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The Movie: Long before Leno and Letterman, Dick Cavett's TV show was one of the outlets for stars to chat about their lives on-air. Cavett manages to be a nice balance of casual and professional, asking intelligent questions and allowing the guest to guide (to some degree) the converation. This set pulls together some of the best interviews with Hollywood greats that were done on the series. The first two episodes contain an absolutely endlessly fascinating interview with Katherine Hepburn. Despite the fact that the star was not known for being reclusive (she came into the studio for a test and in the midst of the test, she decided to just go with a full interview), she brings an absolutely lively personality and sharp wit to the interview. The actress chats in a remarkably animated and energetic fashion about everything from her childhood to working with other legends (Spencer Tracy) to her thoughts on material and acting. There's a ton of just classic stories offered up across these two episodes. Other highlights on the series include a fun director's episode with an amusing Brooks sharing cheese with Cavett and sharing duties on reading an advertisement; the ultra-reclusive Brando coming on for an interview with Native American activists, but remaining incredibly reluctant to talk about any of his movies; John Huston provide a warm and articulate discussion of his career and those he's worked with and finally, Orson Wells (who is actually pretty funny) and Hitchcock (wonderfully dry and chatty, revealing some great stories and some tidbits about filmmaking) offer up terrifically detailed and engaging stories from their career and an overview of their lives in the final two episodes of the set. While these are some good episodes, every episode is a highlight here, boasting some timeless interviews with exceptional talents. Disc 1: October 2, 1973 (Katharine Hepburn, Part 1) October 3, 1973 (Katharine Hepburn, Part 2) November 10, 1970 (Fred Astaire) Disc 2 November 17, 1971 (Bette Davis) December 16, 1971 (Groucho Marx, Debbie Reynolds, Dan Rowan, Erin Fleming) June 29, 1971 (Kirk Douglas) Disc 3 January 21, 1972 (Mel Brooks, Frank Capra, Robert Altman, Peter Bogdanovich) February 21, 1972 (John Huston) June 12, 1973 (Marlon Brando with Native American activists Sam Cagey, Dr. Wallace Heath, Dennis Limberhand, and Mervin Wright) Disc 4 April 29, 1971 (Robert Mitchum) July 27, 1970 (Orson Welles) June 8, 1972 (Alfred Hitchcock) The DVD VIDEO: Shout Factory presents these episodes in their original 1.33:1 full-frame aspect ratio. The episodes look quite good for their age (and considering the material.) While some moments look rather flat or soft, the majority of the episodes look clear and at least decently crisp. Some very slight wear is occasionally seen on the elements and some tiny traces of artifacting are spotted, but the picture otherwise remains clean and clear. The basic color palette looks accurately presented. SOUND: The mono audio sounds clear and rather full, given the age of the show. EXTRAS: Promos, a featurette, informative intros from Cavett to the episodes and finally, an uncut edition of the Hepburn interview. Final Thoughts: This set is simply a must, as Cavett manages to get some absolute treasures out of these legends. The DVD set offers fine audio/video quality and some nice bonus features. Highly recommended. |