I just bought Volume One and intend to buy all of them eventually. I loved these films as a child. A local UHF station ran them every Saturday night for over fifteen years. I have seen each of these films over 200 times.

I hear that.

So I suppose this means ......

"It's beyond imagination I suppose that someone else could have used the rake and wiped off both sets of fingerprints?"

Quick ... which film?

Anybody needing a quick Basil Fix might also be interested in . . .

5.99
http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemid=BFD030173

3 HOURS 20 MINUTES
• DRESSED TO KILL
• THE WOMAN IN GREEN
• TERROR BY NIGHT


It was one of the DDD titles I picked up for $4.79.

I'm thrilled to have seen this thread. I didn't realize there were other BR fans out there! And that's not to take away anything from Jeremy Brett's wonderful performances . . . just that BR's are so beautifully noir'd.


Miss Peach

I think that's SH Faces Death. I think.

Miss Peach, I'd save the $5 and apply it to the GOOD release!

mmmmmm . . . If this were Orson Welles or Kurosawa, yes.
Well, let's face it, if I had endless cash reserves indeed yes heh heh.

I'll bet they're stunning, the remastered ones.

Miss Peach

They are. Just watched House of Fear last night. Beautiful picture and sound.

I just got Vol. 1 from Borders and have my order in for Vol. 2 (using up some GC's). I can't believe that Borders doesn't stock these, since I had to special order both of them. I guess I'll have to do the same in January when Vol. 3 comes out

Bhauge! Make sure you print out that 15% OFF BORDERS COUPON that's floating around. It's good through December 14 (which is this SUNDAY) and maybe you can apply it . . .


MISS PEACH

Alright. What do you want me to say? I want it?

I want it.

Now let me go crawl into the corner with my 4.79 version and feel sorry for myself ha ha.

You must never bring up Basil Rathbone. Never. He's only one of my favorite actors.


MISS PEACH




Someone pass me the Kleenex box.

Actually, you don't have to say anything at all. I was simply noting my approval of the transfers on the remastered set. Which are wonderful.

Correct-a-mundo. Very good. You win two free tickets aboard British Airways to visit London and 221B Baker Street! (Void where prohibited.)

I agree. The Key Video VHS versions I have are better than that "Legendary SH" DVD.

Miss Peach could always sell it here.

Why, then, must he NOT be brought up??

Miss Peach would no doubt enjoy this webpage then.

Hey, Peach ... Did you ever see any of Basil's several appearances on the 1950s game show, "The Name's The Same"?

Still foxy after all these years. YEAH!

What a thrill to see those pics. Thanks David!

We don't make 'em like we used to, do we? And why is that? Why is it that Hollywood increasingly favors cardboard perfection over . . . a human with a real personality? A real character? Where is Gene Tierney's overbite? Where is Humphrey Bogart's speech? (Where is Jimmy Stewart's? Marlon Brando's?) Where is Richard Burton's pockmarked face? Where is Terry Thomas's gap? I put it to you members of the jury. The list is huge.

Why doesn't present-day Hollywood recognize that it's the humanity in an actor/actress — their very imperfections — that make them such a treasure? When the very fact that they could never be duplicated makes us adore them, what does Hollywood do today? It clearly favors a standardized, flat, one-dimensional image of perfection over idiosyncracy. If you were to drop Humphrey Bogart into today's Hollywood, couldn't you just see them trying to correct his teeth? Would they have any tolerance for his drool? I strongly doubt it. This intolerance for perfection just makes me want to gag, and that's one of the reasons why I love these older films. Oh to hear Kathryn Hepburn's magnificent gravelly voice, and her saucy personality.

And don't even get me started with beauty. Where are Elizabeth Taylor's violet eyes? Where is a sultry Lauren Bacall? Judy Garland? And universally adored (and always 20 lbs. overweight) our one and only Marilyn Monroe?

Anyway, I just love the old Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes's. And I adore Nigel Bruce — speaking of real characters, there's one, eh?

David, I never saw Basil in "The Name's The Same" but . . . just the other day I brought out a hilarious Danny Kaye movie on VHS (recall, I'm still waiting for my S-Video cable to arrive so I haven't even plugged the new DVD in yet) and watched it with a friend. It's called The Court Jester — anyone see this one? one of the earliest Technocolor classics, and worth it just for the color alone imho — anyway, there's Angela Lansbury and Glynis Johns (looking just adorable btw) and . . . Basil Rathbone! ha ha.

"Basil!" I cried out.

My friend replied, "Are we out?"


The Peach




Geez where did all this come from this early in the morning? tsk

The Court Jester is a great film which is on my wish list. I will get it in 2004. Basil Rathbone and many other actors of that age seemed different because they were real people who actually lived in their societies. For example, Rathbone was a decorated veteran of WWI. Today, stars are separated from average people. They don't share their values or their experiences. In WWII, most stars rallied to support the war effort. Nowadays, the best one can expect is that they will keep their mouths shut. Whatever the politics of the old stars, they were individuals with character who lived life. They were not loudmouthed oafs who merely delivered one liners from the peanut gallery.

One thing which bothers me about these current MPI releases is the cover blurb, "Loaded With DVD Extras". This is a lie. For example, in volume one, only Sherlock Holmwes Faces Death has extras on the disc, a still gallery and an audio commentary. Now, don't get me wrong. I am happy just to have these films in remastered form on DVD. But, I don't like false claims being made. This blurb is the one blemish on a fine set.

Humanity and imperfection still exist today, well in British tv series at least. I think of Helen Mirren's inspector Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect and Robbie Coltrane's "Fitz" in Cracker. But I tend to agree that Hollywood today prefers flat, uni-dimensional, perfect characters.

I get to review Sherlock Homes V3 for a french canadian website so I'm getting it for free. Actually, I just started a couple of weeks ago. I went to the 1st meeting last weekend and the editor in chief said who wants this? Nobody was interested but me! I then asked what happened to V1 and V2? He said nobody wanted them when they were announced so I didn't order them.

Oh EPKJ I so completely agree with you. I've thought about this alot you see, and it's one of the reasons I've become increasingly not a viewer but a reader. Geez, to turn on the TV today is to be assaulted. No civility, loud blaring commercials. The only two channels I can endure are PBS and C-SPAN for chrissake.

And yes, I am passionate about Hollywood's predilection to court the most uninteresting, flat, one-dimensional, cookie-cutter duplicates of someone's idea of perfection. Who among us will dare to say that Keneau Reeves has acting talent. Anyone? What he and so many of his contemporaries have is a look, and what they are most surely missing is a personality.

I think it's instructive that so many of us are purchasing these older movies — indeed, that it is these older movies, including black-and-white that more often than not are the most expensive ones.

And why? Because Hollywood knows that probably 98% of the fluff that is being produced today has no enduring value whatsoever. The only exception I would make to that, thank God, is that you can still find the occasional Director who toils in the fields of mediocrity and tries his/her level best to produce something of substance, given the pathetic inventory of actors and actresses available to him.

My complaint really lies there — with casting. And if Hollywood would get a clue they'd see that there's a reason why we certainly like a Sharon Stone, but we adored Audrey Hepburn's big feet (size 10!) and would trade 100 Gwyneth Paltrow's for just one W.C. Fields, one Melina Mercouri (Topkapi, for teh uninitiated), one Peter Sellers — indeed one Peter Ustinov . . .


MISS PEACH

The pill with the poison's in the chalace from the palace.
The flagon with the dragon holds the brew that is true.

No wait. There's been a change:
The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon
The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true.

Well it's kind of unfair to introduce British talent since their acting superiority is all but genetially imbued heh heh.

Buuuuuuuut . . . let me add Dame Wendy Hiller

as one of the great, great British character actresses of all time. She could do more damage with that one eyebrow than many another attempt heh.

MISS PEACH

I just watched Sherlock Holmes And The Voice Of Terror. I really enjoyed Evelyn Ankers in this film. That is why these films endure, even the character actors gave superb performances. I also love the dialog. Who can forget, "That's right, Kitty. The Nazis killed Gavin."?

I concur with you 100% on this! A ridiculously-overblown "Loaded" claim...on BOTH of the sets that are out thus far, as well. Not just one!

And, from what info I can gather regarding Vol. 2 (not having it myself): it appears this "Loaded" claim is even more false on Vol. 2. Because evidently the "Photo Gallery" is even shorter than Vol. 1. (And Volume One's is a bit of a "throw-away" add-on itself.)

I know this is a "nit-pick", but I find the music over the menus to be rather...well...odd on the new MPI Sherlock DVDs (IMO). I'd have preferred (if I had my own druthers) to have had the famous "Sherlock Holmes Intro Music" being played over the menus. (To clarify -- I mean the musical theme we hear as the credits roll on all the Universal (12) SH films. The FOX intros are good too, but different from the Universals.)

Or, simply "silent" menus are good too.

I opted for the 12 "individual" SH MPI releases, after seeing that the "Boxed Sets" did not come with individual keepcases for each film therein.

Look at the very nice cover art you're missing if you opt for the 3 Boxed Sets (granted, they are a bit more in price to go this individual route -- but I got 'em for less than the boxes via DDD's recent "20% Off Coupons" ).

These covers probably constitute a better "Photo Gallery" in & of themselves (IMO) than the actual "Gallery" they've put on the Boxed Collections............

Well, the audio commentaries and the photo galleries, as slim as they are, are not present in the individual releases. You have to buy the box sets for those. Also, I have many DVD's, so I appreciate the space saved by the box sets.

I wouldn't mind having the individual releases, since I hate that unnecessarily oversized keepcase they're using, but money is the bottom line.

I don't know why they put the commentaries only in the boxed sets. If they were only sold individually, fans would still have bought them all.

Nigel is so adorable!


MISS PEACH

Well its only one commentary per box set. Why they couldn't do a commentary for each film I don't know. I like the looks of the box set though. They look great next to my Jeremy Brett Holmes box sets from MPI. I have the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Brett series as individual releases though and I may sell them to buy the box set so everything matches better.

I'm hoping these do sell well and someone follows suit by releasing the Charlie Chan and Mr Moto films on DVD.

Well, a quick glance at this site makes me think you might be better off watching Encore Mysetery Channel or Encore Action Channel...