1962’s The Counterfeit Traitor might not be William Holden’s best-known film, but it’s a very good one that contains one of his best performances.

Known for such films as Sunset Boulevard, Picnic, and The Bridge on the River Kwai, Holden plays real-life Eric Ericson, an American-born oil trader of Swedish descent who becomes a Swedish citizen labeled a Nazi sympathizer because he continues to do business with Germany after the outbreak of World War II. Recruited by the British, he acts as a spy in consort with a beautiful German Allied agent to help win the war. His work results in the safe evacuation of many, like the work of the more celebrated Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s List.

Directed by George Seaton, who previously directed him in 1954’s The Country Girl, Holden plays the kind of role that Humphrey Bogart would have played a decade or two earlier. It was the second of three films he starred in that year. Leo McCarey’s Satan Never Sleeps came before it while Jack Cardiff’s The Lion came after it.

As good as Holden is in this, his co-star Lilli Palmer is even better. She dominates the middle portion of the film and is especially haunting in two scenes. In the first, she confesses her sins to a Nazi spy masquerading as a priest. In the second, she is marked for execution by the Gestapo as Holden works desperately to save her.

Palmer was riding high at this point in her career, following acclaimed performances in But Not for Me, Conspiracy of Hearts, and The Pleasure of His Company, and was given equal billing to Holden even though her role is significantly shorter. Had she been listed as a supporting player she would surely have been in contention for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar alongside Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate and Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker. Sadly, she never had another role as good, although she did stand out in supporting roles in such subsequent films as Operation Crossbow and The Boys from Brazil.

Extras on the Imprint Blu-ray release include new commentary with Lee Pfeiffer, publisher of Cinema Retro Magazine, and film historian Paul Scrabo; the 1989 documentary William Holden: The Golden Boy; and the original theatrical trailer.

1971’s Johnny Got His Gun, also newly released on Blu-ray by Imprint, was adapted for the screen, and directed by Dalton Trumbo from his 1939 novel of the same name.

Trumbo is best known as the blacklisted writer who won a Oscars for Roman Holiday under a pseudonym and The Brave One under another writer’s name. He came back under his own name with Spartacus. His Oscar for 1953’s Roman Holiday was presented to him in 1975 shortly before his death. His Oscar for The Brave One was presented posthumously to his widow in 1993.

When he wasn’t writing screenplays, Trumbo wrote short stories and novels, none of which, except for Johnny Got His Gun, are widely known.

Published just before the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Johnny Got His Gun is about a wounded World War I solider who lost all four limbs, his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. He is, however, fully conscious, and can think and dream. He is at the mercy of his caregivers who sedate him whenever he tries to communicate by moving his head, thinking that he is spasming. Eventually he finds a way to communicate but only a compassionate nurse understands what he wants. She tries to help him but is thwarted by the ignorant head doctor who sedates him yet again.

A bleak, terrifying anti-war diatribe, but an important and engrossing one. James Cagney starred in a 1940 radio adaptation, included on the Imprint Blu-ray. Timothy Bottoms made his film debut as Joe Bonham, the Johnny Everyman of the title, in the same year that he would become an overnight sensation in The Last Picture Show.

Independently financed because no studio would touch it, its backers include former actor Tom Tryon (The Cardinal), by then a best-selling author (The Other).

The film’s supporting cast includes Jason Robards and Marsha Hunt as Joe’s parents, Donald Sutherland as Christ (the same year he played the title role in Klute), Charles McGraw, Don Barry, and Diane Varsi (Peyton Place) as the compassionate nurse.

Trumbo was nominated for three awards for the film at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival and won two of them. Bottoms was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Newcomer-Male, losing to Desi Arnaz Jr. in Red Sky at Morning. Twiggy won Best Newcomer-Female for The Boy Friend.

Extras on the Imprint Blu-ray, in addition to the Cagney radio version, include new commentary by author and critic Matthew Asprey Gear and interviews with Timothy Bottoms and Marsha Hunt among others.

Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer has been filmed numerous times, most notably in Norman Taurog’s 1938 version with Tommy Kelly as Tom, Jackie Moran as Huck Finn, May Robson as Aunt Polly, Walter Brennan as Muff Potter, and Ann Gillis as Becky Thatcher; and as a musical, Tom Sawyer, in 1973 with Johnny Whitaker, Jeff East, Celeste Holm, Warren Oates, and Jodie Foster in those roles.

The Taurog version was released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber in 2018. The 1973 musical version was previously released by Twilight Time on a double bill with 1974’s inferior Huckleberry Finn. The sparkling new single release of the United Artists film is from MGM.

The screenplay for the 1973 version is by composers Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. It was the first screenplay in addition to the score for the legendary composers of Mary Poppins, The Happiest Millionaire, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. They would go on to write the screenplays as well as the scores for Huckleberry Finn, The Slipper and the Rose, and The Magic of Lassie. This screenplay is the best of those they wrote while the score of Tom Sawyer rivals that of the earlier three films I mentioned.

Whitaker, East, and Holm do most of the singing, but Oates’ raspy voice gets to join Whitaker and East on one of the songs. Foster doesn’t get to sing but she doesn’t need to. She’s already a presence at 10.

This week’s new Blu-ray releases include Uncharted and the second 4K Ultra HD edition of The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection.