The DVD of the week is the West German ‘krimi’ The College Girl Murders. How can you turn down a movie about a mysterious murderer in a red monk’s outfit who breaks his victims’ necks with a bullwhip? Oh, and did I mention the squirt guns filled with acid?
This week’s TV season sets include Chef! S1, S2 & S3 (and a ‘complete’ set featuring all three seasons), Combat S5 (broken up in two different sets), Curb Your Enthusiasm S4; history buffs will want to check out the 10 part The First World War; House S1; Married…With Children S4; the Petticoat Junction Ultimate Collection; Michael Palin’s Ripping Yarns: Complete Series; and Roseanne S1.
On to movies and such. VCI continues their good work in releasing old theatrical series. Today’s addition is the sci-fi meller Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere. Captain Video was one of the earlier TV shows, broadcasting in 1949. The serial was made two years later. It can be bought for about $20.
Following Star Wars, Mark Hamill enjoyed a Corvette Summer, a ’70s car chase comedy now available for under $10. Meanwhile, a personal favorite car chase movie of mine, Gumball Rally (about the same race that ‘inspired’ the Cannonball Run movies) is out for the same price.
Image is releasing a double bill of Corpse Grinders and Corpse Grinders 2 for well under $10.
Next week Universal releases a way cool package of eight Hammer horror movies, but this week Warners steals their thunder with a double bill DVD of Curse of Frankenstein and Taste the Blood of Dracula, for under $10.
Ralph Bakshi fans (really? Ralph Bakshi fans?!) will herald a new 2-disc release of Fire & Ice, for around $20.
The minor ’80s slasher flick Girls Nite Out, famous mostly for it’s killer in a bear mascot suit (!) and an appearance by Hal Holbrooke (!), is out in a no doubt nice edition by the reliable Media Blasters, for about $10.
The very good Viet Nam war film Go Tell the Spartans is out today in a barebones disc selling for a very reasonable $6.
Late Shift, the HBO telemovie about how Jay Leno beat David Letterman for the Tonight Show gig, is out today for about $6.
Noah Wyle is a bookworm action hero in the cable flick Librarian: Quest for the Spear. Around $15.
The sci-fi comedy Mom and Dad Save the World, $6.
The well-regarded martial arts flick Ong Bak: Thai Warrior kicks it for around $20.
Literary hero Dirk Pitt returned to the screen for the first time in decades in this year’s Sahara, under $20.
Shirley Temple fans will enjoy the new Shirley Temple Collection #1; featuring Curly Top, Heidi and Little Miss Broadway, for $20. Meanwhile, Elvis fans will want to groove to the double bill DVD of Spinout and Double Trouble, $8. Fans of The Duke will similarly enjoy the They Were Expendable/Flying Leatherneck disc.
This might not sound like the sort of movie I’d recommend, but check out the fabulous 1995 version of The Little Princess, which moreover is teamed with the same director’s 1993 remake of The Secret Garden. Both for $8.
