DRIVE-IN MASSACRE -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 (Originally posted 2/27/2017)

 

When a movie is described as "so bad, it's good", often the "it's good" part is solely up to the charity and goodwill of the viewer.  If you simply don't like bad movies at all, chances are DRIVE-IN MASSACRE (1976) won't appeal to you at all.  But if you qualify as a bonafide junk-film junkie, then this no-budget little effort will likely tickle your fancy in a big way even though, at times, it really does tend to get just a tad dull.

What it mostly does for me is to let me indulge in some good old-fashioned nostalgia and wallow in hazy, golden memories of things like drive-in theaters (natch), renting obscure VHS horrors from the local hole-in-the-wall video store (which is how most people probably first caught this one), and reliving those crazy wonderful early days of slasher flicks before the genre wore itself out through sheer repetition.

Like BLACK CHRISTMAS and THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN (and before HALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13TH), DRIVE-IN MASSACRE was right there on the ground floor of the slasher era, when poor but plucky filmmakers were still making up the rules and flying by the seat of their pants.

Here, of course, most of the film's shortcomings--limited funds, rushed schedule, less than stellar acting and dialogue, crude gore effects--are, in hindsight, what makes it so endearingly fun to watch. 

And speaking of gore, there's considerably less here than in the average H.G. Lewis movie, but what there is scores major fun points.  My favorite is the guy who leans out his car window to snag a speaker and gets his head cleanly lopped off by a samurai sword. 

Most of the kills happen to people sitting in their cars watching the drive-in movie, including a double skewering (later reprised in FRIDAY THE 13TH) and a sword through the throat which elicits a wonderfully expressive reaction from the actress (that's her on the poster).

While semi-competent police detectives Leary (co-scripter John F. Goff as "Jake Barnes") and Koch (Bruce Kimball as "Michael Alden") bumble their way through the murder investigation in seriocomic style, suspects include foul-tempered drive in manager Austin (Robert E. Pearson as "Newton Naushaus") and feeble-minded janitor Germy (Douglas Gudbye)--both of whom happen to have carnival experience working with knives and swords! 

(Note: all the cast aliases have something to do with SAG rules.)

There's also a perv named Orville (Norman Sheridan as "Norman Sherlock") who likes to creep around from car to car, peering in at the more amorous couples and--err--"gratifying" himself.  While we're busy keeping up with all the potential suspects and red herrings, much screen time is devoted to those couples yakking away (some of the dialogue is amusing) while the guy tries to score. 

Not all the action is confined to the drive in, however.  In addition to scenes of the two cops grilling people at the station or running down (literally) suspect Orville who flees an interview at his house, there's a lengthy detour in which another likely candidate gets cornered in a warehouse while holding a young girl hostage.

This nutty-looking psycho is none other than familiar character actor "Buck" Flowers (ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, THE FOG), who, it turns out, co-wrote the screeplay along with Goff and director Stu Segall (as "Godfrey Daniels"). 

Buck's hostage here is his own daughter Verkina Flowers, and the cat-and-mouse sequence that follows her escape, while nominally entertaining, seems most likely intended to pad out the running time. 

This is also true of a long interlude in which former carnival geek Germy wanders through a brilliantly-lit carnival at night for several minutes while dialogue from earlier in the film wafts through his mind.

While the scene serves little purpose, it's beautifully photographed (looking particularly good in Blu-ray) and offers yet more nostalgia value, this time for the days when a carnival was just about the most fun place I could imagine being at.  Besides a drive-in, of course.

The Blu-ray from Severin Films (which boasts a cool reversible cover) is widescreen with 2.0 English audio and optional English subtitles. Severin comes through again with some cool extras which include an informative director's commentary, a trailer, and recent interviews with star/co-writer John Goff, actor Norm Sheridan, and director Segall. Despite some occasional imperfections (or, in my case, because of them), the picture is a joy to behold.

Many people, of course, will have no idea why this cheap little gore flick would appeal to anyone at all.  But if you're one of those to whom the very sight of the cover of DRIVE-IN MASSACRE elicits a giddy tingle of excitement, no explanation is necessary.  It's just plain fun, period.

DRIVE-IN MASSACRE -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

COMMANDO CODY: SKY MARSHAL OF THE UNIVERSE -- DVD Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 9/13/16

 

You already know whether or not you love the old movie serials.  And if you do, then chances are the words COMMANDO CODY: SKY MARSHAL OF THE UNIVERSE should already have you salivating like a geek incarnation of Pavlov's Dog. 

I know that's how I reacted when I scarfed an eyeload of this new 2-disc DVD from Olive Films, which contains all 12 episodes of the 1953 serial.  That cool cover pic of Cody in his gadget-bedecked leather jacket, quasi-military cap, and Lone Ranger mask just seems to say "You know you love me." 

I call them "episodes" instead of "chapters" because this isn't your usual serial.  In fact, many fans would argue that it isn't a serial at all, being that it consists of 12 half-hour adventures which, while being parts of an overall story arc, each have a beginning, middle, and end without the usual cliffhanger.

Without going into the technical reasons for this, suffice it to say that the series was first shown in theaters in 1953 as a serial, and then showed up two years later as the television series it was intended to be all along.  And while I do miss the nail-biting cliffhanger endings, I got used to the self-contained stories after awhile.

At any rate, this has all the elements I love in serials--a cool hero with both capable and comical sidekicks, a hokey villain with an evil master plan and plenty of goofy, inept henchmen to carry it out, lots of fantasy sci-fi that doesn't make much sense and consistently defies the laws of physics, cheap production values, and a general air of hokiness with plenty of corn. 

The main gist of the story concerns the efforts of a secret government organization to thwart an evil madman who calls himself The Ruler, who wants to conquer Earth so he can use it as a base to take over all the other planets in the solar system.  (The Ruler is played by Gregory Gaye, who can be seen in CASABLANCA as the irate customer whom Rick won't allow into the back room of the casino.)

Our hero, Commando Cody (Judd Holdren), wears a mask to protect his identity and flies around by means of a cool rocket pack on his back.  Not only is he one of those rigidly upstanding paragons of virtue, but with his ever-present mask he even resembles Clayton Moore in both looks and voice.  Which, as a big "Lone Ranger" fan, I found to be a definite plus.

His boss, Commissioner Henderson (Craig Kelly, who appeared in the first two DIRTY HARRY movies), gives him two assistants--loyal but comical Ted Richards (the great character actor William Schallert) and the lovely and capable Joan Gilbert (winsome Aline Towne), who eventually becomes Cody's spaceship co-pilot.  Ted will be replaced after a few episodes by equally comical Dick Preston (Richard Crane, who would go on to star as "Rocky Jones, Space Ranger" the following year.)

Over the course of the show's 12 episodes The Ruler pulls all manner of devious schemes to either enslave the Earth or wipe it out--he never can seem to decide which--and each of these results in as much widespread calamity and destruction that the copious amounts of stock footage can depict.  In his employ are traitorous humans such as Lyle Talbot, Fred Graham, and Lane Bradford, and various aliens played by the likes of Denver Pyle, John Crawford, and Rick Vallin.

Time after time, Earth comes close to destruction via tidal waves, shifting of its axis, blocking out the sun, duplicate suns roasting the planet, deadly storms, a near-miss with our own moon, and meteor attacks.  The latter are repelled by Cody's creation of a cosmic dust barrier around the Earth which makes any foreign object from the sky explode, including enemy space ships not equipped with a special "dispersal beam."

Cody's own spaceship, while primitive by modern SPFX standards, is still very cool.  An impressive full-size mockup was constructed on the Republic Pictures backlot which is seen in conjunction with a fairly large working model suspended by wires.  It's a real step above the wobbly, rinky-dink spaceships of the old "Flash Gordon" serials and is almost always used to good effect. 

Sets range from the usual 50s backdrops to sometimes impressive otherworldly settings where The Ruler carries out his dastardly plans on various planets such as Saturn and Mercury. The costumes are gloriously tacky (The Ruler seems to be wearing his mom's kimono) and the dialogue is both arch and delightfully corny.  Ray guns sound like car horns.  Each episode offers a couple of furious fistfights and several appearances by our main man in flight.

This is accomplished using the same remarkable technique seen in perhaps the greatest serial of all time, 1941's "The Adventures of Captain Marvel" (also from Republic Pictures), with a realistic mannequin suspended on wires combined with nice springboard take-off and landing shots with actor Holdren.  The effect is stunningly good and well worth waiting for in each episode.

The 2-disc DVD from Olive Films is in the original full-screen ratio with mono sound and English subtitles.  No extras.  Picture quality is very good.  

Just as much fun as the title sounds, COMMANDO CODY: SKY MARSHAL OF THE UNIVERSE is one of the most consistently entertaining and well-produced serials I've seen.  It easily transcends the "so bad it's good" quality of many cheaply-produced serials, especially if viewed with the same giddy, childlike enthusiasm with which both kids and adults greeted these films on theater and TV screens back in the 50s.

COMMANDO CODY: SKY MARSHAL OF THE UNIVERSE -- DVD Review by Porfle

NAKED CITY: 20 STAR-FILLED EPISODES -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 2/8/13

 

Like so many TV series of its time, the gritty cop drama "Naked City" (ABC-TV, 1958-63) now stands as a showcase not only for established stars working in television, but for the up-and-coming actors trying to break into movies (or at least bigger success on the small screen).  Spotting all these familiar faces is what makes Image Entertainment's 5-disc DVD set NAKED CITY: 20 STAR-FILLED EPISODES especially interesting to watch.

Sometimes upbeat, sometimes noirish and bleak, "Naked City" is a semi-documentary-style drama (filmed in black and white on real New York locations) that thoughtfully explores human foibles and social issues of the day between occasional bursts of violence such as a blazing shootout or tire-screeching car chase.  Not all of the stories are that interesting--in fact, they sometimes tend to drag or veer toward the maudlin--but at its best, the show can be scintillating and highly involving entertainment.

The first hour-long episode, "Sweet Prince of Delancy Street" (1961), features Robert Morse (HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING) in a manic performance as Richie, a schlub trying to keep his dad (James Dunn) from being arrested for vandalizing the factory he was just fired from and killing a security guard.  In addition to Jan "Madge the Manicurist" Miner and Arny Freeman of THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE, a young Dustin Hoffman also appears in a smaller but ultimately pivotal role as Richie's friend Lester.

This episode (later ranked #93 on TV Guide’s list of "100 Greatest Episodes of All Time") introduces us to series regulars Paul Burke ("Twelve O'Clock High") as idealistic young police detective Adam Flint, Horace McMahon (ABBOTT AND COSTELLO GO TO MARS) as his world-weary boss Lt. Mike Parker, Harry Bellaver as his easygoing older partner Det. Frank Arcaro, and Nancy Malone as his faithful fiance' Libby Kingston.  The show's main emphasis, however, is usually on the guest characters and their problems, occasionally giving "Naked City" the feel of an anthology show. 

A brief glance at the episode titles such as "Robin Hood and Clarence Darrow, They Went Out With the Bow and Arrow" (with Eddie Albert) reveals how pretentious the series tends to be at times, as does a sample of the opening narration: "In the naked city, a man can search 10,000 side streets all 22,000 days of his life...and never come face-to-face with the stranger within himself." 

It's clearly intended as a showcase for writers and actors to allow free rein to their creativity and either shamelessly give in to excess or--in the case of old pros such as Albert, David Wayne ("The Multiplicity of Herbert Konish"), Claude Rains ("To Walk in Silence"), and Sylvia Sidney ("A Hole in the City")--do exceedingly impressive work.  

Some of the other future stars making early appearances include a wildly overacting William Shatner ("Portrait of a Painter"), Peter Fonda and Martin Sheen ("The Night the Saints Lost Their Halos"), Robert Duvall ("The One Marked Hot Gives Cold", "Hole in the City"), an emotional Dennis Hopper ("Shoes For Vinnie Winford"), Robert Redford ("Tombstone for a Derelict"), Jon Voight ("Alive and Still a Second Lieutenant"), "Jimmy" Caan and Bruce Dern ("Bullets Cost Too Much"), a willowy young Diane Ladd ("Line of Duty"), and Suzanne Pleshette ("The Pedigree Sheet").  Co-starring with Eddie Albert in "Robin Hood and Clarence Darrow, They Went Out With the Bow and Arrow" is a shockingly young-looking "Ronnie" (Christopher) Walken.

Already-familiar faces (at the time) from movies and television include Theodore Bikel, Barry Morse, Jo Van Fleet, Edward Andrews, Telly Savalas, Leslie Nielsen, Nehemiah Persoff, Paul Hartman, Jean Stapleton, Dick York, Johnny Seven, Betty Field, Peter Falk, Myron McCormick, Jack Klugman, Jan Sterling, Richard Conte, Nancy Marchand, Murray Hamilton, Roger C. Carmel, Jack Warden, and Carroll O'Connor.  Two 1958 episodes, "Lady Bug, Lady Bug" and "Line of Duty", take us back to the show's initial half-hour format with original stars John McIntyre and James Franciscus. 

Sharp-eyed viewers will spot the occasional lowly bit player who would later go on to bigger and better things, such as Richard Castellano (THE GODFATHER), Sorrell Booke ("The Dukes of Hazzard"), Joe Silver ("You Light Up My Life"), Sylvia Miles (MIDNIGHT COWBOY), and Doris Roberts ("Everybody Loves Raymond").

The 5-disc DVD set from Image Entertainment is in the original 1.33:1 aspect ratio with Dolby Digital mono sound.  No subtitles or extras. 

Spotting the then-and-future stars in an older show like this is kind of like birdwatching, only (to me) a lot more fun.  It helps if the show itself is worth watching, which the sometimes gritty, sometimes overly weepy "Naked City" manages to be more often than not.  And as a wallow in old-school classic TV, NAKED CITY: 20 STAR-FILLED EPISODES is pure, unadulterated nostalgia.

NAKED CITY: 20 STAR-FILLED EPISODES -- DVD Review by Porfle

THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 11/20/19

 

Like its Paramount predecessor, "Going My Way", the RKO sequel THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S (Olive Signature, 1945) was, to that point, the highest-grossing film for its studio. It's easy to see why it was and continues to be so popular, especially for war-weary audiences looking for something uplifting and inspirational.

Both films starred Bing Crosby as unconventional singing priest Father O'Malley, in this case having just been transferred to St. Mary's, an urban Catholic school presided over by nuns. 

Their leader, Sister Benedict (Ingrid Bergman), will establish a fond though often adversarial relationship with the easygoing but opinionated priest, especially in regard to the teaching of their young students.  In time, both their adverse methods as well as their personalities will begin to compliment each other.



Other subplots involve miserly old millionaire Mr. Bogardus (Henry Travers, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE) erecting a shiny new building next door and hoping to acquire the school itself to tear down for a parking lot.  Sister Benedict, meanwhile, prays constantly for the mean old coot to have a change of heart and donate the building as the new St. Mary's.

Meanwhile, a woman named Mary Gallagher (Martha Sleeper) implores Father O'Malley to take in her daughter Patsy (Joan Carroll) and give her the kind of secure, decent upbringing she alone can't manage.  Fatherless and withdrawn, Patsy's mental and emotional welfare becomes a major concern for the priest and nun, who will differ greatly  on how to deal with the troubled girl.

It's interesting how the Production Code-era writers clue us in on what's what when Patsy's mother hesitantly tells Father O'Malley she has "done everything she can" to support her daughter.

 

Also of note is O'Malley's warm, non-judgmental response, especially considering that Patsy was clearly born out of wedlock although the dialogue doesn't quite spell it out.  This single element alone elevates our opinion of the priest and of the film's benign intent.

While each subplot is vital, they sort of swirl around each other during the film rather than jostle for attention. There's a good deal of gentle humor to lighten things up along the way, beginning with the very first scene of Father O'Malley moving into his new boarding house as the housekeeper, played by the delightful Una O'Connor (BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE INVISIBLE MAN) warns him ominously that the school's previous resident priest had to be carried away in a wheelchair in frightful condition.

Another wonderful scene occurs when the smallest children put on a nativity play. Here, director and co-writer Leo McCarey told the boy playing Joseph the general story of the play and then had him improvise the entire thing, telling the other castmembers what to do. McCarey then secretly filmed this and the result is a charming sequence which ends with the children gathered around a toddler playing Baby Jesus and singing "Happy Birthday To You."

At one point O'Malley and Benedict clash yet again over how to deal with a boy being bullied on the playground. O'Malley praises the victor for having what it takes to make it in a "man's world", while the sister takes it upon herself to teach the other boy, Dickie (Eddie Breen), how to defend himself after reading a book on the art of pugilism.

In what I consider to be the film's most amazing sequence, Bergman improvises a lively boxing lesson composed of several long, largely unedited takes. Keeping up a steady stream of banter about defense, footwork, bobbing and weaving, various jabs, and other tips, she conjures a magical moment for her character with a charm and spontaneity that I found utterly disarming.

With her classic beauty downplayed, Bergman has the chance to create this memorable character mainly through dialogue and presence. Der Bingle, of course, is his usual honey-smooth self, getting to croon a song or two along the way.  Though never getting particularly worked up over anything, his Father O'Malley exudes a gentle caring and empathy even when we may not agree completely with his methods.

The entire film has a noticeably reserved, restrained tone--even the humor often seems rather solemn.  We pretty much know right off the bat how each situation is going to work itself out, so we just settle in comfortably and watch it happen.

I found myself settling in quite a lot during the sweetly sedate THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S. A bit corny and maudlin at times, it's genuinely heartfelt at its core and even evokes a few well-earned tears. McCarey's vision of a spiritually uplifting family entertainment is exquisitely rendered and, in this day and age, warmly nostalgic.



YEAR: 1945
GENRE: DRAMA
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 126 min
RATING: N/A
VIDEO: 1.37:1 Aspect Ratio; B&W
AUDIO: MONO

BONUS FEATURES:
    Mastered from new 4K restoration
    Audio commentary by Bing Crosby biographer Gary Giddins
    “Faith and Film” – Sr. Rose Pacatte on The Bells of St. Mary’s
    “Human Nature” – Steve Massa on The Bells of St. Mary’s and Leo McCarey
    “Before Sequel-itis” – Prof. Emily Carman on the film in the context of Hollywood production history
    Screen Guild Theater radio adaptations
    Essay by cultural critic Abbey Bender

THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

CHASING CHRISTMAS -- Movie Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 11/18/10

 

Here's the deal: the Bureau of Yuletide Affairs constantly monitors everyone, looking for people who hate Christmas so that they can send the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future into action. Charles Dickens was one of their former targets, and he wrote a fictionalized account of the experience in "A Christmas Carol", but don't mention that book around the Bureau because they find it an unflattering depiction of their organization.

Anyway, in CHASING CHRISTMAS (2005), the latest focus of their efforts is Jack Cameron (Tom Arnold), a divorced father who despises Christmas because, seven years earlier, he caught his former wife Alison (played by the MILF-tastic Sarah-Jane Redmond of "Smallville" and "Millenium") fooling around with their dentist in the coatroom during their daughter Suzanne's Christmas play. In an early scene, two cute little kids notice that Jack doesn't have any Christmas decorations around his house so they cheerfully give him one of theirs, a happy plastic snowman which Jack gratefully places out in the street so a truck can run over it. At the coat factory that he owns, an employee is shocked to find that he's no longer donating their irregulars to the homeless at Christmas, selling them instead to the Guatemalan army. "They don't care if the epaulets are upside-down or not," he tells her. "They're not a very good army--they'll probably only wear 'em once, anyway."

So, with Jack's Scrooge-ness well established, it looks like we're in store for yet another "A Christmas Carol" variant with few surprises along the way. Indeed, at the stroke of seven on Christmas Eve, the Ghost Of Christmas Past shows up in Jack's livingroom just as he's downing a large glass of Scotch and watching non-seasonal shows on TV. Past is played by Leslie Jordan, who used to be Lonnie Garr on "Hearts Afire" and has appeared in numerous other movies and TV shows ("Will & Grace", "Boston Legal", "Boston Public", JASON GOES TO HELL, HERO). You'd know him if you saw him--he's about four feet tall and he's pretty funny. But when he hurls a reluctant Jack over the couch and launches him down the front stairs to get him motivated, we detect that something seems to be bothering him.

Zipping back to 1965, they visit Jack's boyhood home on Christmas Eve, beginning the usual "A Christmas Carol" guilt-trip cycle. But Past is fed up with all that--he yearns to be human, smoke cigarettes, drink alky-hol, chase babes, and stay forever in his beloved past. So, going off-mission a tad, he smashes his "snowflake of invisibility" in order to become human (don't ask), knocks Jack out with a holiday snowglobe, ties him to a chair with a string of decorative lights, and scampers off into the night. It's at this point, you might guess, that the story begins to veer off from the usual "A Christmas Carol" template and become somewhat less predictable.

The Ghost Of Christmas Present is called into action ahead of schedule and sent to the scene to perform damage control before the timeline is irrevocably altered. But first, her "snowflake of invisibility" must also be smashed so that she can become human, too. (Really, it's just better not to ask.) Present is a tall, blonde babe, which I found to distinctly increase this movie's watchability. She is played by a tall, blonde actress named Andrea Roth, who has also been in a whole bunch of other stuff ("Rescue Me", "CSI", THE PERFECT HUSBAND). Her character doesn't know anything about the past, only the present ("Where's Madonna right now?" Jack asks her. "In the bathroom," she replies.)

In their quest to track down Past across various time periods, she'll experience things she's never known before, such as getting drunk, disco dancing, and falling in love. That's right--she falls in love with Jack, as if you didn't already see that coming. (I think it happens while they're in the hot tub.) And Jack gets to see himself not only as a little boy (played by the hilarious Zak Ludwig in an all-too-brief scene), but during his ski-lodge honeymoon ("I was BORING!" he groans), where he also discovers that Alison was already cheating on him with a low-forehead hunk in the bar while he was in their room watching IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE.

And somehow during it all, Jack learns the true meaning of Christmas, although I didn't really understand exactly how all that frantic chasing around caused this to happen. "God bless us every one!" is shoehorned in at the end, as well as the standard "Scrooge transformed" ending, but I just didn't get that Christmas vibe--which leads me to doubt that CHASING CHRISTMAS will ever become any kind of modern seasonal tradition along the lines of A CHRISTMAS STORY, or even THE SANTA CLAUSE.

But it is fun and fairly entertaining, and I didn't regret sitting through it. I'm a fan of Tom Arnold (although I never understood the whole Rosanne thing) and a non-raunchy, family-friendly Tom is still funny. I like his comedy persona, which seemed to come into full fruition as Ah-nuld's sidekick in TRUE LIES, and which easily keeps this ABC Family TV production enjoyable throughout. Just don't expect to get all misty-eyed and start reaching for the eggnog when he jumps around at the end screaming "Merry Christmas, everybody!"

CHASING CHRISTMAS -- Movie Review by Porfle

THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW IN COLOR: DELUXE EDITION -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 5/3/18

 

One of my favorite variety shows as a kid was "The Jackie Gleason Show."  It was bright, colorful, funny, and fun, one of the best of a TV genre that is pretty much obsolete now but kept whole families entertained back in the 60s. 

I'm happy to say that a fresh look at twelve episodes from the show, thanks to Time-Life's 3-disc DVD set THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW IN COLOR: DELUXE EDITION, finds Gleason's brand of comedy just as funny and appealing today as it was then, and perhaps even moreso since it now comes with a bracing blast of pure, blissful nostalgia. 

The sets and costumes are a blast of color all by themselves (after all, more and more people at the time were buying color TVs) but it's Gleason's deliciously down-to-earth wit and breezy interplay with his guests, made up of the top names in comedy at the time, that make these shows such a delight to watch.

Each show kicks off with Gleason's crowd-pleasing catchphrase "How sweet it is!" and his jokes about bandleader Sammy Spear's outrageous attire (a bit Johnny Carson would repeat nightly with Doc Severenson), after which he entertains the live audience by bringing out each guest one at a time, trading uproarious comedy barbs with them for awhile, and then leaving them alone to perform their acts.

These guests include such names as Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, George Burns, Milton Berle, Phil Silvers, Mickey Rooney, Red Buttons, Nipsey Russell, Sid Caesar, Jackie Vernon, Alan King, Jack E. Leonard, and Jan Murray. 

Also appearing with their stand-up routines are comics such as a very young George Carlin, Slappy White, Victor Borge, and some I've never even heard of.

Musical guests aren't as frequent on the show as the comics, but the ones we do see include the likes of Tony Bennett, Florence Henderson (pre-"Brady Bunch"), Frankie Avalon, Edie Adams, Robert Goulet, and Frank Sinatra, Jr.

Best of all, Gleason's late-60s variety show was the home of the classic color episodes of "The Honeymooners", with Jackie as blue-collar bus driver Ralph Kramden, Art Carney as his sewer-worker friend Ed Norton, Jane Kean as Norton's wife Trixie, and Sheila MacRae ably taking over the role of Ralph Kramden's loyal, long-suffering wife Alice. 

This DVD set offers seven "Honeymooners" sketches which haven't been seen since first aired--"Six Months To Live", "Alice's Birthday", "Lawsuit", "Hot Tip", "The New Bowling Ball", "Norton Moves In", and "The New Manager."  Each one is a prime example of the show's great writing and acting, resulting in some truly groundbreaking comedy, tinged with heartfelt pathos, that's still amazingly good.

The picture quality is fine considering the age of the shows.  Completists may chafe at the fact that all of the numbers by the June Taylor Dancers which normally opened each show have been snipped as well as anything else that might impede the comedy and songs.  The first disc was previously released as a single-disc DVD which we reviewed HERE.

Whether you're looking back in fond nostalgia or just discovering these shows for the first time, THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW IN COLOR: DELUXE EDITION is a laugh-packed jaunt down Memory Lane that you're sure to get a kick out of. 


THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW IN COLOR: DELUXE EDITION
Type: DVD/3 Discs
Running Time: 496 mins.
Rating: N/A
Genre: TV DVD
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (4:3)
Audio: Stereo
Captions: English

THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW IN COLOR: DELUXE EDITION -- DVD Review by Porfle

SAY KIDS...WHAT TIME IS IT? IT'S HOWDY DOODY TIME: THE LOST EPISODES -- DVD review by porfle

 

(Originally posted on 5/26/13)

 

Say, kids! What time is it?



If you answered "Howdy Doody Time!" then you just might be ready to take a nostalgic trip back to Doodyville to see what Howdy, Buffalo Bob, Clarabell the Clown, and the rest of the Doodyville gang are up to. And this 5-disc DVD set, called (take a deep breath) SAY KIDS...WHAT TIME IS IT? IT'S HOWDY DOODY TIME: THE LOST EPISODES (is that a long enough title or what?) is just the right vehicle to get you there.



Beginning in 1947 as "Puppet Playhouse" on the fledgling NBC network, the name was later changed to "Howdy Doody" after its freckle-faced marionette star and continued to air until 1960. Bob Smith played the buckskin-garbed Buffalo Bob, and Bob Keeshan, who would go on to great success in children's programming as Captain Kangaroo, co-starred as the horn-honking, seltzer-spritzing Clarabell the Clown, along with a supporting cast of live actors and marionettes. On each show they would entertain a studio audience of kids known as the "Peanut Gallery" with skits, songs, games, and silent movies narrated by Buffalo Bob. As Clarabell, Keeshan's successor Lew Anderson remained silent throughout the series, communicating only by sign language and by beeping his horn, until the final episode when he ended the show with a tearful "Goodbye, kids." (I'm getting verklempt!)



Thus, the lights went out in the Doodyville studio...until 1976, when the show was resuscitated for another 130 episodes before going down for the last time. Taped in Miami, Florida, "The New Howdy Doody Show" was a worthy successor to the original, at least judging by the few 50s episodes I've seen. Somehow the new version seems brighter, faster-moving, and more fun, but I was too young to catch the old show so nostalgia isn't a factor for me--you older Peanuts may disagree.



Buffalo Bob's older here, and I think that works in his favor. He's somehow more lovable and endearing now, and his enthusiastic, yet easygoing demeanor and keen sense of humor set the tone for the show. He loves to perform, singing and mingling with the Peanut Gallery (which has now greatly expanded to include not only dozens of kids but their giddy baby-boomer parents as well). Lew Anderson is a delight as the mischievous Clarabell, who loosens things up considerably by constantly pulling pranks and spraying everyone with his seltzer bottle. It's funny how agitated the Peanuts get whenever they see Clarabell sneaking up on an unsuspecting victim like the show's groovy bandleader, the leisure-suited, white Florsheim shoe-wearing Jackie Davis.



Of course, more than a few of these kids look as though they're being held hostage--even by the 70s, this sort of innocent nonsense was an alien concept to the more "sophisticated" sensibilities of some of the junior cynics in the Peanut Gallery. In one episode, there's a little blonde girl scout with glasses who I swear looks like she'd go postal if she could get her hands on a machine gun. So in a weird way, watching the various reactions of the kids to this old-fashioned brand of children's entertainment is pretty interesting in itself.



But you might as well leave that attitude behind, Missy, when you pop one of these discs into the DVD player. Because in Doodyville, the kids compete in "Good Behavior" contests and one of the most anti-social things you can do is to pop someone's balloons. Howdy Doody is everyone's favorite kid, of course, but his pal Dilly Dally runs a close second. Other marionette characters include the sweet-tempered Indian maiden Princess Summerfall Winterspring, the broomstick-riding cutup Sandy Witch, and, my favorite, the irascible old grouch Mayor Phineas T. Bluster. He's definitely the funniest thing about the show, whether strutting around self-importantly spoiling everyone's fun for his own selfish reasons or gleefully proclaiming his own greatness as he does in his hilarious ode to himself, "Bluster's Love Song":



"Oh, why oh why does everyone admire me so muh-uh-uch,

Oh, why oh why do people think I'm groovy?

Can it be because I happen to be so good-looking

Can it be they think that I should star in a movie?



"Oh, as a star I know that I would be the hottest, de-spite the fact I'm always shy and modest

I'm diligent, intelligent, I ring your chimes so I know they will put me on the front cover of Ti-ime...



"...oh, why oh why does everyone think I'm divine and I'm a saint

That's not only your o-pin-ion, it's mine

That's not only your o-pin-ion, that's not only your o-pin-ion, it's my opinion, too, because you see

I love, love, love, love...meeeeeeeee!"



This musical number cracks me up, especially when they cut away to everyone reacting in horror and covering their ears. And when Mayor Bluster's bratty nephew Petey, who looks like a short-pants version of him, joins the cast, it gets even funnier--they're a great comedy team. Rounding out the assortment of stringed characters are Mambo the Dancing Elephant, Tommy the Turtle, and the delightful Flub-A-Dub, a creature made up from parts of eight different animals.



A new live-action cast member is Marilyn Patch as Doodyville's schoolteacher, "Happy Harmony." With dimples deep enough to park a truck in, she's so perky she makes Mitzi Gaynor look like Ed Sullivan and provides viewers with ten times their daily minimum requirement of sweetness and light. At times, her zippy, wide-eyed energy makes even the kids in the Peanut Gallery regard her with puzzled amazement. But she's incredibly cute, giving us older Peanuts an added incentive to watch the show. And as a Harvard-educated Ph.D. in children's television research and human development, who starred in her own Saturday morning kid's show called "Marilyn and Calico" at age 11, she isn't just some happy-faced bimbo they hired off the street. Knowing that she has such a lifelong dedication to educating children through the media adds considerable weight to her character.



Each of the five discs in this set represents a week's worth of episodes with its own story arc. The self-explanatory titles are "Doodyville Arts Festival", "Dilly Dally's Birthday", "Good Behavior Contest", "Doodyville Laugh-A-Thon", and "Songfest." In all, there are 25 episodes for a total running time of about 600 minutes. The discs are beautifully packaged in a colorful fold-out box that fits into a metal tin and comes with a 20-page booklet with pictures, show info, and trivia (example: the Canadian version of the original "Howdy Doody" show featured Robert Goulet as "Timber Tom").



IT'S HOWDY DOODY TIME is bright, breezy fun, and surprisingly funny once you get into the spirit of it. There's zero irony, and none of the kind of humor that's funny for kids on one level and really funny for adults on a "wink-wink, nudge-nudge" level. I don't know about you, but darn it, sometimes I just get a craving for something like this between viewings of PULP FICTION, BOOGIE NIGHTS, and HOUSE OF 1,000 CORPSES. It's pure kid stuff, and if you're open to that sort of thing when it's done really well, you can have a ball watching these shows.



Read our interview with Marilyn (Patch) Arnone

 

 

SAY KIDS...WHAT TIME IS IT? IT'S HOWDY DOODY TIME: THE LOST EPISODES -- DVD review by porfle

SUSPENSE: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION -- DVD review by porfle

 

Originally posted on 5/7/09

 

I'm fascinated by the early days of television, and you can't get much earlier, or more fascinating, than SUSPENSE: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION.  

This is Jurassic TV, a primitive-looking, melodramatic thriller anthology that premiered in 1949 and lasted for 260 live, half-hour episodes until 1954. Ninety of those episodes have been unearthed and are now available in this 12-disc set which spans the series' entire run. 

As in any anthology series, the quality of the writing varies--in fact, some of the stories are clunkers. But for the most part, these episodes are consistantly exciting and imaginative, and live up to the series' title with stories that quickly establish a suspenseful situation and then keep us on edge till the end. 

Several stories are adapted from the works of authors such as Robert Louis Stevenson and Edgar Allan Poe. Rod Serling's contribution, the eerie "Nightmare at Ground Zero", is a tense and unsettling atom-bomb tale that really stretches the limits of live television. 

Knowing that these teleplays were performed live gives them the immediacy of theater combined with the intimacy of television. You can imagine the actors and crew rushing into their next set-ups during a slow dissolve, and sometimes you can hear them doing it, too. 

Gaffes by these skilled actors are few, while the occasional technical blooper is unavoidable. In "The Comic Strip Murder", a piece of equipment can be seen moving past a high-rise balcony like a UFO. In "The Parcel", a stock clip of a crowd enjoying a ballgame runs out before the director can cut to Ray Walston, Royal Dano, and Conrad Janis sitting in a bleacher mock-up. Cues are missed, boom mike shadows flit across walls, focusing is done on the fly, and sometimes you can even spot an errant crew member where he shouldn't be. But mistakes like this are part of the appeal of watching live television, and the fact that there are so few of them in this smoothly produced and directed (mostly by Robert Stevens) series is impressive. 

Most of the stories are grounded in reality, with the occasional foray into the supernatural. The very first episode in this collection, "A Night at the Inn" with Boris Karloff, is an unabashedly nutball tale of a gang of thieves stalked by knife-wielding, turban-wearing Indians for stealing a sacred idol's jeweled eye, until the indignant idol itself shows up to reclaim it. Another episode, "Black Passage", features none other than Stella Adler as a hot-blooded Latin vampire and a very young William Prince as the unwary suitor of her equally bloodthirsty daughter. 

Hardboiled crime drama rubs shoulders with frequent doses of Hitchcock-style mystery and creepiness, along with the type of macabre irony often found in EC comics. Richard Boone gives a super cool performance as a homicide cop closing in on a medical examiner whose guilt has been inadvertently captured on film in "Photo Finish." In "My Old Man's Badge", Barry Nelson plays a beat cop who singlehandedly takes on a drug-smuggling ring to avenge his father's murder, and in "Dead Fall", he's framed for passing industrial secrets to the Commies. 

On the darker side, "Dr. Violet" gives us Hume Cronyn as the proprietor of a carnival murder museum who takes a chillingly active part in his exhibits, while "Dead Ernest" generates suspense by showing us a catatonic man mistakenly pronounced dead and lying on a morgue slab awaiting the embalmer. 

One of the main pleasures of watching this collection is its incredible array of familiar faces, from past, present and future stars to the great character actors, often doing brilliant work. Ray Walston (billed as "Wallston" in one episode) and Royal Dano appear several times. Leslie Nielsen, just beginning his career as a dramatic actor which would later give way to comedy, stars in "The Brush Off" with future "Superman" star George Reeves. Boris Karloff shows up more than once and Bela Lugosi gives a delightfully florid performance in an adaptation of Poe's "The Cask of Amantillado." 

Other notable names include Paul Newman, Otto Kruger, Kim Hunter, Anne Francis, Lee Marvin, Harold J. Stone, Conrad Janis, Eileen Heckart, Walter Matthau, Eddie Albert, Lloyd Bridges, Mike Kellin, Ward Bond, James Whitmore, Vic Morrow, Jackie Cooper, Brian Keith, Darren McGavin, Franchot Tone, Jack Klugman, Tom Drake, Gene Lyons, Cloris Leachman, Mildred Natwick, Lilli Palmer, Eva Marie Saint, Richard Kiley, Joan Blondell, Jack Palance, Eva Gabor, Peter Mark Richman, Jayne Meadows, Robert Webber, and many more. Several of them make multiple appearances. 

These episodes are kinescopes, meaning that a monitor was filmed during the live performances so that copies of each episode could be sent to various network affiliates (this was before videotape or cable). This gives the show a somewhat murky picture and sound quality that is unavoidable; otherwise, however, I think these DVDs look very good. 

The 12 discs are contained in six attractive slimline cases which were originally released in three seperate sets, and contain all 90 episodes of the show that are known to exist. The final episode, "The Funmaster" with Keenan Wynn, is the only non-live entry and was aired in 1958, four years after the show's demise, presumably in an effort to revive it. 

The musical score for "Suspense" is performed almost entirely on Hammond organ (with the occasional piano, tubular bells, etc.) in the style of the early soap operas, and sounds similar to the music in Herk Harvey's CARNIVAL OF SOULS. As a bonus, almost every episode contains the original commercials for the show's sponsor, Auto-Lite automotive products, featuring dulcet-toned announcer Rex Marshall and a delightfully corny assortment of cartoons and animated clips.

SUSPENSE: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION is over 43 hours of pure, unadulterated nostalgia that I found irresistibly entertaining. Whether you're a fan of early TV, or simply curious about what the medium looked like before it began to earn nicknames like "vast wasteland" and "boob tube", this time capsule from television's infancy should give you just the sort of buzz you're looking for. Buy it at 

 

 

SUSPENSE: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION -- DVD review by porfle

SPACE GHOST (1966-1968) -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

 

Originally posted on 1/30/22

 

 

Currently watching: the complete DVD collection of one of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons as a kid, SPACE GHOST (1966-1968). 

 

(Full DVD title: "Space Ghost & Dino Boy: The Complete Series" from the Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection. 20 episodes on 3 discs, 42 7-minute Space Ghost segments in all. Bonus feature is a movie-length documentary, "Simplicity: The Life and Art of Alex Toth.")

 

I love Cartoon Network's later comedy reworking of the character in his own talk show called "Space Ghost Coast To Coast", but that takes nothing away from my feeling for the original action-adventure space opera designed by comics legend Alex Toth. 

 

 

 

It was only Hanna-Barbera's second adventure cartoon after "Jonny Quest", and their first superhero series. "Laugh-In" star Gary Owen did the voice for Space Ghost, and his teen sidekicks Jan and Jace were voiced by Ginny Tyler and Tim Matheson. 

 

Other voice talent includes Ted Cassidy as Metallus, Vic Perrin as Creature King, Alan Reed as Glasstor, Keye Luke as Brak, Paul Frees as Brago, and Don Messick as Blip, Space Ghost's cute monkey companion who often gets him and the kids out of trouble.

 

Alex Toth's character designs and layouts are eye-pleasing, and the show was done while Hanna-Barbera were still doing quality animated shows. The music is great, too. 

 

 

 

The secondary "Dino Boy" segments don't do anything for me--I don't even remember bothering to watch them when originally aired. 

 

Super villains Zorak, Moltar, and Brak would later become regulars on the talk show, along with occasional appearances by Metallus, Tansit, Lokar, and Black Widow. It's fun seeing them play it straight as they do here in their introductory appearances.

 

Space Ghost, whose subterranean laboratory can be found on the Ghost Planet, is sort of an interplanetary policeman whose main powers are supplied by his power bands, which are worn on his wrists, and his inviso-belt. 

 

 

 

Jan and Jace alert him of suspicious activity while on patrol in their scout ship and often get captured by the bad guys so that Space Ghost must fly to their rescue in his spaceship, the Phantom Cruiser. 

 

The stories are flashy and colorful, with lots of explosions, and are kept very simple and formulaic so that they can be easily followed by younger viewers.

 

As far as light entertainment with a strong sense of nostalgia goes, I just love this kind of stuff.

 

 

SPACE GHOST (1966-1968) -- DVD Review by Porfle