It, Stephen King’s 1986 novel, was first filmed as an award-winning TV miniseries in 1990. The first part dealt with the disappearance of children in 1960 and the second part with new disappearances thirty years later. The 2017 theatrical version, deals with the first part with the time updated to 1989. With disappearances now occurring 27 years apart instead of 30, we can expect the planned 2019 sequel to deal with events in 2016.

Critics of the day were more impressed with the first part of the miniseries directed by Tommy Lee Wallace than they were with the second part despite the star cast of Richard Thomas, John Ritter, Tim Reid, and others as the grown-up versions of the then-unknown actors playing the kids in the first part. Only Tim Curry as the evil shape-shifting entity known as Pennywise the Clown acted in scenes with both sets of actors. That tells us that the 2017 smash hit, newly released on Blu-ray and standard DVD, may be the better of the two films in the reboot. Time will tell.

The new film was directed by Anthony Muschietti featuring a breakout star performance by Bill Skarsgard, son of Stellan and younger brother of Alexander Skarsgard. The seven kids comprising the Losers Club that bring the disappearances and subsequent killings to a halt are played by Jaeden Lieberher (The Book of Henry), Jeremy Ray Taylor (Ant-Man), Sophia Lillis (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Finn Wolfhard (TV’s Stranger Things), Chosen Jacobs (Cops and Robbers, Jack Dylan Grazer (Tales of Halloween), and Wyatt Oleff (Guardians of the Galaxy). They’re all excellent in their roles.

The third film in John Ford’s 1939 trilogy of Americana following Stagecoach and preceding Drums Along the Mohawk is the third to receive a Blu-ray upgrade.

Young Mr. Lincoln is a fictionalized account of the early life of the sixteenth president, culminating in a court case in which the murderer is revealed and forced to confess by young Abe in a Perry Mason style finish. Ford was particularly fond of Perry Mason and delighted in having the opportunity to film that ending supplied by screenwriter Lamar Trotti who received an Oscar nomination for his efforts.

Henry Fonda’s portrayal of young Abe Lincoln was the first of his classic starring roles and one of the best performances of his long career. The Criterion Blu-ray features a newly recorded commentary track by Ford scholar Joseph McBride, as well as all the extras that were on the original Criterion DVD.

Kino Lorber has begun the new year with the release of four major Blu-ray upgrades.

Not As a Stranger, producer Stanley Kramer’s 1955 film, was his first as a director. It was released the same year as The Night of the Hunter, Charles Laughton’s first and only film as a director. Both films starred Robert Mitchum. Not As a Stranger was a major box-office success while The Night of the Hunter was a huge flop. Today, of course, The Night of the Hunter is a highly regarded masterpiece, while few people have even heard of Not As a Stranger. Film historian Tony Howarth’s newly recorded commentary does a good job of pointing this out, but not of explaining it.

The explanation is actually quite simple. The Night of the Hunter is a one-of-a-kind film about an evil preacher who puts the lives of children in jeopardy. Not As a Stranger is about the inner workings of a teaching hospital, medical internship, and first practice. It’s something that’s been done to death on TV ever since.

Top billing in Not As a Stranger went to Olivia de Havilland as a good-hearted, if somewhat naïve, Swedish nurse who falls for medical student Mitchum and accepts his proposal of marriage not realizing he is just after the little bit of money she has set aside, which is just enough to get him through college. Frank Sinatra is Mitchum’s best friend and roommate who will fall victim to Mitchum’s hotheaded wrath more than once. All three stars, who were in their late 30s at the time of filming, are at least ten years too old for their roles, though they perform them well. Broderick Crawford, Charles Bickford, Gloria Grahame, and Lee Marvin have featured roles.

The other three Kino Lorber upgrades went to films from Selznick Studios.

Richard Boleslawski’s 1936 film The Garden of Allah was one of the first color films and is still one of the most beautiful to look at. It doesn’t hurt that stars Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer are easy on the eyes as well. The story about a glamorous woman searching for herself and a Trappist monk undergoing a crisis of faith features a lot of handwringing and angst, but is well performed by the two stars and an excellent supporting cast that includes Basil Rathbone, Joseph Schildkraut, Alan Marshal, C. Aubrey Smith, Lucile Watson, and Tilly Losch. It earned its honorary Oscar for color cinematography given to both W. Howard Green and Harold Rosson.

Richard Wallace’s 1938 film The Young in Heart is a bit of a mess. It’s part screwball comedy, part sentimental drama, but an awkward combination of the two.

Janet Gaynor, due to the great success of her starring role in Selznick’s A Star Is Born opposite Fredric March the year before, gets top billing for the minor role of the daughter of grifters Roland Young and Billie Burke, coming off their own great success with 1937’s Topper. Second-billed Douglas Fairbanks Jr. plays their son and third-billed Paulette Goddard plays Fairbanks’ girlfriend. Richard Carlson, in his first film, is Gaynor’s boyfriend. Acting honors, though, go to veteran stage actress Minnie Dupree as the family’s wealthy benefactress, Miss Fortune, whose death scene so angered preview audiences that the ending had to be re-shot with the old gal surviving.

Gregory Ratoff’s 1939 film Intermezzo, originally released as Intermezzo: A Love Story, is a Hollywood remake of Ingrid Bergman’s 1936 Swedish film which was titled Intermezzo. A somewhat musty weepie, it is nevertheless worth seeing for Bergman’s luminous performance and some very good ones by Leslie Howard, Edna Best, Cecil Kellaway, and Ann E. Todd.

This week’s new releases include Loving Vincent and Eye of the Cat.