'Going in Style' tops '70s comedy DVDs

This collection of 1970s comedies — two written by Neil Simon — is well above average, featuring terrific performances by George Burns, Art Carney, Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Anne Bancroft, Lily Tomlin and Richard Benjamin, among others.

— "Going in Style" (Warner, 1979, PG, $19.98). This film is by far the best of the four, with George Burns giving what is arguably his finest acting performance. There are also nice turns from Art Carney and Lee Strasberg as the three play retired roommates in their 70s who barely make ends meet and who are bored with their mundane lives. So Burns suggests they rob a bank — for the excitement more than the money.

At first, Carney and especially Strasberg are reluctant, but eventually they go along with it and manage to get away with $35,000. Then Burns and Carney go to Las Vegas and rack up a heckuva lot more!

Part farce, part caper comedy and part melodrama, the film's final third turns more serious, and Burns really shines in the lead. There is also some nice, subtle commentary as the film progresses on how we treat the elderly in our society.

The excellent low-key script and direction by Martin Brest is arguably his best work. Brest later found success with "Midnight Run," "Beverly Hills Cop" and "Scent of a Woman," although he's been in quite a slump recently, with a pair of big-budget failures to his credit: "Meet Joe Black" and "Gigli."

An excerpt from Dinah Shore's '70s talk show features Burns and Carney joking with Shore and another guest, musician-actor Paul Williams.

Extras: Widescreen, "Dinah!" excerpt, trailer, etc.

— "The Late Show" (Warner, 1977, PG, $19.98). Art Carney is a retired old-school private eye and Lily Tomlin is a flighty new-age talent-booker/dress-designer who team up to solve a Los Angeles murder mystery in this quirky homage to 1940s film noir thrillers. Carney is great; you feel his pain as he limps from a bullet he once took in the leg and guzzles Alka-Seltzer for his ulcer. And Tomlin is funny, talking nonstop and getting an adrenaline high from being chased by a shooter.

This oddball teaming shouldn't work, but somehow writer-director Robert Benton (two years before he won an Oscar for "Kramer vs. Kramer") successfully lays an odd-couple goofiness over a convoluted Humphrey Bogart-style plot. And most of the way, it's great fun.

Bill Macy is also very good as a two-bit grifter/bartender who introduces them, and Joanna Cassidy looks uncomfortable as the token femme fatale.

The Dinah Shore excerpt here features Tomlin.

Extras: Widescreen, "Dinah!" excerpt, trailer, etc.