Spencer Tracy 4-Film Collection (1936-1955, Warner Archive Collection, 4 Blu-rays, NR, 397 min.). The great Spencer Tracy (1900-1967) won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: in 1938 for “Captains Courageous” and in 1939 for “Boys Town.” He was nominated another seven times for Best Actor, starting with “San Francisco” in 1937; continuing in the 1950s with “Father of the Bride” (1951), “Bad Day at Black Rock” (1956; included here) and “The Old Man and the Sea” (1959); and finishing in the 1960s with “Inherit the Wind” (1961), “Judgment at Nuremberg” (1962) and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (1968), his final film. I will also always remember him for “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide” (1941).

This collection includes one of his nominated performances and three other roles: one a drama about the power of gossip, one an early American adventure, and one a romantic comedy. The films are review separately.

“Fury” (1936, 92 min.). Here, Spencer Tracy plays Joe Wilson, the oldest of three brothers, the others being Charlie (Frank Albertson of “Psycho,” “It’s a Wonderful Life”) and Tom (George Walcott of “Born Reckless,” “Cocoanut Grove”). Joe is engaged to Katherine Grant (Sylvia Sidney of “Beetlejuice,” “Merrily We Go to Hell”). Katherine has to move from Chicago to another town for a better paying job, while he stays behind to save up enough money so they can get married. She gives him her mother’s wedding ring, with an updated engravement to him, at the train station as she departs.

More than a year later, Joe finally has a car and is en route to visit Katherine, when fate deals him a dirty hand. The police stop him at a gas station, as they are investigating a kidnapping that has been filling the local newspapers. The police have few clues, but one clue is one of the kidnappers ate salted peanuts, which is also something Joe likes to do. It seems nutty (pun intended) to hold someone on suspicion of kidnapping due to a few salted peanuts, but it happens to Joe. Then, a $5 bill he has in his wallet matches the serial number of one of the bills paid in the ransom.

Katherine has travelled a bit to meet Joe, so she is unreachable and I am not sure why his brothers also were unreachable. As Joe waits in jail to be released, word of the arrest of a suspect in the kidnapping case spreads by gossip throughout the town. Eventually, a mob storms the jail. While the sheriff (Edward Ellis of “The Thin Man,” “I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang”) has asked for help from the National Guard, it is not sent due to politics.

The ugly mob breaks down the doors of the sheriff’s office and ultimately a woman throws a torch and starts a fire in the building, before two men toss dynamite inside, apparently killing Joe. However, an enraged Joe is still alive, but now bent on getting revenge by having members of the mob brought to trial for his “murder.” He enlists his brothers’ help, but never shares his survival with Katherine.

Much of the second half of the film is devoted to the trial of 22 members of the mob, all of whom were captured by a newsman’s filming of the storming of the jail.

The movie was the American debut of Austrian director Fritz Lang (“M,” “Metropolis,” the “Dr. Mabuse” trilogy), who also co-wrote the script with Bartlett Cormack, based on Norman Krasna’s original story. Krasna earned an Oscar nomination. The sole extra is audio commentary by film director Peter Bogdanovich with Lang. Grade: film 4 stars; extra 2 stars

Libeled Lady (1936, 98 min.). The same year as “Fury,” Spencer Tracy starred as Warren Haggerty, the managing editor of the New York Evening Star. On the day he is finally supposed to marry Gladys Benton (Jean Harlow of “Red Dust,” “Bombshell”), after putting the ceremony off many times, Haggerty learns that 50 copies of the newspaper with a libelous lead story have left the press building, even after the story was killed. The story wrongly claimed Connie Allenbury (Myrna Loy of the “Thin Man” films) had stolen another woman’s husband.

Connie’s father is James B. Allenbury (Walter Connolly of “It Happened One night,” “Lady for a Day”), sworn enemy of Evening Star owner Bane (Charley Grapewin of “The Grapes of Wrath,” “The Wizard of Oz”). The Allenburys says they will be filing a $5 million libel lawsuit.

Haggerty believes the only way to stop a successful lawsuit is to trick Connie into actually stealing another woman’s husband. He pays former newspaper employee Bill Chandler (William Powell of the “Thin Man” films, “My Man Godfrey”) $50,000 to marry his Gladys and then become romantically involved with Connie on a Transatlantic voyage from London, so they can be caught on camera.

The wacky idea is put in play and while it does not quite work on the boat, Bill makes successful inroads back in the States, but things get tricky when he actually falls for Connie. Most of the comedic highlights fall to Powell, first as he takes trout fishing lessons and then when he actually goes fishing with the Allenburys.

The film, directed by Jack Conway (“The Smart Set,” “Honky Tonk”), was nominated for Best Picture at the 1937 Academy Awards. The Best Picture winner that year was “The Great Ziegfeld,” which also starred Powell and Loy, and was the same year the pair also made “After the Thin Man.”

Extras include the shorts, “Keystone Hotel” with Ben Turpin (14:53) and the musical “New Shoes” (10:23); the Happy Harmonies cartoon “Little Cheeser” (9:22); and the film’s radio promo (13:30). Grade: film 3.5 stars; extras 2.5 stars

Northwest Passage: Book 1 – Rogers’ Rangers (1940, 127 min.). This King Vidor-directed film is based on the first half of Kenneth Roberts’ novel, “Northwest Passage,” but naming the film that is misleading as talk of the fabled Northwest Passage through North America to Japan and China only comes during the film’s final few minutes. What the film really is about is showing the hardships Roger’s Rangers endured while trekking north to raid the Abenaki Indians’ settlement at Saint-François-du-Lac, Quebec in 1759, part of the French and Indian War (1754-1763) that pitted the British North American colonies against the French, with both sides being supported by various Native American tribes.

The British colonists were supported at various times by the Iroquois, Catawba and Cherokee tribes, as well as Mohawk scouts in the film, while the French colonists were supported by Wabanaki Confederacy members Abenaki and Mi’kmaq, and the Algonquin, Lenape, Ojibwa, Ottawa, Shawnee and Wyandot tribes. Fighting took place along the frontiers between New France and the British colonies, from the Province of Virginia in the south to Newfoundland in the north.

No-nonsense Major Rogers, who leads the green-clad Rangers (as opposed to the bright red-wearing British soldiers), is played by Spencer Tracy. He takes off with a force of 400 men, but only has 72 left when they attack the Abenaki settlement. That 6-minute stretch is the film’s only real action and the highlight. It basically is a massacre of the Abenakis as it is guns versus hatchets for the most part. The film’s settlement was created in remote Idaho.

The film starts slowly, following Langdon Towne (Robert Young of TV’s “Father Knows Best”), an aspiring artist, as he gets booted out of Harvard for anti-British cartoons and returns to Portsmouth, N.H. and his girlfriend Elizabeth Browne (Ruth Hussey of “The Philadelphia Story”) and her minister father, who is unhappy that Towne was bounced from his clergy studies. Towne pals up with “Hunk” Marriner (Walter Brennan of “Red River,” TV’s “The Guns of Will Sonnett,” “The Real McCoys”).

Towne and Marriner are about to be shanghaied for badmouthing British official Wiseman Clagett (Montagu Love), but they fight free and head west, encountering Rogers at an inn. Since Rogers needs a mapmaker and Towne draws maps, Rogers talks both fleeing men into joining the Rangers.

Much of the film is given to the day-by-day struggles of the Rangers as they sneak past French ships, soldiers and their Native American allies, including carrying their canoes up and over a hill, sleeping in trees, going through swamps on foot to leave no prints and, most excitingly, creating a human chain to cross a rapidly-flowing river.

The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography, Color for Sidney Wagner and William V. Skall. There were 12 weeks of location shooting in Idaho, some of which is shown in the vintage promotional featurette (9:25). Vidor would go on to direct “War and Peace” and “Solomon and Sheba.” Grade: film 3.25 stars; extra 1.5 stars

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955, 81 min.). Here, Spencer Tracy plays John J. Macreedy, who gets off the streamliner train at Black Rock. It is the first time the train has stopped there in four years. Black Rock can barely be called a town, as it appears to have only seven buildings, including the train depot, a hotel, a diner, a jail and a garage. As Macreedy heads towards the hotel, many males are lounging around, giving him the evil eye. The town, if one can call it that, appears to have only one woman. She is auto mechanic Liz Wirth (Anne Francis of “Forbidden Planet,” “Funny Girl”), the sister of hotel clerk Pete Wirth (John Ericson of “7 Faces of Dr. Lao,” “Bedknobs and Broomsticks”).

It takes almost to the end of the film for the viewer to discover why Macreedy, who is missing his left arm, came to Black Rock and was looking for Japanese farmer Komoko, but the year is 1945, when there was still some resentment against the Japanese for the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The town appears to be run by Reno Smith (Robert Ryan of “The Wild Bunch,” “The Dirty Dozen), aided by thugs Hector David (Lee Marvin of “The Dirty Dozen,” “Cat Ballou,” “Paint Your Wagon”) and Coley Trimble (Ernest Borgnine of “Marty,” “The Poseidon Adventure,” “From Here to Eternity”). Cowered townspeople include Doc Velie (Walter Brennan of “My Darling Clementine,” “To Have and To Have Not”) and Sheriff Tim Horn (Dean Jagger of “White Christmas,” “Vanishing Point,” TV’s “Mr. Novak”).

The Black Rock inhabitants become overtly hostile when Liz rents Macreedy her jeep and Trimble tries to run him off the road in the film’s action sequence. Later, at the diner, Macreedy easily defeats Trimble, when he is attacked.

John Sturges' classic film is a compelling mixture of film noir and Western that earned three Academy Award nominations: Tracy for Best Actor, Sturges for Best Director and Millard Kaufman for Best Screenplay.

The sole extra is audio commentary by film professor Dana Polan, who discusses the film’s topics, including racism. Grade: film 4 stars; extra 2 stars

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

Here Come the Waves (1944, Universal, Blu-ray, NR, 99 min.). Bing Crosby (“White Christmas,” “High Society,” “Going My Way”) stars as singing sensation/female heartthrob Johnny Cabot in this recruitment film for the WAVES and the Navy that masks as a musical comedy. There are seven songs by Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen in the film, two of which celebrate the WAVES, the female component of the U.S. Navy.

By the end of 1942, 3,190 enlistees and 770 officers joined the U.S. Navy as Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, also known as the WAVES. By July 31, 1945, the WAVES had 73,816 enlisted women, 8,745 officers and nearly 4,000 in training, far exceeding the Navy’s early projections for recruitment. Through a law passed in 1948, women were accepted in the Navy itself.

With World War II underway, twin sisters Rosemary and Susie Allison (both played by Betty Hutton of “Annie Get Your Gun,” “The Greatest Show on Earth”), a successful nightclub singing duo, decide to enlist as WAVES. Rosemary is the serious one, while Susie is a huge fan of Cabot.

Cabot, who was rejected by the Navy for being colorblind, performs at a film showing, which causes Frank Sinatra-like screaming and two gals in the audience fainting. The twins are in the audience. Rosemary is being romantically pursued by Windy “Pinetop” Windhurst (Sonny Tufts of “The Seven Year Itch,” “So Proudly We Hail!”), who, unbeknownst to the twins, is best buddies with Cabot. Windhurst arranges a double date with the twins, bringing along Cabot, who instantly begins to fall for Rosemary. Meanwhile, Susie faints twice.

When the Navy lowers its standards, Cabot enlists, but Susie fakes a letter that keeps Cabot in San Diego, preparing for a WAVES recruitment show, instead of sailing into combat.

Unfortunately, for the “Accentuate the Positive” song number, Cabot and Windhurst appear in blackface for no reason. It detracts from the production number, which includes some dancing. The song did earn an Oscar nomination. Early in the film, Crosby croons a disappointing version of “That Old Black Magic.” Overall, the plot is rather weak too. Grade: film 2.5 stars

Double or Nothing (1937, Universal, Blu-ray, NR, 91 min.). The film, directed by Theodore Reed (“Lady Be Careful,” “Those Were the Days!”), has an intriguing plot, but the film’s momentum is killed by most of the last half-hour being various nightclub acts, including a comic dance pair, Ames and Arno, and physical comedy by the Calgary Brothers.

The film starts with lawyer Dobson (Walter Kingsford of “Algiers,” “The Man in the Iron Mask,” “If I Were King”) dropping wallets, each with a $100 bill inside, around the city. He and an associate make 25 such drops and then wait to see how many honest people will return the wallets and money. Only four do.

They are singer Lefty Boylan (Bing Crosby of “Road to Utopia,” “Robin and the 7 Hoods”); gambler John Pederson (William Frawley of “Miracle on 34th Street,” TV’s “I Love Lucy”); burlesque dancer Liza Lou Lane (Martha Raye of “Give Me a Sailor,” “Monsieur Verdoux,” TV’s “Alice”); and tramp Half-Pint (Andy Devine of “Stagecoach,” “A Star Is Born,” “Robin Hood”).

The wallet drop was part of the will of Axel Clark, with all who returned the wallets receiving $5,000. The will further states that the first of those who double the stake to $10,000 within 30 days by “honest effort” will receive the bulk of his estate, approximately $1 million. His brother Jonathan Clark (Samuel S. Hinds of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “You Can’t Take It with You”) received only a watch and chain, while sister-in-law Martha Sewell Clark (Fay Holden of “Ziegfeld Girl,” six “Andy Hardy” films) got an ivory chess set, nephew Egbert Clark (William Henry of “The Thin Man,” “Mister Roberts”) got pearl shirt studs and niece Victoria Clark (Mary Carlisle of “This Side of Heaven,” “The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi”) got a diamond necklace.

Lefty already started falling for Victoria at Dobson’s office. He even set his straw hat afire to draw her attention. As he later tries to romance her, they have a strange dance number on the sidewalk – joined by a policeman! -- and while he sings her “A Natural Thing to Do,” he makes hand-shadow shapes on the wall by their table.

Pederson suggests the four who turned in the wallets work together, with the winner keeping $500,000 and the other three sharing $500,000. Meanwhile, Jonathan enlists the Clarks to make the other four fail, as in that case, he will inherit the money.

A gimmick for Liza is she has to start shedding her clothes whenever she hears the song ‘It’s On, It’s Off,” which used to be part of her act.

For his money-doubling project, Half-Pint buys a golf hole-in-one contest, offering a $4,000 reward. The Clarks hire a professional golfer to try. He fails, but a drunk makes the shot. Liza buys some rowboats and plans to have women row the sailors, while she sings and they dance. The Clarks have her strip song played to ruin that effort. Pederson is sucked into buying bad gold shares from the Clarks. Lefty’s plan is to open a nightclub, but the rented space from the Clarks says it can only be used for storage. Grade: film 2.75 stars

Sing You Sinners (1938, Universal, Blu-ray, NR, 91 min.). There are three singing Beebe brothers. Young Mike just wants to be a kid and responsible Dave wants to work in his garage and marry Martha, but reckless Joe thinks his only road to success is through swapping and gambling. While their singing act is popular and brings in some money, Mike and Dave actually dislike performing.

The film, directed by Wesley Ruggles (“London Town,” “Cimarron”), actually has a solid family story, some exciting action and the six songs are worked in naturally. The find for me was Donald O’Connor as Mike. O’Connor was about 12 at the time, but most would get to know him later as Cosmo Brown in “Singin’ in the Rain.” “Sing You Sinners” was his fourth movie, as his career began the previous year. He also is known for playing the companion in six Francis the Talking Mule films.

Here, in addition to singing and doing a little dancing, O’Connor also plays the accordion and learns to be a jockey. That is because s when Joe moved to California, he won a few horse track bets and ended up buying a racing horse, before sending for Mike and his mother. Joe is played by Bing Crosby, who also starred in “Paris Honeymoon” and “Doctor Rhythm” the same year.

Brother Dave is played by Fred MacMurray (“Double Indemnity,” “The Apartment,” “The Caine Mutiny” and TV’s “My Three Sons”). His girlfriend Martha is played by Ellen Drew (“Christmas in July,” “Isle of the Dead”). The glue that holds the Beebe family together is Mother Beebe (Elizabeth Patterson of “Dinner at Eight,” “Remember the Night”).

A highlight of the musical numbers is “Small Fry” with Mike and Joe. The drama comes in when Mike is threatened into throwing the horse race. Grade: film 3 stars

By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, NR, 92 min.). The film is a much-better sequel to “On Moonlight Bay” (1951), with mostly the same cast. Again, it is a family drama and, again, most of the fun comes from Billy Gray as young Wesley. In another year, Gray would be a star of TV’s “Father Knows Best.”

There are other familiar faces here, starting with Doris Day (“My Dream Is Yours”) and Gordon MacRae (“Carousel,” “Oklahoma!”). Day plays Marjorie Winfield, Wesley’s older sister who now works as an auto mechanic. In the first film, Marjorie fell in love with the boy across the street (MacRae as Bill Sherman), but he has been off to World War I – although he says the war ended as soon as he reached Paris. While Bill had not much use for marriage or money in “Moonlight,” he now thinks he needs a steady job and a nest egg before marrying Marjorie, who already is trying out her mother’s wedding gown when Bill arrives back at the Winfields. Marjorie, of course, is very disappointed and turns to failed suitor Chester Finley (Russell Arms of “The Man Who Came to Dinner”), Wesley’s piano teacher and her friendly date while Bill was away, to make Bill jealous.

The rest of the Winfield household is father George (Leon Ames of TV’s “Father of the Bride,” “Mr. Ed”), mother Alice (Rosemary DeCamp of “13 Ghosts,” TV’s “The Bob Cummings Show”) and housekeeper/cook Stella (Mary Wickes of two “Sister Act” films).

The film features nine nostalgic songs and a bit more production numbers. For example, a bunch of returning soldiers sing “My Home Town” on the train, and Marjorie and Bill sing one of their duets while dancing in her family’s kitchen. Majorie has a fun YMCA charity event song in “King Chanticleer,” sung with people dressed up as dancing animals.

Back to young Wesley. He is intent on saving his pet turkey Gregory from becoming Thanksgiving dinner and acting as a detective. Wesley’s highlight scenes are when he imagines he is confronting a female-led gang of bank robbers – remember, his dad is a bank vice president – and then actually encounters Miss Renee LaRue (Maria Palmer of “Lady on a Train,” “Rendezvous 24”), who is with a theatrical group that is renting a theater through his father’s bank. A gossip subplot mistakenly links George Winfield and LaRue romantically.

Extras include two Joe McDoakes shorts, “So You Want a Television set” (10:04) and “So You Want to Learn to Dance” (10:51); and the Looney Tunes cartoon “From A to Z-Z-Z-Z” (7:09). One also can go directly to each of the songs. Grade: film 3.5 stars; extras 2 stars

Rockers (1978, MVD Rewind Collection, 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray, NR, 99 min.). In the film, a crime syndicate is making things very difficult for struggling reggae musicians in and around Kingston, Jamaica. Artists and songs include: Inner Circle’s "We a Rockers," Maytones’ "Money Worries," Peter Tosh’s "Stepping Razor," and Burning Spear’s "Jah No Dead" and Gregory Isaacs’ “Slave Master” (performed live), among others, including Bunny Wailer, Jacob Miller, Junior Murvin, The Heptones and Kiddus I. The presentation is a new 4K master and restoration from original film material.

The film, which has documentary-style elements, is the story of Horsemouth (Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace, a drummer who, as part of The Black Disciples, backed Burning Spear), who sets himself up in business selling records, after buying a motorcycle for $500. However, the first night, gangsters steal his bike and things start to turn nasty. As tensions build, Horsemouth finds his motorcycle in a warehouse along with other stolen goods. After Horsemouth gets beaten badly, he and his musician friends plot to end the gangsters’ reign of terror, basically by cleaning out their houses and the warehouse, then leaving the stolen goods around town for the poor people.

Extras include scene-specific commentary by writer-director Ted Bafaloukos (16:28); the extensive making-of documentary with interviews with Eugenie Bafaloukos, Todd Kasow, Kiddus I, Eddie Marritz and others (119 min.); archival interviews with Ted Bafaloukos (22:45) and producer Patrick Hulsey (5:12; 2001 in NYC); a poster gallery (1:44); music videos “Waiting for the Bus” (2:50) and “WEA Rockers” (4:10); and a foldout poster. Grade: film 3.5 stars; extras 3.75 stars