Originally produced in the mid-1990s, Gene Feldman and Suzette Winters' Hollywood Collection is a series of biographical profiles syndicated to cable and now debuting on DVD (see our reviews of the Audrey Hepburn installment here, and the Gregory Peck disc here). The discs present a bit of a conundrum; for the most part, they're poorly produced and the elements have not aged well. But many offer extended interviews with icons who have long since departed, so the historical value of these discs is significant.

Jack Lemmon: America's Everyman profiles the star of stage and screen and, as expected, its primary draw is its access to its subject. Lemmon's interview for the special is wonderful--funny, chatty, warm and informative. The structure is straight-forward, with much light shined on his family life, formative years, and early roles (supplemented by plenty of old photos, posters, and programs).

His transition from the stage to the screen is given ample time, which is plus--particularly since we get to hear Lemmon tell the wonderful (and famous) story of making his first film with George Cukor. After each take, Cukor would praise his work, then ask for one more--"and less, Jack, less." Finally, an exasperated Lemmon asked, "Do you want me to not act at all?," to which Cukor replied, "God, yes, please!"

After that, we get brief but nicely colored reminisces of some of his classic roles--Mister Roberts, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Days of Wine and Roses, etc. Lemmon is charmingly candid here; for example, he clearly has no love lost for old studio moguls like Harry Cohn and Jack Warner. His is not the only valuable interview, however; we also get to hear from his frequent collaborator, the late, great Billy Wilder, along with longtime friend Garson Kanin. His partnership with Walter Matthau is also touched on, and a Matthau interview includes a few welcome snickers.

Agent Leonard Hirshan and son Chris Lemmon add some more intimate anecdotes, but as a whole, America's Everyman is unfortunately brief and shallow; it hits the obvious career movements and personal qualities, but plays too much like an extended highlights reel. What's worse, his 70s, 80s, and early 90s output are zipped through in the last ten minutes, and plenty of important projects are skipped in the process. His re-teamings with Matthau are mentioned, for example, but there's not a word about his critically acclaimed turns in Glengarry Glen Ross or Altman's Short Cuts. His was a long and storied career, with plenty of interesting detours and risky pieces of work, but America's Everyman barely scratches its surface.

Video:

The disc's interviews were shot on video in the mid-90s, and the resulting full-frame analog video image is distractingly noisy. For the most part, the scenes from his films look even worse--presumably in the interest of keeping budgets low, the clips are pulled almost entirely from vintage trailers. The resulting images are dirty, scratched, and badly aged; some are sub-VHS quality. Apparently trailers were unavailable for a few efforts, resulting in some unhappy compromises (I'm pretty sure that those badly-pixelated stills from Missing were screen grabs, and they don't look good). Simply put, the video quality here simply isn't up to snuff.

As bad as the picture looks, the monaural audio track is even uglier. An analog hiss is present throughout, and there are several instances of high-end distortion and peaking. The quality gets even worse when the (badly aged) music pops up, muddying up the mix and marring audibility in the process. Audio in the aforementioned trailer clips is also tinny and unpleasant. Most of the interviews are audible but, in general, the audio presentation is not pretty.

The primary extra of note is a Photo Gallery (2:25) of Lemmon stills, most of them publicity snaps, some seen in the main program. It's a pleasant (and brief) montage. Next up is the "Meet The Producers" (7:03) an extended photo gallery of the duo with the celebrities they've met and interviewed. This should be on a MySpace page, not on a DVD.

The final extra is "The Hollywood Collection Preview," (5:38), a cheaply-produced promo for the series, spotlighting clips from their profiles of Audrey Hepburn, Michael Caine, and Ingrid Bergman.

The warm and funny primary interview that Jack Lemmon: America's Everyman leans so heavily on is absolutely worth seeing, particularly for admirers of the great actor. But the haphazard, underdeveloped nature of the documentary surrounding it, and the low quality of the audio and video presentation, puts this disc squarely in the Rent It category.

Jason lives in New York. He holds an MA in Cultural Reporting and Criticism from NYU.