Northanger Abbey (U.K., 2007, PBS Masterpiece, DVD, NR, 95 min.). This TV adaptation of Jane Austin’s parody of Gothic fiction has a highly serviceable cast and five imagined dreams in which Catherine Morland becomes embroiled in the sexually-charged plots of the scandalous novels she has been reading.

The reality of the story is all about men trying to take advantage of younger women, with group dancing seeming to be the most used method, and whether true love is at all possible. The film is directed by Jon Jones (TV’s “When I’m Sixty-Four,” “A Very Social Secretary”).

The film opens with baby Catherine being baptized and then quickly shifts to when she is 15 and one of a brood of 10 children. Catherine (Felicity jones of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” “The Theory of Everything,” “Brideshead Revisited”) now is an avid reader of romance novels. The Allens (Desmond Barrit of TV’s “A Christmas Carol” and Sylvestra Le Touzel of “Cloud Atlas”), friends of her parents, offer her the chance to stay with them in the city of Bath, a city with quite the social happenings, such as dances.

During her first few days there, Catherine meets and befriends Isabella Thorpe (Carey Mulligan of “Shame,” “Drive”), a friend of her older brother James (Hugh O’Conor of “Chocolat”). At her first dance party, Catherine meets Henry Tilney (JJ Feild of “Austenland,” “Captain America: First Avenger”), a clergyman. Henry’s father is General Tilney (Liam Cunningham of “Clash of the Titans”), the owner of huge Northanger Abbey who soon invites Catherine to come stay there.

During the same society dance that Catherine meets Henry, she attracts the interest of John Thorpe (William Beck of TV’s “Casualty,” “Robin Hood”), Isabella’s randy brother. Isabella later proclaims to be in love with James, but still enjoys the attraction of Capt. Frederick Tilney (Mark Dymond of “Die Another Day”).

The film does take liberties with Austin’s novel, but is faithful to its spirit and is an enjoyable watch. Grade: film 3.5 stars

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

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Nova: Pompeii’s Secret Underworld (2025, PBS, DVD, NR, 56 min.). Archaeologists uncover new truths about Pompeii, a wealthy Roman playground that was buried by three meters of ash when Mount Vesuvius suddenly erupted in the year 79. Most of those secrets deal with the great inequity of wealth among the city’s inhabitants and its large slave population. It uncovers where some slaves spun wheels for bread making and others were used as gladiators. Archaeologists estimate that at least 50 percent of the population was either slaves or former slaves.

One of the former slaves was head priest Marcus Venerius, whose partially embalmed body was found in its tomb, a rare find. Other finds include 2,000-year-old lines of graffiti. The city also had been subject to riots, often starting at the amphitheater.

Those interviewed include Massimo Osanna, director general of museums in the Italian Ministry of Culture; Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director general of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii; and architects Jeannette Plummer Sires, Darius Arya, Rebecca R. Benefiel, David Caramelli and Llorenc Alapont. Grade: episode 3.25 stars

Nova: Universe Revealed (U.K., 2021, PBS, 2 DVDs, NR, 275 min.). In distant realms far beyond our familiar solar system, an epic drama is playing out. The cast list includes rogue planets, colliding galaxies and black holes more massive than a billion suns. Narrated by Talithia Williams, the five parts cover Age of Stars, Milky Way, Alien Worlds, Black Holes and Big Bang. Some of the science already is outdated thanks to the Webb space telescope, but the imagery here is awesome. Grade: 3.75 stars

Reconstruction: America After the Civil War (2019, PBS, 2 DVDs, NR, 4 hours). When the history of the United States is taught, not enough time is usually spent on the Reconstruction, the period after the Civil War when slavery was ended but the struggle for equality continued. Here, Henry Louis Gates Jr. presents an examination of one of the most consequential and least understood chapters in U.S. history, when the nation struggled to reunite the North and South, while living up to the promise of citizenship for millions of freed African Americans.

For a brief time, freed African Americans could build businesses, become educated, exercise the right to vote and even run for public office. The Constitution was amended to grant them citizenship and to protect their freedoms, but many former Confederates were resistant to the new social order and their backlash took the form of rampant violence and the rollback of voting rights in some states. Grade: series 4 stars

Bundle of Joy (1956, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, NR, 98 min.). This romantic musical, plus baby, stars then-young newlyweds Debbie Reynolds (“Singin’ in the Rain,” “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”) and Eddie Fisher (“Butterfield 8”). The film was a remake of 1939’s “Bachelor Mother.” Despite their real-life marriage, the pair do not really connect romantically in the film. However, Reynolds, as always, is winning and the baby (twins David and Donald Gray) is a real cutie.

Surprisingly for a musical, the film has six forgettable musical numbers, although I had forgotten how nice it is to hear Fisher sing. I already was more than familiar with Reynolds’ singing as “Singin’ in the Rain” and “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” are among my all-time favorite musicals.

Reynolds plays Polly Parish, an overly-eager clerk in the large John B. Merlin and Son department store and Fisher plays Dan Merlin, the boss' son. After getting fired from her job, Polly finds an adorable baby on the steps of a foundling home and the folks inside mistake her for the mother. Dan, well-meaning, but obtuse, tries to help her out with the baby, thinking it is hers, and the buds of romance begin to appear. Polly, who soon comes to love the child, also begins to think her job depends on the Merlins believing the child is hers. At one point, the elder Merlin (Adolphe Menjou of “Paths of Glory,” “The Front Page”) thinks he might be a grandfather.

Also at the store is low-level employee Freddie Miller (Tommy Noonan of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” “A Star Is Born”), who is constantly hitting on Polly, and salesclerk Mary Hawkins (Nita Talbot of TV’s “Hogan’s Heroes”), Polly’s friend.

Robert Carson, one of the film’s three writers, scripted several of the Marx Brothers films.

Extras include two Merrie Melodies cartoons: “The Fright Before Christmas” (7:03); and Tweety in “Gift Wrapped” (7:27). One can also go directly to the six songs and the opening and closing credits music. Grade: film 3 stars; extras 1.5 stars

Skyscraper Souls (1932, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, NR, 99 min.). This Pre-Code film is a scandalous look at the business world, with an emphasis on corporate greed and the sexual exploitation of female employees. Everything occurs in the 100-story skyscraper built by David Dwight (Warren William of “The Wolf Man,” “Employees’ Entrance”), helped by a $30 million loan from the Manhattan Seacoast National Bank that he is chairman of. That bank loan is due and Dwight is trying to swing a merger so the bank has enough cash and he can continue to own the skyscraper.

Meanwhile, the film opens by showing some of the poor people working there. Those are the normal people lucky to have their little jobs or those trying desperately to get out from under crushing money problems. Down-on-his-luck Slim (Wallace Ford of “Freaks,” “A Patch of Blue”) considers robbing a jewelry merchant so he can run away with another man's unhappy wife, Myra (Helen Coburn). Funny working guys (Richard Alexander of “Modern Times,” “All Quiet on the Western Front” and Edward Brophy of “The Thin Man”) try to connect with the beautiful women who come into the building. Young Tom (future director Norman Foster of 2 “Mr. Moto” films, 29 episodes of “The Loretta Young Show”) chases pretty Lynn Harding (Maureen O'Sullivan of “The Thin Man,” “Tarzan of the Apes” and 5 Tarzan sequels) in a way that today would see him arrested for harassment.

Lynn works for Dwight’s secretary, Sarah Dennet (Verree Teasdale of “The Milky Way,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”), who also is Dwight’s longtime mistress, despite his being married. Ella, the wife (Hedda Hopper of “Sunset Boulevard,” “Dracula’s Daughter”) who occasionally visits for money, lives overseas in the Netherlands. Dwight wants to replace Sarah with the younger Lynn. His first step is to get Lynn drunk on champagne at a swank party in his apartment, so he can take sexual advantage of her.

When Dwight finds a willing merger partner – in the basement pool, no less – the man later proposes they build up the Seacoast Bank stock and then sell it short, ruining the bank’s board members as they had urged Dwight to sell the skyscraper. Dozens of the poorer people, including Tom, also are hurt as they saw the bank stock doing well and decided to buy some.

Extras include “Snow Birds,” a sports champion feature (10:10); “Rambling ‘Round Radio Row #7” (9:50); and “Bosko and Bruno,” a Looney Tuners cartoon (6:52). Grade: film 3.25 stars; extras 1.75 stars

Pulp Modern: Hand of Doom (2025, Indie Rights/Uncle B Productions, Blu-ray, NR, 71 min.). This anthology film includes five cryptid tales, as well as a recurring segment with a malevolent cockatoo trying to take over a man’s body. The tales include an urban werewolf, killer badgers, zombies, mutant frog monsters and a giant, released demon of mass destruction. The film is based on the pulp fiction digest magazine, Pulp Modern.

Going into the film with no foreknowledge, I found it to be unexpectedly very funny at times. This includes when the werewolf is trying to hurry home before he changes under the full moon, only to be given extra to do at work, then getting stuck in a stalled elevator and finding his car blocked by a stalled car in the parking garage.

There are bloody kills – five shown, two hinted at – and flying body parts in the badgers’ tale, but the presentation is humorous as the carnage is literally thrown into the scenes. The zombie tale has a bitten man go into a pharmacy for treatment – the usual is to blow their heads off – only to be constantly nagged by a customer who got there first but is being ignored. The mutant frog tale has fake-looking frogs.

There also is the hard rock “Night of the Wolf” music video by Thelemite (4:56). Grade: film 3.25 stars

Runaway: The Complete Series (2006, Sony Pictures, 2 DVDs, NR, 375 min.). This 9-episode series follows the Raders, who look like a normal middle-class American family, consisting of dad Paul, his lovely wife Lily, teenagers Henry and Hannah, and 8-year-old Tommy. However, they must struggle to blend into a new life in Bridgewater, Iowa under secret identities – as the Hollands -- as they hide from the legal system that unjustly convicted Paul of murder. As Paul works to protect his loved ones and uncover the evidence that will clear him, all while protecting their secret, the real killer threatens the lives of his children.

If that was not enough, a tornado strikes Bridgewater in episode eight.

Paul is played by Donnie Wahlberg (TV’s “Blue Bloods,” “Boston Blue”), while Lily is played by Leslie Hope (TV’s “Lost in Space,” “Snowpiercer”). Of the children, Henry is played by Dustin Milligan (TV’s “Schitt’s Creek”), Hannah is played by Sarah Ramos (TV’s “Parenthood,” “The Bear”) and Tommy is played by Nathan Gamble (“The Dark Knight,” TV’s “The Goldbergs”).

Fellow high school students include Gina Bennett (Susan Floyd of “The Invasion,” “Random Hearts”) and Brady Sullivan (Andrew Lawrence of TV’s “Recess,” “United States of Tara”). Brady becomes close with Hannah. Grade: series 3 stars