Enemy At The Door (Series/Season One & Two DVD Boxed Sets/Goldhil)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: D Episodes: B-
NOTE: This out of print WGBH DVD title has been reissued
by Acorn Media and you can see more at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8219/Enemy+At+The+Door
The
German Nazi’s never got England, but they came as close as invading the Channel
Islands in 1942, which is the subject of the British TV series Enemy At The Door (1977), which is
spilt into 8 DVDs and two seasons from Granada Television and Goldhil DVD. This comes from the last golden age of
British TV which was at the same time as the last such period for American TV,
though the Big Three Networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) rarely supported programming as
ambitious and smart, so most of these shows went to PBS.
The most
amusing thing was seeing Anthony Head as Clive Martel, the actor who became
best known in the U.S. for the man in the “seductive” Taster’s
Choice commercials. Otherwise, the only
actor you are likely to recognize is the perennial British character actor Bernard
Horsfall, but outside of him, even a very seasoned viewer of British TV and
cinema like myself did not recognize the rest of the cast. They were good though.
Like other
such British series of the time, it is on the quiet side, slowly building it
storyline, but that always runs the danger of boring the audience. Here, it feels like an old Saturday Morning
movie serial without much action. All
the Nazi’s happen to speak English and have British accents for the most part,
which dates it a bit more. The writers
and directors never fall into the “filler-zone”, though, so there will be those
who will still find it engaging if they can get involved with the
characters. It never degenerates into a
soap opera either, which is a plus.
The full
frame image is usually in color and a mix of the film and video look British TV
had at the time on many of their productions.
However, this is the analog PAL format form 1977 and in this case, that
means color poor images and weak definition.
There are also tape flaws here and their on both boxes, but it looks
like it was transferred as well as possible for its age. The Dolby Digital is available in the
original 2.0 Mono and a 5.1 AC-3 remix that does the best it can to boost the
original, dated audio. It cannot cover
up its age, but is easily the better choice.
Weblinks and photo galleries are the only extras over and over across
both boxes.
Credit
should also be given for bringing light to this little-discussed aspect of
WWII, though it is still a fictionalized account.
- Nicholas Sheffo
