Yesterday, I mentioned one of the truly awful films of all time, King Dinosaur, in passing. Naturally, that reference got more comments than anything I’ve written in weeks.
So let me be perfectly clear:
There is no Criterion Collection edition of King Dinosaur. It is available on commercial DVD, but not by itself; you can get it as a double feature with Ed Wood’s The Bride and The Beast or you can get it as part of the “Sci-Fi Classics 50 Moviepack 12 DVD Set”, but even I have standards about how to spend money.
On the other hand, I must admit that the source I dubbed from wasn’t all that pristine; it was a Saturday Morning Movie Classic on KFCB, Channel 42, Concord (now KTNC) and the engineer on duty didn’t treat the material with the care it deserved. It wasn’t quite aligned on the flying spot scanner, so that the left edge of the image shows the edge of the film. But I suspect that would vanish in the overscan if I were to play the DVD on the TV instead of the computer, so I’ll live.
I should also mention that I had to replace other classics on VHS, including Little Shop of Horrors and The Blob. And to my delight (or horror), there is a Criterion Collection edition of the latter — and now I own it. Some day, I’ll get around to unleashing it….