Brian Clemens’ Thriller – Seasons One & Two (British TV Anthology/Umbrella Entertainment
DVD/Region Zero/0/PAL Format)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C* Episodes: B+
PLEASE NOTE: This DVD is out of print, but
any remaining copies can only be operated on machines capable of playing back
DVDs that can handle Region Zero/0/PAL format software. Madman entertainment has issued an upgraded
version of these and all six seasons in a newly remastered Complete Series box
set, which you can read more about at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10189/Brian+Clemens%E2%80%99+Thriller
The anthology TV series is pretty much a lost art, sadly
lost to a sea of bad “reality TV” and the decline of broadcast TV. After Rod Serling showed how far such a
series could go with when his original Twilight
Zone pushed the TV medium to new highs and Outer Limits quickly followed, anthologies became a respected form
of TV with top writers all over trying out their ideas in shows that since are
sometimes too forgotten fro our own good.
Series like Ghost Story, Night Gallery and more turned out to be
some of the best and most underrated of all time. That extends to England.
After making The
Avengers into one of the greatest TV series ever made, Brian Clemens took
his turn at such a series and the result is Thriller, a remarkable anthology series and almost lost gem of such
a series finally out on DVD from Umbrella.
At this point, Dan Curtis (Dark
Shadows, Night Stalker) was not
only making Horror genre TV movies and while some were filmed, he was the first
to make them on videotape. Clemens and
company followed.
Not to be confused with the Boris Karloff hit of the same
name, the series was actually distributed in the United States as a series of
syndicated telefilms by ITC and by being a weekly series of TV movies with
different characters, was being innovative and cutting edge once again. Yes, the NBC Mystery Movie (made with
Universal Pictures when the companies were separate) had revolving series with
hits like Columbo, McMillan & Wife, McCloud and Banacek among others, but they were filmed and were still
continuing shows. For Clemens, after creating
some of the finest filmed TV of all time with The Avengers, moving into the then new format of color PAL
videotape with such rich material was cause for celebration indeed.
The first two seasons (1973 – 1974) were outstanding ones,
with teleplays so strong, they attracted some of the best talent around at the
time, names you will still recognize. Here
are the shows, omitting the U.S. alternate titles to save them as a surprise
when you get the set:
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)
Clemens wrote or co-wrote most of these and it was around
the time he and producer Albert Fennell were dipping into theatrical filmmaking
(See No Evil, Captain Kronos) using their clout, creativity and talent to tale
risks and make remarkable work that is still ahead of most audiences. I was told by a reliable source that Clemens
would meet with the cast, do a read-through of the script and then get the
production going. Terrence Feely and
Terry Nation (Dr. Who) had worked with Clemens and
Fennell before on shows like The
Avengers and they too were trying out new things.
Except
for a few minor complaints and maybe a couple of installments that do not work,
these feature-length mysteries (sometimes involving the supernatural) hold up
shockingly well for their age, setting another high watermark for how good such
storytelling can be. Any serious lover
of Mystery/Horror needs to consider Brian
Clemens’ Thriller a must-have set and the show was a hit that continued for
a few more seasons. The show is simply
classic!
The 1.33
X 1 color image was shot in the analog PAL format and despite some minor flaws
and the tape showing its age in general, the shows look as good as any other
such TV of the time. It helps that these
DVDs are in PAL too. The Dolby Digital
2.0 Mono is also pretty good and clean for their age too, including the great
music by Laurie Johnson (The Avengers, Dr. Strangelove) complements the exceptional writing with
exceptional music.
*Though there are no outright extras, we will gladly count
the special opening and closing sequences included at the end of each episode
that shows how each show (sometimes with a different title) that sometimes
telegraphs certain story details that they should not have. However, I remembered many of them and am
ecstatic that this great show has finally arrived on DVD. More seasons are on the way.
You can
find many imports exclusively from Umbrella at:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
- Nicholas Sheffo
