DAVID'S DVDS. Halloween and The Wizard of Oz — they go together, right? I don't think any other movie has so successfully incorporated costumes that really look like costumes. (Just check out the Cowardly Lion's pajamas!) And isn't the whole journey just one big Trick or Treat romp? And anyway, didn't some network broadcast the movie around Halloween back in the day? I for one dimly recall munching on seasonally colored (orange-and-black) "half-moon cookies" while fearfully awaiting the tornado scene.

The Wizard of Oz has long been available on home video but yet another DVD package is now available...and Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly gave it an enthusiastic A. This three-CD set has all the great stuff that was in the previous two-CD set plus supposedly improved images of the movie and some rarely seen Oz motion pictures that came first. It sounds wonderful — especially if you haven't already blown big bucks on the previous versions.

Whether or not The Wizard of Oz used to air on every Halloween, there's no doubt that King Kong and other ape thrillers used to air on New York area television on every Thanksgiving. (Just read the Amazon reviews here.) The long-awaited return of the monster classic to home video is scheduled for November 22 — just two days before Thanksgiving — so if you plan well, you can recreate the experience yourself. Mighty Joe Young and Son of Kong are to be released at the same time.

If the suspense of waiting for Kong's release isn't enough for you, keep your pulse pounding with The Wages of Fear, Henri-Georges Clouzot's thriller about a really sucky job: trucking nitroglycerin on cruddy dirt roads. I don't think I've seen a better movie on the subject. I even admire the less intense opening scenes, in which the truckers all speak in their native tongues. We need more of that kind of realism!