When you can't think of a title, think of anything that pops up....
We're always on the lookout for unusual DVDs. If you're a music fan, listen up.
Guillotine Films has released three (far as I know, that's all that's available) obscure British '60s music films on DVD. "Live It Up"
stars David Hemmings (also in "Blow Up!") and features Gene Vincent, Heinz, Sounds Incorporated (who toured with the Beatles in the U.S.), Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen and a young pre-fame Steve Marriott in an acting role. Hemmings also stars in "Be My Guest"
which features music (produced by Shel Talmy, later associated with the Who) by Jerry Lee Lewis, the Nashville Teens, Kenny and the Wranglers and another acting role by Marriott. "Dateline Diamonds"
also features Marriott, but this time singing with the Small Faces (he'd become famous by this time), plus Kiki Dee (way before her association with Elton John) and the Chantelles. All three films are variations on the "A Hard Day's Night"/"Ferry Cross the Mersey"/"Having a Wild Weekend" school of filmmaking. All the plots are associated with the burgeoning British music scene and even namedrop the Beatles occasionally. (It makes for good marketing.) If you're a '60s British Invasion fan, these are very much worth tracking down.
Best Buy has released "Rolling Stones: The Biggest Bang," its second four-disc live set devoted to the Stones on tour. (To buy it, click
Music, Movies and Games and search for "Rolling Stones: The Biggest Bang"). If you love the Stones, this one's a no-brainer, obviously. At any rate, this is much better than any bootleg you'll manage to come across, sound quality is outstanding and the camera angles are gorgeous. Well worth the $30. Since we last met, two more releases in the Tojo Master Collection have appeared for Godzilla fans. Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster
and Invasion of Astro-Monster (aka Monster Zero)
are out. Both have both the original Japanese and truncated U.S. films on one DVD. And both, like the others in the series, are worth grabbing. Fans of Johnny Weissmuller know the later Tarzan movies were cheesier and some of the plots were more comfortable on a soundstage than a jungle. That's one reason we had to get The Tarzan Collection Starring Johnny Weissmuller, Vol. 2 (Tarzan Triumphs / Tarzan's Desert Mystery / Tarzan and the Amazons / and the Leopard Woman / and the Huntress / and the Mermaids)
. The improbable (well, they're all improbable, but these are even more so) plots bordered at times on comedic, but they're more fun than the ones on the first set. "Tarzan and the Amazons" is probably the best example of that. Anyway, Tarzan purists will probably groan, but this set is very cool.
and 
(Classic Media): Following up on 
, one of the most interesting reissues of last year, Classic Media has released these two followups consisting of the very first Godzilla sequel and Godzilla's battle with Mothra. The latter has been on DVD in the U.S. before, but not the first one to our knowledge. As did "Gojira," the new reissues improve on the previous version with both the Japanese and American versions of the film on a single DVD. The Japanese versions are much more serious (interesting aspect for a monster film) than the U.S. versions, which highlighted the destruction rather than the story. The prints look great, too. Classic Media's next reissues are 
and 
(Shout Factory): Forget the lame-brained (as Capt. Binghampton would have called it) and forgettable feature film starring Tom Arnold. 
(Warner Bros.): Don't know how this one snuck past us last year when it came out. The two-disc Special Edition features a bunch of featurettes, including an alternate prologue and epilogue not used in theatres. Next to the Laughton version, this one is almost a laugher at times, but I saw this in the theater when it was released and was stunned by the power on the screen. It's a good film, despite its faults. 
(Warner Bros.): Two rarely seen but basically unspectacular vintage films distinguished, if you wanna call it that, by the appearances of the Three Stooges (with Curly in "Meet the Baron" and Shemp in "The Gold Raiders"). Save your money for what Stooges fans hope will someday be the complete Columbia shorts collection. These are OK if you must, but not essential, even to a Stooge fan like me. (Also available in 
, a box set with other similarly rare films by Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello for just a few dollars more. A better deal.)
(Universal): This one's been out a while, but it's a great set. Hitchcock's sparkling intros to each show are preserved, plus Season 1 has a bonus profile of the director. 
is also available.
(Tri-Star): One of our favorite baseball films has been reissued in a Director's Cut with an intro by the director and 15 minutes of new footage. A great film just got even better.
and 
Yup, it's Westerns featured in these two sets, pardner. All Westerns and nothing but. Between the two of them, films by John Wayne are plentiful, and so are several by singing cowboys Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter and Gene Autry. But that's not all. "Western Classics" features additional films starring Jane Russell, Chill Wills, Buster Crabbe, Burt Lancaster, William Boyd, Will Rogers and Randolph Scott, while "Gunslinger Classics" features Joel McCrea, Leslie Nielsen, Fred Williamson, Dennis Hopper, Dale Robertson, Raymond Burr and Clint Walker. If you have to choose, I guess it would be "Western Classics," which includes Howard Hughes' steamy "The Outlaw," John Wayne's delightful "McLintock" co-starring Maureen O'Hara and the aforementioned "Santa Fe Trail." If you're going to buy them both, get 
, which combines the two sets into one big 100 movie set and saves you a little money in the process.
More scary films featuring Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr. Vincent Price, Lyle Talbot, James Dunn, Dean Stockwell and Jack Pickford. Some of these are more funny than scary, as in Ken Utusi's "Evil Brain From Outer Space."
The title of this one has a double meaning. Not only these all crime-related dramas, but they're all in black-and-white, with the latest one being from 1964 (the only one from that decade), the rest from the '30s to the '50s. It includes Edmund O'Brien's classic "D.O.A." (with more plot twists than a bag of pretzels), "The Last Mile," a downcast drama set on Death Row and the Oscar nominated "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers," starring Barbara Stanwyck, Kirk Douglas, Van Heflin and Judith Anderson about the mystery behind the death of a rich woman. Those starring in films here include DeForrest Kelley, Lee J. Cobb, Edward G. Robinson, Yul Brynner, Angela Lansbury, Hedy Lamarr, George Raft, Lloyd Bridges, Basil Rathbone, Erich Von Stroheim, Boris Karloff and Loretta Young. Outstanding. This box's a must.
An armload of nailbiters with stars such as Robert Vaughn, Cliff Robertson, Johnny Cash ("Five Minutes to Live," in which Cash plays a real cad), John Forsythe, Sondra Locke, Joe Don Baker, Robert DeNiro, Anthony Quinn, Kirk Douglas, Karl Malden, Telly Savalas and Rod Taylor.
It's hard not to compare Larry King's new DVD set (out April 17) with 
, which we reviewed just recently 
with stone-faced Robert Stack superb as Elliot Ness. Adding to the atmosphere is the back-alley tones of newspaper columnist Walter Winchell as narrator. Also out is 
in which veteran cop Karl Malden guided rookie cop (and rookie actor at the time) Michael Douglas. Both shows are well-acted and well-written. Well worth grabbing.
. The set has four episodes from "The Johnny Carson Show," an episode of "Who Do You Trust?", an episode of "The Jack Benny Program" with Carson as guest, commercial bloopers and a rare 1972 color promo film done on the set of "The Tonight Show." "The Tonight Show" promo film alone makes this one worth it. Since this is a budget release, it's very easy on the wallet. Note: If you do hunt for this, make sure you get this two-disc set (the link will get it). There are several single-disc releases by various budget disc companies. This is the one you want.
that includes celebrity interviews, monologues and full episodes from "The Jack Paar Show," which was the precursor to Carson's "The Tonight Show." One disc includes the PBS documentary "Smart Television: The Best of Jack Paar," disc two has interviews with Bobby Kennedy (done shortly after the assassination of JFK), Richard Nixon (including the famous incident when Nixon played the piano) and Muhammed Ali, while the final disc has interviews and rare footage of Bette Davis, Judy Garland, Richard Burton, Bill Cosby and others. Paar's delivery wasn't as relaxed as Carson's would be later, but he was great in getting his guests to open up about themselves. Paar's often pointed questions would probably be nixed by p.r. reps from celebrities nowadays, who like to super-manage their appearances nowadays. Here's a look at a time when that wasn't the case.
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.)
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. 
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
, featuring films starring Edward G. Robinson, Frank Sinatra, Ralph Byrd, George Raft and others.
and 
: 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.
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. 
and 
, 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.