I decided to order 5 DVDs from oldies.com to see how good they are. The movies are $5.95 each or 5 for $25.00.
Someone in another discussion said that he had 2 movies put out by the same company (Alpha), and that the video quality is a little scratchy, but okay overall.
My "test" selections?
1. THE KILLER SHREWS
2. THE WASP WOMAN
3. BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA
4. THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE (they advertise it as the uncut version . . . we'll see)
5. KILLERS FROM SPACE
I'll let you all know if they are worth $5 each as soon as they arrive.
Post Edited (05-20-03 11:19)
Each are worth their weight in granite. Good choices. Of them, I haven't seen Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla, but I've heard its reputation. The others are classy Corman, wonderful Wilder, and lesser known directors who still aim to please. Killers from Space has a rather young Peter Graves in it too!
Scottie
I love THE KILLER SHREWS. Classic bad cinema.
I received these movies yesterday. I watched THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE (uncut version) and THE KILLER SHREWS last night. I am very happy with the quality (especially on BRAIN . . . SHREWS is slightly better quality than a good VHS tape). At $5 each, I was expecting bad quality, but I got very watchable movies. The video transfer on BRAIN is about as good as the quality on 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH, and I paid about $14.95 for that one.
The only thing is that there are no extras. Just the movies and individual scene access. But who cares. For $5, I plan on buying a ton more of these.
Post Edited (05-25-03 12:21)
Last night I watched BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BRROKLYN GORILLA. The quality was excellent. I'm pretty excited about these $5 trash favorites . . .
I finally got around to popping the final 2 movies that I bought into my DVD player. Here is my summary of all 5 movies (based on picture and sound quality). They are ranked in order from highest to lowest quality:
1. BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA - sharp picture and very good sound - a bargain at $5
2. THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE - almost as good as BELA . . .
3. THE KILLER SHREWS - quality is slightly better than a good VHS copy . . . still a bargain at $5
4. KILLERS FROM SPACE - the picture is pretty scratchy in some places, but still worth $5
5. THE WASP WOMAN - wouldn't play . . . I need to send it back and get a replacement (which they claim takes 4 to 8 weeks . . . I'm not too happy about that because it only took 4 or 5 days for them to ship me the original order!)
OVERALL - Assuming that I have no problems getting another copy of THE WASP WOMAN, I will definitely buy from oldies.com again!
They are celluiloid transfers unlike some underground companies who rent the tape and DVD it. I had this happen with a company making Bruce lee double features back in 99. I bought it and it was a transfer from a tape the reason I could tell was because there were tracking problems in it and not only that but the actual DVD had low grade grain and pixulation problems which was another crap factor. Another time I bought some for 3$ at a shop going out of business and some were celluiloid but like 3 were not so I sold them on ebay. If you ask me everything should be taken from the original stock if it is around or should at least be close to it and be at most a second generation copy and not be on tape.