Gries, Tom

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - The Complete Series

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 10/21/2008 Rating: Nr

For Baby Boomers, owning a season or two of a fondly remembered TV series on DVD is enough to satisfy any nostalgic yearnings. The Man From U.N.C.L.E., though, warrants the full-series treatment. It's a wild '60s flashback to the Espionage era that was ushered in by Ian Fleming's James Bond adventures. According to a series retrospective that's just one of this cleverly packaged set's prodigious extras, Fleming himself was recruited to create a spy series for American television. His contribution was the name "Napoleon Solo," the moniker of a crime boss in Goldfinger. That movie, which would kick Bond and spy mania into overdrive, had not yet opened when viewers were introduced to Robert Vaughn's Solo and David McCallum's Illya Kuryakin, agents of the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. This covert agency operated out of Del Floria's Tailor Shop in New York under the command of true Brit Alexander Waverly (Leo J. Carroll, playing much the same character he portrayed in North by Northwest). The Man from U.N.C.L.E. offered a bit of hope in Cold War America that an American and Russian could work together to stop a common enemy, THRUSH, a ruthless organization bent on world domination. The intriguing conceit of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was to give audiences an empathetic surrogate who would be plucked from their humdrum lives for whirlwind adventures with Solo and Kuryakin. In the pilot episode, Patricia Crowley guest-stars as a housewife who acts as bait to foil the plans of her former college boyfriend, who is plotting the assassination of a world leader. In a series benchmark, "The Never-Never Affair," a pre-Get Smart Barbara Feldon stars as an U.N.C.L.E. translator who unwittingly becomes involved in actual espionage. Seasons one and two are the series' best, with a stellar roster of guest stars ("The Project Strigas Affair" features the first onscreen pairing of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy), stylish direction by directors who would go on to some renown (Michael Ritchie, Richard Donner), smart scripts, and great action (a movie theatre shoot-out in "The Never-Never Affair"). In its third season, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. adopted Batman's campy and absurdist tone with shark-jumping results While this season has its share of groaners (in one episode, Sollo watusis with a gorilla), several "Affairs" stand out. Jack Palance and Janet Leigh as a long cool woman in a white dress are great villains in "The Concrete Overcoat Affair." Harlan Ellison wrote the witty "The Pieces of Fate Affair," in which he takes some sly digs at television and literary critics (a THRUSH operative is a book reviewer). Joan Collins makes like Eliza Doolittle in a dual role as a Bronx stripper and a countess in "The Galatea Affair." The series went back to basics in Season Four, but by then, The Avengers was a bigger hit and the writing was on the wall for this once trendsetting series. This lavish box set affair contains upward of ten hours of bonus features, including the unaired series pilot, a series retrospective, an interview with a reunited Vaughn and McCallum, dossiers on each season's guest stars, one of the U.N.C.L.E. feature films edited and expanded from a two-part episode, segments about the great gadgets and cool music, U.N.C.L.E. designs and blueprints, and season-specific booklets.This definitive box set does full justice to a series that had such an impact on popular culture (as witness the bonus Tom & Jerry cartoon, "The Mouse From H.U.N.G.E.R."). More than a blast from the past, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is still a potent blend of "cloak and swagger." --Donald Liebenson

I Spy - Season 1

Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 04/29/2008

I Spy - Season 2

Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 04/29/2008

I Spy - Season 3

Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 04/29/2008

Helter Skelter

Chilling story of the investigation and trial of charles manson leader of a strange cult which under his direction and control committed numerous murders. This is the original unedited version of the film. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/13/2005 Starring: George Dicenzo Nancy Wolfe Run time: 184 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Tom Gries

Based on the bestselling book by Vincent Bugliosi, the two-part TV movie Helter Skelter is a clinical but often chilling recount of the arrest and trial of Charles Manson and his cult for a pair of horrific murders in 1969. Character actor George DiCenzo is a bit dry as prosecutor Bugliosi, who must patch together a series of far-flung clues to incarcerate Manson for the murder spree, which claimed the life of actress Sharon Tate, among others; he and the rest of the capable cast (which includes Marilyn Burns from the '74 Texas Chainsaw Massacre) are completely overshadowed by Steve Railsback's disturbing performance as Manson. Railsback is the main reason to revisit this feature, which shocked many during its network run in 1976, but now seems methodical in its pacing and direction. Warner Bros.'s DVD is the longer 184-minute version of the film, which should please viewers accustomed to the 119-minute rebroadcast cut; otherwise, the disc is disappointingly supplement-free. --Paul Gaita

Breakheart Pass

A courageous prisoner-in-transit uncovers the shocking truth behind a series of brutal murders aboard a speeding locomotive in this dynamic action-packed mystery/western. Special features: widescreen version subtitles in french and spanish theatrical trailer and more. Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 05/13/2008 Starring: Charles Bronson Richard Crenna Run time: 95 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Tom Gries

Adventure movies are hard to come by these days--they've been replaced by action movies, which favor fast cars and big explosions over the dangers of nature and explorations of human character. Breakheart Pass stars Charles Bronson as a mysterious petty criminal on the Western frontier. After being caught cheating at cards, he's arrested and held on a military transport train heading through the Rocky Mountains toward a fort on the coast, a fort stricken with diphtheria and in desperate need of the medical supplies on the train. But there's a conspiracy afoot--people on the train keep getting killed or disappearing--and the situation at the fort isn't what it seems either. Alistair MacLean adapted the screenplay from his own novel, and it's a well-plotted, efficient piece of work, made more compelling by a cast of solid character actors, ranging from Charles Durning (The Sting, Tootsie), Richard Crenna (Body Heat), and Ben Johnson (Oscar winner for The Last Picture Show) to guys whose faces you'll recognize, even if their names don't sound familiar. Breakheart Pass isn't The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and Bronson isn't Humphrey Bogart, but the movie is a lean adventure flick with an outstanding score by Jerry Goldsmith. (Trivia buffs will catch Sam Elliot and Sally Kirkland in bit parts.) --Bret Fetzer

Will Penny

Will penny an ageing cowpoke takes a job on a ranch which requires him to ride the line of the property looking for trespassers or worse squatters. He finds that his cabin in the high mountains has been appropriated by a woman whose guide to oregon has deserted her and her son. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 04/11/2006 Starring: Joan Hackett Charlton Heston Run time: 108 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Tom Gries

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: Season One, Vol. One

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was the brainchild of Writer/Producer/Director Irwin Allen... the "Master of Disaster."It ran on ABC 1964-1968 and was for its four years of some of the best and most exciting science fiction on TV at the time. The classic adventures aboard the "SSRN Seaview" will captivate you today, as much as they did in the 60s.

QB VII

This five-hour miniseries, which was hailed as both a critical triumph and a milestone "television event" when it originally aired in 1974, is based on the Leon Uris novel, which itself was based on a libel trial that arose after Uris published his novel Exodus. The fictionalized drama is essentially the story of two men, Dr. Adam Kelno, a Polish doctor who was imprisoned by the Nazis in a concentration camp, and Abe Cady, a successful Hollywood writer who publishes a serious book on the Holocaust that exposes Kelno's past. Playing Dr. Kelno, Anthony Hopkins steals the show, and the nuances he brings to the character keep the audience guessing whether he is in fact a dedicated healer or a diabolical villain intent on papering over a fiendish past. Ben Gazzara is credible as the tough-talking Cady, but when Hopkins leaves the action for a time the film sags and begins to resemble an ordinary TV movie. Eventually the two men's lives come into conflict when Kelno sues for libel. The trial, which takes place in a London courtroom (the "Queen's Bench VII" of the title), seeks to sort out the truth about the past of Dr. Kelno. His precise activities during the war, and how the world deals with his past, receive intelligent and dramatic treatment. --Robert J. McNamara

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea - Season Three, Volume One

In its second season, Irwin Allen's science-fiction-adventure series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea shifted its tone from a mostly serious program based around stories of Cold War intrigue to an out-and-out fantasy show, complete with monsters, ghosts, and time travel. By the launch of its third season (1966-67), that format was firmly in place (solidified, no doubt, by the success of Allen's similarly themed Lost in Space and The Time Tunnel, which were also running at the same time), and the crew of the Seaview battled all manner of bizarre creatures over the course of the 13 episodes compiled in this three-disc set, including werewolves, radioactive plant creatures, dinosaurs, scores of aliens, and even a spook or two. Critics and first-season Voyage fans have decried these episodes for decades, but there's no denying that their child-like charms remain intact, even as the special effects age most ungracefully; highlights, such as they were, for the first half of season 3 include "Werewolf" (Richard Basehart's Admiral Nelson contracts a virus that turns him into a wolfman; this storyline was picked up in the second half of season 3 in "Brand of the Beast"), "Deadly Waters" (Kowalski's brother is trapped in a sub, but the crewman cannot save him), "The Lost Bomb" (the Seaview must deactivate a bomb on the ocean floor before an enemy sub reaches it), and the truly ludicrous "The Plant Man" (evil scientist wants to create an army of leafy green soldiers) and "The Terrible Toys" (aliens use toys to destroy the Seaview). Season 3, Volume 1 is rich with campy fun, and should carry considerable appeal to viewers who remember Voyage fondly from afternoon reruns. The set includes several extras, including interviews with star David Hedison (including an audio-only chat from 1966), galleries of publicity and episode shots (and a glimpse at the Voyage comic book), fan letters, and more. --Paul Gaita

Join the crew of the Seaview aboard their super high-tech submarine, where no mission is too dangerous and no threat is too deadly, be it enemy agents, mad scientists, deadly sea creatures, or impending nuclear disaster.