Alfred Hitchcock was fond of saying that Foreign Correspondent was his first Hollywood film even if technically that wasn’t so.

Hitchcock was brought to America by David O. Selznick as a director of hire for Selznick’s film of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca in 1939. Hitchock, who was bound by contract to make more films for Selznick in which he exercised complete control was in this first film, contractually obligated to make the film according to Selznick’s tightly controlled whims. Thus Foreign Correspeondent, which he made on loan-out to Walter Wanger, was the first Hollywood film he made that can be called thoroughly Hitchcockian. Almost thoroughly, that is, as Wanger’s ideas and Hitchcock’s were in conflict. Hitchcock won out, but not without placating Wanger to an extent.

Wanger had owned the property on which Foreign Correspeondent is based since 1936. His idea was to make it into a dramatized version of a newsreel which would expose the growing Nazi threat in Europe. Hitchcock wanted to make it more of a man in peril story emulating The 39 Steps and his other classic British suspense films. Hitchcock won out but not without agreeing to allow some newsreel aspects to seep in. The film, which completed principal photography on the day Hitler marched into Poland, has a hastily tacked on ending that is a rallying cry for U.S. support against the Nazis.

The brunt of the film, however, is classic Hitchcock with the director’s masterful touches in almost every scene from the assassination in the rain in which Joel McCrea is the only one you can decipher amidst all the raised umbrellas to the windmill that spins backwards to plane crash at sea to the rescue of a key character. It is beautifully acted by McCrea, a replacement for Gary Cooper who later regretted not taking the role. Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders, Oscar nominated Albert Basserman, Robert Benchley, Edmund Gwenn, Eduardo Ciannelli and Harry Davenport also stand out in vivid supporting roles. Benchley also had a hand in the script.

Released in August, 1940, the film was a box office smash, which led to its six Oscar nominations including Best Picture which it lost to Hitchock’s Rebecca, the only film by the master of suspense to ever be so honored.

The Criterion Edition’s dual Blu-ray and standard DVD pack includes a host of extras including Hitchcock’s wry interview with Dick Cavett in 1972.

Comedies come in many forms. Among them are romantic, buddy and geezer comedies. The last one is probably my least favorite. While I’m a big fan of films about old people’s struggles and triumphs, I am not a fan of those films that make old people look like idiots. Venturing into Jon Turteltaub’s Last Vegas, I expected the worst. Not only is it about a bunch of geezers, it takes place in Las Vegas, one of my least favorite places. Imagine my surprise when I found myself actually liking it!

To be sure Last Vegas is no work of art, but it is a pleasant time killer about three old friends who make their way to Sin City to attend the wedding of a fourth who, at almost 70, is about to marry his 31 year-old mistress. The four are played by Michael Douglas as the groom; Robert De Niro as the grumpy widower; Morgan Freeman as the stroke survivor and Kevin Kline as the horny married guy. They’re all quite good. Better still, though, is Mary Steenburgen as a sixtyish lounge singer who both Douglas and De Niro fall for. Will Douglas cancel his wedding? Will Steenburgen choose him or De Niro? Will someone die? Contrary to most films of this ilk, the answer to the last question is a resounding “no”! It’s all nicely tied up.

Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch make an engaging pair of road workers in David Gordon Green’s Prince Avalanche in which the pair are tasked with painting the broken yellow line that separates traffic lanes along a Wyoming mountain highway in the wake of a devastating fire.

Rudd is the veteran road worker who recommends his fiancé’s brother (Hirsch) for a job as his helper. The two have nothing in common except the fiancé/sister, and even less after she writes Rudd a Dear John letter. But this is a buddy movie, so the two will end up sharing an unbreakable bond, right? Right! The fun is in the getting there is this sweet comedy from the director of All the Real Girls and George Washington.

Ten years ago, Jerusha Hess burst onto the scene as co-writer of Napoleon Dynamite with her husband Jared. Quite frankly I never got the jokes. I don’t get them in her directorial debut, Austenland, either.

This is a rather genteel comedy about three women who spend their summer vacation at an English estate made to resemble a British Regency estate in Jane Austen’s time. The three women are played by Kerri Russell, Jennifer Coolidge and Georgia King. The estate is owned by a daffy old lady played by Jane Seymour. The male guests are played by actors. There’s also a stable mate/chauffer that Russell’s character falls for. He turns out to be less than he seems, but wait, one of the actors turns out to be more than he seems, leading to a happy ending that may satisfy the incurably romantic.

Last Vegas; Prince Avalanche and Austenland are available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Boutique label Twilight continues to release interesting films on Blu-ray that are licensed to them by Columbia and Fox. This month’s new releases include Columbia’s The Eddy Duchin Story and Fox’s The Blue Max as well as three United Artists films owned by MGM and distributed by Fox. They are Crimes and Misdemeanors; The Front and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. Only 3,000 copies of each are available for sale through Screen Archives. Standard DVD versions of all five are available at Amazon and other outlets.

They’re all excellent choices, but The Eddy Duchin Story is an especially interesting one. The 1956 film was made five years after the pianist/orchestra leader’s death at 40 and two years before star Tyrone Power’s death at 44. It provides an evocative look at 1930s and 1940s New York and features superlative performances from Power as Duchin; Kim Novak as his society wife Marjorie who dies unexpectedly several days after giving birth to his son Peter; Rex Thompson aspiring pianist Peter and Victoria Shaw as Peter’s nanny and Eddy’s second wife.

This week’s new releases include Oscar nominees Gravity and Nebraska.