Yes, it’s that time—the year’s third-quarter viewings—Q2 can be viewed here.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents season 6 (DVD)
Wanted Dead Or Alive seasons 1-2 (DVD)
Have Gun Will Travel season 3 (DVD)
Orson Welles Great Mysteries season 1 (DVD)
The Phil Silvers Show seasons 1-2 (DVD)
Flash Gordon 1936 serial (DVD)
Commentary follows…
Read More »2021 Viewing (Q3)
Continuing what is now a tradition, albeit a month late, and following the previous post back in April (sorry to be gone so long, but I promise there’s a bunch of new posts coming up!), here are the viewings from the second quarter of 2021… some of which were obviously started in Q1 but completed in Q2!
The Rebel (Johnny Yuma) season 2 (DVD)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents season 5 (DVD)
Have Gun Will Travel seasons 1-2 (DVD)
Department S series 1 (Blu-ray)
Star Trek: The Original Series seasons 1-2 (Blu-ray)
Commentary follows…
Read More »2021 Viewing (Q2)
As a follow-up to this post, let’s look at the viewing from the first quarter of this esteemed, classic year we’re currently honoured to be enduring experiencing…
The Loner season 1 (DVD)
The Rebel (Johnny Yuma) season 1 (DVD)
Stoney Burke season 1 (DVD)
Alfred Hitchcock Hour seasons 1-2 (DVD)
Naked City season 1 (DVD)
A bit of commentary…
Read More »2021 Viewing (Q1)
I may write in more detail about some of the stuff I watched last year—undecided. Meanwhile, here’s a list of all the vintage episodic TV digested during those long 2020 months of deadly viruses and governments placing everyone under house arrest.
(And, of course, there is much vintage episodic TV being digested during the unfolding long 2021 months of deadly viruses and governments placing everyone under house arrest.)
2020 complete viewings…
Hawaii Five-O seasons 1-12 (DVD)
The Twilight Zone seasons 1-5 (Blu-ray)
Night Gallery seasons 1-3 (DVD)
The Outer Limits seasons 1-2 (DVD)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents seasons 1-4 (DVD)
Peaky Blinders series 3 (Blu-ray) (token non-vintage item!)
The Abbott & Costello Show seasons 1-2 (download)
Adventures of Superman seasons 1-4 (DVD)
House of Cards (1990) (Blu-ray)
And much less completely…
Read More »2020 Viewing
Well, I needed cheering up. I’ve been suffering from the most abysmal cold/flu bug all week. I still feel rough, and my neck bumps are still a bit swollen, but it seems the worst is finally over.
And to make my diminished mood even better, my DVD of Jonathan Ross’s new show, In Search of Steve Ditko, popped through the letterbox. Yeah, that show I worked on, brag brag, egotism, etc.
Read More »In Search of Steve Ditko
On the other hand, I heart my sound & vision system. My new DVD/CD player came today from Richer Sounds. Like the amp/decoder (also from Mr. Richer’s emporium), it’s a Sony model. The whole system, including speakers, as it stands, cost 240 quid, which is a good deal.
Sony’s name speaks for itself, but what I like about their gear is that they’re so user-friendly, and the manuals (for once) are really comprehensive and helpful (rather than the usual badly-written sketches in several languages). For instance, the player was not automatically sending a 5.1 signal to my amp, but the manual pointed the way in seconds. I have so many issues with instruction manuals that this makes a big difference to me.
The new player is impressing me a fair bit. While the old player was perfectly acceptable, the Sony’s sound output has a definite edge. I am hearing things on my CDs I hadn’t heard before. The amp is not a powerful one (you couldn’t shake the walls with it, but in a residential setting, this isn’t a great idea anyway), but I love the complete ‘wall of sound’ I can get from the set-up, which includes a cheap-but-effective sub-woofer.
Read More »Listen to This
So we watched Hitckcock’s Notorious last night, which I hadn’t seen for years. Fine stuff from the same era as the brilliant Shadow of a Doubt (wherein Joseph Cotten positively rocks). It’s a classic, it’s all been said already… most of the praise is entirely deserved.
The acting? Cary Grant is Cary Grant. I like him fine, so what the hell. But the real plaudits go to Ingrid Bergman and the inimitable Claude Rains (who, let’s face it, thoroughly stole the show in Casablanca).
Read More »Quite Notable, at Least
Films we’ve watched recently:
Wrong Turn… verdict: okay. I think I appreciated it being fairly WYSIWG, no hidden twists or ‘clever’ variations. There were some moments of genuine tension and suspense. Not an original bone in its body, and if you’ve seen Hills Have Eyes et al, why bother? Along similar(ish) lines, Cabin Fever seems to have had good reviews, so I’ll probably check it out whenever.
Well, I guess Christmas is almost over for another year. The Day Itself is done with. It seems like our television schedulers have given up any pretence of making any real effort this year… I wonder if that reflects an overall feeling of growing apathy?
Christmas day was just like a weekend day, really. Only with decorations and turkey. We ended up watching My Fair Lady in the afternoon, which I hadn’t seen for years. I’m not a musical fan, but this one’s a sentimental favourite for unknown reasons. I like it. Rex Harrison was great.
Read More »Good Riddance
My most recent DVD purchase was the director’s cut of The Wicker Man. It’s an almost-but-not-quite complete print that restores most of the footage hacked from the theatrical cut, which you also get on a second disk. This film has a reputation as being amongst the best British entries in the horror genre, along with Witchfinder General (one of Vincent Price’s finest moments). The packaging unsurprisingly emphasises the presence of Christopher Lee, in light of his recent Indian Summer.
And it is a great performance by Lee, who should seem comical and ridiculous in his fright wig and kilt, but doesn’t. Casual menace defines his screen time. Okay, so seeing him at the end in a long wig and a dress is quite funny! Otherwise, he’s just plain creepy, in a weirdly seductive way.
Read More »The Wicker Man (1973)
