DVD of Billie Holiday is a treat

A treat for Billie Holiday fans highlights these newly released DVDs.

"Billie Holiday: The Ultimate Collection" (Hip-O/Universal, 2005, not rated, $39.98, three discs). This one is probably going to be on CD racks instead of DVD shelves, as there are 42 audio tracks on the first two discs . . . songs that are available on myriad other Billie Holiday collections.

But the real treasure trove is on Disc 3, a collection of video appearances from two films and guest shots on a 1950s jazz TV program. The reproduction isn't bad, all things considered, and it's a real thrill to see Holiday performing live, singing some of her signature tunes — "My Man," "Billie's Blues," "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" and others. (There is also an early performance by Louis Armstrong and the only known visual recording of Bessie Smith.)

To add to the Wow! value, there are also several audio interviews, including one with Holiday herself, interviewed by Mike Wallace in 1956, three years before her death. There is also a time line of Holiday's life in text form, with icons to click for photographs or to hear audio interviews by those who knew and worked with her.

This is a fabulous collection for any Holiday fan, and a model for other vintage performers who also deserve this kind of treatment.

Extras: Full frame, chapters.

"Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead" (Image, 1991, PG, $24.99, two discs). The title goofballs are minor characters from "Hamlet," but as reinterpreted by Tom Stoppard and played by Gary Oldman and Tim Roth, they are a sort of a Shakespearean cross between Laurel & Hardy (dumb and dumber, pratfalls) and Abbott & Costello (convoluted banter that makes "Who's on First?" seem sane).

It doesn't matter which actor plays which character, since they can't remember either, as they travel to the royal court of Denmark to participate in a sort of inside-out "Hamlet" plot, repeatedly encountering a ham actor who is also a mysterious insider (Richard Dreyfuss).

At a full two hours, it's all a bit much, but Shakespeare fans will eat it up, and there are enough chuckles to satisfy others, as well.

Extras: Widescreen, interviews with Stoppard, Oldman, Dreyfuss and Roth, chapters.