Customer Reviews

Mystery Classics 100 Movie Pack

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

MYSTERY CLASSICS 100 MOVIE PACK is a combination of the 50 movie sets: MYSTERY CLASSICS and DARK CRIMES. With 124 hours of vintage motion pictures on 24 double-sided DVDs, this collection is a sure-fire crowd pleaser.

Based on viewer tabulation from a film data website, on a one to ten scale this collection's averaged out score is: 6.3

The following alphabetized program list includes individual ratings, years of release and main actors--

(7.1) Algiers (1938) - Charles Boyer/Hedy Lamarr/Alan Hale
(5.6) Baby Face Morgan (1942) - Mary Carlisle
(5.6) Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (1937) - John Barrymore/John Howard
(5.7) Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937) - Ray Milland/Guy Standing
(5.9) Bulldog Drummond In Africa (1938) - John Howard/Anthony Quinn (in a minor role)
(6.0) Bulldog Drummond's Peril (1938) - John Barrymore/John Howard
(5.9) Bulldog Drummond's Revenge (1937) - John Barrymore/John Howard
(6.4) Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police (1939) - John Howard/Heather Angel
(6.5) The Capture 1950 - Lew Ayres/Theresa Wright
(6.2) Cause For Alarm! (1951) - Loretta Young/Barry Sullivan
(6.5) The Chase (1946) - Robert Cummings
(7.4) D.O.A. (1950) - Edmond O'Brien
(6.3) The Death Kiss (1932) - David Manners/Bela Lugosi
(7.3) Detour (1945) - Tom Neal/Ann Savage
(6.5) Devil's Party (1938) - Victor McLaglen
(6.1) Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947) - Boris Karloff/Ralph Byrd
(6.0) Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946) - Morgan Conway/Anne Jeffreys
(5.5) Dick Tracy(, Detective) - Morgan Conway/Anne Jeffreys
(7.0) Dressed To Kill ("Sherlock Holmes") (1946) - Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce
(6.8) Eyes In The Night (1942) - Edward Arnold/Ann Harding/Donna Reed
(6.7) Fear in The Night (1947) - DeForest Kelley (his film debut)
(???) Flowers From A Stranger ("Studio One") (1949 or '50) - Yul Brynner
(5.2) Fog Island (1945) - George Zucco/Lionel Atwill
(7.5) Gaslight ("Murder In Thornton Square") (1940) - Anton Walbrook
(6.5) The Great Flamarion (1945) - Erich von Stroheim
(6.0) Great Guy (1936) - James Cagney/Mae Clarke
(6.7) The Green Glove (1952) - Glenn Ford/Cedric Hardwicke
(6.1) Guest In The House (1944) - Ann Baxter/Ralph Bellamy
(6.4) Half A Sinner (1940) - Heather Angel
(7.4) He Walked By Night (1948) - Richard Basehart/Jack Webb
(6.3) The Hoodlum (1951) - Lawrence Tierney
(7.0) Impact (1949) - Brian Donlevy/Charles Coburn
(6.6) The Inner Circle (1946) - Adele Mara/William Frawley
(6.8) Inner Sanctum (1948) - Charles Russell/Mary Beth Hughes
(6.1) International Crime ("The Shadow") (1938) - Rod La Roque/Astrid Allwyn
(6.3) Jigsaw (1949) - Franchot Tone/Jean Wallace
(7.5) Kansas City Confidential (1952) - John Payne/Neville Brand/Lee Van Cleef
(6.9) The Kennel Murder Case (1933) - William Powell/Mary Astor/Eugene Pallette
(7.0) The Last Mile (1932) - Preston Foster
(5.2) A Life At Stake (1954) - Angela Lansbury
(5.9) The Limping Man (1953) - Lloyd Bridges
(6.2) Love From A Stranger (1937) - Ann Harding/Basil Rathbone
(6.0) The Man On The Eiffel Tower (1950) - Charles Laughton/Franchot Tone/Burgess Meredith
(7.3) The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950) - Lee J. Cobb/Jane Wyatt
(6.0) The Man Who Had Influence ("Studio One") (1950) - Robert Sterling
(5.7) The Mandarin Mystery (1936) - Eddie Quillan (as Ellery Queen)
(6.0) Midnight Manhunt (1945) - William Gargan/Leo Gorcey
(6.2) The Moonstone (1934) - David Manners/Phyllis Barry
(6.4) Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1939) - Peter Lorre/John Carradine
(5.9) Mr. Wong, Detective (1938) - Boris Karloff/Grant Withers
(5.5) Murder At Midnight (1931) - Aileen Pringle/Alice White
(5.9) Murder at the Baskervilles ("Silver Blaze") ("Sherlock Holmes") (1937) - Arthur Wontner/Ian Fleming
(4.4) Murder By Television (1935) - Bela Lugosi/June Collyer/Hattie McDaniel
(6.0) Murder With Pictures (1936) - Lew Ayres/Gail Patrick
(4.6) The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934) - Bela Lugosi/Wallace Ford
(5.0) Mystery Liner (1934) - Noah Beery/George "Gabby" Hayes (in a minor role)
(6.1) The Mystery Of Mr. Wong (1939) - Boris Karloff
(7.4) The Naked Kiss (1964) - Constance Towers
(6.3) Nancy Drew, Reporter (1939) - Bonita Granville/John Litel
(4.5) Parole, Inc. (1948) - Michael O'Shea
(5.3) The Pay-Off (1930) - Lowell Sherman
(5.2) The Phantom Fiend (1931) - Ivor Novello
(???) Plan For Escape ("Studio One") (1952) - Peggy Ann Garner
(6.4) Please Murder Me (1956) - Angela Lansbury/Raymond Burr
(5.8) Prison Shadows (1936) - Edward J. Nugent
(6.4) Quicksand (1950) - Mickey Rooney/Peter Lorre
(7.0) The Red House (1947) - Edward G. Robinson/Judith Anderson
(6.4) The Scar ("Hollow Triumph") (1948) - Paul Henreid/Joan Bennett
(7.8) Scarlet Street (1945) - Edward G. Robinson/Joan Bennett/Dan Duryea
(6.0) The Second Woman (1951) - Robert Young/Betsy Drake
(5.3) The Shadow Strikes (1937) - Rod La Roque/Agnes Anderson
(6.8) Sherlock Holmes And The Secret Weapon (1943) - Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce/Lionel Atwill
(6.2) Shoot To Kill (1947) - Russell Wade
(6.0) The Sign Of Four ("Sherlock Holmes") (1932) - Arthur Wontner/Ian Hunter
(5.8) Sinners In Paradise (1938) - Madge Evans/Bruce Cabot
(6.8) The Sleeping Tiger (1954) - Dirk Bogarde/Alexis Smith
(6.1) Slightly Honorable (1940) - Pat O'Brien/Edward Arnold
(6.2) Strange Illusion (1945) - James Lydon
(7.2) The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers (1946) - Barbara Stanwyck/Van Heflin/Kirk Douglas
(6.3) Strange Woman (1946) - Hedy Lamarr/George Sanders
(7.5) The Stranger (1946) - Edward G. Robinson/Loretta Young/Orson Welles
(6.4) A Study In Scarlet ("Sherlock Holmes") (1933) - Reginald Owen/Warburton Gamble
(6.5) Sucker Money (1933) - Mischa Auer
(7.0) Suddenly (1954) - Frank Sinatra/Sterling Hayden
(5.4) Ten Minutes To Live (1932) - A.B. Comatherie
(7.0) Terror By Night ("Sherlock Holmes") (1946) - Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce/Alan Mowbray
(???) There Was A Crooked Man ("Studio One") (1950) - Robert Sterling
(5.2) They Made Me A Criminal - John Garfield/The Dead End Kids(1939)
(4.7) Things Happen At Night (1947) - Gordon Harker/Alfred Drayton
(7.2) Too Late for Tears (1949) - Lizabeth Scott/Don DeFore/Dan Duryea
(6.9) Topper Returns (1941) - Joan Blondell/Roland Young/Billie Burke
(6.5) Trapped (1949) - Lloyd Bridges
(6.1) The Triumph Of Sherlock Holmes (1935) - Arthur Wontner/Ian Fleming (as Dr. Watson)
(7.9) Two Sharp Knives ("Studio One") (1948) - Stanley Ridges
(4.8) Whistle Stop (1946) - George Raft/Ava Gardner
(6.0) The Woman Condemned (1934) - Claudia Dell/Jason Robards Sr.
(6.9) The Woman In Green ("Sherlock Holmes") (1945) - Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce/Hillary Brooke
(6.7) Woman In The Shadows (1934) - Fay Wray/Ralph Bellamy
(7.5) Woman On The Run (1950) - Ann Sheridan
(5.8) The Wrong Road (1937) - Richard Cromwell/Helen Mack

This is actually a pretty good buy as long as you dont already have either Mystery Classics 50 Movie Pack Collection or Dark Crimes Collection 50 Movie Pack. This combination pack is actually cheaper than the two movie packs from which it springs.

Among the real finds in this set are the serials. "Bulldog Drummond" is quite amusing, and all but the first one is quite viewable. The Bulldog Drummond series even has John Barrymore with a very good turn as a police inspector quite late in his career. There is the Dick Tracy series, which is also quite well preserved and watchable. Finally there are some of the old Sherlock Holmes films. The earliest of these suffer from some pretty bad fading, but most are OK. Then there are some great individual films including an independent film by James Cagney in the 30's - "Great Guy", Mickey Rooney at the center of a film noir in "Quicksand", which pretty much says it all about the plot, and the unforgettable noir "He Walks by Night" with Richard Basehart that focuses more on the psychology of the criminal and the science of criminology. You know from the start who did it, the fun is in seeing how the cops catch the criminal. David Manners and even Bela Lugosi show up in a couple of forgotten films with pretty good plots.

If you're into classic stars and great plots, I recommend this. However, do note that there are a few films that are quite faded and their audio is so bad that it makes it difficult to enjoy them.

This is a combination of the 50 Movie Pack Mystery Classics & 50 Movie Pack Dark Crimes Collections offered by Amazon. This is not clear in the description of the set online, nor the box, until you open it.Once you open it, you can only get a partial refund from Amazon, if you return it. The movies themselves are great, and fortunately, my sister loves old movies, too, so I'm giving her the 50 Movie Packs I got as a gift.

Mystery Classics 100 Movie Pack

I think I paid $17.xx for this set. There are 100 movies in the set, though they are on double-sided discs and usually 2 movies to a side. There are a bunch of really good movies--especially if you like the old classic B&W movies.

Read the description; if that's what you want, buy them. By the way, the box they come in is handy for storage, and there are mini-reviews on each disc sleeve.

Buy 'em!

LD

If you like old (1930's-40's) crime/mystery movies, and don't mind them being "B" pictures you may enjoy this set. A mixture of "B" (and lesser studio) movies: some good (for example the 4 Holmes-Rathbone series), some mediocre but still watchable and some when-is-this-thing-going-to-end torturous (for example-the Holmes-Wontner/Owen series.) 5 of the 'movies' are "Playhouse 90" style dramas made for earliest TV broadcasts from 1949-50, not theatrical movies at all.

I paid [one-five-dot-eight-six], including shipping for my set (new).

Yes video/audio quality varies; many prints are very contrasty, others dark and muddy. it may help to adjust the contrast and brightness on your set. One movie (Fog Island) I had to listen via headphones through my stereo and adjust the audio equalizer, otherwise the dialog was so unclear I could not understand it. The audio/video quality could have been improved noticeably if Mill Creek had just made some very, very simple video and audio adjustments when they transferred the films to video.

I won't repeat points already covered in other reviews. If you want a taste of what is on the set, go to [lileks(dot)com] and click on '100 Mysteries'. James Lileks is a writer/humorist on a Minneapolis newspaper and has authored several books. He received this as a gift and as of 2009-10 is commenting on a movie a week from the boxset, with stills from the films and even some very short video clips. Yes, his comments are mainly intended to entertain, having a bit of fun at the expense of some of the films/actors, but he still gives credit where credit is due. It was reading about his slogging thru the boxset a film a week that got me interested in buying the set.

The background noise in these movies was so loud, I could not understand the dialogue at all. I have purchased old movies in the past, and even if the sound track was not perfect, I could understand what was being said. Not so with these. The movies were great -- the sound was terrible!

I grew up watching mysteries and detective movies with my mother. These are a lovely nostalgic trip to childhood before special effects and flashy car chases.
Some of them have not made the translation from film to DVD as well as others, but in general, it's a nice experience.

Hi !

We watched so far some 20 of the old movie classics. Very pleased with each one . It brought back a lot of memories of those years!

THIS IS AMUST SEE. IF YOU LIKE OLD BLACK AND WHITES, THIS IS THE ONE. I WATCH THE EPISODES BEFORE THE NEWS. NOT TOO LONG AND NOT TOO SHORT. THANKS.

This is a wonderful collection of outstanding film noir classics. Many of these lesser known films are better then Hollywood's big budget mysteries. You can't get any better then John Payne in Kansas City Confidential and Dan Duryea in Too Late For Tears. A few reviewers have complained about sound quality on some films and there are one of two where the sound fades low for a second or two but that is a minor complaint. Also, this one has Topper Returns which is very funny. Well I like this collectiion alot and will be introducing many of my friends to these enjoyable films!