No other series from the Golden Age of TV had the impact on me that THRILLER did. This was in the early 1960s when your viewing choices were extremely limited. Fortunately the NBC affiliate was very close by so that we could get a clear sharp signal with our rabbit ear antennas (remember those?). I not only watched every episode but I had the two giant THRILLER comic books from Gold Key as well as the later Boris Karloff TALES OF MYSTERY ones.
Among my favorite episodes were Robert Bloch’s THE CHEATERS about a set of enchanted spectacles, THE PRISONER IN THE MIRROR about a magician’s looking glass and WELL OF DOOM about an heir’s encounters with diabolic forces. All 3 of these episodes featured Karloff’s old friend Henry Daniell who had starred with him in THE BODY SNATCHER 20 years earlier. The episode that scared me the most when I first saw it was LA STREGA with Jeannette Nolan as a village witch and a pre-DR NO Ursula Andress as her granddaughter.
I have waited a long time to see these restored DVDs as well as the extras they contain which is what really distinguishes the authorized copies from the bootlegs. I had seen some of the Canadian DVD-Rs and while they were perfectly watchable they absolutely pale compared to these authorized ones. The visual quality is better than the old MCA VHS tapes but the sound has issues.
I am a little surprised to see that these are being issued by Image Entertainment as opposed to Universal Home Video as Universal owned the rights to the original show but they and Universal struck a deal. The set is expensive but consider there are 14 DVDs with over 3000 minutes worth of material and then there are the bonus extras which include numerous commentaries. So lovers of old school horror and fans of Boris Karloff can rejoice but not completely as will be discussed below. After 50 years, it was very nearly a dream come true.
But now for the reservations…Actually there is only one but it’s a mighty BIG ONE. I added the caps for emphasis because they symbolize what a number of other reviewers complain about and that is the sound mix. The dialogue track and the soundtracks/effects seem to have been mixed separately because they frequently diverge wildly with the latter overpowering the former. This was not an issue with the VHS episodes that were released a decade ago. It seems that the problem lies with the episodes that feature the soundtrack by itself as an option. The volume disparity does not seem to occur on the episodes that do not offer this special feature which is most of the early ones without a Morton Stevens or Jerry Goldsmith score. Why this is I cannot say but it’s too bad as the later episodes are the best ones. Despite this, the set is still a must for fans of the series like myself.
The Capsule Critic 