April 2006 DVD Reviews & Video Reviews

Broadway's Lost Treasures Collection

Acorn Media
DVD
Suggested Retail Price: $59.99

Add this wonderful collection to your own. If you are a fan of Broadway, this collection is a treasure. If you are not yet familiar with the wide selection of Broadway showstoppers you are in for a treat.

These are the best of Broadway musical. These are the winners of the annual Tony Award. The Tony awards are Broadway's equivalent to the Oscars for movies. Every year I prefer watching the Tony Awards program to any other. This set was produced for PBS, and now it can be yours... and you don't even have to make a pledge.

On these four DVDs you will be watching famous stars including Lauren Bacall, Robert Goulet, Bebe Neworth and many more. These are the guests and presenters for the award program, as well as winners themselves. This is the complete collection from those wonderful programs. Actors like James Earl Jones and Maggie Smith are Tony winners. There are bits from 19 winning plays. As for the musical productions, you will be able to see the original legendary stars like Patti LaPone, Neil Carter, Jerry Orbach, Ethel Merman and many more as they perform for this special award show.

There also 14 bonus musical performances that were not seen on the PBS show plus you can enjoy some historical information about the original Broadway Productions, In all you will have 82 performances to enjoy. About a360 minutes which for me is sheer pleasure.

I don't know about you, but I can’t go to New York every year to catch up with the current shows, and by the time they get to my city on the West Coast, they no longer have the original cast. DVDs of the Broadway shows rarely become available. I am waiting for SPAM to make it to DVD. Would it hurt Broadway to share these shows with us fans in their original form? Seeing the DVD will never take the place of seeing a live show in a real theater.

Kolchak - The Night Stalker

Mca Home Video
DVD
Suggested Retail Price: $39.98 or as low as $27.99 from Amazon.com!

I have been waiting for this good old series to make it to DVD for years now. I was a huge fan of this show, and I am enjoying it all over again. Kolchak features Darren McGavin. He was one of my favorites anyway, and you may especially remember him from the annual showing of the film "The Christmas Story" where he is the father who wins a Leg Lamp for his home that has the base of a female leg encased in black lace stockings. You will also recognize him from his many appearances on television. For those of you who don't know this show, Kolchak is a reporter for a newswire service in Chicago called "INS." He wears a white suit, a pork-pie straw-colored hat and always has a Pocket Instamatic camera on his shoulder strap. He is called The Night Stalker because he chases down a lot of the evil beings that only stalk in the dark. I like the series because for once the devils, witches and vampires are real. Kolchak believes in the evil creatures he encounters, but his boss and the police do not. He has to fool the boss and pursue his stories alone. At night! Being produced by Universal Studios, there are guest stars that are highly recognizable who joined the series for a special appearance. Scatman Crothers, Jamie Farr, Larry Linville, Jim Backus and many more.

Each of Kolchak's stories is complete, but never published. He narrates his articles into a pocket tape recorder for posterity because he knows they will never appear in a newspaper. Kolchak gets rid of spooks any way he can using Crusifixes and Holy Water if necessary. He always goes out at night and into dark cellars because that is were the evil thrives.

Darren McGavin was great as the pushy newsman who is persistent and clever. Brave and a believer. It was a great series and despite the wholly obnoxious coworkers at the news service office, The Night Stalker holds up well in this collection even 30 years after it was originally aired.

Magic

Dark Sky Films
DVD/video
Suggested Retail Price: $19.98 or as low as $14.35 from Amazon.com!

This may not be a new tale, but the performance of Anthony Hopkins brings a thrill and shiver to this story. Originally this was a best selling book by William Goldman. Brought to the screen by director Richard Attenborough has a touch that is the magic of "Magic."

Hopkins plays the creepy part of a failed magician who turns his attention to becoming a ventriloquist. He acquires a foul-mouthed dummy named Fats and become a big success on the nightclub circuit. In this story the former magician is about to make his television debut and he getting very nervous about this appearance. So he runs off taking Fats with him and stops at an almost empty resort in the Catskills. There he finds his former sweetheart Peggy Ann (Ann Margaret). Her life has been rough and she sees a chance for good relationship with Corky and wants him to run sway with her.

Corky takes this problem up with the dummy, Fats who has not taken control. Fats is angry with Corky and verbally attacks him. Under the dummies control Corky is manipulated into a series violent and unexpected confrontations.

Very weird and well done with a lot of extras thrown in like interviews and the trailers for the film.

An Angel at My Table

Criterion
DVD
Suggested Retail Price: $39.95 or as low as $27.95 from Amazon.com!

Academy Award-winner Jane Campion brought this tale into being a top notch film. It’s a true story that reveals the life of author Janet Frame of New Zealand. It is during Janet's very poor childhood when we first meet her. She is misdiagnosed as a schizophrenic. She is treated with electroshock therapy. With this background, it is a miracle that Jane becomes a best-selling author of great literature. The story is a heart-wrenching peek into this life of poverty and possible insanity and to follow Jane on her upward recovery and fame.

Included is a 10-minute documentary about the filming of the story, some deleted scenes and as is usual the ads for the picture. There are English Sub-titles.