| Author | Message | ||
     Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.204.111.205 |
This question is specifically aimed at Lord P, but I know of lot of you are clued up on the subject too. I'm wanting to buy a boxset of Hammer films in either DVD or BluRay. Other than the 21 disc version that seems to retail for about £32 on Amazon, does anyone know whether there's a more definitive collection? I realise I could probably get that one, and then add individual films separately but I like the idea of buying them in one go. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.158.78.71 |
Hi Steve The Hammer films aren't all available in one big box for the simple reason the rights are owned by different distributors. The box sets available at the moment are: The Ultimate Hammer Collection- this is the one you mention above. It's got the Seven Arts releases plus other bits and pieces from the 1970s no-one wants the right to (such as Straight on Till Morning - surprise!) but oddly enough not Lust for a Vampire, which was included in previous smaller sets with some of these other films. Columbia Sets: Only Region 1 - Icons of Horror, Icons of Suspense (a collection of some great B&W thrillers including These Are the Damned & Cash on Demand), Icons of Adventure (Basically Pirates). There are 4 disks in each set. Universal Set: Only Region 1 - 8 movies from the early 60s, all cracking pictures on the whole (except maybe for Nightmare) on two disks. Warner Set: The big three that started it all. Other Warner Set: Dracula Has Risen, Taste the Blood & Frankenstein...Destroyed. Carlton Set: Twins of Evil, Countess Dracula & Vampire Circus. The rights have lapsed and are now owned by Network who've issued them separately but there may be a Region 1 set coming out later this year. Other than that you're looking at individual titles and some (Satanic Rites of Dracula comes to mind) seems to be public domain and impossible to get a decent print of. Hope that helps! | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.204.111.205 |
John, that's a superb answer. I knew you'd be able to help. Looks like I'll have to get them in different sets. I think I'll start with the Ultimate one first ant then trawl the web for the others. Paypal is my friend. John, thanks very much. | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 81.158.78.71 |
Our DVD library is mostly alphabetical by title but we've got one big shelf (on one of the many IKEA Billy bookcases!) reserved for all the various Hammer box sets and double bills. Plus the Hammer House of Horror box. But there was some space left over so the lovely Anchor Bay coffin-shaped Amicus, Tigon, Pete Walker and Norman J Warren collections make it something of a BritHorror shrine.  | ||
| Pete_a (Pete_a) Username: Pete_a Registered: 07-2011 Posted From: 75.85.10.161 |
"on one of the many IKEA Billy bookcases" Worthy of their own thread! Aren't they fantastic? Relatively cheap. Relatively easy to assemble (even for a man of my atrophied muscles and mechanical ineptitude). Relatively classy-looking. I'm at 11 and counting. God bless them Swedes. Okay. Sorry for the brief derailment. You can all get back to Hammer now. Though, Kate: Perhaps you or Lord P can let me know when someone releases the Hammer box-set I'm waiting for. The one with the title "Only the Good Ones" (or some variant thereof). | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.144.33.245 |
I got my current only Billy Bookcase off Ebay for a whole £10!!! | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 178.116.56.66 |
Solid bookshelves have become well-nigh impossible to find. I've toyed with the idea of constructing my own, but I too lack any mechanical aptitude. Ah, for a Victorian mansion 'of pleasant proportions' with a separate library comprising a fireplace and wall-to-wall shelving! | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.25.15.51 |
I lost three fingers and five teeth putting up my Billy bookcases. It's like the Man from the South has had a go at me. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.178.81.140 |
We have thirteen Billys, although only three are full height (plus extensions!), and two are corner cases. Love 'em; although it would be nice to have beautiful hand made shelving, the cost would be out of our league. GCW & Soozy have a fair sized set of Billys about their house too! | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.144.33.245 |
My living room has alcoves on either side of the chimney breast. One of the first things I did was get my dad to attach twin slot wotsits onto the back of them http://www.sdslondon.co.uk/twin-slot-adjustable-shelving.html and now I have adjustable floor to ceiling shelves in both. My TV, stereo and film collection on one side, and a lot of books on the other. | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 81.158.78.71 |
This is a bit too modern for my tastes, but I do love the idea of walls and walls of nothing but books! http://www.geekosystem.com/shelf-pod-bookshelves-house/ And Pete - perhaps DVD box sets should be done like POD publishing. That is, you say which films you want in your ideal set and someone puts it all together for you, with whatever special features or extras you want. Mine would include Angharad Rees' velvet cloak from Hands of the Ripper. And dinner with Peter Cushing.  | ||
| Pete_a (Pete_a) Username: Pete_a Registered: 07-2011 Posted From: 75.85.10.161 |
"perhaps DVD box sets should be done like POD publishing. That is, you say which films you want in your ideal set and someone puts it all together for you" That's actually a terrific idea. And -- with the rise of the pressed-to-order DVD-R from Warner's and TCM -- not an undoable one. Of course, our corporate overlords are doing their best to wean us from a culture of owning copies of anything and move us to one of unending monthly payments for open-but-revocable access, so the customised-set approach will probably never happen. But thanks for a brief glimpse of a lovely alternate future. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.132.93.170 |
Steve - the Universal set is very good. But yes, Nightmare starts really well but ends up really boring. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.132.93.170 |
But a sad thing - the more I rewatch the old Hammers the less good they become.  | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
I'm experiencing the opposite, Tony: the more I watch them the better they become. What they managed to achieve on those budgets is nothing short of astonishing. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.132.93.170 |
Oh, some are better, definitely, but others feel like watching nothing, the sands of time falling away. Oddly things like to The Devil A Daughter have improved. | ||
| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
I like the idea of a POD box-set. That said, there's a lot to be said for working your way through a box-set watching the films you're unfamiliar with. If not for the 21 disc set, I doubt I would have ever watched The Nanny, which I absolutely loved. |