Customer Reviews

Cult Classics 20-Movie Pack

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

For fans of Z-grade exploitation films of the 30s-50s, this is a great treasure trove of forgotten rarities. Everything from drugs to prostitution to gambling to wild sex to midgets is covered in this panorama of exploitation. Remember, though, these films are in the public domain and the picture and sound quality will very from film to film. Here is a rundown of what is on the 4-DVD set:

1. Chained for Life
2. Child Bride
3. Cocaine Fiends
4. Delinquent Daughters
5. Escort Girl
6. Gambling with Souls
7. Joyless Street,
8. Mad Youth
9. Marihuana
10. Marijuana Menace, The
11. Omoo-Omoo, The Shark God
12. Reefer Madness
13. Road to Ruin, The
14. Sex Madness
15. She Shoulda' Said "No"!
16. Slaves in Bondage
17. Ten Nights in a Barroom
18. Terror of Tiny Town, The
19. Test Tube Babies
20. Wild and The Wicked, The

MILL CREEK ENTERTAINMENT packages offer unusual (and often rare) cinema at bargain prices. In their box set CULT CLASSICS 20 MOVIE PACK, vice is nice (or so it seems). Topics of these films include drugs and alcohol (when booze was illegal), love for a price, and out-of-control teens. There's human oddities like little people and conjoined twins. In fact, for fans of the luridly bizarre this movie collection has a lot to offer.

50 MOVIE PACK: DRIVE-IN MOVIE CLASSICS is another boxful of weirdness.

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Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are 1 to 10 viewer poll ratings found at a film resource website.

(3.5) Chained For Life (1951) - Violet & Daisy Hilton (Siamese twins)
(6.0) Child Bride (1938) - Shirley Mills/Bob Bollinger
(4.8) Cocaine Fiends ("The Pace That Kills") (1935) - Lois January/Noel Madison
(5.3) Delinquent Daughters (1944) - June Carlson/Fifi D'Orsay
(3.8) Escort Girl (1941) - Wheeler Oakman/Betty Compson
(5.5) Gambling With Souls (1936) - Martha Chapin/Wheeler Oakman
(7.2) Joyless Street (silent/Germany-1925) - Renate Brausewetter/Greta Garbo (uncredited)
(5.1) Mad Youth (1940) - Mary Ainslee/Betty Compson
(3.7) Marihuana (1936) - Harley Wood/Hugh McArthur
(5.4) The Marijuana Menace ("Assassin Of Youth") (1937) - Luana Walters/Arthur Gardner
(5.4) Omoo-Omoo The Shark God (1949) - Ron Randell/Devera Burton
(3.1) Reefer Madness ("Tell Your Children") (1936) - Dorothy Short/Kenneth Craig
(6.4) The Road To Ruin (1934) - Helen Foster/Nell O'Day
(3.6) Sex Madness (1938) - Vivian McGill/Rose Tapley
(4.5) She Shoulda' Said No (1949) - Alan Baxter/Lyle Talbot
(5.2) Slaves In Bondage (1937) - Lona Andre/Donald Reed
(4.9) Ten Nights In A Barroom (1931) - William Farnum/Tom Santschi
(2.4) The Terror Of Tiny Town (1938) - Billy Curtis/Yvonne Moray
(5.0) Test Tube Babies (1948) - Dorothy Duke/William Thomason
(4.7) The Wild And The Wicked - Joy Reynolds/Geri Moffatt

I haven't viewed the entire set but so far the photography and sound are quite good and, in fact, excellent in Chained For Life and Child Bride. Chained For Life deals with actual Siamnese twin sisters who are wonderful singers/entertainers (in real life, too) in vaudeville. One is courted and exploited by another entertainer in the show much to the chagrin of the other twin. What eventually occurs is somewhat far-fetched but still possible. I won't ruin it but the twins are treated with dignity throughout the story which also features an actual very entertaining variety/vaudeville show. Child Bride concerns the dignity and rights of young pre-teen and teenage girls and, as the title denotes, a very serious social issue in the U.S.A. at one time. A teacher from the same mountain community (and in peril) advocates for a law forbidding this practice. There are also other conflicts within the mountain community, some quite ugly, but it's an interesting story, especially the unexpected ending/solution.

I would have paid twice or even three times the asking amount for even the ravaged copies of these films, but with the Mill Creek logo popping up throughout the films, I would rather obtain these titles from collectors (or download them...they are, after all, public domain.) This set was already in my cart and I was ready to purchase, but fortunately a friend loaned me his copy. Poor duplication, poor prints, but worst of all is that company logo that appears off and on during the films. I removed everything in my cart from Mill Creek Entertainment and will never buy anything from them ever (I also stopped buying from Something Weird, who also host their crummy logo for the duration of all of their DVD's, fact fans!) I spend a lot of money on DVDs, but I don't spend it on companies that cripple what I pay for. If other consumers boycotted this practice, it would end.

If you are looking for complete versions of these films, this is not the Collection to buy. Multiple films have been edited and are not full prints.

...but temper your expectations. The movies in this collection have suffered the ravages of time. Many of the story lines are difficult to follow; there are missing segments that make watching these movies similar to listening to a record that skips with every full rotation. If you're looking for quality, look elsewhere. If you have a morbid curiosity about early anti-drug and temperance propoganda, look no further.

some great content here, and I didn't expect great video quality, but the DVDs themselves are in terrible shape, like they were just burned on a bad computer. Several titles skip and hang so badly they won't play at all. Too bad, as there's some great stuff I'd love to see on here!

This movie pack on 4 DVDs has 20 real cult classics. They are:
1. Chained for Life
2. Child Bride
3. Cocaine Fiends
4. Delinquent Daughters
5. Escort Girl
6. Gambling with Souls
7. Joyless Street
8. Mad Youth
9. Marihuana
10. The Marijuana Menace
11. Omoo-Omoo, The Shark God
12. Reefer Madness
13. The Road to Ruin
14. Sex Madness
15. She Shoulda' Said No!
16. Slaves in Bondage
17. Ten Nights in a Barroom
18. The Terror of Tiny Town
19. Test Tube Babies
20. The Wild and The Wicked

My boss had recommended The Terror of Tiny Town (I think he has a thing for little people). I had to watch that one first.

The Terror of Tiny Town is a 1938 western movie using an "all midget cast". It is supposed to be a serious western, but I found myself breaking out in laughter most of the time. The midgets were rounded up to be in the Wizard of Oz, so while production was stalled on that film, the midgets made this one.

A band of bad dude "little people" were trying to steal cattle from another "little" rancher. All the characters rode up on Shetland ponies but the stage coaches were full-sized. I was loosing it about this time. When the scene moves into the saloon, the little people go under the saloon swinging doors, now I'm laughing real hard. But when two midgets were trying to play the bass fiddle, I had some belly laughs, but the "high pitched" barber shop quartet, made me pee my pants. Oh yeah, to add to the excitement the midgets get into a brawl. I thought I was watching Howard Stern's show! Like I said before, it wasn't meant to be funny, but it is.

The other movies again are classic cult films (no, Plan 9 From Outer Space,, is not a part of this collection), but heed my recommendation and watch The Terror of Tiny Town first---the only all midget cast movie ever!

I found this in Wal-Mart's $5 bin (I know, I know, I shouldn't shop there...you are probably right but hey, they have that $5 bin). It was well worth $5! Some of the stuff is really funny and awfully strange. "Child Bride" is right out of the headlines here (close to the Polygamy Capital of Texas). Most of the movies are exploitation flicks probably originally presented as having some sort of medically or morally redeeming value--they don't. Anyway, if you are into strange old movies, splurge and don't wait to find this box in that $5 bin--go ahead and spend the whole $8.47. "Child Bride" alone is worth that.

Our expectations for this DVD set were in the middle range; we figured that it was a pretty cheap investment with the possible payoff of a few laughs. We've been pleasantly surprised to find that the set is full of a lot of laughs, gasps, and OMG-moments. Sure, the quality is a bit muddied in places; and, sure, some of the movies are just so bad they're bad (as opposed to so bad they're good). That being said, though, there are some great moments on the DVDs, and the set was more than worth the price we paid. "Reefer Madness" is a classic in and of itself - and if you've never seen "Terror of Tiny Town," or "Marihuana," you need to; those movies alone are worth the price we paid for the whole set. However, there are many others to enjoy and it's all gravy after that, you know?
We will definitely be ordering more movies from Amazon - including a few more of these classic sets.