DVD Review: Suspense: Ultimate Collection - Page 2

This 12-disc box set is a regrouping of Infinity Entertainment’s previously released four-disc sets with a lower price tag: Collections one through three were released on DVD between July 2007 and March 2009 (so if you’ve already picked all three of those sets up, there’s nothing new here for you to purchase other than a different box). For fans of vintage television, horror, mystery, and sci-fi, this set comes highly recommended. Many of the show’s actors featured in these episodes include Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi (two staples of classic horror and suspense), Paul Newman, Lee Marvin, Anne Francis, Eva Marie Saint, Hume Cronyn, Kim Hunter, E.G. Marshall, Rod Steiger, Leslie Nielsen (who gets to co-star with Karloff once), Darren McGavin, Jack Klugman, Walter Matthau (what, both Oscar Madisons?), George Reeves, Cloris Leachman, Jackie Cooper, Lloyd Bridges, Joan Blondell, Jack Palance, James Whitmore, Otto Kruger, Royal Dano, Keenan Wynn, Barry Nelson, Brian Keith, Pat Hingle, Eva Gabor, Vic Morrow, and Peter Mark Richman.

Most of the stories for these shows were adapted from the works of Robert Louis Stevenson (“Black Passage,” “The Suicide Club”), Edgar Allan Poe (“A Cask Of Amontillado”) among others, with one script in particular being an original work from The Twilight Zone’s own Rod Serling (“Nightmare At Ground Zero”). The episodes are shown uncut with the original sponsor bits hosted by Rex Marshall are included (which are a blast on their own).

The artwork claims that these episodes have been digitally restored. Frankly, it’s hard to tell between the age of these classics and the whole kinescope photography: quite often, you’ll notice a black “aura” surrounding people as they move around (which was common and in no way reflects the DVD transfer process). The mono audio comes through sounding slightly muddled sometimes (again, this can be attributed to the vintage live kinescope factor) but is satisfactory nonetheless. There are no bonus materials… of course, the dated quality and lack of any special materials here is hardly worth complaining about — being able to see these rarities at long last is special in itself.

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Article Author: Luigi Bastardo

Luigi Bastardo is the disgruntled alter-ego of Adam Becvar, a thirtysomething lad from Northern California who has watched so many weird movies since the tender age of 3 that a conventional life is out of the question. …

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