Abbott & Costello – Who’s On First (1951 – 1952) + Around The World In 80 Days (1989 TV Mini-Series/E1 DVDs) + The Curse Of Tutankhamen’s Tomb (1980/Network
U.K.
DVD)
Picture: C Sound: C/C+/C+ Extras: D/D/C Main Programs: B-/C+/C+
PLEASE NOTE: The Tomb DVD is only available in the U.K. from our friends at Network U.K. and can be
ordered from them at the website address links provided below at the end of the
review or at finer
retailers. This is in the Region
Two/2/PAL format and can only be operated on machines capable of playing back
Region 2/PAL discs. The rest are NTSC U.S. releases.
The idea
of a high concept TV event program has always had its appeal and the following
three releases were aimed towards audiences that were assumed to be smart,
literate and all were meant to be family friendly before that idea was turned
into a mocked joke.
When
commercial TV resumed after WWII and the tubes finally took off, big names were
courted to do work in the small screen in any way possible. While the big networks signed many big stars
of the time, others landed up producing projects on their own like one of the
funniest comedy duos of all time: Bud Abbott & Lou Costello.
They
decided to make a TV comedy series in the early 1950s, but instead of a
formulaic sitcom, each episode began with a little stand-up, a skit story, more
stand up, a second story and a conclusion.
The format was a good one that was not followed much, but is a nice
approach and that is why The Abbott
& Costello Show remains one of the better early comedies for TV. Who’s
On First is a single DVD with six episodes of the show including the last
one with the legendary comedy routine of the title. We previously covered the show in earlier DVD
releases at these links:
Passport DVD Singles
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/708/Abbott+&+Costello+(live+action+TV+sh
100th Anniversary
Edition Season One Set
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4271/Abbott+&+Costello:+100th+Anniversar
Plus we
just covered this compilation of their work on The Colgate Comedy Hour:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10761/Abbott+&+Costello+%E2%80%93+Th
The first
singles were some of the first TV on DVD of any kind and now E1 is reissuing
the show again and rightly so. Far
superior to most badly-written sitcoms today, the show did well for its limited
budgets and even having the duo return to familiar territory, but they were
comedy naturals and that is apparent as much now as ever before. The
Dentist’s Office, The Birthday Party,
The Charity Bazaar, Hungry, The Music Lovers and The
Actor’s Home are the episodes on this disc.
If any
classic comedy is a candidate for Blu-ray with The Honeymooners and I Love
Lucy, this is one of them.
There
have been many versions of Jules Verne’s classic book Around The World In 80 Days, including the classic 1956 70mm
feature film and the early 1970s Australian animated cartoon series (made
around the time of the animated Abbott & Costello series hitting TV at the
same time), which is what you would expect for such an important book. In 1989, the able-bodied journeyman filmmaker
Buzz Kulik (Brian’s Song, Bad Ronald and many TV series classics)
helmed a TV mini-series version with Pierce Brosnan as Phileas Fogg, who makes
a bet he can achieve the title deed and brings along an assistant Passepartout
(Eric Idle) in the process.
Though
not on the scale of the David Niven film, it has some nice locations, some
energy, consistency and an exceptional guest cats including Peter Ustinov,
Darren McGavin, Patrick Macnee, Jack Klugman, Julia Nickson, Robert Morley, Lee
Remick, Jill St. John, Robert Wagner, Roddy McDowell, Christopher Lee, Cassie
Stuart, John Hillerman, Gabriele Ferzetti, John Mills, Pernell Roberts, James
B, Sikking, Simon Ward, Henry Gibson and more in one of the last great TV
mini-series productions before TV gave up on them and doing them well.
It can
run on and be longer than it needed to be, while some parts do not work as well
as others, but it has no ugly digital effects and has some good moments. Those interested should take a look.
By the
way, Idle did a documentary series with the same title for the BBC and it is
actually on DVD for those interested.
You can read more about it at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5498/Michael+Palin+%E2%80%93+Around
Finally
we have the less-seen Curse Of
Tutankhamen’s Tomb (aka Curse Of
King Tut’s Tomb) from 1980, a U.S./U.K. co-production that originally was
to have Ian McShane in the lead role of Howard carter, but Robin Ellis took
over when McShane was in an accident. He
is around when the tomb is opened and people involved and connected start
dying. Helping this romp are Eva Marie
Saint, Tom Baker, Raymond Burr, Wendy Hiller, Harry Andrews, Faith Brook,
Barbara Murray and Patricia Routledge in a goods telefilm that is not great,
but can be interesting, even when it does not work.
To its
advantage, it has a good journeyman director in Philip Leacock (Baffled!, Dying Room Only; now both covered on DVD elsewhere on this site) who
keeps the pace going, even when things don’t work. Interest in this history remains, was shot on
location in Egypt
and is based on the Barry Wynne’s book Behind
The Mask Of Tutankhamen. The result
is a curio with some moments, though it would look more dated a year later with
the arrival of Raiders Of The Lost Ark.
The 1.33
X 1 image on Costello is a
generation down and you can see the shows were refinished on analog NTSC video
of the time to add new credits, but they were originally shot in 35mm, which is
why the entire series deserves HD remasters.
Tomb is all film down to its
optically printed credits and being a PAL DVD, just edges out the NTSC-finished
World transfer very narrowly. They both have color limits and detail
issues, but like Costello could use
HD upgrades since they too were 35mm productions.
The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono on all but World
(in 2.0 Stereo) sound good for their age, though Costello sounds a bit worn
down and second-generation. Extras are
only on Tomb and include a nice set
of stills, including the only shots of McShane in the abandoned version of this
telefilm, as his footage seems to have disappeared.
As noted
above, you can order the Tomb DVD
import set exclusively from Network U.K. at:
http://www.networkdvd.net/
or
www.networkdvd.co.uk
- Nicholas Sheffo
