Dick Barton – Special Agent
Collection (1979/VCI DVD set)
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: C
Despite having a writer as savvy as Julian Bond (Sentimental Agent, Sergeant Cork, Roald Dahl’s
Tales Of The Unexpected) and Producer/Director like James Hill (A Study In Terror, TV’s The Avengers), Southern U.K. TV’s
revival of Dick Barton – Special Agent
worked on a very limited level, made in 15-minute segments like an old Saturday
Morning Movie Serial when home video was not a reality, yet is just not that
exciting. Note that Universal filmed Cliffhangers! at the same time, so
interest in such a revival was in the air.
Tony Vogel is the sophisticated title character, just
surviving the perils of WWII only to find himself facing new plots and
villains. However, this is done as
kitsch and though they may have had fun making it, I was never a fan then or
now. It has some money in it, but has
no0t dated well. Raiders Of The Lost Ark happened two years later (Vogel even appears
in it), but this is a curio at best, but all four serials are included in this
2-DVD set for those interested. I would
like to see the old British feature film series myself, so we’ll see if they
make DVD or not.
The 1.33 X 1 image has some good color, but is softer
throughout with more aliasing errors than expected and the videotape answer to
process shooting (especially when people are in vehicles) looks bad like a TV
comedy skit, but that is where British TV production started to go at this
point. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is
better, though it can have some harsh character. There are no extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
