DVD Collectors Online

Hangman's Knot, a review by Rogmeister

Introduction--I got the idea for this back in 2006 and was going to do it in my blog but actually only did a review for one movie.  Thus, except for the first movie, my reviews will be new.  The idea is to review one movie for each year I've been alive.  I was born in 1952 so that's the year my first movie is from...



Hangman's Knot
Written & Directed by Roy Huggins
Cast: Randolph Scott, Donna Reed, Claude Jarman, Jr., Frank Faylen, Glenn Langan, Richard Denning, Lee Marvin, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams

Hangman's Knot is the only film ever directed by Roy Huggins. He would later go on to create and produce such television series as "Maverick" and "The Rockford Files". As his sole directorial effort for the big screen, this was a fine effort. The film begins with a group of men (led by Scott's character) waiting for what we soon learn is a Union army shipment of gold. They attack, resulting in all but one of the Union soldiers being killed and we then learn they are undercover Confederate soldiers. The one surviving Union soldier surprises the youngest and untested member of the Johnny Rebs who fires out of sheer reaction. Before he dies, he tells them that the Civil War is over...it had ended about a month before. They're not sure they believe him but they find out this is the truth when they go to meet their contact. That man obviously was trying to cheat them of the gold and his reward is to be shot dead by the group's hothead (Marvin). They load the gold into the man's wagon (disguised as an elixir salesman's wagon) but on their way out of the area, they meet up with what they first think is a posse but later find out they are just drifters out for the gold themselves. They take off when the drifters are tricked into believing someone already captured them.

They lose the wagon (the horses break lose from it) but are able to stop and board a stagecoach. The drifters are soon back and giving chase but the band on the stage manage to reach and board up at a stagecoach way-station. The rest of the film deals with Confederates (and the civilians with them) trying to survive as the drifters try to get at them...and more importantly at the gold.

All the movies I will be watching will be on DVD and I hope they all look as good as this one. The picture quality is incredibly good, especially the outdoor chase scenes where they're riding out in the plains around huge rocks. Donna Reed isn't someone you expect to see in a western but she and Scott have good chemistry and the film has a fine cast with lots of familiar faces from Lee Marvin to Claude Jarman Jr. of "The Yearling". There is no music composing credit so perhaps they simply used stock footage for this film. The movie is fast-paced and clocks in at a mere 81 Minutes.

Usually movies that are this old don't come with extras (unless they're special editions of Oscar-winning films) but this DVD did come with a trio of movie trailers...not for this film but for Cowboy (the trailer introduced by Jack Lemmon), Once Upon A Time In Mexico and Silverado.

(From The Movies Of My Life on March 23rd, 2011)

Ditto, a review by Tom

Ditto (2000/South Korea) IMDb | Wikipedia Mei Ah Laser Disc (Hong Kong) Director: Jeong-kwon Kim Writing: Jin Jang (Writer) Length: 113 min. Video: Widescreen 1.85 Audio: Korean: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: Chinese, English

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Stars:
Ha-Neul Kim as Yoon So-Eun
Ji-tae Yu as Ji In
Yong-woo Park as Ji Dong-Hee
Ji-won Ha as Seo Hyun-Ji
Min-joo Kim as Lee Seon-Mi

Plot:
In 1979, university student Soeun (Kim Ha Neul) gets an antique HAM radio by coincidence, and one night, a male voice peeks out from the radio. A guy named In (Yoo Ji Tae) is on the line, and after they have chatted for a while, they discover they are from the same school, so they schedule to meet at the clock tower. They cannot get to meet each other though, finally they find out that they are living in different times...

Extras:

• Scene Access

The premise is a mix between Frequency and Il Mare/The Lake House. A man and a woman communicate accross time via a ham radio.
A nice movie well worth a watch. The actors all did a great job.

Rating:

(From Tom's Time-Travel Movie Reviews on October 16th, 2011)

Tom's Random Reviews, a review by Tom

Title: The Time Tunnel: Volume Two
Year: 1966
Director:
Rating: NR
Length: 769 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Mono, French: Dolby Digital Mono, Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles: English, Spanish

Stars:


Plot:
FROM THE CREATIVE GENIUS OF IRWIN ALLEN ("Lost in Space," "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno) COMES ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR AND ORIGINAL SCI-FI SHOWS OF THE 1960s!

Determined to prove that Project Tic Toc was capable of sending humans through time, Dr. Tony Newman and Dr. Doug Phillips entered the project's time tunnel before final tests were completed. Now, caught in time and unable to return home, the two scientists battle to stay alive as the Vortex of Time thrusts them into the middle of some of the most significant events in world history. But even more important, as the time travelers encounter famous and influential people of the past, they must make sure their actions don't inadvertently change history and alter the future.


Extras:
2002 Unaired TV Pilot
Closed Captioned
Interviews
Photo Gallery
Scene Access
Time Travelers TV Movie

I finally have finished the second volume of this series. I didn't enjoy this volume as much as the first volume. The reason is, that a lot of boring (obscure historic events), fantastical (aliens) and mystic (Merlin, Robin Hood, Roman gods) story lines were in this volume.

The unaired 2002 pilot was interesting to watch, but it is not unbelievable that the series got not picked up. The TV movie "Time Travelers" is one to miss. Not really interesting.

#	Episode	Rating
16	The Revenge of Robin Hood
17	Kill Two by Two
18	Visitors From Beyond the Stars
19	The Ghost of Nero
20	The Walls of Jericho
21	Idol of Death
22	Billy the Kid
23	Pirates of Deadman's Island
24	Chase Through Time
25	The Death Merchant
26	Attack of the Barbarians
27	Merlin the Magician
28	The Kidnappers
29	Raiders from Outer Space
30	Town of Terror

#	Episode	Rating
01	2002 Unaired Pilot
02	Time Travelers

(From Tom's Random Reviews on December 29th, 2009)