Poitier, Wood DVD collections feature first-time releases

Box sets of films starring Sidney Poitier and Natalie Wood lead off this look at the latest golden oldies (well, maybe silver) to arrive on DVD, including a number of first-time releases.

"The Sidney Poitier Collection" (Warner, 1957-72, color and b/w, $39.92). While all four of the films in this set are watchable the most notable is "Edge of the City," which has never been on home video.

This was the first film directed by Martin Ritt ("The Long Hot Summer," "Hud," "Murphy's Romance") and it approaches neorealism with its gritty story of life among New York longshoremen, focusing on the friendship that develops between John Cassevetes, who is harboring a secret, and his pal Poitier — a friendship that doesn't sit well with a bigoted coworker (Jack Warden).

The others are "Something of Value," with Poitier and Rock Hudson, both quite good as childhood friends in Kenya who are driven apart by a Mau Mau uprising; "A Patch of Blue," the only reissue here, as Poitier befriends a timid blind girl (Elizabeth Hartman) with a racist mother (Shelley Winters); and "A Warm December," the least of these, a tragic romance between a widowed doctor vacationing in London and a woman who has a secret (Poitier also directed this one).

Extras: widescreen, trailers; on "A Patch of Blue": audio commentary, photo gallery, text essay, awards (titles released in collection only)

"Natalie Wood Collection" (Warner, 1957-65, six discs, b/w and color, $59.92). Two of these are remastered reissues, the fine romantic melodrama "Splendor in the Grass," costarring Warren Beatty in his film debut, and with Wood at the top of her game, and "Gypsy," with Rosalind Russell dominating the show.

Another, "Bombers B-52," is on home video for the first time, with Wood being romanced by hot-shot pilot Efrem Zimbalist Jr., much to the chagrin of her father (Karl Malden).

Also here are DVD debuts of "Sex and the Single Girl," using the title of Helen Gurley Brown's book for a zany farce co-starring Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda and Lauren Bacall (with Wood playing Brown!); "Cash McCall," a comedy-drama with James Garner as a modern robber baron who buys a company from Dean Jagger and woos his daughter (Wood); and the least of these, "Inside Daisy Clover," a shallow look at 1930s Hollywood, co-starring Robert Redford and Christopher Plummer.

Extras: widescreen, cartoons, trailers; on "Gypsy": two outtake musical numbers