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Just last week I was thinking about how much I would like to see collections of old movie series like Torchy Blane, Lone Wolf, the second volume of the Mike Shayne mysteries, etc.

Today I found this news:
http://www.classicflix.com/torchy-blane ... ce3d3a6a16

Now, I don't really care that Leonard Maltin basically disses the Blane series. I never got to see these films, and being a compulsive completist, I want the whole set of them in one go. So at least this one's a start!

Jim

I don't recall every seeing these or Perry Mason films(TV series yes most at the time of TV screenings), nor any Maisie. I am keen to get a set of the Andy Hardys series which I always enjoy. There have been about 3 Hardy on DVD as pirates and one official Warner/MGM release but nothing else. Then there's Dr Christian(Jean Hersholt), Dr Kildare/Gillespie which got a TV series and only a pirate of that one has surfaced. The Fox Jones Family and the Republic series with James Gleason, Lucile Gleason and Harry Davenport as grandpa which I did see on TV in the early days with the Hollywood Television Service name and logo attached to the front of the films. The Jones Family-never seen one. Henry Aldrich I have never seen either but have a few radio show versions. Crime Club, Ellery Queen and I am sure lots more. Should I say a restored Blondie series without the crap cartoon openings and music replacing the original Columbia credits. I saw a couple of Blondie sets with most of the titles listed somewhere this week but what are these???

I've seen all these series except the Henry Aldrich one which just doesn't interest me, and all I can say is this: diss them all you want, but then watch most of television today and you'll think that these are the near equilvalent of "Gone with the Wind"!! Some in the series are not as good as others, but a few are great. The Maisies and the Michael Shaynes and the Crime Doctors and the Boston Blackies and many others are wonderful entertainment for about an hour for each show. Makes today's television look like what it is - less than kiddie porn and a lot more expensive... Some of the Perry Masons are really super!

Bulldog Drummond, too. Wanna see those.


Jim

Jim Roots wrote:Bulldog Drummond, too. Wanna see those.


Jim

Yeah, of all those a few are nearly great! Then, again, a couple are some of the most god-awful John Barrymore ever made. He plays the police commissioner in about three or so of them. In one of them he's so obviously drunk and over-acting it's truly pathetic. But, then, in another one he's really dynamite and his make-up is Lon Chaney! All of those had legitimate releases on VHS, by the way. That's where I bought them, and I still watch them periodically. Reginald Denny, who've we've talked about on another thread here, appears in most of them as Algie, and he's wonderful, of course. Heather Angel makes a nice female foil, too, in a couple of them.

Jim Roots wrote:Just last week I was thinking about how much I would like to see collections of old movie series like Torchy Blane, Lone Wolf, the second volume of the Mike Shayne mysteries, etc.

Today I found this news:
http://www.classicflix.com/torchy-blane ... ce3d3a6a16

Now, I don't really care that Leonard Maltin basically disses the Blane series. I never got to see these films, and being a compulsive completist, I want the whole set of them in one go. So at least this one's a start!

Jim

The Torchy Blanes are gobs of fun. You'll enjoy them.

TCM has run the Torchy Blane films periodically - I think last summer most recently. The films are great fun, the type of enjoyable, fast-moving 'B's that Warner's seemed to be able to knock out at will. Thanks for posting - I'm ordering the set today.

Talk about your bringdowns ... The Blane Collection is not captioned, apparently, and is therefore useless to me.

It is released through Warners Archives, which doesn't caption anything. Or sell in Canada, either, although that's another complaint.

Jim