Federico Fellini’s 1960 classic, La Dolce Vita was the fifth highest grossing film of 1961, the year of its U.S. release, coming in behind 101 Dalmatians, West Side Story, El Cid and The Parent Trap, raking in more than twice as much as the next highest grossing film, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which like the Italian phenomenon was also at its heart a jaundiced look at the idle rich. Audiences of the day viewed Fellini’s look at the dark side of the culture of stardom with wide-eyed wonder. Today’s audiences, coming to it for the first time, look at the film which introduced America to the word “paparazzi” with a more knowing awareness.

With rights issues finally resolved, Criterion has released a meticulously restored edition of the film with new English subtitle translation on Blu-ray and standard DVD. Extras include an interview with scholar David Forgas on the period in Italian history in which the film was made as well as an interview with Lina Wertmuller (Seven Beauties) who was an assistant director on the film. Also included are archival interviews with Fellini and star Marcello Mastroianni from the 1960s.

Kino Lorber continues to release Blu-ray upgrades of MGM-owned films previously available on standard DVD.

Based on an international best-seller, Michael Apted’s 1983 film, Gorky Park, is an excellent police procedural set in Moscow near the end of the Cold War. It’s beautifully photographed with Helsinki standing in for Moscow starring William Hurt in one of his best early performances as a dedicated policeman out to solve a triple murder in the heart of city.

Lee Marvin co-stars in one of his last roles as an American gangster, along with Brian Dennehy as the American policeman brother of one the victims, as do Joanna Pacula as a mysterious Russian girl and Ian Bannen as the chief Russian prosecutor. Extras include a newly-recorded interview with Apted.

Jonathan Demme’s 1988 film, Married to the Mob is a hilarious send-up of gangster movies with Michelle Pfeiffer as the title character, the widow of hit man Alec Baldwin, who tries to start life anew in Manhattan but is tracked down by mob boss Dean Stockwell. Matthew Modine co-stars as a bumbling FBI agent who falls in love with Pheiffer. Mercedes Ruehl has a strong role as Stockwell’s obsessive wife. Pfeiffer was nominated for a Golden Globe, but Stockwell, in the third or fourth phase of his lengthy career, is the one who received an Oscar nomination along with various critics’ awards. It still holds up.

Los Angeles in the 1950s is the backdrop for Lee Tamahori’s 1996 film, Mulholland Falls, about an elite group of L.A. policemen (Nick Nolte, Chazz Palminteri, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn) investigating the murder of a young girl (Jennifer Connelly) that leads to the exposure of a government cover-up.

The huge cast includes Melanie Griffith as Nolte’s wife, Andrew McCarthy as the dead girl’s actor friend, John Malkovich as a government big shot, Treat Williams as a nefarious Army Colonel, William Petersen as a doomed Chicago businessman, Bruce Dern as the elite group’s chief and Louise Fletcher as a librarian.

Joan Crawford earned one of her three Oscar nominations for her portrayal of a deranged woman in 1947’s Possessed, directed by Curtis Bernhardt. Newly released on Blu-ray by Warner Archive, this film noir classic was an unusual film for Crawford who was usually in complete control of herself and her films. She’s anything but in control in this one in which she plays a nurse casually dating Van Heflin while caring for his friend Raymond Massey’s dying wife. When she gets clingy, he gets going only to re-emerge as a suitor for Massey’s daughter, Geraldine Brooks, after Crawford marries the widowed Massey. Heflin, Massey and Brooks are all superb, but Crawford, two years after her Oscar win for Mildred Pierce, has never been better.

The Warner Archive’s made-on-demand DVD releases have been on the lean side lately. Two recent releases, however, are worth seeking out for their historic value.

George Arliss famously won an Oscar for the 1929 talkie version of his 1921 silent film, Disraeli, based on his stage success. In 1932, history repeated itself when Arliss had another major hit with the talkie version of The Man Who Played God, another stage success he had previously filmed as a silent in 1922. The then-64-year-old star’s selection of 24-year-old Bette Davis to play his fiancé made headlines and kick-started her career. The film, which was remade by Liberace as Sincerely Yours in 1955, was a major success. It’s definitely creaky by today’s standards, but Arliss as the deaf pianist, Davis and Ivan Simpson as Arliss’ butler are first-rate.

James Cagney and Pat O’Brien made nine films together. 1935’s The Irish in Us was the third of them. Both stars acquit themselves well as brothers in love with the same girl, the fast-rising Olivia de Havilland. What distinguishes the film, however, is the performance of Mary Gordon as Cagney, O’Brien and Frank McHugh’s mother, the most substantial role the actress ever played in a 26-year screen career from 1925-1950 with a total 297 credits. Best known as Mrs. Hudson, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson’s landlady in the Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes series on film and radio, most of her roles were walk-ons, many of them with little or no dialogue. Here she makes up for all of that, dominating the film the way few character actresses ever had the opportunity to do.

The 1978 version of The Big Sleep has been released in an anamorphic widescreen transfer by ITV Timeless Noir Group on standard DVD only.

Boasting an all-star cast including Robert Mitchum. Sarah Miles, Candy Clark, John Mills, Oliver Reed, Joan Collins, Edward Fox, Harry Andrews, James Donald, John Justin, Richard Todd and James Stewart, the film suffers in comparison to Howard Hawks’ 1946 Humphrey Bogart-Lauren Bacall classic. The late director Michael Winner’s gossipy commentary is a hoot, especially when talking about Mitchum’s sexual pursuits, Collins’ wigs and Miles’ flaky behavior including her refusal to emote in an all-white room.

This week’s new releases include Billy Wilder’s Fedora and the British murder mystery series, Vera – Set 4.