Brian Clemens’ Thriller
– The Complete Series (Region Free/0/Zero/PAL
Import/Madman Australia Limited Edition 18 DVD Box Set/remastered &
restored)
Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B+ Episodes: B
PLEASE NOTE: This DVD set can only be operated
on machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle Region Zero/0/Free
(despite being marked Four/4) PAL format software and can be ordered from our
friends at Madman Entertainment at the website address provided at the end of
the review. Box set image © ITV Global
Entertainment. THIS SET IS LIMITED TO
ONLY 1,000 COPIES!
We began
reviewing Brian Clemens great anthology series Thriller a few years ago with a set that covered the first two
volumes, then nothing. Turns out the
shows were being restored and now, Madman Entertainment has picked up the
series and issued a Complete Series
Limited Edition box that features all six seasons of the show and a bunch
of new extras, including many never before seen.
Here is
our coverage of the original, shorter set:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6978/Brian+Clemens%E2%80%99+Thriller
Each show offered scripts usually written
or originated by Clemens (sometimes finished by his very talented friend Dennis
Spooner among others) and they are:
1) Lady Killer (with stars Barbara Feldon,
Linda Thorson & Robert Powell)
2) Possession (with stars Joanna Dunham, John
Carson & Hilary Hardiman)
3) Someone At The Top Of The Stairs (with stars
Donna Mills & Judy Carne)
4) An Echo Of Theresa (with
stars Paul Burke, Polly Bergen & Vernon Dobtcheff)
5) The Color Of Blood (with
stars Norman Eshley & Katherine Schofield)
6) Murder In Mind (with stars Zena Walker,
Richard Jordan & Donald Gee)
7) A
Place To Die (with stars Bryan Marshall, Alexandra Hay &
Lila Kaye)
8) File It Under Fear (with
stars Maureen Lipman & Richard O’Callaghan)
9) The Eyes Have It (with stars Peter
Vaughan & Sinead Cusack)
10) Spell Of
Evil (with stars Edward De Souza, Diana Cliento & Iris Russell)
11) Only A
Scream Away (with stars Hayley Mills, Gary Collins & Jeremy Bulloch)
12) Once The
Killing Starts (with stars Patrick O’Neal and Michael Kitchen)
13) Kiss Me
& Die (with stars George Chakiris, Jenny Agutter & Hunter Russell)
14) One
Deadly Owner (with stars Donna Mills, Jeremy Brett & Laurence Payne)
15) Ring
Once For Death (with stars Barry Nelson and Nyree Dawn Porter)
16) K Is For
Killing (with stars Steven Rea, Christopher Casenove & Gayle
Hunnicut)
17) Sign Of
Death (with stars Francesca Annis, Patrick Allen & Sheila Fearne)
18) Who
Killed Lamb? (with stars Stanley Baker, Denis Lili & Peter Salis)
19) A Coffin For The Bride (with stars Helen
Mirren & Michael Jayston)
20) I’m The Girl He Wants To Kill (with stars
Julie Sommers & Robert Lang)
21) Death To Sister Mary (with stars Jennie
Linden, Robert Powell & George Maharis)
22) In The Steps Of A Madman (with stars Richard
Vernon & Faith Brook)
23) Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are (with
stars Peter Jeffrey & Linda Day George)
24) The Next Scream You Hear (with stars Dinsdale
Landon & Christopher George)
25) Screamer (with stars Pamela Franklin and Derek
Smith)
26) Nurse Will Make It Better (with stars Diana
Dors, Patrick Troughton, Ed Bishop and Cec Linder)
27) Night Is The Time For Killing (with stars Judy
Geeson & Charles Gray)
28) Killer With Two Faces (with stars Donna Mills
& Ian Hendry)
29) A Killer In Every Corner (with stars Joanna
Pettet & Patrick Magee)
30) Where The Action Is (with stars Edd Byrnes,
Ingrid Pitt & George Innes)
31) If It’s A Man – Hang Up! (with stars Gerald
Harper, Carol Lynley & Tom Conti)
32) The Double Kill (with stars Peter Bowles, Gary
Collins & Stuart Wilson)
33) Won’t Write Home, Mom – I’m Dead (with stars
Pamela Franklin, Suzanne Neve & Ian Bannen)
34) The Crazy Kill (with stars Denholm Elliot
& Anthony Valentine)
35) Good Salary – Prospects – Free Coffin (with
stars James Maxwell, Julian Glover and Kim Darby)
36) The Next Voice You See (with stars Bradford
Dillman & Catherine Schell)
37) Murder Motel (with stars Ralph Bates, Edward
Judd & Derek Francis)
38) Sleepwalker (with stars Michael Kitchen,
Darlene Carr & Ian Redford)
39) The Next Victim (with stars T.P. McKenna,
Ronald Lacey, Carroll Baker & Martin Benson)
40) A Nightmare For A Nightingale (with stars
Keith Baxter, Susan Flannery, Ronald Leigh-Hunt & Stuart Damon)
41) Dial A Deadly Number (with stars Gary Collins,
Gemma Jones & Beth Morris)
42) Kill Two Birds (with stars Bob Hoskins, Dudley
Sutton & Susan Hampshire)
43) A Midsummer Nightmare (with stars Joanna
Pettet, Brain Blessed, Tony Anholt & Freddie Jones)
44) Death In Deep Water (with stars Bradford
Dillman & Ian Bannen)
After showing in the U.S. as the original series, the shows were made into faux
TV movies and syndicated in the U.S. with dumb, bad and now dated new title
sequences, sometimes with different titles and even newly-shot footage that
often had zero to do with the story!
Fortunately, the original titles have been restored, as have the
episodes, but more on that in a minute.
The result was Clemens most successful project since The Avengers, an anthology show that did everything he could
possibly do with the suspense genre and a nearly lost show finally back and in
its original glory. Towards the end of
the show, they started to run out of steam and quit while they were ahead, but
it is fun all the way and you can see why so much acting talent was on board
throughout. Watching them again, it is a
great show waiting to be rediscovered and now it can be.
The 1.33
X 1 full color, PAL, full frame image was mostly shot in the analog PAL format
with some 16mm filming, but ITV Global has spent some money to really fix up
these shows from the remaining analog videotape masters, correcting flaws that include
video noise, video banding, telecine flicker, tape scratching, PAL cross color,
faded color and tape damage. It is a
remarkable job and though there are limits and flaws no restoration can help
(some later shows are not in as good a shape as earlier installments) and an
improvement over the original two-season set we covered a few years ago.
The Dolby Digital 2.0
Mono has also been restored and by going to earlier-generation (sometimes first
generation) audio stems, they have fixed the sound up resulting in fullness I
never imagined we would hear. Laurie
Johnson scored all the episodes effectively and created the great instrumental
theme song. Combined with the more
colorful, clearer, cleaner image, this set establishes a new standard for how
good videotaped TV classics can look.
Extras
includes booklet with technical information and episode guide in the cube box
the set comes in, the U.S. opening and closing titles on the majority of the
shows that were turned into TV movies for that market, on-camera introductions
by Clemens on all episodes you can access through the chapters menu on all of
them, audio intros by Clemens on later episodes you can access through the
chapters menu on all of them, still galleries on all 18 DVDs, Three
featurettes: Creating Thriller, Directing Thriller, Producing Thriller, alternate
extended version of “If It’s A Man – Hang
Up!”, Audio commentary with Brian Clemens and Guest Star John Carson on
"Possession", Original U.S.
trailers and ad-break bumpers for selected episodes, hilarious U.S. title
sequence for "Possession"
with Brian Clemens commentary, excellent Restoration comparison featurette, the
Thriller spin-off episode “Who Killed Lamb?” staring Stanley Baker,
original set design documents, dialogue continuity script for Series 1 episodes
as PDF DVD-ROM files.
That all
makes this one of the most collectible DVD sets we have seen lately, but when
Madman goes out of their way to do this kind of set, they can compete with the
best and here, they did. Fans should not
miss it!
As noted
above, you can order this PAL DVD import set exclusively from Madman at:
https://www.madman.com.au/actions/channel.do?method=view
-
Nicholas Sheffo
