IT CAME FROM THE BOTTOM SHELF!

Salutations, disc devotees,

Those of you that have visited my site before know that I post a weekly column, “Garv’s Pick of the Week,” where I recommend the best new releases on Blu-ray and DVD.  Since new release titles are scant during Christmas week, this is a perfect time for me to look back over the past year’s discs and post my “Best of” selections for the year as a whole.  Those picks are listed below.

Keep in mind, these are the picks of one person, and consequently, they are extremely subjective.  Also, one person cannot watch everything, so many list-worthy titles, such as Criterion’s 39-movie giant Ingmar Bergman's Cinema and Kino Lorber’s Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers box set do not appear below simply because I have not viewed them.  Even so, there were so many remarkable Blu-ray releases this year that I was unable to trim my picks to a neat and tidy ten titles.  Even fifteen seemed a bit too restrictive.  Consequently, I am doubling the Blu-ray list this year.

Finally, while most titles are released simultaneously on Blu-ray and DVD or in convenient combo packs, there are still a number of catalog titles and TV series that are only offered on DVD.  As it turns out, I’ve enjoyed some of these DVD-only releases as much or more than the HD titles, so they deserve a special mention.  So without further exposition, here are my top 20 Blu-rays and top five DVD-only releases of 2018:

Top 20 Blu-rays:

1) Five Tall Tales: Budd Boetticher & Randolph Scott at Columbia, 1957-1960 (Indicator): Indicator is a British label, but the majority of their releases have been Region Free.  That’s great news for Blu-ray collectors in the U.S., because Indicator’s products have all been stellar.  Their Five Tall Tales box set is an outstanding example of everything that Indicator does well.  It collects five excellent films in the best possible video quality, with a wonderful assortment of special features that enhances the viewer’s enjoyment, all wrapped up inside beautiful packaging, which includes an 80-page book with essays on each of the included titles.

The films themselves — The Tall T, Decision at Sundown, Buchanan Rides Alone, Ride Lonesome, and Comanche Station — are absolute gems.  Made in the late Fifties, halfway between the John Ford/John Wayne classical Westerns of the Forties and the Leone and Peckinpah revisionist Westerns of the Sixties and Seventies, the films reflect aspects of both.  Director Bud Boetticher and writer Burt Kennedy were able to get away with surprisingly dark themes, since studio bosses were uninterested in these low-budget pictures.  Consequently, the films feel more modern than most sagebrush sagas filmed around the same time.  While Ride Lonesome and The Tall T are standouts, all five titles feature strong stories, beautiful cinematography, charismatic villains, and a strong lead performance by Randolph Scott.  For fans of the Western genre, this set is an essential purchase.

2) Dietrich and von Sternberg in Hollywood (Criterion): The general belief is that early sound films from 1929-1935 were stagey, stodgy, and stiffly acted.  That is true for some early talkies, but director Josef von Sternberg’s films were far ahead of those of most of his contemporaries.  Von Sternberg was a master of the moving camera and of intricate lighting techniques which made his actors almost glow.  In Marlene Dietrich he found a muse whose luminousity and skill matched his artistic vision.  She seemed to know instinctively how to act for the camera.  This box set collects six teamings of Dietrich and von Sternberg — Morocco, Dishonored, Shanghai Express, Blonde Venus, The Scarlet Empress, and The Devil is a Woman — made from 1930-1935.  All six films are presented in new 2K or 4K restorations that look considerably better than previous DVD releases.  Of course, the standard Criterion “film school in a box” bells and whistles accompany the movies.  In short, it’s a great package.

3) Batman: The Complete Animated Series Deluxe Limited Edition (Warner Brothers): While the Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan Batman films contain moments of brilliance, most comic book fans agree that the best adaptation of Batman on film is Batman: The Animated Series and its spinoff animated features, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero. This box set includes all 109 episodes of the series and the two features, all beautifully presented in high definition, along with audio commentaries on select episodes, interviews, and featurettes. This limited deluxe edition also includes three miniature Funko Pop figures of Batman, Harley Quinn, and The Joker, as well as seven lenticular cards with animation artwork, but the rich storylines and excellent voice acting of the episodes themselves are the real selling points.

4) Night Of The Demon Limited Edition (Indicator): Jacques Tourneur’s classic, supernatural thriller gets the best Blu-ray package for a single film title this year (and possibly ever).  Indicator’s limited edition contains four separate versions of the movie, including the choice between two different aspect ratios.  Included is a mammoth group of supplements, including an audio commentary, newly-produced featurettes, interviews and appreciations, comparisons of the different versions, the trailer, a poster, an 80-page booklet, and much more.  Most importantly, the film itself is one of the best, most atmospheric horror films of the 1950s.  If you are interested in owning this beautiful box set, act fast, as it is quickly selling out.

5) King of Jazz (Criterion): This 1930 musical revue, filmed in two-strip Technicolor, has been meticulously restored from a 4K scan of the original nitrate camera negative, as well as from three other remaining 35mm prints, in order to cobble together the best possible presentation of this pink and teal beauty.  Not only does this gorgeous film look different from most musicals; it is also historically important.  It captures the first filmed performances of Bing Crosby, the first Technicolor animations, and a (slightly abridged) performance of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, the band that originally commissioned and premiered the work in 1924.

6) Underground (Kino Lorber): There’s nothing better than discovering a fantastic film through a blind buy. I had never heard of this wildly energetic 170-minute epic from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia when I loaded the disc in my Blu-ray player, but it became one of my favorite discoveries of the year. There’s nothing straightforward about this darkly comic and deeply sad depiction of 50 years of Yugoslavian history told through a satiric parable about two disreputable men and the woman who comes between them.  Also included in the package are two DVDs containing an expanded six episode, five-hour miniseries version of the film that aired on TV in Europe.  You can check out my full review here.

7) Popeye The Sailor: The 1940s Volume 1 (Warner Archive): This was a very unexpected and much welcome gift at the end of the year.  Back in 2007 and 2008, Warner Brothers released the classic Black & White Popeye cartoons in three DVD box sets.  However, they abandoned the releases with the last Black & White shorts from 1943.  Now, ten years later, the series resumes on Blu-ray with the first 14 color cartoons produced by Famous Studios in 1943 to 1945, scanned from the original Technicolor negatives.  The shorts are uncut, so there are a few politically incorrect jokes that are a product of the time in which they were produced. Warner Brothers is using this release to test the waters for possible future releases of classic animated shorts on Blu-ray.  If you want to see future Blu-ray releases of Popeye, Tom & Jerry, Looney Tunes, and Tex Avery cartoons, please purchase this disc.

8) The Round Up (CineMuseum): Only about a quarter of the films produced in the silent era have survived to the present day, so every release of silent titles on Blu-ray are most welcome.  CineMuseum has produced a beautiful, sharp HD release of a 4K restoration of Fatty Arbuckle’s first feature-length silent.  Unlike Arbuckle’s knockabout shorts, The Round Up (1920) is a serious Western with some light comic touches.  The film is also historically significant as the first of 300 Westerns shot in Lone Pine, CA.  Also included on the disc are two Arbuckle shorts from 1913.  The love put into this release bodes well for the Arbuckle box set that CineMuseum is currently working on.

9) A Matter of Life and Death (Criterion): If you see “The Archers” logo at the beginning of a film, you know you are in for a special experience.  That logo indicates the film that follows was directed by the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, who were responsible for such masterpieces as The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.  A Matter of Life and Death is their most romantic film and one of their most beautiful, with scenes filmed in both gorgeous Technicolor and dreamlike Black & White by master cinematographer Jack Cardiff.  The less you know about the plot going in, the better you’ll enjoy it.  So avoid all possible spoilers, and just buy the disc.  Trust me.  It’s worth a blind buy.

10) Matinee (Shout Select): Like most dedicated film fanatics, I love the work of director (and fellow film fanatic) Joe Dante, but I love one of his films far above the others.  Matinee was Dante’s love letter to self-promoting B-movie producer/director William Castle and to the atomic scare creature features of the Fifties and Sixties.  Few films have done a better job at illustrating how cinema (even schlock cinema) has the power to transport audiences and change lives as this wonderful, nostalgic comedy.  John Goodman stars as Lawrence Woolsey, a B-movie director and showman, who premieres his newest sci-fi flick, Mant!, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Goodman has never been better, and the radioactive giant bug movie-within-the-movie is hilarious.  This film is a real gem, and Shout Select has assembled an equally fantastic package of extras around it.

11) Méliès: Fairy Tales in Color (Flicker Alley): This collection of thirteen short fantasy films from 1899-1909 by film-making magician Georges Méliès features newly rediscovered film elements from hand-colored prints and new restorations by Lobster Films.  Consequently, these magical confections of early cinema look better on home video than ever before.  The set features scores from seven musicians and select titles feature an English narration track (as suggested by Méliès at the time of the films’ original release).

12) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Olive Signature): Olive Films really upped their game with their Olive Signature edition of the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).  Not only was the video presentation the best that this title has ever received on home video; the disc is loaded with extras, including two audio commentaries, multiple featurettes, interviews, the trailer, and much more.  Fans of this classic science fiction film will be delighted, and I think it is Olive’s best release to date.  Check out my full review here.

13) Windjammer: The Voyage of the Christian Radich - 2017 Authorized Restoration (Flicker Alley): This year, Flicker Alley revisited two of their earlier Cinerama Blu-ray releases — This is Cinerama and Windjammer — giving the titles new 2K scans from the original camera negative, which greatly improved the image quality.  Both releases use the Smilebox curved letterbox technique that replicates the look of the curved Cinerama screen (This trailer will give you an idea of Smilbox).  Both releases are recommended, but Windjammer is my favorite, as the sailing scenes look particularly nice in the Smilebox format.

14) Invention For Destruction (Second Run): Last year, U.K. label Second Run released a Region Free Blu-ray of Karel Zeman’s The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1961), a mesmerizing Czech fantasy film, mixing live action, paper cut-outs, and stop-motion animation.  This year, they followed it up with a Region Free Blu-ray of the 4K restoration of Zeman’s most popular film, the Jules Verne-inspired Invention for Destruction (1958).  The 1958 film also uses the same collection of varied animation techniques and live actors.  If you like the magical film illusions of Georges Méliès and Terry Gilliam, Karel Zeman will likely become a favorite.  As a bonus, the Blu-ray also includes two earlier Zeman shorts.

15) The Magnificent Ambersons (Criterion): This is an example of Criterion making the most of the best remaining film elements.  Orson Welles’ follow-up to Citizen Kane took longer than one would expect to make the leap to HD, but the original camera negative does not survive, so Criterion had to do a 4K scan of the best available 35mm print and digitally clean up any dirt, scratches, and other blemishes.  The result is not pristine, but it is probably the best the film can possibly ever look on home video.  Of course, Orson’s original cut of the film, before it was recut against his will, is still lost (and may no longer exist), but Criterion has assembled a nice group of experts and extras to tell the tale.

16)2001: A Space Odyssey 4K UHD (Warner Brothers): I have always been obsessed with seeing a film in the best possible video quality, so I was an early adopter of 4K UHD.  However, on the whole, I have been disappointed by the disc offerings, which have been almost entirely new release action and comic book movies. Happily, a handful of classic films have finally made the leap to 4K in the past year.  Best of the bunch is Stanley Kubrick’s ultimate trip, 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Kubrick’s film is a feast for the eyes, so the uptick in sharpness and the wider color palette that UHD provides benefits this title more than most.  Please note that the color timing appears correct on the 4K UHD disc, unlike the teal and orange mess that was presented in the trailer that preceded the release.

17) The Night Stalker (Kino Lorber): The 1970’s was the heyday of Made-for-TV movies, so many Baby Boomers and early Gen-Xers have fond memories of small screen horrors, mysteries, and thrillers.  Unfortunately, very few of those titles have been released on video in any format.  This year Kino Lorber and Scream Factory filled the void with Blu-rays of a few of the most memorable TV horror features.  Kino’s release of the two TV movies that preceded the Kolchak: The Night Stalker series, The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler, are especially welcome.  Not only are they extremely entertaining mixes of horror and humor; the Blu-rays look particularly sharp and beautiful.  These films definitely look better than when originally broadcast.  You can now enjoy Darren McGavin’s incredibly charismatic Carl Kolchak in all his rumpled glory.  Both titles are recommended, but the first film is marginally better, so it takes the list position here.

18) Saludos Amigos & The Three Caballeros (Disney Movie Club Exclusive): Even many obsessive disc collectors are unaware that several classic Disney live action titles are available on Blu-ray as exclusives through the mail order Disney Movie Club.  For several years, I had considered signing up as a member in order to purchase Treasure Island, Pollyanna, The Love Bug, etc., but this year’s Blu-ray double-feature disc of Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros finally induced me to take the plunge.  These Latin American-themed package films, made up of live action and animated segments, were originally produced as a part of the U.S. government’s “Good Neighbor” policy with Mexico and South America at the outbreak of World War II.  On Blu-ray, the films look sharper and more colorful than ever before on home video, and best of all, the films are uncut.  Consequently, a few shots that had been trimmed or digitally censored in prior releases, such as Goofy smoking, are all included, as in the original release.  While this disc can be obtained through secondary markets like eBay and Amazon, the price is usually greatly inflated.  Consequently, I suggest that you join the Disney Movie Club to get this disc and other exclusive titles at normal prices.

19) Doctor Who: Tom Baker Complete Season (BBC): Most of the classic television shows that we love were never meant to be seen in ultra-sharp high definition, because such a thing did not exist when those shows were produced.  In fact, most shows in the Seventies and Eighties were recorded in whole or in part on video tape, so a true high definition image is impossible to obtain.  Consequently, expectations were low when it was announced that Tom Baker’s first season as the Doctor would be released as a Blu-ray set.  After all, how good could the mix of video tape and 16mm film look when upconverted to 1080p? As it turns out, it looks pretty darn great.  Happily, the BBC has since released Peter Davison’s first season in the same format, and more seasons of classic Doctor Who are in the works.

20) Avanti! (Kino Lorber): This is a personal pick, and I really can’t defend it as one of the best discs of the year.  Sure, it is very nice presentation of a very good film, but Kino Lorber produced dozens of discs of equal quality.  However, I felt compelled to include Avanti! on this list, because when rewatching this lesser-known Billy Wilder picture on Blu-ray, I fell deeply in love with it.  This frothy confection features an unapologetically romantic and sharply funny script, a lush score, and lovely lead performances by Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills.  Best of all, Clive Revill gives a “Claude Raines in Casablanca”-caliber supporting performance as an extraordinarily resourceful and discreet hotel manager.  Check out my full review here.

Top 5 DVD-only releases:

1) The Misadventures of Biffle & Shooster (Kino Lorber): This collection of short subjects from the world’s favorite fake 1930s comedy team is quite simply the most fun video release of this or many a year.  Disney voice actor Will Ryan (Sammy Shooster) and Broadway star Nick Santa Maria (Benny Biffle) created the characters, based on classic comedy teams like Abbott & Costello and The Three Stooges, largely for their own amusement.  However, film historian and producer Michael Schlesinger saw the film potential to the comedy duo, and together they produced five short subjects — four in Black & White and one made to resemble the early Cinecolor process.   All of the shorts are collected on this DVD, along with three hours of extras (outtakes, a fake one-reel Vitaphone short, behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes, other fake film fragments, and more).  You can check out a full review of the disc here.  Trust me, you’ll love it.

2) Tie — Thelma Todd & Zasu Pitts: The Hal Roach Collection 1931-33 (Sprocket Vault) and The Complete Hal Roach Thelma Todd and Patsy Kelly Comedy Collection (ClassicFlix Silver Series): This has been a great year for fans of classic comedy, and especially for fans of the output of Hal Roach studios.  In the early Thirties, Roach teamed ZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd as a female comedy team in the model of Laurel & Hardy.  Later when ZaSu left the company, he teamed Todd with Patsy Kelly and continued producing gal-pal comedies until Thelma Todd’s tragic death in 1935.  These short subjects have been largely absent on home video until this year, when Sprocket Vault released the complete Todd/Pitts shorts and ClassicFlix released the Todd/Kelly shorts.  Comedy nerds can now own the complete starring shorts of the very funny actress known affectionately as “Hot Toddy.”  It is impossible for me to choose one set over the other, so I am cheating and declaring a tie.

3) Charley Chase: At Hal Roach: The Talkies Volume One 1930-31 (Sprocket Vault): Another largely-forgotten Hal Roach star was comedian/musician/director Charley Chase.  While many (but not all) of Chase’s surviving silent shorts have appeared on home video over the years, his early talkies were unavailable.  Sprocket Vault has remedied that situation with this collection of 18 hilarious Chase talkies from 1930-1931.  Since the stars of the Roach Studio often appeared in each other’s films, Thelma Todd also provides support in many of these short subjects.  The set includes the promising subtitle “Volume One,” so hopefully the series will continue with more volumes in the new year.

4) The Marcel Perez Collection: Vol. 2 (Undercrank Productions): Silent film accompanist, composer, and historian Ben Model founded Undercrank Productions to bring rare films to home video and to shine a light on forgotten stars of the silent era.  Back in 2015, Model released The Marcel Perez Collection, which contained a comprehensive selection of the surviving work of “the best silent film comedian whom no one’s ever heard of.”  When that set was released, it was unlikely that there would ever be a volume two, as there simply wasn’t enough surviving footage left from the over 200 shorts that the Spanish-born comedian produced between 1900 and 1928.  Luckily, in the intervening years, eight more shorts have been discovered, so the second volume is now available.

5) Sid Caesar: The Works (Shout! Factory): Shout! Factory has done tremendous work bringing the surviving early TV comedy of Ernie Kovacs to DVD, and this year, they began doing the same with Sid Caesar.  This five disc set collects the best work from Your Show Of Shows, Caesar’s Hour, and The Admiral Broadway Review, along with numerous interviews from the legendary writing staff (including Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner) and other behind-the-scenes extras.