Search - W.C. Fields: Extravaganza on DVD

NOT RECOMMENDED FIELDS

Larry T. Gardner | Los Angeles, CA United States | 12/23/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"PASSPORT VIDEO, a North Hollywood, CA, outfit, in their search for quality, match that other outfit, ALPHA Video, for getting their hands on old, beat-up, third or fourth generation 8mm prints of films. The sound track is fixed, but the picture is dreadful, not remastered or brought up to date at all, which, with our technical equipment is possible! They have simply put these very old junk prints on DVD. The price is high for this mess. There ought to be a law against putting out this kind of quality on DVD, I won't put the word for it here--I'll leave that to George Carlin--BUT! don't buy it!"

I Love this great collection of W.C. Fields !!!

Jake Marsico | Flagstaff,AZ | 08/13/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"First of all,I do not have any clue why this great 3 DVD collection of THE W.C. FIELDS EXTRAVAGANZA has been only given a very dismal one star and second of all,IT DEFINITELY GOT MY MONEY'S WORTH ! I truly do not know if the reviewer William A. Williams has a big axe to grind over Passport Video,the company that released the collection or that if he's talking about the very poor Madacy release,which I will get to in a moment,that contains very shoddy and extremely poor presentations of W.C. Fields' great comedy shorts ! Passport did an outstanding and amazing job over remastering and putting out extremely good 35mm copies of the three most commonly released public domain two-reel comedies that appear on disc one :THE GOLF SPECIALIST (1930),THE FATAL GLASS OF BEER (1933),and THE DENTIST (1933) as well as using a very good copy of Fields' underated 1925 feature film debut SALLY OF THE SAWDUST which was directed by none other than D.W. Griffith that completes disc two ! On disc three,there are some really interesting and good mixed goodies of trailers and comedy shorts! That disc contains the 1965 TV special AN AFFECTIONATE LOOK AT W.C. FIELDS hosted by the forgetable comedy team Wayne and Schuster and was directed by future television director Norman Campbell.It also contains the early 1930's RKO Van Beuren Rainbow Parade Cartoon short CUPID GETS HIS MAN in which a hilariously animated Fields becomes a woman hater ( a trait that would often appear in many of Fields' later feature films ) and tries his luck in love,courtesy of cupid's arrow ! THE FILM FOLLIES FESTIVAL is actually a collection of movie trailers and rare off screen footage of the legendary comic icon which features Fields serving as a coach of a checker playing game ! The trailers are of varying quality since the films themselves are over 65 years old ! But perhaps the best inclusion of the disc is Fields' 1915 comedy short POOL SHARKS which is presented here on this disc looking clean and very very great compared to the horrible-looking Madacy release which was definitely copied off a second generation videocassette ! This version is presented at the very correct sound speed projection and better sounding piano music accompainement where as Madacy's source print has it at a slow projection speed and worst of all,CLASSICAL MUSIC is used for its score in a freakin' comedy short !!! There's also a forgettable vintage early '70's TV commercial promoting the Chickadee game with an actor playing the now deceased comic speaking in form as the character Fields played in MY LITTLE CHICKADEE.While the packaging,animated menu design,and source material used for the collection was very very impressive,they could've put a bit more effort into the films that they've selected such as including the two other public domain Fields comedy shorts THE PHARMACIST and THE BARBER SHOP ( both 1933 ) on the disc,instead of only including four.The excellent Criterion release has all six of the restored shorts.Also,Passport is known for having their box sets expanding their material to five discs and each of them including nearly an hour's worth of stuff and I felt that this collection should've put all six comedy shorts on one disc and have the other include both the movie and mixed goodies of material to cut costs and not expanding the video compression ! Maybe and hopefully Passport can do that like a lot of other companies are doing nowadays in the near future.But for under $20,it was definitely a better-looking and better-sounding collection of W.C. Fields than I have ever seen before or since !! I strongly urge and recommend this collection of public-domain W.C. Fields comedies and rarities that cannot be found anywhere else and a bargain to the Criterion release.I also strongly recommend the Universal Box Set of some of the comic's very best film works and stay away from the Madacy release of the six public domain shorts and not waste money on that !!! This is the real deal here and I hope that this will eventually clear the air on the previous review of this collection !!! My hat and W.C. Fields' hat is off to Passport for caring and beautifully presenting the comic's legacy and humor that brings to these shorts and rarities !!!"

Horrible quality.

Mr. Louis P. Ianniello | New York, NY | 02/23/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"IF you are looking for a set of W.C. Fields shorts or films, DO NOT LOOK AT THIS SET. I made the mistake of buying this set and I am thoroughly unhappy with the shoddy quality of this set. I filed a complaint with the manufacturers of this set, Passport Video, and they have refused to refund me. So do not buy any of their merchandise as their "no refund" policy seems to be an across the board business practice with them. Save your money and buy a quality film like "The Bank Dick," or "It's a Gift.""