Branded

Starring:Alan Ladd, Mona Freeman, Charles Bickford, Robert Keith, Joseph Calleia, Peter Hansen, Selena Royle, Tom Tully, John Berkes, Milburn Stone, Martin Garralaga, Edward Clark, John Butler, Jimmie Dundee, James Cornell, George J. Lewis, Pepito PÃ©rez, Len Hendry, Bob Kortman, Frank McCarroll
Director: Rudolph MatÃ©
Studio: Paramount
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

They don't make 'em like Branded anymore. Actually, they hardly make 'em at all. Westerns, that is, with their big skies and scenic technicolor vistas, rousing musical scores, cattle and cowpokes, bad guys and prairie damsels, horses and wagons and dust. Branded has all of that, and a good story, decent acting, and superior writing to go with it. Alan Ladd plays Choya, a morally ambiguous loner (asked if he has any friends or kinfolk, he submits "my guns" and "my horse") and falsely-accused bandit who gets pulled into a "foolproof" million dollar scam that involves impersonating the long-lost son of a rich Texas cattle rancher. Needless to say, complications ensue. The villain (Robert Keith) starts getting antsy; the rancher, Lavery (Charles Bickford), and his wife turn out to be kind, decent folks; Choya takes an interest in his "sister" (Mona Freeman) that goes well beyond fraternal devotion; and his conscience kicks in, too. His ruse revealed, feeling guilt-ridden and seeking redemption, Choya spends the second half of the film on a quest to find the real missing Lavery heir (no easy task, as "Tonio" has been raised by a notorious Mexican outlaw)… and, in the end, to discover that what he really wants and needs is the family he's just betrayed. We all know how it will turn out, of course, but Branded is a good, wholesome family fare, and a lot of fun to boot. This DVD release contains no bonus features. --Sam Graham

Description

In BRANDED, Ladd plays Choya, a bandit who poses as the long-lost son of a wealthy Texas rancher. Shamed by the kindness of his new family and attracted to his lovely "sister," Choya vows to right the wrong he's done them. He rides out in search of the real missing heir...and into adventure as big as the western sky.

Customer Reviews:

A Strong Story And Alan Ladd's Performance Make This A First Rate Western.......2005-11-27

"All my life I've been a snake...lived by my wits...gotten what I've wanted any way I wanted it. Just lately, I've been wonderin'...if...just for once...I could do somethin' straight...do somethin' a little decent."

Choya (Alan Ladd) finds himself in the middle of a cruel con, and then finds he has a conscience. In Branded, a very good Western, Ladd plays a man who has always done what he wants, a loner at heart. "You got any friends?" an old man asks him. "My guns," Choya says. "Kinfolk?" "My horse."

Choya meets P. Jefferson Leffingwell (Robert Keith), who shows Choya how he can claim to be the lost son of the Lavery family, wealthy ranch owners. The son was kidnapped more than 20 years ago and has never been heard of since. Richard Lavery (Charles Bickford) renews each year a $100,000 reward in the hope of hearing something about his son. Choya and Leffingwell plan to split the reward, and with Choya accepted as the son, Leffingwell points out that in time he'll inherit the cattle ranch as well...and maybe to speed things up they'll even help Lavery into an early grave.

A tattooed birthmark and Choya's own cleverness do the trick. Lavery and his wife, fragile emotionally since the child was taken, and the Lavery's daughter, Ruth (Mona Freeman), accept Choya completely. Then something happens that now drives the movie into a new direction. He falls for Ruth and he is changed by the decency and openness of the Laverys. He decides to redeem himself by trying to find the real son and then disappearing. This sets off yet more unexpected developments.

Branded, in my view, is an excellent Western. There's great scenery, of course, and plenty of action. What gives this movie a dramatic wallop, however, is a strong story, the drama of a lost son, of twists that involve family feelings and the issue of what makes a real father. Not the least of its strengths is Alan Ladd's performance. Ladd may not have been much of an actor, but something about his on-screen personality brought out the image of a loner with a code of honor. That quality of silence combined with strength, of righteousness that could be aroused to do right, is what he brought to his best roles and which still make so many of his movies worth watching.

Bickford, as so often, plays a strong, decent man. Keith is first rate as an utterly amoral and greasy crook. And Joseph Calleia does an outstanding job as a man, like Bickford, who has to decide what loving a son really means.

The DVD color transfer is in great shape. There are no extras.

The theme of a long lost heir who returns and who may not be true is an old one It's always good for a strong story. If you like mysteries, I recommend Josephine Tey's book, Brat Farrar. Brat is the long lost son who reappears and who may not be who he claims. One of the complications is that Brat has a twin...who refuses to accept him.

razor sharp like cactus.......2005-06-14

this is one of the best western i have seen.where alan ladd's performance is powerful, razor sharp with a whip lashing command in his voice. who went to rob the cattle baron charles bickford of their fortune as their long lost son -somewhere along the line he had a change of heart and brings home their real lost son who was removed from the family when he was only 5 yrs old and given to a mexican bandit across the river who raised him as his own.i think it is one of the must have movies.

branded is the best.......2005-03-30

great movie with teriffic alan ladd action with a great story

Branded.......2002-02-04

If you enjoy good OL westerns this is one of the most entertaining. Good story, one of Alan Lad's best westerns.

Average customer rating:

CHUCK CONNORS FAN
Branded: The Complete Second Season
Jason McCord, Captain US Army
Full Realeased!

Branded: The Complete Second Season
Starring: Branded
Manufacturer: Edi Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Branded - The Complete First Season
The Guns of Will Sonnett: Season 2
The Guns of Will Sonnett: Season 1
Cheyenne - The Complete First Season
The Rifleman Box Set Collection 5

ASIN: B0007TKOEQ
Release Date: 2005-08-24

Customer Reviews:

CHUCK CONNORS FAN.......2007-06-27

I LIKED THIS SERIES, FIRST TIME SEEING THIS, I DO NOT ENJOY THE MUSIC IN THE BEGINNING BUT THE SHOWS ARE VERY ENJOYABLE. CHUCK CONNORS DOES A FINE JOB IN THESE SHOWS

Branded: The Complete Second Season.......2007-05-08

This is part of my history. I Can remember setting down and watching this program with my grandfather, it was on of my favorite western TV shows. I AM very happy to be an owner of this series

Jason McCord, Captain US Army.......2005-10-31

I never cease to be amazed at what a misjudged man can do with a broken saber. Calling him a coward is not enough, you must also bother the ladies. This is a character study, a moral play, a religious experience. Watching this series in the 60's helped me prepare for the US Marines in the 70's.

Full Realeased!.......2005-04-02

Now the complete run of this great Western Series is out.I think it is the first of the Classic Western Shows who had become that treatment. Im very thankful to own them.I give five Stars, though the shows are a little cut from the Original. The Picture is a little bit unsharp sometimes, because they are not digitally remastered.But you can look over this minor failures.
Now in color Branded truly shines. The Episodes in the first season were a little bit better on narration and in this season McCord is more and more an secret agent for president Grant.Here you get the best episode of the complete Run- McCords Way.Reminds me of High Noon.Outstanding also to see the Special with Larry Cohen.Great Stuff to hear about why Branded disappeared from the screens,because of the ego of Chuck Connors.So Connors shot in is own legs with his loose mouth.Very sad!Buy this set and treasure this gem of Cult Television.I hope there will be more from this publisher.

Average customer rating:

branded
Very pleased with this DVD set
Branded - The Complete First Season
Branded DVD brings back a lot of memories
Great Series (for its time) - Poor DVD Transfer

Branded - The Complete First Season
Director: Lawrence Dobkin , Ron Winston , Leonard Horn , Alex March , and Edward Ludwig
Manufacturer: Edi Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

Branded: The Complete Second Season
The Guns of Will Sonnett: Season 1
The Guns of Will Sonnett: Season 2
Cheyenne - The Complete First Season
The Rifleman Boxed Set 3

ASIN: B0001US8DU
Release Date: 2005-08-24

Customer Reviews:

branded.......2007-06-17

I loved it! It was turnning back the clock to those days when you would run home from school to watch.Chuck conners was better in this,Then in the other series the rifle man, but also great.I really enjoyed spending some time with old friends,and you will too.

Very pleased with this DVD set.......2007-02-21

Unlike some of the other reviewers here, I was very pleased with this DVD set. There were no logo "bugs" at the bottom of the screen on any of the episodes, and I was pleased with the sound and picture quality. Not as prestine and clear as some DVD sets, but very good quality for a show that has set on the shelf for so long. The episodes are edited down to 22 minutes, which is disappointing, but not a huge deterrent. After all, where else are you going to see this show? It hasn't been on TV in syndication in over 20 years. Edited episodes are better than no episodes at all. If you have fond memories of this show or are wanting to check it out for the first time, I would highly recommend it.

Branded - The Complete First Season.......2006-07-24

Branded is truly an outstanding western series. Chuck Connors as Jason McCord is every bit as good as he was as Lucas McCain in The Rifleman. If you like western drama this is the set for you. It is well written, directed and produced. My husband and I really enjoyed this set. Too bad there aren't programs on TV like this one today. Colorado Cowgirl Nancy, Castle Rock, CO

Branded DVD brings back a lot of memories.......2006-03-19

"Branded" is my favorite Chuck Connors' series. While it isn't nearly as memorable as "The Rifleman" or even its follow-on series "Cowboy in Africa," it's every bit as good.
Many of the episodes are in black and white, and sometimes the quality of the video sags. However, the storylines and acting is always first rate.
There are a number of guest-starring roles by actors and actresses who would later become better known in Hollywood. It's fun seeing younger versions of familiar faces.
The story centers on Army Captain Jason McCord. He is the lone survivor of a massacre at Bitter Creek. The Army brands him a coward and he is court-martialed. His being drummed out of the Army forms the title sequence that is one of the best of its kind. It also features a great theme song, which was later spoofed by "Married With Children."
Connors delivers some great performances as a tragic figure who is forced to prove himself everywhere he goes since he is branded as a coward. It's always great in the end how McCord redeems himself and moves on.
If you like old TV westerns, you will love these DVDs. They also feature a short biography of Connors and an episode of "The Rifleman" thrown in for good measure.

Great Series (for its time) - Poor DVD Transfer.......2005-06-17

What a shame.
The company that transfered these episodes to DVD should be "Branded" for doing such a poor job.
The sound is bodged into a strange 5.1 effect and on my DVD player the episodes show no run time or chapters (except bonus items which have a onscreen DOG (Digital Onscreen Graphic)).
Episodes seem cut and even a part of the end credits is cut from every episode (near credits end).
Bonus episode of Rifleman is cut badly at the point a chicken is killed.

Branded to Kill - Koroshi No Rakuin - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

A monochrome dream
A Suzuki Masterpiece!
an odd crime film
great movie
NON STOP ACTION

Branded to Kill - Koroshi No Rakuin - Criterion Collection
Starring: Jo Shishido , Mariko Ogawa , Annu Mari , Koji Nambara , and Isao Tamagawa
Director: Seijun Suzuki
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Pistol Opera
Crazed Fruit (Criterion Collection)

ASIN: 078002205X
Release Date: 1999-02-23

Amazon.com

Seijun Suzuki's absolutely mad yakuza movie bends the hit-man genre so out of shape it more resembles a Luis Bunuel take on Martin Scorsese. Number three killer Goro Hanada (Jo Shishido) is a hired killer who loves his work, but when he misses a target after a mere butterfly sets his carefully balanced aim astray, he becomes the next target of the mob. Goro is no pushover and easily dispatches the first comers, leaving them splayed in death contortions that could qualify for an Olympic event, but the rat-a-tat violence gives way to a surreal, sadistic game of cat and mouse. The legendary Number One mercilessly taunts his target before moving in with him in a macho, testosterone-laden Odd Couple truce that ends up with them handcuffed together. Kinky? Not compared to earlier scenes. The smell of boiling rice sets Goro's libido for his mistress so aflame that Suzuki censors the gymnastic sex with animated black bars that come to life in an animated cha-cha. Because Suzuki pushed his yakuza parodies and cinematic surrealism too far, his studio, Nikkatsu, finally called in their own metaphoric hit and fired the director with such force that he was effectively blackballed from the industry for a decade. It took about that long for audiences to embrace his audacious genre bending--Suzuki's pop-art sensibilities were just a bit ahead of their time. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Branded to Kill, the wildly perverse story of the yakuza's rice-sniffing "No. 3 Killer," is Seijun Suzuki at his delirious best. From a cookie-cutter studio script, Suzuki delivered this brutal, hilarious, and visually inspired masterpiece-and was promptly fired. Criterion presents the DVD premiere of Branded to Kill in a pristine transfer from the original Nikkatsu-scope master.

Customer Reviews:

A monochrome dream.......2006-10-18

Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima cranked up the concept of reality T.V a few notches in 1970 when he invited a few of his media pals along to a hijacking of a government building where he then performed seppuku (Ritual self disembowelling) as a protest against the erosion of traditional Japanese values. Japan in the late 60's saw an upsurge of such demonstrations against western influence - an uprising which had seen riots outside the Budokan Sports Arena a few years previously when the Beatles appeared there. Somewhere during this volatile chapter of cultural osmosis director Seijun Suzuki got fired by the Nikkitsu film company for making his masterpiece BRANDED TO KILL.

This maverick film maker was already on thin ice with his fiercely conservative paymasters when his 1966 film TOKYO DRIFTER took the Yakuza (Japanese gangster) genre into new (and thus feared) directions but BRANDED TO KILL was the one that finally broke the chopstick - Rendering the director unemployable for a decade.

BRANDED TO KILL charts the fall and fall of No3 Killer, (Jo Shishido) a down at heel hitman, who bodges an assignment when a butterfly lands on the end of his rifle just at the crucial moment. For this gaff he is now subject to the murderous attentions of the mythical No1 Killer.

Looking like a giant Gopher in a mohair suit and Raybans, No3 Killer finds himself in a bizarre vortex of shadows and monochrome as he attempts to save his girlfriend from being incinerated, get the better of superior Killer No1 and to survive to become No1 himself. His bizarre quirk of using boiled rice as a form of Viagra does nothing to make his journey anymore straightforward.

Surely one of the most beautiful black and white films ever, BRANDED TO KILL is a collision of American `Noir' and giddy Japanese oddness. A genuine cinematic experience - everything within the frame appears to be sculptured from mercury.

Cultural Osmosis is rarely an easy thing, but when it works, the result is often something like the offbeat gorgeousness of BRANDED TO KILL.

A Suzuki Masterpiece!.......2005-04-10

This movie was my first introduction to the films of Seijun Suzuki and man, what a ride! On first glance this movie appears to be just another gangster movie relegated to late, late night television. Tough talking gangsters, intrigue, action, etc., etc. However, watching for more than 5 to 10 minutes highlight the ultra-bizarre characters, very substantial level of brutality, and the uniquely perverse (and amusing) sense of humor that really set this movie apart from other "stock" gangster films. I have all four of Suzuki's films that have been released through Criterion up to this point (Branded to Kill, Tokyo Drifter, Youth of the Beast, and Fighting Elegy) and I feel that this one is the best of the four. The major drawback is that the bonus features and booklet that come with the DVD are still a little skimpy by Criterion Collection standards. However, the exclusive interview with director Seijun Suzuki is excellent. This one is definitely worth renting and if you are a fan of Japanese cinema do yourself a favor and pick this one up.

an odd crime film.......2004-04-13

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

This move is one of the most odd gangster films I have seen.

The film follows a gangster [who] is known as the "number 3" killer and is epeatedly threatened by the "number 1" killer.

This film contains nudity to a degree of which I am surprised was legal in Japan at the time the movie was filmed. The film has several clever tricks by the characters to avoid being shot and there is some witty humor in the film also.

The director of this film was fired by the studio after aming this film and was blacklisted for 10 years.

The Criterion Collection DVD has 2 special features on it. There is an 11 minute interview with the director Seijun Suzuki, and a slide show of Japanese movie posters and lobby cards from the collection of John Zorn, who also wrote the liner ntes thant come with the DVD.

great movie.......2004-02-03

I really can't understand how people see this movie as being "incoherent" or "boring". Maybe I've seen too many mst3k movies...now those, THOSE movies that are riffed are incoherent! Plain and simple it's a yakuza movie, there, was that so incoherent? I just saw it on IFC and I loved it. I personally enjoyed Tokyo Drifter more, I really dug the groovy music. And artsy...you haven't seen artsy until you've seen the skateboard video memory screen. They take artsy over the top; of the 44 minutes about 5 minutes is actual skateboarding the rest is weird random images but still good. And boring...at least to me it was boring is Gerry -- it's just walking in the desert. Maybe not boring to others but it was just too much for me. Anyways Branded To Kill and Tokyo Drifter are great movies and not at all boring.

NON STOP ACTION.......2003-09-14

Here it is: BRANDED TO KILL is director, Seijun Suzuki's best movie. Japanese film lovers will tell you that Seijun is one of Japan's greatest filmmakers. A different style than Kurosawa. If you like action, then prepare yourself for a real treat. You will not regret owning this film.
Forget that this film is Japanese, has subtitles, and was released in 1967. This film is a classic masterpiece. Heck, even the director got fired after its release. The film is fast paced and beautifully shot. The musical score is so smooth and keep in mind, we're talking no special effects. There is a scene where a man is literally on fire for over 20 seconds.
All in all, the story is straightforward. A Yakuza gangster is hired to kill 4 people. He learns that he is the Yakuza's third best killer. He does not know who the #1 killer is but he wants his spot. The women in this film are beautiful and the action is intense. Take a chance and see why this film has inspired so many over the years.

Average customer rating:

Branded
Starring: Branded
Manufacturer: Brain Damage
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Killer Story
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ASIN: B000HXDWQO
Release Date: 2006-12-07

Pocatello Kid (1937) / Branded Men (1931)

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Pocatello Kid (1937) / Branded Men (1931)
Starring: Branded Men , and Pocatello Kid
Manufacturer: Alpha Home Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000HEVZI0
Release Date: 2006-09-26

Product Description

Two action-filled Westerns starring Ken Maynard.

Average customer rating:

Branded
Starring: Branded
Manufacturer: Razor
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Average customer rating:

Branded: Six Episodes

Manufacturer: KingWorld, Marathon Music and Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

Branded TV Show, 6 episodes, over 2 hours run time. Extra Feature--Chuck Connors' Biography.

Average customer rating:

Branded: First Season Five Episodes

Manufacturer: King World Productions
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

Branded, first season. Five episodes over two hours, including bonus: Four Star Playhouse "Vote of Confidence" with David Niven, Amanda Blake and Chuck Connors.

Criterion Crime Wave 6-Pack (High & Low/Tokyo Drifter/The Honeymoon Killers/Branded to Kill/Alphaville/Man Bites Dog) - Amazon.com exclusive

Average customer rating:

Criterion Crime Wave / IFC crossover promotion
Great movies, strange price
Great movies, silly collection

Criterion Crime Wave 6-Pack (High & Low/Tokyo Drifter/The Honeymoon Killers/Branded to Kill/Alphaville/Man Bites Dog) - Amazon.com exclusive
Starring: Valérie Boisgel , Jean-Louis Comolli , Eddie Constantine , Michel Delahaye , and Jean-André Fieschi
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Manufacturer: Criterion Collection
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00015WMP0
Release Date: 2004-01-11

Amazon.com

The six films in the Criterion Crime Wave 6-Pack were shown together on on the International Film Channel in January 2004.

Although best known for his samurai classics, Japanese master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa proved himself equally adept at contemporary dramas and thrillers, and 1962's High and Low offers a powerful showcase for Kurosawa's versatile skill. The great Toshiro Mifune stars as a wealthy industrialist who receives a phone call informing him that his son has been kidnapped, and by unfortunate coincidence the ransom demand is nearly equivalent to the amount Mifune has raised for a corporate coup. What follows is both a tense detective thriller, as the police attempt to track down the kidnapper, and a compelling illustration of class division in Japan--the "high and low" of the title. Far be it from Kurosawa to make a mere thriller, however; this loose adaptation of the Ed McBain novel King's Ransom provides the director with ample opportunity to develop a visual strategy that perfectly enhances the story's sociological themes. --Jeff Shannon

In Toyko Drifter, Seijun Suzuki transforms the yakuza genre into a pop-art James Bond cartoon as directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The twisting narrative takes hitman "Phoenix" Tetsu (Tetsuya Watari) from deliriously gaudy nightclubs, where killers hide behind every pillar, to the beautiful snowy plains of Northern Japan and back again, leaving a trail of corpses in his wake. Suzuki's extreme stylization, jarring narrative leaps, and wild plot devices combine to create a pulp fiction on acid, equal parts gangster parody and post-modern deconstruction. --Sean Axmaker

There's Bonnie and Clyde--then there's Martha and Ray. One-shot writer-director Leonard Kastle set out to make a film about lover-murderers that was everything Arthur Penn's movie was not. He succeeded. Consequently, The Honeymoon Killers, based on the Lonely Hearts Killers case of 1949, may be too lurid for some. But there's a heart beating inside its (tawdry) chest and Kastle clearly cared about these two crazy, mixed-up kids who should never have met. But met Martha (Shirley Stoler) and Ray (Tony LoBianco) did and proceeded to fleece several widows before doing them in. The film isn't graphic in its violence, but each murder is increasingly disturbing. Dramatic lighting and dark passages from Mahler keep the mood close and clammy throughout. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Seijun Suzuki's absolutely mad yakuza movie Branded to Kill bends the hit-man genre so out of shape it more resembles a Luis Bunuel take on Martin Scorsese. Number three killer Goro Hanada (Jo Shishido) is a hired killer who loves his work, but when he misses a target, he becomes the next target of the mob. Goro is no pushover and easily dispatches the first comers, but the rat-a-tat violence gives way to a surreal, sadistic game of cat and mouse. The legendary Number One mercilessly taunts his target before moving in with him in a macho, testosterone-laden Odd Couple truce that ends up with them handcuffed together. Kinky? Not compared to earlier scenes. The smell of boiling rice sets Goro's libido for his mistress so aflame that Suzuki censors the gymnastic sex with animated black bars that come to life in an animated cha-cha. --Sean Axmaker

1965's Alphaville is a perfect example of Jean-Luc Godard's willingness to disrupt expectation, combine genres, and comment on movies while making sociopolitical statements that inspired doctoral theses and left a majority of viewers mystified. Part science fiction and part hard-boiled detective yarn, Alphaville presents a futuristic scenario using the most modern and impersonal architecture that Godard could find in mid-'60s Paris. A haggard private eye (Eddie Constantine) is sent to an ultramodern city run by a master computer, where his mission is to locate and rescue a scientist who is trapped there. As the story unfolds, the movie tackles a variety of topics such as the dehumanizing effect of technology, willful suppression of personality, saturation of commercial products, and, of course, the constant recollection of previous films through Godard's carefully chosen images. --Jeff Shannon

The Belgian satire Man Bites Dog is dark, dark, dark--but also right on the money in its sly sendup of the media's fascination with violence and its complicity therein. This mock documentary has a trio of filmmakers shooting a cinéma vérité feature about a garrulous serial killer who lets the film crew follow him around as he selects victims and then dispatches them. But at what point does filmmaking become participation? These hapless documentarians soon find out as their subject eventually pulls them into his world, including a gun battle with a rival film crew and their own criminal star. Gruesomely hilarious, with a deadpan wit that's hard to resist. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews:

Criterion Crime Wave / IFC crossover promotion.......2004-01-20

From the other persons reviewing this 6 DVD bundle there seems to come confusion as to why Amazon would group said discs. The reason is for cross promotion with The Independent Film Channel (IFC) who will show all six movies on January 30th and 31st of 2004. Of course, all are Criterion titles as well, and the budding collector may feel compulsion to buy all of these at once to achieve a discount (an extra 5% PER title above individual prices here at Amazon) and saving on S&H. Aside from the tie-in to IFC, Amazon is supporting a contest with prizes to be given away and you can register here at this site.

All that being said, there is no other reason these titles would form a cohesive box set, but then again, it is not being sold as such. Unlike other Criterion box sets (which to this point have always showcased a single director), this is working off of a theme and not someone's body of work. There is no mention of a "box" to house all these DVDs, but instead are just bundled together in a group. Each of these films though are solid titles, with Man Bites Dog being far and away my favorite and the two Suzuki films probably being the least appealing (though, still good films).

If your first introduction to the Criterion Collection is from watching these films on IFC at the end of the month, you will come to find the company to be the Rolls Royce of DVDs. From film restoration to bonuses to retrieval of obscure cellulite, Criterion is unparalleled in the retail field and is a must for any serious film students or lovers of great cinema.

Great movies, strange price.......2004-01-17

This is a great collection of classic films. I have all
but one on DVD or Laserdisc.

I am confused on the pricing. ..

Great movies, silly collection.......2003-12-16

Each and every one of these films are fantastic...from the police procedural of Kurosawa's High & Low to the cinema verite nastiness of Man Bites Dog to the goofiness of Suzuki's Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill. That being said, they are all different one from the other and have little in common (with the exception of Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill...both by Suzuki), and other than an at times tangential relationship to the crime genre (Godard's Alphaville is "crime" film only to the extent that a private investigator is used as a plot device), it's strange why in the world these films are grouped together. Well, all of them are issued by the Criterion Collection...but even Criterion Collection boxed sets have a stronger kinship, as in the Hitchcock and Kurosawa boxes.

Truly a mystery why these are being marketed this way.

DVD:

DVD

DVD

DVD

I Sette Gladiatori

Bowling For Columbine

North Dallas Forty (REGION 1) (NTSC)

DVD: Two Weeks Notice/Divine Secrets of Th

Cool Runnings