Chan adventures highlight DVD releases

The last Charlie Chan films from Twentieth Century Fox lead off this look at movies released on DVD.

"Charlie Chan Collection: Volume 5" (Fox, 1940-42, b/w, four discs, $49.98). These are the final films in Fox's series, all starring Sidney Toler. But unlike the previous Chan box sets with four or five titles each, there are seven here, rounding out the lengthy run that began in 1931 (with Warner Oland, until his death in 1937). These films also feature Sen Young as Chan's "No. 2 son."

• "Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise"/"Charlie Chan in Panama" (1940). The first is a familiar shipboard murder mystery, bolstered by a good cast that includes Marjorie Weaver, Lionel Atwill and Leo G. Carroll — a remake of Oland's debut as Chan, "Charlie Chan Carries On" (which is, sadly, one of four lost Chan films). The second also features Atwill, this time a story about Navy ships in peril during World War II. (Both are making their home-video debut.)

• "Murder Over New York"/"Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum" (1940). "Murder" is an enjoyable wartime spy yarn set in Manhattan (with Weaver again in support), while "Wax" has atmospheric horror overtones as Chan tracks down an old nemesis. (DVD debut.)

• "Dead Men Tell"/"Charlie Chan in Rio" (1941). Pirates figure in "Dead," a treasure-hunt thriller, while "Rio" has Chan in Brazil to solve a double murder (a remake of Oland's "The Black Camel"). (Home-video debut.)

• "Castle in the Desert" (1942). Arguably the best film in this set has Chan in California where a secluded castle in the Mojave Desert provides the venue for murder. A sort of a variation on Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." (Though this was Fox's swan song for Chan films, Toler donned the role again in 1944 when poverty-row studio Monogram revived the character.) (DVD debut.)

Extras: full frame, featurette (on "Castle in the Desert"), photo galleries, trailers; eight-page booklet

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"Bright Lights, Big City" (MGM, 1988; R for violence, language, drug use; $14.98). Michael J. Fox gives a strong performance in this melodrama about alcoholism and cocaine addiction. He's an aspiring writer on the verge of losing his job when he succumbs to the out-of-control lifestyle of a pal (Kiefer Sutherland). The film benefits from strong support by Jason Robards, Frances Sternhagen, Swoosie Kurtz and Dianne Wiest.

Extras: widescreen, audio commentaries, featurettes, photo gallery