February 29, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES I, II, III & IV • Page 17 New features explore Fritz Lang through the decades of deleted scenes. “Hugo” (Paramount Home Entertainment) is one of the best films released in 2011. Adapted from an award-winning novel, the film tells the story of orphan Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield), who lives in a Paris train station in the early 1900s. Hugo tends to its massive clock when he is not eluding the overly diligent station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen). The film is breathtakingly beautiful, with tender loving care evident in every frame. Director Martin Scorsese gives the period train station a fantasy look, with his ever-moving camera sweeping through the great high ceilings, nooks and crannies, and behind the walls. Butterfield and Chloe Grace Moretz (as Isabelle, a girl who leads Hugo on the greatest adventure of his life) are both excellent actors and capture the awe and excitement of early movies in a scene in which they watch, gasping, as silent comedian Harold Lloyd dangles from a building many floors above the ground. Their dialogue is conversational and believable, and has no hint of “child actor.” Cohen is a perfect comic villain, handling slapstick proficiently and often reminding viewers of Warner Brothers cartoons when he is taking sharp turns or getting into people pile-ups. While “Hugo” starts as a pleasant chil- Joan Bennett and Edward G. Robinson in ‘Scarlet Street.’ by Dennis Seuling Kino Lorber has just issued two Fritz Lang features: one from the director’s silent German period, the other from his Hollywood years. “The Spiders” (1919-20) is the movie that established Lang as a master of epic storytelling, a talent that would reach its apex in “Metropolis” (1927). San Francisco sportsman Kay Hoog (Carl de Voght) finds a message in a bottle with a map drawn by a missing Harvard professor. The map indicates a lost Incan civilization with an immense treasure. Hoog sets up an expedition to find it, but Lio Sha, head of a criminal organization known as “The Spiders,” is determined to get the treasure for herself and plans a competing expedition. The plot is reminiscent of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” although that film also borrowed extensively from serials of the 1930s. Hoog is a precursor to Indiana Jones, as he seeks out archeological treasures while fending off dangerous adversaries. “The Spiders” DVD is color-tinted, has a rousing musical score, and is divided into two episodes, “The Golden Sea” and “The Diamond Ship.” “Scarlet Street” (1945) is Lang’s excursion into film noir. Christopher Cross (Edward G. Robinson) is the guest of honor at his boss’ mansion. He has put in 40 years of dedicated service and, in acknowledgment, he gets a diamond watch. He is pleased, but his wife, Adele (Margaret Lindsay), is unimpressed. She constantly reminds him that he is not as much of a man as her ex, a cop who died while trying to save a drowning man. When Chris impulsively comes to the aid of Katherine (Joan Bennett), who is fighting with her boyfriend Johnny (Dan Duryea), he finds himself embroiled in her life and she, sensing a soft touch, uses him in typical femme fatale fashion. As Chris’ obsession with the irresistibly vulgar Katherine grows, the meek cashier is seduced, corrupted, humiliated, and transformed into an avenging mobster. As in most films in this genre, the outcome isn’t all “happy Hollywood.” Lang provides a gritty tale of lust, larceny, revenge, and murder. The new high-definition Kino Lorber Blu-ray edition is mastered from a 35-millimeter negative preserved by the Library of Congress and contains audio commentary and a photo gallery, including images dren’s film, it evolves into a veritable valentine to early cinema when it is revealed that an elderly man who operates a small shop in the station is Georges Melies, one of the pioneers of cinema. Using flashbacks, Scorsese shows the genius of this man by illustrating Melies’ bustling, all-glass film studio -- perhaps the first in history -- with actors, camera operators, artists, and technicians scampering around, exploiting the magical possibilities of cinema. Extras include a making-of featurette, a biographical sketch of Melies, a look at the movie’s special effects, and profile of Cohen. “Hugo” is available as a three-disc combo pack (which includes the 3-D version), two-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack, and single-disc DVD. “Bounty Hunters” (MPI Media) is an action thriller about a group of downon-their-luck bounty hunters led by Jules Taylor (Trish Stratus). The group hits the jackpot when they pick up an informant with a $100,000 price on his head, but their world is turned upside down when mob boss Hal Lambrino (Joe Raf la) and his impressive associate Ruby (Andrea James Lui) offer them $1 million for the informant. In the course of the nonstop action, seven-time WWE champion Stratus puts her amazing wrestling moves to good use, battling a bail dodger in a gym and, most (continued on Crossword page)