These items were found at a flea market that I go to quite often. The location is a place called Gordyville, which is not a town, but a group of buildings, including a restaurant (The Wagon Wheel!) out in the middle of the cornfields in East Central Illinois, just a few miles from the village of Gifford.
Gordyville gets its name from Gordon Hannagan, the owner and developer of the property. The site is also used for rodeos and other activities. An auction takes place during the three-day flea market. Gordyville is about as downhome and funky as it gets. Everything you can imagine is up for sale, including loads of DVDs, Blu-rays, and even VHS tapes. Most of the time, the offerings aren't all that interesting. But this weekend featured a guy from Chicago who had quite a few unique titles available. I talked to him, and found out he had acquired a large private collection from an estate sale. He had several titles from The Criterion Collection, which is unusual for Gordyville, I assure you. Most of the Criterions were films I'm not interested in, such as Akira Kurosawa's samurai films. But I did find one Kurosawa title and several others that I couldn't pass up.
The Kurosawa film is DRUNKEN ANGEL (1948), described as a Film Noir set in post-war Tokyo. Starring Toshiro Mifune.
I was very happy to find this W.C. Fields collection, as I've only seen a few of his films. Ten titles are included.
THE FILMS OF RITA HAYWORTH, from Columbia Pictures, includes five films on five discs.
Films include:
COVER GIRL (1944)
TONIGHT AND EVERY NIGHT (1945)
GILDA (1946)
MISS SADIE THOMPSON (1953)
SALOME (1953)
The collector also inserted a DVD-R copy of another Hayworth film: AFFAIR IN TRINIDAD (1952).
PLANET EARTH: THE COMPLETE SERIES
I've never seen this BBC series, but I've heard many good things about it.
Four classic MGM musicals! I love these TCM packages, and have several in my collection. The only one of these films I already owned was SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS. Very happy to have this!
THE SID CAESAR COLLECTION: Classic comedy from "Your Show Of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour"
These will be great fun to get into. I have only vague memories of watching Sid Caesar when I was growing up. He was one of the very first TV stars beginning in 1950. I think my parents bought their first television in the mid-50's, so I probably only got to see these shows in either reruns or special retrospectives. Included in this box set are interviews with some of the writers and stars involved with the shows: Woody Allen, Nanette Fabray, Larry Gelbart, Howard Morris, Carl Reiner, Danny Simon, Neil Simon, Mel Tokin, and Sid Caesar himself.
Great haul! I have the W. C. Fields set. Just recently Kino announced they are going to release standalone Blu-rays of "It's A Gift" and "The Bank Dick", I assume they will have extras.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. Kino just keeps bringing out more and more good stuff. And my wallet gets thinner and thinner!
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