Soylent Green (1973, Arrow Video, 4K Ultra HD or Blu-ray, PG, 96 min.). This is the third film in a trilogy of dystopian science fiction classics Charlton Heston made, after “Planet of the Apes” (1968) and “The Omega Man” (1971). The film, directed by Richard Fleischer (“20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” “Fantastic Voyage,” “Red Sonya”), is presented in a new 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative. The screenplay is by Stanley R. Greenberg (TV’s “The Defenders”), based on Harry Harrison’s novel “Make Room! Make Room!

Based in part of Thomas Malthus’ 1798 theory that population growth will always outpace food supply growth, the film is a police thriller set within a desolate future where humanity is bursting at the seams. The film was made in1973 about the year 2022, which is now four years in our past and the future food crisis it predicted has not happened, at least not yet.

In the film’s 2022, the greenhouse effect has ravaged Earth’s climate, leaving the world eternally hot and crops unable to grow. People survive on three colors of Soylent, with Soylent Green being high-energy crackers manufactured from plankton, which is distributed only on Tuesdays. The population of New York City is a crammed 40 million, with the poor and downtrodden sleeping packed on staircases and in basements, while the wealthy live in luxury apartments and eat real food, including beef. Two scenes, including an assassination attempt/fight, take place in a church overcrowded with the homeless and sick. Another scene is a food riot in which the police use scooper trucks to pick up a dozen people at a time and dump them into the truck’s back.

Heston plays NYPD Homicide Detective Robert Thorn, assigned to investigate the murder of a rich man in a secure skyscraper. The deceased is Simonson (Joseph Cotton of “Citizen Kane,” “The Third Man,” “Shadow of a Doubt”), a board member of the Soylent Corp. Thorn lives with police researcher Sol Roth (Edward G. Robinson of “Little Caesar,” “Key Largo”), who picks through clues, including two books of Soylent oceanographic research that Thorn brings from Simonson’s luxury apartment. Roth also bicycles in their apartment to generate battery power for electricity.

Thorn also brings back a bar of soap, a half-bottle of bourbon, two apples and a rare piece of beef, which Roth makes into beef stew. Simonson’s apartment also comes with an assigned young female companion. She is Shirl (Leigh Taylor-Young of “I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!”), whom Thorn gets to know better on subsequent visits. Simonson also had a bodyguard in Tab Fielding (Chuck Connors of TV’s “Branded,” “The Rifleman”), who appears to be living beyond his means with Martha (Paula Kelly of “The Andromeda Strain,” “Sweet Charity”).

When the higher-ups try to close the case down, via Police Lt. Hatcher (Brock Peters of “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,” “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country,” “To Killa Mockingbird”), Thorn continues to investigate on his own, surviving two assassination attempts. The film ends with Thorn declaring a classic line, much as he did in “Planet of the Apes.”

Extras include two audio commentaries: an archival one by director Fleischer and Taylor-Young; and a new one by film historian Michael Brooke and author Johnny Mains. There also is “A Look at the World of Soylent Green” and other vintage films and how they predicted the future (10:03); plus, an MGM tribute to Robinson, as this was his 101st film (4:51); a 1985 audio interview with Heston at BFI, starting with “Touch of Evil” (96:49); a video 1984 interview with Fleischer at BFI, after a screening of his “Compulsion” (76:25); and three image galleries. There also is a booklet with new writing by Frank Collins and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. Grade: film 3.5 stars; extras 4 stars

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

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The Outfit (1973, Arrow Video, Blu-ray, PG, 103 min.). In this adaptation of three of Donald E. Westlake’s Parker novels, written under the pseudonym Richard Stark, Robert Duvall (he made “The Godfather” the previous year, “Apocalypse Now”) plays professional robber Earl Meklin, who gets out of prison to discover someone wants him dead, after already killing his brother Eddie. It turns out the bank they robbed in Wichita was a front for the underworld organization known as “The Outfit.”

Now the gang’s boss, Mailer (Robert Ryan of “The Wild Bunch,” “Bad Day at Black Rock”), and his enforcer, Jake Menner (Timothy Carey of “The Killing,” “Paths of Glory”) have targeted Earl for elimination. Instead of going into hiding with his girlfriend Bett Harrow (Karen Black of “Easy Rider,” “Five Easy Pieces”), they hook up with his old friend in crime Jake Cody (Joe Don Baker of “Walking Tall,” “GoldenEye,” “Cape Fear”) and raid The Outfit’s various rackets until Mailer pays $250,000 for Eddie’s death. As the robberies go on, the closer the criminal organization closes in.

There also is a car trade/purchase that goes wrong when an overly-aggressive wife (Sheree North of “The Shootist,” “Charley Varrick”) makes a false accusation against Cody. One highlight is a shooting that begins inside a bar and continues outside. The director was John Flynn (“Lock Up,” “Rolling Thunder”).

The movie features a cast from the golden age of noir including Marie Windsor (“The Killing, “The Narrow Margin,” “Cat-women of the Moon”) as Madge Coyle, a bar owner; Elisha Cook Jr.(“The Maltese Falcon,” “The Big Sleep,” “Rosemary’s Baby”) as Carl; and Jane Greer (“Out of the Past,” “The Big Steal,” “The Prisoner of Zenda”) as Alma Macklin, Eddie’s widow.

The film is a new restoration from the original 35mm camera negative. Extras include new audio commentary by critic and author Jedidiah Ayers and film critic Mike White of The Projection Booth podcast; a new appreciation of author Westlake by Westlake expert Levi Stahl (26:20); a new appreciation of the film and director by critic Walter Chaw (9:29); a new featurette on The Outfit and the Parker novels by Alissa Marmoi-Cemat and Shay Dennis, creators of “Tough Business: A Parker Site” (10:58); an archival interview with filmmaker Walter Hill on Flynn (13:11); and two galleries. The booklet has new writing by critics Chris D, Glenn Kenny and Priscilla Page. Grade: film 3.5 stars; extras 4 stars

Crime Wave (1953, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, NR, 74 min.). In the early police procedural, Sterling Hayden (The Killing,” “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” “The Godfather”) wears a badge and a scowl as Police Detective Lt. Sims. He is sure parolee Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson of “Tea for Two,” “Oklahoma!”) will not stay straight, especially as three inmates have escaped from San Quentin, where Lacey previously was incarcerated. However, Lacey has a steady job as an airplane mechanic and a wife in Ellen (Phyllis Kirk of TV’s “The Thin Man” series).

The escapees are Doc Penny (Ted de Corsia of “The Naked City,” “The Lady from Shanghai,” “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”), Gat Morgan (Nedrick Young of “Terror in a Texas Town,” “Gun Crazy,” writer of “Inherit the Wind”) and Ben Hastings (Charles Bronson of the “Death Wish” films, “The Great Escape,” “The Magnificent Seven”). They have already pulled off four holdups on their way south and the film opens with their fifth, of a gas station and it results with Morgan killing a police officer and being wounded himself. Their net gain was $130.

Morgan then hunts down Lacey and summons Doc Hessler (Jay Novello of “The Lost World,” “Harum Scarum”), but Morgan is dead when Hessler arrives. Hessler relieves the body of $100. When Penny arrives, with Hastings, a short time later, he forces Lacey, using Ellen as a hostage, into a scheme to rob a bank and then steal a plane, which Lacey would fly.

Much of the film deals with the details of the police trying to track down the escapees. They eventually draw up a list of former San Quentin inmates who now live in the area. Before Penny and Hastings arrived, Lacey had called his parole officer, Daniel O’Keefe (James Bell of “The Spiral Staircase,” “I Walked with a Zombie”). O’Keefe contacted Lt. Sims, who wants to use Lacey to draw the escapees, but Lacey says he does not want to be a stool pigeon.

The crisp film is directed by Andre de Toth (“The Gunfighter,” “House of Wax”). The extras include an audio commentary by Film Noir Foundation founder Eddie Muller and author James Ellroy; the featurettes “Gadgets Galore,” about the coming of the automobile (10:40), and the making-of “Crime Wave – The City Is Dark” (5:58; 2007); and the Bugs Bunny cartoon, “Baby Buggy Bunny” (7:07). Grade: film 3.75 stars; extras 2.5 stars

Macao (1952, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, NR, 81 min.). This is another solid noir, starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell in their second film together, after “His Kind of Woman” (1951). The film, directed by Josef von Sternberg (“The Docks of New York,” “The Shanghai Express”), features a cast, many of whom are not who they purport to be and nearly all have secrets.

Macao, a Portuguese colony off the coast of China, is a den of gambling and exchanges of gold and other valuable items. The largest casino is owned by American Vincent Halloran (Brad Dexter of “The Magnificent Seven,” “The Asphalt Jungle,” “Run Silent, Run Deep”), but who cannot pass the 3-mile limit because he is wanted by the New York City Police. The film opens with Halloran’s men chasing down a policeman, who gets a knife in the back and falls into the water.

The scene then shifts to an inbound boat and the other three main characters’ first meeting. Julie Benton (Russell of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”), a singer looking for a job, hits Nick Cochran (Mitchum of “Out of the Past,” “Cape Fear,” “The Night of the Hunter”) with a thrown object, and he kisses her, not knowing she has just stolen his wallet and, after taking the money, throws it overboard, including his passport.

Salesman Lawrence C. Trumble (William Bendix of “Lifeboat,” “The Blue Dahlia,” TV’s “Overland Trail,” “The Life of Riley”) chats up Benton and gives her a free pair of stockings, with Cochran catching one of the used stockings she throws away.

Halloran gives Benton a job – she sings two songs – and eventually offers Cochran $6,000 if he will leave Macao. Halloran is convinced Cochran is a NYPD detective, looking to arrest him. Meanwhile, Trumble offers Cochran a split if he sells a diamond necklace to Halloran.

Two other local figures of note are Macao policeman Lt. Sebastian (Thomas Gomez of “Key Largo,” “Force of Evil,” “Beneath the Planet of the Apes”) and Margie (Gloria Grahame of “In a Lonely Place,” “It’s a Wonderful Life”), Halloran’s secretary, but who ultimately helps Cochran escape from confinement. That leads to a highlight chase over rooftops and along the waterfront.

The extras are an audio commentary by Eddie Muller and screenwriter Stanley Rubin; and a TCM “Private Screening” episode with Mitchum, Russell and host Robert Osbourne (30:17; 1996). Grade: film 3.5 stars; extras 3 stars

The Sisters (1938, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, NR, 99 min.). I love a disaster movie and this film has pretty effective scenes of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, including her apartment falling around Louise Elliott (Bette Davis of “All About Eve,” “Dark Victory,” “Now, Voyager”).

Louise is the oldest one of the three sisters of the title. The other two are Helen (Anita Louise of “A Midsummer’s Night Dream,” which will be reviewed next time) and Grace (Jane Bryan of “Kid Galahad,” “Each Dawn I Die”). Their parents are Rose (Beulah Bondi of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”) and Ned (Henry Travers of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “The Invisible Man”). They live in Silver Bay, Montana.

The film starts in 1904, when Louise is dating Tom Knivel (Dick Foran of “Fort Apache,” “Donovan’s Reef”), who has a new-fangled automobile that backfires a lot. All three attend a voting results dance, held for Theodore Roosevelt’s campaign. There, Louise catches the eye of San Francisco newspaper reporter Frank Medlin (Errol Flynn of “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” “Captain Blood,” “Adventures of Don Juan”). Within a week, they are headed off to San Francisco to be married, after Frank proposes during a family dinner.

Next, Tom proposes to Grace as they pump air into his flat tire. Then, Sam Johnson (Alan Hale of “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” “The Sea Hawk”) proposes to Ellen, despite being old enough to be her father.

Frank has problems with alcohol, but stops for Louise’s sake. He takes her to a boxing match he is covering, but then the problems start, including Frank losing his job and getting work on a steamer headed for Singapore, followed by the earthquake. Before the quake, Louise befriends extrovert neighbor Flora Gibbon (Lee Patrick of “The Maltese Falcon,” “Vertigo,” “Auntie Mame”) and gets a secretary job.

Neither of the other two marriages end well either as two more years pass. The film ends with the election night dance for William H. Taft in Silver Bay.

The film was directed by Anatole Litvak (“The Snake Pit,” “Decision Before Dawn”), who reportedly refused to allow Davis a double for the San Francisco earthquake scenes. The sequence, which takes up two and a half minutes of screen time, also includes stock footage from “Old San Francisco” (1927).

Extras include the true adventure “The Night Intruder” (11:13); a collection of movie flubs in “Breakdown of 1938” (12:45); and the Lux Radio Theater audio of “The Sisters,” starring Irene Dunne and David Niven (57:20). Grade: film 3.25 stars; extras 2.25 stars

Bonnie Scotland (1935, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, NR, 80 min.). In this only-two-laughs Laurel & Hardy film, the pair go to Scotland as Stanley MacLaurel’s (Stan Laurel) grandfather has died and there is a will reading. Unfortunately, Stanley only gets a bagpipe and a snuff box. It is granddaughter Lorna (June Lang of “Meet the Girls”) who inherits the 200,000 pounds.

Stanley and companion Oliver Hardy (Oliver Hardy) basically wreck the inn’s room they rent for three weeks, despite having no money. They even try to cook a fish with a candle under the bed. Oh, and they had escaped jail in order to come to Scotland.

Seeing a flyer for free clothes, they accidentally join the British army and find themselves posted to the Northwest Frontier in India on a dangerous mission. Coincidentally, Lorna ends up in the same town and falling for Col. Gregor McGregor (Vernon Steele of “Captain Blood,” “Kidnapped”), seemingly having given up on at-home boyfriend Allan Douglas (William Janney of “Two Seconds,” “The World Changes”). Of course, Allan ends up in the same India town as the others.

Basically, the film is not very funny. There is a repeated flat bit about Stanley’s manner of marching in the army. I did like the village blacksmith hammering out the Laurel & Hardy theme.

Extras include audio commentary by Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann; and excerpts from two other Laurel & Hardy films: “Hollywood Party” (1934) with Jimmy Durante, then the boys having an egg fight with a woman (12:30); and “Pick a Star” (8:25; 1935). Grade: film 2.5 stars; extras 2 stars