Garv’s Pick of the Week: Kolchak: The Night Stalker: The Complete Series (Kino Lorber)
For the release week of October 12th:
Garv’s Pick of the Week: Kolchak: The Night Stalker: The Complete Series [Blu-ray / Kino Lorber]: The character of reporter/monster hunter Carl Kolchak was introduced to the public through a couple of tremendously popular TV movies, scripted by the great Richard Matheson and starring the equally great Darren McGavin. When a third TV movie was proposed, the ABC network decided that they would prefer a weekly television series. Only 20 episodes were produced before the series was cancelled, but those episodes have a developed a cult following and greatly influenced the creation of The X-Files. All 20 episodes have been remastered in 2K and are collected in this Blu-ray set. The set also includes audio commentaries for all of the episodes and interviews with comedian/fan Dana Gould and with Sopranos-creator David Chase, who co-wrote 8 episodes of the Kolchak series. Thanks, Kino Lorber for this Halloween bonanza!!! By the way, the original TV movies, The Night Stalker (1972) and The Night Strangler (1973) are also available for individual purchase on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.
Additional Titles of Interest —
High Sierra [Blu-ray / Criterion]: The movie that cemented Humphrey Bogart’s stardom get’s the Criterion treatment. Ida Lupino co-stars.
The Ghost Ship/Bedlam [Blu-ray / Warner Archive]: Two Val Lewton-produced horror/suspense films are packaged together in this Blu-ray from the Warner Archive.
Vera Cruz [Blu-ray / Kino Lorber]: The Spaghetti Western genre was highly influenced by this Robert Aldrich-directed Western starring Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster. It also gets a 2K remaster.
The Last Sunset [Blu-ray / Kino Lorber]: This Robert Aldrich-directed Western wasn’t nearly as influential. Rock Hudson, Kirk Douglas, and Dorothy Malone star.
Filibus [Blu-ray / Milestone]: This sounds interesting. It’s a Italian silent film from 1915 about a female sky-pirate who lives in an airship and steals diamonds for fun.
The Hound of the Baskervilles [Blu-ray / Code Red & Kino Lorber]: Peter Cook & Dudley Moore made one of the finest comedies of the 1960s with Bedazzled (1967). They followed it up with one of the worst comedies of the 1970s. Still, this Sherlock Holmes spoof does have some redeeming qualities. You can find my full review HERE.
The Ugly Ones [Blu-ray / Wild East]: Tomas Milian stars in this Euro-Western about an escaped outlaw on the run. This one isn’t available through Amazon, but you can order it direct from Wild East Productions.
Inglourious Basterds [4K UHD/ Universal]: My current favorite Quentin Tarantino film gets an upgrade to 4K Ultra High Definition.
Columbia Classics Collection: Volume 2 4K [4K UHD / Sony]: Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Oliver! (1968), Taxi Driver (1976), Stripes (1981), Sense and Sensibility (1995), The Social Network (2010) all get 4K UHD upgrades. I can’t imagine too many collectors will want all of these films, or if they do, I can’t imagine them wanting all of them in the same box set. However, if you don’t want to wait for individual UHD releases, they’re available now.
){kind=link}