Word on the Street
What's new in the P.I. world...
Recent and upcoming DVD Releases
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November 2009 DVDs and Videos
- The Rockford Files Movie Collection)..Buy the DVD
Unlike most TV reunion shows, The Rockford Files were about more than a crass attempt to re-milk the cow. The people involved in these heart-felt updates which aired on CBS in the early nineties, were the people who had made it work the first time: the original cast, the original writers, the original producers. So it's fitting that the very first film, I Still Love LA, was dedicated to the memory of Noah Berry Jr., who passed away shortly before the show was aired. Good use of recent events in LA as we follow an unapologetically older Jim through the "missing years" as he gets married, gets unmarried, loses his father, and finally decides to pack it all in, sell the trailer, and leave LA. But nasty things keep happening, like earthquakes, the L.A. riots of '92 and the devastating brush fires in '93 and murder. Well done, as much a tribute as an update, and both long overdue. It set the bar pretty high for the subsequent films, and while they didn't all reach quite as high, for the most part they met the challenge bravely and honestly, favoring classy update and for the most part avoiding simple blatant ching-ching nostalgia. For anyone who loved the show, these are a nice chaser.
October 2009 DVDs and Videos
- Chinatown)..Buy the DVD
It's about time Chinatown got the deluxe, two-disk DVD treatment it deserves. Completely restored and remastered, with all the attendant bells and whistles, including a brand-new making-of documentary, featuring interviews with director Roman Polanski, screenwriter Robert Towne and star Jack Nicholson (What? No Faye Dunaway?). Arguably the greatest private eye flick ever made (or is it The Maltese Falcon?), it's Polanski's masterpiece, and boasts Nicholson's greatest performance (as Jake Gittes, a slick 1930s LA gumshoe who bites off more than he can chew, and it's all about as irrelevant as today's news. It's a dark disturbing film noir that -- after all these years -- still manages to shake and haunt viewers. "Forget it"? But it's Chinatown!
- The Last Lullaby)..Buy the DVD
Good stuff. There's a real earthy, unsettlingly, almost dangerously quiet vibe to this quietly unsettling adaptation of Max Allan Collins' The Last Quarry, starring Tom Sizemore as the hard-as-nails hitman who just wants to be left alone.. The lack of big fuss dramatics actually makes this seem even harder and tougher, and Sizemore brings an Arctic-cold ruthless pragmatism to the role, showing that Mickey Rourke's might not be the only trainwreck of a career about to make a U-turn. A classic B-film, in all the best damn good senses of the phrase.
- Vega$)..Buy the DVD
Robert Urich alert! One of the most ubitquious and blandly affable actors on seventies and eighties TV starred in this glitzy, star-studded meatball P.I. show remains a guilty cheesy pleasure. Plots? Hell, no -- we have showgirls!
September 2009 DVDs and Videos
- The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency)..Buy the DVD
Singer Jill Scott stars as Precious Ramotswe, the owner of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and Botswana's first female private eye. Based on the crazy popular books by alexander McCall Smith.
May 2009 DVDs and Videos
- Killshot...Buy the DVD.
A relentless, uncompromising stab at the Elmore Leonard novel. This is noir straight up, no chaser. Lane steals the show (as a woman in the Federal Witness Protection Program who is anything but protected) but the entire powerhouse cast isto die for.
March 2009 DVDs and Videos
- In the Electric Mist....Buy the DVD....Buy the Blu-ray
Forget Alec Baldwin -- Tommy Lee Jones IS Dave Robicheaux. And director Bernard Tavernier and a cast that includes John Goodman, Mary Steenburgen, Ned Beatty, John Sayles, Levon Helm and Buddy Guy ain't too shabby either.
January 2009 DVDs and Videos
- Appaloosa...Buy this DVD...Buy this Blu-ray
You could argue this isn't a private eye flick but simply a good old-fashioned western, but whatever else they are, Everett Hitch and Virgil Cole are lawmen-for-hire; freelance town-tamers not unlike the Continental Op in Red Harvest. But that's splitting hairs. If you like hard-boiled action and manly men doing manly things, this one's a keeper. It's based on the novel by Robert B. Parker, and is directed and stars Ed Harris. And the rest of the cast -- which includes Viggo MortensenRenée Zellweger, Robert Jauregui and Jeremy Irons ain't too shabby either.
- Mannix: The Complete Season Two....Buy this DVD set
For many fans, this is when the "real" Mannix starts. Joe decides he's had enough of Intertect and leaves to set up his own agency -- complete with the ever-faithful (and much-kidnapped) Peggy Fair by his side. When it comes to TV private eyes, Joe Mannix is the man and, as the CBS promos made a point of mentioning, Mike Connors IS Mannix.
- The Rockford Files: Season Six....Buy this DVD set
The final season, in all its truncated glory. Sure, it's a shame Garner pulled the plug himself, but isn't it better the show went out on a high note, rather than meander into the senility and predictability that so many other American TV shows do? Next up: the TV movies, please? Although not up to the series' high standards, they weree still miles above most bring-back-all-the-usual-suspects and let's-cash-in reunion movies of their era.
December 2008 DVDs and Videos
- Cannon: Season 1, Volume 2....Buy this DVD set
William Conrad returns as Cannon, a tough, expensive, overweight southern California PI with a taste for fine food and win, in the second collection of episodes from his first season. In many ways Cannon was the bridge between the old school P.I.., represented by Mannix, and the soon-to-come explosion of new eyes, represented by Rockford, Harry O et al.
- Cannon: Complete Season 1....Buy this DVD set
Tired of being ripped off by DVD companies parcelling out TV seasons piece by piece? Buy the complete first season.and save.
September 2008 DVDs and Videos
- Honey West: The Complete Series....Buy the DVD
A legal, licenced edition, with yummy Anne Francis starring as G.G. Fickling's Honey West, the sexy head of a high-tech private detective firm. She may have been a bimbo in the books, but on TV, this sister was definitely doing it for herself. In glorious black and white.
July 2008 DVDs and Videos
- Cannon: Season 1, Volume 1....Buy this DVD set
William Conrad IS Cannon, a tough, expensive, overweight southern California PI with a taste for fine food and win -- and the hero of one of the best P.I. shows of the seventies. Some of the best writers and directors were involved in its production, and the guest star list is a veritable who's who of Hollywood at that time.
- Jake and the Fatman: Volume 1, Season 1 ....Buy this DVD set
William Conrad shows up again this month, as the Fatman of the title, but this time he's a DA. in Los Angeles, not a private eye. Joe Penny (previously of Riptide) plays Jake Styles, a brash, hip young special investigator.
- Psych: Season Two.. Buy this season on DVD
More goofiness masquerading as a P.I. show, but at its best, it's funnier than Monk, and the schtick is less annoying.
June 2008 DVDs and Videos
- Burn Notice: Season One....Buy this DVD set
The one rock-solid P.I. show of 2007 makes it to DVD (and a second season!). Michael Weston is a spy who's been burned by the CIA, and he wants to know why. But until then, he's working as a P.I. in Miami...
- Mannix: The Complete Season One....Buy this DVD set
The first -- and some argue the best -- season of the archetypical hard-boiled private eye show from the sixties finally makes it onto disk. But be forewarned: this isn't the "classic" Mannix we all recall so fondly, with two-fisted Joe and her ever-faithful (and much-kidnapped) secretary Peggy by his side. Nope, this is the first season, where working class Joe works for a large, high-tech detective agency and regularly clashes with his boss (Joseph Campanella) and the powers that be. So, is it the best? We'll see. I haven't seen these episodes for forty years -- they were never part of any syndication package.
April 2008 DVDs and Videos
- Perry Mason 50th Anniversary Edition ....Buy this DVD set
For those who aren't (yet) fanatics, here's a great solution: this 50th anniversary set collects a dozen episodes, and fills out the set with a the 1985 TV-movie revival, Perry Mason Returns, screen tests, assorted interviews with Barbara Hale, producer-director Arthur Marks and CBS executive Anne Nelson, and Raymond Burr, plus promo clips and a photo gallery. It won't be enough for dedicated fans, still seething over the glacial-like release schedule of the complete series, but it's a good introduction to the series.
March 2008 DVDs and Videos
- The Best of Checkmate: Season Two...Buy this DVD set
Sebastian Cabot (MR. FRENCH!!!), Doug McClure and Anthony George (who?) star as three San Francisco gumshoes whose aim is "to thwart crime and checkmate death (by) stopping the slide downhill to tradgedy." They use all sorts of high tech (for the time) scientific doo-dads and techniques to achieve this, an early precessor to CSI et al. But don't hold THAT against them! Created by Eric Ambler and featuring the talents of such primo writers as Jonathan Latimer, Helen Nielsen, Leigh Brackett and William P. McGivern, the music of John "StarWars" Williams and an A-list of guest stars, this was a quality production all the way, even if Doug McClure was a doofus.
- Magnum, P.I.:Season Eight....Buy this DVD set
Left for dead at the end of the previous season, Magnum returned, cheese intact, for one last go-round Gosh, he even had Carol Burnett drop in for a very special episode.Includes a bonus episode of The Rockford Files with Selleck as Lance White.
- Nancy Drew...Buy this DVD
No, really. Not a P.I., but definitely a gateway drug. And this version, which tries to update the frnchise by tossing in a good dollop of Mean Girls isn't too bad, all things considered. Still, for Nancy's first big-screen appearance in nearly 70 years, it's a bit of a letdown to have Nancy uprooted to Los Angeles. Surely part of the original's charm was the small town ambience of River Heights.But hey, if it sparks a new generation of mystery readers -- and more than a few tweenagers seem to really dig this flick -- then I'm all for it. And while she's no Bonita Granville, Emma Roberts (Julia's niece, Eric's daughter) makes for a likable enough heroine.
February 2008 DVDs and Videos
- B.L. Stryker: Season One....Buy this DVD set
The 1989-1990 series of wildly uneven but amusing TV movies starring Burt Reynolds as a smirky, slacker Palm Beach eye who was a constant thorn in the side to his ex-wife, social-climbing Rita Moreno and local Police Chief McGee. Only 12 two-hour episodes were produced in all, as part of the very-short-lived ABC Monday Mystery Movie which rotated with Lou Gossett as Gideon Oliver and yet another revival of Columbo.
- The Equalizer: Season One... Buy this DVD
Possibly hoping to cash in on the inevitable buzz to be created by the new big bucks adaptation (currently being scripted by our pals Terrill Lee Lankford and Michael Connelly) the 1980s' update of Have Gun, Will Travel hits the DVD circuit. Equalize? More like eliminate.
- Gone Baby Gone...Buy this DVD
Whew. It's been a long time a-coming, but we finally have a great P.I. film. And I don't mean "pretty good" or "not bad" -- i mean "great." Ben Affleck makes his directorial debut, stepping up to the plate and knocking it out of the park. This is an almost perfect film, from the razor-sharp cast (inluding Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman, the deservedly Oscar-nominated Amy Ryan, and featuring Michelle Monaghan and Ben's kid brother Casey's as P.I. couple Angie Genarro and Patrick Kenzie) to the bravura adaptation of Dennis Lehan'e novel, which cuts all the fat off, and gets right to the story's dark, black heart.. A measure of this film's success is the anger some have expressed at the film's ending. Not that they didn't believe it, but that they didn't agree with it. Morally ambivalent, brooding, bittersweet -- this one will pierce your heart. Guaranteed. It's not Chinatown or The Maltese Falcon, but it's not far behind. This is the sort of film that reminds me why I love detective fiction. Highly and heartily recommended.
January 2008 DVDs and Videos
- Banacek: Season Two... Buy this DVD
The second (and final) season of television movies starring the high-flying Beantown insurance investigator. If you ask me, these are some of the best "impossible" crimes ever presented on the tube. Will include the previously unreleased pilot, "Detour to Nowhere."
- The Rockford Files: Season Five... Buy this DVD
The fifth season of what many consider the greatest private eye show of all time. Jim, Rocky, Angel, Denis... and Lance! 'nuff said.
- An Unsuitable Job for a Woman... Buy this DVD
Contains all four episodes of the PBS/ITV series featuring the exploitss of P.D. James' landmark female private eye, Cordelia Gray, arguably the first "modern" female gumshoe. The role of Cordelia is a tough one -- in the books, she's complex, moody, introspective, idealistic and inexperienced, yet Helen Baxendale nailed it, although some of the more soap operaish plotlines in the latter episodes may take fans of James' by surprise.
November 2007 DVDs and Videos
October 2007 DVDs and Videos
- The Best of Checkmate: Season One...Buy this DVD set
- Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life....Buy this DVD
Another indie project form the House of Collins, a film version of Max Allan Collins' one-man play of the same name about the life of Ness, the bootleg-busting G-Man, starring Collins' actor buddy Michael Cornelison.
Hardcastle and McCormick ...Buy this season on DVD
The third and final season. For those who thought Rockford didn't have enough car chases, this is the P.I. show to get. Vroom-vroom!
- Magnum, P.I.: Season Seven....Buy this DVD set
This was going to be the final season of the show, and so a lot of loose ends were supposedly tied up. Jessica Fletcher from Murder, She Wrote even dropped by for a "very special" crossover episode.
- Veronica Mars: Complete Third Season...Buy this DVD set
The third and final season of the cult fave finds tart-tongued, wise-cracking gal sleuth Veronica attending Hearst College (with Logan in tow), and discovering college isn't much better high school -- the same lies, betrayal, secrets and (of course) murder abound. And an on-campus serial rapist is tossed in for good measure. "Chinatown meets Heathers" is how creator Rob Thomas once heard it described, and that's about right. Or maybe Nancy Drew with hormones.
September 2007 DVDs and Videos
- Las Vegas: Season Four ...Buy the DVD
Just in time for the new season to begin, this is the last comlete season with James Caan, whose scenery chewing and cranky older guy grumbling duties will be taken over by Tom Selleck. The glamorization of this pathetic and tawdry town continues, though -- about as soulful and convincing as a silicone implant.
August 2007 DVDs and Videos
- The Dresden Files: The Complete First Season.. Buy on DVD
Torn between helping the innocent and watching his own back, wizard turned P.I. Harry Dresden battles Chicago's true dark side to crack shocking cases the cops can't handle and science won't explain. Uh-huh.
- The Smiling Man....Buy this DVD
An indie short starring nobody you ever heard of that follows beat-down shamus Nick Chambers through the oddly empty (and very clean) streets of post-WWII San Francisco in search of a man only identified by a photograph, on behalf of a smug, enigmatic client who knows more than he's letting on. Short on thrills, but long on mood, this low-budget but engaging headscratcher is an enjoyable little spin-off from last year's equally enjoyable Fog City Nocturne collection.
July 2007 DVDs and Videos
- Darwin Awards... Buy this DVD
Don't get too excited. This flick, starring Winona Ryder as an insurance investigator and Joseph Fiennes as a forensic specialist looking into a suspiciously bizarre death, bounced around for a while and then vanished. Supposedly it's a romantic comedy. On the other hand, it's also been billed as very black, a sort of "noir comedy." We'll see... no actual official release date was ever confirmed, and now I see that it's coming out on DVD July 31st.
- Pulp Fiction Art: Cheap Thrills & Painted Nightmares.. Buy on DVD
Documentary filmmaker prowls pulp art historian Robert Lesser's vast collection of pulp art, and lives to tell the tale, offering an in-depth look at the world of pulp fiction cover art and lives to tell the tale.
- Vincent: Season One.. Buy on DVD
Quirky but very well-received P.I. show from the U.K. starring Ray Winstone now out on DVD stateside.
June 2007 DVDs and Videos
May 2007 DVDs and Videos
- Banacek: Season One... Buy this DVD
You think Spenser's smug? You oughta check out this George Peppard as the freelance insurance investigator
- The Rockford Files: Season Four... Buy this DVD
And now the deluge.Season four follows close on the heels of February's Season Three release. Too much of a good thing? No way, man -- this is Rockford! Even better, there's a sneak peek at the fifth season, with an episode featuring Tom Selleck as Lance White, plus a clip from Sleuth TV's "America's Favorite Sleuths," featuring various talking heads expounding on what made Rockford so great.
April 2007 DVDs and Videos
- Kidnapped... Buy this DVD
It was smart, clever and entertaining so, surprise, surprise, NBC cancelled it before it really had a chance, bouncing it around the schedule until everyone gave up. Still, they get points for rounding up all thirteen episodes, including the unaired ones and releasing them on DVD. It should be worth checking out -- it was an ambitious potboiler with a surprisingly strong cast that follows the abduction of a teenage boy and the efforts of his wealthy New York parents, Conrad (Timothy "Nero Wolfe" Hutton) and Ellie (Dana Delaney) Cain, to get him back. those efforts include hiring Knapp (Jeremy Sisto), a freelance investigator with a troubled past and an abrasive manner who specializes in rescuing kidapping victims and negotiating ransom demands.
- L.A. Dicks... Buy this DVD
Man, they really are dicks.
March 2007 DVDs and Videos
- Michael Shayne Mysteries, Volume One... Buy this DVD
Cool beans! At last they're releasing these! Not great art, maybe, but great fun, with Lloyd Nolan starring as Brett Halliday's insanely popular redheaded sleuth. Includes four pulpy classics: Michael Shayne, Private Detective, The Man Who Wouldn't Die, Sleepers West and Blue White and Perfect.
February 2007 DVDs and Videos
- Magnum, P.I.: The Complete Sixth Season... Buy this on DVD
Generally considered the weakest season of the show, but still essential viewing for fans.
- The Rockford Files: Season Three... Buy this DVD
Now we're talking! This is season three of arguably the greatest TV P.I. show of them all (Harry O is the other; Magnum doesn't even come close). By the third season the writers, producers and cast were all firing on all cylinders. A pure treat for P.I. fans.
- Shock to the System... Buy this DVD
Second TV flick from the here! Network ("Gay television. No apologies.") featuring hard-boiled Albany P.I. Donald Strachey, based on the popular series of novels by Richard Stevenson. In this one, Strachey looks into the alleged suicide of a client, an apparent victim of aggressive "gay conversion therapy."
January 2007 DVDs and Videos
- Michael Shayne Detective.. Buy this DVD
Aiming to cash in on the imminent release of the box set , Critics' Choice offers up this budget-priced set containing two episodes from the short-lived fifties TV show starring Richard Denning.
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List respectfully compiled by film editor Chris Baldemor and site editor: Kevin Burton Smith. Special thanks to our man in the field, Bob Huggins, for the heads up.
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