Who likes watching Stuff? I love watching Stuff. Here is some of the very Stuff I have been watching lately.
Kicking things off is the most recent addition to my DVD shelf, Shout! Factory's set made to commemorate the innovative comedian Ernie Kovacs' 100th birthday in 2019. I've really been getting into his work lately via Tubi, and I decided to pull the trigger and treat myself to a physical copy of what boasts to be (as of right now) the definitive smorgasbord of his work, which boasts over 22 hours of content. You could spend almost a full day Kovacs-ing!
I'm still relatively early into the set, so I don't have a whole lot to say about it yet other than it really is incredible how well most of Kovacs' material holds up all these years later. Like many before me have said, he was one of the earliest television comedians to truly grasp the medium and foresee what it would eventually be capable of. You can still feel his influence in the DNA of productions being made today, whether the people behind it are aware of him or not.
One of the Criterion Collection's earlier releases, this one does what is advertised: presents six of the legendary WC Fields' early shorts in significantly-better quality than most of the other DVD sets that contain the same material. Featured are Pool Sharks (a silent film), The Golf Specialist, The Fatal Glass of Beer, The Pharmacist, The Dentist and The Barbershop.
The set has been out of print for... I don't know how long, but it's out of print. I found it for pretty cheap on eBay a few weeks ago, though, so I finally have my grubby little hands on it (actually, my hands are fairly large, with pretty long fingers. Like a sexy alien). In really good condition too! For a couple of years now, I've also had the Comedy Essentials Collection, which collects what are arguably his 18 definitive films, so I think I'm just about set on WC Fields discs for the time being (I also have this record, for the record).
While we are on the topic of old comedians and their short films, I've been returning to these releases of Charlie Chaplin's public domain work as of late. I've had a few volumes (there are eight in total, I believe) for quite a while now and I've ordered a few more after (you guessed it) spotting some really cheap deals online.
In terms of visual quality... you get what you get. There's even a disclaimer at the beginning of each disc that warns you some of the material will be quite mucky. This doesn't bother me a whole lot, though, because a) It's still legible/watchable even in the worst instances. You can make out everything on screen b) In some cases, the best available prints of the shorts aren't a whole lot better than what is seen on these DVDs. To me, it's simply impressive that this century-plus old work still survives for us to see.
While these discs mostly contain Chaplin's short subjects (The Immigrant, The Cure, Mabel's Strange Predicament), there are a few feature-length films included, such as Tillie's Punctured Romance and Chaplin's first masterpiece, The Kid.
This is one DVD set I've wanted for many years now, and now I finally own it. The 1966 Batman TV show, starring Adam West and Burt Ward, has always had a big impact on me, so it's been a real treat to revisit it all in its campy, candy-coloured glory.
I earnestly believe that this is in the top five takes on the character; yes, it is silly, but a lot of people seem to fail to realize that it is deliberately so. The writers didn't make it the way it was by accident! Leaning into the inherent wackiness of silver-age superherodom was a great choice, especially considering so many cape-centred films and TV shows tend to shy away from/make excuses for this aspect of the genre.
As of right now, I have the first two of five volumes of this series of releases, collecting the Universal-era films of one of the great duos in entertainment. I'm hoping to scoop up the remaining three sooner rather than later (especially because the fifth one exclusively has their monster-crossover oeuvre).
What can you say about Bud and Lou that hasn't already been said eighty-odd years ago? Their chemistry was impeccable; they were so tapped into one another that some of their routines work at near-lightning speed. Who's on First (which is performed in a number of their movies-- they were not averse to repeating material, which in their latter years arguably became their chief weakness) is the obvious routine to dwell on, and for good reason, but this bit from their first feature, One Night in The Tropics, is a personal favorite of mine:
That's it! For now, at least-- I'd certainly enjoy doing more posts of this nature some time down the road, especially considering this one seemed to exclusively focus on old comedy DVDs, and I promise you I'm a bit more versatile a viewer than that. Here's to some more brief blurbs about Stuff in the future!
