They finally did it.
No. They did more than that. They really, really did it.
Thriller is on DVD.
You remember — that show from the 60s that we all watched religiously, every week and it didn’t matter when it went into summer reruns because we couldn’t get enough of it? Summer reruns. Man, there’s a blast from the past. And you younger readers, you keep hearing us older fans gassing about Karloff’s Thriller and how great Pigeons From Hell was (yes Farnham, it’s here in all its winged glory) and how we wish you could watch it someday — well — you can.
The brain trust at Image Entertainment has outdone itself with this boxed set. But before I tell you about how wonderful everything is, I want to note that I was really disappointed with the Arthur Hiller commentary. Don’t get me wrong; it’s not because it wasn’t fascinating, it was wonderful, really. But it ran over the pilot episode. No fear, you can watch the episode without the audio commentary, but it was the most annoying session I’ve ever sat through. And I sat through it all because Hiller was such a wonderful subject! I’d rather have had either a) Hiller discussing the episode as it rolled along or b) a series of stills behind the audio commentary so I wouldn’t have been so distracted. I wanted to watch the show, not listen to these guys gab about Thriller in general. While the episode was touched on now and again, it really was an Arthur Hiller interview that didn’t include specifics about the scenes rolling behind it.
That’s it; my only gripe. This set is killer.
All 67 episodes, remastered (they’re glorious) and presented on 14 DVDs with more than 50 hours of goodies; as I’ve stated, they really, really did it. I may have other gripes regarding the audio commentary, but I haven’t watched all 100+ hours of the thing so I can’t tell you yet. I confess I’m fair drooling to get back to the tube and watch hours and hours over the next several days as well as listen to what Larry Blamire, David Schow and Lucy Chase Williams have to say, not to mention all the others (but those three are my friends, so, ya’ know) including cast members, crew… there are 27 in all. This set is going to keep me busy for months, months I say! And then I can start watching them again over the holidays.
Now to the meat of the matter; bear in mind that I’ve not watched these episodes in 35 years give or take. That’s a rather long time, yes? I don’t even remember the pilot, mayhap I never saw it. The Twisted Image is a Leslie Nielsen vehicle and the story of a stalker interrupted. Nielsen’s character has not one, but two loonies banging around his office and his home. This piece is truly gritty and were it a feature length film it could really get down and dirty with the thrills. They only had an hour and packed an amazing amount of action into those 60 minutes. They really don’t make TV like this anymore. I hear you bellowing, “Oh yeah? What about The Sopranos?”— yeah, yeah, yeah; but they had season after season and buku bucks and didn’t tell the story entire in one measly hour. Not the same thing. The Twisted Image is tense drama laid out with a fine hand, acted beautifully, photographed like a dream and they did it all in 5-6 days. And that’s just the pilot!
The second episode is Child’s Play; a little morality tale about what happens when Dad spends all his time working and not paying attention to the wife and kid. A touch over the top on the result of his workaholism, but the point gets made. In this writer’s opinion, not one of the best but it was early days, after all, and it wasn’t for lack of script. In fact, the scenes between the husband and wife are far more real than I care to remember, having gone through a divorce myself. The script— and the performers — nailed it. Another Hiller directed piece and his visual punctuation of the argument in the cabin is, I admit, compelling. It’s just not quite what I expect from Thriller. Don’t dismiss it on my say so however. Please don’t do that. It’s well worth watching and the tale is one that can always use retelling, especially in this high-speed world.
It’s a gem of a collection, what I’ve seen of it thus far, and based on those two episodes alone I’m going to recommend that all and sundry glom onto one right away. It’s in stores today so drag yourselves out and plonk down the plastic. $150 sounds like a lot, I know, but what you get in this set is worth far more. Bring it home and spend some time this weekend scaring the bejeezus out of yourself. I can’t say it any better than your host for this series, Karloff the Uncanny; “As sure as my name’s Boris Karloff, this is a thriller.”
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