Sony has finally released Nancy Meyers’ 2003 film, Something’s Gotta Give, on Blu-ray.

The prolific writer of 1980s comedies like Private Benjamin and Baby Boom, made her directorial debut with the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap for which she also wrote the screenplay. The next film which she both wrote and directed was Something’s Gotta Give for her long-time friend and Baby Boom star, Diane Keaton.

This film was a big deal. It was a dual Universal and Warner Bros. collaboration. The title was first used for the Oscar nominated song from 1955’s Daddy Long Legs in which it was introduced by Fred Astaire. It then became the title of the 1962 film that Marilyn Monroe started filming opposite Dean Martin before her untimely death which was then refilmed with Doris Day and James Garner as Move Over, Darling.

Top billing for the 2003 film went to Jack Nicholson as a wealthy 63-year-old swinger who never dated a woman over 30 until he met the mother of his latest girlfriend (Amanda Peet), played by Keaton in her last great role, the one for which she is now best remembered for than anything else except Annie Hall.

Nicholson is good as the old codger who goes to playwright Keaton’s house in the super rich area of Long Island’s Hamptons with girlfriend Peet while Keaton is away. To their surprise, Keaton and her sister (Frances McDormand) return and interrupt them. Nicholson then has a heart attack while trying to keep up with Peet and is taken to the local hospital where he is treated by thirty something doctor, Keanu Reeves.

Reeves, it turns out, is a big fan of Keaton’s work and is attracted to the 55-year-old playwright. Given the precariousness of his health, Nicholson is ordered to stay nearby until the results of his tests come in. He is then given a spare bedroom in Keaton’s house while Peet and McDormand return to NYC for the work week. Left on their own, Nicholson and Keaton have an inevitable movie style affair but there are complications including his inability to commit and Reeves’ forming the third part of an unlikely triangle.

As good as both Nicholson and Reeves are, Keaton is transcendent in a role obviously written for her by someone who knew her well, She won the National Board of Review for Best Actress, the Golden Globe for Best Actress – Comedy, the AARP Award for Best Actress over 50 and nominations for just about every other award under the sun, losing most of them to Charlize Theron in Monster.

Extras include dueling commentaries, one by Nicholson and Meyers, the other by Keaton, Meyers, and producer Bruce Block, transferred from the earlier DVD release.

Meyers’ First film as a writer, Private Benjamin, is one of six new Warner Archive Blu-ray upgrades.

The 1980 film, directed by Howard Zieff, features Oscar nominated performances by Goldie Hawn and Eileen Brennan that still hold up.

Hawn is a rich girl who has always gotten what she wanted except in love. Her first marriage lasted six months and her second six hours as her husband (Albert Brooks) died making love to her on her wedding night. She joins the Army in rebound only to discover it’s not what she wanted.

The film’s first half, in which she and commanding officer Brennan collide, is pure comic joy. The second half which veers off into heavy drama involving Armand Assante as a French doctor who may become her third husband, is no fun at all.

Extras include two episodes of the 1981-83 TV series with Lorna Patterson as Benjamin and Eileen Brennan who won an Emmy for reprising her big screen role.

Also included in the batch of Warner Archive releases is Victor Fleming’s 1937 film, Captains Courageous for which Spencer Tracy won the first of his back-to-back Oscars.

Based on Rudyard Kipley’s acclaimed novel, the thrilling film boasts fine performances by Freddie Bartholomew as the spoiled brat who comes of age under the tutelage of Tracy’s fisherman and Lionel Barrymore’s sea captain after he falls overboard from a luxury liner.

The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Film Editing, and Screenplay, but Tracy’s Oscar is generally attributed to his being in competition with two stronger performers who had already won Oscars – Fredric March in A Star Is Born and Paul Muni in The Life of Emile Zola as well as being the strongest of the three other nominees which also include Robert Montgomery in Night Must Fall and Charles Boyer in Conquest.

Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe had been a big hit for MGM in 1953, and his Rob Roy had been a big hit for Disney in 1983, so it was no surprise that Warner Bros. also had a big hit with 1954’s King Richard and the Crusaders from his novel, The Talisman,

The Warner Archive Blu-ray is vast improvement over the previous DVD release, highlighted by the performances of Rex Harrison as Saracen king Saladin, George Sanders as Richard the Lionheart, and Laurence Harvey as the Scotsman who brings them together. Viginia Mayo also stars as Richard’s cousin, Edith.

Also in this release group are John Ford’s decent but ultimately disappointing 1931 version of Sinclair Lewis’ Arrowsmith starring Ronald Colman and Helen Hayes as the crusading doctor and his wife; the 1932 prison melodrama, 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, the only screen pairing of Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis; and Crack-Up, a 1946 film noir starring Pat O’Brien and Claire Trevor.

Happy viewing.