The TV set of the week is the classic suspense series Alfred Hitchcock Presents S2. I’m not sure people get what a good deal these old shows are. Network programs used to run for nine months, with replacement shows during the summer. So this set features 39 episodes (to today’s 24), and each one is probably five to seven minutes longer, content-wise, because they used to run a lot fewer commercials in prime time.
More TV sets this week include:
Big Love S1; Charmed S6; CSI Miami S4; Flavor of Love S2; Le Femme Nikita S4; Murder She Wrote S4; Starsky & Hutch S4; That ’70s Show S5;
The movie selection of the week is the Boris Karloff Horror Flicks Collection. The second Karloff-themed DVD set this month; this features one very good historical suspenser (with Boris as twins!), two mad scientist movies and a spoof co-starring Peter Lorre. The titles include The Black Room, The Man They Could Not Hang, Before I Hang and The Boogie Man Will Get You.
The Astaire and Rogers Ultimate Collectors Edition offers an astounding array of movies for only $70 to $80, depending where you buy it. Consolidating two smaller sets, it features the documentary Astaire and Rogers Partners in Rhythm; along with ten films: The Barkleys of Broadway, Carefree, Flying Down to Rio, Follow the Fleet, The Gay Divorcee, Roberta, Shall We Dance, The Story of Vernon & Irene Castle, Swing Time, Top Hat.
Feast Apparently the winner of one of those Project Greenlight shows, this purported super-gorey monster pic has been getting tons of favorable fan press, like this year’s also little-seen Slither.
Final Days of Planet Earth Sci-fier with Campbell Scott and Daryl Hannah. How are those careers going, folks?
Frankenhooker Beloved grue & sex comedy from the ’80s, by the maker of the similarly revered Basket Case. There’s junk, and there’s great junk. This is great junk. Sort of Re-Animator meets Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers.
The Omen This year’s redo of the ’70s Son ‘o Satan flick.
Rest Stop Hostel USA, it looks like.
Satan’s Schoolgirls DTV stuff from 2004 that apparently pays off in the gore and T&A departments. I assume the title is sufficiently self-explanatory.