DVD Reviews

Great Films You Can't Find on DVD

With the long-awaited release of The African Queen on DVD this week, film buffs can check another prominent title off their want lists. That’s the good news…but there are still a surprising number of movies from every decade of the 20th century that aren’t commercially availabl...

DVD review: The African Queen

If ever a movie was worth waiting for on DVD, it’s The African Queen. Because the film’s ownership was split among a handful of companies, on both sides of the Atlantic, and because it required an expensive restoration, it’s taken much longer than it should have to reach the marketplace…but now it’s...

dvd review—Forgotten Stars

The Norma Talmadge Collection (Kino) The Constance Talmadge Collection (Kino)

dvd review: Bad Girls of Film Noir

(Volumes 1 and 2)

Johnny Mercer: The Dream's On Me

If you missed this documentary special on Turner Classic Movies, it’s a must-see for anyone who loves the Great American Songbook and the era in which it flourished. It’s now been released on DVD with a second disc of bonus material. Produced by Clint Eastwood (who first paid tribute to Mercer ...

North By Northwest

Funny, I thought the last DVD release of this Alfred Hitchcock gem was definitive, with an excellent hour-long documentary hosted by its leading lady, Eva Marie Saint, and a commentary track by its articulate screenwriter, Ernest Lehman. How lucky for us that Warner Home Video decided that the ...

The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 7 – 1952-1954

The Joe McDoakes Collection

I never dreamed this would happen: a six-disc set collecting the entire Joe McDoakes series! (Or perhaps I should say oeuvre.) For the uninitiated, I should explain that these ten-minute shorts, made between 1942 and 1956, were a snappy blend of slapstick and situation comedy featuring George O’Hanlon (later famous as the voice of George Jetson) as an ordinary guy who always wound up “behind the 8-ball.” I first documented the series in my book The Great Movie Shorts, many years ago, and had a devil of a time tracking down prints. They weren’t shown on television, and while some were available in 16mm, finding them was hit-and-miss. I actual...

The Samuel Fuller Collection

There has never been a filmmaker quite like Sam Fuller: as director Curtis Hanson remarks in one of the interviews on this DVD set, he constituted his own genre. Fuller’s staccato, slap-in-the-face melodramas, war stories and genre pieces all bore his unique voice. As it happens only two of the...