It’s a lackluster week in the home entertainment world enlivened only by the ultimate grindhouse car chase double feature, the penultimate Harry Potter film, one of the most interesting anime movies in recent years, and a couple of vintage Doctor Who epics featuring the Fifth Doctor.

 

 

Muscle car fans and anyone who loves a good car chase should check out Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry/Race With the Devil (Shout Factory, “PG,” $14.93). This double feature of 1970s car chase movies featuring Peter Fonda is loads of fun, particularly Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry which features the sexy Susan George and an implacable cop played by Vic Morrow. Race With the Devil, which was directed by Jack Starrett in 1975, is a genre-bending delight that mixes a little occult horror in with its car chases and stars Warren Oates and Loretta Swit along with Fonda and features the underrated R.G. Armstrong in a scary performance as a Texas sheriff in league with a nasty bunch of human sacrificing satanists.

 

Also from the 1970s is John Huston’s The Kremlin Letter (Twilight Time, “R,” $22.95), a cynical spy drama that has developed something of a cult reputation over the years. Like many Huston films--Spoiler Alert--The Kremlin Letter revolves around a quest for what turns out to be a red herring—in this case it is the eponymous epistle that turns out to be the narrative equivalent of The Maltese Falcon.

 

This week’s bestselling release will certainly be Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows, Part I (Warner Bros., “PG-13,” $29.98, BD Combo ($35.99), the penultimate film in the hugely successful Harry Potter series, which found success with the critics (79% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences alike.

 

The only other mainstream release is Country Strong (Sony, “PG-13,” $28.95, BD $34.95), which stars Gwyneth Paltrow in a poorly reviewed (only 21% positive) “back from rehab” saga about a country singer who tries to reclaim her career.

 

 

Just a few anime releases this week, but they are choice, starting with The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Bandai, 98 min., BD $39.98), a delightful time-traveling science fiction anime feature film from Madhouse, which won the Japan Academy Prize for Animation in 2006.

 

Another new series appearing on Blu-ray this week is Needless Collection 2 (Sentai Filmworks, “13+,” 300 min., $59.98, BD $69.98), which includes the second 12 episodes of the Madhouse-produced series based on the seinen manga series by Kami Imai. This post-apocalyptic science fiction saga concerns a group of outcasts who gain various powers because they are forced to live in a contaminated area. The anime series, which aired in Japan in 2009, tones down the manga’s violence and gore, but increases the “fan service” (it includes an inordinate number of panty shots).

 

The only other anime release this week is the Blu-ray release of Moribito: Guardian of the Sacred Spirit Part 2 (Media Blasters, “13+,” 325 min., $49.98). This stylish 2007 medieval fantasy series from Production I.G. has been released before on conventional DVD.

 

 

The top release in this category this week is the DVD debut of Car 54, Where Are You?: The Complete First Season (Shanachie Home Video, 780 min., $39.98), which includes all 30 episodes of the classic early 1960s sitcom. Created by the great Nat Hiken (Sgt. Bilko), Car 54 featured Fred Gwynne and Joe E. Ross, while guest stars in Season 1 included Jake LaMotta (the real “Raging Bull”), Maureen Stapleton, and Molly Picon.

 

Another series with cult hit potential debuting this week is the Sid and Marty Krofft kid’s series from the late 1960s, H.R. Pufnstuf. H.R. Pufnstuf: The Complete Series (Vivendi Ent., 374 min., $24.95) includes all 17 episodes of the series that aired on Saturday mornings on NBC from 1969 to 1972.

 

Animated offerings include the single-disc, 6-episode The Garfield Show, Vol. 3: Private-Eye Ventures (Vivendi, 72 min., $14.93), and Redwall, Vol. 2: The Next Adventure (Phase 4, 154 min., $9.99), the Canadian animated series based on the Redwall novels of Brian Jacques.

 

Continuing series releases include Dallas: The Movie Collection (Warner Bros. 462 min., $29.98), which includes all 4 made-for-TV movies based on the popular primetime soaper, Dragnet—1970: Season 4 (Shout Factory, 660 min., $34.93), which contains a whole season of the second iteration of the popular American police procedural, and Man vs. Wild: Season 5 (Gaiam, 600 min., $19.98), which features adventurer Bear Grylls in one of the more entertaining contemporary reality shows.

 

U.K. TV offerings this week include Doctor Who—Story #119: Kinda (BBC, 125 min., $24.98), a four-part saga from 1982 featuring the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison), and Doctor Who—Story #125: Snakedance (BBC, 125 min., $24.98), another 4-parter, which was first broadcast in 1983 and also featured the Fifth Doctor.

 

Other British series include the charming Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 1988 & 1989 (BBC, 299 min., $34.98), which includes lots more adventures from the world’s longest-running silver-haired sitcom, and The Sweeney: The Complete Collection (BFS, 2750 min., $235.00), the rousing 1970s detective series about the mobile police unit, the London Flying Squad, which became “The Sweeney” in Cockney rhyming slang (“Flying Squad”=“Sweeney Todd”).