Tuesday, October 8, 2013

The Jack Lemmon Film Collection (Phffft! / Operation Mad Ball / The Notorious Landlady / Under the Yum Yum Tree / Good Neighbor Sam)



Some lesser known performances by the great Jack Lemmon
The five films that the other reviewer mentioned are accompanied by a bonus disc of yet undisclosed extra features. No box set has yet been dedicated to Jack Lemmon, and it is about time.

Don't judge this set by some of Sony's early ventures into classic films. I have some DVDs made by Sony early in this century that look like VHS transfers or something that was projected against a bedsheet. However, Sony has begun to turn the corner with such outstanding entries as theThe Cary Grant Box Set (Holiday / Only Angels Have Wings / The Talk of the Town / His Girl Friday / The Awful Truth).

1954's Phffft has the great chemistry of Judy Holliday and Jack Lemmon in a film that examines how you deal with somebody that gets on your nerves yet is in your blood at the same time. Jack Carson plays his usual bad influence part as Lemmon's friend.

I haven't seen Operation Madball in years. As I...

Discs are still mislabeled
Well, here it is, almost a year later from its expensive release, and Sony is selling the mislabeled disc collection (hmmm, has a nice ring to it, though).

Every movie does not match the DVD's label - Disc 2 is really "Good Neighbor Sam" though it's labeled "Operation Mad Ball." Disc 5 is labeled "Good Neighbor Sam," but it's really "Operation Mad Ball". And the confusion just continues through the other discs. Time to get out the DVD Felt Pen Marker.

What makes this mishap particularly irritating is that the Root Menu/Title Screen for each DVD does NOT tell you the name of the movie. Just "Play movie" or "Languages" or "Select Scenes." It's bad enough that every disc is mislabeled, but to not even tell you on the Main Title root menu what the name of the movie is? You have to actually start each movie to see which one it is.

I bought this set for one movie only, "Good Neighbor Sam," and I must say the transfer was poor. Couldn't Sony have at...

Discs mislabeled but great Lemmon collection
Just got this set today for $29.99 with free shipping from a competitor, and I can confirm the discs are mislabeled. First one I put in was labeled "Good Neighbor Sam", but it is actually "Operation Mad Ball". So a little homework with a felt-tipped pen was needed. For the price I got this set of 6 discs for, I am not going to get too upset about the mixup and lack of quality control. Great transfers and picture quality which is the important thing. 5 Stars, -1 Star for the quality control issue.

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