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Now available for the first time ever in any format, experience the complete series hailed as the most frightening ever created for television. Horror legend Boris Karloff (Frankenstein) guides you through 67 unforgettable episodes of suspense, murder and relentless terror, featuring a stellar cast of stars from the golden age of TV. These tales from the minds of such masterful writers as Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Bloch (Psycho), and Cornell Woolrich (Rear Window) include a murderous cursed painting, a supernatural mirror, a demonic tailor’s suit and much more! Now remastered and packed with hours of exclusive, fascinating extras, Thriller is the ultimate must-have collection for any horror or classic television fan. Featured Stars Include: William Shatner, Leslie Nielsen, Mary Tyler Moore, Elizabeth Montgomery, Rip Torn, Richard Chamberlain, Cloris Leachman, Alan Napier (“Batman”), Robert Vaughn (“The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”), Werner Klemperer (“Hogan’s Heroes”), Russell Johnson (“Gilligan’s Island”), Donna Douglas (“The Beverly Hillbillies”), Richard Kiel (“Moonraker”), Marlo Thomas (“That Girl”), Edward Platt (“Get Smart”), Marion Ross (“Happy Days”), Tom Poston (“Newhart”), Natalie Schafer (“Gilligan’s Island”), Richard Long (“The Big Valley”), Ursula Andress (“Dr. No”), and many more! Track This Product The Camelizer is working on your request! We didn't have this product in our database but you have made us aware of its existence and it has been placed in our price checking queue. Within a few minutes, we will collect our first pricing data for this product, and it will then receive regular price checks by the Camels to ensure you are aware of trends as time flows on. You can always go create a price watch for this product, even though we don't currently have its data. So track this product now and get an alert when the price drops! Love,camelcamelcamel
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| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Binding | DVD |
| EAN | 0014381642926 |
| Label | IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT |
| List Price | $149.98 |
| Manufacturer | IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT |
| Product Group | DVD |
| Product Type Name | ABIS_DVD |
| Publisher | IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT |
| Studio | IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT |
| Title | Thriller: The Complete Series |
| UPC | 014381642926 |
| Number Of Items | 14 |
| Format | NTSC |
| Release Date | 2010-08-31 |
| Languages | English |
| Actor | Richard Chamberlain |
| Audience Rating | NR (Not Rated) |
| Original Release Date | 1962-01-01 |
| Region Code | 1 |
| Running Time | 3354 |
| Theatrical Release Date | 1962 |
| Director | Arthur Hiller;Douglas Heyes;Gerald Mayer;John Brahm;Jules Bricken;Mitchell Leisen;Paul Henreid |
| Additional Features | |
| Aspect Ratio | |
| Number Of Discs |
Many products have multiple models (e.g. black edition, white edition, etc.). If you know of any other models of this product with a different MPN/UPC, please add them below.
| Model Name/Type | MPN | EAN/UPC |
|---|
User Reviews: Thriller: The Complete Series
Featured Review
August 31, 2010 at 11:27 am
Reviewed by Timothy E
Pros: Entertaining anthology series from early 1960s
Cons: They do not make them like this anymore
Cons: They do not make them like this anymore
THRILLER Complete Series Deluxe Box Set
Studio: Image Entertainment
Year: 1960-1962
Rated: Unrated
Film Length: 56 hours
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono
Release Date: August 31, 2010
The Series
Thriller is a seldom seen but fondly remembered anthology TV series of the early 1960s hosted by Boris Karloff (Frankenstein, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas). Thriller has been rarely seen in reruns since it went off the air in 1962 but it has a strong and passionate fan base which includes Steven King, who once wrote that Thriller was "the best horror series ever put on TV." (Danse Macabre, Everett House, 1981.) Thriller premiered on NBC-TV on September 13, 1960, and aired its last first-run episode on April 30, 1962.
It is little wonder that Thriller is so well remembered, so many years after it went off the air, given the high quality of talent involved in this series. Boris Karloff is one of the most famous horror film actors of all time. In addition to hosting every episode, Karloff also played roles in a couple of episodes in each season. The actors involved in this suspense anthology included Leslie Nielsen, Richard Chamberlain, Mary Tyler Moore, William Shatner, Rip Torn, Robert Vaughn, Richard Kiel, Richard Anderson, Tom Poston, Marlo Thomas, Natalie Schaefer, Cloris Leachman, Russell Johnson, Edward Platt, Elizabeth Montgomery, Ursula Andress, Donna Douglas, and many others. Directors included Arthur Hiller, Ida Lupino, Douglas Heyes, Paul Henreid, and John Newland. Series writers and source material included Charles Beaumont, Robert Bloch, Cornell Woolrich, Philip MacDonald, Robert E. Howard, and even Edgar Allan Poe. Original music was composed for the series by Jerry Goldsmith, Morton Stevens, and Pete Rugolo. Thriller even inspired a comic book series that continued publication for 18 years after the series was canceled. The comic book series Thriller was retitled Boris Karloff’s Tales of Mystery after the series went off the air and ran for over 90 issues.
The other prominent anthology series of that era included Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone. Alfred Hitchcock Presents dealt primarily with crime noir, whereas The Twilight Zone leaned more towards fantasy and science fiction; in comparison, Thriller episodes encompassed both genres. The early episodes of Thriller presented a number of suspense stories that would have been right at home on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which was also still airing on NBC TV at the time. The best episodes of Thriller are arguably those episodes that leaned more towards fantasy and the supernatural, and I am sure those are the episodes that are so memorable to Steven King.
This reviewer has always enjoyed the Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents but had never had the opportunity to see this series until Image Entertainment remastered and released all 67 original episodes on DVD. I can see now why this series is remembered so well, even though it has rarely been aired anywhere since the early 1960s. Anyone who enjoys the suspense and horror of other anthology series of that era will almost certainly enjoy Thriller hosted by Boris Karloff.
Video
The series is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Image Entertainment has done a terrific job of restoring these episodes. It seems natural to compare the transfers here to those in Image Entertainment’s other major TV collection from that era, the Twilight Zone Definitive Edition DVD collections. Unfortunately, any other TV series from that era will come up short against the Twilight Zone DVD sets, no matter how much restoration is performed. It may be more fair to compare the video quality here to other TV shows of that era, not merely The Twilight Zone, which has set the bar artificially high. I surmise that the masters for Thriller have never been maintained over the years to the same standard as The Twilight Zone. Other than The Twilight Zone, Thriller does look better than almost any other TV series from that era transferred to DVD. Clarity of image is fine throughout. Some minor dirt and debris is minimally present. Stock footage predictably has the worst presentation. Fortunately, there is little stock footage used in these episodes. I was concerned about compression artifacts creeping in since there are up to 5 hour-long episodes on each disc. I observed some minimal mosquito noise but that is all. It is safe to say that these episodes have never looked better than they do in this set.
The episodes appear to be complete and uncut in their original network format. The average runtime per episode is in the 50 minute range, which is consistent with an hour-length show from that era without commercials. Syndicated episodes have footage trimmed down to a running length closer to 46 minutes. I was not fortunate enough to see these episodes in their original network run but nothing has been cut as far as I can determine. The closing credits of each episode even include the "Revue Studios" logo and the NBC network logo from the early 1960s; little bits like this are usually the first to be cut in syndication prints.
Audio
The English Dolby Digital mono tracks are excellent, given the vintage of this series. Some television series from that era suffer from audible hiss and popping when transferred to DVD; not so with Thriller. The sound mix is appropriate with dialogue always properly audible over music and sound effects. The music by Jerry Goldsmith, Morton Stevens, and Pete Rugolo has probably never sounded so good. Isolated music scores for selected episodes are included in the special features described below.
Special Features
Image has outdone itself with its wealth of special features included in this complete series set. Almost every episode has a special feature included, whether it be a commentary, isolated music score, episode promo, or all of the above. Listed below are all 67 episodes with the special feature(s) in parentheses:
The Twisted Image(Audio Commentary by Arthur Hiller and Steve Mitchell, Episode Promo)
Child’s Play(Episode Promo)
Worse Than Murder(Episode Promo)
The Mark of the Hand(Episode Promo)
Rose’s Last Summer
The Guilty Men(Episode Promo)
The Purple Room(Audio Commentary by Richard Anderson and Steve Mitchell)
The Watcher(Episode Promo)
Girl With A Secret(Episode Promo)
The Prediction(Audio Commentary by Arthur Hiller and Steve Mitchell, Episode Promo)
The Fatal Impulse (Episode Promo)
The Big Blackout
Knock Three-Two-One
Man in the Middle(Episode Promo)
The Cheaters(Audio Commentary by Gary Gerani, Isolated Music Score by Jerry Goldsmith)
The Hungry Glass(Audio Commentary by Gary Gerani and Marc Scott Zicree)
The Poisoner(Isolated Music Score by Jerry Goldsmith)
Man in the Cage(Episode Promo)
Choose A Victim(Episode Promo)
Hay-Fork and Bill-Hook(Isolated Music Score by Jerry Goldsmith)
The Merriweather File(Episode Promo)
The Fingers of Fear(Episode Promo)
Well of Doom(Audio Commentary by Gary Gerani and David Schow, Isolated Music Score by Jerry Goldsmith, Episode Promo)
The Ordeal of Dr. Cordell(Episode Promo)
Trio for Terror(Audio Commentary by Gary Gerani and David Schow, Episode Promo)
Papa Benjamin(Audio Commentary by Steve Mitchell and Ted Post)
Late Date(Audio Commentary by Larry Blamire and David Schow, Isolated Music Score by Jerry Goldsmith)
Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper(Audio Commentary by Alan Brennert and David Schow, Isolated Music Score by Jerry Goldsmith)
The Devil’s Ticket(Episode Promo)
Parasite Mansion(Audio Commentary by Steve Mitchell and Beverly Washburn, Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
A Good Imagination(Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
Mr. George (Audio Commentary by Lucy Chase Williams and Gary Gerani, Isolated Music Score by Jerry Goldsmith)
The Terror In Teakwood(Audio Commentary by Jon Burlingame and Steve Mitchell, Isolated Music Score by Jerry Goldsmith)
The Prisoner in the Mirror(Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
Dark Legacy (Isolated Music Score by Jerry Goldsmith)
Pigeons From Hell(Audio Commentary by Gary Gerani)
The Grim Reaper(Audio Commentary by Ernest Dickerson, Gary Gerani, Tim Lucas, and David Schow, Isolated Music Score by Jerry Goldsmith, Episode Promo)
What Beckoning Ghost?(Isolated Music Score by Jerry Goldsmith)
Guillotine(Isolated Music Score by Jerry Goldsmith)
The Premature Burial(Audio Commentary by Ernest Dickerson, Tim Lucas, and David Schow, Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
The Weird Tailor(Audio Commentary by Daniel Benton and Gary Gerani, Isolated Music Score by Jerry Goldsmith)
God Grante That She Lye Stille(Isolated Music Score by Jerry Goldsmith)
Masquerade(Isolated Music Score by Jerry Goldsmith)
The Last of the Somervilles(Isolated Music Score by Jerry Goldsmith)
Letter to a Lover(Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
A Third for Pinochle(Audio Commentary by Ron Borst and Jim Wynorski, Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
The Closed Cabinet(Isolated Music Score by Jerry Goldsmith)
Dialogues With Death(Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
The Return of Andrew Bentley(Audio Commentary by Gary Gerani and David Schow, Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
The Remarkable Mrs. Hawk(Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
Portrait Without A Face(Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
An Attractive Family(Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
Waxworks(Audio Commentary by Ron Borst and Gary Gerani, Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
La Strega(Audio Commentary by Gary Gerani, Steve Mitchell, and Craig Reardon, Audio Commentary by Jon Burlingame and Steve Mitchell, Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
The Storm(Audio Commentary by Larry Blamire and David Schow, Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
A Wig For Miss Devore(Audio Commentary by Patricia Barry and Steve Mitchell, Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
The Hollow Watcher(Audio Commentary by Larry Blamire, Gary Gerani, and David Schow)
Cousin Tundifer(Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
The Incredible Doktor Markesan(Audio Commentary by Gary Gerani and David Schow, Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
Flowers of Evil(Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
‘Til Death Do Us Part
The Bride Who Died(Isolated Music Score by Jerry Goldsmith)
Kill My Love(Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
Man of Mystery(Audio Commentary by Larry Blamire and David Schow, Isolated Music Score by Morton Stevens)
The Innocent Bystanders
The Lethal Ladies
The Specialists
Also included in special features is a Thriller Series Promotion with Boris Karloff (6:45), a promotional film with footage from the series sent to sponsors at the time. There is also a Photo Gallery with promotional stills from the series.
Conclusion
Thriller is an entertaining and well-produced anthology series from the early 1960s. Thriller is not qualitatively better than The Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock Presents, in my opinion, but that being said, if you enjoy those series, then you will probably enjoy Thriller as well. The video and audio presentation are fine, even if they do not match the sublime quality of Image’s Twilight Zone DVD sets. There is an abundance of special features with audio commentaries, isolated music scores, and/or episode promos for almost every episode. If you enjoy anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock and Rod Serling, you will probably also enjoy Thriller hosted by Boris Karloff.
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Interview between Sara Karloff and Timothy Ewanyshyn from HTF about the Release of Thriller: The Complete Series on DVD:
On August 31, 2010, Image Entertainment will be releasing a complete DVD series set of Thriller, the acclaimed horror anthology series hosted by Boris Karloff that aired on the NBC network from 1960 until 1962. I have the entire set on hand now and am in the process of screening the episodes for my review to be posted in the next week or so, prior to its release date on August 31. I will post a link in this thread to my review after it is posted on the forum.
Boris Karloff''s daughter, Sara Karloff, was gracious enough to talk to the Home Theater Forum regarding her father's career on stage, television, and film, and the building anticipation for the release of Thriller on DVD.
HTF: I understand that you were actually born on your father’s 51st birthday.
SARA KARLOFF: I was. You have done your homework.
HTF: Well, I try to. According to reports I read, your father was in costume, as the Frankenstein monster actually, when he received news that your mother was in labor and he went to the hospital in full costume.
SARA KARLOFF: Well actually I was born when he was making The Son of Frankenstein, and I really think that is an urban legend that he did go in full costume.
HTF: Well it would be a great story if it were true.
SARA KARLOFF: It would be a wonderful story but no, he didn’t go in costume, they wouldn’t let him off the set in that.
HTF: I imagine. What was it like being the daughter of such a famous actor?
SARA KARLOFF: Well you know my father didn’t bring his work home. He was the antithesis of the roles that he played so at home he was a very modest, quiet, gentle, funny, articulate, well-read, well educated man and just a lovely human being. His name, of course, in certain places stood out like a sore thumb but at home he was certainly different than the roles he played.
HTF: I have heard that he had a much sweeter disposition than you might expect from an actor who played such "monstrous" roles.
SARA KARLOFF: Oh, he did indeed. He was lovely, he was a very gentle typical English gentleman.
HTF: Do you have a favorite memory of your father?
SARA KARLOFF: Not really, just that he was very self-effacing, a very good listener, he was the consummate professional, he was respected by everyone who knew him professionally and adored by everyone who knew him personally. As far as a father, he set high goals for himself and he expected that I do the best I could at everything that I endeavored.
HTF: Among all of the roles he played, do you know if he had a favorite role?
SARA KARLOFF: I think he had favorite roles at different times for different reasons in his career. Certainly, Frankenstein, the three times he played that role, it made such a pivotal difference in his life, both personally and professionally, because Frankenstein was his eighty-first film and hardly anybody had seen the first eighty so for that reason alone that was a personal favorite of his during that part of his career, he was an overnight success after 20 years in the business. I think that the 3 films he made with Val Lewton, Bedlam and Body Snatchers and Isle of the Dead. He enjoyed working with Val Lewton, he liked him immensely, they respected each other, they were both well-read well-educated men and those films have wonderful scripts, wonderful direction, they were very atmospheric, they came along at a time in my father’s career in the 40s when the horror films were fading out and my father enjoyed doing those really good fine films at that point in his career. I think later on when he had an opportunity to work with Peter Lorre and Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone doing The Raven and A Comedy of Terrors. Those old men had such a good time on the set spoofing their own boogeyman images and playing practical jokes on one another, driving Roger Corman crazy on the set, I think they enjoyed that time in their career when they reached a point that they could turn their iconic images back around on themselves, spoof their own boogeyman images, that was great fun for them at that stage. Those were favorite times. I know that he loved working with Peter Bogdanovich, on Targets, that was one of my father’s literally one of his last films, and it was a first for Peter, first in direction and writing and acting. Corman had 10 minutes of Karloff time left and gave Peter Bogdanovich the assignment of using that time as some form of vehicle, and Peter wrote Targets and directed it and actually created it and then performed in it with my father and I know my father said "Do I really have to say all of those terrible things about myself?" but it was great casting in casting my father as a fading horror screen star at that point in his life and my father really enjoyed doing that film with Peter. He had a soliloquy towards the end of the film and he did it, a rather long one, he did it in one take and the entire crew stood up and applauded and that brought tears to my father’s eyes. That was a lovely exit line for my father personally and that was a favorite of his and it is one of my favorite films of my father’s. It had a very short shelf life, or screen life rather, because it was shown during the assassination time of Bobby Kennedy and it was taken off the market but now it is back out and its on DVD and it is really a very fine film so I think that was one of my father’s favorite films too so as I say I think he had various favorites at various times for various reasons.
HTF: Do you have a personal favorite of your own that may not have been mentioned by you that may not have been of your father’s favorite roles necessarily?
SARA KARLOFF: No, I like Comedy of Terrors, I love to watch him play a dirty old man as he did in that film and I know that he was having such a good time and I got to visit that set, and I adored watching him in Targets because he was not just playing himself, I could just see him in that. I loved his Broadway work. I got to see him in The Lark with Julie Harris and he adored working with her and adored her as a person and recognized what a magnificent actor she was although she was very young at the time. I got to watch him in Peter Pan and he loved working with children. Unfortunately, I never got to see him in Arsenic and Old Lace. I loved his doing the Grinch, that is a family treasure, he won a Grammy for that and that’s just such a Christmas classic every year and our family just treasures that. There are all sorts of parts in my father’s career that as a family we adore. I loved the children’s albums that he recorded for Caedmon, now owned by Harper Collins, Rudyard Kipling, just those stories, and Thumbelina and Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales. He could do anything with his voice so those are family treasures too and or course the TV work he did. In 1949 he moved back to New York from LA and embraced the medium of television and he starred on all of the television shows of the day and again had an opportunity to spoof his boogeyman image on shows like Carol Burnett and Rosemary Clooney and then he had 3 television series of his own, Thriller being certainly the most well known and I think the best and I think the fans are just going to be thrilled when this new set of 14 DVDs comes out. It is sort of a holy grail of my father’s television work. The scripts were so good, some of which were made into television series of their own, individual episodes, some of them were made into films, the writing was so good, Robert Bloch wrote some of them, the direction was good, Ida Lupino, even Ray Milland directed one, and then they had such a wonderful variety of actors, Cloris Leachman, Robert Vaughn, Mary Tyler Moore, George Kennedy, and Mort Sahl, and the scripts were wonderful, they were terrifically not just entertaining but engrossing and intriguing and Thriller was just a gem and it is a shame it only ran 2 years and I think the fans have been waiting and waiting. I know I have letters and e-mails and phone calls with queries from fans through the years wondering why it has not been released before. Image Entertainment has just done a beautiful job of restoring it and adding extras to the discs. I think it’s just going to be a treasure trove of Karloff work for the fans who have waited so long for it.
HTF: Do you remember which episodes or stories may have been spun off into other things?
SARA KARLOFF: Only a couple of them do I remember but I know one that Robert Bloch wrote was called The Darkroom, I think, and it was spun off in 1981 into an NBC TV series. There is another one that Peter Cushing turned into a horror anthology called Asylum, and Christopher Lee turned one into a horror anthology called The House That Dripped Blood, and I think there is one more that I can’t remember. These anthologies and this TV series just came out of a single TV episode so that’s amazing for a TV series to have such good writing in a single episode that a whole series spins off of it or a whole anthology spins off of it.
HTF: I think it is telling for a series that ran for only 2 seasons that it is so fondly remembered so many years later.
SARA KARLOFF: Oh, I do too, it’s remarkable. I mean it’s 50 years.
HTF: Even though it’s a little before my time, I have always been a fan of TV shows from that era like The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents and I had never seen an episode of Thriller until the other night. I was sent a screener copy of a couple of episodes and I was very impressed with it. I understand that your father not only narrated all of the episodes and appeared in them but also played roles in a number of episodes as well.
SARA KARLOFF: That’s true, he did. He narrated them and introduced them but he tailored his introductions and narrations for each particular episode, he didn’t just do a taped interview that was stamped on or glued to each episode of the series. He did a particular interview and narration for each and every episode and he knew the material backwards and forwards, and he enjoyed doing it. His introductions finished with the same line and he enjoyed teasing the audience with what was in store for them, and then he enjoyed acting in those scenes that he did. It was his favorite, he really enjoyed doing it, and it ran at the same time, not the same time zone, but at the same time as Hitchcock did, and unfortunately studio politics caused it to be taken off the air after 2 years because it was immensely popular when it came to its conclusion.
HTF: Now that I have seen a little bit of Thriller, I am looking forward very much to seeing the entire series and I agree, I think Image has done a terrific job on restoring the video and audio elements, so I think fans are in for a real treat. Is there anything else you would like to comment on in closing?
SARA KARLOFF: I am delighted that the fans have given my father’s legacy the long life that they have and I appreciate their interest and I know they will be impressed with the DVD box set that Image has done for them with Thriller. It is going to be beautiful for them.
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