Classic TV Comedians (Passport)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: D     Skits: B

 

 

The skits include Abbott & Costello going to Universal Studios to see their monster section, only to find real hauntings, Jack Benny sends up early police dramas (film and TV) with a great appearance by Humphrey Bogart, Red Skelton sends up Westerns with a fine set of players, a send up of the William Wyler/Humphrey Bogart hit The Desperate Hours (1955, reviewed elsewhere on this site) with Bob Hope as the heavy and Wally Cox as the good husband role covered by Fredric March, George Burns & Gracie Allen in a gag about the guys trying to get rid of the girls with a fake card game, Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis at a hotel where a criminal (Burt Lancaster) is on the loose, Jackie Gleason in the West as a wacky sheriff, Groucho Marx in action on You Bet Your Life with a college football player & Iranian/Persian chiropractor/sheik and Milton Berle is a janitor in a chemistry lab of some importance.

 

All are amusing and worth your time in what is a great sampling of the kinds of vintage comic talent Passport puts on DVD all the time.  The full frame 1.33 X 1 images show their age and vary in quality, but some of the material is from kinescopes and videotape, so they are only going to be so good.  However, add the Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono and its sonic limits and you can tell the materials are down a couple of generations.  This is so amusing, though, you will still enjoy it.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo