On the Road with Charles Kuralt, Set 1 (three discs, out Oct. 27). Cynics should steer clear of this collection of “On the Road” pieces in which Kuralt, who spent thirteen years driving around America in a motor home, reported for The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite on whatever caught his eye along the way: a circus bandleader, a cymbal factory, a professional blower of soap bubbles. “I have attempted to keep ‘relevance’ and ‘significance’ entirely out of all the stories I send back,” Kuralt wrote in A Life on the Road, his 1990 autobiography. He succeeded, much to the delight of a generation of TV viewers who loved the uncondescending sweetness with which he portrayed the quiet delights of life off the beaten path. I saw many of these pieces when they first aired in the Seventies, and I find it hard to watch them now without growing misty-eyed (TT).

David Kynaston, Austerity Britain: 1945-51 (Bloomsbury, $15.95 paper). What was England like in the chilly, near-penniless days after World War II? Most of us only know “austerity Britain” from its wry, distanced portrayals in the Ealing comedies, but David Kynaston has now given us a complex and persuasive portrait of life under postwar British socialism, a masterly piece of social history that succeeds in giving the American reader a clear understanding of how the English people responded to the daunting challenge of getting by on not nearly enough. Wholly engrossing, no matter what your political point of view may be (TT).

The Last Days of Disco. The Criterion Collection has finally brought out a DVD of Whit Stillman’s darkly witty 1998 film about the messy love lives of a group of young New Yorkers who frequent a club not unlike Studio 54. Yes, it’s funny, and yes, it’s an unsparing critique of contemporary American culture–one that’s all the more effective for having been played for laughs. In light of Stillman’s prolonged and inexplicable post-Disco silence, the reappearance on home video of the last and best installment of his indie-flick trilogy about the sexual revolution and its discontents is cause for rejoicing. What I’d really like is for him to make another movie, but since that doesn’t seem to be in the cards, I’ll settle for revisiting this one (TT).

Colorado Territory. In 1949 Raoul Walsh, one of the all-time great action directors, remade High Sierra, the 1941 proto-noir crime film that turned Humphrey Bogart into a star, retrofitting it as a western and replacing Bogart with Joel McCrea. Unlikely as it may sound, Walsh actually managed to improve on the original (which he also directed) the second time around. Like High Sierra, Colorado Territory is a laconic portrait of a lonely, aging gunman at the end of his tether, and the fact that McCrea, the quintessential white-hatted good guy, is playing against type adds to the film’s emotional complexity. This near-forgotten classic has just been released on DVD for the first time as part of the Warner Archive reissue series. It’s a must (TT).

Richard Stark, The Seventh/The Handle/The Rare Coin Score (University of Chicago, $14 each). Three more titles in the University of Chicago’s uniform edition of the out-of-print Parker novels of Richard Stark (alias the late, lamented Donald E. Westlake) are out this week. All are lean, laconic, tough-minded installments in the endlessly rereadable saga of the ultra–professional burglar you hate to like. Nine down, six to go (TT).

Vladimir Horowitz at Carnegie Hall–The Private Collection: Mussorgsky and Liszt (RCA Red Seal). Stupendously vivid performances of the Liszt B Minor Sonata and Pictures at an Exhibition (the latter in Horowitz’s own beefed-up transcription) recorded live at Carnegie Hall in 1948 and 1949 and released here for the first time. Connoisseurs of transcendental virtuosity need not hesitate (TT).

How the Other Half Loves (Westport Country Playhouse, Westport, Conn., closes Aug. 15). If The Norman Conquests whetted your appetite for the blacker-than-it-looks comedy of Alan Ayckbourn, this fizzy regional revival of his 1969 who’s-sleeping-with-whom farce about three unhappily married couples will fill the bill with ease. Catch it while you can (TT).

The Letter (Santa Fe Opera, Santa Fe, N.M., in repertory July 25-Aug. 18). Adultery, murder, lies, blackmail, confession, trial, hallucination, acquittal, confrontation, disaster, blood, blackout–all in ninety minutes with no intermission. An opera noir, in other words, based on the 1927 Somerset Maugham play and staged by Jonathan Kent (Faith Healer). Patricia Racette is the star, Hildegard Bechtler the set designer, Tom Ford the costume designer. Music by Paul Moravec, words by yours truly. A rattling good show, if we do say so ourselves (TT).