Doris Day Collection (1948-1962, Warner Archive Collection, 4 Blu-rays, NR, 436 min.). Doris Day takes the spotlight in four of her hit musicals: her film debut in "Romance on the High Seas," "Lullaby of Broadway" with Gene Nelson, her portrayal of Ruth Etting in "Love Me or Leave Me,” and her final musical film, "Billy Rose's Jumbo," which has a Rogers and Hart score.

The films are individually reviewed:

“Romance on the High Seas” (1948, 99 min.). Day, who sings “It’s Magic,” “I’m in Love,” “Put ‘Em in a Box” and “It’s You or No One,” made her film debut in this light comedy of deliberately mistaken identities. In the film, the neophyte actress seems to take on a different, almost glowing personality when singing. The two aspects would come closer together in her work during the 1950s.

The songs, which also include “Run, Run, Run,” sung by co-star Jack Carson, and “The Tourist Trade,” were written by greats Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn, with “It’s Magic,” what the film was called in Great Britain, nominated for an Academy Award. The film’s scoring by Ray Heindorf also was nominated for an Oscar. Another great, Busby Berkeley, staged the musical numbers.

Day plays poor nightclub singer Georgia Garrett, who is sort-of dating her pianist, Oscar Ferrar (musician Oscar Levant, who also had 15 acting roles), but is constantly turning down his marriage proposals. One thing Georgia likes to do is go to a travel agency and plan out a vacation that she never takes because she cannot afford it. One day at the agency, she encounters Elvira Kent (Janis Paige, later in “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies” with Day). Elvira is married to Michael Kent (Don DeFore, later of TV’s “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,” “Hazel”; who actually looks a bit like Carson here), but both are constantly suspicious that the other is cheating, even on their wedding day.

Now married three years, Michael again puts off their anniversary trip – he runs the Miracle Drug Co. for his Uncle Lazlo Lazlo (S.Z. Sakall of “Casablanca,” “In the Good Old Summertime”). This gives Elvira the idea to hire Georgia to play her on the cruise, for the trip to Rio and $1,000, while she stays in New York City and spies on her husband. Suspicious because Elvira decides to go on the cruise without him, Michael hires private detective Peter Virgil (Carson of “A Star Is Born,” “Arsenic and Old Lace”) to go on the cruise and keep an eye on his wife.

Things become complicated when Georgia, pretending to be Elvira, starts to fall for Peter, who quickly becomes her near-constant companion on the cruise. Ultimately, everyone ends up in Rio. The film was directed by Michael Curtiz (“Casablanca,” “White Christmas,” “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” among his 178 films).

Extras include a Bugs Bunny cartoon, “Hare Spitter” (7:09); and “Let’s Sing a Song from the Movies” with the Melody Makers (10:43). Grade: film 3.5 stars; extras 1.5 stars

“Lullaby of Broadway” (1951, 92 min.). The film opens on a ship, with Day singing “Just One of Those Things” and dancing in a tuxedo during a concert. She is Melinda Howard, who has been living in England. She has made this trip to New York City to surprise her mother Jessica (Gladys George of “The Roaring Twenties,” “The Best Years of Our Lives,” “The Maltese Falcon”).

It turns out her mother has been lying to her for years, especially about being a Broadway star and owning a posh house in the city. It turns out she is singing at the Three O’Clock Club, when not recovering from alcoholism. The house actually belongs to beer company owner Adolph Hubbell (S.Z. Sakall, also with her in “Romance on the High Seas”), who sometimes invests in Broadway musicals because he likes the company of younger women rather than his wife Anna (Florence Bates of “Rebecca,” “A Letter to Three Wives”).

Both lies have been perpetuated by Hubbell’s butler “Lefty” Mack (Billy De Wolf of “Tea for Two”), who works there with his wife and sometimes vaudeville partner Gloria (Anne Triola of “Moon Over Las Vegas”). They do a comic song, loaded with puns.

After her boat performance, Melinda meets Tom Farham, a star Broadway dancer, but who pretends not to know how to dance to get close to Melinda. She turns down his advances, but then meets the real Tom, when he sings and dances to “Zing Went the Strings of My Heart” (including a jump atop the piano) at a party given by Hubbell. Lefty has talked Adolph to going along with the story that he is just renting the house from Jessica, who is away on a tour. Meanwhile, Adolph allows Melinda to live downstairs in the servant quarters.

When Hubbell realizes how talented Melinda is, he gets her a role in a new Broadway musical being put on by producer George Ferndel (Hanley Stafford of “The Affairs of Dobie Gillis”).

It always amazes me when two characters, even when first meeting, automatically know a dance routine. There also is a mechanical dolls act that actually is controlled by a woman dancer. The film’s songs are rather good and one can go directly to any of the 14 musical numbers in the sole extra. Grade: film 3.25 stars

“Love Me or Leave Me” (1955, 121 min.). This is a fictionalized account of the career of jazz singer Ruth Etting (played by Doris Day) and her tempestuous marriage to Chicago gangster Marty Snyder, who helped propel her to stardom. Snyder is played with a limp and a lot of anger by James Cagney (“Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “Footlight Parade,” “Something to Sing About”).

Ruth uses Snyder to start and improve her singing career, while turning down his advances. Snyder becomes jealous of pianist/composer Johnny Alderman (Cameron Mitchell of “Carousel,” “How to Marry a Millionaire” and TV’s “The High Chaparral”). Johnny, whom Ruth takes singing lessons from, clearly falls for Ruth, but she is more career oriented until later in the film.

As her manager, Snyder gets Ruth a radio singing gig and then a position in New York City with the “Ziegfeld Follies.” About halfway through the film, Ruth agrees to marry Snyder. They then move to California, as Ruth gets a movie role, with the movie’s music director being Alderman. While Snyder works to open a new nightclub, as he is still obsessed with Ruth, she grows tired of Snyder, as the film seems headed towards a disastrous ending.

The film received six Academy Award nominations and won for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story for Daniel Fuchs. The other nominations were for Cagney; Best Writing, Screenplay for Fuchs and Isobel Lennart; Best Sound, Recording for Wesley C. Miller; Best Music, Scoring for Percy Faith and George Stoll; and Best Music, Original Song for “I’ll Never Stop Loving You” by Nicholas Brodszky and Sammy Cahn.

Extras include “A Modern Cinderella,” with the real Ruth Etting (17:24); “Roseland” with Donn Cook (12:11); MGM’s 1955 “Salute to the Theatres” (17:09); and the ability to go directly to 13 musical moments in the film. Grade: film 3 stars; extras 2.25 stars

Billy Rose’s Jumbo (1962, 127 min.). This widescreen Technicolor extravaganza featured popular stars Doris Day, Martha Raye and Jimmy Durante (who came out of retirement), but it fizzled at the box office and is generally thought to have damaged Day's film career. The music is by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, but only two of the 12 songs stand out, namely “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” and “My Romance.”

Day plays Katherine “Kitty” Wonder, a multi-act performer for her father Anthony “Pop” Wonder’s (Durante of “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World,” who does some good clown bits) Wonder Circus, whose star attraction is Jumbo the Elephant, who can pick up a man and dunk him in water on command, as well as dance in the circus ring. Jumbo is desperately wanted by rival circus owner John Noble (Dean Jagger of “White Christmas,” “Bad Day at Black Rock” and TV’s “Mr. Novak”).

Wonder Circus is hemorrhaging performers to Noble’s circus, as none have been paid in two months. Wonder also owes the food and forage suppliers, and he makes matters worse by losing at gambling. Pop Wonder has been engaged to palm reader Lulu (Raye of “Monsieur Verdoux,” “Mountain Music” and TV’s “Alice”) for 14 years.

When the high-wire act Mantino decides to quit, job seeker Sam Rawlins (Stephen Boyd of “Ben-Hur,” “The Fall of the Roman Empire,” “Fantastic Voyage”) sneaks in as the masked act, having been previously turned away for a job by Kitty. Impressed, Pop Wonder hires Sam, not realizing he secretly is the son of Noble, sent to pay off Wonder’s creditors, with collection of the payments turned over to John Noble.

Naturally, Kitty falls for Sam, and the circus is taken over by Noble, leaving Kitty devastated.

Most of the film’s highlights, other than the two aforementioned songs, involves the circus acts, including a circus parade through town. Pop Wonder does a clown rope-walking stunt and Kitty gets to do some aerial work. The elephant is impressive as well. This version of the film includes the opening overture (3:44) and good clown work by the four main actors at the end.

The film received one Academy Award nomination for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment by George Stoll. Extras include the fun Tom & Jerry cartoon “Jerry & Jumbo,” in which a baby elephant rolls off a train and into Tom’s house (7:05); and the featurette “Yours Sincerely,” which features some Rodgers and Hart music (19:35). Grade: film 3.5 stars; extras 2.25 stars

Rating guide: 5 stars = classic; 4 stars = excellent; 3 stars = good; 2 stars = fair; dog = skip it

Thunderheart (1992, Sony, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, R, 119 min.). Val Kilmer (“The Doors”) plays FBI agent Ray Lavoi, who is of part Sioux ancestry, in this murder mystery taking place on a Native American reservation in the South Dakota Badlands that is being torn apart by two factions, one of which is the more aggressive ARM (Aboriginal Rights Movement) protest group, which apparently the U.S. government wants to shut down. Clues point to an ARM involvement in the murder of Leo Fast Elk. The film is loosely inspired by Pine Ridge Reservation events in the 1970s.

Lavoi’s new partner is cynical FBI veteran Frank “Cooch” Coutelle (Sam Shepard of “Black Hawk Down,” “The Right Stuff”). On the side opposite ARM is tribal president Jack Milton (Fred Ward of “The Right Stuff,” the “Tremors” film series), who may be in league with mineral companies who want to dig for uranium on reservation land. Those would-be mining efforts could be causing the water pollution that is sickening children and others on the reservation.

During his investigation, Lavoi encounters three impactful people. One is native policeman Walter Crowe Horse (an excellent Graham Greene of “Dances with Wolves,” “The Green Mile,” who died in September), who leads Lavoi toward the more spiritual and his Sioux ancestry, as well as to Grandfather Sam Reaches (Ted Thin Elk of “Walking Thunder”). There also is school teacher Maggie Eagle Bear (Sheila Tousey of “Skinwalkers,” “DreamKeeper”), who is trying to find the water pollution source. Maggie is with ARM.

With the help of Walter, Lavoi solves the mystery and, also helped by Grandfather, he starts seeing visions of his past and the past as far back as Wounded Knee in 1890.

The film is directed by Michael Apted (“Gorillas in the Mist,” “Amazing Grace,” 3 episodes of TV’s “Rome”) and written by John Fusco (“Young Guns,” “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron”). Extras include audio commentary by Fusco and archival interviews with the cast and crew. Grade: film 3.5 stars; extras 2 stars

Jet Trash (2016, Indican Pictures, Blu-ray, NR, 84 min.). Two friends cross a London gangster forcing them to flee England. Lee (Robert Sheehan of “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bone,” TV’s “The Umbrella Academy,” “The Misfits,” “Love/Hate”) and Sol (Osy Ikhile of TV’s “All American,” “Citadel”) are hiding out on a beach in Southern India, living a slacker life of sex, drugs and parties.

Lee worked for gangster Marlowe (Craig Parkinson of “Four Lions,” TV’s “The Misfits”), who imports women, who have arranged marriages so they can stay, and then uses them as prostitutes. Lee suggests his friend Sol do one of the marriages for the 10,00-pound payoff, and the bride is Adeze (Adelayo Adedayo of TV’s “Some Girls,” “Supercell”). A bit later, Lee is ordered by Marlowe to dump a car in water, only to find out Adeze’s body is in the trunk. She actually is alive and they help her escape.

The pair go to a spot in India that Lee’s now-deceased twin brother used to talk about. However, Lee also used to talk about the beach with his part-time girlfriend Vix (Sofia Boutella of “Kingsman: The Secret Service”), who now comes looking for Lee and Sol, as Marlowe is holding her young son hostage.

The lads’ troubles escalate as they encounter crooked cops (involving Lee’s accidental motorcycle killing of a cow), local hoodlums and Marlowe and his thugs.

Most of the backstory is told during two flashbacks. The stupid thing about the movie is that Lee and Sol twice have an opportunity to kill Marlowe but they do not. A third opportunity resolves things. Grade: film 2.25 stars

Beau Geste (1926, Artcraft Pictures, Blu-ray, NR, 129 min.). This is a restored version of the first of a least four film versions of P.C. Wren’s novel. Michael "Beau" Geste (Ronald Colman of “Lost Horizon,” “The Prisoner of Zenda,” “Random Harvest”) leaves England in disgrace and joins the infamous French Foreign Legion. Then in North Africa, he is reunited with his two brothers, John (Ralph Forbes of “The Hound of the Baskervilles”) and Digby (Neil Hamilton of 2 “Tarzan” films, “Batman: The Movie,” and TV’s “Batman” series). However, it turns out that they face greater danger from their own sadistic commander (Noah Beery of “She Done Him Wrong” as Sgt. Lejaune) than from the rebellious Arabs.

The silent film opens up with Legion forces crossing the Sahara Desert’s dunes in single file as they approach besieged Fort Zinderneuf, which the Arabs have attacked. Arriving, Major de Beaujolais (Norman Trevor of “The Wizard”) discovers all the Legionnaires atop the fort’s walls are dead. The first man he sends to climb the walls and open the gate, instead disappears and the major finds Lejaune stabbed to death, holding a letter addressed to Scotland Yard. Next to Lejaune is the body of Beau Geste. As he opens the gate to let his forces inside, the fort erupts in flames, leaving a mystery as to what happened there.

The letter is a confession to stealing the Blue Water sapphire from Lady Patricia Brandon (Alice Joyce of “The Third Degree”). The film then flashes back to when the three Geste brothers were children, playing hero games, including one that ends with a Viking burial. The flashback jumps forward some 15 years, to when it appears Beau stole the Blue Water sapphire, although the other two brothers also disappear, leaving separate notes that they had stolen the sapphire.

Once John joins the Legion, he meets his two brothers, already stationed at Fort Zinderneuf. The film then details the mistreatment of the men by Lejaune, who has learned of the sapphire and wants to steal it. Then the Arab forces attack the fort. By the film’s end, the mystery of the fort and the sapphire is satisfactorily resolved.

Extras include audio commentary by film historian Frank Thompson; a 60-minute Campbell Playhouse radio play version by Orson Welles, with Welles as Beau, Lawrence Olivier as John and Beery as Lejaune, from March 17, 1930; a look at music for the film by Rodney Sauer, who created the new score from 1926 elements (12:29); a 17-photo behind-the-scenes gallery; a demo of the restoration (3:58); 9 double-pages showing the original premiere program; and a 12-page booklet with liner notes by Thompson. Grade: film 3.5 stars; extras 3 stars

The Blade Cuts Deeper (U.K., 2024, Black Mandala, Blu-ray, NR, 83 min.). Written and directed by Gene Dolders, with A J Ballard as co-writer, the film is a homage to the golden age of Giallo, the bloody Italian crime genre. It follows a narcissistic TV host who becomes trapped in his own nightmare of cruelty and revenge.

The host is John Abbott (John Tueart), who puts together the streaming show “Lights, Camera, KILL,” which reenacts bloody crimes. As he prepares a special episode to wrap up season one, a surviving victim of an attack seeks his revenge on Abbott and those around him. The film has lots of blood effects, gross facial stabbings and hanging intestines. Grade: film 2.5 stars

Nazi Supersoldier: Awakening of Evil aka Hell’s Supersoldier: Awakening of Evil aka Erbsunde – Veil of Sin (Germany, 2024, Black Mandala, Blu-ray, NR, 75 min.). Searching for an adventurous story in the woods, six journalism students awaken a superhuman from its lost cryo-chamber. A long night of hunting and desperation ensues as the killer, developed by a Nazi scientist, gets out of the underground research facility – which no one has found in nearly 80 years, but it still has electricity, and the students find it during their first night in the woods. The killer has impenetrable skin, the strength of 10 men and basically is a programable machine.

During a scene from 1945, the hard-to-control killer kills a man during a test by pulling his head and spine out of his torso. Of the cast, the most memorable and the one you root for is Dennis (Linus Gomolka), a latecomer to the group. His sister Sarah (Antonia Catharina Duwel) comes along to watch out for him. The one who had the clue to the hidden lab is Felix (Roman Boeer de Garcez), who soon controls the supersoldier and turns on the others.

Written and directed by Ahmed Chaer (stunt performer in “The Matrix Resurrections,” “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes”), the film is rather generic. Grade: film 2 stars

Nosferatu: The Real Story (U.K., 2024, R2R/Rising Sun Media, Blu-ray, NR, 71 min.). “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror” was a 1922 silent film, an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” directed by F.W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as the vampire Graf Orlok. It was the first great horror film and Schreck’s performance is one of the best ever in a horror film.

This documentary, written and direct by Robin Bextor, details the film’s origins, production and its memorable moments, plus the efforts to have it destroyed. Despite a court order, obtained by Stoker’s widow, to destroy the film, surviving copies became highly influential in cinema. The film only has been remade twice: the sequel “Nosferatu: the Vampyre” by Werner Herzog in 1979; and the 2024 remake “Nosferatu” by Robert Eggers.

Those interviewed discuss the film’s producer Albin Grau, who wanted to make films about the occult and who had a wartime encounter with a Serb who said his father was a vampire; the Aleister Crowley influence; and the film’s use of German Expressionism. Spoiler alert: The film was the first to have a vampire die from exposure to sunlight – a future staple of vampire films – as that was not in Stoker’s book. Grade: film 3.25 stars

The James Dean Story (1957, Shoreline Entertainment, Blu-ray, G, 79 min.). Actor James Dean was a hero to many and a cultural icon of the mid-20th Century. This documentary, directed by Robert Altman (“Nashville”) and George W. George, was undertaken soon after James Dean's death in 1955 at age 24 and looks at Dean's life through the use of still photographs with narration, and interviews with many of the people involved in his short life, including relatives, roommates, fellow college fraternity members and a girlfriend.

The film says Dean meant “rage, rebellion, hope, the lonely awareness that growing up is pain” to his audiences. He only made three films – “East of Eden,” “Rebel without a Cause” and “Giant” – but had been in many TV shows and some theater while working as an actor in New York City, after spending some time as a UCLA student in California.

The film details his life growing up from ages 9 to 18 in Fairmont, Indiana, after his mother’s death. It says he broke 15 pairs of glasses trying to be a school athlete in basketball and baseball. Basically, the film is a psychological study of Dean, who died way too young in a car accident. Grade: film 3 stars

The Americas: Complete Limited Series (Universal, 2 4K Ultra HD discs or 2 Blu-rays, NR, 7 hours 24 min.). The 10-part TV series explores the extraordinary worlds and wildlife of North and South America, lands full of wonder and inspiring moments alongside the creatures that call them home. The series uses cutting-edge technology to uncover never-before-seen behaviors and to highlight extraordinary, untold wildlife stories that resonate deeply with audiences. It was five years in the making and filmed across 180 expeditions.

The series reveals the spectacular landscapes of Earth's most diverse landmass, which is the only one to stretch from pole to pole. With unprecedented scale and ambition, "The Americas" delivers remarkable world firsts: new species, intimate courtship rituals, dramatic deep-sea hunts, and some of nature's strangest stories, including a frog that appears to defy death every day.

The series is narrated by actor Tom Hanks and has a score composed by Oscar-winner Hans Zimmer. The extra is a look at the five-year journey to capture nature’s untold stories. Grade: series 3.75 stars