Golden Classics DVD Review
Bonus Features and Summary

Jump to: Picture, etc. Summary

The Bonus Features section on this DVD is a disappointment. Both discs include a section entitled "Your Favorite Benny Hill Scenes", just like the "Golden Greats" collection. Disc One also contains the same biography that was included on the "Golden Greats" DVD. It features the same scrolling information, a narrator reading it out loud and the same cheesy music. Surely HBO could have added more to this DVD than the same features that were on the "Golden Greats" DVD.

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Bonus Features

It would have been nice to see some of those Hill's Angels routines that have been played on TV but up until now have not been available on VHS or DVD, like "Ease On Down The Road" and "The Madame Louise Summer Collection". This DVD, like the "Golden Greats", contains no Easter Eggs.

I would really like to see a new documentary devoted to Hill's Angels featuring interviews with the girls from the show and what they have been doing since that time. It would be great for a documentary like this to be hosted by Louise and Sue. Also, an audio commentary by Director Dennis Kirkland and maybe even Louise and Sue commenting on the Hill's Angels segments would be a fascinating addition to a DVD similar to this one. The DVD could include high quality photo galleries, a "Who's Who" of Hill's Angels with talent bios for each Angel as well as the cast and crew.

As for this DVD, the features are very thin, but then this DVD was overstuffed with content, which really left no room for bonus features. In the future, a Benny Hill DVD should contain many of the kinds of features I mentioned above.

There is one bit of good news. Just as the "Your Favorite Benny Hill Scenes" wasn't much of an extra on the "Golden Greats" collection, this DVD actually benefits from this feature. In particular on Disc Two, when you access the "Song and Dance with Hill's Angels", you get to watch several Hill's Angels segments at once, including "TV Workout", "Chez Ben Grand Gala", "Street Dance", "Street Party", "Strip Tease", "The Cruise" and "Hotel Splendide". This way you can sit and watch all of the Hill's Angels routines for each disc, without having to pick up your DVD remote and navigate the chapter selections to watch them. Unfortunately the "Sling Shot" with Corinne Russell's "balloon dance" is not included and it would have been nice if that routine had been added to this feature.

Disc One:

Benny Hill Biography
Your Favorite Benny Hill Scenes:
1. Song and Dance with Hill's Angels:
Operetta; Fever; Girls, Girls, Girls; The Best Is Yet To Come;
New York, New York; The Life Guard; Lady Godiva

2. Classic Shows:
Starsky & Hutch; Charlene's Angels

3. Cops 'n' Robbers:
Villain Of The Year Award; Canadian Mountie Poems;
The Safe Crackers; The Police Station; The Execution

4. Doctor, Doctor:
Night Nurse; The Doctor Who Died; The Job Transfer;
Doctor's Best Shot; House Call

5. Benny In Bed:
Sheep Shearer; Fortune Teller; Playboy

6. Credit Roll Chase Scenes:
Les 3 Mousquateres; Wondergran

Disc Two:

Your Favorite Benny Hill Scenes:
1. Song and Dance with Hill's Angels:
Benny's Place; TV Workout; Chez Ben Grand Gala;
Street Dance; The Gay Caballero; Street Party;
Strip Tease; The Cruise; Hotel Splendide

2. Classic Shows:
The Scarlet Pimple

3. Cops 'n' Robbers:
The Informer Interview; The Art Thief; The Masked Bandit;
The Traffic Warden And The Street Cleaner; Police Chase

4. Doctor, Doctor:
Year To Live; The House Call; The Eye Doctor;
Take These Pills; The Vasectomy Clinic

5. Benny In Bed:
On The Ledge; The Other Men

6. Credit Roll Chase Scenes:
Men in Kilts; Wanted

Picture

Unfortunately, this is an area where this DVD fails. Watching this DVD over that past month or two, I cannot help but be disappointed at the picture quality. Although there are times when the picture does look quite good, it is in darkly lit scenes where the DVD suffers most. Even in regularly lit scenes there is a lack of detail and a soft focus to these programs. The picture is fuzzy in many places and lacks detail. When you watch the Meter Maids dance in the "Street Party", the scene is a nighttime one and everything is quite grainy and dark. The saddest part is not being able to pick out the faces of the Angels during this routine and in some other ones like the "Hotel Splendide" where the colors are weak and sharpness is very low. I think it's about time that Thames grabbed the original tapes and digitally remastered them. As time goes on, these programs are going to deteriorate more and more. If something is not done soon, the tapes will begin to disintegrate completely. I think it is really important for us to ask Thames/HBO and Frematlemedia to dig out the original tapes and do some remastering.

These programs also suffer from digital artifacts and blocking in many places, since so much was squeezed onto these two discs. As more and more information is "compressed" onto a disc, the picture quality continues to degrade. When you hit the "skip" button on your DVD remote control you can see quite clearly for a moment that in some instances, the picture contains many digital blocks, indicating the poor DVD authoring for this collection. I cannot help but think this DVD was made on the cheap.

This is where "dual-layered" discs come in. If you look at the playing surface of "Golden Greats" you can see that there is a Gold coloration to it. This has nothing to do with the title of the DVD. It is a DVD, which plays from the center out, and then back into the center again, reading two separate layers of information. Apparently, this was not done for "Golden Classics". We have gained by getting plenty of great content from the Benny Hill Show, but it has been presented poorly. Another point is that the DVD contains copy-protection and this usually drains about 20% of the brightness out of the picture.

Still, this DVD looks no worse than watching the show on TV in many places and I hope that in the future, Benny Hill fans like myself will demand a higher quality DVD. I'd really like to suggest a petition for the shows to be released in their original format as "specials" instead of as 30 minute programs made from the original segments. Digital remastering would also be a stipulation of the petition.

Sound

This part of the DVD is not quite as troublesome as the picture. For the most part, things are only slightly distorted and dialogue comes across clearly. Since these shows were made for TV, the programs are presented here in Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono and all of the sounds will come from your center channel if you are listening on a surround stereo system. There are some noticeable problems with the sound on the keyboard in "Runaway" if you listen. Essentially, most sounds come across fine. Not great, but acceptable.

Screen Captures

To go along with this DVD review, I have made several screen captures from much of the DVD. Please note that these screen captures have been altered to have better quality than what is on the DVD. I have increased the color saturation, sharpness and so on so that they will look good on the site, although in many cases there is only marginal improvement. A remastering of the picture and sound in these programs will become more and more important as the tapes age and degrade. The pictures at the top of this page are from the "Golden Classics" DVD. Alternating, the first one is unaltered, followed by an altered picture. There are 10 in all. The enhanced captures were done by myself using a program called Paint Shop Pro. You can easily see the difference in brightness, sharpness, color and tint. I also enhanced the pictures for the "Golden Greats" DVD a little as well. Since the picture quality on the "Golden Greats" collection is much better, I don't feel the need to present a series of comparisons as I have done here.

Menus

The main menus on each of these discs, feature a short animated clip. The clip is contained within a "television set". All of the menus feature the same TV with different pictures that relate to the program for that menu.

The Programs on Disc One are "One Night Video Stand" and "Video Spotlight". Bonus Features include "Benny Hill Biography" and "Your Favorite Benny Hill Scenes". Disc One features a clip from "Henry's Remote Control" with Benny and Bella Emberg. When you select One Night Video Stand you get a shot of Benny in drag with Henry McGee from "Villain Of The Year Award". "Video Spotlight" features a publicity shot of Benny and two girls in "Lady Godiva".

The Programs on Disc Two are "Home Video Drive In" and "Video Follies". You can also access "Your Favorite Benny Hill Scenes" from the main menu, as there is no Bonus Features section on Disc Two. Disc Two also features a TV set with a clip from "Charlene's Angels" where Pat Ashton and Benny perform their tribute to the "mirror sequence" from "Duck Soup". When you select "Home Video Drive In" the TV set contains a still from "Benny's Place". You can see Louise on the right. When you select "Video Follies" you get a very nice publicity shot. It features Benny, Sue Upton and Jo Thomas with several other Angels in bikinis.

Summary

There is over six hours of material in this collection and I decided to take my time and try to make a thorough and detailed review of all four programs. I have attempted to use the proper names for cast members throughout this DVD, but I know there will be some disagreements on who is who. I also admit that I am probably wrong on several names, but I have attempted to use names strictly as a point of reference.

When reviewing Hill's Angels portions of this collection I felt that it would be better to give more details than just "wow, that's a great routine". I have tried to accurately describe the choreography, music and sets, as well as give my own comments on the main idea behind each routine.

It's not hard to like a collection of excellent programs like this one. It is a veritable treasure trove of Classic moments from the Benny Hill Show and holds many great memories of growing up and watching Benny in action, or salivating over the lovely Hill's Angels. We are treated to so many classic moments that it is very hard to sum it all up in a few words.

I was really disappointed when "Golden Greats" turned out to be material from the latter years of The Benny Hill Show. I was really excited to see "Golden Classics" was to be released and was even more excited when I found out it was to be these four classic and top-notch programs which have been on VHS for years. Many of the sketches on these two discs I'd never seen before, although I do remember all of the Hill's Angels segments. However, I am rather disappointed that the picture was not remastered for these DVD's and that the DVD authoring process was done so poorly. Still it is great to have these programs in so convenient a format, but lets press on for a better quality presentation of Britain's most successful comedian and the girls that helped usher so many of us into manhood.

Ratings (Out of 5 Stars)

Picture: **
Sound: **
Extras: *
Programs: ****1/2
Overall Value: ***