The week’s DVDs begin in Norway:

DVDs for May 6 by Boo Allen

This week we begin in Norway:

Escape (***)

Fourteenth century Norway looks barren, bleak and beautiful in this survivalist tale centering on Signe (Isabel Christine Andreasen). The 19 year-old girl and her family escape to the countryside in hopes of dodging the the Black Death. But in the isolated wilderness, Signe falls captive to the small gang of marauders that kills her family. The gnarly group plans on using Signe and then disposing of her, but another young hostage takes pity, freeing her, and then escaping with her. Despite her fears, Signe proves a fierce protector and a fearsome adversary to the dim-witted bunch. A long chase dominates much of the action-filled narrative, replete with ample plot twists, gorgeous scenery and nasty characters. Ingrid Bolso Berdal plays Dagmar, the ferocious leader with severe mommy-issues.

Not rated, 80 minutes.

Warner Archives releases two manufactured-on-demand titles that provide good example of the film noir genre. One, Fall Guy (***, 1947, 64 minutes) originated from the small studio Monogram Pictures, with the other, Loophole (***, 1954, 80 minutes), coming from long defunct Allied Artists. Both born in the heydey of noir, they feature shadowy lighting and deep focus photography, sport distinguished femme fatales, and have casts filled with noirish regulars in supporting roles: Elisha Cook Jr., Don Haggerty, Douglas Fowley, and others. Fall Guy originates from a Cornell Woolrich (Rear Window) short story about a man (future TV director Clifford Penn) who wakes from a drug overdose believing he has killed a woman and stuffed her into a closet. Reeling back to life, he joins forces with an off duty cop (Robert Armstrong, King Kong) to untangle how he has been framed. Rapidly told, tightly knit story directed by Reginald LeBorg. Workhorse actor Barry Sullivan stars in Loophole as bank teller Mike Donovan, framed for embezzlement. The real thief proved so adept in the heist, Donovan cannot be prosecuted but is fired from his job and then a succession of jobs because of the interference of a Javert-like bonding company detective (ever snarling Charles McGraw). Dorothy Malone plays the steadfast wife, and platinum Mary Beth Hughes is the Lady Macbeth blonde whose appetites push her man into crime. Directed by Harold Schuster.

Upstream Color (**1/2)

Writer-director Shane Carruth also stars in this puzzling, long awaited follow-up to his much talked about 2004 Primer. Here, he and fellow director Amy Seimetz play a pair of lovers, or would-be lovers, who struggle to find footing in their relationship. Told in fragments, the illusory film defies understanding or description. For some reason, pigs are important. Local actor and University of North Texas graduate Dave Little ably conveys porcine concern as a concerned veterinarian.

Not rated, 96 minutes.

The Wicked (**)

Every cliché in the Official Horror Movie Playbook can be found in this tepid offering. At the beginning, a child disappears from a good Exorcism-like setting. Later, a group of teens goes camping in a forest, as all teens in horror movies must do. There, they find, as expected, 1. a haunted house, and 2. a witch. Before long, the hapless teens are under attack, and the blood flows according to genre rules. The film even contains a “Don’t-go-in-the-basement” sequence, a monster who lurks, and a case of teen puppy love that complicates things.

Not rated, 105 minutes.

And, finally, from this week’s TV offerings:

Private Practice: sixth and final season

This Grey’s Anatomy spin-off, also created by Shonda Rhimes, has rolled along successfully until now, when the doors at Seaside Health and Wellness will finally close. Among the many adventures and melodramas of this concluding season of 13 episodes, on three discs, Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) springs back to life, Addison (Kate Walsh) finally chooses between Jake (Benjamin Bratt) and Sam (Taye Diggs), and a new physician joins the team. With KaDee Strickland, Paul Adelstein, Brian Benben.

Rated TV-14 DLS, 559 minutes. The set also contains deleted scenes and a blooper reel.

Also on DVD: Jack Reacher, Safe Haven, Superman Unbound.