Shout! Factory has released a 40th anniversary steelbook edition of "Rock 'N' Roll High School". Here is the official press release:

Los Angeles, CA – Gabba hey! It’s been 40 years since we first saw Riff Randall and the Ramones take the halls of Rock ’N’ Roll High School. To celebrate this punk rock anniversary Shout! Factory is releasing Rock ‘N’ Roll High School (40th Anniversary Edition Steelbook). Special features include a new 4K scan from the original camera negative, and a new feature-length documentary titled “Class Of ’79: 40 Years Of Rock ‘N’ Roll High School” – featuring Interviews with director/story writer Allan Arkush, co-director/story writer Joe Dante, actress P.J. Soles, screenwriter Richard Whitley, screenwriter Russ Dvonch, cinematographer Dean Cundey, editor Larry Bock, and more.

With explosive musical performances from the Ramones, the outrageous candor of teenage angst and nostalgic reverie of a counterculture rock movement, Rock ’N’ Roll High School has captured the hearts of many generations.

Executive produced by Roger Corman and directed by Allan Arkush (Heroes), Rock ’N’ Roll High School boasts performances by the Ramones and stars P.J. Soles (Halloween) in the lead role of Riff Randell, Vince Van Patten (Hell Night), Clint Howard (Grand Theft Auto), Dey Young (Spaceballs), Mary Woronov (Death Race 2000), Dick Miller (Piranha) and Paul Bartel (Hollywood Boulevard).

Based on Arkush’s own high school fantasy, the 1979 cult film takes place at Vince Lombardi High School — the wildest, most rockin’ high school around! That is, until a thug of a principal, Miss Togar, comes along and tries to make the school a totalitarian state. With the help of the Ramones, the students of Vince Lombardi battle Miss Togar's iron-fisted rule and take their battle to a truly rockin’ conclusion!

Rock ’N’ Roll High School quickly developed a devoted following after its release in 1979 and became a mainstay of the midnight movie cult circuit. As with films like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, audience members began to dress up like the cast and the Ramones for screenings.

Arkush, a self-described “unabashed rock ’n’ roll fanatic,” chose the Ramones to star as the film’s musical heroes, as he felt they epitomized pure rock ’n’ roll. As Arkush remembers, “We staged a live, marathon show at the Roxy Theatre that consisted of 22 hours of nonstop Ramones,” and the tireless quartet also wrote two songs for the film: “I Want You Around” and “Rock ’N’ Roll School.” The Ramones were fans of Corman as well. Johnny Ramone said in an interview at the time, “When we found out Roger Corman was behind the picture, we said, sure, we’ll do it because we knew he had a reputation and we knew he made good movies.”

Rock ‘N’ Roll High School (40th Anniversary Edition Steelbook) Bonus Features

NEW 4K Scan From The Original Camera Negative

NEW “Class Of ’79: 40 Years Of Rock ‘N’ Roll High School” – Featuring Interviews With Director/Story Writer Allan Arkush, Co-Director/Story Writer Joe Dante, Actress P.J. Soles, Screenwriter Richard Whitley, Screenwriter Russ Dvonch, Cinematographer Dean Cundey, Editor Larry Bock, And More!

Audio Commentary With Allan Arkush, Mike Finnell And Richard Whitley

Audio Commentary With Allan Arkush And Actors P.J. Soles And Clint Howard

Audio Commentary With Richard Whitley And Russ Dvonch

Audio Commentary With Executive Producer Roger Corman And Actress Dey Young

“Back To School: A Retrospective” With Interviews From Allan Arkush, Executive Producer Roger Corman And More

“Staying After Class”: An Interview With Actors P.J. Soles, Vincent Van Patten And Dey Young

Interview With Roger Corman Conducted By Leonard Maltin

Interview With Allan Arkush Including A Look At Rare, Behind-The-Scenes Stills

Audio Outtakes From The Roxy

Original Radio Ads And TV Spot

Theatrical Trailer

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BY JOHN M. WHALEN 

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood there was a writer who was something of a living legend. Between 1955 and 1975, screenwriter Stirling Silliphant wrote hundreds of television scripts and over his lifetime of 78 years, was credited by the Writers Guild with 200 movie scripts. He created and wrote over 150 teleplays just for “Route 66,” and “Naked City,” alone – two TV series that are considered arguably among the best written television dramas of this or any time. In a 1963 article, Time magazine quoted a producer who said that Stirling Silliphant was “almost inhuman . . . a writing machine . . . the fingers of God.” He was not only prolific, he was good. He won an Academy Award for adapting “In the Heat of the Night” (1967), starring Sidney Poitier; was one of the creative forces behind the production and writing of the Shaft movies; gave Bruce Lee his first role in an American feature film (“Marlowe” 1969); wrote the classic disaster movies “The Poseidon Adventure (1972),” and “The Towering Inferno” (1974); turned to novel writing; and eventually expatriated to Thailand, where he said he felt a spiritual connection, and eventually died. But by that time—and such is the fate of the writer in Tinseltown—he had almost become a forgotten man.

Silliphant’s early writing had a distinctive quality. He wrote stories that used to be described as the kind that “hit you where you live.” When he was writing at his best, his created characters that had a strong impact on you and his dialogue was a powerful mixture of poetry and gritty realism. The same year he wrote “The Poseidon Adventure,” he was hired to adapt “The New Centurions” (1972) from a novel by Joseph Wambaugh. In an interview, Silliphant said by that time he wrote this script his whole approach to screenwriting had changed. He dropped the poetry and wrote more realistic dialogue. He said he used to write paragraphs of almost novelistic description. But when he wrote “The New Centurions,” when describing a room in one scene he used just one word: shitty.

“The New Centurions” follows five years in the lives of three Los Angeles cops, starting with their days in the academy and ending with a grim finish for one of them. Stacy Keach plays Roy, a married man serving on the force while he attends law school. He and his wife Dorothy (Jane Alexander) are looking forward to the day he can quit being a cop and become a lawyer. Gus (Scott Wilson) is a less complicated man; all he wants in life is “to be a good cop.” But his aspirations get tossed in a trash can when he accidentally shoots the owner of a dry cleaners, mistaking him for one of the perps robbing the place. The third recruit, Sergio (Eric Estrada) is a Latino, a former gang member, who has risen from the ghetto, and faces a challenge when riots break out in his old neighborhood.

But towering above these three, is Sgt. Andy Kilvinski (George C. Scott), a seasoned veteran who serves not only as a mentor to the new recruits but is also a kind of spiritual force holding the whole precinct together. Everything is done according to “Kilvinski’s law,” which could be summed up as follows: “If a guy comes at you with his fists, use your night stick,” Kilvinski tells Roy. “If he come at you with a knife, use your gun. Cancel his ticket right then and there.”

On night shift Kilvinski reveals his secret for keeping hookers off the streets. Instead of arresting and booking them, he picks them up in a paddy wagon, buys them some vodka and milk, and lets them get drunk while he drives them around listening to the wild tales they have to tell about their latest tricks. “It’s illegal as hell,” Kilvinski says, “but nobody’s hurt and it saves a lot of paperwork and time spent in court rooms.”

BY DOUG OSWALD

Nicolas Cage and Sean Young take on a South American drug cartel in “Fire Birds,” available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. Cage is a hot-shot U.S. Army Apache helicopter pilot at odds with his combat instructor pilot played by Tommy Lee Jones. He’s also dealing with the loss of his comrades on a recent drug enforcement mission in South America. They were shot down by a mercenary helicopter pilot working for the cartel named Eric Stoller (played by Bert Rhine). Cage is also trying to rekindle romance with a woman from his past, a helicopter pilot named Billie played by Sean Young. If you like helicopters, romance and scenes of air combat, this is the movie for you.

Jones is Chief Warrant Officer Brad Little, married father and newly assigned to train an elite group of Apache helicopter pilots for an air combat mission to take out a South American drug cartel. Cage is Jake Preston, newly assigned to train with Little who discovers a woman from his past is also at Fort Mitchel. Young is Billie Lee Guthrie, a scout helicopter pilot keeping Jake at arm’s length in response to Jake’s attempts to get her attention. Jake insists on cutting in and dancing with Billie at a local bar which results in a fight, further alienating Billie. Jake is a skilled pilot and the accompanying cocky attitude works against his attempts at romance with Billie. Dale Dye is on board as the commanding officer, Colonel A.K. McNeil, and J.A. Preston is General Olcott who orders the mission to take down the drug cartel.

Practicing in an Apache flight simulator which resembles an elaborate first person video game complete with moving compartment and wrap-around video monitors, Jake meets every challenge placed before him by Little as Jake repeats, “I am the greatest!” throughout the exercise and finishes with, “All gone! Bye-bye!” after destroying every enemy in his path. According to the audio commentary, Cage improvised much of his over-the-top performance and it works in developing Jake as the cocky pilot who then needs to be humbled and retrained to meet his nemesis, the mercenary Scorpion helicopter pilot Stoller. Jake screws up on a night training mission by nearly crashing his Apache and is grounded. It turns out he’s left eye dominant and has trouble accepting data from his right eye when connected to the night vision and combat data. He asks Little for help and he agrees stating, “You remind me of me 20 years ago.” This “softening” of Jake endears him to Billie and they renew their relationship as a Phil Collins love ballad fills the soundtrack.

Operation Fire Bird begins as soon as the training is completed. The team is assembled by Colonel McNeal and they are forward deployed to a base in South America in the Catamarca Desert. No country is ever named so we can only guess, but the Catamarca Desert is located in Argentina. Several aerial combat battles ensue between the drug cartel and the Apaches including the final inevitable confrontation between Jake and Stoller. The helicopter battle scenes were filmed using a combination of Army helicopters and models and the results are very exciting. This is the pre-CGI era and the models are mixed in with the real deal to great effect.

The three leads give fine performances in what is an otherwise predictable movie plot. Reviews at the time of release referred to “Fire Birds” as “Top Gun” with helicopters. Viewers of this movie will be pleasantly surprised at how good the movie is on the technical side and for that I can forgive the similarities to almost every military movie before it with combat, romance and swaggering military tropes.

The film is directed by David Green, probably best known for “Buster” with Phil Collins as Ronald Christopher "Buster" Edwards who was one of the thieves involved in "The Great Train Robbery" of 1963 in England. No wonder Collins provides two songs for “Fire Birds.” Green appears to be an odd choice as the director of a military action movie, but he acquits himself very well indeed. It also doesn’t hurt to have the cooperation of the Department of Defense, United States Army and Arizona National Guard. The use of several military locations, including filming at Ft. Hood, Texas, and the Army National Guard Aviation Training Site in Marana, Arizona, add value to the movie.

Released by TouchStone Pictures in 1990, the movie flies in at 86 minutes of non-stop helicopter combat action and romance. It all looks and sounds great, aided by the locations and top notch model and aerial work. Extras on the Blu-ray disc include an informative audio commentary by the director and trailers for this and other Kino Lorber releases. Recommended for fans of military action movies.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

The 1965 Universal thriller "Mirage" boasts a screenplay by Peter Stone, who excelled in writing witty action films with exotic plots and characters. Stone was coming off the great success of "Charade" for the studio and adopted the strategy of using one-word titles for "Mirage" and a follow-up film, "Arabesque". For "Mirage", Stone, who was a frequent collaborator with director Stanley Donen, had another seasoned film industry veteran, Edward Dmytryk in the director's chair. The film is arguably Stone's most disturbing film in terms of its basic premise, which was adapted from Howard Fast's novel "Fallen Angel", though the credits falsely indicate the book was written by Walter Ericson, which was a nom-de-plume Fast used because he had been blacklisted at the time he wrote the book. Of the story, the less said, the better, 'lest the viewer gets tipped off to the mind-numbing number of twists and turns.

Gregory Peck was plays David Stillwell, a New York City "cost accountant" who goes about his work in a Manhattan high rise office building. The film is only seconds into the plot when we witness a blackout in the building. As Stillwell and countless others stumble around in the darkness, emotions range from concern to opportunism, as a woman suggests he join a group she is quickly assembling to hold an orgy in the dark. When Stillwell gets to the street, the police are present and investigating the apparent suicide of a noted humanitarian, Charles Calvin (Walter Abel), who has plunged to his death from his office window amidst the chaos. Although Stillwell doesn't know the man, the incident will play a significant role in the story. Stillwell encounters some puzzling reactions to his interactions with people he knows well, in that they don't seem to recognize him. He soon comes to believe that he is suffering from a severe form of amnesia but can't explain why. Things get murkier when he is approached by Sheila (Diane Baker, well-cast in a role that Tippi Hedren and Leslie Caron had originally been considered for.) The elegant Sheila informs Stillwell that they were lovers until he jilted her. That's all just for starters in a scenario that would seem appropriate for a "Twilight Zone" episode. Adding to Stillwell's woes is the realization that he is being stalked by two mysterious hit men (Jack Weston and George Kennedy). He seeks psychiatric help but the doctor (Robert H. Harris) tells him that his psychological problems can't possibly be due to amnesia because Stillwell realizes he can't account for key aspects of his life over a period of two years, which the doctor says is not likely with known forms of the affliction.Stillwell finds himself in increasing danger, unable to trust anyone, as he tries to piece together the puzzle of his life over the last two years. There are clues that a "Mr. Big"- like unseen character known cryptically as "The Major" is orchestrating a deadly conspiracy but Stillwell can't understand his place in it.

Director Dymytryk ratchets up the suspense as Stillwell finds himself in the Hitchcockian position of being a protagonist who is caught up in a web of deadly intrigue that he can't possibly explain. Peck is excellent as the reluctant hero and he and Baker have genuine chemistry, with the viewer unsure as to Sheila's motives and allegiances. Walter Matthau (who, along with George Kennedy, appeared in "Charade") has a showy role as a middle-aged amateur private detective and there are welcome appearances by Leif Erickson, Kevin McCarthy and Anne Seymour. Adding to the viewing pleasure is the crisp B&W cinematography of Joseph MacDonald and a fine score by Quincy Jones. Though much of the film was shot at Universal Studios in Hollywood, there are an abundance of welcome on-location scenes filmed in Manhattan.

The Kino Lorber special edition features a commentary track by film historians Steve Mitchell, Nathaniel Thompson and Howard S. Berger that moves at a fast clip and proves to be very informative  and entertaining. Mitchell, who once lived in New York, provides some interesting insights into the various Gotham locations seen in the film. The trio also point out some interesting analogies to John Frankenheimer's "The Manchurian Candidate", though I would also offer that there are additional similarities in style and tone to Frankenheimer's unnerving 1966 film "Seconds". In that film, Rock Hudson played a man who takes a deadly gamble by intentionally living a life that he knows is a lie. In "Mirage", Gregory Peck is a man who is unwillingly courting death by living a life he knows is a lie. There is also a recently filmed interview with Diane Baker, looking as glamorous as ever. She provides some engaging anecdotes about working on the film, saying she adored Gregory Peck but felt a bit uneasy about their apparent age difference. She also discusses working with Alfred Hitchcock on "Marnie". Rounding out the special features are trailer and still photo galleries. Highly recommended.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

Kino Lorber has released a Blu-ray edition of the little-remembered 1954 "B" movie thriller "Highway Dragnet". Despite it's modest production values, the film is a textbook example of how efficiently films in this genre were made and how much action and plot devices can be worked into a movie with an abbreviated running time (70 minutes, in this case.)  Young Roger Corman wrote the story upon which the screenplay was based and also served as one of the producers. That's about the only aspect of the film that one could point out in terms of separating "Highway Dragnet" from countless other crime dramas shot in a similar style. That isn't meant as a criticism. We're rediscovering how cleverly made so many of these micro-budget flicks were and this one is one of the better examples. The film opens with a brief segment in Las Vegas. Richard Conte is Jim Henry, who has just returned from the conflict in Korea and is now looking to enjoy civilian life. He's on his way back to his family home in the Salton Sea area in California when his pit stop at a Vegas casino results in a tense encounter with an abrasive blonde at the bar. The two publicly quarrel and Jim leaves the premises. The next day he is on a desert highway hitchhiking when cops pull up and arrest him. Turns out the sassy dame was found strangled in her bed and Jim is the prime suspect. He has an alibi that he was out with a friend all night but due to some convoluted plot reasons, the tale can't be easily substantiated. Jim resists the arresting officers, steals one of their guns and makes a getaway in the squad car. A full dragnet is in place when he ditches the police car when he comes across two stranded women who are trying to fix their broken-down car. Jim jumps to the rescue and gets the vehicle working, but also insists on traveling with them, as it gives him cover from the police. His new companions are Mrs. Cummings (Joan Bennett), a fashion photographer and her model Susan Willis (Wanda Hendrix). The women are en route to photo shoot at a local desert resort hotel. When they arrive there, they learn that Jim is wanted for murder. He takes off with them into the desert where the car breaks down and they are at the mercy of the relentless sun. Mrs. Cummings is determined to kill Jim if she has the opportunity but Susan, who is clearly enamored of the ex-serviceman, argues that she thinks he is innocent. The cat and mouse game continues as Jim desperately tries to make it back to his family home, where the man who can exonerate him is supposed to be waiting.

"Highway Dragnetl" is a fun romp, especially if you like the old style of crime movies in which the hero is nonplussed by events and seems to have Bondian abilities to escape every trap. Richard Conte makes a good, stalwart hero and his female co-stars are equally impressive. The climax of the film, shot on location amid flooded homes in the Salton Sea area, is quite atmospheric and impressive, even if the resolution of the crime is bit thin and far-fetched when it comes to revealing the real murderer. Director Nathan Juran wisely eschews studio-bound shots in favor of capitalizing on the desert locations and they add considerably to the quality of the production. "HighwayDragmetl" isn't a film noir classic but it's well-made and thoroughly enjoyable. Recommended, especially since you'll only need 70 minutes to experience it.

The Kino Lorber Blu-ray offers a pristine transfer and a trailer gallery of other "B" crime movies available from the company.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

The Warner Archive has released the 1964 Civil War comedy Advance to the Rear on DVD. The b&w film would certainly have been destined to the bottom of double bills had it not been for its impressive cast: Glenn Ford, Stella Stevens, Melvyn Douglas, Jim Backus and Joan Blondell among them. They must have all seen potential in the script that was not realized on screen. The movie, directed by the usually reliable George Marshall, is a low-budget quickie that has little to recommend aside from its charismatic cast. The story takes place in the early days of the Civil War. Colonel Brackenbury (Melvyn Douglas) is a bumbling martinet, despite having graduated from West Point. He simply wants to sit the war out in as easy a fashion as possible. However, his more assertive second-in-command, Capt. Heath (Glenn Ford), heroically captures some confederate soldiers. This upsets the mutually agreed upon stalemate between both sides and increases the hostilities. An errant horse results in the Union troops going into full retreat (which seems to be a clear inspiration for a plot device seen in the opening credits of the TV series "F Troop".) As punishment, Blackenbury is demoted and is put in charge of a misfit brigade of con men and idiots. The company is sent far away from the war to police a normally quiet Indian reservation. However, they inadvertently become part of a major mission to prevent confederate spies from hijacking a shipment of Union gold that is going through the territory. The bulk of the problem falls to Heath to cope with, as his men are blunderers and his commanding officer is lazy and cowardly.  

The film ambles from one slapstick routine to another until the results are wearying. How many times can one be amused by seeing cavalrymen terrified of the notion of getting on a horse? Stella Stevens is present as a confederate spy masquerading as a hooker in the employ of madam Joan Blondell (who seemed to have a monopoly on the role of madam in every film made during this period). Stevens has little to do but inevitably - and predictably- fall in love with the man she is targeting for information, Capt. Heath. One of the few points of interest in this bland comedy is the extensive usage of the famed riverboat that had been a mainstay on the MGM back lot since the film of Showboat. The boat had been worked into everything the studio did, from sitcoms to spy series. It's good to see this vintage vessel given some extensive screen time.

Advance to the Rear does have a rather amusing performance by Melvyn Douglas, who won the Oscar that year for supporting actor for his superb work in the previous year's Hud. This movie was sandwiched between that classic and another great comedy, The Americanization of Emily. Thankfully, Advance to the Rear was all but ignored. The film also benefits from a sterling supporting cast that includes Andrew Prine, Jim Backus and Alan Hale Jr. (For TV trivia buffs, the latter two actors would go on to star together in Gilligan's Island.) However, the uninspired screenplay and cheap production values undermine the actors at every turn. There is the heartwarming sight of Stella Stevens prancing about in a bustier, but one can't help ponder what the film would have amounted to if it had a better script. Still, it's good that the Warner Archive is making such low-rung titles available. At a minimum, they afford retro movie fans the opportunity to relish great stars affording them some modest viewing pleasures.

The only bonus is the theatrical trailer.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

It is curious that so few major films have depicted the Spanish Civil War, given the fact that it was one of the most significant conflicts of the 20th century. The war began in 1936 and ended in 1939, the same year WWII would erupt. The consequences of the Spanish Civil War were enormous. A coup had been launched against the government and was headed by influential generals, one of whom was Francisco Franco. Tens of thousands of foreigners traveled to Spain to fight with whatever side represented their values. Adolf Hitler backed the revolutionaries and supplied critical weaponry and air power to ensure their victory. (By doing so, he gained valuable combat experience for his forces, knowing they would be used later in the year to invade Poland.) The outcome of the war was significant to the world. Franco emerged as the strongman leader of Spain and would retain power until his death in 1975. By having an ally in Spain, Hitler could count on not having to deal with a military threat when he sought domination over much of Europe. The end of the Civil War saw countless thousands from the losing side frantically immigrate to neighboring France, 'lest they suffer the fate of so many others who died in genocidal executions. 

In 1964, acclaimed director Fred Zinnemann ("High Noon", "From Here to Eternity") adapted fellow filmmaker Emeric Pressburger's novel "Killing a Mouse on Sunday" to the screen as "Behold a Pale Horse" (the title has biblical implications.) The movie opens with some documentary footage of the Spanish Civil War, though the brief narration does little to provide facts or context to those who were not familiar with the history of the conflict.  Manuel Artiguez (Gregory Peck) is a fighter who finds himself on the losing side. He grudgingly crosses the border into France. The story then advances to the late 1950s. Artiguez is living in miserable exile in a dank apartment in a tiny border town.  We are introduced to Vinolas (Anthony Quinn), a powerful and corrupt police commissioner across the border in Spain who has established his own fiefdom where he rules with an iron fist. Vinolas has only one blot on his record: his failure over the last twenty years to capture or kill Artiguez, who periodically sneaks into Spain to commit acts of sabotage and violence. Thus, he has established himself as a legend among friend and foe alike. When Vinolas discovers that Artguez's beloved elderly mother (Mildred Dunnock) is terminally ill, he has her placed in a hospital under guard, presuming that Artiguez will have to make a daring attempt to see her on her death bed. However, his mother gives a young priest, Francisco (Omar Sharif), a letter to deliver to him in France warning him that it is a trap and to stay away. Much of the middle section of the film traces Francisco's determined mission to discover Artiguez's whereabouts and deliver him the letter. He leaves it in the care of a child who idolizes Artiguez and the boy destroys the letter so that Artiguez will not be tempted to make the journey. Tension builds when the ill-tempered Artiguez tries to discern whether the letter really existed and he eventually tracks the priest to Lourdes, where he is making a pilgrimage. However, no one can dissuade Artiguez from taking up the challenge of somehow seeing his dying mother, even if the quest costs him his life.

BY HANK REINEKE

The best moments of John Lemont’s giant-ape movie Konga (1961) come courtesy via the manic performance of the great Michael Gough. As the maddest of all crazed botanists, Gough’s deranged Charles Decker is exactly what we B-movie enthusiasts want in our mad scientist – he’s nothing if not completely batty and bonkers. The actor was presumably a favorite of producer Herman Cohen, the Yank film executive utilizing Gough’s services in such British thrillers as Horrors of the Black Museum (1959), Konga, and The Black Zoo (1963). The aforementioned trio of shockers are not, for all of their intermittent charms, representative of Cohen’s best (read “schlockiest”) work. But they’re OK.

In association with A.I.P. in the U.S., Cohen had already given us a number of iconic Silver-Age horror and sci-fi B-movie classics with I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and I Was a Teenage Werewolf (both 1957). While Konga is not among Cohen’s better efforts, the film certainly never falls short of being dependably wacky and memorable in its unspooling. If you are the forgiving type who enjoys this sort of entertainment, there’s still a lot of fun to be had. That is as long as you’re willing to compromise your personal integrities and to shut down both your critical and mental faculties for ninety-minutes or so.

In Konga, Michael Gough plays Charles Decker, a preeminent British botanist and lecturer at London’s prestigious Essex College. While on expedition in Africa, Decker’s biplane goes missing somewhere over Uganda, the aerial crash killing the pilot upon impact. Decker somehow has managed to bail out of the plane in the seconds preceding the crash. He even – quite improbably - has the wits about him to parachute to safety while cradling a cumbersome 16mm film camera. The scientist is found broken and dazed in the jungle brush by a chimpanzee named Konga. The simian kindly leads him to the guardianship and protection of the Baganda’s, described here as a primitive, mystical tribe distantly related to the Bantu. While this preamble sounds very much like an exciting jump start to the film, we’re – disappointingly - not privy to witnessing any of it as it unfolds. The preceding action is all explained to us second-hand during a cost-saving recount delivered during one of Decker’s classroom sessions.

Though the scientific community presumed Decker had perished in the Ugandan crash, the scientist actually used his time in the jungle studiously. Over the course of a year, he carefully absorbed the methodologies of the tribal witchdoctor who mastered the mysteries of both serum-induced hypnotism and of the insectivorous plant life that grew abundantly in the region. When Decker finally returns with great fanfare to London, he’s consumed by the belief that there’s an as-of-yet-unexplored evolutionary link between plant and human life. The more sober Dean of Essex College disagrees and demands that Decker stop embarrassing the institution with such witchdoctor-inspired nonsense.

With a grudge, Decker is about to prove his skeptics wrong. He converts his backyard greenhouse into a monstrous habitat for flesh-eating plants. (There’s actually more of Roger Corman’s The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) than King Kong on display here in Konga). The botanist is assisted by his amorous if sexually frustrated assistant Margaret (Margo Johns). She is tasked to see that the environment of the glass-enclosed building is kept at exactly ninety-degrees with the appropriate amount of humidity and moisture maintained. This is to best replicate the steamy Ugandan climate so that his carnivorous plants can bloom healthfully.

Though Margaret has been a faithful “secretary, lab assistant, and housekeeper” to Dr. Decker – even having kept up his basement laboratory in the year-long absence when he was presumed dead – he seems little interested in having her as a paramour or wife. “There’s very little room for sentiment in the life of a scientist,” he tells her with a cold sniff. While we have already been clued that Decker is a driven, uncompromising and humorless loner, he nonetheless demonstrates little reserve in his creepy pursuit of Sandra (Claire Gordon), one of his comely teenage students at Essex. This romance goes unrequited as well. Then again, it really had no chance to blossom… especially following Decker’s clumsy attempt to sexually assault the girl amidst his monstrous garden of flesh-eating plants. It would be fair to presume Decker’s teaching career would surely not have survived the scrutiny and retribution of the present #metoo movement.

But this is now and that was then. While this is a fun popcorn-munching movie and a personal guilty pleasure to many, few would argue it’s a work of cinematic art. Even among devotees of this already odd “Giant Ape” genre, Konga is often the subject of winking, good-natured ridicule. Attending a matinee double-bill of Konga and Master of the World upon its release in 1962, New York Times critic Eugene Archer noted the assembled audience of ten-year-olds, “greeted Konga with misplaced guffaws,” while according the Vincent Price film “a smattering of applause.”

BY LEE PFEIFFER

In 1969, the American television network ABC launched their "Movie of the-Week" concept. The anthology series proved to be an immediate hit and ran until 1975. The format was to enlist the talents of well-known stars and cast them in 90 minute original productions that were often used to test audience reactions to see if certain telecasts merited being extended to weekly TV series. The costs were minimal-$350,000 per movie, on average- which wasn't a great deal of money even in those days. The series presented a diverse number of genres ranging from comedies to thrillers and horror. Before it finally ran out of steam, the Movie of the Week concept produced at least four TV classics: "The Night Stalker", "Brian's Song",  "Trilogy of Terror" and "Duel", the film that was so well-received that it launched Steven Spielberg's entrance into directing theatrical feature films. There were also numerous Westerns made as Movies of the Week including the 1972 production, "The Bounty Man", which has now been released on DVD by Kino Lorber. Clint Walker stars as Kinkaid, a much-feared bounty hunter who is known for ruthlessly pursuing his prey. He's earned the respect of his peers, but some of them also resent him because he inevitably collects the biggest rewards by bringing in the most wanted men dead or alive. When we first see him, he has caught up with two wanted men, one of whom he guns down and the other he delivers to the local sheriff. Upon collecting his bounty, Kinkaid is unmoved to learn the young man is scheduled to be hanged the next morning. He then turns his attention to tracking down bigger game: escaped bandit and murderer Billy Riddle (John Ericson), who has also been sentenced to hang. Kinkaid locates the man in a backwater hellhole of a "town" that is so dangerous it doesn't even have a sheriff. Kinkaid gets the drop on Billy but finds him in the company of his slavishly devoted girlfriend Mae (Margot Kidder) and must bring her along, too, 'lest she round up a gang to rescue Billy.

The briskly-paced film follows the trio as Kinkaid must bring them on a three-day journey back to local authorities. Along the way, Billy pulls out every psychological tool to manipulate Mae into helping him affect an escape- including seducing the bounty hunter. Until this point, we no nothing about Kincaid's background but over a campfire chat, Mae gets him to divulge that his silent and sullen demeanor is due to tragic circumstances that affected his wife and young son. Mae, on the other hand, dismisses Kincaid's warnings that she is nothing but a sexual plaything to Billy and that he will drop her if he escapes instead of marrying her, as he has promised. She explains Billy had rescued her from a life of prostitution and she feels he has earned her trust. In addition to the challenge of keeping his two trail mates under constant watch, Kincaid is also being hunted by a group of murderous bounty hunters who are intent on killing Kincaid and his prisoners and then collecting the reward for turning in Billy's body to the sheriff.

"The Bounty Man" could have been a run-of-the-mill "B" western but it's elevated in quality due to a smartly written, believable script by Jim Byrnes and the more-than-competent direction by John Llewelyn Moxey, who had scored a massive ratings hit a couple of years earlier with "The Night Stalker". He milks some genuine suspense leading to a somewhat unexpected ending that avoids the cliches you are waiting for. The performances are all first-rate. Walker, sporting a mustache, has a lean and mean presence. He was generally cast as amiable big lugs but here he exudes a constant sense of menace. Ericson is excellent as the charismatic bad guy and Kidder displays the kind of likable on-screen persona that would lead her to stardom on the big screen. The most startling and impressive performance is by Richard Basehart as the leader of the skanky, almost insanely violent group of bounty hunters who makes their peers in "The Wild Bunch" look like they just stepped out of "Downton Abbey". Basehart usually played sophisticated men of authority but here he is unrecognizable in filthy clothes, stubble on his face and and bottle of booze perpetually carried in his hand.

The Kino Lorber DVD contains a valuable interview with John Llewelyn Moxey filmed shortly before his death earlier this year. He discusses his career in general and has good memories of making "The Bounty Man". The film may have been largely forgotten but Kino Lorber's release will please anyone who enjoys a good Western.

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Los Angeles, CA – This holiday season, every Universal Pictures film from the most popular comedy duo of all time comes home when Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection hits Blu-ray™ for the first time from Shout! Factory.

The Complete Universal Pictures Collection comes loaded with bonus features, including 10 new audio commLentaries, a collectible book, and a bonus disc with more than eight hours of content. Celebrating the 80th anniversary of Abbott and Costello’s first film One Night in the Tropics, the massive 15-disc set is the ultimate tribute to two of the funniest and most enduring comedians in contemporary history.

Get ready to laugh out loud as this collection comes packed with all 28 of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello’s iconic films from the height of their popularity at Universal Pictures, spanning 1940-1965. Featuring their most popular movies such as Buck Privates, Who Done It? and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, this set is filled with some of the most hilarious routines of all time including “Who’s on First?”!

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(Continue reading for complete list of films and special features)

BY LEE PFEIFFER

Few would argue that George C. Scott was one of the greatest actors of stage and screen. His presence in even a mediocre movie elevated its status considerably and his work as the nutty general in "Dr. Strangelove" was described by one critic as "the comic performance of the decade". When Scott won his well-deserved Oscar for Best Actor in "Patton" (which he famously refused), he seemed to be on a roll. His next film, the darkly satirical comedy "The Hospital" predicted the absurdities of America's for-profit health care system in which the rich and the poor were taken care of, with everyone else falling in between. The film earned Scott another Best Actor Oscar nomination despite his snubbing of the Academy the previous year. From that point, however, Scott's choice of film roles was wildly eclectic. There were some gems and plenty of misfires that leads one to believe he was motivated as much by commerce as artistic expression. One of his worst films, the 1974 crime comedy  "The Bank Shot", has been released on Blu-ray with a gorgeous transfer by Kino Lorber. If only the film itself lived up to the quality of the transfer.  It's pretty hard to bungle a comedic crime caper. Alec Guinness used to knock out classics like "The Lavender Hill Mob" , "Kind Hearts and Coronets" and "The Ladykillers" seemingly in his sleep. In the 1970s Hollywood studios were enamored of the works by novelist Donald E. Westlake, whose books provided ample fodder for lightweight caper comedies such as "The Hot Rock" and "Cops and Robbers", both of which had much to recommend about them. Not so with "The Bank Shot". Not having read the novel, it's possible that it had plenty of merits, but suffice it to say that the film's director, Gower Champion, and his equally estimable screenwriter, Wendall Mayes, needed to provide a light hand in transferring it to the screen. Instead, they ended up with a lead foot. 

Scott plays Walter Ballentine, a notorious and famous heist master whose last caper went awry. When we first see him he's serving a life sentence in a desert prison camp run by his arch nemesis, a lawman named Streiger (Clifton James, essentially recreating his role as dopey Sheriff J.W. Pepper from "Live and Let Die", with the addition of constantly smoking foot-long Churchill cigars.)  Ballentine receives a brief visit from one of his confederates in crime, Al Karp (Sorrell Booke), who informs him that he has a plan to help him break out of the prison camp with the intention of joining his new gang. He sneaks Walter the plans for an audacious caper in which the gang will put a small Los Angeles bank on a set of wheels and literally steal it by attaching it to a truck and driving it away. In the first of many preposterous scenes, Ballentine manages to break out of prison using a Caterpillar earth mover and despite the fact that the vehicle moves about fast as a real caterpillar, the police are unable to catch up with him. He meets up with El (Joanna Cassidy), a bored rich beauty who is financing the caper seemingly out of boredom. She and Ballentine meet up with Karp and several other misfits who will work together to pull off the robbery. In order for even a nutball comedy premise to work it has to have its roots in some sense of believability. However the screenplay asks us to believe so many far-fetched premises that is never remotely believable. As with all similar films, the initial stages of the caper go well only to have unexpected twists of fate threaten to thwart the best laid plans of the lovable culprits. Why George C. Scott chose to be involved in this modest enterprise is anyone's guess but it may have been the rare opportunity to work with director Gower Champion, a legend for his work on Broadway. Champion only directed two feature films in his life (the other being the little-remembered 1963 romantic comedy "My Six Loves") and its equally puzzling as to why "The Bank Shot" lured Champion back to the film industry after a full decade. In any event, Champion is the main culprit for the film's failures. He seems determined to recreate the screwball comedies of the Keystone Cops era. Supporting characters dress absurdly, wear ludicrous disguises and the actors who portray them are encouraged to chew the scenery with over-the-top performances. (Among the other talents victimized by Champion's direction is young Bob Balaban.)  Even Scott doesn't emerge unscathed- he sports exaggerated eyebrows that make him resemble Leonid Brezhnev. Champion goes for belly laughs but most fall embarrassingly flat, like that drunk at a party who tries to get laughs by dancing about with a lampshade on his head.  You desperately want to like "The Bank Shot" and occasionally there are a few genuine chuckles to be found amidst the debris, which is all set to a jaunty score by John Morris. However the only crime worth remembering from this caper is that people wasted their money to see it in theaters. 

The Blu-ray release contains an original trailer that features original footage of Joanna Cassidy in a bathtub that plays up the sexual aggressiveness of her character in the film. There is also a trailer for the far superior "Cops and Robbers", which is also available from Kino Lorber.  Kudos to the company for retaining the wonderful poster art by Jack Davis for the sleeve.

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Shout! Factory has released a highly impressive Blu-ray boxed set, "The Anne Bancroft Collection" containing key films from the Oscar-winner's career. Here is the official press release:

Los Angeles, CA – Celebrate the extraordinary film career of actress/writer/director Anne Bancroft in the first-ever collection of her most iconic performances, The Anne Bancroft Collection, on Blu-ray™ December 10^th from Shout! Factory. From Annie Sullivan to Mrs. Robinson, and from Helene Hanff to Anna Bronski, this Oscar^®-winning and profoundly versatile actress delivered some of the most poignant and sharply comic characters in modern film.

The collection, curated by Bancroft’s husband, the inimitable writer/director/producer Mel Brooks, includes the films Don’t Bother To Knock (1952), The Miracle Worker (1962), The Pumpkin Eater (1964), The Graduate (1967), Fatso (1980), To Be Or Not To Be (1983), and for the first time on Blu-ray™, Agnes Of God (1985), and 84 Charing Cross Road (1987). Beautifully packaged with a wealth of bonus features, The Anne Bancroft Collection also includes a new 20-page booklet with an essay by film writer Alicia Malone, that delves into Bancroft’s childhood, early career, and her most profound work.

Born in the Bronx as Anna Maria Louisa Italiano on September 17, 1931, she had an early flair for entertaining a crowd. Taking the stage name Anne Bancroft, she made her silver screen debut in 1952 alongside Richard Widmark and Marilyn Monroe in Don’t Bother To Knock, earning praise for her turn as a lounge singer.

In 1962, after playing Helen Keller’s beloved teacher Annie Sullivan on stage, Bancroft reprised her role on film, winning the Oscar^® for Best Lead Actress. This was Bancroft’s first Oscar^® nomination out of five, and would be her only win, although she would also garner three BAFTAs, two Tony Awards and two Emmys during her career.

It was around this time when Anne Bancroft met her future husband Mel Brooks, whom she would marry in 1964. In 1967, at the age of 35, she appeared on the big screen as the sultry Mrs. Robinson, across from Dustin Hoffman. The Graduate was her first bona fide box office hit, and the now-iconic role won Anne Bancroft a third Academy Award^® nomination. She then appeared in the Jack Clayton-directed The Pumpkin Eater, in which she played a depressed housewife and earned the film’s only Academy Award^® nomination*.

In 1980, when female directors were very scarce, just 16 in the years between 1967 and 1980, Bancroft wrote and directed her first feature film, Fatso. A heartwarming comedy about a man caught between his health and his appetite, starring Dom DeLuise, Fatso was produced by Brooksfilms, the production company owned by Mel Brooks, who had been looking to produce movies that were a breed apart from his signature comedies.

After taking some time off to raise her young son, Max Brooks, Bancroft decided to tackle a wide range of genres and characters. There was the hilarious WWII themed To Be Or Not To Be with Mel Brooks, Agnes Of God in which she played a Mother Superior across from Jane Fonda and Meg Tilly, and 84 Charing Cross Road, in which Bancroft played Helene Hanff, a New York writer who becomes pen pals with a London bookseller.

An overdue tribute to a trailblazing artist, The Anne Bancroft Collection houses all of these films, paying homage to one of the greatest talents of her generation.

The Anne Bancroft Collection Bonus Features

Don’t Bother to Knock

• Isolated Music Score (DTS-HD Mono)
• Theatrical Trailer

The Pumpkin Eater

• “Jeremy Mortimer on Penelope Mortimer”
• “Dinah and Fergus”

The Graduate

• Audio Commentary From 2007 Featuring Director Mike Nichols In Conversation With Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh
• Audio Commentary From 1987 Featuring Film Scholar Howard Suber
• Interview From 2015 With Actor Dustin Hoffman
• Conversation From 2015 Between Producer Lawrence Turman And Screenwriter Buck Henry
• Interview With Film Writer And Historian Bobbie O’Steen About Editor Sam O’Steen’s Work On The Graduate
• Students Of The Graduate, A Short Documentary From 2007 On The Film’s Influence
• The Graduate At 25, A 1992 Featurette On The Making Of The Film Featuring Interviews With Actors Dustin Hoffman And Katharine Ross, Producer Lawrence Turman, And Screenwriter Buck Henry
• Interview With Mike Nichols By Barbara Walters, From A 1966 Episode Of NBC’s Today Show
• Excerpt From A 1970 Appearance By Singer-Songwriter Paul Simon On The Dick Cavett Show
• Screen Tests: Tony Bill And Jennifer Leak, Robert Lipton And Cathy Carpenter, Dustin Hoffman And Katharine Ross
• Trailer

Fatso

• Looking Back On Fatso With Producers Stuart Cornfeld And Mel Brooks
• Interview With Film Historian Maya Montañez Smukler
• Image Gallery
• Press Kit

To Be Or Not To Be

• “Brooks and Bancroft: A Perfect Pair”
• “How Serious Can Mel Brooks Really Get?”
• Profiles
• To Be Or Not To Be: That Is The Trivia!
• Mel Brooks Trailers
• Trailers
• Isolated Score Track (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1)

*1962: Best Actress in a Leading Role, The Miracle Worker; 1964: Best Actress in a Leading Role, The Pumpkin Eater (nominated); 1967: Best Actress in a Leading Role, The Graduate (nominated); 1977: Best Actress in a Leading Role, The Turning Point (nominated); 1985: Best Actress in a Leading Role, Agnes Of God (nominated)

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By Hank Reineke

The Magic Sword (United Artists, 1961) is essentially an imaginative re-telling of the ancient folklore fable of St. George and the Dragon. Of course, this being a Bert I. Gordon production, you can safely bet there’s going to be any number of massive scale monsters lurking about as well. Gordon’s stock-in-trade (beginning with The Amazing Colossal Man in 1957) were back-projected monsters who - more often than not - suffered from radioactive-induced bouts of gigantism. In this fantasy-adventure film, there’s no radioactivity to blame but there are nonetheless giant monsters a-plenty.

St. George is now merely Sir George (Gary Lockwood), a love-struck, somewhat depressed teen. The young man resides in a cramped red-tinted cave along with his sorceress foster mother Sybil (Estelle Winwood), a chimpanzee, and a two-headed servant. George’s biological parents perished in the plague, and ever since he has been selflessly reared and doted upon by his good-hearted foster mom. He’s romantically mooning over the beautiful Princess Helene (Anna Helm) whom he has actually never met. He watches over her breathlessly – and maybe just a wee creepily - through his “Pool of Magic.”

It’s a good thing he did in this case as the Princess finds herself in trouble from the start. Helene is kidnapped in broad daylight by an emerald-eyed ghostly apparition who then spirits her away to the castle of the evil sorcerer Lodac (Basil Rathbone). Lodac defiantly appears before the King shortly after the abduction of the princess, explaining to his Highness that the royal daughter is now his prisoner… and will be fed to his fire-breathing dragon in seven days’ time unless rescued. This grudge is payback for the King’s father having executed Lodac’s eighteen-year old sister for the crime of witchcraft. If the princess is to be saved, Lodac reminds the court that any brave knight choosing to embark on the mission will have to endure seven deadly trials as they undertake the “Perils of the Dark Journey” to his castle.

The court’s bravest knight, Sir Branton (Liam Sullivan) wants to take this challenge alone, but is forced to become only one of a posse when Sir George and an international band of black magic resurrected knights arrive to assist in the rescue to the Princess. On their way to Lodac’s castle, the company will face such terrors as a wolf man-looking ogre, the “boiling crater of death,” a treacherous hag, a fireball spiral, a cavern of ghosts and several other unpleasant obstacles in their attempt to rescue the Princess from her designated fate. I imagine it’s no spoiler to comment that with each new dark challenge, members of Sir George’s rescue party dwindle rapidly in number.

Yes, it’s all very hokey, but I really enjoyed this film. Basil Rathbone is wonderfully evil throughout. Clad entirely in black, caped and sporting a devilish red head scarf, the actor’s famously clipped British pronouncements include such melodramatic wicked lines as “I don’t bargain with mortals, I destroy them!” It’s worth mentioning that this old-school film is refreshingly devoid of any moral equivalencies. The bad guys are really bad in this movie, and the good guys are really good… if not always all that bright in their words and action. Truth be told, Gary Lockwood’s Sir George comes off as bit of a simpleton. If it wasn’t for the magic sword and shield he was gifted with prior to his setting out this film… well, I imagine this film would have had a much shorter running time than it does.

RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES

BY LEE PFEIFFER

I have always been a great admirer of Paul Henning, the crooner-turned-TV producer/writer of some of the best-loved shows of the 1960s. It was Henning who gave a voice to rural audiences by creating such classic TV series as The Beverly Hillbilllies, Petticoat Junction and Green Acres. If you revisit any of them today, they remain far superior to most contemporary sitcoms. Henning not only created shows that have timeless appeal, but he also brainstormed the concept of interweaving characters and plot devices between the series- a stroke of genius that brought cross-promotion marketing to new levels. Henning also prided himself on making his country characters eccentric, but never idiotic. They were simple people living simple lives and if they seemed to exist in a time warp, they were all honest, admirable folks. It was always the sophisticated city slickers who would get their comeuppance at the hands of these "bumpkins". Andy Griffith once told me that it irked him when audiences would say that the actors were just "playing themselves". He pointed out that, in most cases, these actors had long, distinguished careers prior to appearing in rural sitcoms. He wanted to stress that these were outstanding talents and should never have been pigeon-holed as actual country hicks. Paul Henning strictly oversaw quality control on his shows and demanded that every episode by family-friendly. Thus, I was in for quite a shock when I sat down to review MPI's screener copy of the 1981 TV movie Return of the Beverly Hillbillies. I don't recall this particular show, but from the get-go the title is deceiving. The only original Hillbillies are Buddy Ebsen's Jed Clampett and Donna Douglas's Elly May. Irene Ryan, who played Granny, had passed away years before. Max Baer Jr., who played Jethro, had the good sense to stay away from the project. Nancy Kulp reprises her role as Jane Hathaway, but her on-screen boss, the inimitable Raymond Bailey had also died and, like Ryan, his presence is sorely missed. (Henning cast actor Ray Young as Jethro, and although he does his best, we are all too aware that he was not part of the original cast.)

Henning's script is too over-the-top even for a Hillbillies plot device. In this case, President Reagan is desperate to solve the energy crisis. He dispatches Jane Hathaway (now a Washington bureaucrat) to track down the secret formula of Granny Clampett's white lightning, which is deemed to be so powerful it might be useful as a source of fuel. Jane arrives on horseback at Jed Clampett's mountain cabin. In the aftermath of Granny's death, Jethro went on to run his own movie studio and Elly May has opened a zoo. Rather than live alone in his Beverly Hills mansion, Jed has returned to his roots, his only concession to wealth being a bigger cabin that he has constructed. The feeble plot follows Jane and Jed's search around the premises for any remaining jugs of Granny's booze that can be brought to Washington to analyze. She is accompanied by C.D. Medford, a humorless member of the President's team who will use any ruthless method to obtain the formula for the white lightning. (One of the lamest aspects of Henning's script is a repetitive gag in which samples of the booze are repeatedly discovered only to be lost accidentally.) The role of Medford is played by the great Werner Klemperer, who is criminally misused here in a role that diminishes his talents and makes him a truly loathsome character. To compensate for Irene Ryan's absence, Henning created the role of Granny's mother! She is played by another TV legend, Imogene Coca but the character has to be one of the most grating and irritating in the history of the medium. She screeches like a banshee, runs about hitting people with a stick and otherwise making herself unwelcome.

Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the ill-fated venture is Henning's decision to deliberately move away from family fare to smut. That's right, this new, updated version of the series features such wholesome fare as strippers, Asian massage girls, scantily clad teenage "old maids" (young Heather Locklear among them!) and a very embarrassing striptease performed by Klemperer. Why Henning decided he had to degrade his characters in order to appear hip is not known, but he certainly should have known better. There are tasteless jokes about Jed Clampett's sex life (or lack thereof) and one punch line about Auschwitz! I kid you not...I actually had to backtrack to make sure I heard it right. Can you imagine an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies where the "funny" payoff line refers to a Nazi death camp? The movie is peppered with some welcome character actors including perpetual grouch Charles Lane, Lloyd "Shad" Heller, Lurene Tuttle and Earl Scruggs, who performs a musical number. Henning runs out the clock in the last fifteen minutes with an absurd, endless car chase featuring King Donovan in an obnoxious performance that makes Imogene Coca's character look like a model of restraint.  The film is also disappointing in that Elly May and Jed only share the screen together in the last few minutes of the movie. The ill-fated venture was directed by Robert M. Leeds, who also should have known better because he worked on the last season of the original series.

Despite the dreadful aspects of the main feature, I am heartily recommending that you buy the DVD itself, if only because of the superb bonus extras. There is a one hour documentary about Paul Henning that features the man himself in vintage interviews, along with new insights from his daughter Linda (an actress who appears in Return of the Beverly Hillbillies), Max  Baer Jr., Charles Lane and some of the producers and writers who worked on the original show. (Strangely, Donna Douglas is not among them.) They offer some wonderful anecdotes about Henning's triumph in creating three hit series in the 60s  only to have CBS honcho Fred Silverman cancel these favorites in favor of appealing to urban audiences (which turned out to  be a major misjudgment). Henning's talents extended to writing the theme song to The Beverly Hillbillies, which ingeniously tells the entire premise of the scenario in popular ditty that is still being sung today. Other bonus extras include an introduction by Henning's daughter Linda Nelson, a genial lady who clearly adored her father; a wealth of original Kelloggs Corn Flakes ads featuring the cast, original TV promos for the Hillbillies and Green Acres and a promotional short for a never-produced wildlife series featuring Donna Douglas as Elly May.

If you love the show, skip the main event and head straight to those bonus extras....

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