DVDIALOG

November 4, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Sony’s just-released Film Noir Classics I collection compiles five prime examples of the oft-discussed post-war genre, including previous issued classic The Big Heat (1953) by Fritz Lang with Lee Marvin and Gloria Grahame, and the first-time-on-DVD films 5 Against the House (1955) by Phil Karlson and starring Kim Novak and Guy Madison, Edward Dmytryk’s The Sniper (1952) starring Adolphe Menjou and Marie Windsor, Murder by Contract (1958) directed by Irving Lerner and starring Vince Edwards, and Don Siegel’s The Lineup (1958) with Eli Wallace and Warner Anderson.

It’s a respectable boxed set that gets extra points for its impressive array ...Read More

November 2, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

A very likable and lively singer-songwriter, Vonda Shepard was first introduced to mainstream American audiences as a regular on the first five seasons of the hit TV show Ally McBeal, where she portrayed a (you guessed it!) performing singer/songwriter at the local bar where the show’s characters went to hang out after a hard day at the office.

The songs Vonda performed at the bar—all her own compositions—launched her musical career. And now those songs are seeing some notable action again with Fox’s recent release of Ally McBeal: The Complete Series and Ally McBeal: Season One on DVD (and Season One on VOD), along with Vonda’s latest record, ...Read More

October 28, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

I had an appointment to phone comic Jim Jefferies in an Indianapolis hotel at 6:00est to interview him in conjunction with his new DVD, the HBO comedy special I Swear to God (HBO/Warner), which was released last week. I dialed the number, asked for Geoffrey Nugent and was quickly connected to a room. Jim Jefferies answered with a relaxed “Hello?.”

Geoffrey Nugent? A pretty calm joke for the high-energy Australian comic who mostly known for his in-your-face, politically incorrect humor.

“Yeah, the names are fun,” Jeffe...Read More

October 22, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Having given us “something completely different” in their 20s and 30s, the members of Monty Python’s Flying Circus have little left to prove. Thus, their latter-day reunions have come in the form of group interviews that are eagerly awaited by Python fans — the last one having occurred in 1998 at the Aspen Comedy Festival.

The five living members — plus the Pythons’ female foil Carol Cleveland and a cardboard cut-out of the late Graham Chapman — reunited for a very unrehearsed Q&A sessions after the debut American showing at the Ziegfeld theater in New York City of the Eagle Rock documentary Monty Python: Almost the Tr...Read More

October 20, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

“One million dollars, Mr. Bond. You were wondering what it cost,” Joseph Wiseman coolly announces as the price of his evil lair’s fish tank to Sean Connery’s visibly impressed Agent 007 in the very first big screen James Bond adventure, 1962’s Dr. No. Wiseman portrayed the not-so-good titular doctor, the very first in a lengthy series of super-villain—and still one of the best—to have his designs on world domination foiled by the world’s greatest secret agent. Wiseman died yesterday at his home in Manhattan at the age of 91.

...Read More