Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) Update: First "Two" films Releases (1 Viewer)

[David Von Pein]

I have a feeling that this will do quite well for MPI.

Hope you're right.
And, hopefully, "Hound" and "Adventures" will follow suit shortly.

(Hey...Does that extra nice deal @ B.Buy on D.V.Dyke save you an ADDITIONAL $20, PLUS the $20 rebate offer? If so...Yahoo!! Can hardly afford NOT to buy them...esp. considering it's the greatest sitcom ever made. )

 

[Nicodemus]

I have tried to watch Rathbone's interpretation of Holmes but never learned to like it. That's because I think Jeremy Brett's portrait of Holmes was far more believable and he also brought forward Holmes' problems with cocaine. Which might also affect my opinion is the fact that this Holmes-series came probably from the same people at Grenada who's doing Poirot, so they truly know how to bring a victorian England to life.

Just an opinion.

 

[Shane_Anthony]

Do all 4 films have a commentary??

 

[EdwardKarlinski]

Which might also affect my opinion is the fact that this Holmes-series came probably from the same people at Grenada who's doing Poirot, so they truly know how to bring a victorian England to life.

Poirot's adventures do not take place in the Victorian era. They begin in 1920 and continue through 1975 in real time. So, I don't know why this would effect your opinion of Holmes films.

 

[Nicodemus]

Of course Poirot's not victorian, I explained my meaning bit carelessly. What I meant was that if they can do Poirot's era (1920's etc.) so well as they do, one can trust they know how the create a believable victorian society and atmosphere.

 

[mark-edk]

I've watched the first movie ("Voice of Terror") and it's a terrific transfer: picture and sound could not be better. Avoid the chapter menu, though, if you haven't seen this film before, as it cavalierly gives away the identity of the "voice of terror" in one of the chapter titles!

 

[Paul Drake]

Avoid the chapter menu, though, if you haven't seen this film before, as it cavalierly gives away the identity of the "voice of terror" in one of the chapter titles!

Mark, thanks for pointing this out. I've read this elsewhere just before I saw your post. Supposedly MPI used one person to write the chapter titles for VOT and someone else for the other features. I can understand why the VOT writer was not retained!

Still, this should be an enjoyable set. I'm very much looking forward to it arriving in the mail sometime soon.

Hopefully consumers will purchase a lot of these and show the studios that there is a market for classic mysteries.

 

[William Miller]

The box set says "loaded with extras".

Whoever wrote that must have been "loaded".

Disc 1 -- No extras
Disc 2 -- No extras
Disc 3 -- No extras
Disc 4 -- Commentary track
2 1/2 minute poster gallery

The films look great. There is a nice booklet. Each film does have subtitles and scene selections and maybe MPI considers those to be "extras".

There is no listing anywhere on the box or booklet as to where the "loaded extras" are, you just have to look at each DVD to find out.

Maybe I am missing a giant "Easter egg".

It's worth getting but don't expect too much extra besides the movies.

 

[John Hodson]

That's slightly disappointing; apologies to Dan Ramer!

---
So many films, so little time...

 

[David Von Pein]

From "Digital Bits" ...........

>>> "The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - The first two appearances of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Holmes and Watson. ... Coming on DVD from MPI in early 2004."

 

[Paul Drake]

My set arrived on Friday and I watched all 4 films over the weekend.

The audio is excellent (clear and hiss free) as far as I can tell (subtitles too which is a great plus). The video is almost perfection. I say "almost" because the second film ("Secret Weapon") has several very annoying cases of "picture bounces" when scene changes occur in the first fourth of the film. They only last a split second, but are quite irritating. I don't know if it's a problem with the source material or the transfer, but it's irritating.
This problem occurs to a much lesser extent in the third film. Let me emphasize that these defects don't occur in every scene, just a handful.

Still, the images have never looked better. There are very few speckles and print blemishes. In fact I can only remember one instance of a torn frame showing on screen and that is from the 4th film ("Faces Death") which I understand was in terrible condition when UCLA got it.

There are extensive liner notes which I found interesting and informative. The commentary started off dry, but quickly improved and proved to be quite enjoyable. Mr. Miller is correct, there are no other features to speak of. The "photo/poster" gallery is a throwaway 150 second feature. I would have rather had the trailers and had the poster art used as part of the insert.

I will be curious to see how this does for MPI. My local Borders and Best Buy stores are not carrying it.

 

[David Von Pein]

I will be curious to see how this does for MPI.

It's #171 (to date) on Amazon's Best-Selling DVDs list. Not bad at all.

Doing even better at DVD Empire (#130).

Looking forward to all 3 of these S.H. sets.

 

[Jason_Els]

Best Buy -- Didn't have it

Circuit City -- Didn't have it

FYE (2 different stores)-- Didn't have it

Coconuts -- Didn't have it

Suncoast MPC -- Didn't have it

It's a mystery!
:frowning:

 

[EdwardKarlinski]

I haven't found it in any stores either. I also could not find The Return Of Sherlock Holmes. MPI has some distribution problems.

 

[David Von Pein]

I haven't found it in any stores either. I also could not find The Return Of Sherlock Holmes. MPI has some distribution problems.

The lack of the S.H. boxed set in B&Ms doesn't surprise me at all really. We have 4 really, really old B&W films that appeal (it seems--unfortunately) to a very limited niche of individuals. I'd have been very surprised if you HAD been able to find it in a variety of retail physical outlets.

(I'm actually a bit surprised, as well, that The Dick Van Dyke Show boxed sets are showing up at places like Best Buy, et al. Again, on the whole, there doesn't seem to be a wealth of overwhelming interest in this show either. Again, very sad...because it's an outstanding TV program. But, I suppose, many people/retailers feel it's "just too old/dated". But I'm glad people are finding these sets at the B&Ms to be sure.)

(P.S. -- Speaking of B&M "Availability vs. Unavailability": Did/Do retail stores stock "The Twilight Zone" boxed sets? Or the individual TZ discs? I've yet to see one TZ disc at a physical store.)

 

[Larry Sutliff]

I watched SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VOICE OF TERROR last evening, and not only was the film terrific, but the transfer was absolutely gorgeous. One of the finest black and white transfers I've ever seen on DVD.

I was able to get the four titles seperately very inexpensively from a friend, so I don't have the boxset. But I can find out everything I need to know about these marvelous films from books like THE FILMS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES by Chris Steinbrunner, and UNIVERSAL HORRORS by John & Michael Brunas and Tom Weaver, so it's no big loss for me.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I've seen both box sets and individual volumes at different Newbury Comics, Virgin Megastore, Tower, and Best Buy locations in the northeast. Best Buy was running a promotion for TZ sets a while back similar to their Sopranos deal where you save a little more if you buy more than one season or set.

 

[Paul Drake]

(P.S. -- Speaking of B&M "Availability vs. Unavailability": Did/Do retail stores stock "The Twilight Zone" boxed sets? Or the individual TZ discs? I've yet to see one TZ disc at a physical store.)

I see TZ all the time at various B&M. I suspect that these are big sellers. I don't think it's a matter of whether a show is "vintage" or "new" that determines B&M placement, it's distribution as Mr. Karlinski pointed out. "I Love Lucy", "I Spy", "Van Dyke", "Avengers", etc. all show up with some regularity in stores.

Had a major studio been releasing the Holmes set, I would think that you would see a lot more of these in stores. The market for vintage product, while not at the "Star Wars" level, is quite strong. If it wasn't you wouldn't see Warners et al aggressively releasing their classic films.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Best Buy seems to be getting into TV on DVD in a big way, so the Dick Van Dyke show doesn't seem surprising at all; I bet they sold a lot of them the way they were promoting it. There were quite a few copies when I bought mine and not many left last night.

But I've learned that they won't have catalog titles on release date unless they're specifically shown in their ads. Sometimes they show up a couple weeks or months later (they never did get the Don Knotts comedies, AFAIK), but I've taken to just ordering that kind of thing online. That's what I did with the SH set (from DDD, shipped in a couple of days).

 

[David Von Pein]

S.H. Collection #3 Box Art ........