I was just about to post on what I have discovered after receiving the Family Pac of 50 movies on 12 DVDS a couple of days ago. Yes, the quality is shabby, and you appreciate the restoration on those Criterion discs you paid dearly for, or the fabulous Adventures of Robin Hood just released.
However, I have found much of interest. My plan was to sample many of the offerings and report briefly on each, but I nearly always got hooked on the movie and watched the whole thing, technical quality be damned.
First, the packaging: the lot comes in a decent enough cardboad box with the usual dimensions of DVD packaging...but a couple of inches thick. Inside is a window the size of a DVD in its envelope, and the dozen offerings are stacked up, each in a cardboard sleeve with a brief description of the movies therein. Mine was missing #12, just an empty sleeve. The discs are flippers, with two movies on each side. When I thought to check bit rates, they were invariably just 2 to 3 MBPS.
Here's wahat I've watched so far: about 30 minutes of A Farewell to Arms with Gary Cooper. The print has many flaws, scratches and such, and the soundtrack often suffers from a very high noise level.
I watched Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling in Royal Wedding. I have never previously seen the entire dance routine, just bits and pieces. It's terrific, and I'm very glad to have this in my collection. The print they used is largely free from scratches and the soundtrack is clean, but the color is badly faded (but uniform).
The Scarlet Pimpernel. Really beat up, but I watched the entire movie. I remember seeing some of this on the tube when I was a kid, and I always wanted to see the whole thing. Merle Oberon is beautiful!!
The Flying Scotsman with Ray Milland. This started out as a silent film with title cards and a musical soundtrack (like the music that would ordinarily accompany a silent film with live musicians in the theater). Then midway, it turned into a talkie! So it's a sort of hybrid. The quality of print and sound is very poor, but I loved the train, the real star of the show. 80 mph was mentioned....we are lucky to average 40mph on the Amtrak run from Vancouver to Seattle. I watched the whole thing.
Only 46 more movies to audit, then I can issue a complete report!
In summary, this package is about what I expected. There's no free lunch, but there is truly some substance here in terms of content. Do you watch old movies on AMC? Did you watch a lot of unsophisticated movies on Saturday mornings when you were a kid? Are you interested in the history of the medium?
I think this is well worth the money, but expect not many will agree.