Green Hornet - Vol. 1

Director: Leslie H. Martinson, James Komack, Larry Peerce, Norman Foster, William Beaudine, Murray Golden, E. Darrell Hallenbeck, Robert L. Friend
Studio: Brentwood Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

A Shadow of What It Rightfully Should Be...
Someone PLEASE Release the Entire Series on DVD!!!
Unbelievable. You people know nothing about Bruce Lee's history!
Entertaining Classic Series that should be released by season
This dvd stinks

Green Hornet - Vol. 1
Director: Leslie H. Martinson , James Komack , Larry Peerce , Norman Foster , and William Beaudine
Manufacturer: Brentwood Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Television | Genres | DVD | Video

( G ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00004YNUP
Release Date: 2000-11-21

Customer Reviews:

A Shadow of What It Rightfully Should Be..........2007-04-10

Did P.T. Barnum pioneer the idea of slapping together several random episodes (out of an ORIGINAL 28) of a once-excellent series, just for a few unsuspecting victims who might buy it? Usually POLITICS cancelled good series at the network level, NOT viewer popularity, or lack thereof; hasn't Star Trek haunted NBC long enough? The Green Hornet DID run a full season; there WERE re-runs back then, too. While I like and respect Bruce Lee, watching too many of his movies becomes like being stuck in a revolving door; they start to look too much alike. This was NEVER the case with Green Hornet episodes. I am blessed with the bootleg versions-all 30, including the two 'crossover' ones with Batman. The Black Beauty and Batmobile in each of two shows together? WHAT MORE CAN YOU ASK?!?! Sadly, that's certainly NOT what you're getting here...

Someone PLEASE Release the Entire Series on DVD!!!.......2007-02-16

First, some technical specifications. DVD made by Brentwood Home Video, Copyright 2000. DVD is in widescreen, 1:1.85 ratio. The DVD cover states that it is from a "brand new" 35mm print of the original 1974 movie. DVD is not in stereo, but something the DVD cover describes as "Digital Dolby Mono." DVD has excellent bonus features including a Featurette called "The Black Beauty" which details a Green Hornet fan's restoration of one of the original Black Beauty cars. Also included is a loop of Bruck Lee's greatest fight scenes from the movie along with a photo gallery.

Even in this limited format, I was struck by what an amazing show "The Green Hornet" was, especially for 1966 television. Great writing, excellent casting and superlative design must have made this show jump off the tv screen in 1966, even if you had a black & white set. It's rumored that the staggering cost of each episode made the network drop the series and I can see why. If not for the shoddy editing, this compilation of episodes stands right alongside "James Bond," "Our Man Flint" and "Matt Helm" as a prime 60's super-spy movie. It is one of the few TV shows I have ever seen that actually LOOKS like a movie.

I agree that the movie is hard to follow in places due to the poor editing and the focus on The Master Bruce Lee, but it's the ONLY non-bootleg DVD of anything having to do with the 1966-67 TV series available. Note to all who have bootleg Green Hornet dvds: if you see an "FX" logo in the bottom of your screen, that means the person that burned it taped it (or the person that you bought it from who bought it from someone else who taped it) from re-runs of the Green Hornet that FX network did over ten years ago. It's sad that Fox or whoever holds the rights to this character are letting dvd bootleggers rob them and fans of money (go ahead and do a google search on the Hornet and see what the first hit is!). It's also sad that the FORTIETH Anniversary of the TV show has come and gone with NOTHING to commemorate it! Hopefully, the eventual DVD release of the 60's "Batman" TV show (the two shows had a crossover) will inspire someone at Fox to release the Green Hornet in the format that this excellent show deserves, but until then, this is all we have.

Unbelievable. You people know nothing about Bruce Lee's history!.......2006-08-28

Okay, here is the deal for all you other reviewers. Bruce Lee shot to fame in this country AFTER HIS DEATH. He had a huge hit with the movie "Enter the Dragon" which was released here after he had died. In the months that followed he picked up a huge cult following as other dead celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and James Dean had before him. Many studios were looking to cash in on his fame. An American biopic was discussed but did not materialize until "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" was released two decades later. Columbia Pictures was busy making deals with Lee's Hong Kong movie studio to release Lee's incomplete masterpiece "Game of Death" which would later be butchered in order to splice in new scenes with Hollywood stars. Another cheap film distributor managed to grab up the rights to three of Lee's HK martial arts films, and retitled one of them "Return of the Dragon" in hopes that it would be mistaken as a sequel to "Enter the Dragon". This would be followed by "Fists of Fury" and "Chinese Connection", and I wont go into how the distributor bungled the film titles in the English language release.

It was about this time that 20th Century Fox realized that Bruce Lee had starred for them in a failed television series back in the 60's called "The Green Hornet". Made after the success of the Adam West "Batman" television series. It was well made but unlike "Batman" was not a comic book parody, and therefore did not catch on with their audience. After about half a season it was cancelled, and did not have enough episodes to be offered into syndication.

Now nearly a decade later the studio was thinking about re-releasing the episodes as television movies. It was common practice by the mid 70's to reedit popular but short lived series into movies. Fox had done so with their "Planet of the Apes" series editing two episodes back to back as one film. But somewhere along the line they realized that Bruce had been given little to do as the Hornet's Asian sidekick and decided not to bother. Instead they sold the footage to another company who decided it was good enough for a theatrical release.

The episodes picked were based on how much screen time Bruce Lee was given. About three episodes were shown back to back. But the problem was that unlike the Batman series, the fight scenes in Green Hornet were usually brief. So footage from other episodes was edited in to lengthen the fight scenes in the movie. Some of you who have seen the movie may have noticed the continuity error of the Green Hornet & Kato fighting men at a marina with small boats inter-cut with them fighting on a dock with large ships.

The movie was released and failed miserably at the box office. Still looking to make a fast buck the same company edited more Green Hornet footage together and released it as "Fury of the Dragon". The movie poster showed a shirtless Bruce Lee in a fighting stance looking like he was giving off one of his famous screams. Even the opening credits did not give away that this movie was actually Green Hornet episodes. It was animated in the same style as the title credits in Bruce Lee's Asian movies. It was only after the opening credits ended that you saw Bruce Lee as Kato chauffeuring Green Hornet that you realized you were suckered.

As for the Green Hornet not available on video, the main thing holding everything up is the Trendle estate. George W. Trendle had created and owned the character, and has sold the television rights to Fox under the agreement that it would not be campy like "Batman" was. After the series aired Trendle accused them of camping up his character, possibly he had seen the Green Hornet's guest appearance on Batman. He tried taking steps to revoke Fox's rights to the character, but once the series was cancelled for bad ratings he decided there was no reason to bother. Years later Fox's rights to the character expired and reverted to his estate. Allegedly they are the ones who kept Fox from releasing Green Hornet on video. [ 20th Century Fox's video company CBS/FOX had much success releasing the Bruce Lee films and wanted to continue the trend ] I know that Good Times home video released this movie and eventually had to pull it after the Trendle estate threatened a lawsuit. I am not surprised that they stopped Brentwood from releasing the sequel. But then again as the rights to this character pass from one Trendle family member to another, it won't be long before one of them prefers money over family honor.

Entertaining Classic Series that should be released by season.......2006-07-22

A classic radio drama,serial & comic strip character is in the 1960s TV series starring Van Williams as Daily Sentinel Publisher Britt Reid who dons a green mask and green attire as the Green Hornet, a gangster dressed crime fighter with his kung fun sidekick Kato played by martial arts legend Bruce Lee, it's a fun mystery solving action packed show that should come to DVD. "Another Challenge for the Green Hornet"

This dvd stinks.......2005-12-28

I have to agree with eric and anyone else who thought this was lousy made as this dvd had three episode in one and was very hard to follow So I did not like it and would not plan on buying the next issue unless you can prove that there is separate episode that goes all the way though.....

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