This week we start out on the back lot:

Universal Studios Home Entertainment enters the pre-Code arena with this entertaining, three-disc package ($29.98) of six films made before the strict enforcement of the moralistic Production Code. These films could not have been made after 1935, with their themes of or allusions to gambling addiction, premarital sex, alcoholism and infidelity. The “Universal Backlot Series” collection also contains a brief documentary with several historians examining the Code and its effects. A reproduction of the actual Code document comes under separate cover.

The included films are:

* The Cheat Stage star Tallulah Bankhead makes one of her infrequent screen appearances as a privileged, married Long Island woman whose gambling penchant results in a tragic showdown.

* Merrily We Go to Hell Fredric March plays a journalist turned playwright who marries a rich woman (Sylvia Sidney) but cannot give up his former love who now stars in his play. Look for young Cary Grant in a minor role.

( Hot Saturday Grant graduates to top billing, bringing ruin and loss of reputation to a small-town woman (Nancy Carroll) who ends up in the arms of a better man (Randolph Scott, who was Grant’s real-life roommate).

* Torch Singer An out-of-wedlock Claudette Colbert gives up her baby but later finds fortune and ultimate redemption.

* Murder at the Vanities In this strange musical-murder mystery hybrid, Victor McLaglen plays a thick-headed detective who investigates two murders during the opening of a Broadway Vanities show, which includes the musical number “Sweet Marijuana.”

* Search for Beauty Buster Crabbe, star of the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, stars in this trifle about an Olympic star who unwittingly lends his reputation to a sleazy magazine publisher, played by Robert Armstrong (King Kong).

*

Danton (****) The Criterion Collection releases this polished, newly remastered film by Polish movie icon Andrzej Wajda. The 1983 historical drama debuted at a time when events in Wajda’s home country paralleled those seen here in the trial and execution of early French Revolution hero Georges Danton (Gérard Depardieu). But he now suffers persecution by the feared Tribunal, particularly from former ally Maximilien Robespierre (Wojciech Pszoniak). Wajda separated his cast, filling the roles of Danton and his followers with French actors, while putting Polish actors in the roles of Robespierre and his forces. Gripping historical drama.

Not rated, 136 minutes.

The double-disc set offers “Wajda’s Danton,” a comprehensive 42-minute “making of” documentary, plus interviews with Depardieu, Wajda and Europe’s most renowned screenwriter, Jean-Claude Carriere. Film historian Leonard Quart contributes an essay in an enclosed booklet.

*

Doubt (***) John Patrick Shanley directed and wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplay based on his controversial play that sees, in the early 1960s Bronx, a Catholic priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) come under suspicion by the head nun (Meryl Streep) and her main acolyte (Amy Adams) of inappropriate behavior with a child. The outcome, as well as the sincerity of individual faith, hovers in doubt. The main cast all copped Oscar acting nominations, along with Viola Davis in a brief appearance as a strangely caring mother.

Rated PG-13, 104 minutes.

The DVD, also on Blu-ray, contains commentary by Shanley, an extended interview with Shanley, interviews with the cast and a look at the creation of Howard Shore’s musical score.

*

Bedtime Stories (**1/2) Adam Sandler stars in this fun romp about a hotel handyman who plays baby sitter for a weekend and proceeds to tell outlandish bedtime stories to the kids, all of which become realized in elaborate fantasy sequences. With Guy Pearce and Keri Russell.

Rated PG, 99 minutes.

The Disney DVD comes in several forms, including Blu-ray and a three-disc special edition. All contain bloopers and deleted scenes, a “making of” featurette and one on Bugsy the guinea pig — and much more.

*

The Fast and the Furious; 2 Fast 2 Furious; The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift Coinciding with the release of the new Fast & Furious in theaters, the three previous entries in the popular franchise are being rereleased simultaneously in two-disc “Limited Editions,” also on Blu-ray. All three are rated PG-13 and contain the exclusive “U Control” feature, which lets viewers dive deeper into the making of the film while still viewing it. The “Picture in Picture” feature enables viewers to access cast and crew interviews and other features while the movie plays. All versions contain deleted scenes, outtakes, “making of” featurettes, music videos, driving montages and more.

*

And this week, youngsters might choose from the following trio:

The Tale of Despereaux (***) The title mouse (voice of Matthew Broderick) with the huge ears embarks on adventures made famous in the best-selling children’s book of the same name. He leaves his home kingdom of Dor with the dream of becoming a knight. With voices of Emma Watson, Kevin Kline and Tracy Ullman.

Rated G, 94 minutes.

The DVD, also on Blu-ray, includes a “making of” featurette, an interactive map of Dor, a “Quest” game and more.

*

Pokemon: Giratina & the Sky Warrior Pokemon Shaymin battles to separate two other feuding Pokemon but becomes stuck in the mysterious Reverse World, setting the stage for an extended adventure.

Not rated, 97 minutes.

*

Sesame Street Presents: Follow that Bird — 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition Big Bird (Caroll Spinney) returns in this remastered feature about him trying to get home with the help of friends Maria, Count von Count, Bert, Ernie, Oscar and all the gang.

Rated G, 88 minutes.

The DVD includes new interviews, seven songs and more.

*

In Plain Sight — Season One Our week’s top TV-series-to-DVD stars Mary McCormack as Marshal Mary Shannon, who weekly relocates someone in the Witness Protection Program. Three discs contain 12 episodes, the pilot and deleted scenes.

Not rated, 611 minutes.

*

Also this week: The Day the Earth Stood Still, Yes Man.

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