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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 4, No. 16 |
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DARK FLOOD to Video  Alan Dobie as Sergeant Cribb |
Suddenly, all the missing
treasures are coming out
of TheColumnists.com
For years I've lamented the fact that some of the best
mystery movies and TV shows have not been available on the home
video market. Though most of the best horror films have been
on video for years, I've also whined that some of my more obscure
personal favorites had fallen through the cracks and were either
not available--or had been taken off the market.
But the good news now is that there's apparently a boom going
on in both the mystery and horror genres, suddenly making a flood
of titles available to fans. I think the now nearly universal
popularity of the DVD format is a major reason. Distributors
now see a real market for boxed sets of TV episodes, which are
being snapped up by collectors.
For instance, all the episodes
of Agatha Christie's "Miss Marple" TV series--the ones
starring Joan Hixson that originally were shown in the U.S. on
PBS' "Mystery!" series--are now available in three
moderately-priced DVD boxed sets. (They include several movie-length
episodes that were bypassed by the PBS series, but were shown
in the encore telecasts on the A&E cable network.) The series
has been available on videotape for several years.
All the multi-part mysteries of P.D. James' Adam Dalgliesh, also
from the PBS "Mystery!" series, are now available on
tape. They're now coming out in DVD sets, too. All the David
Suchet episodes of Agatha Christie's "Poirot" series
are available on tape, including the new ones made for A&E,
and DVD sets are being issued regularly. The same goes for the
"Inspector Morse," "Sherlock Holmes" and
"Rumpole of the Bailey" series from "Mystery!"
Now the DVD boom has even
prompted the release of some truly rare, seldom seen, but worthwhile
series from "Mystery!" Just released is a complete
run of the "Sergeant Cribb" episodes adapted from Peter
Lovesey's novels about a Victorian-era police detective for Scotland
Yard, who operates in the same era and environment as Sherlock
Holmes. These episodes initially were aired in America during
the first two seasons of "Mystery!", which dates back
to 1980. Also available from those first two seasons: Dick Francis'
"The Racing Game," featuring handicapped private detective
Sid Halley. The Francis series has been available on both tape
and DVD for more than a year, along with all the separate Dick
Francis mysteries that starred Ian McShane as a racetrack sleuth.
Margery Allingham's "Campion" series has just become
available on DVD.
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At right, Karloff rises again in 'The Walking Dead.' |
Also available are all the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries from the 1970s starring Ian Carmichael. These are the ones that originally were shown on PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre" and became so popular that it inspired the creation of the "Mystery!" series. The less popular later Wimsey series, starring Edward Petherbridge, also are available in a "Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries" boxed set. You can even get the first-ever screen version of Lord Peter Wimsey--the 1935 British movie "The Silent Passenger"-- on videotape by mail order from Movies Unlimited.
Coming on the market more slowly are the "one-shot" movies from the "Mystery!" series, like "Cause Celebre," the Terence Rattigan courtroom drama starring Helen Mirren (from the "Prime Suspect" series) as an accused murderess and David Suchet (from "Poirot") as her defense attorney. It's now available on both tape and DVD. However, many of these non-series mysteries are still not available, including "Mother Love" with Diana Rigg and "My Cousin Rachel" with Geraldine Chaplin.
Another very promising sign is the arrival of the first DVD boxed set of "Midsomer Murders," the English countryside detective series that still runs on A&E. That encourages me to hope for the early availability of several A&E series that I greatly admire, including "Inspector Frost," "Anna Lee," "Silent Witness" and "Dalziel & Pascoe." Episodes of two other popular A&E series--"Cracker" and "Lovejoy"--have been available for awhile.
I've bought boxed tape sets of two Ruth Rendell miniseries--"Road Rage" and "Simisola"--starring George Baker as Rendell's Inspector Wexford, but there are lots of earlier episodes of the Baker series and other Rendell mysteries that still aren't available in either format.
In the horror category,
several of my rare favorites finally have surfaced on home video,
but not DVD. Among them is "The Walking Dead," a 1936
Warner Bros. thriller starring Boris Karloff as an electrocuted
man who returns to life to avenge himself. This film was directed
by Michael Curtiz ("Casablanca," "The Adventures
of Robin Hood") and photographed by the great Hal Mohr.
Another obscure horror classic now available: "Bewitched,"
the 1945 MGM film made by Arch Obeler in the style of his "Lights
Out" radio series. It stars Phyllis Thaxter as a lovely
young woman who discovers an evil spiritual twin is living within
her body, grappling for control of her mind. Edmund Gwenn plays
the psychiatrist who tackles her case. (Obeler is best remembered
today as the man who started the 3-D craze of the 1950s with
his "Bwana Devil.") Yet another: Paramount's 1941 "Among
the Living" with Albert Dekker as the murderous evil twin
who escapes and wreaks havoc among his brother's friends.
The "mad doctor" movies Boris Karloff made for Columbia
from 1939-42 have been on video for years, but were frequently
out of circulation. They're all now back in circulation. I recommend
"The Devil Commands" (1941), which was adapted from
William Sloan's classic horror novel "The Edge of Running
Water." Karloff plays a scientist who lives in a remote
hideaway, running a massive experiment that attempts to trace
and contact the "released energy" of dead souls because
he wants to communicate with his late wife. It's a taut little
thriller, directed briskly by Edward Dmytrk, and featuring a
strong supporting performance by Anne Revere, a later Oscar-winner
for "National Velvet."
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Dr. Jekyll' blends the classic Robert Louis Stevenson story with a bit of the werewolf legend as a tribute to 'The Wolf Man' |
Yet another curiously-entertaining one is "Daughter of Dr. Jekyll," the 1957 film by the great Edgar Ulmer, who's best remembered for his 1934 horror classic "The Black Cat" which first pitted Karloff and Bela Lugosi against each other, and for his "Detour," the 1945 noir classic starring Tom Neal. The new DVD edition of "Daughter of Dr. Jekyll" shows how much moody atmosphere Ulmer could squeeze into a cheap film made in just a couple of weeks at Allied Artists, the poverty row successor to the old Monogram pictures. It also features Arthur Shields, the acting brother of Barry Fitzgerald, in a rare villainous role. (Television viewers of the 1950s probably remember him for his wine commercials in which he told us to "Put a rose in your glass!")
Finally, a real "guilty pleasures" classic has finally become available on video: The Monogram thriller "Voodoo Man" (1944), which features Lugosi as a mad doctor who's attempting to transfer brain-energy from beautiful young women to the skull of his living dead "zombie" wife. What makes this so much fun is the work of Lugosi's brain dead sidekicks--John Carradine and George Zucco--who skulk out onto the highway, put up a "detour" sign every time a hot-looking young lady comes driving along by herself, diverting her down the side road to Lugosi's lair. That side road is normally disguised by a big hedge on wheels that Carradine and Zucco push into place. You may wonder how the mailman ever finds Lugosi's house, but then maybe mad scientists don't get much mail.
If you're interested in getting copies of these films and TV programs, here's a series of links that should help you find them online:
The following films are
available on VHS format
only for $24.95 each from
www.cinemaclassics.com: "Bewitched" (1945), "Devil
Commands" (1941), "The Walking Dead" (1936), "Among
the Living" (1941) and "Voodoo Man" (1944).
Click here for link: Cinema
Classics
The following programs are available through a number of sources at various prices, but one-stop shoppers can find them all at www.moviesunlimited.com, usually in both VHS and DVD formats: "Miss Marple," "Poirot," "Inspector Morse," "Sherlock Holmes," "Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries," "Lord Peter Wimsey," "Cause Celebre," "P.D. James' Adam Dalgliesh Mysteries," "Sherlock Holmes," "Rumpole of the Bailey," "The Racing Game," "Sergeant Cribb," "Campion," "Midsomer Murders," "Cracker," "Lovejoy," "Road Rage," "Simisola," "Daughter of Dr. Jekyll" and "The Silent Passenger."
Click here for link: Movies Unlimited
©2003 by Ron Miller.
The Ron Miller caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel.
Ron
Miller is a former nationally syndicated television columnist
and the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," the official
companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series. He currently
teaches classes in mystery and related topics at Whatcom Community
College and Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.
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