Few films have seen as many DVD and Blu-ray releases as Billy Wilder’s 1959 comedy classic Some Like It Hot starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon.

The 2001 DVD release from MGM, the initial Blu-ray release from Warner Brothers in 2011, and the Criterion Blu-ray from November 2018, sourced from a 4K transfer, are still big sellers. Now Kino Lorber has done Criterion one better by releasing the film in UHD 4K, importing most of the extras on the Criterion release. It’s well worth the upgrade.

A UHD 4K release of Wilder’s 1960 classic The Apartment is due in March.

Another film with multiple DVD and Blu-ray releases is Federico Fellini’s 1960 masterpiece La Dolce Vita, also sourced from a 4K transfer, which was released on Blu-ray by Criterion back in 2014. The film, which made international stars of Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg, has now been rereleased by Paramount. The Criterion release has been discontinued, but the film is available as part of the 2020 Essential Fellini from Criterion.

In the reverse of those two instances, Criterion has released Joel Coen’s 1990 neo noir Miller’s Crossing, which has also been sourced from a 4K transfer, on Blu-ray. It was previously available from Fox before its merger with Disney.

Gabriel Byrne, John Turturro, Marcia Gay Harden, Jon Polito, and Albert Finney head the cast with Steve Buscemi in a standout supporting turn. Extras include a newly filmed lengthy on-screen interview with Joel and Ethan Coen who co-wrote the film though only Joel was credited with the direction. An equally lengthy newly filmed on-screen interview with Byrne and Turturro follows. An archival interview from 1990 featuring Byrne, Turturro, Harden, and Polito (who died in 2016) is also included. This one is also worth the upgrade.

The murder and mayhem in full display in Miller’s Crossing is also in full display in Sidney Lumet’s 1974 film of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman (in her third Oscar-winning performance), Sean Connery, Vanessa Redgrave, Wendy Hiller, Rachel Roberts, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Michael York, Jacqueline Bisset, and Richard Widmark. Incredibly, this is the first U.S. release of this legendary film on Blu-ray. Extras include archival interviews with Lumet and various cast and crew members.

Paramount has also released a Blu-ray upgrade of Colin Higgins’ 1978 mystery-comedy Foul Play starring Goldie Hawn as a San Francisco librarian and Chevy Chas as a bumbling cop embroiled in romance and mayhem. The supporting cast includes Burgess Meredith, Rachel Roberts, Eugene Roche, Dudley Moore, Brian Dennehy, and Marc Lawrence. The box-office sensation remains a lot of fun.

From Paramount but released by Shout! Select, Carl Reiner’s 1987 comedy Summer School has been given a Blu-ray release as well. Mark Harmon stars as the gym teacher forced into teaching remedial English in this box-office smash. Harmon got the role thanks to his completely different Golden Globe-nominated role as serial killer Ted Bundy in the 1986 TV miniseries The Deliberate Stranger.

Kino Lorber has released another Paramount comedy on Blu-ray.

George Marshall’s 1946 film Monsieur Beaucaire gives us Bob Hope romancing Joan Caulfield in the court of France’s Louis XV. The fun cast includes Patric Knowles, Marjorie Reynolds, Cecil Kellaway, Joseph Schildkraut, Reginald Owen, and Constance Collier. The only extras are trailers from other Hope comedies.

Kino Lorber has also released a Special Edition of Ronald Neame’s 1966 film Gambit, starring Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine, and Herbert Lom from a welcome 4K transfer. The cat-and-mouse comedy thriller has never looked better. Neame’s commentary from the previously released DVD has been imported from the British DVD release of the film.

Warner Bros. Blu-ray release of Gold Diggers of 1933 is a long-awaited joy to behold. Rushed into release to capitalize on the success of Lloyd Bacon’s 42nd Street, with choreography by Busby Berkely, this one directed by Mervyn LeRoy with choreography by Berkeley, delivers the goods while rehashing the overly familiar story of showgirls looking for rich guys to bail them out of their dreary existence. It’s easy to take when the girls are Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, and Ruby Keeler, with Warren William, Guy Kibee, and Dick Powell the guys. The supporting cast is headed by Ginger Rogers, on her way to becoming a bigger star than all of them.

The show starts with Rogers singing and dancing to “We’re in the Money” and ends with Blondell singing the unforgettable ballad “My Forgotten Man” as scenes of the Great Depression unfold on screen.

Val Guest’s 1959 musical Expresso Bongo, given a 2K restoration for Blu-ray by the Coen Film Collection, is a rock-and-roll classic starring Laurence Harvey as a sleazy talent agent and Cliff Richard as his teenage discovery. Sylvia Syms, Yolande Donlan, Wilfrid Lawson, and Hermione Baddeley co-star.

Kit Parker Films has released what it is calling the definitive restoration of Lewis Milestone’s 1945 film A Walk in the Sun.

Given a 4K restoration from UCLA’s film archive, the two-disc set includes commentary from Alan K. Rode of the war film starring Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, Franchot Tone, John Ireland, Lloyd Bridges, Sterling Holloway, and Norman Lloyd.

Extras include a documentary on the war films of 20th Century-Fox, the studio that produced the film, and a “living history” interview with Norman Lloyd who died in May 2021 at 106. The loquacious actor reminiscences about his roles in both this film and Alfred Hitchcock’s 1942 classic Saboteur

This week’s new releases include the Criterion Edition of Leo McCarey’s 1939 classic Love Affair and Warner Archive’s release of the 1948 version of The Three Musketeers.