More public domain treasures

In late February, we examined several box sets in Mill Creek Entertainment's 50 Movie Pack series, a great budget-priced series of collections of public domain films that contain a surprising number of gems. Here's a look at a few more:
Drive-In Movie Classics 50 Movie Pack: Of all the boxes in the series, this one ranks as one of our top 3 favorites. The majority of the films are mainly from the '70s and '80s, meaning nearly all of them are in color. These are pretty much schlocky classics, mixing in horror, blacksplotation, with a little touch of blood or nudity as befits films from those years. A few of the titles: "Vengeance of the Zombies," "Voodoo Black Exorcist," "Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride," "Snowbeast," "The Werewolf Vs. Vampire Women" and "Beast From Haunted Cave." Our favorite, though, is "Invasion of the Bee Girls," in which government researchers discover a female insect expert is using a process to give women bee-like qualities and then the women are killing men with sex. No, we're not making that up. Actors include Richard Burton, Carroll Baker, Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Ursula Andress, and Mickey Rooney. Fun stuff. (12 discs.)
Comedy Classics 50 Movie Pack Collection: A nice sampling of comedy stretching from the days of silent films through recent times is collected here, including work by Fatty Arbuckle, solo Stan Laurel, Laurel and Hardy, the Keystone Cops, Harold Lloyd, Our Gang, Buster Keaton, the East Side Kids, James Cagney, Jimmy Durante, Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan, Pat O'Brien, Mickey Rooney, Carole Lombard, Laurence Olivier (in "As You Like It") and Peter Sellers. The real vintage stuff makes this one worth it.
Hollywood Legends 50 Movie Pack Collection: Star power drives this solid collection of films of varying quality that movie fans can enjoy just for the casting, if not for the film itself. Stars include Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (in "Road to Bali," not one of the standouts from the "Road" series but not bad, either), Greta Garbot, Fred MacMurray, Susan Hayward, Barbara Stanwyck, Frank Sinatra ("The Man With the Golden Arm"), Claudette Colbert (the charming "I Cover the Waterfront"), Jane Mansfield, Cary Grant, John Wayne, Merle Oberon, Gregory Peck, Gloria Swanson and Bette Davis.
All Stars 50 Movie Pack Collection: A collection of TV movies with some good, but most just OK. Still, a distingused list of actors is featured here in starring roles: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Martin Sheen, Lynn Redgrave, Anthony Perkins, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Michael Landon, Glenn Ford, Lee Remick, Sissy Spacek, Sally Field, David Janssen, John Forsythe, Andy Griffith, Susan Sarandon and John Houseman. For the price, not a bad pickup if you are fans of some of these actors.
Nightmare Worlds 50 Movie Pack Collection: This one is one of our favorites because it's a time trip back to the old Saturday matinee days and has some of the best examples of the campiest sci-fi films ever. The three Ken Utsui films in the set ("Evil Brain From Outer Space," "Attack From Space" and "Atomic Rulers of the World") are the highlights. All feature a costumed hero named Starman and have some of the worst dialogue and special effects you'll ever see. Also included is a Flash Gordon film with Buster Crabbe ("Purple Death From Outer Space"), plus Grant Williams of "The Incredible Shrinking Man" in "The Doomsday Machine," Wallace Beery in the silent film "The Lost World", plus films with Bela Lugosi ("The Phantom Creeps," "Shadow of Chinatown"), Gene Autry (in "Radio Ranch"), Rock Hudson, William Boyd, Fred Williamson, Cameron Mitchell, Anthony Perkins and Stacy Keach. Break out the popcorn. This one's a big winner.
Chilling Classics 50 Movie Pack Collection: This collection of "Creature Features" campy sci-films includes such lovely titles as "Drive-In Massascre," "I Bury the Living," "Oasis of the Zombies," "The Milpitas Monster," "Lady Frankenstein," "Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter," "Dr. Tarr's Torture Jungle," "Silent Night, Bloody Night" and "War of the Robots." Mystery Science Theater films without the added narration. They don't make them like this anymore. Thank goodness.
Horror Classics 50 Movie Pack Collection: The traditional sci-fi fan will find a lot to like in this collection. Included are Lon Chaney Sr. in "The Phantom of the Opera" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," Max Schreck's "Nosferatu," George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead," John Barrymore in "Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde," Gustav Frohlich's landmark "Metropolis" plus films with Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Fay Wray and J. Carroll Naish. A great way to get a bunch of film classics in one collection.

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There are still more of these Mill Creek sets we haven't covered and we'll catch up with more in a future column. For the most part, though, we recommend these. They're inexpensive and the films, which range from classics to camp, for the most part look fairly good, despite their age and the fact they're not studio-quality remasters. The fact is, though, some of these films have been unseen for years (some would say for a good reason, but that's another story). Outside of the fact that the films may include a brief logo, we think the sets are a great pickup and very entertaining. And as we said before, if you're not a big fan of modern-day films, these boxes herald back to perhaps a better time. For the money, you can't beat that.
Short takes: Among a slate of new releases in April, Mill Creek Entertainment will offer Crime Classics 50 Movie Pack (12pc), featuring films starring Edward G. Robinson, Frank Sinatra, Ralph Byrd, George Raft and others.
Short takes: Miami Vice - Season Three and Miami Vice - Season Four: Two more seasons of the show with the sharp-dressed cops. It's more of the same from the first two seasons. Interesting note for John Lennon fans: The song "Imagine" opens the third season premiere.

Looking back at Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back (1965 Tour Deluxe Edition): Viewing Bob Dylan's "Don't Look Back" now one has to wonder how it ever got made? Dylan lived in a world of his own. So how filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker managed to get full access is a miracle.
The real miracle, however, is viewing "Don't Look Back," a vivid chronicle of the singer's 1965 British tour and one of the most stunning rock documentaries ever and now available in a deluxe expanded two-disc set.
Dylan's music is, of course, the focus, but the camera's eye also focuses in on Dylan's world. Especially riveting are his encounters with the media and the Establishment. Both are clearly nervous about approaching Dylan, clearly not knowing what to expect and the singer plays on their apprehension.
In one memorable scene, Dylan takes a Time magazine interviewer named Horace Judson (and the media as a whole) to task.

"'Cause you know I've never been in Time magazine and yet this hall's filled twice, you know, and I've never been in Time Magazine. I don't need Time Magazine ... and I don't think I'm a folk singer. You'll probably call me a folk singer, but, you know, the other people know better 'cause the people, you know, that buy my records, listen to me, don't necessarily buy Time Magazine. You know the audience that subscribe to Time Magazine? The people that work during the day and read it small, right? And it's concise and there's pictures in it."

Interestingly enough, Pennebacker, in an interview with Time this year, says Dylan isn't being as mean-spirited with Judson as it appeared.
In the interview, Pennebacker says,

"I have the story [Judson] wrote. He wrote a very good piece on Dylan. I thought Dylan was kind of nice in the end. He made jokes out of it. When I show the film, especially to kids, they want to see that as someone thrashing TIME. But it isn't that. He's thrashing a whole system of media that people had been thrashing for a long time. I never thought of it as mean-spirited.

This new release includes a newly remastered version of the original DVD from the original single-disc release that contains the film, commentary by Pennebacker and Dylan tour manager Bob Neuwirth, additional audio tracks, an alternate version of the "Subterranean Homesick Blues" video and the theatrical trailer and adds a second disc called "Bob Dylan '65 Revisited," that features roughly an hour of outtakes (mostly music) from the original film with commentary from Pennebacker and Neuwirth. In addition, the set includes a 168 page companion book, that was originally released in the late '60s, of pictures and dialogue from the film , plus a engaging flip book of the "Subterranean Homesick Blues" video sequence.
It's a trip back in time worth taking.
Short takes: While we're on the subject of reissued rock films, we'll mention Don't Knock the Rock / Rock Around the Clock and Don't Knock the Twist / Twist Around the Clock, two two-fer film reissues of four vintage rock films that Sony has just released. The films are the standard rock films of the era with the usual plots about the music being persecuted and the usual remedy of "Let's put on a show!" They're basically just excuses for the music they contain, as good as some of that music is.
But Sony gets major demerits for their sloppy treatment of the DVDs. Neither set contains chapter links from the main menu and the chapter links contained in the films don't link up with all the music performances. To find Little Richard's performances in "Don't Knock the Rock," for example, you'll have to manually scan through the film.
As much as we're glad to have these again and give them our recommendation, we have to say they deserved a lot better treatment in putting them to disc than what they received.
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Latest release alerts

Catching our eye was Warner Home Video's Cult Camp Classics in four box sets in June. Here are some highlights through June.

March 20: Rocky Balboa (Sony)
April 3: The Team, The Time, The Season – The Story of the 2006 Mets (Shout Factory)
April 17: Highlander Series: Best of the Box (6 discs, Anchor Bay)
April 24: Flipper, Season 1 (Fox)
April 24: Night at the Museum (Fox)
May 1: Angels in the Outfield (original/Warner Home Video)
May 1: Mahogany (Paramount)
May 1: Dreamgirls (Paramount)
May 8: Battle of the Bulge (Warner Home Video)
May 15: Fired! (Shout Factory)
May 22: The Flying Leathernecks (Warner Home Video)
May 22: Scrubs: Fifth Season (Buena Vista)
May 29: Rawhide: The Second Season
June 12: Deadwood: Complete Third Season (HBO)
June 26: Cult Camp Classics, Vol. 1, Sci-Fi Thrillers: With Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, The Giant Behemoth, Queen of Outer Space, also available separately. (Warner Home Video)
June 26: Cult Camp Classics, Vol. 2, Women in Peril: The Big Cube, Caged and Trog, also available separately. (Warner Home Video)
June 26: Cult Camp Classics, Vol. 3, Terrorized Travelers: With Hot Rods to Hell, Skyjacked, Zero Hour, also available separately. (Warner Home Video)
June 26: Cult Camp Classics, Vol. 4, Historical Epics: Colossus of Rhodes, Land of The Pharaohs, The Prodigal, also available separately. (Warner Home Video)

Boldly going for laughs where few have gone before

Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner (Uncensored) (Comedy Central): How many celebrities would have flown halfway across the galaxy to have the chance to roast the man best known for Capt. James Tiberius Kirk, priceline.com and the worst cover of "Mr. Tambourine Man" ever?
The group assembled for "Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner (Uncensored)," released on DVD March 20, includes host Jason Alexander, Shatner's "Star Trek" compatriots George Takei and Nichelle Nichols, Kevin Pollak, Jessi Klein, Fred Williard, Farrah Fawcett, Betty White, Andy Dick, Patton Oswalt, Lisa Lampanelli, Greg Giraldo and Jeff Ross.
Shatner enters the roast in grand style -- on a horse, to the tune of "Ride, Captain, Ride."
The insults fly fast, hard and furious. Shatner takes it pretty well -- and dishes a few well-placed insults at the end, some of the best heard on the show.
Not all the participants are at their best form, though. Betty White tries her best, but looks uncomfortable, Farrah Fawcett is this roast's Courtney Love -- she looks and acts as drunk as a skunk -- and Andy Dick lives up to his name. And you'd think that there would be other things at a William Shatner roast to joke about than George Takei's gayness, but for a few people, there isn't.
But if there's one guy who deserves this "honor," though, it's Shatner. It's fun to see him finally get at least a little of what's coming to him.
Too bad some of these people didn't listen to his "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" before they worked on their monologues. The show might have been that much better.

Forbidden treasures

Cult Classics 20 Movie Pack (4 DVD) (Mill Creek Entertainment): They carried titles like "Chained For Life," "The Road to Ruin," "Child Bride" and "Reefer Madness." Even with the dramatic titles, they weren't dramas in the strict sense -- they were exploitation films of the '30s and '40s -- each a filmmaker's attempt to scare and sway his audience.
We laugh about them today. But they were no laughing matter back then, as seen in Mill Creek Entertainment's Cult Classics 20 Movie Pack, a fascinating budget-friendly four DVD set collecting 20 of these curios.
The films tackled subjects that were sometimes only whispered about back then. One could argue the films weren't for teaching, but for shock value. There's "Reefer Madness," the overly dramatic 1936 midnight-matinee cult favorite of recent years. The set also includes several other drug-related films: "Marihuana," "She Shoulda Said No," "The Marijuana Menace" and "The Cocaine Fiends," all from the mid-30s.
Other "shocking" subjects seen in the films include Siamese twins ("Chained For Life"), prostitution ("Slaves in Bondage," "Escort Girls") and infertility ("Test Tube Babies").
But maybe the most controversial film in the set is "Child Bride," a 1938 film starring Shirley Mills (who bears a slight resemblance to Shirley Temple) in a film about a teacher who tries to halt the practice of underage girls marrying older men. The film has what for its time -- and even now -- is quite a shocker -- a scene featuring a somewhat distant view of the young Mills swimming naked in a river -- and observed luridly by an older man from her town. It's surprising that such a scene would have been filmed in the '30s and one can only imagine the reaction it might have received from the public.
These films are available individually from other publishers, but this collection rounds up 20 of them in the most economic package we've seen. As with other releases by Mill Creek, the films aren't remastered. And purists may not be too happy about the company logos that pop up very briefly during each film.
But don't let that keep you from getting this set. It's a must for film history buffs, and film fans in general. It's entertainment and weirdness at the same time. We hope Mill Creek can dig up 20 more for a second set. It'll be worth it.
Short takes: Two other sets by Mill Creek are worth a mention. 150 Cartoon Classics is the biggest collection of public domain cartoons we've seen to date. It includes Popeye, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Felix the Cat, Betty Boop, Woody Woodpecker, Mutt and Jeff, Grampy, Little Lulu and many more. The cartoons appear to be grouped somewhat chronologically, with several black-and-white cartoons on the first disc, with color cartoons filling out the collection. Given the age of most of these cartoons, viewers will find a lack of political correctness they may be used to seeing in today's toons. Therefore, not all of these are for kids.
Mill Creek's Very Best of One Step Beyond (4pc) collects 50 episodes of this TV series, hosted by John Newland, which originally ran in the late '50s. Comparisons are often made with "The Twilight Zone," but there's a big difference between the two: While stories on "Zone" often dealt with fictional human stories punctuated with fantasy, "One Step Beyond" stories dealt with the paranormal based on real events like the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the sinking of the Titanic. As with the cartoon collection, you'll find many DVDs of this material around, but this 50-episode box is by far the best for the money.


You can order "Cult Classics," "150 Cartoon Classics" or "The Best of 'One Step Beyond'" in our 50 Movie Pack Store in the right.

Book 'em Danno!

"Hawaii Five-0 - The Complete First Season" (Paramount): From the moment it premiered with a two-hour movie in September, 1968, there was something special about "Hawaii Five-O." The tightly written scripts and the tight-jawed character of Jack Lord as Steve McGarrett made the series hot (and we're not talking about the Hawaiian weather).
This seven-disc set features that pilot (which does not cast James McArthur as Danny Williams -- he didn't show until the regular first season episode) and the first 24 episodes.
Lord's McGarrett was tough as nails, never one to back down, even against his arch enemy Wo Fat, who has him on the ropes in the two-hour pilot.
The special features include a two-hour TV special originally shown in Hawaii called "Memories of 'Hawaii Five-O'" that includes a tribute to Jack Lord.
There are good shows and there are great ones. This is one of those.
Aloha.
Short takes: Also new to video is "Bosom Buddies - The First Season." (CBS) This drag sitcom has taken a long time to get to DVD and it's no wonder. Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari star as two ad agency buddies who move into a hotel for women -- as women -- because the rent's cheap. Wendie Jo Sperber and Donna Dixon co-star. It's 19 episodes on three discs. No special features. Surprised? You shouldn't be. It's probably something Tom Hanks would like to forget.

Would you like to be "Queen for a Day"?

Queen for a Day (First Look): With all the reality shows on the air today, viewers take for granted how they turn viewers lives around or upside down.
But back in the '50s, there were few of these types of shows around. Queen for a Day was certainly one of the first and one of the best known. The show began on radio in 1945, then moved to TV in 1956 and lasted there until as late as 1970 and seen by viewers on both ABC and NBC during its run.
Jack Bailey, who crowned over 5,000 queens during the show's two-decade run, hosted the radio and the early TV versions (a later TV version in 1969 was hosted by Dick Curtis). Bailey's "Queen For a Day" was known for his lions-roar opening -- WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE QUEEN FOR A DAY? -- and its infamous applause meter.
This three-disc set from First Look is a charmer. It includes the only surviving seven complete episodes of the show, plus clips from five others. Bailey sure knew how to charm the housewives watching the show and he certainly did with his folksy charm and even a little innocent flirting with his audience. He did his darnedest to boost the drama on the show and bring his daytime audience to tears -- and he was very successful. The audience, whose applause drove the audience meter to pick each day's queen, helped out -- they were generally cooperative in selecting the women with the roughest stories about why they wanted to be queen as the day's winners. The queen was then crowned in a red robe by Bailey, given a huge bouquet of roses and serenaded with a blaring version of "Pomp and Circumstance." The drama was complete. (You had to wonder what the losers were thinking, though.)
The quality of the set is rough -- the shows were transferred from kinescopes. The shows also include the original commercials, many done live.
Feminists later saw "Queen For a Day" as an example of trying to keep women in their places, but a look at these shows reveals a lot of that criticism was uncalled for. "Queen For a Day" was an innocent show that was right for its time.
And with the flurry of rambunctious reality shows that live for shock value, it's refreshing to see a show for which changing reality was primarily for the better.

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You can fly! You can fly! You can fly?

To promote the release of its two-disc "Peter Pan," Disney came up with a wacky marketing stunt using skydivers to create the letters "PP". Don't believe it? It's here.

Fun and games (shows): Get ready to match the stars!

As DVD companies continue to release a huge number of sets dedicated to TV shows each month (with some shows still hitting the racks for the first time), it's unusual that so few sets devoted to game shows have been released.
Game shows are cheap to produce and therefore generally very profitable. ABC will be the first to admit it stupidly killed its golden goose with its oversaturating of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," one of the best game shows in TV history -- and one of the most pervasive at the height of its success. Yet, as of now, there is no DVD of "Millionaire" highlights, though show still airs in reruns and in syndication.
That also holds true for the long-running shows "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!", though both have long been available as computer games. Although fans of "Jeopardy!" can buy a documentary on DVD called "Jeopardy! - An Inside Look at America's Favorite Quiz Show," it's not the game show itself.
Maybe the best of the few game show DVDs available until recently was TV Guide: Classic Quiz Shows (3 Pack)(Genius Products) which featured 15 game shows from the distant past, including "Beat the Clock" with Bud Collyer, "Break the Bank" with Bert Parks, "Shenanigans" with Stubby Kaye," "Do You Trust Your Wife" with Edgar Bergen, and its succcessor, "Do You Trust Your Wife?" with a young Johnny Carson, and "Twenty One" with Jack Barry. The "Twenty One" segment is the historic TV showdown between Herbert Stempel and Charles Van Doren that figured prominently in the '50s game show scandals.(The "Do You Trust Your Wife" segment is also available on Timeless TV's "Johnny Carson Show" set.)
Another is "The Golden Years of Classic Game Shows," a single disc with "I've Got a Secret," "The 64,000 Challenge," "What Are the Odds" and "A Dollar a Second."
But now comes "The Best of Match Game: DVD Edition, (Fremantle Media)" a four-disc set with 30 complete shows from the popular game show. Of course, unlike all the other titles mentioned above, "The Match Game" was a game show where the rules really didn't matter. The fun did. So everyone from host Gene Rayburn on down to the cameraman got caught up in the festivities.
The shows on the set include the series pilot from 1973 with celebrities Anita Gillette, Jack Klugman, Michael Landon, Vicki Lawrence and Jo Ann Pflug. That first show didn't include Match Game regulars Charles Nelson Reilly, Richard Dawson or Brett Somers, you'll notice. Other celebrities seen in the shows include Eva Gabor, Elaine Joyce, McLean Stephenson, Nancy Kulp ("The Beverly Hillbillies"), Fannie Flagg, Betty White, Jaye P. Morgan, William Shatner, Joyce Bulifant, Patti Deutsch, Ed Asner, Dick Martin, Jamie Lee Curtis, Marcia Wallace, Bob Barker, Della Reese, Jack Carter, Shelley Winters, Bill Daily, Debralee Scott ("Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman") and Rita Moreno.
Somers, who was Klugman's wife at the time, was the object of several of Klugman's jokes during his early appearances on the show and it was these jokes that led the show to invite Somers to make her first "Match Game" appearance, she says in one of the special features included in the set. On that first show, she didn't sit in what later became her usual spot next to Reilly, but in what was called the "ditzy seat" (for the ditzy celebrities) in the front row. In at least one appearance on the show, she and her then ex-husband Klugman appearance as panelists together. The show, unfortunately, isn't included in this set. That they managed to keep it civil was a tribute to both of them.
"The Match Game" wasn't always as crazy as you remember it. When it first premiered in black-and-white in 1962, it was actually a staid affair with only two celebrities (Peter Lind Hayes and Peggy Cass, for you trivia buffs) and four regular contestants. That first show is included here as one of the special features. It makes for quite a comparison with what came later.
The other special features are enjoyable, but could have been better. Brett Somers is the only regular from the show who appears in the special features, and many of her comments are laced around segments from shows appearing on the same disc. It's really a shame the set's compilers weren't able to use the recent wonderful GSN documentary, "The Real Match Game Story: Behind the Blanks," which included interviews with Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly and the now rarely seen Richard Dawson, plus an archival interview with Gene Rayburn made before his death in 1999. There set, however, also includes a tribute to Gene Rayburn and photos.
(Another "Match Game" DVD: "The Best of Match Game: The Dumb Dora Edition," is to be released March 13.)