There comes a point when even the most hardcore fan of pop culture must admit that perhaps the wonderful world of DVD is too much of a good thing. There's so much stuff coming out, much of it indispensible, and yet most people (certainly including myself) simply don't have the financial resources to get everything we want, much less time to watch it all.
Today's new releases are a prime example. We could start off with the final season of the original run of Columbo, one of the best (and most endlessly rewatchable) TV shows of all time. Guest stars include William Shatner and Ruth Gordon, directors include Jonathan Demme, and the writing remained first-rate. But as always, the real reason for watching is Peter Falk's career-defining performance. Even knowing the format, even knowing the episode, you can still be surprised by Falk's eccentric line readings. And even though reruns of this show play endlessly on cable, this is the best way to see these episodes uncut and non-time compressed.
Speaking of TV, we also get Volume Two of The Best Of The Electric Company. Like the first volume, this set is a collection of random episodes from this well-loved seventies PBS series. This show lodged in my subconscious when I was a kid and has never left, and I can remember pretty much all the songs, gags, recurring characters, animated bits, everything. As a kid, I didn't recognize the voices of Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder or Zero Mostel in the animated bits, or know that much of that animation was directed by the great John Hubley. And despite the fact that it was ostensibly educational, the only thing I really learned from the show was that Morgan Freeman was the coolest guy on earth. I have no idea how modern kids would react to this, but to the aging hipsters of Generation X, this is as essential as food and water.
But not as essential as Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume Four. Said it before, I'll say it again: Warner Bros. cartoons were as responsible as anything for making me the person I am. They formed my sense of humor, they developed my aesthetic sense, and probably even my moral sense. Collectively, they are one of the great achievments of the human race--believe me, I mean that--and yet, this set does represent a bit of a comedown. While one whole disc dedicated to the work of director Frank Tashlin is mightily appreciated, one whole disc dedicated to Speedy Gonzales cartoons is not. Aside from the questionable ethnic stereotypes, most of the Speedy cartoons are just plain bad, and the disc actually includes some of the worst of the bunch. On the other hand, we get a whole disc dedicated to cartoons about cats, including one of my favorites, Chuck Jones' Go Fly A Kit, so it's okay. Still as necessary to survival as breathing, but not quite at the level of the first three volumes of this wonderful series.
Still, despite my love for Warner Bros. cartoons, THE most important release today is the Collectors edition of Forbidden Planet, the quintessential fifties sci-fi film.
Everything good and bad about filmmaking (and society in general) in the Eisenhower era is represented by this picture. On one hand, it's disturbing that it can only imagine that the large crew of a spaceship in the far-flung future will be made up of people who are rather dull, frighteningly white and exclusively male. There's a lot of cornball comedy relief, and the attitude it displays toward lone female cast member Anne Francis is purely sexist.
On the other hand, it takes its storyline--a scientist and his daughter are the lone inhabitants of a planet whose previous occupants, a technologically advanced race known as the Krell, were mysteriously wiped out--seriously, the sscipt is intelligent, the visuals are amazing, and as far as Anne Francis--well, yes, the camera does leer at her at times, but Great Googly Moogly, can you blame it? Plus, this is the movie that introduced Robby the Robot, and it introduced me, as a kid, to Freudian psychology. And though Forbidden Planet has been available on DVD since the format was first introduced, this is the remastered version, with eye-popping color, that fans have always dreamed of. Oh, plus Anne Francis. Did I mention her?
