Arrest & Trial

Re: Arrest & Trial

Amazing! I was just glancing through a TV nostalgia book that a co-worker brought in ("How Sweet it Was", pub. in 1966) and came across a photo from "Arrest and Trial", thinking "now there's a show I'd like to see" and voila! Many assume that Chuck Connors went from "Rifleman" to "Branded" but after the conlusion of the former in 1963, he went on to play defending attorney John Egan in this 90 minute drama (which had but one season and 30 episodes). There's a nice little mini-review of "Arrest and Trial" at imdb.com.

Nine of the 30 episodes will be represented on this set but unfortunately the episode which was nominated for no less than 3 Emmys, "Journey into Darkness" is not one of them. That one starred Roddy McDowell. Oddly enough, the last two episodes on disc three (#21, #3) are out of order relative to the preceding seven.

Guest stars and episode number:

disc 1

4. James MacArthur, Barry Sullivan
7. Paul Comi, Leif Erickson, Joseph Schildkraut
11. Martin Sheen, Everett Sloane

disc 2

15. Forrest Compton, Joe Mantell, Mickey Rooney
22. Nick Adams, Whit Bissell, Michael Constantine
23. David Carradine, Andrew Duggan, Dabs Greer, Dewey Martin

disc 3

30. Jim Backus, Cesare Danova, Edward Platt, Jack Weston
21. Marianna Hill, Ken Lynch, Arthur O’ Connell, Alejandro Rey, Robert F. Simon
3. Don Durant, Madlyn Rhue, Harold J. Stone

Very excited about this one--great find, Bob! You're our resident classic tv treasure hunter!

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It would be nice to see them do complete season sets of these short series instead of just releasing a handful of episodes. What's stopping them?

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"Arrest and Trial" is quite the obscure series (though apparently a well acted and produced show). Since its debut over 40 years ago I've never even seen a single still shot from the show (until yesterday) much less given the opportunity to view an actual episode. Recall that a much higher profile series of similar vintage, namely "Route 66" went through a 'testing of the waters' phase with a 'best of' set. I don't expect A&T to be a big seller here--but just really pleased that some of the episodes are being released at all. Who knows, perhaps Timeless will go ahead and give us all 30 episodes in time.

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Finding suitable affordable prints - they are sourcing their releases from clean transfered 16mm prints located from private collectors and other sources.

According to information,They are doing this to keep cost down as Universal charges as much as $5000 PER EPISODE to transfer from the master prints!

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Exactly. They can't just snap their fingers and come up with a complete set of prints on a series. Due to Universal's ridiculous in-house transfer costs, no one is able to afford to have them work off of the 35mm elements. What series from the 50s or 60s would sell enough to cover transfer costs that are in the six figure range? That's why even Shout Factory is going off pre-existing tape transfers for Ironside and McHale's Navy. At least they exist on tape. More obscure shows from that era do not. So unlike a normal operation where you would license a show and they would provide you with the elements, these guys license the rights and then you have to find your own elements as best you can. That doesn't lend itself to being able to source complete runs so easily.

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I'm with you on that, Bob. This is a really rare show that I never thought would see the light of day, mainly because of its 90-minute running time. Now, if only "Virginian" and "Name of the Game" will finally come out of those Universal mothballs and on DVD someday during my lifetime , I'd personally be a happy camper.

Re: Arrest & Trial

Thanks for the details on this set, Bob. It's odd that in going by aired order, the episode you saw (#4) was preceded by the last episode on the last disc of the set. "Arrest and Trial" was up againt the latter half of "The Ed Sullivan Show" and the full hour of "The Judy Garland Show" on CBS and "Grindl" (one season comedy) and "Bonanza" on NBC in its 8:30-10:00pm Sunday night slot. Tough competition, to be sure! I agree with you that the incongruity of Chuck Connors in a modern courtroom setting, fresh from "Rifleman" would have to be rather jarring. One can almost envision him defending North Fork's own Micah Torrance following a night of binge drinking and subsequent criminal intent.

You stated that you were surprised by the image quality--would you say then that these are comparable to the episodes on the "Route 66" set? (Excepting the 3-4 nicely transferred ones, of course).

US Network Telvevision Schedule for 1946-present can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963-64...ision_schedule (scroll to the bottom for complete list)

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All of the ARREST AND TRIAL shows are terrific with superb performances by Arthur O'Connell ("The Best There Is"), Joseph Schildkraut ("Whose Little Girl Are You?"), Nick Adams ("A Roll of the Dice" directed by Lewis Milestone with terrific location work in LA and Vegas c. 1964). Best of all is Mickey Rooney in "Funny Man with a Monkey": it's a tough, unsentimental show that blows away anything that you'll ever see on contemporary tv. All these Timeless westerns and shows like ARREST AND TRIAL were created under the auspices of Lew Wasserman at Universal. They represent the black-&-white prehistory (as does "Alfred Hitchcock Presents") for the later MCA/Universal color shows like "Ironsides," "The Virginian," "Columbo," "Battlestar Galactica," and "Magnum PI." ARREST AND TRIAL was one of the forerunners of the tv movie (which Wasserman created).This is great TV and TV history, but frankly, I found the surviving transfers inferior to "Route 66," "Checkmate" (produced by Hitchcock's associate producer Herbert Coleman), and "Riverboat." Still I would recommend ARREST AND TRIAL without hesitation.

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Well, I certainly will have to get this set for the reasons Bob stated and also for the fact that Nick Adams has a prominent role in one episode. That was kind of the deal maker for me anyway.

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Received the first of my 'Timeless' releases yesterday 'The Restless Gun'.

24 episodes on 3 single sided discs. As I think Bob mentioned, Timeless use standard cases in a slip folder. They do seem a bit old-fashioned & if you purchase all 6 or 7 of their releases will take up a lot of space on the shelf. Slimlines would be preferable.

Apart from that I am pleased with this release. To be fair only viewed one episode & spot checked the others so this is a general assessment.Knowing they were using old 16mm elements my expectations were not great in terms of quality. I think anticipation has a lot to do with how you judge a series. A lot was expected from 'Route 66' for example, so when it didn't match up to the hype the disappointment was more keenly felt.It works in reverse too, & I'm happy to say this is the case here.

Nothing like the pin sharpness or detailed contrast of the monochrome Paramount releases , but still decent,clear prints, subject to the occasional hairline & speckles etc.Having only seen fuzzy multi-gen copies previously this was a revelation.Certainly a cut above the likes of Alpha & Mill Creek PD material. Happily they have also left the (very brief) opening credits intact.If their other releases maintain the same standard I will be pleased.

Of particular interest, content wise, is the 1st episode. I had assumed this would be 'Duel at Lockwood' the opening segment of the series. However it is the pilot, which from this print appears to be an episode of the 'Schlitz Playhouse. ' It is actually based on the radio series 'The Six Shooter'. John Payne plays the role of Britt Ponsett ,the original name of the character on radio played by James Stewart.For whatever reason his name was changed to Vint Bonner for the series proper.Good guest cast includes Andrew Duggan, a very young Michael Landon & William Hopper (Perry Mason's Paul Drake). A bit of a rarity I think.

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Chris,

That was a great assessment of The Restless Gun, and I look forward to watching my copy. I think you were spot on with your thoughts on Route 66 and expectations being so high. That sentiment probably has more to do with most people's huge disappointment with the set. After watching all of TM's Checkmate release, your description for Restless Gun could be used word for word to describe that set as well. If Paramount had put it out, big disappointment, but Timeless Media and it looks this good, Wow! looks great.

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David Dortort of BONANZA fame produced THE RESTLESS GUN (the underrated John Payne was executive producer). Considering the early appearances of Michael Landon and Dan Blocker, the series was almost an audition for BONANZA. All the TM releases look reasonably good--although my favorite ARREST AND TRIAL is the weakest and some of the credits are truncated or omitted. The only color collection LAREDO is surprisingly good, although the fleshtones look a bit too "medium rare" at times or it could be the makeup.

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I'm really enjoying this "Arrest and Trial" set. Great show! I'm watching episodes in rotation with the "Checkmate" and "Cimarron City" sets. Hope to get the other Timeless releases soon. I'd been somewhat guarded in my anticipation about print quality on these, but I'm actually very pleased. True, they look like what they are, 16mm prints. But, they are 'good' 16mm prints. Had I seen these prints being aired on tv back in the 70s, I would have immediately thought to myself 'hmm, better-than-average syndication prints!' Doesn't compare to modern re-mastered copies, but certainly not bad. Not bad at all!

The "Route 66" print quality analogy throws me a bit. Perhaps expectations were indeed a big part of it. It's also because several of the episodes' prints on the set were actually 'weaker' than what was seen on tv twenty years ago. That's what was rather disheartening about it. You expect dvd's from 2007 to look better (or at least as good as) what was seen two decades ago. Otherwise, it's like backsliding. Truthfully, most of the prints on the "Route 66" set were good enough for me. But, there were a few sore spots (and the below-par 'audio' on them was a major factor).

Re: Arrest & Trial

Thanks for the plug, Bob.

There's also a related blog post here where people can leave comments if they desire:

Arrest and Trial « The Classic TV History Blog

TVShowsOnDVD news article, posted on their website yesterday, about Arrest and Trial: The Complete Series:

 

 

Arrest and Trial: The Complete Series - TVShowsOnDVD.com news article

bought the first two installments of Arrest and Trial, so I'm a little dismayed that they are releasing the Complete Series without having the option of being able to purchase just those remaining Episodes that weren't included in the first two releases.

Shame on you TMG!