Sadly these are not licensed or authorized releases. This new company words their website and their press releases to make it seem as if these are fully legit releases, but they're releasing them in the assumption that they are in the public domain, as many 70's TV movies are presumed to be. The biggest clue is the lame new jacket art created which doesn't boast any of the talent within, the director/producers that made them, or the original tv channel that aired them. I mean, DEVIL'S DAUGHTER-- you'd want to have Jonathan Frid and Shelley Winters's names and images on the covers wouldn't you?
What that means is, instead of having access to original studio tapes and film elements, their DVDs will be made by whatever ratty 16mm prints they can find on the collector's market or at car boot sales.
Sci-Fi showed DEVIL'S DAUGHTER several years back in a gorgeous copy- clearly a fairly recent transfer that would look terrific on DVD. You can bet that anyone with an off-air tape of that will have a version better than the upcoming DVD.
Early reviews of their first 2 titles have been dismal. A shame as the Frid filmmography is limited and it would be nice to have this on a nice DVD.
It'd be great to have a company legitimately release a bunch of made for TV genre pix and a really do them up nice, with extras, new or high quality transfers etc. Look at Anchor Bay's NORLISS TAPES-- stellar work can be done in this arena, and it's a shame it isn't. DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK, anyone?
