One of the best of the TCM collections
This is not really a boxed set. Instead it is a two disc collection of four really good murder mystery films under the control of Warner Home Video. The purpose of these sets is to introduce people to the various genres of classic film at a low price. Unlike the Warner Archive collection, these discs are pressed DVDs, but there are no extras.
First, there are two classic Humphrey Bogart films, "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Big Sleep". "The Maltese Falcon" is available in deluxe form as
The Maltese Falcon Three-Disc Special Edition (1941 & 1931 versions / Satan Met a Lady). This film not only has Bogart in his prime, it has the great team of Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. Here they are not so much a team as on the screen simultaneously, but they are still fun to watch. Here Bogart plays a detective that is so tough he does things like pistol whip someone with their own gun and then give the...
Welcome to the Twin Oaks
Postman's plot centers around drifter Frank, and his relationship with the beautiful Cora. Cora and husband, Nick, run the Twin Oaks -- a roadside service station/diner -- and Nick has hired Frank to help around the place. Cora and Nick are May/December, but there is no romance whatsover between them. The reason for their marriage is cryptically revealed during one scene, but, in the end, one never can quite figure out why they are together. Frank and Cora quickly fall for each other and desire a life together -- a desire that requires removing Nick from the picture. The urgency reaches fever pitch when Nick announces his intention to sell the diner and move Cora to nothern Canada where she will care for Nick's recently paralyzed sister, who, in Nick's words, is going to live for a long time. As other reviewers have mentioned, the DA and defense attorney stand out in this film as well-conceived characters, the defense attorney played to perfection by Hume Cronyn.
Over the...
5 Stars for the Films, 3 for the Packaging
I bought this set because I LOVE the films in it - and it was very inexpensive. I bought it despite the fact that these were on double-sided discs - which never last as long and tend to have a lot of problems with skipping and locking up.
While the films themselves were great (I prefer them on full screen), the packaging was not. The first disc is in a hard plastic sleeve that slams against the second disc, which is attached to the back of the plastic jacket. The second disc had scratches on it when it arrived NEW. I had to clean it twice before it would play without skipping. This would not be an issue if they did not used double-sided discs. I won't buy any more of these sets because of that. They are priced great, but I'd rather get collections that don't get scratched right out of the factory.
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