The best thing about studios celebrating their centennial anniversaries is that they tend to dig into their vaults and roll out restored versions of some of their greatest titles, and they don’t get much greater than Paramount’s 1974 neo-noir nugget, “Chinatown,” now on Blu-ray for the first time.

Jack Nicholson was born to play sharp-dressed, wisecracking private investigator Jake Gittes, an ex-cop with some bad memories of his old Chinatown beat in 1937 Los Angeles, who’s doing much better for himself these days tracking down unfaithful wives and husbands — until he uncovers a monumental scam engineered by the corrupt powers that be that will shape the future of L.A.

One could argue that this film was a career best for many of its collaborators, including director Roman Polanski, production designer Richard Sylbert and cinematographer John Alonso, who created a beautiful film noir in color, its atmospherics enhanced by Jerry Goldsmith’s haunting score with its melancholy trumpet solos. Then there was Faye Dunaway, the lovely but flawed woman of mystery and tragedy with whom Jake becomes involved, and director John Houston in full acting mode as the mighty, menacing and unrepentantly sinful Noah Cross, the manipulator of deceitful doings within the Department of Water and Power.

And then there is the taut and complex screenplay that won an Academy Award for Robert Towne, who always intended “Chinatown” to be the first of a trilogy based loosely on the history of the shady dealings that built the City of Angels.

The Blu-ray edition contains a three-part documentary on that history, “Water and Power: The Aqueduct — The Aftermath — The River and Beyond,” plus commentary by Towne and director David Fincher (“Zodiac”). There’s also an appreciation of the film from prominent filmmakers and documentaries on the filming of “Chinatown” and its legacy.

And there’s that dark and jolting ending in a part of the city where things never went well for Jake, when one of his colleagues sadly implores him with that famous last line to “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.”

Just try to forget it.

— Gene Triplett

In an amazing burst of brilliance from 1939 to 1943, writer-director Preston Sturges virtually defined the “screwball comedy,” a uniquely American style of comedy characterized by farcical situations, witty dialogue, social satire and cheeky battles of the sexes.

In a frantic run of popular hits, Sturges (one of the first studio screenwriters allowed to direct his own scripts) turned out “The Great McGinty,” “Christmas in July,” “The Lady Eve,” “The Palm Beach Story,” “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek” and “Hail the Conquering Hero.”

But the crown jewel of that amazingly creative period was “Sullivan’s Travels,” the 1941 comedy of Depression-era Hollywood that starred Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake and followed the odyssey of a pampered director of escapist movies who goes on the road as a hobo to learn about life and discovers the healing value of laughter.

Previously released in a Universal Studios boxed set of Sturges films and a state-of-the-art Criterion Collections disc, “Sullivan’s Travels” is now available as a stand-alone DVD as part of Universal’s gala 100th Anniversary celebration.

The disc comes in a glossy foil slipcover that opens to reveal the original theatrical poster, facts about the film (it was actually produced by Paramount and later sold to Universal) and a studio timeline that places it in relationship to other Universal classics of the era (such as 1936’s “My Man Godfrey,” which is also receiving the royal anniversary treatment).

While the Criterion DVD contains the most extensive selection of extras, the new Universal release is more limited, with only two brief centennial featurettes included – “100 Years of Universal: The Carl Laemmle Era” and “100 Years of Universal: The Lew Wasserman Era.”

Younger movie fans might not be familiar with the witty, urbane Sturges, but “Sullivan’s Travels” is the source of one brilliant nugget that inspired a latter-day hit that should be familiar to all young hipsters – Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2000 hit “O Brother, Where Art Thou.”

In “Sullivan’s Travels,” the title character, Joel McCrea’s Sully yearns to leave behind his pampered life as a maker of glib Hollywood hits and go out into America’s heartland to learn first hand the rough-and-tumble life of the country’s poor and downtrodden.

His goal is to make a serious, socially relevant movie that will be “a commentary on modern conditions. Stark realism. The problems that confront the average man!” The title of that proposed picture? “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

- Dennis King

There’s a picture of Sean Connery in white shirt and tie riding a vintage Schwinn bicycle around the Universal back lot during the filming of “Marnie.” There’s Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth pedaling a French-made tandem bicycle on a break from shooting “The Lady in Question.” There’s a photo of Ray Walston and Anthony Perkins playing bicycle polo during a break in filming “Tall Story.” And there’s sour-faced Alfred Hitchcock awkwardly straddling a bike at the Cannes Film Festival while promoting “Frenzy.”

These are just a few of the vintage photos contained in film critic Steven Rea’s whimsical, fascinating coffee-table book “Hollywood Rides a Bike: Cycling With the Stars” (Angel City Press, $20), an affectionate homage to two of the author’s great passions – movies and bicycles.

The image-filled, 160-page book features candid photos and studio publicity shots of stars tooling around studio back lots and through various Hollywood neighborhoods aboard an array of bicycles – ranging from rust-bucket clunkers to sleek racing bikes and from decked-out street cruisers to odd-ball experimental rides and antique high-wheels.

The roster of stars caught in candid cycling moments is delightful and dazzling. There’s Humphrey Bogart in suit and tie, a flirtatious Sophia Loren, a teenaged Elizabeth Taylor, a young Lauren Bacall, a sprightly Shirley Temple, a cool Kevin Bacon, a nubile Brigitte Bardot and much more. It’s like the Hollywood Walk of Fame on two (and sometimes three) wheels.

Rea, longtime film critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, is an avid cycling enthusiast. He says he doesn’t own a car, but he does have a collection of several rare and vintage bicycles.

About a year ago, Rea hit upon the inspiration to combine his passion for cycling and his love of movie history (and his penchant for hunting down rare old photos of stars on wheels) into a Tumblr web blog (Rides a Bike). The response was immediate and enthusiastic. Soon, emails and accolades were flooding in, and Rea discovered a new world of sources for movie star photos and anecdotes.

Turns out movie buffs and bike fanatics are simpatico crowds. The blog begat the book, and now the book appears to be drawing more and more people to the blog.

And Rea, who as film critics will, waxes poetic in words and imagery about the glamour of movie stardom and the glory of whizzing around like a free and zestful child on two wheels.

With new photos being discovered every day, and with several search targets on his radar (Rea is determined to find a picture of Albert Finney on a bike), the author hints that “Hollywood Rides a Bike: The Sequel” might come rolling along in the future.

- Dennis King

Stephen King once said of novelist Donald E. Westlake that on sunny days he wrote comic crime novels under his real name about a hapless crook named Dortmunder, and on dark and rainy days he wrote serious pulp fiction under the pen name of Richard Stark about a hardboiled heister named Parker. At one point in his career, Westlake commanded more money as Stark than he did under his real name, and Parker was one of the most popular characters in the crime genre.

No less than six movies (not to mention a new series of graphic novels) have been based on the Parker books, beginning in 1967 with director John Boorman’s brilliantly stylized thriller “Point Blank,” based the first book in the series, “The Hunter,” and starring Lee Marvin as the relentless and remorseless anti-hero (with his name changed to Walker). The same book was adapted for the screen again in 1999 with less artistic success as “Payback,” starring Mel Gibson in the re-named character of Porter.

 Director John Flynn’s “The Outfit” (1973), starring Robert Duvall as Parker (changed to Macklin) is an obscure gem worth seeking out, as is French director Jean-Luc Godard’s “Made in U.S.A.” (1966), which is a very loose (and unauthorized) adaptation of “The Jugger.” A little-seen 1983 Canadian film treatment of “Slayground,” starring Peter Coyote as Parker (changed to Stone), is incoherent and unwatchable.

Which brings us to 1968′s “The Split” (now manufactured on demand by Warner Archives at wbshop.com) starring Jim Brown as Parker (renamed McLaine). It’s based on “The Seventh,” about the robbery of a professional football stadium’s box office receipts in the midst of a big game. Somehow, screenwriter Robert Sabaroff and director Gordon Flemyng managed to drain the story of all the noir atmospherics and suspenseful unpredictability that were hallmarks of the Parker books. The sunny L.A. locations look bleached out and storyline is as routine and clichéd as a ’60s made-for-TV movie. But it’s interesting to watch the stellar cast that includes Julie Harris, Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Klugman, Warren Oates, James Whitmore and Donald Sutherland, all at their sinister best in spite of the mediocre script and direction.

 The period fashions and funky Quincy Jones soundtrack are a lot of fun, too. And “The Split” has the distinction of being the first movie to earn an “R” rating under the then-new MPAA system, but the violence that branded it is pretty tame by today’s standards, and especially Stark standards.

— Gene Triplett

Movies, which seem like such a pervasive and permanent part of our culture, are in fact quite fragile and perishable. A stunning number of important works shot on flammable and unstable nitrate film stock in the early 20th century have in fact deteriorated to dust and are lost forever.

Which is one reason that, for all its flaws and political shortcomings, the National Film Registry in the Library of Congress is such a godsend to movie lovers.

So any film buff who understands the need for careful preservation and thoughtful stewardship for America’s rich and diverse film history should check out the DVD release of the documentary “These Amazing Shadows,” an informative overview of the Film Registry and its work in recognizing movies that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”

This Sundance Film Festival discovery by directors Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton takes on the sweeping subject in easily digestible bits and chapters, and also provides personal perspective and insights from a handful of notable film lovers and historians.

While the documentary features the requisite number of clips from familiar classics – “Casablanca,” “Gone With the Wind,” “West Side Story” and so on – it also duly notes the diversity and democratic leanings of the Registry, which has added at least 25 new films to its vaults each year since its founding in 1988.

Along with the expected “classics,” the Registry has cast a wide net to include selections from nearly every genre – Hollywood blockbusters, silent films, documentaries, newsreels, avant-garde works and even home movies. Thus, alongside “Citizen Kane” you can find such oddities as “Gus Visser and His Singing Duck,” the famed Zapruder footage of John Kennedy’s assassination, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video and the 1957 cartoon intermission teaser, “Let’s All Go to the Lobby.”

Although some topics get a rushed, slightly perfunctory treatment (the whole subject of film preservation and restoration), and in touting the important work of the Registry the tone often slants toward infomercial pandering, the documentary pleads its case in informative and sometimes touching vignettes (as when George Takei contrasts his family’s experience in World War II Japanese interment camps with images from the documentary “Topaz,” or when Pixar’s John Lasseter rhapsodizes about Disney cartoons, or Rob Reiner waxes poetic about “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

And the filmmakers note with vigor the losses of cultural treasures that occurred before the Registry was formed. Half of all American movies shot before 1950 are now lost, and more than 80 percent of silent-era films are gone forever. Even the original negative of such a recent classic as “The Godfather” was in danger of irretrievable deterioration before the Registry came to the rescue.

So if “These Amazing Shadows” occasionally slips into self-congratulatory mode, it nonetheless makes a powerful case for the Registry’s profound importance as America’s movie time capsule.

- Dennis King

This week, the most interesting DVD to appear on release lists is:

“A Night to Remember” (1958)

With James Cameron’s epic 1997 mega-production of “Titanic” due to rise again on April 4 in eye-popping 3D, Criterion is offering a timely, spiffed-up rerelease of the highly regarded and historically accurate British dramatization of the maritime disaster, “A Night to Remember” (due out on DVD Tuesday).

Drawn from the meticulously researched book of that title by Walter Lord and directed by acclaimed British director Roy Ward Baker (“Don’t Bother to Knock”), “A Night to Remember” was released in 1958, just five years after Hollywood’s romanticized and highly mythologized “Titanic,” which starred Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb.

Lord’s book hewed rigorously close to the truth and proved extremely popular among readers eager for an accurate picture of the 1912 disaster that claimed the lives of more than 1,500 of the huge ocean liner’s 2,200 passengers.

Baker’s film adaptation, told with almost documentary-like detail, offers a more even-handed yet still dramatic portrayal of the R.M.S. Titanic’s sinking from the viewpoint of 2nd Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller, the most senior ship’s officer to survive the disaster.

Although the film upholds one erroneous belief of the time – that the Titanic sank in one piece instead of breaking in half as its bow began to go down – its screenplay by suspense master Eric Ambler nonetheless corrected many popular misconceptions about the tragedy and accurately depicted many ironic facts of the monumental, industrial-age disaster – such as the woeful lack of sufficient lifeboats to serve the passengers and the noble ship’s band playing calming music to the last possible moment.

In tandem with the gussied-up version of Cameron’s soaring epic, Criterion’s DVD – loaded with extras, such as audio commentary by historians, an hour-long British TV documentary and British and U.S. theatrical trailers – should be a welcome addition to any history buff’s library.

“A Night to Remember” (1958) is not rated and runs 123 minutes on two discs. It’s being released by Criterion Collection.

- Dennis King

Hard to believe it’s been 70 years since the director and the many credited and uncredited screenwriters of “Casablanca” struggled right up to the end of filming with the dilemma of whether to let Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) have or have not in that final airport scene.

Should Rick, a hardnosed café owner who remains stubbornly neutral, selflessly allow Ilsa, his former lover, to get on that plane with her freedom-fighting, concentration-camp-escapee husband (Paul Henreid as the heroic Victor Lazlo), or should he selfishly keep her with him in Casablanca, an uncertain, tension-filled stopover haven for refugees fleeing Nazi rule?

The 1942 Michael Curtiz-directed film has been listed by the American Film Institute as the No. 3 best film of all time, and the screen’s greatest love story. It won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. Lines such as “Here’s lookin’ at you kid” and “Round up the usual suspects,” and especially the song “As Time Goes By,” have become iconic in movie history (along with the infamous misquote, “Play it again, Sam).”

Warner Home Video is releasing a massive box set on Tuesday to commemorate the anniversary of this movie that is at once a tear-jerking love story and an inspiring narrative study in wartime sacrifice, with healthy shots of cloak-and-dagger intrigue and hardboiled action thrown in for good measure.

The limited and numbered box includes a razor-sharp Blu-ray remastering of the film, a regular DVD copy of the film, 14 hours of bonus materials, including two new documentaries—“Casablanca: An Unlikely Classic” and “Michael Curtiz: The Greatest Director Your Never Heard Of,” and three previously released documentaries on the history of the Warner brothers themselves and the building of their studio.

Other goodies for the insatiable collector include a 60-page hardback book filled with rare behind-the-scenes photos, storyboards, production notes and studio office memos, a mini-reproduction of a 1942 French theatrical poster, and a set of four coasters in a keepsake box, so you can drink along with Rick as he grieves over the woman who broke his heart back in Paris. At least they’ll “always have Paris.”

Here’s lookin’ at a little over 50 bucks worth of movie-buff stuff, kid. It’s worth it if you’re that big of a fan.

— Gene Triplett

Some call it “the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made.” Certainly, “Charade” has almost all the elements the Master of Suspense ever incorporated in his films, including mystery, romance, baffling plot twists, characters who aren’t who they seem to be, action, sudden jolts, gallows humor and, of course, suspense, all set against an exotic locale.

The 1963 thriller even has animated opening credits that strongly resemble the titles Saul Bass designed for “Psycho,” and a musical score that underlines the moments of tension and deadly peril with pulse-quickening effectiveness. And, hey, there’s even Cary Grant, veteran of four of Hitchcock’s best, in the lead role.

But that’s Maurice Binder’s (the early James Bond films) handiwork on the credits, and instead of Bernard Herrmann supplying the musical moodiness, we have the jazzier, more rhythmic and (at the time) more contemporary touches of Henry Mancini on the soundtrack.

And that’s Stanley Donen in the director’s chair, best known for such lighthearted musical fare as “Singin’ in the Rain” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” So Cary gets to throw in a little of the screwball shtick he’s so good at but that Hitch would never allow, such as taking a shower wearing suit and tie, or pulling a goofy face — although such stuff is kept to a minimum here.

Grant and Audrey Hepburn are a perfect match, despite a 25-year age difference that almost caused Grant to turn down the part (he insisted on a rewrite having Hepburn’s character romantically pursue his, instead of the reverse, which seemed to him more dignified), and Peter Stone’s screenplay provides them with loads of witty and sophisticated repartee.

Hepburn is Reggie, a frustrated wife who’s about to divorce her mysterious husband when he turns up murdered, and she finds herself stalked all over Paris by three very shady characters (James Coburn, George Kennedy and Ned Glass) who think she’s in possession of money her late husband stole from them. Slovenly CIA agent Hamilton Bartholomew (Walter Matthau at his slouching, deadpan best) also believes she’s in possession of the loot, even if she doesn’t know it. And Grant is the suave, charming stranger whose motives for coming to her aid are unclear and increasingly suspect. Still, Reggie is hopelessly smitten with him. The story keeps you guessing right up to the very last scene. Delicious.

The Grant-Hepburn chemistry was so perfect it seemed they’d been working together for years, although this was their only teaming, and the film is still great fun to watch nearly 50 years later, especially for Hitchcock fans — even though Hitch had nothing to do with it, except maybe by way of influence.

Extras include two short “100 Years of Universal” featurettes: “The Carl Laemmle Years” and “The Lew Wasserman Years.”

— Gene Triplett

Little Bill Daggett: “You’d be William Munny out of Missouri. Killer of women and children.”

Will Munny: “That’s right. I’ve killed women and children. I’ve killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time or another. And I’m here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you did to Ned.”

So goes the exchange between the sheriff and the gunfighter before Clint Eastwood’s final blazing showdown — in a Western anyway.

At least that’s what Eastwood claims in one of several interviews included in the extras of the 20th anniversary Blu-ray edition of “Unforgiven.” The actor/director says he always intended the 1992 horse opera to be his last, and so far he’s kept his word.

But he certainly left the genre with a bang, literally and figuratively speaking, with his character gunning down five men in one blazing swoop, and his movie raking in big bucks at the box office and four Oscars at the 1993 awards ceremony for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Gene Hackman as Little Bill Daggett), Best Editing and, for Eastwood, Best Director.

It is only the third Western after “Cimarron” (1931) and “Dances with Wolves” (1990) ever to win a Best Picture statuette.

So how could a story about an outlaw who’s killed women and children garner so much adulation?

Perhaps it was how Eastwood, directing from David Webb Peoples’ superb screenplay, portrayed the grim consequences of violence, and how he dealt with themes of aging, human limits and mortality in an a starkly honest and sometimes moving way.

Eastwood sat on this script for years, waiting until he was old enough to play Munny, a reformed outlaw and killer, struggling to raise two children on a failing farm, until a bounty offered by vengeful prostitutes lures him out of retirement. The excellent Morgan Freeman plays Munny’s old partner, and Hackman is convincingly mean-spirited as the brutal sheriff of Big Whiskey, Wyo., where the action centers.

Photographed in artful noir tones by Jack Green, Eastwood’s last roundup is now packaged inside a 54-page hardback book full of behind-the-scenes photos and insight, complete with four documentaries and an episode of the ’50s TV series “Maverick,” guest-starring a very young Eastwood as — what else — a gunfighter.

— Gene Triplett

She is a peppy young ingénue come to Hollywood to break into the movie biz. He’s a dashing but dissipated matinee idol on the down side of his career.

Sounds like the outline of Michel Hazanavicius’ Oscar-winning “The Artist,” the silent, black-and-white homage to Hollywood’s golden age. But in fact, it’s an age-old tinseltown plot that’s informed everything from 1932’s “What Price Hollywood?” to three versions of “A Star is Born.”

Now, Kino Classics has released a Blu-ray edition of the original “A Star is Born” (1937), directed by William Wellman and starring Janet Gaynor as starry-eyed farm girl Esther Blodgett and Frederic March as the alcoholic movie star Norman Maine. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards and won two, for Best Original Screenplay and an honorary Oscar for groundbreaking color photography.

The story has almost fable-like contours (which Hazanavicius adroitly spun for his clever throwback film) in which fresh-faced young Esther gets her big break, marries her idol Norman and finds her star rising just as the drunken and devil-may-care Norman’s career goes into a tragic tailspin.

Twice more “A Star is Born” was adapted for major studio releases – in what many consider the superior 1954 version, directed by George Cukor and starring Judy Garland and James Mason and in a roundly rejected 1976 rock interpretation by director Frank Pierson with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.

But Wellman’s version has its dedicated fans, especially for the smart, tart script credited to Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell. At once naïve and idealistic, yet surprisingly frank and sharply cynical, its worldly dialogue bears the unmistakable stamp of Algonquin Round Table wit Parker, along with some uncredited contributions from cohorts Ben Hecht, Ring Lardner Jr., Budd Schulberg and producer David O. Selznick (who once told Parker he thought he could make a perfectly fine movie without employing any screenwriters at all).

While the film is marked by gorgeous color photography and innovative lighting, the transfer from the original 35 mm print is obviously aged and marked by scratches, reel-change cues and various imperfections. Nevertheless, “A Star is Born” retains a certain literary luster that makes it feel like a timeless document of Hollywood’s dream factory.

The rather spare extras featured on the Blu-ray disc include a coming-attractions trailer, a collection of poster art and black-and-white stills and a brief sequence of wardrobe tests.

- Dennis King