Baby
Face Harrington
(1935/MGM/Warner Archive DVD)/Best
Of The Carol Burnett Show: 50th
Anniversary
(6-discs*)/Cosi
(1996/Umbrella Region Free PAL Import DVD)/Jackie
Gleason Show In Color
(3-discs*)/The Tonight
Show Vault Series/Johnny Carson
(Set 2/6-discs/*all Time Life DVD Sets)
Picture:
C/C+/C+/C+/C+ Sound: C/C+/C+/C/C+ Extras: C-/C+/D/D/C-
Main Programs: C/B/C/B/B
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Cosi
Import DVD is now only available from our friends at Umbrella
Entertainment in Australia, can only play on DVD, Blu-ray & 4K
Blu-ray players that can handle the PAL DVD format, while Baby
Face Harrington
is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive
series. All can be ordered from the links below.
Here's
a new group of comedy releases on DVD you'll want to know about...
Raoul
Walsh's Baby
Face Harrington
(1935) is an early film from the gritty filmmaker that is a comedy
with Charles Butterworth as the would-be title character,
accidentally going to jail for stealing money he honestly believed
was his to make his life easier for himself and the gal he loves (Una
Merkel), but this short 62 minutes still manages to have zero laughs
and seems much longer than it is. Even supporting work by Eugene
Pallette and Nat Pendleton cannot save this dud, so it is best viewed
as all this talent looking like they might might save the film... but
do not.
This
MGM miss is being issued by Warner Archive on DVD and is for
completists only. Don't operate heavy machinery while viewing.
An
Original Theatrical Trailer is the only extra.
Next
up is the 6-disc Best
Of The Carol Burnett Show: 50th
Anniversary
that joins a good bit of coverage of the classic comedy show, but it
has the first and last shows and is one of the only sets issued to
date that covers the entire run of her show, if not every single
episode. We get some slight overlap in the extras here, as well as
with some of the previous sets, but the appeal of complete episodes
versus the syndicated half-hours that only offer the skits is always
welcome and it is as good as set as any to try out if you have not
taken on any of the DVD releases yet.
It
is up there with the best, though the giant boxes are still the best
bet and I bet more of them are coming at some point.
Extras
include bloopers, interview segments tied into them, et al, and two
featurettes on how the series wrapped up.
Mark
Joffe's Cosi
(1996) is a problematic Australian comedy about a man (Ben Mendelson)
who lands up going to a mental institution and trying to stage
Mozart's Cosi
Fan Tutti
with these people having issues. Besides humor at the expense of the
mentally ill (Jacki Weaver plays one of the ill) there are a few
homophobic moments, then we're supposed to forgive/forget that when a
'more sane' Toni Colette shows up.
Though
the cast is good, the film never was and has aged badly to top that
off. Released by the original Miramax in its time, this copy is from
Umbrella Entertainment in Australia, a Region Free PAL Import DVD if
you are anxious to see it for any reason.
All
have done better since if they moved on with their careers. Even
Colette's decent cover of Crowded House's all-time international
classic ''Don't Dream Its Over'' is way too late to salvage this one.
There
are no extras, but any would have revealed what exactly they were
thinking when making this one.
Jackie
Gleason Show In Color
is back on DVD, expanding from one DVD to three and including that
DVD single we reviewed at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15132/The+Apartment+(1960/United+Artists/MGM/MVD+
We
get more June Taylor Dancers, Honeymooners
(now non-musical like before) and Nipsey Russell returning, plus
Groucho Marx, Tony Bennett, Frankie Avalon and other stars and
talents of the day in Gleason's final variety show, quitting while he
was more than still on top. It is amazing to see all the big name
talent going out of their way to show up. A fine set, I hope we get
more and more of his older variety shows as well.
There
are again, sadly, no extras.
And
finally, we get a second excellent set of The
Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson Vault Series
in another 6-disc collection that is not the same (or marked clearly
enough for some reason) as the first set we covered at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/14490/Mike+&+Molly:+The+Sixth+&+Final+Season+(201
We
get a 10th
Anniversary episode that shows how the 90-minutes love shows used to
be, the kind that have been lost because NBC kept reusing the
videotapes until they wore out to save money. We also get great
shows that group stars together like Bob Hope/Dom DeLuise/John
Denver/Peter Fonda, Paul McCartney and Mary Gross, Sean Connery,
Michael Caine and David Brenner, Hope, Dean Martin and Charles Nelson
Reilly, Robert Blake/Don Rickles/Bob Hope & Desi Arnaz stealing
the show, Bing Crosby, Ray Bolger and Marvin Hamlisch in an amazing
show, Muhammad Ali/Ken Norton.Karen Valentine, plus Charlton Heston
and many others that adds up to another exceptional set.
Unless
you count the (excellent with great surprises) TV commercials in the
longer, complete versions of the episodes, there are no extras save a
single sheet of paper that tells you about each episode.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white image transfer on Baby
can definitely show the age of the materials used, looking rough at
times and could look better. Hope Warner has better materials in the
vault. The
full color 1.33 X 1 image on Carol,
Jackie
and Johnny
all come from NTSC analog videotape and have disclaimers on their
flaws, which include video noise, video banding, telecine flicker,
tape scratching, cross color, faded color and tape damage. All four
offer lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono (later 1980s Carson
starts going simple stereo) and Carol
and Johnny
sound good. However, Baby
is down a few generations and Jackie
again is a bit more compressed than one would like, so be careful of
high volume playback and volume switching.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Cosi
is the most consistent, but still has some detail issues and color is
a little slightly off in a few spots. Otherwise, it looks good for
the format and the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has Pro Logic
surrounds and is not bad.
To
order the
Cosi
Umbrella import DVD, go to this link for it and other hard to get
releases:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
...and
to order the Baby
Face Harrington
Warner Archive DVD, go to this link for them and many more great
web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.wbshop.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo