. Allen himself pops up in the first, middle and end parts, adding to the surreal setting. Now, 43 years later, the laughs may not come as frequently as they did on release, but this screwball comedy hints at some of the groundbreaking cinema Allen would later forge.

Rated PG, 80 minutes.

The DVD offers both the original theatrical version and an alternate version, which look pretty much the same. Plus, an Allen filmography.

*

Tomb Detectives In these six episodes from the Smithsonian Networks series, the title detectives investigate human remains in archaeological digs in France, Roman England, Chile, various parts of Europe and even Connecticut. They examine mummies in a church in Hungary, as well as Nubian mummies in Sudan.

Rated TV-PG, 158 minutes.

*

Carnivorous (*) With its bad direction, photography, acting, writing and editing, this horror schlock achieves a sort of sublime perfection for also having truly amateurish special effects. Using a voodoo talisman of sorts, a boy conjures up a huge snake-like monster before burying the implement. Years later, he digs up the device, but now with plans to use it to kill the carload of young people who accidentally killed his wife. The five youngsters are loud and obnoxious, making them deserving — in grand horror-film formula — of their grisly, unintentionally comic fates.

Rated R, 90 minutes.

*

Morning Light (***) In this compelling documentary co-produced by Roy E. Disney, 15 rookie sailors are selected from 500 applicants to train before being whittled down to 11 who then compete in the Transpacific Yacht Race. The competition goes from Los Angeles to Honolulu. Director Mark Monroe and his filming crew joined the sailors aboard the Morning Light, a 52-foot racing sloop, capturing the event from initial selection of future sailors, through six months training and on to the final competition.

Rated PG, 97 minutes.

The DVD, also on Blu-ray, contains a featurette with “stories from the sea” with Jason Earles. Plus, a “making of” featurette, the ESPN special Morning Light: Making the Cut.

*

Tom and Jerry’s Greatest Chases, Vol. 2 Fourteen of the most-requested creations from the esteemed team of animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera reappear in this new collection. These originally appeared between 1943 and 1951, at a time when the feuding cat and mouse were most popular.

Not rated, 102 minutes.

*

Highlander — The Complete Animated Series All 40 episodes, on four discs, arrive from the early-1990s favorite. Based on the popular 1986 movie with Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert, the series sees earth ruled by the immortal Kortan, who is eventually challenged by young Quentin MacLeod.

Not rated, 905 minutes.

*

The Secret Life of the American Teenager — Season Two Twelve episodes of this well-received series from ABC Family arrive on three discs. Amy prepares to give birth while still not revealing her marriage to Ben. The series, created by Brenda Hampton, stars Shailene Woodley, Greg Finley, Molly Ringwald, Francia Raisa and John Schneider. The set includes a featurette with the cast discussing the various characters, one-on-one cast interviews and a music video from The Strange Familiar.

Rated TV-14 DLSV, 516 minutes.

*

Also this week: Body Armour, Dough Boys, Mission: Classified.

BOO ALLEN is an award-winning film critic for the Denton Record-Chronicle.