THE STRAIGHT DOPE:
Whirlwind Media just loves putting out matinee-style DVDs and their release of Alfred Hitchcock's early films is no exception. In fact, if it weren't for the public domain quality of the prints here, this would read like a Criterion release: Hitchcock's 1930 feature Murder!, followed by a newsreel and cartoon from that same year, then Hitchcock's 1926 silent classic The Lodger and then Hitch's 1940 radio broadcast retelling of The Lodger. For the serious Hitchcock fan this is an outstanding set of pieces.

Murder! is Hitchcock's first sound film and it finds him using some very sophisticated techniques, both technically and thematically. He drops out the sound at key moments to great dramatic effect. He also stages an early scene backstage at a play as a detective tries to interrogate various castmembers between cu...Read the entire review

THE STRAIGHT DOPE:
A real shame about our current moviegoing experience is that we get nothing resembling the old Hollywood serials, pulpy tales doled out in installments week after week. In order to know what happens, the devoted viewer would have to return to the theater for each new episode. TV pretty much takes care of that need, but it's not really the same (no one wants to throw popcorn at their own TV) Whirlwind Media has released a 2 disc set containing every episode of one of the longest running serials, 1936's 15 part Shadow of Chinatown, starring the great Bela Lugosi. During the course of its 5 hours (!) Shadow of Chinatown, tells the appropriately daffy tale of an attempt by Eurasian scientist Victor Poten (Lugosi) and European business representative Sonya Rokoff (Luana Walters) to shut down San Fransisco's Chinatown to the tourist trade, ...Read the entire review