Customer Reviews

Comedy Classics 50 Movie Pack Collection

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Stan Laurel Festival Stan Laurel
Swing High, Swing Low Carole Lombard
Our Gang Festival Our Gang
Made For Each Other James Stewart
All Star Extravaganza Laurel & Hardy
That Uncertain Feeling Merle Oberon
Fatty Arbuckle Festival Fatty Arbuckle
The Great Rupert Jimmy Durante
Keystone Cops Festival starring Keystone Cops
Something to Sing About starring James Cagney
Buster Keaton Festival starring Buster Keaton
My Man Godfrey starring William Powell
Buster Keaton Classics starring Buster Keaton
One Rainy Afternoon starring Francis Lederer
Steamboat Bill Jr. starring Buster Keaton
The Great Mike starring Stuart Erwin
As You Like It starring Laurence Olivier
Three Guys Named starring Mike Jane Wyman
Speak Easy starring Buster Keaton
The Over The Hill Gang Rides Again starring Walter Brennan
It's a Joke Son starring Kenny Delmar
Angel On My Shoulder starring Paul Muni
Zis Boom Bah starring Grace Hayes
Eternally Yours starring Loretta Young
East Side Kids starring Leon Ames
Happy Go Lovely starring David Niven
Broadway Limited starring Victor McLaglen
The Smallest Show on Earth starring Peter Sellers
The Stork Club starring Betty Hutton
Sandy the Seal starring Heinz Drache
The Amazing Adventure starring Cary Grant
The Front Page starring Adolphe Menjou
My Love For Yours starring Fred MacMurray
Behave Yourself starring Farley Granger
Clancy Street Boys starring East Side Kids
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock starring Harold Lloyd
Pride of the Bowery starring East Side Kids
Beat the Devil starring Humphrey Bogart
Smart Alecks starring East Side Kids
Passport to Pimlico starring Stanley Holloway
Mr Wise Guy starring East Side Kids
Spooks Run Wild starring Bela Lugosi
Million Dollar Kid starring East Side Kids
His Girl Friday starring Cary Grant
Bowery Blitzkrieg starring East Side Kids
Love Laughs at Andy Hardy starring Mickey Rooney
Three Broadway Girls starring Joan Blondell
Pot O'Gold starring James Stewart
L'il Abner starring Buster Keaton
Over the Hill Gang starring Pat O'Brien

I'm not sure what box set of comedy classics the majority (certainly not all) of reviewers on this page saw before they commented, but it couldn't have been this set. I'm a pompous DVD snob, and should run screaming from a discount, grab-bag set like this, but I love it. It gets a full five stars because of its selection of classic 30's comedies, its watchable (and sometimes near-perfect) print materials, and its overall heft and value for dollars spent.

First of all, the complaints about the quality of the prints is ridiculous. Most of these films are from the 30's, and even then, the prints are very watchable, with scratches and debris, yes, but very little given the age of the films. Granted, His Girl Friday is a grossly overcut version with plenty of scratches, and is hard to watch, but for every film like this in the collection, there are 7 or 8 others which are surprisingly well-kept, considering their age and the price of the set. I'm watching the films on an HDtv, and if the films were transferred poorly, I'd see it plainly on my tv, but there's no digital artifacts, no combing or ghosting AT ALL. This set would look even better on a tube tv (which wouldn't pick up all the things the HDtv does)! Not only that, there are a few films on this set, including My Man Godfrey, Love Laughs at Andy Hardy, Something to Sing About, Angel on My Shoulder, Beat the Devil and Stork Club, which are in surpringinly fine condition: they are what you'd expect on a regularly priced, single DVD.

This set is full of classic comedies from the 30's, and the films are full of art deco style. From the opening credits to the music, clothing and sets, these films show off the sleek lines and sharp contrasts of that style. Magnificent.

Migawd, this set has Lubitsch! John Huston, Eve Arden, James Cagney, Jimmy Stewart, William Powell, Carole Lombard, David Niven, Harold Lloyd, Preston Sturges...coupled with the fact that the set is full of rarely seen films, some of which have not been released on proper DVD's, this is a treasure box, people.

Simply put: this set is indispensible to the classic film buff, and at a price which cannot be bettered, I bet. I have a few of the 50 packs, and enjoy each of them very much. Treeline is a fine company, and I'm thankful to them for making available so many great films at a ridiculously low price.

A really great value. The Buster Keaton alone is worth the price -- really. I'd watched very little of his stuff before, but now my 8-year-old son and I are hooked. (He even keeps my 3-year-old daughter's attention!) But then you also get a decent sampling of many of the early American film comedy greats. Too heavy on the East Side Kids and light on Laurel & Hardy and Harold Lloyd, but at least you get to see something of them. I love having the Our Gang (Little Rascals) stuff. And thrown in for some reason is Laurence Olivier in Shakespeare's As you Like It, as well as His Girl Friday with Cary Grant and My Man Godfrey with William Powell (from The Thin Man movies) -- 3 more huge pluses. You also get a chance to see Jimmy Durante, Mickey Rooney, Peter Sellers, Humphrey Bogart, Carole Lombard, Paul Muni, James Cagney -- all great stars, even if not in their greatest movies.

It's an odd compilation, with no apparent rhyme or reason, but that's part of its charm. I'd say you'll get a lot of pleasure out of this collection if:

1) you have an appreciation for (or at least curiosity about) the first couple of generations of American movie comedy (through the 1940s)

2) you can handle a few silent films (like the fabulous Keaton's)

3) you can overlook some occasionally poor sound/film quality.

Sure, there's some stuff here that's not worth having, but a lot of it's really funny & entertaining, and for dirt cheap. So don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. This is an excellent buy for the money.

My mom and I bought this collection after buying the 50 Movie Pack Family Classics which we thought was pretty good.But this one was awful!There were only a few really good movies in it His Girl Friday,My Man Godfrey and Steamboat Bill,Jr the last one is a silent film by the way so in this case it did not matter that the film had rather poor sound quality.This however did affect the movie in the case of films such as His Girl Friday,where dialogue is so important,also this film had been cut and was missing a several minutes in different parts of the movie.Some of the silent films such as the ones in The Buster Keaton Festival and Buster Keaton Classics were HORRIBLY blury and I suspect they might have been cut.Many,true not ALL but a good many of the films here were pretty dull,or had such poor picture and sound quality that it was difficult to make out what was going on even if the movie seemed like it might be interesting.Most of these films if you were to look them up in a Film Guide would only get about 2 1/2 stars some only get about 1 star,there are few 3 stars scattered throughout whose picture and sound quality isn't too bad but not enough in my opinion to justify buying this collection.

I've really been happy with this collection, but you have to know what you are getting. Quite a few of the entries in this collection are 10 to 20 minute long silent comedy shorts, and some of them date back to the 1910's. The shorts include those from Arbuckle, The Keystone Kops and other Mack Sennett shorts, 10 entries from Buster Keaton, and an early 1923 entry from Stan Laurel before he teamed up with Oliver Hardy. None of these films are the best work of any of the comedians involved, but they are still funny.

There are a couple of very good screwball comedies from the 30's - "My Man Godfrey" and "The Front Page". Also included is the 1940 remake of The Front Page - "His Girl Friday" with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Spanky and Our Gang show up in "Follies of Our Gang" in which they put on a show. The Bowery Boys also have a few entries. There's even an Ernst Lubitsch film - 1941' s"That Uncertain Feeling" starring Merle Oberon and Melvyn Douglas in a funny romantic comedy. 1946's "Angel on My Shoulder" is a great film which has a murdered gangster (Paul Muni) returned to earth from hell so that he can inhabit the body of a judge for which he is a dead ringer. Instead of doing evil, though, he accidentally keeps doing good in the judge's name, making his sponsor from down below (Claude Rains) very unhappy. Harold Lloyd shows up in his last film - "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock". This film is funny enough, just not up to par with Lloyd's silent work. "Love Laughs at Andy Hardy" is made in 1947, and Rooney is just too old to be doing this at this point. The film completely lacks the pre-World War II charm of its predecessors.

"The Smallest Show on Earth" was an unexpected pleasure about an old movie theatre that has seen better days. When the new owners show up and are disappointed with it, the ancient staff gives the place a facelift to please them so they can hold on to their jobs. "Passport to Pimlico" is another British comedy that is very funny, probably just unfamiliar to you. "Sandy The Seal" isn't a comedy at all, it's more of a dramatic family film. Even though it was made in 1969 it has absolutely awful film quality, and I'm really not that picky. Most of the other entries are funny enough, just not noteable comedy classics.

If you like silent slapstick and classic comedy from the 30's and 40's you'll probably enjoy this collection, and you can't beat the price.

i own many of the 50 movie packs and have liked most of them,but even though i am very willing to except a little drop of quality on the sets because of the price, this is one set that is not done very well. the set has some good films on it but most are unwatchable so maybe look at other sets that may have the same movies in them. you have been warned.

I grew up watching most of these classics movies on late nites.
It was just Awesome to see them again. lotsa comedy favs w' bob hope, James stewart, james cagney & others at their best. Hours of entertainment without the gross bodily functions & sexual innuendos of comedies nowadays. great for kids.

Great price! Great movies! Nothing 'Gone With The Wind'-ish or any of the modern so-called classic movies of today - but I didn't want anything from today. Sometimes I'm just in the mood for something innocent and fun. This hits the spot!

of course the films are not the best transfers but for 40 to 50 cents a movie what do you expect. as always some are good some are bad and some well you will see. also great for the family as most of these movies are kid friendly

This is a great way of seeing some really great comedies of the classic era, such as our man godfrey, or even the smallest show on earth, as well as many other absolute jewels for a very affordable price.Sure there are no extras, the copies are not always the best, but for this price and this amount of movies one cant aspire to too much.I reccommend it highly.