Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, NR, 138 min.). Spencer Tracy (1900-1967) was nominated for the Best Lead Actor Academy Award nine times, including a three-year stretch, 1937-1939, for his work in “San Francisco,” “Captains Courageous” and “Boys Town,” winning the Oscar for the latter two films. He did not receive a nomination for either of the two films reviewed here.

Certainly, Tracy did not do enough in the World War II film, “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo,” to merit award consideration. In his small role as real-life Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle, Tracy mostly addresses a small group of pilots and other airplane personnel, giving them instructions and warnings every so often. The film really belongs to Van Johnson (“The Caine Mutiny,” “Battleground,” “In the Good Old Summertime”), who plays pilot Lt. Ted Lawson, married just six months to Ellen (Phyllis Thatcher of “The Breaking Point,” 1978’s “Superman”) and only learning she is pregnant after he had volunteered for the mystery training and mission.

That mission, in the wake of the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor, is to secretly train to fly a B-52 Mitchell bomber at low attitudes and to take off in short distances (as they would be leaving from aircraft carriers) so they would take the war to the Japanese homeland. Sixteen crews of four men each are trained for the mission, each assigned different industrial or military targets in Japan.

After a ho-hum first hour, the mission starts with most of the attention given to Lawson’s team. They drop four bombs on Tokyo and then head for friendly mainland China, only to crash just off the coast. The more exciting final portion of the film deals with their rescue by everyday Chinese people and their efforts to avoid occupying Japanese patrols that are searching for them. They also need medical attention.

The cast of young fliers also includes Robert Walker (“Strangers on a Train,” “Bataan”) as David Thatcher, Don DeFore (“It Happened on Fifth Avenue,” TV’s “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”) as Charles McClure, and Robert Mitchum (“The Night of the Hunter,” “Cape Fear”) as Bob Gray.

The film is based on the same-named book by Lawson and earned two Oscar nominations, for Best Cinematography, Black and White, and winning for Best Effects, Special Effects. The film was written by Dalton Trumbo (“Roman Holiday,” “Spartacus”) and directed by Mervyn LeRoy (“Random Harvest,” “Gypsy,” “Quo Vadis”).

Extras include the musical “Ode to Victory” (10:45), based on Nat Shilkret’s composition; “A Lady Fights Back,” part of Jon Nesbitt’s Passing Parade series and about the ship Normandie (10:13); and the Tom and Jerry cartoon, “Mouse Trouble,” involving a “How to Catch a Mouse” book (7:28). Grade: film 3 stars; extras 2.5 stars

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

Purchase link for some titles: https://moviezyng.com?bg_ref=ApLKdWV51k

The Seventh Cross (1944, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, NR, 112 min.). In contrast, Spencer Tracy is in nearly every scene of this suspenseful film, set in 1936 Germany, when the Nazis had risen to power, but were only culling their own native population, before invading neighboring countries and starting World War II.

Tracy plays George Heisler, one of seven men who escape from the (fictional) Westhofen concentration camp. The Nazi head of the camp orders seven crosses to be constructed by other prisoners and each escapee is crucified when brought back, except for the sometimes unlucky and other times lucky Heisler, who makes his way to his home city of Mainz. The film is narrated by escape leader Wallau (Ray Collins of “Citizen Kane,” “Touch of Evil,” TV’s “Perry Mason”), even after he is dead.

Heisler is rejected by Leni, an old girlfriend (Kaaren Verne of “All Through the Night”) and given aid by seamstress Mme. Marelli (Agnes Moorehead of “Citizen Kane,” TV’s “Bewitched”). Dr. Loewenstein (Steven Geray of “Spellbound,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”), who has to announce to his patients that he is Jewish, treats and does not report a cut on Heisler's hand. Heisler watches as another escapee, acrobat Bellani (George Suzanne), after an exciting rooftop chase, plunge to his death rather than be taken alive. Yet another escapee he encounters (Konstantin Shayne of “Vertigo” as Fuellgrabe) simply decides to give himself up.

Since Heisler's contact in Mainz has been arrested, he visits old friend Paul Roeder (Hume Cronyn of “Cocoon,” “Lifeboat”), his wife Liesel (Jessica Tandy of “Driving Miss Daisy,” “The Birds”) and their two children. The apolitical Paul is satisfied with the economic improvements brought by the Nazis and has trouble believing Heisler is a fugitive, until he himself is detained for an afternoon by the Gestapo. (This was the first of 13 films and TV movies that the married Hume and Tandy made together.)

While waiting to contact the resistance movement, Heisler is sheltered by barmaid Toni (Signe Hasso of “Heaven Can Wait,” “A Scandal in Paris”) and they become lovers before he leaves for the boat to take him to Amsterdam.

The film is directed by Fred Zinnemann (“A Man for All Seasons,” “From here to Eternity,” “High Noon”) and is a sobering attempt to dramatize conditions in Germany, including the bestiality of the Nazis and the self-surrender of German citizens to the Nazi regime. The film was made by expatriate German talent in several key creative positions and a cast heavy with refugee German actors.

Extras include three shorts directed by Zinnemann, including two of John Nesbitt’s Passing Parade: “One Against the World,” about the Kentucky doctor in 1809 who was the first to operate inside a person (10:41); and “Your Last Act,” about a serious of unique wills, including one that said her goldfish must aways wear a skirt (10:54). The third is the strong “Forbidden Passage,” a Crime Does Not Pay Subject about European refugees being smuggled into Florida, with seven being drowned so the smugglers would not be caught (20:42). One of the Immigration investigators is played by Hugh Beamont (“The Mole People,” TV’s “Leave It to Beaver”). Grade: film 3.75 stars; extras 3.25 stars

Pretty Maids all in a row (1971, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, R, 91 min.). In this black comedy with murder, the sexual revolution comes to the fore. Mustachioed Rock Hudson (“Giant,” “Pillow Talk,” “Lover Come Back”) plays predatory Michael “Tiger” McDrew, Ocean Front High School’s assistant principal/faculty advisor/guidance counselor/football coach, who, despite being married and a father, beds his female students, often in his school office, with the testing sign lit up. However, when a couple of his conquests start demanding marriage, he starts killing them off.

Investigating the murders is California State Police Capt. Sam Surcher (Telly Savalas of “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” “Kelly’s Heroes,” TV’s “Kojak”).

The humor part comes in with virgin student Ponce de Leon Harper (John David Carson in his feature film debut; later of “Empire of the Ants,” “Pretty Woman”), who discovers the first body and has become entranced with new substitute teacher Betty Smith (Angie Dickinson of “Rio Bravo,” “Dressed to Kill”). McDrew decides to help Harper with his sexual awakening by urging Smith to invite Harper over to her house, saying impotence is the boy’s problem, when it actually is the exact opposite.

Harper, who also is the football team’s assistant, has one of the funnier lines when he says, “We never practice on the day of a murder.”

The film was directed by Roger Vadim (“Barbarella,” “And God Created Woman”) and written by Gene Roddenberry (creator of the “Star Trek “ universe) , who also produced, and Francis Pollini. Grade: film 3 stars

Start the Revolution Without Me (1970, Warner Archive Collection, Blu-ray, PG, 90 min.). This is the second lackluster comedy involving the Corsican Brothers, the other being the dismal Cheech and Chong effort of that name, both inspired by the fictional novella by Alexandre Dumas about twin brothers, Louis and Lucien de Franchi, who were conjoined at birth and separated by surgery, yet maintain a psychic connection that allowed them to feel each other's pain and emotions.

In this film, writers Fred Freeman and Lawrence J. Cohen double down with a second set of twins, Claude and Charles Coupe, born the same night in the same doctor’s home, but who get mismatched, while the future Corsican Brothers are Phillipe and Pierre de Sisi. Claude and Phillipe are both played by Gene Wilder (“The Producers,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”), while Charles and Pierre are both played by Donald Sutherland (“Klute,” “The Hunger Games” films, TV’s “Trust”).

Claude and Charles are incompetent members of the just starting French Revolution, while Phillipe and Pierre are snobbish aristocrats, involved in a plot to steal France from King Louis XVI (Hugh Griffith of “Ben-Hur,” “How to Steal a Million,” “Oliver!”) with the king’s wife, Queen Marie (Billie Whitelaw of “The Omen,” “Hot Fuzz”), and Duke d’Escargot (Victor Spinetti of TV’s “The Prince of Atlantis,” director of “A Hard Day’s Night”).

Phillipe and Pierre and going to the castle to help d’Escargot against the king, but during a riverside brawl with revolutionaries, it is Claude and Charles who arrive at the castle instead.

The most fun is when dozens of kill notes are passed during a palace dance, but the dance sadly also has the king dressed as a giant bird. “I thought it was a costume party,” he repeatedly says.

Also tiresome is narrator Orson Welles (how the mighty had fallen) repeating the year constantly during his occasional narrative bits, after opening by saying he wasn’t going to be in the film. And then there is the use of the Man in the Iron Mask as a running joke.

Extras include audio commentary by director Bud Yorkin (“Arthur 2: Love on the Rocks,” “Divorce American Style”) and actors Wilder and Sutherland; the Bugs Bunny cartoon “Napoleon Bunny-Part” (7:11); and the Daffy Duck cartoon “The Scarlet Pumpernickel” (7:06). Grade: film 2 stars; extras 2.5 stars

All the Kind Strangers (1974, Leomark, Blu-ray, TV-PG, 74 min.). In this TV movie, Stacey Keach (“Fat City,” “Escape from L.A.,” The Bourne Legacy”) plays photojournalist Jimmy Wheeler, who gives a ride to a young boy carrying a loaded grocery bag along the road. The boy is 7-year-old Gilbert (Tim Parkison). Wheeler drives him a couple of miles down a dirt road and across a creek to his home, where Wheeler learns he is one of seven children, led by Peter (John Savage of “The Deer Hunter,” “Hair”), whose own parents have died, but they have already trapped Carol Ann (Samantha Eggar of “The Collector,” “The Brood,” “Doctor Doolittle”) into being their mother. Now, they plan on Wheeler becoming their dad.

One child is John (Robby Benson of “One on One,” TV’s “American Dreams”). Despite the film’s short run time, it wastes more than two minutes with Peter walking through the woods, a segment just so a recorded song by Benson can be played.

In order for the would-be parents to be trapped, Peter disables their cars and then sinks them in the creek. If the would-be parents try to escape or are voted down by the orphans, they are murdered.

The plot requires a lot of suspension of belief, basically over the fact that seven orphans could live without any official contact. How do they pay the property taxes, for example. Grade: film 2.75 stars

Say Less (2025, Darkside Releasing, Blu-Ray, NR, 81 min.). Max, about to go off to college, and sister Cassie, a year younger, have the house to themselves as their parents are off to a weekend wedding. Both have plans to invite their special someone in Max’s case and their desired special someone in Cassie’s case.

Max (Matt Linton) invites his girlfriend Sky (Genny Wick), whose college plans are different. She is going to Michigan State, while he has been accepted at Dartmouth. Cassie (Jenny Lange) invites classmate Blake (Taylor Garriga, aka Ben Taylor), but he does not respond. So, Cassie goes through a whole list of tries, before Oliver (Manny Spero) accepts. Oliver has had a crush on Cassie, but he obviously is not her physical type.

There is much bickering between the siblings, even during hot tub fun and beer pong. Then they go to watch videos and Cassie finds their father’s sex tapes, some 17 tapes, all with different women roleplaying and none are their mother. Oliver leaves, then Blake shows up unannounced to study, leading to things going totally out of control.

The film was written and directed by Michael Kellman, who previously directed two shorts. Grade: film 2.5 stars

Silent Witness: Season 29 (Great Britain, 2026, BBC, 3 DVDs, TV-14, 600 min.). It is difficult to jump in on a series during its 29th season, when one has not seen any previous episodes. There is a lot of character backstory missing. Nonetheless, the five cases here – two episodes for each -- are entertaining enough, although the plots are somewhat complicated. The main crime usually leads to earlier crimes or, in one case, to a new crime.

The British crime drama focuses on a team of forensic pathology experts and their investigations into various crimes. The series was created by Nigel McCrery, a former murder squad detective based in Nottingham. The series debuted on Feb. 21, 1996.

The series has an ensemble cast, including Emilia Fox as Dr. Nikki Alexander, David Caves as Jack Hodgson and Francesca Mills as reconstruction expert Kit. Jack and Nikki receive their first call from their new base – The Bowman Centre of Excellence in Birmingham -- when a woman driver ploughs into another car. As bystanders try to help, the driver of the second vehicle steps out and guns down a man who comes to assist. Soon, there is a confession to the murder of Alice Hill, who was part of a successful online video duo with her boyfriend/recent husband. No corpse was found, but the husband (Dino Fetscher as Jason Webb) was convicted in a celebrated trial and has spent the last four years in prison.

While the higher-ups, including one who investigated the original case, accept the confession and release Jason, Nikki feels the confession is off, that some of the details do not make sense, so she continues to investigate. There also is the death of a jail guard that probably was not a suicide to investigate, as he had contact with the newly-confessed killer.

In the next case, an elderly man’s body, with a screwdriver sticking out of his eye socket, is found on the site of the former Creekwood Mental Asylum. Evidence at the scene, leads to a couple of squatters in a nearby building. It turns out the deceased used to work at Creekwood, but subsequently changed his name and was operating illegally as a doctor. One of his patients was the squatter Ryan Cooper (Joe Barber), who runs out of his bipolar meds and breaks into the deceased house to steal the meds. Helping out the investigation is Prof. Maven. A pathology expert.

The other three cases involve cutting-edge AI weaponized to fuel racial tensions; Jack facing a life-threatening predicament after lashing out at a bar patron in a fight; and the death of a Chinese-British activist igniting complex international tensions. Grade: season 3.25 stars