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United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), English ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Anamorphic Widescreen, Black & White, Box Set, Interactive Menu, Multi-DVD Set, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: These seven films covered the decade of the fifties, starting with Has Anyone Seen My Gal? and finishing with what has to be the ultimate full blown melodrama 'Imitation of Life', cemented Sirk's reputation and future. His influence is still felt today in the work of Todd Haynes, Rainer Fassbinder, John Walters, Martin Scorsese and others. Has Anyone Seen My Gal? (1952): A rare comedy from Sirk, but still dealing with family issues and status. Samuel Futon (Charles Coburn) decides to leave his millions to the family of a lost love. However, he tests their worthiness by taking a room in the family home, working for the family business and secretly donating a large amount of money. A good cast of Universal contract players led by Piper Laurie and the emerging young Rock Hudson. All I Desire (1953): Naomi Murdock played by Barbara Stanwyck, returns to the hometown she deserted to follow her acting career. She encounters much conflict with the people she left behind. Stanwyck goes to town in a very immoral and, certainly for the time, daring role as she flirts and tries to manipulate all around. Magnificent Obsession (1954): The one that really started it all and made Rock Hudson a star, in this classic love story with more ups and downs than a rollercoaster and just as bumpy. Rich spoilt brat, Bob Merrick (Rock Hudson) has an accident, using the only respirator in the town, thus causing the death of the local doctor. He then meets Helen (Jane Wyman) the doctor's widow, who takes an instan...Douglas Sirk Collection - 7-DVD Box Set ( Has Anybody Seen My Gal / All I Desire / Magnificent Obsession / All That Heaven Allows / Written on the Wind / The Tarnished Angels / Imitation of Life )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A disappointing release of some magnificent films,
By Alex Lehmann (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Directed By Douglas Sirk [DVD] (DVD)
There are some very different reviews on this box set, and what many probably ask themselves is whether or not this set is worth purchasing. As a student, I don't have much money, so for the cheap price that amazon is selling this item it is definitely worth it. The films themselves are great, with a couple of masterpieces and some others that, while not masterpieces, are still very enjoyable and worth watching. The qualities of the prints are never terrible, and in a few cases quite good. Some of them, particularly Imitation of Life, are a bit soft, and more often than not the colours are somewhat off, which is a shame considering the fantastic cinematography in these films. These issues can be excused, but what cannot be, is the wrong aspect ratio. Magnificent Obsession and Imitation of Life both look wrong to me, and it is the closest one can come to a deal breaker on this set.That said, though, I still feel that anyone with a limited budget should get this. You won't get all these films individually, with good quality, to such a low price, and while the visual issues might bother you, it is never bad enough to ruin the films themselves. Particularly Imitation of Life, which was substandard, I forgot about all these issues because I was drawn into the film. It is very easy to vindicate this box set for its average quality, but the bottom line is that it is very cheap, and for people like me who live on a tight budget, it is a very affordable box featuring some great classics, so it is a bit hard to criticize the box too harshly. The films themselves are, without a doubt, worth getting, and this box set gives a good look at Sirk's 50's American output. Recommended for people on a budget, or who are just curious about the work of Douglas Sirk.
88 of 92 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing,
By
This review is from: Directed By Douglas Sirk [DVD] (DVD)
As great as it is to have Magnificent Obsession and Tarnished Angels on DVD at last, it's disappointing to see what Universal have - or rather, haven't - done here. The cropping of MO - as detailed by the two previous reviewers - and the soft dull colours of the other films are not a pleasure to behold. Imitation of Life seems to have copied the same soft transfer as the previous Region 1 release, while the transfer of Written on the Wind is nowhere near the eye-popping sharpness of the Criterion DD from a few years back. Sadly, Criterion no longer have the rights to the Sirk films, so it looks like this is the best we're going to get... unless Universal puts some work into fresh versions for a Region 1 release.
138 of 148 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Directed by Douglas Sirk,
By
This review is from: Directed By Douglas Sirk [DVD] (DVD)
This SHOULD have been one of the most eagerly greeted director's boxes since Sternberg or Ozu, containing as it does the bulk of Sirk's 50s work and two titles previously unavailable on DVD, Tarnished Angels and Magnificent Obsession.Sadly Universal have cruelled the box with a transfer of Magnificent Obsession in a cropped matted format of 2.00:1. The original shooting ratio was 1.37:1(Academy) and although released in 1954 it is highly unlikely, even in the post 53 Widescreen/Scope era that Sirk and DP Russell Metty would have shot and composed it for any masking greater than 1.66:1. By 1956 Sirk and Metty were composing All that Heaven Allows and Written on the Wind to accomodate widescreen masking, in which format those titles appear in the boxset (and on the earlier Criterion DVDs.) Unfortunately the damage done to Magnificent Obsession by this is a travesty. A carefully composed progression of design and layout leads to key 2 shots and 3 shots which are lit and structured on vertical axes to show Wyman increasingly overpowered by faces and objects after she becomes blind, for instance. These sequences are completely ruined by the masking. Similarly Rock Hudson's character developes into a man literally hiding his true identity (an underlying subtext in Sirk's work with Hudson) and the mise en scene gradually alters Hudson's dominant position in framing to a subservient one, again in vertical composition and again ruined by the 2.00 masking. This set should have been a real prize for what it promised but unless Universal were moved to recall Magnificent Obsession and re-issue it in a correct ratio, the Collection is quite literally tarnished.
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