As part of its 100th-anniversary celebration, Columbia Pictures released the fourth volume of its 4K Ultra HD Collection series this past February.
The six classic films selected are His Girl Friday (1940), Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), Starman (1984), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), and Punch-Drunk Love (2022).
Each film is presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range and all films except His Girl Friday have all-new Dolby Atmos mixes. Each home video includes the standard Blu-ray and digital versions of the films in addition to the 4K Ultra HD copy.
This special limited edition collector’s set is the only way to see each of these films in 4K Ultra HD. Included in the boxset is a hardbound 80-page booklet featuring in-depth information about the making of each film, essays on each film, and photos from the Columbia Pictures archives.
Columbia Pictures’ first 4K Ultra HD boxset was released in 2020 and featured Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1962), Lawrence of Arabia (1964), Dr. Strangelove (1964), Gandhi (1982), A League of Their Own (1992), and Jerry Maguire (1996).
The second volume, released in 2021, featured Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Oliver (1968), Taxi Driver (1976), Stripes (1981), Sense and Sensibility (1995), and The Social Network (2010).
It Happened One Night (1934), From Here to Eternity (1953), To Sir, with Love (1967), The Last Picture Show (1971), Annie (1982), and As Good as It Gets (1997) were featured in the third volume, which was released in 2022.
His Girl Friday (1940)
Howard Hanks’ His Girl Friday stars Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Russell plays investigative reporter Hildy Johnson, who is engaged to a successful insurance agent. On the eve of her remarriage, she is talked into one more assignment by her editor and ex-husband, Walter Burns (Grant). To distract her from her wedding, Walter instructs Hildy to interview a murder convict with an impending execution, but things take a turn when she realizes he may be innocent.
The extra features in His Girl Friday include:
- Audio commentary from film critic Todd McCarthy
- The iconic costumes of Robert Kalloch
- Featurettes on His Girl Friday, Cary Grant, and Rosalind Russell
- Vintage advertisements and theatrical trailers
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)
Stanley Kramer’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner stars Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn (who won the Academy Award for Best Actress), and Katharine Houghton. Joanna (Houghton), the beautiful daughter of crusading publisher Matthew Drayton (Tracy) and his patrician wife Christina (Hepburn), returns home with her new fiancé John Prentice (Poitier), a distinguished Black doctor. Christina accepts her daughter’s decision to marry John, but Matthew is shocked by this mixed union; the doctor’s parents are equally dismayed. Both families must sit down face to face and examine each other’s level of intolerance. The film was nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Picture.
The extra features in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner include:
- Introductions to the film by Karen Kramer, Steven Spielberg, Tom Brokaw, and Quincy Jones
- The 2007 Producers Guild Stanley Kramer Award presentation to An Inconvenient Truth.
- A photo gallery and the theatrical trailer
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Robert Benton’s Kramer vs. Kramer stars Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep and received five Academy Awards (Best Actor, Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Director). Young husband and father Ted Kramer (Hoffman) loves his family– and his job, which is where he spends most of his time. When he returns home late one evening from work, his wife Joanna (Streep) confronts him and then leaves him, forcing Ted to become the sole caregiver to their six-year-old son. Now, Ted must learn to be a father while balancing the demands of his high-pressure career. But just as Ted adapts to his new role and begins to feel like a fulfilled parent, Joanna returns. And now she wants her son back.
The extra features in Kramer vs. Kramer include:
- Robert Benton on Directing and Justin Henry on Acting
- New audio commentary with film professor Jennine Lanouette
- ‘Finding the Truth’ – the making of
- Five never-before-seen deleted scenes
- The theatrical trailer
Starman (1984)
John Carpenter’s Starman stars Jeff Bridges (who was nominated for an Academy Award), Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith, and Richard Jaeckel. Starman (Bridges) after his spacecraft is shot down over Wisconsin. He arrives at the remote cabin of a distraught young widow, Jenny Hayden (Allen), and clones the form of her dead husband. The alien convinces Jenny to drive him to Arizona, explaining that if he isn’t picked up by his mothership in three days, he’ll die. Hot on their trail are government agents, intent on capturing the alien, dead or alive. En route, Starman demonstrates the power of universal love, while Jenny rediscovers her human feelings for passion.
The extra features in Starman include:
- The complete 22-episode follow-up series based on Starman, which aired from 1986 to 1987 on ABC starring Robert Hays and Christopher Daniel Barnes
- All-new deleted scenes
- Behind-the-scenes time lapses
- Audio commentary with John Carpenter and Jeff Bridges
- A ‘Making Of’ featurette
- Still gallery
- The theatrical trailer
Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
Nora Ephron’s Sleepless in Seattle stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Sam Baldwin (Hanks), a widowed father who, thanks to the wiles of his worried son, becomes a reluctant guest on a radio call-in show. He’s an instant hit with thousands of female listeners who deluge his Seattle home with letters of comfort. Meanwhile, inspired in equal parts by Sam’s story and classic Hollywood romance, writer Annie Reed (Ryan) becomes convinced that it’s her destiny to meet Sam. There are two problems: Annie’s engaged to someone else, and Sam doesn’t know yet that they’re made for each other.
The extra features in Sleepless in Seattle include:
- 30th anniversary commentary with Karen Han and David Sims
- ‘A Conversation’ on the film with Gary Foster and Meg Ryan
- Audio commentary featuring Nora and Delia Ephron
- Four deleted scenes
- ‘Love in Movies’ featurette
- “When I Fall in Love” by Celine Dion music video
- The theatrical trailer
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love stars Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzmán, and Mary Lynn Rajskub. The film won the Best Director Prize at the 2002 Canes Film Festival. Barry Egan (Sandler), a socially impaired owner of a small novelty business, is dominated by seven sisters and is unlikely to find love unless it finds him. When a mysterious woman comes into his life, his emotions go haywire, fluctuating between uncontrollable rage, lust and self-doubt.
The extra features in Punch-Drunk Love include:
- Two deleted scenes
- The ‘Mattress Man” commercial
- The theatrical trailers
- Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 4 is available as a physical set (with digital redemption codes) as well as digital retailers in 4K with HDR.
Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 4 is available as a physical set (with digital redemption codes) as well as digital retailers in 4K with HDR.
