Off to Lone Pine!

We're headed to the annual Lone Pine Film Festival today!

The festival takes place this year from October 9th through 12th.

We're taking a couple extras days this year to head as far north as Mammoth Lakes on Highway 395 and enjoy relaxing amidst the beautiful mountain scenery before heading back south to Lone Pine later in the week.

I've shared detailed information on this year's festival in my Western RoundUp column at Classic Movie Hub.  Please click the link for details on the movies, location tours, and special guests.

I'm looking forward to sharing lots of photos and other info about the festival when I return!

Tonight's Movie: Bright Leaf (1950) - A Warner Archive Blu-ray Review

The post Civil War melodrama BRIGHT LEAF (1950) is now available on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection.

This film, starring Gary Cooper and directed by Michael Curtiz, seems to be relatively lesser known.  It had escaped my notice until its recent Blu-ray release. 

The movie starts off well, with a deep cast playing an initially interesting collection of characters, but as the film's 110 minutes goes on in increasingly depressing fashion, boredom sets in.

The screenplay, written by Ranald MacDougall from a novel by Foster Fitz-Simons, casts Gary Cooper as Brant Royle. In the opening scenes Brant returns to the Southern town he and his financially beleaguered family had been thrown out of years before by wealthy tobacco grower Major James Singleton (Donald Crisp).

Brant has an opportunity for business success thanks to a cigarette-rolling machine invented by John Barton (Jeff Corey). Brant's former flame Sonia, who owns a bordello, becomes his business partner and helps him invest in Barton's invention; they're joined by a former medicine show salesman, Chris Malley (Jack Carson).

Brant becomes wealthy enough to drive Major Singleton out of business; he later abandons his relationship with Sonia to marry Major Singleton's brittle daughter, Margaret (Patricia Neal).

Brant manages to alienate every true friend, while also learning his marriage to Margaret is not quite as it had seemed...

The first hour or so of the film was enjoyable thanks to the deep cast and some unusual premises; the story combined familiar "building a fortune out of nothing" themes with a storyline probably not seen in any other movie, the automation of cigarette manufacturing.

The film is also somewhat unique for its time in that Sonia's profession, so to speak, is quite clear, despite calling the women she lives with (including Cleo Moore and Nita Talbot) "cousins." References Sonia makes to how she's made her money don't leave much to the imagination.

Unfortunately financial success doesn't make Brant happy; instead he becomes increasingly impatient and cruel to his loyal friends Sonia, John, and Chris. As his behavior becomes more and more obnoxious, the film is in turn harder and harder to watch.

Cooper's character starts out with a chip on his shoulder, and instead of being satisfied with success he becomes angrier and angrier. Brant never really learns or develops, other than in a negative fashion. It's really an unpleasant role for Cooper. I noted he looks increasingly haggard as the film goes on and wondered if it were an intentional part of the characterization or if the actor was just looking poorly.

Bacall, Carson, and Corey are all fine as the truly loyal friends Brant doesn't appreciate. Carson in particular always made the most of a role such as this, simultaneously funny and poignant.

I've never been much of a Neal fan, finding her voice and persona off-putting, but she's perfect in this role as an unstable Southern belle. Margaret is initially excited flirting with Brant, the "stranger in town," but ends up loathing him. Her calculating character reminded me a bit of her scheming wife in RATON PASS (1951), in which she ends up starting a range war.

Smaller roles are played by Gladys George (who is mostly wasted), James Griffith, Elizabeth Patterson, Marietta Canty, Thurston Hall, Bill Walker, and Taylor Holmes.

The movie was shot in black and white by Karl Freund. The score was by Victor Young.

The Warner Archive Blu-ray print is from a 1080p HD master from a 4K scan of the original nitrate camera negative. It looks and sounds outstanding.

The lone extras are a pair of cartoons, HILLBILLY HARE (1950) and BUNKER HILL BUNNY (1950).

In the end I'd class BRIGHT LEAF as worth checking out, especially in this fine print, but ultimately disappointing despite its director and cast.

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. Warner Archive Blu-rays may be ordered from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

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Tonight's Movie: Confessions of a Co-Ed (1931) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

CONFESSIONS OF A CO-ED (1931) is the second movie in a two-film set of Sylvia Sidney pre-Codes recently released by Kino Lorber.

The other film in the set is LADIES OF THE BIG HOUSE (1931), an entertaining "women in jail" film I reviewed several days ago.

CONFESSIONS OF A CO-ED is the weaker of the two films, due in part to an unfortunate ending, but it's still an entertaining 75 minutes. It even has an early film appearance by Bing Crosby and the Rhythm Boys!

This fast-paced movie tells the story of Pat (Sidney), a college freshman who's head over heels for Dan (Phillips Holmes).

They have an "interlude" during a ski vacation, but Dan is kicked out of college for an ethical transgression before Pat can tell him she's expecting a baby.

Pat doesn't hear from Dan again, so thanks to some engineering by Dan's former girlfriend Peggy (Claudia Dell), the desperate Pat marries Hal (Norman Foster), who's always been crazy about her.

Three years later, Dan returns...

CONFESSIONS OF A CO-ED was directed by David Burton and Dudley Murphy, while the movie curiously has no writing credit.

Both the leading men are on the drippy side, not particularly interesting, but just as with LADIES OF THE BIG HOUSE, Sidney is radiant. It's hard to resist her soulful eyes and sweet manner. And dare I say her interactions with her fellow sorority sisters are considerably more interesting than her love life?

The movie does have a mind-blowing ending which made me want to tear my hair out. It somewhat reminded me of the Loretta Young pre-Code SHE HAD TO SAY YES (1933), in terms of leaving me gaping at the screen when "The End" came on. It's insanely silly, in terms of both some truly terrible dialogue and the film's actual outcome.

It's memorable, I'll give it that, and so despite the ending, I'd rate this double-film set as a solid pickup for anyone who loves pre-Codes or Sylvia Sidney.

The cast includes Martha Sleeper, Florence Britton, George Irving, and Eulalie Jensen.

Look for Bruce Cabot and Claire Dodd as extras. Adorable little Dickie Moore plays Patricia's son in the movie's final scenes.

The movie was photographed by Lee Garmes. Kino Lorber's Blu-ray print shows off the movie's visuals in fine style thanks to a new HD master from a 4K scan.  Sound quality is excellent.  This is just about as good as anyone could expect a film from 1931 to look or sound, which is all the more reason to check out this set.

This collection is a Kino Lorber Special Edition with a cardboard slipcase. The movie comes with a commentary track by David Del Valle and Stan Shaffer. Along with the other film, the disc also includes a gallery of five trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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Around the Blosophere This Week

Miscellaneous bits of news and fun stuff from around the Internet...

...Kino Lorber has just announced that the John Wayne film THE WAR WAGON (1967) is coming soon as a 4K release. Burt Kennedy directed. I'm assuming, as it wasn't mentioned, that this will be 4K only and not have a standard Blu-ray release, but I'll be watching for more news.

...Recently enjoyed 2025 releases F:1 THE MOVIE (2025) and DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE (2025) will be out on Blu-ray October 7th and November 11th, respectively. And THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS (2025), which I liked so much I went to see it twice, is out on October 14th.

...At Riding the High Country Colin shares notes on a month of Hitchcock viewing...Toby reviews Anthony Mann's DEVIL'S DOORWAY (1950) at 50 Westerns From the 50s...and Glenn Erickson reviews Kurosawa's superb HIGH AND LOW (1963) at Trailers From Hell.

...Notable Passing: I was sorry to learn of the recent death of James (Jim) Mitchum at the age of 84; he died on September 20th. Jim Mitchum was the older of the two acting sons of Robert Mitchum, followed a couple years later by brother Chris (BIG JAKE). Over a decade after Chris's birth their little sister Petrine was born; she authored HOLLYWOOD HOOFBEATS, about movie horses. Chris and Petrine both survive their brother, along with other family members. Jim Mitchum notably played his father's kid brother in THUNDER ROAD (1958), seen here, and appeared in a number of other films including RIDE THE WILD SURF (1964) and IN HARMS' WAY (1965).

...This was a short news week ahead of my upcoming vacation. Please note that Around the Blogosphere This Week will not appear the weekend of October 11th, when I'll be attending the Lone Pine Film Festival. The column will return on Saturday, October 18th.

...For additional recent links of interest to classic film fans, please visit my September 27th column.

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New at Classic Movie Hub: Lone Pine Film Festival 2025

My latest Western RoundUp column is now posted at Classic Movie Hub!

September's column is a detailed look at the upcoming Lone Pine Film Festival.

The festival begins October 9th and runs through the 12th. My post looks at some of the movies, tours, and special guests which will be part of this year's festival.

As always, I'll be there to enjoy and cover it all, and I'd love to see some readers there as well.

Please click over to Classic Movie Hub to check it out, and thanks, as always, for reading!

Previous Classic Movie Hub Western RoundUp Column Links: June 2018; July 2018; August 2018; September 2018; October 2018; November 2018; December 2018; January 2019; February 2019; April 5, 2019; April 30, 2019; May 2019; June 2019; July 2019; August 2019; September 2019; October 2019; November 2019; December 2019; January 2020; February 2020; March 2020; April 2020; May 2020; June 2020; July 2020; August 2020; September 2020; October 2020; November 2020; December 2020; January 2021; February 2021; March 2021; May 2021; June 2021; June 2021 (No. 2); July 2021; August 2021; September 2021; November 2021; December 2021; December 2021 (No. 2); January 2022; February 2022; March 2022; April 2022; May 2022; June 2022; July 2022; August 2022; September 2022; November 2022; November 2022 (No. 2); January 2023 (No. 1); January 2023 (No. 2); March 2023; April 2023; May 2023 (No. 1); May 2023 (No. 2); June 2023; July 2023; September 2023; September 2023 (No. 2); October 2023; November 2023; December 2023; January 2024; February 2024; March 2024; April 2024; May 2024; June 2024; July 2024; August 2024; September 2024; October 2024; November 2024; December 2024; January 2025; February 2025; March 2025; April 2025; May 2025; June 2025; July 2025; August 2025.

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TCM Star of the Month: Angela Lansbury

Actress Angela Lansbury is the October Star of the Month on Turner Classic Movies.

Lansbury was previously the Star of the Month in January 2012. Over 13 years later, TCM is celebrating the centennial of Lansbury's birth on October 16, 1925.

Lansbury passed away on October 2022, a few days short of her 97th birthday.

I feel very fortunate that I saw her in person briefly as part of a panel discussion honoring Robert Osborne in October 2019.

Below is the complete Star of the Month schedule. Please click on any hyperlinked title to read a full-length review.

October 2nd

THE HARVEY GIRLS (1946)

TENTH AVENUE ANGEL (1948)

THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1948)

THE RED DANUBE (1949)

NATIONAL VELVET (1944)

October 9th

IN THE COOL OF THE DAY (1963)

IF WINTER COMES (1947)

DEAR HEART (1964)

THE WORLD OF HENRY ORIENT (1964)

MISTER BUDDWING (1966)

October 16th (Lansbury's centennial)

GASLIGHT (1944)

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945)

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)

KIND LADY (1951)

SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (1982)

October 23rd

DEATH ON THE NILE (1978)

THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE (1958)

ALL FALL DOWN (1962)

THE HOODLUM SAINT (1946)

TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY (1946)

As is often the case with Star of the Month programming, there are a number of other titles which won't be shown as part of the series due to licensing or other reasons.

I also recommend seeking out Lansbury's work in films such as STATE OF THE UNION (1948), SAMSON AND DELILAH (1949), THE COURT JESTER (1956), BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS (1971), THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE (1983), and of course BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1991).

For more on TCM in October 2025, please visit my posts TCM in October: Highlights and Quick Preview of TCM in October, along with TCM's online schedule.

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TCM in October: Highlights

Happy October! It's time for a close-up look at this month's schedule on Turner Classic Movies.

Angela Lansbury is the October Star of the Month.

Lansbury was previously the Star of the Month in January 2012. This month TCM is honoring the centennial of Lansbury's birth. The actress was born October 16, 1925.

Lansbury's films will be shown on Thursday evenings, excepting October 30th. There will be a separate post on this month's Angela Lansbury films posted here in the next day or so.  (Update: Please visit: TCM Star of the Month: Angela Lansbury.)

October's Noir Alley schedule will consist of THE BIG STREET (1942) followed by three TCM premieres: NEW YORK CONFIDENTIAL (1955), BLACK TUESDAY (1954), and SOUTHSIDE 1-1000 (1950).

Mario Cantone will host "Creepy Cinema" again this October, introducing spooky films of all types on Friday evenings. Continuing the spooky theme, Alfred Hitchcock movies will be featured on Sunday nights.

October 30th and 31st will be given over to a two-day Halloween horror marathon.

Here are a few additional highlights from the October schedule. Please click on any hyperlinked title to read my extended review.

...The month begins on October 1st with a marvelous lineup of films released in 1950, followed by a prime time tribute honoring Julie Andrews on her 90th birthday. The evening will include the second-ever TCM showing of THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965), which made its TCM debut last August.

...An October 3rd day of films featuring femme fatales includes MURDER, MY SWEET (1944) starring Dick Powell and Claire Trevor.

...Dave Karger's Musical Matinee on October 4th features Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in their first film together, FLYING DOWN TO RIO (1933). A few years ago I attended a memorable rooftop screening of the film.

...One of Alfred Hitchcock's best films, REAR WINDOW (1954), will be showon on Sunday evening, October 5th. James Stewart and Grace Kelly star, ably supported by Thelma Ritter.

...Actor Chill Wills is honored on the evening of October 6th, with the films including one of my favorite lesser-known Westerns, GUN GLORY (1957), starring Stewart Granger and Rhonda Fleming. The lineup also includes three Francis the Talking Mule films, FRANCIS (1950), FRANCIS GOES TO THE RACES (1951), and FRANCIS GOES TO WEST POINT (1952); the latter two films are TCM premieres.

...For beautiful, very colorful musical entertainment check out THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT (1967) on October 7th. Gene Kelly, George Chakiris, Catherine Deneuve, and Deneuve's real-life sister Francois Dorleac star.

...There's a seven-film Randolph Scott lineup on October 8th. Titles include SHOOT-OUT AT MEDICINE BEND (1957) costarring James Garner.

...Deborah Kerr and Trevor Howard star in I SEE A DARK STRANGER (1946), part of a day of films with the word "dark" in the title on October 9th.

...The Val Lewton classic CAT PEOPLE (1942) makes perfect October viewing; it will be shown on the 11th. Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph, and Tom Conway star, directed by Jacques Tourneur.

...There's more great Hitchcock on Sunday evening, October 12th, with one of my all-time favorites: NOTORIOUS (1946) starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains.

...Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan star in DESPERATE JOURNEY (1942), part of a day of films focused on World War II's European front. It airs October 15th.

...Marco Cantone's Creepy Cinema on October 17th features Gene Tierney as the chilling killer of LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (1945), followed by Tierney and Ginger Rogers costarring in BLACK WIDOW (1954). The latter is a 20th Century-Fox film rarely shown on TCM.

...The sequel to CAT PEOPLE, THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE (1944), will be shown October 19th. Kent Smith, Simone Simon, and Jane Randolph again star, directed by Jacques Tourneur.

...WHERE THE BOYS ARE (1960) is a colorful, funny collegiate summer break film with a great cast headed by Dolores Hart, George Hamilton, Paula Prentiss, and Jim Hutton. It's on October 22nd.

...There are some good military comedies on October 23rd, including Ida Lupino and Sydney Greenstreet in the amusing PILLOW TO POST (1945).

...Another Hitchcock favorite, SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943), shows on Sunday evening, October 26th. This summer I was able to visit locations for the film in Santa Rosa, California, which will make my next viewing even more enjoyable.

...There's a fantastic lineup of pre-Code films on Tuesday evening, October 28th. It includes some of the best "jaw-droppers" of the era, including EMPLOYEES' ENTRANCE (1933) and NIGHT NURSE (1931).

...A day of Van Heflin films on October 29th includes the enjoyable MGM musical SEVEN SWEETHEARTS (1942) with Kathryn Grayson.

...Many of the films showing in the Halloween marathon on the 30th and 31st are a little too "much" for me, but happily there are also more good Val Lewton movies including THE LEOPARD MAN (1943) and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943) on the 30th.

For more on TCM in October 2025, please check out my posts TCM Star of the Month: Angela Lansbury and Quick Preview of TCM in October, along with TCM's online schedule.

Have a fun October, and happy Halloween!

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Tonight's Movie: Airport (1970) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

The aviation disaster classic AIRPORT (1970) will be released this week by Kino Lorber.

The movie will be available in Blu-ray, which is the format I've reviewed, along with the 4K release. Coming out on the same date are single-title releases of the other Airport movies, AIPORT 1975 (1974), AIRPORT '77 (1977), and THE CONCORDE...AIRPORT '79 (1979).

The movies will also be available in a four-film set in late October.

Longtime readers may recall I'm a big fan of AIRPORT, which I first reviewed here in 2010; in 2014 wrote about seeing it on a big screen at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood along with AIRPORT 1975. I love the entire series.

I don't think I'd seen AIRPORT in over a decade, and it was quite a pleasure to revisit it thanks to this lovely new Blu-ray. The technical specs tell us the print is from a new HD master from a 4k scan of 35mm interpositive reduction elements and also features 5.1 Surround sound.

AIRPORT tells the story of the titular airport on a snowy night, as well as what happens to one specific flight which takes off from the airport and must later return.

In two hours and 17 minutes we meet a wide cast of characters, including Mel Bakersfeld (Burt Lancaster), the manager of the airport; Joe Patroni (George Kennedy), the mechanic charged with moving a snowbound airplane off an urgently needed runway; Tanya Livingston (Jean Seberg), an airline employee who's attracted to the married Mel; and Harry Standish (Lloyd Nolan) of airport security.

Meanwhile Mel's brother-in-law Vern (Dean Martin) is two-timing Mel's nice sister Sarah (Barbara Hale) with a decades-younger stewardess (Jacqueline Bisset) who's just announced she's expecting his baby.

Vern's plane, copiloted by Anson Harris (Barry Nelson) and Cy Jordan (Gary Collins), will run into trouble thanks to a bomb carried onboard by a disturbed man (Van Heflin, looking absolutely awful).

The scenes with Heflin, his frantic wife (Maureen Stapleton), and a way-too-twee stowaway played by Helen Hayes (who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar) haven't held up well and are frankly fast forward-able, and it's also kind of wild that not one but both the film's leading men are cheating on their wives.

In the case of Lancaster's wife, played by Dana Wynter, it's a bit more understandable given her chilly, demanding demeanor, but it's also very sad as they have two daughters (Lisa Gerritsen and Illana Dowding).

But Martin sneaking around behind the back of lovely Barbara Hale just seems mean. At least his character shows some growth over the course of the film, but will he sustain it after movie's end?

Despite the above flaws and some very creaky dialogue -- including a few lines of the type that are "so bad they're good" -- AIRPORT sustains viewer interest for all of its fairly lengthy running time.

I especially enjoy the film's "procedural" aspects, the "ticktock" of how the airport runs and especially the pilots' interactions with very realistic-sounding air traffic controllers, who are creatively cut into the middle of the screen.

In short, I had a grand time watching it and loved the climactic excitement with Patroni struggling to move the stuck plane out of the way in time for the damaged plane to land. 

The movie, filmed in widescreen Technicolor by Ernest Laszlo, looks terrific on Kino Lorber's Blu-ray, and I'd add that Alfred Newman's booming final score sounds great as well.

The supporting cast includes Virginia Grey, Paul Picerni, Jessie Royce Landis, Mary Jackson, Larry Gates, and Whit Bissell, with a few more familiar faces tucked deep down in the credits.

The movie was written and directed by George Seaton, based on the novel by Arthur Hailey.

Kino Lorber presents AIRPORT as a Special Edition with a cardboard slipcase. The disc includes a new commentary track by Julie Kirgo and C. Courtney Joyner, along with the trailer (newly mastered in 2K) and a gallery of five additional trailers.

Incidentally, I learned from the trailer and confirmed via some Googling that Dana Wynter pronounced her first name like "Donna." I'd had no idea.

I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the movies in this series soon.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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Tonight's TV: Emergency! (1972-79) - A Universal Blu-ray Review

EMERGENCY! (1972-79), one of the key TV series not only of my childhood but of '70s television, has just been released on Blu-ray.

All of the show's six seasons plus six follow-up TV-movies have been compiled into a single 28-disc Blu-ray set which runs over 111 hours.

Roughly two decades ago I painstakingly collected the series on DVD for my kids; suffice it to say that they loved the show as much as I did on first run in the '70s. I've been very happy to revisit the series via Blu-ray, and I plan to pass on the old DVD sets to my son.

I'm such a fan of EMERGENCY! that I attended a packed 50th anniversary tribute to the series in August 2022. You can read my account of the evening here. Many in the audience that night had been inspired to become fire fighters or paramedics thanks to EMERGENCY!

The anniversary tribute went into significant detail about the role of EMERGENCY! in the early establishment of paramedic programs across the country, beginning in Los Angeles, where the show was set. The show, created by Robert A. Cinader and Jack Webb, was the first time many Americans ever heard the term "paramedic."

Technical experts worked hard on making the show as authentic as possible, and Cinader himself became such an expert on paramedic issues that he served for many years on the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Commission. Today the station where the show was filmed is the Robert A. Cinader Memorial Fire Station.

The double-length pilot episode, "The Wedsworth-Townsend Act," goes into the establishment of the paramedic program via two young trainees, Roy DeSoto (Kevin Tighe) and Johnny Gage (Randolph Mantooth). Tighe and Mantooth have great rapport, and indeed, when they appeared at the anniversary tribute I learned that they had become lifelong close friends.

Los Angeles emergency room doctor Kelly Brackett (Robert Fuller) has initial concerns about non-medical personnel treating patients before transporting them to the hospital, but is won over when DeSoto and Gage's skills save the life of Nurse Dixie McCall (Julie London) when she's injured while helping at an accident scene.

Also key in the show's large ensemble cast is Bobby Troup as Dr. Joe Early, a neurosurgeon who often works emergency shifts. Dr. Early's perennially calm, easygoing demeanor provides a good contrast to Dr. Brackett's more uptight persona.

London -- who was in her mid '40s but rather hilariously described as 30 in the pilot -- was famously Webb's former wife and the current wife of Troup, but that was no barrier to Webb hiring both for the series. London and Troop certainly had fascinating careers, between acting, singing, and composing, including Troop's famed "Route 66."

I'd forgotten how strongly Dixie's romance with Dr. Brackett was pushed in the pilot episode, but their relationship was subsequently toned down. I also note that Dr. Brackett comes off as rather a male chauvinist in the pilot, particularly, but that also seems to improve as time goes on, and frankly it serves to humanize a character who often seems to have rather a high regard for himself.

Other series regulars included Marco Lopez and Mike Stoker, whose characters were the same as the actors' real names, and Tim Donnelly as Chet Kelly. (I did a double-take seeing Donnelly without his mustache in the first regular season episode, "Mascot.") I really appreciate the show's cast continuity, having the same faces in the station for years.

Series regular Ron Pinkard, who played hospital physician Dr. Mike Morton, shows up as early as the pilot, but curiously his character had another name, Dr. Gray, in that movie.

Many other familiar faces cross through the episodes, including Webb regular Virginia Gregg, who briefly plays a nurse. Also look for long-running DAYS OF OUR LIVES star Deirdre Hall as a nurse in a half-dozen episodes.

I've found going back to this series for the first time in years akin to a box of great candy; it's hard to stop! As I've reviewed this set I've often thought "Just one more..." and then booted up the next episode.

I love the "procedural" aspects of the show, which I've found are of interest to adult and child viewers alike, making this a great series for family viewing. And the exciting Nelson Riddle theme music still gets my pulse pumping!

Obviously it's going to take me many hours of viewing to watch the entire set, but the prints I've seen to this point have all been outstanding, looking very crisp and sharp.

Included as an extra is the "Lost and Found" crossover episode with ADAM-12. ADAM-12's Kent McCord and Martin Milner also appear briefly in the pilot.

I'm a big ADAM-12 fan as well and had the great pleasure of meeting Kent McCord last April at the Hollywood Heritage Museum. I'm hoping that ADAM-12 will be receiving a similar Blu-ray treatment before long.

EMERGENCY! was landmark, influential television which is also great storytelling. Recommended.

Thanks to Allied Vaughn and Universal for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray collection. It may be purchased from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

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