More DVD Reviews and Gift Suggestions

From the NYTimes.com Holiday Gift Guide:

DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS: A MODERN MUSKETEER It was Douglas Fairbanks who, in a series of films beginning in 1915, created the go-getting American action hero, along with a large portion of our national identity. This collection has restored versions of 11 films, emphasizing his contemporary comedies like Allan Dwan’s “Modern Musketeer” (1917), but also including his first costume swashbuckler, the 1920 “Mark of Zorro.” (Flicker Alley, $89.99, not rated)

GRIFFITH MASTERWORKS 2 Five features by the great form-giver of the early American cinema, D. W. Griffith, including the Museum of Modern Art’s restoration of the (nearly) complete “Way Down East” (1920) and Griffith’s underrated final feature, the brutally realistic “Struggle” (1931). (Kino International, $89.95, not rated)

MURNAU, BORZAGE AND FOX Fox remains the only major studio to demonstrate a commitment to its silent features, and this follow-up to last year’s John Ford collection is a must-have anthology. It contains the two surviving films the great German director F. W. Murnau made for the studio, “Sunrise” (1927) and “City Girl” (1930), as well as 10 silent and early sound features by the incomparable Frank Borzage, the greatest romantic poet of the medium. (Fox Home Video, $239.98, not rated)

Note: These three sets are available in the WTSM Store.