Mystery Classics: 50 Movie Pack (12DVD)

These are not some obscure cheapies with unknown actors. They range from second features or 'B' films from the old double feature days in theaters, some of which were better than the first feature, to classic 'A' movies, such as "Suddenly" with Frank Sinatra, "Scarlet Street" with Edward G. Robinson (I watch anything he is in) and "He Walked By Night" with Richard Basehart, not to mention Glenn Ford, Mickey Rooney, Brian Donlevy, William Powell, and, well, the list goes on.

Then there are the great Bulldog Drummond films and the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes features. Rathbone was always THE Sherlock Holmes to me until the advent of Jeremy Brett but he still holds a place near the top.

My only complaint about this set is it has only one of the Topper films, but, how can I really complain? Thank you Treeline Films! Please bring on more of the same! On a scale of 1 to 10 I give this set a 20!

As to the movie quality, "your mileage will vary". Some are good, most are watchable and there
are a few stinkers {"The Sign Of Four"}. These are NOT classics, like the "Maltese Falcon" is
a classic. They are classics, just because they are old (and marketing by TreeLine).
These are black & white "B Movies" from the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s.

TreeLine Films does a good job of transferring them to DVD. They appear to have found films in
the best condition to do the transfers from. However it appears TreeLine did NOT do any
post-processing to the DVDs; to clean up past imperfections. The Historical Purists, will be
glad to know all the scratches in the films, lighting problems and audio aberrations have been
faithfully preserved, intact. There is only one option, "Scene Selection". The movies are
only broken into four separate scenes. It barely beats "Fast Forward". But, adding options
and doing post-processing clean up would have added to the overhead of production and resulted
in a lessening of "The Deal".

"A Picture" movie stars are sprinkled throughout all these movies. Remember, from the 30s to
early 50s, the Movie Studios ruled. For this period (before TV) outside of the movies, your
evening entertainment options were; going out to a nightclub/bar or staying home to listen to
the radio, read a book or watch the grass grow from your porch. The studios cranked out a lot
of pictures during this period. They liked to keep all their stars working and at times any
picture would do. This was movie making, assembly line style to fill the demand. In this
"50 Movie Pack" are some of the results of those times.

I bought this, because of the Basil Rathbone, Sherlock Holmes movies. Basil Rathbone was the best
Holmes, until Jeremy Brett came along to do Holmes. People will buy these DVDs; because they are
deals, because of their nostalgic value, and because they are movie buffs. {BTW, there is a
lot of real history buried in these films with regards to their context and perspective,
ex., Japan & Great Britain were buddy-buddy, prior to WWII.}

My caveats, I've only viewed 8 of the 50 movies so far. I suspect it will take me the rest of
the year to view them all. They are good filler for when there isn't something better to
watch or do. Not likely, I'll ever get around to the "Nancy Drew" movie. I'm also going to
buy some of the other "50 Movie Packs", but for varying reasons.