DVD review: 'Hide in Plain Sight' / Warner Archive exclusives

This superb, fact-based 1980 crime drama stars James Caan, who also took his one-and-only shot at directing here and nailed it nicely, keeping things taut, gritty and suspenseful from beginning to end. Caan plays a divorced blue-collar worker whose children are spirited away when their new father, a low-tier mobster, enters the Justice Department’s witness protection program.

As an actor, Caan is in his prime, convincingly playing the tough and defiant protagonist that was his stock-in-trade, going up against the cops, federal agents and the U.S. government to find his kids and take them back. He also manages as director to pull spot-on performances from an excellent cast that includes Jill Eikenberry, Robert Viharo, Barbra Rae, Kenneth McMillan, Josef Sommer and Danny Aiello.

It’s now available for the first time on DVD, only from WarnerArchive.com, along with hundreds of other long unobtainable titles. Warner manufactures these discs on demand with each order, and they can’t be found in stores.

Check it out.

— Gene Triplett