The Good
The more Roger Corman films on DVD... the better.
The Bad
No real extras. Bulky packaging.Roger Corman's Best of the B's, Collection 1: Hot Bikes, Cool Cars & Bad Babes is nice assortment of 7 films, some of which have never seen the light of day before. The titles in this collection are:
- Naked Angels (1969)
- Bury Me an Angel (1971)
- The Fast and the Furious (1954)
- The T-Bird Gang (1959)
- The Wild Ride (1960)
- The Winner (1967)
- Angels Hard as They Come . As you can tell by these titles, these films feature a lot of racing, a lot of action and a lot of star wattage from the likes of Jack Nicholson, Gary Busey, Ellen Burstyn, Scott Glenn and others.
Features
Classic Corman Film Trailers and Movie Ads
Okay, normally I wouldn't even review these and I am not going to say too much about them here, but, I will say that these things are worth checking out if you are a fan of the time periods in which these films were made. Yes, the quality isn't that great but the trailers are and one could certainly do worse for themselves than watching them here.
Video
Black and White and Color. These films are presented in the standard format. All in all they looked decent. Some of them are 50+ years old so that is something that needs to be taken into account. Yes, there was a lot of dirt and hairs on the films, but I give Infinity Entertainment credit for digitally remastering these titles on the DVD.
Audio
It doesn't say what sort of audio these films have. I could hedge a guess but that would probably be wrong. That said, it is most likely mono because Roger Corman usually wanted to keep the costs down in all departments (Plus, stereo really didn't take hold until the McBlockbusters like Jaws and Star Wars). All in all, it seems like the sound has been kept up quite nicely. I didn't hear anything out of the ordinary and I had no problem hearing the performers on these releases.
Package
This front cover is made up to look like a poster for a drive-in movie. It showcases actors from some of the films with artificial colors giving the front of these slipcase cover a kitschy feel. The back gives us 6 images from this movie, a well written historical description of Corman and these films, and an extra features listing. The 4 discs that make up this set are stored in a large amaray case. Why Infinity Entertainment didn't go the digipack route is beyond me.
Final Word
As someone who loves Roger Corman and his films I was very excited to get Roger Corman's Best of the B's, Collection 1: Hot Bikes, Cool Cars & Bad Babes on DVD. This set is rich with cinematic history and it is inspiring because these films show the talent of their creators despite also containing what some people deem as flaws. On top of that, these movies move quickly, they don't waste a lot of their audiences time and they never seem to get bogged down by the usual litany of committee filmmaking decisions.
In fact, MovieWeb just posted this...
http://www.movieweb.com/news/NElBtpmqm9Kqoq
So fans can rejoice with more of his releases coming to standard DVD and Blu-Laser Beam!