The DVD Filter

The Bette Davis Collection, Vol. 2 on DVD

By Logan Hill
Published May 21, 2006

(Photo: Everett Collection)

Star Spangled to Death
Endlessly spliced and diced since 1957, Ken Jacobs’s 440-minute avant-garde epic is a celluloid amusement-park ride. Downtown icons Jerry Sims and Jack Smith dominate—but you’ll see Mickey Mouse too. NR; $70; starspangledtodeath.com.

The Paul Morrissey Collection
Flesh, Trash, and Heat, starring Warhol buddy Joe Dallesandro, have not aged well. NR; $49.99.

Harlan County, U.S.A.
Barbara Kopple’s extraordinary 1976 account of a Kentucky coal miners’ strike. PG; $39.95.

Our Pick
The Bette Davis Collection, Vol. 2 Features a new documentary and five films, including two newly restored classics: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and our favorite, William Wyler’s Jezebel (1938), which earned Davis her second Oscar. Bristling with sex appeal and indignation, she’s a southern belle who, like Scarlett, wears an outrageous dress to a ball and then rebuffs her angry date with this infamous line: “You’re sure it’s the dress? It couldn’t be that you’re afraid? Afraid somebody’d insult me and you’d find it necessary to defend me?” Ouch. NR; $59.98.