Promoted as the life story of Jackie Robinson, Brian Helgeland’s 42 isn’t quite that, but it is a well-made, if limited account of the first black major league baseball player’s first year in the majors.

Helgeland, who shared the 1997 adapted screenplay Oscar for L.A. Confidential with Curtis Hanson and was subsequently nominated in the same category for 2004’s Mystic River is not a particularly strong director, but he does get a terrific performance out of TV actor Chadwick Boseman as Robinson and some good supporting performances, most notably from Lucas Black as Pee Wee Reese, the Dodgers’ short-stop and team captain whose on-field embrace of Robinson at a contentious Philadelphia game went a long way toward earning Robinson the respect that had eluded him up to that point.

The film gets off to a rocky start with a voiceover explaining what life was like in the United States after the end of World War II. The use of anachronistic terms like “greatest generation” and “African-America” suggest that the film is going to be a whitewash. Thankfully that’s not the case as the main narrative takes us back to 1947 when Brooklyn Dodgers’ owner Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) announces to his staff his plan to bring the first black player into the Dodgers family. Rickey was interested in doing so for religious and compassionate reasons, but also for improving the Dodgers’ bottom line. There were a lot of black baseball fans in Brooklyn.

Robinson’s year is one of struggle as racism rears its ugly head not just in the South, but the North as well with a particular emphasis on Philadelphia and Cincinnati. Alan Tudyk has been singled out by some critics as giving an award-worthy performance as foul-mouthed Ben Chapman, the Philadelphia manager who taunts Robinson with repeated use of the “n” word. For my money, it’s overdone. My biggest gripe with the film, though, is that it tells so little of Robinson’s story that it doesn’t adequately explain why Robinson’s player number, 42, is the only number in all of major league baseball officially retired by all the teams in honor.

42 is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Twilight Time, the Boutique label which releases limited 3,000 editions of classic films mostly from Fox and Columbia, has previously released Jennifer Jones’ 1943 Oscar winner, The Song of Bernadette and William Holden’s smash 1955 hit , Picnic co-starring Kim Novak and Rosalind Russell. They have now released Holden’s other 1955 mega-hit, , Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, in which he co-stars with Jones.

Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, directed by Henry King for Fox, was a pre-sold hit. The book about a beautiful Eurasian Hong Kong doctor and a Caucasian American journalist who have an ill-fated romance just before the outbreak of the Korean War had been a huge best-seller. The film’s theme song, an eventual Oscar winner, had been a smash hit for months before the film’s release. Beautifully filmed on location in Hong Kong and China, it attracted world-wide audiences to what was then considered an exotic location in the days before air travel became commonplace. The film remained popular for many years, spurring several theatrical revivals, but due to the changing times is now mainly considered a women’s weepie. That’s too bad, because there’s still much to enjoy for everyone.

The on-screen chemistry between Holden and Jones is palpable, one of the greatest pairings in the history of film, yet the two reportedly couldn’t stand one another. Holden was a notorious womanizer and Jones would have none of that. She reportedly chewed garlic before all of their love scenes.

Warner Archive had been promising a Spring release of Hugh Hudson’s 1984 film, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes on Blu-ray for some time but production delays kept it out of reach until now. The film, Hudson’s first since his Oscar winning Chariots of Fire and curiously his only subsequent hit, was a return to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ original concept, away from the film and TV versions of the Tarzan stories that had proliferated since 1918.

The film is a cinematic wonder, with Rick Baker’s ape makeup as much of a star of the film as actor Christopher Lambert who never had a better part than that of the man-boy raised by apes in the jungle after the death of his parents. Andie McDowell makes a lovely Jane, but it’s still a little disconcerting to hear her speak with Glenn Close’s voice. Hudson reportedly couldn’t get her to camouflage her Southern accent and had Close re-voice all her dialogue.

The film’s jungle scenes come off best, but the stately halls of England scenes also play quite well thanks mainly to Ralph Richardson to whom the film is dedicated. The veteran actor, who died after completing the film, received top billing and one of the film’s three Oscar nominations for his portrayal of Tarzan’s grandfather.

The Warner Archive, in addition to releasing films previously unavailable on DVD, is also re-issuing films long out of print including films from Paramount in addition to those from Warner Bros., MGM, HBO and RKO, as they have been doing for over four years now.

One of their first Paramount re-issues is the 1956 version of Anything Goes previously filmed in 1936 with Bing Crosby and Ethel Merman. That version has never been released on home video in any format.

Both versions retain several songs from the original production while interpolating others written specifically for the film. Both tinker horribly with Cole Porter’s deliciously risqué lyrics. The new verses written for the title tune are alone enough to make you weep. For example, Grandma is no longer participating in nudist parties. Now Grandpa is stepping on her toes on the dance floor and Reno Sweeney is no longer inviting you to see her undressed. Now she’s not even Reno Sweeney, she’s Patsy Blair, played by Mitzi Gaynor opposite Crosby, Donald O’Connor and Zizi Jeanmaire. The story has been completely revamped. While the original story was never much to begin with, the new one isn’t any better. Most of the action is still confined to a a ship making an Atlantic crossing.

The archive is also providing newly re-mastered anamorphic widescreen versions of several films that were released in the early days of the DVD format in pan-and-scan versions. Among them are The Great Santini and The Spitfire Grill.

The Great Santini is an excellent coming-of-age film about the eldest son of an alpha male marine pilot played by Robert Duvall. Duvall and Michael O’Keefe were both nominated for Oscars for their terrific performances. The film had an unusual release pattern. Released in small towns in the South in late 1979, the film flopped and was sold to HBO as The Ace. The film was so successful when it broadcast that it was re-distributed theatrically under its original title and became a hit after all.

The Spitfire Grill is another inspirational film that flew under the radar, picking up steam when it was originally released on DVD after its 1996 theatrical showing.

Alison Elliott stars as a parolee who comes to a small New England town where she touches the lives of everyone around her. Ellen Burstyn and Marcia Gay Harden co-star.

This week’s new releases include Trance and the Blu-ray upgrade of The Ice Storm.