Boxed sets are classics

Here's a look at some of the new releases in video and DVD:

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THE FILM NOIR CLASSIC COLLECTION: Here's a rare DVD set from old Hollywood without a clunker in the bunch. The package has five film noir classics from 1945-50. John Huston's heist flick The Asphalt Jungle, starring Sterling Hayden, features an introduction by Huston and commentary from co-star James Whitmore. Dick Powell stars as private eye Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet, adapted from Raymond Chandler's novel Farewell My Lovely. Out of the Past features Robert Mitchum as a tough detective. Robert Wise is joined by Martin Scorsese for commentary on Mr. Wise's The Set-Up, with Robert Ryan as a boxer who refuses to take a fall. Violent and lurid for its time, Gun Crazy stars Peggy Cummins and John Dall as a twosome on a crime spree. The boxed set is bargain-priced, and all the films are worth it. DVD set, $49.92; single DVDs, $19.97 each. (Warner Bros.)

CHARLIE CHAN CHAN-THOLOGY: After a solid run of entertaining Charlie Chan detective flicks in the 1930s and early '40s, Sidney Toler returned in the mid-1940s for a batch of second-rate sequels. Half a dozen of those lesser tales are gathered in a six-disc set: Charlie Chan in the Secret Service, The Chinese Cat, The Jade Mask, Meeting at Midnight, The Shanghai Cobra and The Scarlet Clue. DVD set, $69.96; single DVDs, $14.95 each. (MGM)