Shirley Temple – Legends Series (Mill Creek Entertainment)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: D Films/Shorts: C+
Mill
Creek has recently upgraded its Shirley Temple title Shirley Temple – Smiles & Curls Collection that we previously
reviewed, as you can see at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6753/Shirley+Temple+%E2%80%93+Smiles
Going
from two to four DVDs, The first DVD includes the mixed B-movie Western Law of Vengeance (1933) with Randolph
Scott, The Little Princess and a
nicely made Mystery film called The
Red-Haired Alibi (1932) marking Temple’s debut at Indie and would-be
contender Tower Films, while DVD 2 has:
1)
Dora’s Dunking Donuts
2)
Glad Rags To Riches
3)
Kid In Africa
4)
Kid In Hollywood
5)
Managed Money
6)
Merrily Yours
7)
Pardon My Pups
8)
Pie Covered Wagon
9)
Polly Tix In Washington (the ‘hooker’ short)
10) War Wagon
The new
DVD 3 has the 1939 Nancy Drew, Reporter
(1939 and not a bad film) and four shorts (What’s
To Do (1932), Bear Shooters, Our Gang Follies of 1938 and Waldo’s Last Stand (all 1938), while
DVD 4 adds A Boy, A Girl & A Dog
(1946), Miracle On 34th
Street (1947 in public domain here, but Fox has a better copy we reviewed
elsewhere on this site), Mickey
(1948) and The Green Promise
(1949). Though nice to have more titles,
the overall average quality is not an improvement, though this is now the
preferred set. But Temple fans will snag
it just the same.
Like so
many shorts from the 1932-4 period, the quality is especially problematic. However, the 1.33 X 1 black and white image
on the features are better, if not perfect.
Little Princess has pale
color, Law is fuzzier than one would
like and Alibi may be soft, but it is the best looking of the bunch across the
two discs. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is
often weak and noisy, usually match the pluses and minuses of the image. Some may include the shorts as extras, but we
will not. If we did, it would be the
same rating anyhow.
- Nicholas Sheffo
