And I didn't really get any new DVD today. I just wanted to start the thread.
ETA:
Technically, this thread was started on January 1, so it's true that I didn't get a new DVD that day. I got one the day before, December 31!
Buck Rogers (1939): 70th Anniversary Edition - released by VCI Entertainment, bought at MovieStop for $19.99
It's an excellent two-disc set containing the complete 12-chapter theatrical serial (9 chapters on the first disc, with the remaining 3 chapters and extras on the second disc), which starred Larry "Buster" Crabbe as Buck Rogers, Constance Moore as Wilma Deering, Jackie Moran as Buddy Wade, Anthony Warde as Killer Kane, C. Montague Shaw as Dr. Huer, and Philson Ahn as Prince Tallen. VCI really delivered the goods, providing a top-notch audio/visual restoration that is both a blessing and a curse. It's obviously a blessing because you're seeing the serial in the best quality possible (though the audio is still softer than I'd like), but at the same time, it's a curse as it also enhances and draws attention to just how serials were made back then. The serial's matte paintings, models, and effects (things we take for granted now) look a bit hokey by today's standards, even if they were a marvel to look at and groundbreaking back then. The serial is very exciting, it moves like gangbusters and you are able to overlook the production limitations of the time because you get immersed in the world they create. In "Buck Rogers" (and other serials of the time), it may look cheap and fake by today's standards, but still very believable.
In addition, there are a very nice selection of extras. VCI has provided the first two episodes of the longrunning radio series, a hilariously-awful (and once believed lost) "Buck Rogers" short film made for the 1933-1934 World's Fair, an 8-minute featurette/overview of the entire Buck Rogers franchise, a 26-minute audio lecture by Buster Crabbe (recorded in 1972) as he recounts his life and career (set to a great collection of photos and movie clips), a 4-minute montage of various "Buck Rogers" photos, and the half-hour "Buck Rogers" panel discussion from the 2009 San Diego Comic Con. Altogether it's nearly two hours of supplements!
albert
