DVD News #462: 77 Sunset Strip – The Complete Series (1958-1964).

Starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Roger Smith, Edward Byrnes, Richard Long, Louis Quinn, Jacqueline Beer, Robert Logan, Joan Staley

For six seasons and over 200 episodes, 77 Sunset Strip mixed crime with cool. Private detectives Stuart (“Stu”) Bailey (Zimbalist) and Jeff Spencer (Smith) work out of Suites 101 and 102 at 77 Sunset Boulevard, next door to Dino’s Lodge.

Suzanne Fabry (Jacqueline Beer) answers the phones from her service down the hall. She sometimes helps out with a case. Roscoe (Louis Quinn) helps out every once in a while, as does the kid who parks cars at Dino’s, Gerald Lloyd “Kookie” Kookson III (Edd Byrnes).

Guest over the years included Roger Moore, Dyan Cannon, Ida Lupino, Jim Backus, Irish McCalla, Adam West, Peter Lorre, Tuesday Weld, Max Baer Jr., Elizabeth Montgomery, Karen Steele, Donna Douglas, Troy Donahue, Gena Rowlands, Cloris Leachman, Fay Wray, Buddy Ebsen, Boris Karloff and Nick Adams.

As you might expect from creator Roy Huggins, there’s a lot of humor in 77 Sunset Strip, though they say that wasn’t the original intent. Some solid directors worked on this thing — Lee Sholem, George Waggner (he did a lot of ’em), Andre de Toth, Ida Lupino and Paul Landres, just for starters.

Characters came and went, leading up to the weird sixth and final season when Jack Webb took over. It’s almost a completely different show, and that last season wrapped up early. An odd way for such a popular, innovative and influential show to go out.

For me, the best thing about 77 Sunset Strip is Kookie’s hot rod. Driven in the show by Byrnes, the 1922 Ford Model T-Bucket hot rod was owned and built by car customizer and character actor Norm Grabowski. He rented it to the show for 50 bucks a day.

Warner Bros. is bringing the whole thing to DVD (not Blu-Ray) — wonder why it’s not listed as Warner Archive? 77 Sunset Strip – The Complete Series is quite a feat since there was a ton of music rights to sort out. All that’s been taken care of, making this set essential stuff. Can’t wait.

Blu-Ray Review: Crime Wave (1954).

Directed by Andre de Toth
Produced by Bryan Foy
Screenplay by Crane Wilbur
Based on “Criminal’s Mark” by John Hawkins & Ward Hawkins
Adapted by Bernard Gordon & Richard Wormser
Director Of Photography: Bert Glennon
Film Editor: Thomas Reilly
Music by David Buttolph

Cast: Sterling Hayden (Detective Lieutenant Sims), Gene Nelson (Steve Lacey), Phyllis Kirk (Ellen Lacey), Ted de Corsia (‘Doc’ Penny), Charles Buchinsky (Ben Hastings), Jay Novello (Otto Hessler), Ned Young (Gat Morgan), James Bell (Daniel O’Keefe), Dub Taylor (Gus Snider), Gayle Kellogg (Detective), Mack Chandler (Sully), Timothy Carey (Johnny Haslett), Hank Worden

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Crime Wave (1954) has a look that sets it apart from about any other crime picture of the mid-50s, going beyond the documentary style of something like He Walked By Night (1948). Of course, around this time, location work like this was becoming more common, but something about this one’s different.

Crime Wave was shot by the great Bert Glennon on location around LA, Burbank and Glendale. The settings appear real, the people on the streets seem real, even the interiors have an authenticity to them. De Toth drops his actors into this aesthetic, letting the story unfold in a very stylized Real Life. Jack Webb would present his own brand of fake-real Los Angeles with Dragnet, but de Toth’s LA seems like a much more dangerous place.

“Since the day I started to make pictures, I wanted to shoot one like Crime Wave… It was unusual at that time — with the low ASA ratings of the film negative, the heavy equipment, lights, the clumsy cameras and cranes — to shoot at night outside the pre-rigged studio backlots.” — Andre de Toth

Crime Wave is one of my absolute favorites of the films now reposing in the Film Noir bucket, for reasons far beyond de Toth’s location work and night-shooting experiments.

Sterling Hayden is a tough-as-nails cop, trying to track down some crooks who killed a cop after escaping from San Quentin. Gene Nelson is the convict-gone-straight who the crooks want to sponge off of. Phyllis Kirk is his wife — and they have a really cool hot rod.

The cast is incredible, from Sterling Hayden to Phyllis Kirk to Jay Novello (his best performance ever as as sympathetic dirtbag?) to Timothy Carey and Charles Bronson as a couple of real creeps. Dub Taylor is terrific as the gas station attendant who gets knocked in the head by the crooks. (And Hank Worden’s in there somewhere!)

There’s a real sense of menace to this movie. The bad guys are truly bad, and we wonder if they’ll waste Gene Nelson and Phyllis Kirk or let them take the rap. We also fear that Hayden will burn Nelson to get the collar and clear another case off his desk. I saw this as a kid, and the scene with Novello in his vet clinic was almost unbearably tense back then. It’s stuck with me over the years, and it never fails to get to me.

There are so many unique touches in the film, one of my favorites being the use of Doris Day singing “S’Wonderful” during the gas station holdup. It ain’t for nothing that this is held up as a key Noir.

Glennon (and de Toth’s) remarkable camerawork has been perfectly presented in the new Blu-Ray from Warner Archive — scanned in 4K from the original camera negative. The sharpness and contract levels create a real sense of depth.

There’s a commentary, a featurette, the trailer, a short and a Bugs Bunny cartoon (“Baby Buggy Bunny”) to round out the bill. Crime Wave is a movie, and a disc, you’ll have a hard time topping. Essential.

Blu-Ray News #461: Directed By Don Siegel (1959 – 1969).

If you’ve spent more than 37 seconds on this blog or my other one, you know Don Siegel’s one of my favorite directors. There’s zero fat on his films. The performances are stellar. And each film hits hard. Riot In Cell Block 11 (1954). Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956). Baby Face Nelson (1957). Flaming Star (1960). Dirty Harry (1971). Charley Varrick (1973). So do the pictures in the upcoming set from Imprint, Directed By Don Siegel.

Edge Of Eternity (1959)
Starring Cornel Wilde, Victoria Shaw, Mickey Shaughnessy, Edgar Buchanan, Rian Garrick, Jack Elam

Siegel didn’t like CinemaScope. But the setting of Edge Of Eternity (1959), the Grand Canyon, screams for the wide screen. So here we get one of the great director’s few films in 2.35. (Flaming Star was also in ‘Scope; Dirty Harry and a few others were in Panavision.) His director of photography for this one was the great Burnett Guffey, who he’d worked with on Private Hell 36 (1954). Guffey’d go on to do the groundbreaking camerawork for Bonne And Clyde (1967).

The Killers (1964)
Starring Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, John Cassavetes, Ronald Reagan, Clu Gulager

Originally produced as a TV movie for NBC, it was decided to send The Killers to theaters instead. Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager are terrific as a pair of hitmen who try to get the backstory on their last “project.” Angie Dickinson is just great, as she always is. From the original camera negative.

Madigan (1968)
Starring Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens, Harry Guardino, James Whitmore, Susan Clark, Don Stroud

Madigan (1968) comes from Siegel’s late 60s, early 70s period when he was knocking out great movies one right after another. It came between The Killers (1964) and Coogan’s Bluff (1968), and it’s one of the best cop movies of the 60s. Richard Widmark is Madigan, a New York cop, and he’s got 72 hours to track down a fugitive. And while that’s going on, his personal life is a train wreck.

Death Of A Gunfighter (1969)
Directed by Allan Smithee (Don Siegel & Robert Totten)
Starring Richard Widmark, Lena Horne, Carroll O’Connor, David Opatoshu, Kent Smith, Dub Taylor, John Saxon, Royal Dano, Harry Carey, Jr., John Sande, Victor French

After Madigan, Richard Widmark wanted Siegel to directed Death Of A Gunfighter. He turned it down and it went to TV director Robert Totten. With just a little over a week of shooting left, Widmark used his pull with Universal to have Totten replaced — by Don Siegel! Later, Widmark didn’t want Totten to get credit, even though he did most of it, and Siegel didn’t want his name on it since it wasn’t his movie. The fake director Allan Smithee was invented for this film — and his direction was applauded by critics like Roger Ebert.

All four films come with some great extras, including the feature-length documentary Don Siegel, Last Of The Independents (1980) and a commentary for Death Of A Gunfighter by yours truly. It’s always a privilege to honor the great Don Siegel — and to be part of a top-notch set like this. Highly recommended.

Blu-Ray News #460: Suddenly (1954).

Directed by Lewis Allen
Starring Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, James Gleason, Nancy Gates, Willis Bouchey, Paul Frees

Suddenly (1954) has always been one of my favorite noir pictures (if you wanna call it noir). The Roan Group put it out on laserdisc eons ago, so I’ve seen it a blue million times.

I’m really, really glad it’s coming to Blu-Ray from Film Masters. I know they’ll treat it right.

Hayden’s cool, Sinatra’s great and the rest of the cast is marvelous. The picture’s a prime example of the tension-building slow burn. I love this one! Highly, highly recommended.

4K/Blu-Ray News #459: Machine Gun Kelly (1958).

Directed by Roger Corman
Starring Charles Bronson, Susan Cabot, Morey Amsterdam, Richard Devon, Jack Lambert

Christmas is already looking pretty merry. Film Masters will release Roger Corman’s Machine Gun Kelly (1958) on 4K and Blu-Ray in December.

I’ve always felt this was the best of Corman’s 50s films, with a solid performance from Charles Bronson in maybe his first lead (Showdown At Boot Hill opened just a month later). And it’s one of the jewels of that late-50s gangster picture resurgence (Don Siegel’s Baby Face Nelson is great!)

Film Masters always does stellar stuff, and I’m sure this one will be no different. You get both the 1.37 version and the Superama widescreen cropping of 2.0 — and a stack of stuff from Ballyhoo Motion Pictures. Highly, highly recommended.

RIP, Gerrit Graham.

Gerrit Graham
(November 27, 1949 – September 15, 2026)

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Hated hearing that actor/writer/songwriter Gerrit Graham had passed away.

He’s so funny in Used Cars (1980). “Look out, Marshall Lucky…”

4K/Blu-Ray News #458: Pitfall (1948).

Directed by Andre de Toth
Starring Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt, Raymond Burr, Jimmy Hunt

Warner Archive’s Blu-Ray of Andre de Toth’s Crime Wave (1953) is gorgeous (review’s in the works). Now we hear de Toth’s Pitfall (1948) is coming to 4K. Aren’t you glad I wrote that letter to Santa? (Paraphrasing Son Of Paleface.)

Bored with his insurance adjuster job and ideal family life, Dick Powell quickly commences with destroying everything. He hooks up with a crook’s girlfriend Lizabeth Scott, who’s bad news, and with private investigator Raymond Burr, who’s even worse news. Who’s gonna get dead? And will anything be left of Powell’s marriage (or Powell, for that matter)?

Pitfall is a key film noir and one of my favorites of the genre. Powell’s terrific, Burr’s a real creep and de Toth’s direction is pretty much perfect. (By the way, Jimmy Hunt told me Dick Powell was very nice.)

Cinematographer Harry J. Wild also shot Murder, My Sweet (1944), Son Of Paleface (1952) and Macao (1952). This disc should look like a million bucks. Highly, highly recommended.

4K/Blu-Ray News #457: Scarlet Street (1945).

Directed by Fritz Lang
Starring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea, Margaret Lindsay, Rosalind Ivan, Jess Barker, Charles Kemper

I love Fritz Lang’s Hollywood movies. And any time one of his pictures makes its way to Blu-Ray or 4K, it’s something to celebrate. So maybe tonight I’ll raise a glass of Jack and Coke to Mr. Lang and the folks at Eureka — Scarlet Street (1945) is coming to 4K.

After the success of The Woman In The Window (1944), Lang recalled the cast of that film — Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea — for his next picture, Scarlet Street. (Ms. Bennett had already been in 1941’s Man Hunt, one of Lang’s best films.)

This one’s as noir as noir gets. Clerk and amateur painter Robinson gets involved with a couple of swindlers, Bennett and Duryea, and really lives to regret it. Fatalism is dumped onto this movie by the bucketful. It was even banned in a few places.

Somebody at Eureka really digs Fritz Lang, and they’ve done a great job with a number of his films, including The Woman In The Window. For this one, they tracked down some 35mm nitrate to work with. Can’t wait to see how it comes out. Highly, highly recommended.

4K/Blu-Ray News #456: (Horror Of) Dracula (1958).

Directed by Terence Fisher
Starring Peter Cushing, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Christopher Lee

I first saw Horror Of Dracula (1958) when I was nine or ten years old. Not long after that, the above poster appeared in a 1975 issue of Dynamite magazine. That poster hung in my bedroom through high school. Wish it was still there.

All this is to say that Horror Of Dracula had an impact on me that few films have had. It remains one of my all-time favorite movies.

A big part of the mystique around Horror Of Dracula is the idea of various cuts around the world, with Japan supposedly having the longest, most “complete.” With the new 4K/Blu-Ray set on the way from Hammer (and Warner Archive), this mystery is unraveled once and for all. Turns out that Terence Fisher made one cut of the film, his cut. That was then altered by whoever was releasing it in whatever country, after duking it out with their country’s censors. Which means Japan didn’t put anything in, they took less out. At this time, censors were having a field day with Hammer’s rather nasty little horror movies. For this set, we get Fisher’s cut (called simply Dracula), along with the US and other versions.

We also get what has to be one of the largest batches of extras ever. And in the middle of that jaw-dropping list sits—

NEW commentary from writer, filmmaker and film programmer Heidi Honeycutt and cult movie expert Toby Roan.

To be involved in this restoration and release in any way, even to just go get coffee for everybody, would be cool. But a commentary, that’s a monstrous opportunity (pun intended).

Wait till you see this thing, y’all. It’s absolutely essential.

RIP, Shelley Fabares.

Shelley Fabares
(January 19, 1944 – August 22, 2026)

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Shelley Fabares has passed away at 82. She had a long, successful career, from the Donna Red Show to One Day At A Time to Coach. And three Elvis movies!

I saw Spinout (1966) on the CBS Late Movie in 1973. It, and Ms. Fabares, made a huge impression on me.