The Cary Grant Box Set [Sony] contains five comedies that you can more or less consider to be mini-classics, and which are quite impressive any way you look at them. Those who are familiar with and generally appreciative of Grant might be surprised by the set; these movies are not merely charming but, for the most part, very good and very funny.

Grant was another one of those struggling musical comedy performers who went west and found success. Way west, actually. He came to town from England in 1920 as Archie Leach, a 16-year-old member of the Bob Pender Troupe of comedians. The act was featured in Charles Dillingham’s Hippodrome extravaganza, Good Times, which ran 456 performances. His other Broadway experiences were not nearly so successful; he was one of those down-on-his-luck fellows hanging around with the similarly unsuccessful Moss Hart, as discussed in the latter’s memoir "Act One."

Archie Leach made his final Broadway appearance in Nikki, which lasted a month in the fall of 1931. He went off to Paramount in 1932 for the first of 70-odd films over 44 years. (Where the name Grant came from I know not, but his character in Nikki was named Cary.) Within a year he was a sought-after player, and by 1937 he was a full-fledged star.

The handsome five-DVD set is not as feature-crammed as some others that have come along, true; but do you want features or movies? Here we have "Only Angels Have Wings" with Jean Arthur; "The Talk of the Town" with Arthur (and Ronald Colman); "The Awful Truth" with Irene Dunne; and "His Gal Friday", the crafty Front Page remake with Grant battling Rosalind Russell. The highlight of the set is the long-awaited DVD debut of the 1938 Grant-Hepburn starrer, "Holiday." All five are worth your while, providing that you like nifty Hollywood comedies.  Continued...