Recent DVDs

I've been watching some more uncommon DVDs through zip.ca.

The Best of GUNSMOKE:  I remember watching some of the later seasons of that "adult western" on Sunday mornings in the '80s.  Now I've started a video collection of selected episodes from all over its 20-year run. (THE SIMPSONS has been on for a longer time, but this show made more episodes!) I've only seen the earliest ones, including an episode with Charles Bronson.

THE RED SKELTON SHOW:  I got a disc with some early episodes of that show, which I watched faithfully in its last seasons.  He was a comic genius, and well do I remember characters like Freddy the Freeloader and Clem Kadiddlehopper. (The disc also has some episodes of Groucho Marx in YOU BET YOUR LIFE.)

OF TIME AND THE CITY:  An eloquent Terence Davies memoir of his postwar Liverpool youth, combining narration with archival footage of the city and eclectic music.

CLASSIC EDUCATIONAL SHORTS:  The latest disc in a series of classroom films, this one is commercial films for salesmen and clients.  The film about the blender was so well made that I wanted to go out and make a blender recipe!

I'll soon be seeing some early avant-garde films, a couple of Luis Bunuel productions, and a documentary about the American West in the 1860s!